by | Oct 28, 2020 12:18 pm | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen / Markeshia Ricks file photos
Affordable housing developers seeking local tax breaks: RJ Development’s Joseph, Beaulah’s Brooks, and Beacon’s Kovel.
Tax-break deals for three different residential building projects planned for vacant lots around town were fast-tracked for approval — revealing some of the current strategy for promoting affordable housing.
by | Oct 26, 2020 4:42 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
Schneska Murphy: “If you’re gonna help the people, then help them.”
Eight weeks after launching an $800,000 Covid-related rental-aid program, the city hasn’t distributed a cent — leaving renters like Schneska Murphy struggling to figure out how to qualify.
Continue reading ‘City Covid Rent Fund So Far Pays Out ... $0’
by | Oct 23, 2020 4:58 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
School cafeteria workers posing with Mayor Justin Elicker on the front steps of City Hall.
Over a dozen public school cafeteria workers served up a petition to the mayor Friday in a push to save their jobs, and keep New Haven school children fed, during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading ‘Lunch Ladies Serve Up Jobs Petition To City Hall’
by | Oct 23, 2020 10:32 am | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photo
An absentee ballot dropbox outside 200 Orange St.
New Haven’s official tally of absentee ballots filled out and returned to the city/town clerk’s office jumped by over 70,000 percent in two days — a sign that the local office is chipping away at its ballot backlog and stepping up use of a state-mandated database less than two weeks from the Nov. 3 election.
by | Oct 21, 2020 1:18 pm | Comments (4)
Stantec
The AV (autonomous) shuttle, stalled at another legislative roadblock.
A driverless shuttle plan stalled in traffic yet again, as alders pushed back on a prospective pilot they worried presents too many potential liabilities for the city, and has not been thoroughly vetted by the communities through which the automated vans would navigate.
Continue reading ‘Driverless Shuttle Plan Continues To Idle’
by | Oct 21, 2020 11:02 am | Comments (1)
Paul Bass photo
The burnt building, before demolition.
A Stamford-based landlord duo can now rebuild a house at the same size as the one that burned down earlier this year on a Sheffield Avenue lot, thanks to zoning relief unanimously granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Continue reading ‘Rebuilders Surmount Post-Fire Zoning Hurdle’
by | Oct 21, 2020 10:13 am | Comments (50)
Contributed Photo
Sting on the menu: Then-Mayor Toni Harp, Andrea Scott, Derek “Rick” Bluford, Daryl Jones at Jack’s Steakhouse.
Hausladen: “Fuckin’ Doug” balked at contract.
Toni Harp and her top mayoral aides walked out of Jack’s Steakhouse with an envelope filled with thousands of dollars of cash handed over by an accused money launderer.
A city contract followed. Then a federal grand jury investigation.
But it’s unclear who was up to what — and who left whom holding the bag.
Continue reading ‘FBI Probes City Contract; Harp Wiretapped, Says Fraudster Tried To Set Her Up’
by | Oct 20, 2020 9:11 pm | Comments (2)
Christopher Peak Photo
Soon-to-be city employee Michael Pinto.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto, who led the effort to distribute hundreds of thousands of meals to school families after Covid-19 shuttered the local school system this spring, plans to leave his job on Nov. 25.
His next role will be back at City Hall, where he plans to work as an attorney on the city’s legal team.
by | Oct 20, 2020 4:58 pm | Comments (24)
ConnCORP
Vew of planned new Dixwell Plaza redevelopment.
The city plans to sell its remaining stakes in Dixwell Plaza for $750,000 to a local redevelopment team looking to convert the 1960s-era shopping complex into 50,000 square feet of new commercial space and 150 new apartments.
Continue reading ‘$750K Sale Pitched For Dixwell Plaza Deal’
by | Oct 20, 2020 12:32 pm | Comments (0)
Ko Lyn Cheang photo
Paraprofessionals Albert Alston and Hyclis Williams at recent protest.
The Board of Alders all-but-unanimously approved a new four-year paraprofessionals union contract that will see entry-level members get a roughly $1,000 raise by 2023.
Continue reading ‘Paras Contract Approved; Sidewalk $ Accepted’
by | Oct 20, 2020 9:44 am | Comments (37)
A protest sign from a neighborhood demonstration against the sale.
Thomas Breen photo
The Board of Alders voted overwhelmingly in support of trading a Kensington Street park for 15 new affordable apartments — but only after an impassioned debate about the relative merits of building low-income housing atop public green space.
by | Oct 20, 2020 9:43 am | Comments (5)
Lucy Gellman file photo
Newly confirmed police commissioner Mike Lawlor.
Mike Lawlor is now officially a member of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners — and is ready to help translate national and statewide calls for change into actual improvements to how local law enforcement works.
Continue reading ‘Reform Expert Michael Lawlor Approved For Police Commission Seat’
by | Oct 19, 2020 10:58 am | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen photos
Clockwise from top left: Howard K. Hill, Alisa Bowens-Mercado, Deborah Caviness and Ricardo Caliz.
As a second wave of the pandemic approaches and federal aid from this spring dries up, local Black and Hispanic small business owners turned to one of Connecticut’s U.S. senators with stories of struggle and resilience — and a plea for another round of government support.
by | Oct 16, 2020 11:38 am | Comments (5)
City assessor’s database / Google Maps
381 Shelton, 345 Forbes: 2 party venues. 2 potential zoning fates.
Blake: Plans baby showers, poetry reading, theater.
Open the doors and cue the lights in Newhallville. In the Annex? Not so fast.
That’s the upshot of two unanimous zoning decisions, green-lighting one new gathering space on Shelton Avenue while pausing an illegally existing party venue on Forbes.
by | Oct 14, 2020 10:16 am | Comments (2)
Loopnet
Former convent at 349 McKinley.
Saints Aedan & Brendan Church is one step closer to selling a former convent building on McKinley Avenue, after winning zoning relief for the church’s Westville campus. The building’s future use remains uncertain.
by | Oct 13, 2020 4:10 pm | Comments (1)
Christopher Peak file photo
Trimming a tomato plant at a Goffe Street community garden.
The city has been awarded two federal food grants worth a total of $590,000, which will be used to develop a local urban agriculture master plan and build out a citywide community composting program.
by | Oct 13, 2020 10:14 am | Comments (2)
Ko Lyn Cheang Photo
Paraprofessionals Hyclis Williams and Albert Alston at recent protest.
A new four-year contract for the city’s paraprofessionals union that would see entry-level members get a roughly $1,000 raise by 2023 advanced towards an expected full Board of Alders vote later this month.
by | Oct 7, 2020 1:06 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen Photo
Samuel at a Dixwell neighborhood meeting.
The mayor has tapped New Haven native, local realtor, and veteran government staffer Arlevia Samuel to serve as the new acting director of the Livable City Initiative (LCI).
Continue reading ‘Neighborhood Development Official Tapped To Lead LCI’
by | Oct 7, 2020 9:22 am | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen Photo
Illegal bikes seized this year by police.
Alders advanced an ordinance that would increase the maximum fine for speeding dirt bikers by a factor of more than 20 in hopes of offering relief to neighbors across town plagued by loud, dangerous riding.
by | Oct 6, 2020 3:36 pm | Comments (1)
Courtney Luciana photo
City officials, New Haven police, and the HOPE Family Justice Care of Greater New Haven officially kicked off Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a reminder: Abuse is up during the pandemic, and doors are open for people who need help.
Continue reading ‘City Kicks off Domestic Violence Awareness Month’
by | Oct 6, 2020 1:40 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
Back-to-back absentee ballot drop-boxes outside 200 Orange.
The city has landed $93,300 worth of grants from the Secretary of the State’s office to help cover the costs of processing an unprecedented number of absentee ballots during the Nov. 3 general election.
Continue reading ‘State Sends City $93K For Absentee Ballot Help’
by | Oct 6, 2020 10:53 am | Comments (4)
Zoom
Monday’s virtual Board of Alders meeting.
The Board of Alders voted unanimously in support of transferring $100,000 in city funds towards paying for a planning study for a new social worker-centered mobile crisis response team.
Continue reading ‘Alders Transfer $100K For Crisis Team Study’
by | Oct 5, 2020 3:35 pm | Comments (17)
Developer Yves-Georges Joseph II: A “renaissance of investment.”
Thomas Breen photos
Canal and Henry Streets: Soon to hold 150 new apartments?
A local developer plans to build a new five-story apartment complex — with one third of its 150 units at affordable rents — atop a city-owned grassy lot on the Dixwell/Science Park border.
by | Oct 1, 2020 11:44 am | Comments (32)
Thomas Breen photo
Dwight neighbors gather in Kensington Park to testify at virtual hearing against land swap for new apartments (below).
The Community Builders, Inc.
City plans to trade Kensington Playground for 15 new affordable apartments won a key aldermanic approval — but not before over a dozen Dwight neighbors gathered in the public greenspace to voice their live-streamed, virtual opposition to replacing urban parkland with housing.
by | Sep 30, 2020 10:04 am | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen Photo
Construction work on the new Q House.
New Haven’s minority small-contractor program helped Booker Washington launch his business. But he could have used help navigating the program — help participants in a virtual “town hall” suggested giving a new generation of Black, brown, and female entrepreneurs.