by | Jan 24, 2025 4:50 pm | Comments (0)
Laura Glesby Photo
Erycka (with Alyssa-Marie, both of the Children of Marsha P. Johnson): "Our fear and anger deserves a healthy place to be felt."
Queer rights advocates and city officials gathered at the New Haven Pride Center Friday to send a resounding message: that no presidential executive order can erase the reality of transgender people — or dim New Haveners’ commitment to protecting queer rights and safety.
by | Jan 21, 2025 4:33 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photos
Sodas and energy drinks, not allowed ...
... cigarettes and vaping products, still allowed, at 864 Whalley.
A “Not For Sale” sign remains taped to the top of a beverage case filled with Monster energy drinks, Powerade and Diet Coke at the Grab n’ Go Market in Westville Village — where city zoners recently rejected Mohammed Ababneh’s bid to sell soda and prepackaged food in addition to vaping products and cigarettes.
by | Jan 21, 2025 1:04 pm | Comments (3)
Nathaniel Rosenberg photo
Heimer: Expanding public financing to City Clerk's race would be "an increase in democratic participation."
New Haven’s Democracy Fund wants to test expanding its pioneering mayoral public financing program to other citywide races to make them more often contested and competitive.
That’s why the program’s board voted to request $60,000 from the mayor’s upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 – 2026 budget to fund a pilot program for citywide seats, including City Clerk, Registrar of Voters and Board of Education.
Continue reading ‘Democracy $ Sought For More Than Just Mayor’
by | Jan 16, 2025 9:44 pm | Comments (27)
Laura Glesby photos
U-ACT protester Mell: “Show me the law telling me I cannot walk up those steps!”
Alexis Terry in the tent on City Hall's first floor.
Four dozen people showed up to City Hall on Thursday night to protest a city policy of issuing 72-hour eviction notices upon discovering outdoor encampments — leaving a symbolic tent outside the mayor’s office after a standoff with police.
by | Jan 16, 2025 4:23 pm | Comments (2)
Nathaniel Rosenberg Photo
Newly elected board Chair Lesley Heffel-McGuirk (left): "I feel very strongly about the Democracy Fund, and about democracy in general."
Mayoral candidates can now raise less money from individual contributors, and put a lot less of their own money into campaigns, if they want to receive a public grant and matching funds through the city’s public financing program.
Continue reading ‘New Rules Take Effect For Democracy Fundees’
by | Jan 16, 2025 9:27 am | Comments (8)
One last tobacco store could soon be allowed...
Allan Appel File Photo
...here? As circled in red in map above.
New Haven could soon have room for only one more smoke shop — specifically on one block of industrial Water Street cut off from the rest of the city by I‑95.
by | Jan 15, 2025 9:36 am | Comments (7)
Asher Joseph file photo
Winter: We're not on track for 2030. Elicker: That assessment's "premature."
New Haven is one step closer to one more electric garbage truck — but still under 10 percent of the way to its goal of a fully electric fleet by 2030.
Continue reading ‘With Trash Truck Approval, City Steps Electric’
by | Jan 14, 2025 1:07 pm | Comments (4)
Nora Grace-Flood File Photo
COMPASS crew member Nanette Campbell on a call.
Is COMPASS a Yale-backed public relations stunt — or a good faith and effective effort to improve crisis response services all across New Haven?
Alders sought answers to those questions, and received testimony and data bolstering the program’s cause, as they advanced a plan to extend the police-alternative pilot for another year.
Continue reading ‘Crisis-Response Pilot Seeks 1-Year Extension’
by | Jan 10, 2025 3:19 pm | Comments (18)
Laura Glesby Photo
W. Matthew Harp, right, and his attorney Kirt Westfall.
LCI Photo
The since-cleaned-up backyard of 75 Brewster.
One man’s trash is another man’s tenant’s loose tires, copper pipes, and splintering wooden cart of debris and furniture.
Local landlord W. Matthew Harp floated that idea at a series of back-to-back civil citation hearings involving some of his properties, which saddled him with nearly $20,000 in fines.
by | Jan 10, 2025 1:43 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Yondr pouches, now not just for Barnard.
Cellphone-restricting pouches are officially headed for all New Haven middle and high schools, now that alders have approved a nearly $371,000 contract with the tech-securing company Yondr.
by | Jan 9, 2025 2:12 pm | Comments (8)
Paul Bass Photo
Justin Elicker swearing in Lisa Milone.
A Democratic mayor swore in a Republican election official with calls for bispartisan cooperation as GOP members cheered them on.
by | Jan 8, 2025 4:49 pm | Comments (9)
Paul Bass file photo
Parks Chair Belowsky: No longer term-limited by mortality.
The Board of Alders unanimously voted to uproot the parks commission — along with its lifetime appointees — and compost it into a new board with limited terms.
by | Jan 7, 2025 11:10 am | Comments (5)
Architectural rendering of Dewitt Street redevelopment.
The redevelopment of a former housing cooperative in the Hill will soon net 64 new (mostly) affordable apartments, with another 40 units set to be renovated over the next two years — thanks to a second alder-approved tax break.
by | Jan 6, 2025 4:28 pm | Comments (4)
Justin McCarthy.
The mayor has tapped a former city assistant fire chief to oversee the fire department — as well as police and 911 — as New Haven’s next chief administrative officer.
Continue reading ‘Former Assistant Fire Chief Picked For CAO’
by | Dec 20, 2024 12:06 pm | Comments (7)
What might one day be built at 924 Grand.
A long-in-the-works plan to open a youth homeless shelter in Wooster Square got another jolt of public funding, as the Board of Alders approved spending $500,000 in federal Covid aid to help finance its construction.
by | Dec 19, 2024 12:00 pm | Comments (24)
5 demolished buildings to be repurposed as brick mural, on ground floor of new Yale drama building at Crown & York.
Yale won a key city approval for its plans to construct a new seven-story drama school and Yale Repertory Theater building — at a downtown corner where the university intends to demolish five existing buildings, and then incorporate the brick wreckage into a new mural.
by | Dec 18, 2024 10:38 am | Comments (6)
Nathaniel Rosenberg photo
Public Safety Committee Chair Wingate (standing) at Monday's board meeting.
City police officers will soon have access to overdose-reversing medication, as well as artificial intelligence-written police reports, thanks to two approvals by the Board of Alders.
Continue reading ‘Narcan Pouches, AI Reports Cleared For Cops’
by | Dec 17, 2024 11:37 am | Comments (7)
Nora Grace-Flood file photo
Health Director Bond: RFP error corrected.
More than 20 representatives from nonprofits that help people living with HIV/AIDS sent a letter to the mayor criticizing the city for changing how it handles a federal grant program — and warning the Elicker administration against “dismantling” a system of care they say works just fine.
The Health Department has responded by correcting an error regarding who is eligible to apply for these funds, and by arguing that centralizing oversight with city government is necessary to bring this program into compliance with federal requirements.
Continue reading ‘HIV/AIDS Program Mistake, Change Spark Pushback’
by | Dec 13, 2024 1:12 pm | Comments (26)
Thomas Breen photo
Ex-El Amigo Felix on Whalley: Still the pits.
A 14-block rezoning that was intended to promote dense, mixed-use development on Whalley Avenue has yielded no new places to live in the nearly five years since it was approved by the Board of Alders.
by | Dec 11, 2024 3:48 pm | Comments (27)
Thomas Breen photos
That's trash, behind row of vacant Ocean homes.
LCI attorney Williams and hearing officer Bernblum: You're fined.
(Updated) A Livable City Initiative (LCI) hearing officer approved more than $130,000 in anti-blight fines for six vacant Ocean Management properties that look like, well, trash.
by | Dec 9, 2024 12:51 pm | Comments (23)
City Plan Department map
Under proposed zoning update, new smoke shops wouldn't be allowed to open within the orange circles, which describe a 3,000-foot radius for each existing licensed tobacco retailer.
Would barring new smoke shops from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, and places of worship do enough to protect neighbors from those retailers’ harmful wares?
Would imposing a 3,000-foot buffer between new and existing tobacco sellers only serve to protect existing stores’ “monopolies” on their blocks?
And, taken together, would these two distance restrictions effectively impose a citywide ban — when the law’s sponsors simply want to limit, but not outlaw, new shops from popping up?
Continue reading ‘No Smoke Shops Here. No Smoke Shops There’
by | Dec 6, 2024 4:23 pm | Comments (41)
Thomas Breen photo
Schools Supt. Madeline Negrón: “I am ready to stand and fight for the education that every child deserves … regardless of their immigration status.”
Retraining city employees on the “welcoming city” executive order. Confirming public school students’ emergency contact information. Securing federal grant money in contracts as soon as possible, before it can be revoked.
Those are some ways that New Haven officials are preparing — not panicking — ahead of an anticipated immigration crackdown promised by the incoming president.
by | Dec 5, 2024 3:09 pm | Comments (13)
Contributed by Melissa Cardoso Guerrero
Melissa Cardoso Guerrero (right): Zoning approval "was kind of a challenging process."
Longtime early educator Melissa Cardoso Guerrero spent multiple months and $350 seeking zoning relief this past summer, with the goal of expanding her Fair Haven-based childcare center beyond her current six-child limit.
As of this week, childcare providers no longer have to go through that zoning board process in order to open up in a residential district — an effort to remove one barrier for those hoping to start, move, or expand a childcare center in New Haven.
by | Dec 3, 2024 3:26 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Expect more of this, now that tenants unions can form at buildings with at least 5 rental units.
Five thousand more apartments’ worth of New Haven renters are now eligible to form tenants unions — thanks to a Board of Alders-approved update to the laws governing the Fair Rent Commission.
by | Nov 27, 2024 2:07 pm | Comments (35)
Might this one day be built at 924 Grand?
Laura Glesby Photo
Youth Continuum's Tim Maguire (right), with city Homeless Services Director Velma George: Looking to create "a one-stop shop for unhoused youth."
A proposal for a peer-led youth homeless shelter in Wooster Square is back on the table — with a higher price tag and a new design prioritizing privacy and public health.
Continue reading ‘Alders Advance $500K For Long-Delayed Youth Shelter’