City social services director Mehul Dalal in August 2021.
Two years to the day after the Elicker Administration first announced plans to launch a non-cop emergency response initiative — and one year after a pilot program was initially supposed to start — the social worker-centered team has still not begun responding to certain 911 calls.
City public safety departments haven’t even been trained yet on how this nascent program will work.
Iline Tracey testifies: New Haven kids will succeed.
“When I hear those numbers, it makes me cringe,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers told Schools Superintendent Iline Tracey.
Speaking at a public hearing, she was referring to New Haven Public Schools’ test scores from the past year, which officials have referred to as a reading and math “crisis.”
“Our students are resilient,” Tracey responded, and they need “indestructible hope.”
Rose-Wilen and Piscitelli on Tuesday: "Long Wharf is the city's neighborhood."
The city's vision for a denser, mixed-use, redeveloped Long Wharf.
A proposed one-year building moratorium on Long Wharf is now one vote away from adoption — after alders and city planners made clear that certain projects, like Fusco’s planned new 500 waterfront apartments, would not be affected by the land-use pause.
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Thomas Breen |
Aug 3, 2022 12:00 pm
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Cracking concrete outside of the boathouse.
Alders signed off on paying outside attorneys $159,000 in total as legal bills keep mounting for an ongoing court battle centered on cracking concrete outside of the Canal Dock Boathouse.
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Thomas Breen |
Aug 2, 2022 1:45 pm
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A draft rendering of the Living Village addition, at the top left of the map, as it fits into the Divinity School's existing structure.
Thomas Breen photo
Yale’s plans to build a new eco-friendly dormitory for divinity school students moved ahead, as alders unanimously signed off on a resolution stating that the project doesn’t require any amendment to the university’s central campus parking plan.
Pressure from activists, like these attendees at a June public hearing, led to an addition of housing dollars.
City-backed housing programs got an extra $4 million boost on top of a planned $14 million, as alders signed off on a final amended version of how the Elicker Administration should spend $53 million in federal pandemic-relief aid.
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Thomas Breen |
Aug 2, 2022 8:50 am
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Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison at Monday's meeting.
City of New Haven map
Cannabis zoning map proposal from April; legal sales districts shaded in purple. Thanks to Monday's vote, the port district in the Annex is no longer of that purple, legal cannabis zone, and parts of Long Wharf are.
Cannabis dispensaries can now legally set up up shop in certain business and industrial districts in town — including on Long Wharf — thanks to a new set of zoning regulations approved by the Board of Alders.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, Sonia Cruz, and Mike Piscitelli at Monday's event.
As nations dither and the planet bakes, New Haven is getting ahead of the curve on preparing contractors in green construction and environmentally responsive design.
Deputy Health Director Brooke Logan, left, pitches plan to alders.
New Haven’s alders first voted to declare racism a public health emergency. Now it is looking for federal help to put the city’s money where its mouth is.
Model for the future: The protected Crescent Street cycletrack.
What the city's cycling network should look like?
Make way for 90 new and upgraded miles of cycling-friendly infrastructure — including a 400 percent increase to New Haven’s protected bike lanes — if the recommendations included in the city’s recently completed “active transportation” plan ever bear fruit.
Bolstered by personal stories and political calls to arms, over two dozen affordable housing advocates made their final plea for city government to invest tens of millions of dollars in federal pandemic-relief aid into more, better, and cheaper shelter.
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Laura Glesby |
Jul 11, 2022 8:56 am
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Laura Glesby File Photo
Darrisha McIver outside the Barbell, where she competed in double dutch, acted in plays, and got her first job.
Visions for a revived community center glimmered in Trowbridge Square alongside the fireflies, as alders, city officials, and Hill neighbors discussed the future of the building that once housed the Barbell Club.
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Thomas Breen |
Jul 6, 2022 1:55 pm
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Jacobson takes the oath Wednesday.
With a promise to build back community trust in local law enforcement by reducing crime while respecting the residents cops serve, Karl Jacobson was sworn in as the new chief of the New Haven Police Department (NHPD).
The city made its bid for a potential spot in U.S. diplomatic history Tuesday, as alders voted unanimously in support of a nonbinding resolution urging President Joe Biden to resume an Obama-era rapprochement with the Caribbean island nation.
Jacobson after vote with board Majority Leader Richard Furlow.
Cops who showed up to support Jacobson Tuesday night.
The Board of Alders voted unanimously to confirm Karl Jacobson to become the city’s next police chief, praising him for integrity, humility, and community connections — and calling him the leader needed at a time when “a healing has to take place between the community and the police department.”
“Two incidents that were terrible. … Both incidents are not an example of what we want police to be.”
The assistant police chief offered that assessment of how New Haven officers’ treatment of Richard Cox earlier this month compares to Baltimore officers’ treatment of Freddie Gray in 2015.
Asst. Chief Jacobson and LaQuvia Jones hug after Monday night hearing.
Thomas Breen photos
Members of the public testify in support of Jacobson. First row, left to right: Gwen Williams, Ronnie Huggins, Tracey Suggs. Second row: Lt. Dana Smith, Sgt. Cherelle Carr, Maria Rodriguez. Third row: Rodney Williams, Virginia Spell, retired former Chief and future Yale Chief Anthony Campbell.
Two mothers of homicide victims praised his compassion.
A former police chief praised his humility.
A community organizer praised his authenticity.
A young police officer praised his mentorship.
A man he had once arrested praised him for always showing up, and for always caring.
Those were just some of the accolades heaped on Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson Monday night during his confirmation hearing to become the city’s next permanent police chief.
Seth Godfrey recalls FBI visit during testimony Thursday night.
U.S.-Cuba diplomacy was the topic of discussion at City Hall, as alders advanced a measure calling on the president “to build a new cooperative relationship” with the Caribbean nation.
The occasion was a hearing Thursday night held by the New Haven Board of Alders Health and Human Services Committee.
The three alders present — committee Chair Darryl Brackeen, Fair Haven’s Sarah Miller and Downtown’s Alex Guzhnay — heard testimony on a nonbinding resolution to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba and reverse President Trump’s reversal of President Obama’s policy of increasing ties between the two nations.
The Elicker Administration is now looking to pay outside attorneys $159,000 in total in a bid to hold a city-hired contractor accountable for cracking concrete outside of the Canal Dock Boathouse.
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Thomas Breen |
Jun 21, 2022 11:29 am
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Empty storefront at 846 Congress, now approved for residential conversion.
A New Jersey-based landlord won permission to convert two vacant Congress Avenue storefronts into two two-bedroom apartments, in the latest example of property owners around the city seeking to change empty groundfloor places to shop into occupied groundfloor places to live.
Affordable housing activists at City Hall Monday evening.
Should the city spread tens of millions of dollars in federal pandemic-relief aid across a hodgepodge of housing, vocational technical education, youth engagement, business support, and climate resiliency initiatives?
Or should it spend a bulk of that money in a concentrated effort to buy rental properties away from megalandlords and subsidize New Haven’s most struggling tenants?
Alders heard both arguments while deciding how to allocate $53 million of the city’s one-time Covid-relief bounty.
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Laura Glesby |
Jun 13, 2022 9:27 am
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Fair, Esdaile, Spell, and Grady.
Two retired law enforcement professionals and two lifelong activists committed to holding the police accountable arrived at City Hall to receive honors from the Board of Alders for their work on opposite sides of the uniform.
