by | May 20, 2022 4:27 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen file photo
Juana Valle and Salvador Jimenez with family pup Bella.
Thanks to the Fair Rent Commission, Juana Valle and Salvador Jimenez won’t have to part with their family’s chihuahua — but they’ll still need to fight to stay in their home.
by | May 19, 2022 2:56 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass photo
Newly approved City Plan Commissioner Joshua Van Hoesen.
A three-time Republican candidate for alder and current Westville community management team chair has been approved as the newest member of the City Plan Commission.
Continue reading ‘3-Time Republican Alder Candidate OK'd For City Plan Commission’
by | May 19, 2022 9:15 am | Comments (11)
Zoom photo
Plan for 78 Olive.
Thomas Breen file photo
The site's current surface parking lot.
A planned new 14-story apartment tower won its final needed city approval — clearing the way for 136 one-bedroom apartments to be built atop a surface parking lot right next door to the State Street train station.
by | May 18, 2022 9:27 am | Comments (7)
Maya McFadden Photos
Harp unveils mayoral portrait.
Photos with Harp were in high demand at Tuesday's portrait unveiling.
Virtuous. A leader. Unique. A powerhouse. Poised. A quiet storm. Empathetic. Committed.
Those were among the words that accompanied a joyous ceremonial unveiling and installation in City Hall of the official portrait of former Mayor Toni N. Harp.
by | May 17, 2022 8:52 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Public Safety Committee Chair and Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate on Monday.
The Board of Alders unanimously signed off on spending nearly $145,000 to acquire a ballistic analysis machine for the New Haven Police Department.
by | May 17, 2022 8:48 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith with Monica Clark, Iva Johnson, and Von Robinson at City Hall on Monday.
A new music studio, a washer and dryer, a pottery kiln, and more programming for west side youth and seniors alike are one big step closer to coming to a reborn Valley Street community center — now that the alders have formally accepted a $550,000 state grant for “The Shack.”
by | May 13, 2022 11:30 am | Comments (28)
Thomas Breen photo
Finance Chair Adam Marchand (center) with Vice-Chair Ron Hurt.
Luxury developers and megalandlords won’t get as bountiful de facto taxpayer-funded tax breaks as originally planned — because an aldermanic committee endorsed an amended new city budget that drops the mill rate by over 9 percent and phases in the latest citywide revaluation over two years instead of five.
by | May 11, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Hi/Bye: Outgoing 911 Director Stratton, at March press conference announcing his appointment.
A month and a half after taking over the city’s 911 call center, Kevin Stratton is leaving City Hall — with the future leadership of the turmoil-wracked department now up for grabs.
by | May 11, 2022 12:28 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Redistricting Committee Vice-Chair Sal DeCola and Chair Evelyn Rodriguez.
Board of Alders map
Proposed new ward lines, which received a favorable committee vote on Tuesday.
A “least-change” New Haven ward redistricting map is en route to adoption, after receiving a favorable vote from the aldermanic committee charged with drawing new Census-adjusted ward lines.
by | May 6, 2022 4:23 pm | Comments (2)
A 58-year-old New Haven man is locked up in the Whalley jail, accused of phoning a bomb threat that cleared out City Hall for two and a half hours late Thursday afternoon.
by | May 6, 2022 12:37 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
Entrance to Wheeler Street waste-transfer site.
Do seagulls on the site of an Annex waste transfer station mean that the place is filthy, smelly, and in violation of city zoning rules?
Or does that web-footed, salt-water-drinking avian presence reflect nothing more than the facility’s riverfront location — and the fact that there are lots of seagulls up and down the coast?
Continue reading ‘Transfer Station Debate Goes To The Gulls’
by | May 4, 2022 12:56 pm | Comments (8)
Tuesday night's Board of Alders meeting.
The Board of Alders unanimously adopted a rent-capping amendment to the city’s new “inclusionary zoning” (IZ) ordinance, completing a three-month update process sparked by an apparent defect in the original version of the law.
by | May 4, 2022 9:35 am | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photo
Point person Carlos Sosa-Lombardo: Next up, finalize and "execute" Yale contract.
The Board of Alders green-lighted the Elicker Administration’s long-delayed plans to set up a non-cop crisis response team — as they approved a $3.5 million contract with Yale, and voted to accept a related $2 million federal grant amid criticism that crucial financial details are missing.
by | May 3, 2022 7:53 pm | Comments (3)
Board of Alders map
Proposed new ward lines.
Westville’s Ward 25 would dip down into West River.
Morris Cove’s Ward 18 would stretch up to the city’s industrial port.
Dwight’s Ward 2 would take over an apartment-rich stretch of Goffe Street.
While Ward 14 would remain straddling one river and three neighborhoods.
Continue reading ‘Ward Redistricting Committee Publishes Draft Map’
by | Apr 28, 2022 3:46 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen file photo
The former St. Rose School on Richard Street, soon to be apartments.
An affiliate of the local megalandlord Mandy Management won unanimous approval to convert a former Fair Haven Catholic school and nearby ex-convent into 18 new market-rate apartments.
by | Apr 28, 2022 9:08 am | Comments (13)
Kimberly Wipfler Photo
The scene at Wednesday's rally.
Graduate student teachers marched alongside hotel workers on closed-off downtown streets in support of two new unionization drives: a revived 30-year-old campaign at Yale, and one at the Graduate New Haven (née Duncan) hotel.
Continue reading ‘Grad Students, "Grad" Hotel Workers On The March’
by | Apr 27, 2022 12:08 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
Neighbors from both sides of the Q River gather in January to celebrate the reopening of the Grand Avenue Bridge.
“No one thinks about bridges until they’re closed,” Giovanni Zinn told the class at our opening session. No one except for the city’s Engineering Department staff, who work to keep nearly 60 bridges sturdy and functioning throughout New Haven so that residents can cross rivers and tunnels without a second thought.
The point of a bridge is to connect people, Zinn, the city engineer, explained during the first full session of Democracy School — a city initiative to educate residents about how local government works.
Continue reading ‘What I Learned At Democracy School, Day 1: How Communities Connect’
by | Apr 27, 2022 8:33 am | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Redistricting in action, clockwise from top left: Fair Haven Alder Jose Crespo and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers; Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez; city map whiz Jacob Conshick with West Hills Alder Honda Smith and Majority Leader Richard Furlow; Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller.
Potential new ward lines -- and population breakdowns.
Ward 6 is on the move — as Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez eyes a likely expansion north to an apartment-rich stretch of Chapel Street.
While Ward 14 appears stuck — as Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller tries and tries, so far in vain, to negotiate a more coherent shape to her three-neighborhood, river-straddling district.
Continue reading ‘Adventures In Redistricting: Chapel Trade Supported; Fair Haven Shifts Rebuffed’
by | Apr 26, 2022 4:33 pm | Comments (15)
City Corporation Counsel Patricia King at City Hall Tuesday.
Will a judge’s decision ordering the acting police chief to vacate her position affect any other interim city department heads?
No, according to the city’s top attorney, who read Monday’s decision — which the Elicker Administration still plans on appealing — as applying narrowly to New Haven’s police chief only.
Continue reading ‘City Attorney: Police Chief Court Ruling Applies Only To Police Chief Position’
by | Apr 22, 2022 12:25 pm | Comments (22)
New Fair Rent ED Wildaliz Bermúdez running her first meeting.
The Fair Rent Commission slashed a $495 rent hike to $200 after finding the landlord’s initial proposed increase was too much for a tenant to swallow all at once — even if the original hike would have been in line with market rents.
by | Apr 20, 2022 12:02 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass file photo
Educators rally outside City Hall for full school funding.
Mayor's proposed FY23 budget
Expenditure breakdown for proposed schools budget.
Teacher salaries. Student transportation. Building maintenance. Special education.
All of those costs are on the rise — and New Haven’s public schools need at least $5 million more to close the gap.
by | Apr 19, 2022 9:41 am | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
Fair Haven Alder and Black & Hispanic Caucus Chair Ernie Santiago on Monday night.
Invest in trade education, to help today’s New Haven public school grads become tomorrow’s local small-business owners.
Fair Haven Alder Ernie Santiago issued that vo-tech-funding call Monday night during the annual Board of Alders Black & Hispanic Caucus state of the city address.
Continue reading ‘Fair Haven Alder Champions VoTech In State Of City Address’
by | Apr 19, 2022 9:27 am | Comments (7)
Lucy Gellman photo
Local 33 graduation student-worker organizers, and hunger fasters, in 2017.
Former Local 33 Vice President and current East Rock Alder Charles Decker on Monday: Yale grads deserve a union.
After several years of hibernation, UNITE HERE Local 33 is back — ready to re-block some streets and resume a decades-long push for a union for Yale’s graduate students, teachers, workers, and researchers.
Continue reading ‘Yale Grad Union Preps Return To The Streets’
by | Apr 18, 2022 3:18 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photo
City police officers lined up in August 2019.
Trustworthy. Emotionally Mature. Courageous. A good communicator. And, ideally, from the ranks of the city’s own police department.
A dozen members of the public singled out those characteristics during the first public meeting about what New Haveners would like to see in the city’s next police chief.
by | Apr 18, 2022 9:33 am | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
City Youth and Recreation Director Gwendolyn Busch Williams at budget workshop.
The recently reorganized city Youth and Recreation Department is looking to add two new deputy director positions to beef up programming and building maintenance.