by | Sep 30, 2024 9:45 am | Comments (28)
Paul Bass Photo
Tabitha Sookdeo at WNHH FM: "It's all connected."
Tabitha Sookdeo has a new job helping undocumented young people stay settled here — and addressing the conditions that lead some others to come here.
To her, the two issues, immigration reform and climate change, are related.
by | Sep 11, 2024 9:49 am | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen file photo
English Station: Oh the potential, oh the decay.
A derelict power plant. A neighborhood school. A vibrant community history of hardship and resilience. And the ticking clock of climate change.
All these elements came together in the first of a series of walking tours — a collaboration among several public and nonprofit entities put together by Anstress Farwell, president of the New Haven Urban Design League — focusing on the decommissioned and toxic English Station power plant and the Mill River District in Fair Haven.
Continue reading ‘English Station Looms Over Fair Haven Walk’
by | Sep 9, 2024 12:15 pm | Comments (26)
Thomas Breen file photo
At Tweed for Avelo's first flight to Puerto Rico, last November.
Tweed’s operators are looking to keep in place for another three years temporary office, ticketing, and passenger waiting trailer buildings on the New Haven side of the airport property, as they continue to try to relocate the terminal to a new larger permanent structure on the East Haven side.
Continue reading ‘Renewal Sought For Temporary Tweed Trailers’
by | Aug 28, 2024 8:39 am | Comments (1)
Eyes on the Planet.
They’re eyes, but they’re taking in a universe of shifting shapes and colors. The piercing structures of the irises only accentuate how the rest of the eyes are swimming with color. In the middle of each pupil is an astronaut, which throws the scale of the image into question. On one level, it’s all fun and inviting. On another, it’s disorienting. The astronauts could be exploring a colorful new dimension. They may also be in danger.
Continue reading ‘Artists Paint An Ailing Planet In Vivid Color’
by | Aug 26, 2024 3:35 pm | Comments (43)
Thomas Breen photos
Trucks, ships, and particulates, in the Port.
Connecticut Ave and Alabama St.
As truck after truck barreled through New Haven’s industrial port district Monday afternoon, the asthma-inducing particulate matter in the air at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Alabama Street reached 29.5 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m³).
That compared to 16.4 outside Mitchell Library and 28 outside Tweed Airport and 21 by the Hill South police substation at the exact same time.
City government is now collecting and making public that data through 11 recently installed air quality sensors, which shine a light on just how much hazardous haze New Haveners take in with every breath.
by | Aug 21, 2024 9:50 am | Comments (4)
Brian Slattery photo
On the trail again ...
A walk by the New Haven Bioregional Group followed part of the route through Morris Cove of the proposed Shoreline Greenway Trail, which will connect the Farmington Canal Trail to the shore. In the process, it revealed a complex history of land use, and the ways that the push and pull of industrial use versus green spaces have shaped — and continue to shape — the neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘Shoreline Walk Reveals The Gray & The Green’
by | Aug 8, 2024 3:16 pm | Comments (23)
Laura Glesby Photos
Q Meadows Alder Theresa Morant: “Yes! A safer neighborhood, finally!”
Laura Glesby File Photo
Route 80, make way for slower traffic, including in front of the 270 Foxon Blvd. hotel-turned-shelter.
Traffic calming medians and lighting are one step closer to coming to a six-lane stretch of Route 80, also known as Foxon Boulevard, thanks to $1.6 million in state funds that city government has now officially accepted.
by | Jul 24, 2024 5:25 pm | Comments (5)
Jabez Choi Photos
Nappésoul's Gregory Smith, José Gragirene, Laquaya Smith, and Madison Foster tend to a baby chicken.
It's pond time, on Butler Street.
Last week, the pond in Nappésoul’s Newhallville backyard was just a hole in the ground.
By Wednesday morning, with the help of a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant, the hole had turned into a filtered, aquaponic pond system, with koi fish and minnows on the way.
by | Jul 23, 2024 3:59 pm | Comments (32)
Thomas Breen, Allan Appel, and Contributed Photos
Grant proposal seeks to expand clean energy, composting, bike education, and street trees, among other projects.
Composting for up to 20 schools. Energy upgrades for over 200 homes. Bike education for every third grade student. Four hundred new street trees.
Those are among the plans for a potential $20 million federal grant to build out New Haven’s climate resilience infrastructure.
by | Jul 22, 2024 4:59 pm | Comments (14)
Asher Joseph Photo
DEEP's Katie Dykes announces $450 million EPA grant.
Union Station will be “the greenest train station in the United States of America” thanks to “heat pumps, heat pumps, heat pumps,” made possible by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new climate pollution reduction grant program.
So promised officials as they gathered at the train station to announce grants allocated to Connecticut under the program — including $9.5 million worth for New Haven.
by | Jul 18, 2024 9:19 am | Comments (6)
Brian Slattery photos
Watch out, George Baldwin, that's a sand shark!
Students test for salinity, temperature, and "conductivity."
The traffic from the Q Bridge rumbled overhead, oblivious to the scene below at the mouth of the Quinnipiac and Mill rivers, as two students on a small Sound School boat lowered a piece of scientific equipment into the water, at surface and at depth.
The reason: to continue a years-long project of gathering data about the Mill River and, in turn, foster a better relationship with it.
by | Jul 17, 2024 9:26 am | Comments (6)
Brian Slattery Photos
Six Lakes last fall.
Trails for wheelchairs and strollers. A pavilion for events and education programs. Kayaking and fishing.
All these ideas and more emerged from a meeting at Thornton Wilder Hall at Miller Library in Hamden, held by Six Lakes Park Coalition, as the coalition invited the public to submit input on what a future state park in the middle of Hamden might look like, and how it might best serve the community around it.
by | Jul 16, 2024 3:54 pm | Comments (12)
Asher Joseph photos
The new electric trash truck, in action.
Asher Joseph file photo
Climate director Winter, with Mayor Elicker: Heavy-duty vehicles "contribute more than half of the smog-forming air pollution."
New Haven trash, meet the 2024 Battle Motors LET 2 EV.
by | Jul 12, 2024 8:20 am | Comments (0)
The following writeup was submitted by the City Plan Department.
The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season began on June 1, and forecasters predict a very active storm season.
Continue reading ‘Resilient New Haven: Continuously Improving Hurricane And Flood Preparedness’
by | Jul 11, 2024 12:39 pm | Comments (13)
Laura Glesby File Photo
Steve Winter with pooch pal Toly on the campaign trail.
So you have a school that needs repairs.
You have a planet that needs fewer carbon emissions.
You have a neighborhood where people pay too much for electricity.
Steve Winter has an idea about how to address those three needs at once — and where to find buckets of money to do it.
Continue reading ‘Candidate Winter Has A Geo-Winterizing Idea’
by | Jun 27, 2024 4:27 pm | Comments (2)
The senior living community known as The Towers at Tower Lane will be receiving $20 million to improve conditions and reach broader environmental goals, thanks to HUD’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP).
by | Jun 26, 2024 11:08 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Sherry Pocknett: "We've been here for 12,000 years and we're not going anywhere."
Catching and cleaning eels with relatives. Learning about the migratory patterns of birds and fish. Deciding that snapping turtle soup might be your favorite dish.
For renowned Indigenous chef Sherry Pocknett — who led a cooking demonstration at Gateway on Tuesday as part of the Arts & Ideas festival – the cultural and personal history is part of what makes the food so rich, and the reason she cooks it so well.
Continue reading ‘Celebrated Indigenous Chef Tells The Stories Behind The Flavors’
by | Jun 24, 2024 12:15 pm | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
Thank you, water, on Whitney Ave.
Part architectural stunner, part essential public utility, the silver and glass structure of the Regional Water Authority’s water treatment plant was even more impressive up close than seen from Whitney Avenue across the street from the Lake Whitney Dam.
Just as impressive, as it turned out, were the inner workings of that plant and how it provides water to the city and elsewhere — as a group of 30 participants learned on a tour of the facility, guided by Jesse Culbertson, RWA water treatment team lead, as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
by | Jun 21, 2024 12:00 pm | Comments (3)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Re-X Clinic attendees with their pickles.
The kitchen of MakeHaven was cramped and filled to the brim with the strong smell of vegetables, oil, and brine. Eight people gathered with Young Le Do on Thursday night to participate in a pickle-making workshop called Re‑X Clinic: In a Pickle!
Some people brought the contents of their fridge. Others darted across the street to Elm City Market to purchase vegetables and herbs. The group shared ingredients between them, until the air was as filled with camaraderie as the jars were filled with salt.
Continue reading ‘Half Water. Half Vinegar. Some Salt. Much Fun’
by | Jun 19, 2024 9:26 am | Comments (9)
Abiba Biao photos
Alder Mabery-Niblack, Kierra Guest, and Steve Winter ...
... ready to clean clean clean, including the pile of trash sitting outside Felicia Jones’s apartment.
Felicia Jones couldn’t believe how much trash her former neighbors had dumped at the corner of Read and Butler streets.
Two weeks after those neighbors had moved out, the pile remained — stopping fellow Newhallville resident Gwenadine Felder in her tracks as she made her way down the block to pick up litter as part of a neighborhood cleanup.
by | Jun 11, 2024 9:11 am | Comments (4)
RWA photo
Lake Whitney Dam: Ready to be improved for “the next 160 years.”
The Lake Whitney Dam on the border of New Haven and Hamden has been going strong since 1860, when Eli Whitney and the city built it. But it’s in need of rehabilitation — a major construction project — to prepare it for the climate challenges of the next century and beyond. That can be done while also keeping an eye on the community and environmental concerns of the present.
by | Jun 8, 2024 9:17 am | Comments (1)
Christine Howe photo
The Baltimore Oriole apparently doesn’t mind if you root for other American League teams.
One recent afternoon, a chorus of songbirds stirred me from a catnap on a backyard chaise.
Continue reading ‘Our Little Chickadees: New Haven's Singing Therapists’
by | Jun 5, 2024 10:21 am | Comments (2)
Bonsai appreciators Zahra Ashe-Simmer and Oliver Egger: “There's something so pleasing about [the trees] being miniature.”
In order to maximize its access to air and light, Peter Hlousek’s blue spruce has branches far enough apart for a bird to fly through them.
That’s one of the guiding principles of bonsai, the art of growing and shaping tiny trees — which Hlousek has been doing for nearly three decades as a member and former president of the Bonsai Society of Greater New Haven.
by | May 24, 2024 10:52 am | Comments (10)
Paul Bass File Photo
Steve Winter: "Neighborhood-scale platform for decarbonization."
The city hopes to draw clean energy directly from the earth to heat and cool a train station, a thousand or so apartments, and maybe one day an entire neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘Geothermal Energy Sought For "Union Square"’
by | May 22, 2024 10:50 am | Comments (6)
Contributed Photo
Someday, Six Lakes, a.k.a. the Olin Pine Swamp, a.k.a. the Powder Farm, could be “a tranquil oasis for you to go to — not just for Hamden, but for the region,” said Elizabeth Hayes, a longtime community activist who is also on the Democratic Town Committee in Hamden and on the town’s wetlands commission. “We’ll just ask you to be patient.”