by | Aug 18, 2023 6:43 pm | Comments (11)
Secretary of State's Office: This new ward map didn't make the deadline.
Less than two weeks after the Board of Alders put new ward boundaries into effect, the state office in charge of elections has determined that the old ward lines must stay in place for the upcoming primary and general elections.
Continue reading ‘State: Upcoming Elections Must Follow Old Ward Lines’
by | Aug 18, 2023 4:20 pm | Comments (6)
Zola, on Court Street with her dog Teddy: "It seems like they made it almost impossible to get onto the ballot."
Seven petitioning alder candidates in six different wards have qualified to make it onto September’s Democratic primary election ballot, while two — Dixwell’s Fred Christmas and Wooster Square’s Andrea Zola — didn’t make the cut.
Continue reading ‘6 Alder Primaries On Tap; Zola, Christmas Petitions Rejected’
by | Aug 18, 2023 2:09 pm | Comments (50)
Thomas Breen file photo
Abdussabur: "The extraordinary rejection rate for the candidates of color raises a 'red flag' as to whether uniform standards were applied to all petitioners."
Mayoral challenger Shafiq Abdussabur has filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to get his name on the Sept. 12 Democratic primary ballot — claiming that he did in fact gather enough petition signatures to qualify, contrary to the findings of the city’s registrar of voters.
Continue reading ‘Abdussabur Sues For Primary Ballot Access’
by | Aug 16, 2023 5:19 pm | Comments (37)
Thomas Breen photos
Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans (right) drops off certified petitions with Deputy City/Town Clerk May Gardner.
Brennan, with campaign staffers Abdul Osmanu and Michael Morris, after clinching primary ballot access.
Liam Brennan became the only mayoral challenger to make his way onto September’s Democratic primary ballot Wednesday — after the registrar of voters office certified his campaign’s petition, and rejected dozens of pages of signatures submitted by fellow mayoral hopefuls Shafiq Abdussabur and Tom Goldenberg.
Continue reading ‘Brennan Makes Ballot; Abdussabur, Goldenberg Come Up Short’
by | Aug 16, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (21)
City of New Haven image
Sample land-bank deal as envisioned by city gov't.
Thomas Breen photo
City dev officials Dean Mack, Mike Piscitelli, and Mark Wilson on Monday.
A new affordable-housing-focused nonprofit that could compete with real estate speculators on the open market took another step closer towards coming into being — as alders endorsed creating a quasi-public “land bank” charged with buying, fixing up, and selling blighted properties before megalandlords get there first.
by | Aug 15, 2023 8:39 am | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
Acting Controller Mike Gormany, with Corporation Counsel Patricia King: Budget surplus transfers "would be the primary mechanism for the Cox settlement."
A key panel of alders signed off on $16 million in budget-surplus transfers and, “if necessary,” new city borrowing, in order to cover the uninsured portion of a $45 million police-misconduct-and-paralysis settlement.
by | Aug 11, 2023 1:47 pm | Comments (23)
Darlet Gordon's view of her 333 Blatchley apartment's bathroom ceiling, in July.
Thomas Birmingham photo
1476 Chapel resident Amanda Watts: “They really just think that they can just do whatever they want with us because of our tax bracket and our income."
The two-minute video begins with a shot of a home about to crumble.
“Look at my bathroom ceiling,” intones a pained voice. ”It’s almost going to cave down!” The narrator, a 56-year-old resident of Fair Haven named Darlet Gordon, points the camera toward the yellow-brown surface of her ceiling, folding and peeling like a day-old sunburn, as it steadily drips water down at her. All the while, she repeats to herself “Oh my god, look at it.”
Then, minutes later, boom. It came crashing down on top of her.
Continue reading ‘Expired Licenses: LCI’s Afterthought Leaves Tenants’ Homes At Risk’
by | Aug 11, 2023 12:52 pm | Comments (13)
George Crawford Manor was previously in Ward 7 (left) and is now in Ward 3 (right); September polling place unclear.
When alders sat down for their August full board meeting on Monday night, Downtown Alder Eli Sabin represented the residents of the Dwight public housing complex George Crawford Manor.
By the time the alders rose from their seats at the meeting’s close less than an hour later, those hundred-plus George Crawford Manor tenants had a new representative: Hill Alder Ron Hurt.
That sudden change has left the secretary of the state’s office stumped so far as to whether or not new ward maps can legally apply when voters cast their ballots in September’s primary.
Continue reading ‘Ward Maps Changed; Voters Shuffled; Election Impact Unclear’
by | Aug 8, 2023 10:13 am | Comments (51)
Laura Glesby file photo
Majority Leader / Charter Revision Commission Vice Chair Richard Furlow: The aim is to “keep the process simple.”
It’s official: voters will get to decide in November whether or not New Haven should implement four-year terms for mayor and alders — although to understand what they’re voting for, they’ll need to do their homework in advance.
by and | Aug 1, 2023 10:25 am | Comments (35)
Thomas Breen file photos
The Foxon Boulevard hotel might soon become a homeless shelter.
The Days Inn hotel on Foxon Boulevard will become New Haven’s first non-congregate homeless shelter to serve both individuals and families by this upcoming winter, if an Elicker administration proposal comes to fruition.
Continue reading ‘City Eyes Hotel-To-Homeless Shelter Conversion’
by | Jul 31, 2023 11:48 am | Comments (29)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Ex-social services chief Mehul Dalal: "There's no secret plan."
Loved ones of lives lost to overdoses stepped out of the shadows and into City Hall to express both support and skepticism towards medically supervised injection and drug consumption sites — and to slam a mayoral candidate’s public opposition to such harm reduction centers as politicizing and polarizing opioid addiction.
Continue reading ‘Safe-Use Hearing Shines Light On Overdoses’
by | Jul 18, 2023 11:54 am | Comments (5)
Mia Cortés Castro Photo
Downer makes her pitch Monday night.
A challenger to an incumbent Board of Education member won a ward committee endorsement Monday night in her quest to win the Democratic nomination.
Making bold strikes, Ward 19’s Democratic Town Committee placed their votes on challenger Andrea Downer, rather than on incumbent Darnell Goldson, for the Board of Education membership race.
Continue reading ‘Downer Wins Ward 19 Board of Ed Endorsement’
by | Jul 17, 2023 3:04 pm | Comments (8)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Justin Bialecki taking the oath Monday: City born and raised.
The city’s fire department looked around the country to find its next assistant chief — and ended up selecting a longtime member of their own firehouses here at home..
by | Jul 7, 2023 1:21 pm | Comments (22)
Thomas Breen file photo
The Yale Golf Course: 800 trees coming down, 2,000 going up?
Mia Cortés Castro Photos
Alders Festa, Punzo, Ficklin, and Miller at Thursday's CSEP meeting.
Yale plans to cut down roughly 800 trees at the university’s Upper Westville golf course, and plant another 2,000 in their stead, in order to create more grassy space for hitting the links — prompting pushback from neighbors and local environmentalists about the potential harms of felling so much wood.
Continue reading ‘Timber! Yale To Fell 800 Golf-Course Trees’
by | Jul 7, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (46)
Thomas Breen file photo
The entrance to 45 Church St.: Pot shop coming soon?
A long-vacant Classical Revival former bank building at Church and Crown streets could have a new life — as a medical and recreational cannabis dispensary.
by | Jul 7, 2023 9:22 am | Comments (11)
Maya McFadden file photo
First Student buses, OK'd for another year.
The Board of Alders “reluctantly” approved a one-year, $30.7 million school bus contract between the Board of Education and First Student that would have been nearly $1 million cheaper had the school board not turned down an initial multi-year deal with the bus company.
by | Jul 5, 2023 9:58 am | Comments (28)
NHPD image
Ofc. Diaz, Sgt. Segui, and Ofc. Pressley lifting Cox into wheelchair on June 19, 2022.
The Elicker administration plans to borrow and transfer up to $16 million from the city’s latest budget surplus to cover the uninsured portion of a $45 million police-misconduct-and-paralysis settlement.
Continue reading ‘City Seeks $16M In Borrowing, Surplus Bucks To Cover Cox Settlement’
by | Jul 3, 2023 9:50 am | Comments (10)
Laura Glesby Photo
Sarah Miller, center, proposes Board of Ed reform by charter.
Despite a push from dozens of New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) community members, alders decided not to amend the city charter to restructure the Board of Education to include mandatory seats for current public-school parents.
Continue reading ‘Parents Won't Get Their Own School Board Seats Via Charter’
by | Jun 30, 2023 3:01 pm | Comments (28)
Laura Glesby photos
Alders Tyisha Walker-Myers, Sarah Miller, and Kim Edwards hear public testimony...
...as Unidad Latina en Acción activists like Nayeli Garcia protest stringent meeting rules.
Alders dropped an effort to amend the city charter to allow non-citizens to serve on city boards and commissions at the advice of legal counsel — after 20 activists filled the local legislative chambers with chants of “no justice” and held up posters of local immigrants with blacked-out eyes and mouths.
Continue reading ‘Alders Block Non-Citizens From Boards For Now’
by | Jun 29, 2023 3:58 pm | Comments (3)
Soon-to-retire Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal in April 2021.
Mehul Dalal will be stepping down from his role as the city’s top social services administrator for a policy advisor job in state government, and the mayor plans to replace him with the founder and executive director of a Blake Street public charter school.
by and | Jun 27, 2023 6:46 pm | Comments (17)
MIA CORTÉS CASTRO photo
Ocean renters on Whitney Ave Tuesday afternoon.
Thomas Breen photo
Ocean's Shmuel Aizenberg and attorney Ian Gottlieb in court Tuesday morning.
Renters at a West River apartment complex gathered at City Hall to form New Haven’s second officially recognized tenants union — and then rallied outside of Ocean Management’s offices to demand collective bargaining around rents and maintenance — on the very same day that their landlord showed up in court to be prosecuted for six new housing-code-violation cases.
Continue reading ‘Tenants Union Formed; Landlord Back In Court’
by | Jun 23, 2023 2:24 pm | Comments (42)
Thomas Breen file photo
Fair Rent Commission Director Wildaliz Bermúdez (right): "Tenants report there is evidence of advanced mold behind bathroom walls" at 234 Fillmore.
Fair Rent commissioners dropped a Fillmore Street tenant’s rent down to $1 per month in a bid to pressure her landlord to speed up repairs to a dangerously unhealthy property with water-damaged ceilings and walls and allegedly beset with mold.
Continue reading ‘Tenant's Rent Slashed To $1 After Mold Complaint’
by | Jun 23, 2023 2:15 pm | Comments (1)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
At the Greenwich Ave. C-Town, now a Key Food.
A Kimberly Square supermarket won its final needed city approval to construct a roughly 3,300 square foot addition — as part of an expansion project that will also see a larger parking lot and a knocked-down house.
by | Jun 23, 2023 12:03 pm | Comments (16)
Laura Glesby photo
Hilaria Ogando joins calls for Board of Ed parent representation, more elected members, and mayor's removal.
Hilaria Ogando wants someone on the Board of Education who knows what she knows: what it’s like to have so many substitute teachers in her child’s school, to hear about persistent bullying, to lose the lottery for a coveted magnet school seat.
“Parents, we see what’s happening in the schools every day, and we see what our children need,” Ogando said through a translator.
Continue reading ‘Ed Board Overhaul Seeks 2 Spots For Parents’
by | Jun 22, 2023 11:04 am | Comments (3)
MCCA design rendering
The planned new rehab site at 215 Whalley.
Thomas Breen photo
The ex-CVS's closed front doors and chainlink fences.
An abstinence-focused drug rehab clinic won its final needed city approval to relocate to the former CVS site at Whalley Avenue and Orchard Street.