by | Mar 22, 2021 12:26 pm | Comments (6)
Courtney Luciana photo
WRWC walking West River Greenway.
“Nature is a work in progress. Nothing is complete,” Frank Cochran said. “Stop thinking, ‘I’m going to complete this task.’ You’re not, and that’s good.”
Continue reading ‘West River Walk Reveals Work To Do, & Why’
by | Mar 19, 2021 1:54 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photos
Fenced-in, cleaned-up former nuclear site at 71 Shelton.
One year and four months later, General Electric finished cleaning up the site of a former nuclear manufacturing facility in Newhallville and handed the 2.7‑acre lot — formerly contaminated, now open for “unrestricted use” — back to its landlord.
by | Mar 18, 2021 4:55 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photo
Safety-Kleen tank farm, plus two tanks (pictured in yellow below.)
Safety-Kleen
A used-oil company won city permission to build two new storage tanks — and therefore more than double the amount of used oil it can hold on site — at a riverfront tank farm it owns in the Annex.
The approval came after a discussion of the environmental impact of having 115 oil tanks, and counting, located in New Haven.
by | Mar 15, 2021 3:05 pm | Comments (1)
Tom Ebersold at work Saturday.
Eleven West Rock Ridge Park Association volunteers spent three hours removing invasive plants from the South Overlook of West Rock Ridge State Park on Saturday.
Continue reading ‘Volunteers Beat Back Invaders In West Rock Park’
by | Mar 11, 2021 1:43 pm | Comments (5)
HMMH/MacFarland Johnson
The blue line of this chart represents the area currently subjected to 65 or more decibels of airplane noise from Tweed. The purple line represents the area that is projected to experience 65 or more decibels of noise by 2040 under the expansion plan.
Noise consultant Kate Larson at Wednesday night’s virtual community meeting.
Here’s the plan: The pandemic lifts. Air traffic comes roaring back. New Haven’s airport reaps the benefits with a longer runway.
Neighbors heard the plan and asked: Will that wreck the environment? Did the pandemic wreck the industry? And what about the noise at Wendy Guglietti’s house?
by | Mar 10, 2021 12:59 pm | Comments (32)
Tweed master plan image
Chris Peak photo
East Haven-bound?
Move the airport terminal across the border into East Haven. Extend the main runway by 1,035 feet to allow for longer-distance flights.
Both of those proposals are included in Tweed-New Haven Airport’s new master plan, which is slated to be submitted to federal regulators later this month.
by | Mar 9, 2021 4:21 pm | Comments (1)
Pre-Pandemic File Photo
Volunteers clearing the Mill River Trail.
A $50,000 state grant will help New Haven convert an abandoned stretch of road in Fair Haven into a “community greenspace and living classroom” as part of the ongoing Mill River Trail project.
by | Mar 8, 2021 10:32 am | Comments (1)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Rock to Rock’s Kick-off on Saturday.
At a canoe cleanup last year, Peter Davis and Menunkatuck Audubon Society President Dennis Riordan pulled a dumped bicycle from the water. This spring, Davis and Riordan hope to help keep New Haven’s waterways, ponds, and sound clean by supporting the annual Rock to Rock bike ride.
Continue reading ‘Rock to Rock Readies 13th Ride To “Save The Seas”’
by | Feb 25, 2021 6:03 pm | Comments (22)
City of New Haven
Four-year-old air filter at Worthington Hooker.
Thomas Breen Photo
Building Official Turcio at inspection: What about asthma?
It took the Covid-19 pandemic to reveal air filters that had sat collecting dust for years at public schools throughout New Haven.
The air — and the origin of the problems — is still not cleared up.
Newly released reports of Covid-sparked city inspections of 21 schools found that two-thirds had dirty or poorly maintained ventilation systems. About half had air filters that hadn’t been replaced in years prior to October, rather than twice a year as recommended.
by | Feb 22, 2021 9:42 am | Comments (18)
Thomas Breen Pre-Pandemic File Photo
New City Plan Chair Leslie Radcliffe: Notify tenants, not just LLCs.
89 Shelton.
When Verizon sought to modify its Newhallville cell tower, it gave a heads up to out-of-town landlords who own nearby properties. It didn’t notify tenants who actually live there.
by | Feb 11, 2021 5:44 pm | Comments (1)
Solar Youth Trailblazers on the trail.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, as Robert Frost once wrote — but they are sometimes also knee-deep in trash and in need of a major clean-up, new trails, bridges, and sustained TLC.
by | Feb 9, 2021 2:35 pm | Comments (4)
Pre-pandemic File Photos
Laurie Lopez on the blight beat in Fair Haven.
Laurie Lopez is about to start a new city job that continues the mission she has pursued with passion for decades in Fair Haven: cleaning up trashed public areas so everyone can enjoy them.
by | Feb 8, 2021 12:07 pm | Comments (0)
The city received eight inches of snow Sunday. As clean-up proceeds a parking ban remains in effect until 3 p.m.
by | Feb 4, 2021 1:56 pm | Comments (9)
Maya McFadden Photo
Marottoli on the Q Avenue beat.
Clamper in hand, Vin Marottoli watched cars roll in and out of the El Mexicano Hand Car Wash across the street as he picked up a receipt and a black ice car freshener from the ground.
by | Feb 2, 2021 6:14 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden photo
Cars snowed in on Elm Street.
Thomas Breen photo
City plow trucks, back at DPW headquarters on Middletown Ave.
The city has tagged 197 illegally parked cars and towed 170 so far, as the city transportation department continues to enforce the snowstorm-induced citywide parking ban.
by , and | Feb 2, 2021 2:21 pm | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photos
Georgeanne Flanagan takes a quick break from shoveling in Cedar Hill.
Plow truck drivers take a coffee-and-donut break at Middletown Avenue HQ after their 12-hour shifts.
Eighty-one-year-old Georgeanne Flanagan dug her shovel into a foot-tall pile of snow near her car. Determined to make it to her Covid-19 vaccination appointment later this week, she heaved the heavy white stuff onto her lawn.
by | Jan 15, 2021 5:02 pm | Comments (7)
Maya McFadden Photo
Matt Grabel: What’s that smell?
Matt Grabel caught a whiff of something that smelled like a gas leak coming from his basement. His Wooster Square neighbors smelled it, too, in their homes.
by | Jan 14, 2021 8:36 pm | Comments (35)
Thomas Breen photos
Clockwise from top left at Thursday’s presser: Laura Cahn, Mayor Elicker, Sen. Looney, Chris Ozyck.
Irving Rodriguez engages in favorite pastime: fishing on the Quinnipiac.
Standing by the Quinnipiac River — across the water from the highway, oil tanks, and a recycling plant — officials joined neighbors and environmentalists in celebrating a victory over a plan to bring more industry to the business-crowded waterfront.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Takes Enviro-Justice Victory Lap’
by | Jan 4, 2021 5:37 pm | Comments (22)
Thomas Breen photo
The Crown Street Garage today. Below: Imagining a different iteration.
As parking garage usage plummets during the pandemic, what should happen next to those hulking, largely empty, publicly-owned concrete behemoths that tower over downtown?
Continue reading ‘Parkers Disappear; Time To Green Garages?’
by | Dec 17, 2020 3:15 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
One of the entrances to 19 Wheeler St. in the Annex.
Zoom
Wednesday night’s City Plan Commission virtual meeting.
Wet trash from the suburbs will hurt local children with asthma, “frail” Fair Haven seniors, and Quinnipiac River oysters struggling to survive.
A host of city health officials, alders, environmentalists, Fair Haven neighbors, and local business owners offered those warnings during the latest virtual public hearing about the controversial planned expansion of an Annex waste transfer station.
Continue reading ‘Trash Co. Opponents To City Plan Commission: Protect Kids, Seniors, Oysters’
by | Dec 17, 2020 2:53 pm | Comments (10)
Firefighters Kevin Kelly and Ryan Sargent dig out a fire hydrant.
Fleet of tow trucks on Orange Street around 10 a.m.
Thomas Breen photos
Emergency chief Fontana at storm update: Good job, New Haven!
One overnight car accident. One fallen tree. No lost power.
Those were the tallies mid-day Thursday as the season’s first snowstorm was heading out of town and New Haven proceeded digging out of eight to ten inches of mounds of white.
by | Dec 16, 2020 10:06 pm | Comments (2)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Climate Health Education Project (CHEP) high school interns.
High school climate-change activists called on the city Wednesday afternoon to create a $1 million New Haven Climate Justice and Green Jobs Fund.”
Continue reading ‘Students Rally For Green Jobs, Climate Justice’
by | Dec 16, 2020 2:50 pm | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Elicker at Wednesday’s snowstorm presser.
A citywide parking ban during the coming snowstorm goes into effect Wednesday at 9 p.m. Wednesday — with tow trucks at the ready to pull away violating vehicles, including on narrow streets.
Continue reading ‘Where To Move Your Car During Storm Street Parking Ban’
by | Dec 16, 2020 2:35 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photos
Julio Perez and his fellow public-works crew members are ready for the blizzard predicted to hit New Haven starting tonight. They have the payloader and the sand to show it.
by | Dec 16, 2020 10:47 am | Comments (21)
Maya McFadden Photo
Christel Manning, center, protests plant’s expansion Tuesday.
A trash company accused New Haven of NIMBYism — and the city responded by accusing the company of environmental injustice for seeking to process more suburban garbage in the polluted Annex neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘City To Trash Co.: Who You Calling “NIMBY”?’