by | Nov 7, 2022 4:40 pm | Comments (9)
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City librarians Samantha Bailey, Diane Brown, and Jennifer Gargiulo: Libraries are "stretched," can't take on Sunday hours at this time.
Over a dozen city librarians rallied at City Hall to send a message to the mayor that they need better pay — and that Sunday hours just won’t do, especially given the city’s current staffing crunch.
by | Nov 7, 2022 9:00 am | Comments (21)
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Wanda Perez: Buses are a lifeline to doctors, food pantries, family.
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Fares, be gone!
As she juggles the cost of everything from utilities to laundry, the past seven months of fare-free buses have given Wanda Perez one less expense to worry about.
“That helps me go to my doctors’ appointments, to see my loved ones,” Perez told a room full of bus riders, transit advocates, and alders — as they collectively pushed for making the state’s temporary bus fare holiday permanent.
by and | Nov 4, 2022 4:01 pm | Comments (34)
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Attorney Ben Crump (center) leads Friday's vigil.
Randy Cox’s family and legal team stepped up the pressure on the Elicker Administration to “act now” and do their part to help the paralyzed 36-year-old New Havener — a month after his attorneys filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against the city, and as the highest payout the city’s insurance companies could cover appears to be $30 million.
Continue reading ‘Cox's Lawyers Slam City For "Justice Delayed"’
by | Oct 24, 2022 10:38 am | Comments (19)
144 more apts., coming soon to Blake?
Dixwell Alder Morrison: Do better, developers.
Two plans that promise to bring a total of 256 new apartments to Westville and Long Wharf moved ahead — as alders pressed for more affordable units and questioned whether the city’s recently adopted “inclusionary” housing law goes far enough.
by | Oct 19, 2022 4:09 pm | Comments (4)
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Nemerson: "I don't take it personally."
The Board of Alders put the kibosh on Matthew Nemerson’s potential return to City Hall by rejecting the former economic development administrator’s bid to breathe new life into the city’s redevelopment agency.
by | Oct 19, 2022 12:09 pm | Comments (0)
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Tenants' union members and advocates at City Hall in November 2021.
Local tenants’ unions now have an official path forward for being recognized by the city in order to participate in housing-related investigations, thanks to the Fair Rent Commission’s adoption of a new set of union-related rules.
by | Oct 18, 2022 10:01 am | Comments (2)
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173 Ivy St.: Now OK'd to be bought, or taken.
The Board of Alders signed off on the city’s plans to acquire two tax-delinquent vacant Newhallville lots for $150,000 — or by eminent domain, if necessary — in a bid to create more parking for the future adult education site.
Continue reading ‘Alders OK Lot Purchases, With Eminent Domain Option’
by | Oct 17, 2022 8:57 pm | Comments (0)
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Alder Antunes (right) with Officer Hinton's wife Genoveva and kids.
Mourners at Monday's Board of Alders meeting.
Several dozen city cops, family members, and friends turned out to City Hall to honor the life of New Haven Police Officer Michael Hinton one day after the eight-year veteran died of cancer.
by | Oct 14, 2022 4:27 pm | Comments (17)
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Vacant 44 Brewster St. lot: Will city acquisition be "friendly"?
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Poitier: Eminent domain "is not going to kick it."
The Elicker Administration is looking to pay a Hamden-based landlord $150,000 to acquire two vacant and overgrown Newhallville lots — both of which are currently wrapped up in a tax foreclosure lawsuit, and both of which could be taken by eminent domain if the city and the property owner can’t reach a deal.
by | Oct 13, 2022 1:43 pm | Comments (13)
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Claudia Herrera at the 2019 Democratic Town Convention.
Fair Haven community activist, Democratic ward co-chair and professional dental assistant Claudia Herrera will be the next alder for Ward 9 — not because she especially wants the job, but because she couldn’t bear the thought of an “empty chair” representing her neighborhood.
by | Oct 11, 2022 3:44 pm | Comments (2)
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Blank absentee ballots recently arrived at 200 Orange.
One of the two closed absentee ballot kiosks on Orange St.
Hundreds of absentee ballots are now ready to be sent out to New Haveners looking to vote remotely in November’s election … while two of the city’s four absentee ballot drop boxes are currently closed, one because of a problem with its lock, the other because it was hit by a truck.
Update: As of Wednesday, both of the previously busted drop boxes had been fixed. Click here to read about those repairs.
Continue reading ‘Absentee Ballots Ready; 2 Of 4 Drop Boxes Closed’
by | Oct 11, 2022 9:25 am | Comments (17)
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Vacant Grant St. factory building: Future home of 140 apts?
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McCollum (right): Looking to "reposition" derelict industrial property.
The city plans to sell the publicly owned portion of a vacant Grant Street factory building to a local developer who is looking to build up to 140 new apartments, mostly for renters over the age of 50.
by | Oct 10, 2022 12:30 pm | Comments (3)
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Beaver Hills neighbors Nan Bartow and Rebecca Cramer advocating for a new Crescent St. sidewalk in February.
Approximately 550 feet of new sidewalks should soon be coming to an oft-traversed stretch of Crescent Street thanks to the pedestrian safety advocacy of Beaver Hills neighbors.
by | Oct 10, 2022 12:22 pm | Comments (10)
The early voting question slated for Nov. 8's ballot.
New Haveners will have the chance to vote this second Tuesday of November about whether or not they should be able to vote in future elections before the second Tuesday of November.
Continue reading ‘November Election Q: Should CT Vote Early?’
by | Oct 7, 2022 3:02 pm | Comments (8)
Thursday's City Plan Commission meeting.
Three city parks and a flood-prone west side road are slated to receive millions of dollars worth of upgrades thanks to a bevy of state and federal aid coming New Haven’s way.
Continue reading ‘Parks Upgrades En Route Thanks To State, Federal $’
by | Oct 7, 2022 12:32 pm | Comments (0)
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Gillin (right) speaks out at Thursday's workshop.
A pay-raise dispute led a longtime local polling place moderator to City Hall — not to oversee an election, but to criticize New Haven’s top elections officials for allegedly failing to live up to past promises.
by | Oct 7, 2022 12:31 pm | Comments (6)
Gwendolyn Busch Williams at WNHH FM.
Coogan Pavilion is a wide-open space. And now it’s a community space: Depending on what time you enter it, you might stumble into a line-dancing class. Or a yoga class. Or a ceramics session. Or painting.
A different nonprofit group runs each of those activities. The landlord is the city’s Youth and Recreation Department (YARD).
Continue reading ‘She's Going The Extra YARD For City's Youth’
by | Oct 6, 2022 10:12 am | Comments (9)
City Budget Director Gormany and Mayor Elicker on Wednesday.
City of New Haven FY22 data
Last fiscal year's budget surplus data.
Increased state and Yale aid — along with vacancy-induced salary savings — helped propel city government to a $16.9 million budget surplus as well as a slightly higher credit rating.
by | Oct 4, 2022 2:51 pm | Comments (3)
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Tatania Sellers (right) and Mayor Elicker at Tuesday's presser.
Tatania Sellers was pregnant, in between jobs, and looking for some way to get herself and her kids into an apartment — not into a homeless shelter.
Thanks to a newly launched city aid program, she and her family were able to move into a new home on Starr Street in her “time of need.”
by | Oct 4, 2022 11:45 am | Comments (10)
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Kadir Catalbasoglu at work at Brick Oven Pizza.
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The city-owned driveway and garage at 55 Dixwell.
For the fourth time in five years, alders signed off on selling a vacant city-owned garage to a local pizza maker-turned-landlord — this time on the condition that he convert the property into five apartments with at least one unit reserved for low-income tenants.
by | Oct 4, 2022 8:35 am | Comments (17)
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Finance Chair Marchand: Making compensation "more competitive."
Alders signed off on boosting pension benefits and salary ranges for some top City Hall positions in a bid to reduce vacancies in the higher ranks of municipal government.
Continue reading ‘Pay-Pension Bump Passes For City Managers’
by | Oct 3, 2022 8:59 am | Comments (4)
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Nemerson: “Redevelopment agencies among most powerful tools we have."
Matthew Nemerson took one step closer to returning to City Hall — not to his former role as economic development administrator, but instead as a volunteer member of the city’s Redevelopment Agency Advisory Council.
by | Sep 30, 2022 3:57 pm | Comments (7)
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Fiber internet? City embraces fed subsidies, private service.
City of New Haven slide
City's next steps for internet expansion plan.
Because the Biden Administration has chosen to “build back better,” the Elicker Administration has chosen not to build its own new municipal broadband network after all.
by | Sep 30, 2022 10:28 am | Comments (3)
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NHPS Supervisor of Literacy Lynn Brantley presents plan at City Hall hearing.
Committee alders welcomed the New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) new math and literacy plan — which officials claimed may shift towards a more phonics-based “structured” reading program — while questions arose about whether the draft proposal is complete enough to effect significant needed change.
by and | Sep 30, 2022 9:51 am | Comments (11)
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Now-former CRB Secretary Crouse: "Members of the board were handed a monumental task."
The Civilian Review Board’s secretary and most public-facing member has resigned, leaving the police accountability panel with yet another seat to fill as frustration-fueled vacancies steadily mount.