by | Jan 12, 2024 9:00 am | Comments (9)
Wilbur Cross and Wooster Square are going electric — or, at least, readying to keep electric cars going.
Continue reading ‘24 EV Charging Stations Coming To Cross, Wooster Square’
by | Dec 20, 2023 8:36 am | Comments (23)
Thomas Breen file photo
A public bus on Dixwell Ave.
Strengthen incentives for people to buy electric vehicles. Build more, and more varied, charging stations. Replace school buses with zero-emission vehicles. Make public buses electric. Expand public transit into more rural parts of the state. Cut down on truck idling at highway construction sites.
Those are just some of the ideas at the center of state and regional planning efforts for how Connecticut can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050.
A federally funded competitive grant program has state and regional environmental entities readying proposals on that very topic — with a focus on reducing climate change-exacerbating emissions, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
In the process, data is being collected, and lessons learned, about just what the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions are.
Continue reading ‘Want To Curb Emissions? Start With Transportation’
by | Dec 8, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (17)
The Yale Golf Course, as pictured in a City Plan presentation.
Yale has won city permission to cut down more than 1,000 trees and renovate its Upper Westville golf course as part of a plan that university officials pitched as making 200 acres of fairways and tees more “sustainable” — and that local activists criticized as environmentally backwards.
Continue reading ‘Yale's Tree-Cutting Golf Course Renovation Plan OK'd’
by | Dec 7, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (8)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
URI's Chris Ozyck solicits public parks feedback at 200 Orange.
Pick up more litter, clean the bathrooms better, and designate more point people to deal with public park concerns.
Those are some of the top priorities New Haveners have for their city’s green spaces, as documented in a community input process overseen by the Urban Resource Initiative on behalf of the Elicker administration.
by | Nov 22, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (3)
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Student composters at work in Cross's cafeteria back in June.
This Thanksgiving season, Wilbur Cross sophomore Manxi Han is thankful to have a home that is not routinely submerged in several feet of water as sea levels rise, for access to food despite climate change-related disasters destroying farm lands, for healthy and clean air year-round, for minimal heat waves as the earth’s temperature rises, and for biodiversity as rates of extinction increase.
Continue reading ‘Student Climate Activists Speak Up About What To Fear, What To Be Thankful For’
by | Nov 21, 2023 9:56 am | Comments (2)
Fairmont Park's planned new play area.
A splash pad, swing set, and children’s play area are en route to Fairmont Park, thanks to playground upgrade plans for the Fair Haven Heights greenspace.
Continue reading ‘Make Way For A New Playground At Fairmont Park’
by | Nov 21, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photo
Dishawn Harris, a.k.a Farmer D., at Saturday's workshop.
Putting your hands to soil to plant garlic. Chewing on a leaf of fresh oregano. Noticing the sun on your face. At “Rooted Youth,” a collaborative event between the Dixwell art center NXTHVN and the garden-creation outfit Root Life, held at the Goffe Street Armory Garden, participants learned about how these simple experiences can open up broader pathways to understanding more about our relationship to our environment, and how we can adapt to climate change.
Continue reading ‘Garden Workshop Teaches How To Put Down Roots’
by | Nov 17, 2023 9:20 am | Comments (5)
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City Chief Arborist Anastasia Mixsell.
New Haven may soon have an urban forest management plan.
But what does that mean?
Continue reading ‘$360K Planning Grant To Bolster "Urban Forests"’
by | Nov 14, 2023 3:35 pm | Comments (15)
Brian Slattery Photos
A Yale-owned research station that is an experiment in “regenerative architecture” poses a profound question about the future of making, and unmaking, buildings: how can new construction not just have zero impact on the environment, but also reverse some of the damage humans have done?
Continue reading ‘Peabody Building Project Goes Beyond Sustainability’
by | Nov 14, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (8)
Maya McFadden Photo
Hill youngsters and Crystal Fernandez install signage at Kimberly Park.
Ten-year-old Cristian Estrada and his brothers Joshua, 9, and Jeremiah, 5, took turns plunging a shovel into the dirt on Kimberly Avenue to bring more beauty to their neighborhood park — this time in the form of installing a Friends of Kimberly Park sign.
Continue reading ‘Sign Installed As Kimberly Park "Friends" Keep Cleaning’
by | Nov 13, 2023 9:00 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
Six Lakes, a.k.a. the Powder Farm, from Treadwell Street.
On Sunday afternoon a crowd of nearly 100 people, from citizens to activists to numerous elected officials, converged on the parking lot of ACES Whitney High School North on Leeder Hill Drive in Hamden. The purpose of the visit was the land behind the high school — 102 acres of forest, lakes, and wetlands, closed off from the public for decades because of its use as a place to test firearms and munitions and dispose of toxic waste.
by | Nov 10, 2023 9:48 am | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Cool Amps' Lonnie Garris III and Nick Anderson, with their company's "laminar flow extraction module" prototype.
Retired Air Force colonel and eco-entrepreneur Lonnie Garris III returned to his home city Thursday evening to help show that the path to a climate-friendlier future — and a less carbon-intensive means of recycling lithium-ion batteries — goes through Chapel Street.
Continue reading ‘Tech Hub's Grand Opening Celebrates Less Carbon, More Innovation’
by | Nov 9, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (3)
Karen Ponzio photo
Map sketching and nature journaling in East Rock.
East Rock Park on a sunny November Saturday was an idyllic setting for the most recent New Haven Nature Journal Club meet-up. The biweekly event focuses on gathering in natural settings to witness, observe, and document the surroundings through drawings and writings, with a bit of guidance and a bunch of support.
The group, led by Madelyn Neufeld, meets on Saturday mornings twice a month: once in East Rock Park and two weeks later at another location that changes each time. Neufeld started this club back in August after researching the Wild Wonder Foundation — which provides free nature journal resources — and finding no groups in Connecticut.
Continue reading ‘Nature Journal Club Draws From "Urban Oasis"’
by | Nov 3, 2023 8:57 am | Comments (9)
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Tashi at work planting cherry blossoms in Wooster Sq.
Drenched in sweat, Tashi loaded up a wheelbarrow with nutrient-dense wood chips and mulch from a truck, ready to wheel it to his tree planting crew in Wooster Square. Although the work wasn’t glamorous or pretty, it would be worth it in the spring when the cherry tree’s blossoms come into bloom. Until then, the newly planted trees would have to rest and gain their energy under the autumn sun.
by | Oct 27, 2023 9:52 am | Comments (10)
URI Director Colleen Murphy-Dunning and Mayor Justin Elicker.
The Yale-affiliated environmental nonprofit that already oversees city tree plantings has been tapped to help figure out the future structure of New Haven’s parks department.
Continue reading ‘URI Picked To Consult On Parks Department Redo’
by | Oct 27, 2023 8:58 am | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen File Photo
Climate activists outside City Hall in 2019.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Meredith Polk on behalf of the New Haven Climate Movement.
Mayor Justin Elicker has stated that New Haven’s goal is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. In 2021, the New Haven Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy Committee passed a resolution outlining the importance of electrification and the actions the city would take to electrify. This resolution was an important step towards net-zero, but it has been two years and the city has not made enough progress. New Haven has the opportunity and responsibility to save lives by implementing the promises in the resolution.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Pick Up The Pace On Electrification’
by | Oct 26, 2023 1:05 pm | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen photo
Let there be water, and more trees!
Two dozen eager and antsy King Robinson School first graders joined the mayor in pouring bucket after bucket of water atop a newly planted lacebark elm tree — to help grow a federally funded canopy expansion program that will see an extra 2,500 trees take root in New Haven over the next five years.
by | Oct 25, 2023 12:01 pm | Comments (1)
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Recycling do's and don'ts, clarified at library talk.
You can recycle the thick cardboard container that soup stock comes in when you buy it at the store, but you can’t recycle ice cream containers. You can recycle plastics in the shape of containers, but not a toy made out of the same kind of plastic. You can recycle pizza boxes — but not paper plates.
Continue reading ‘Recycling Talk Sorts Through The Confusion’
by | Oct 18, 2023 11:48 am | Comments (12)
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Lynn Stoddard, executive director of Sustainable CT, speaks at East Rock press conference.
New Haven is the first and only Connecticut city to win gold — for sustainability, at least.
by | Oct 18, 2023 8:34 am | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen file photo
Kiana Flores, at a 2019 climate rally outside City Hall.
As a Co-Op high school student, Kiana Flores helped convince the Board of Alders to pass a climate emergency resolution.
As a Yale college student, she’ll soon have a chance to put such eco-friendly policy priorities into practice — after she runs unopposed to become the next alder representing downtown’s Ward 1.
Continue reading ‘Climate Activist On Tap To Be Next Ward 1 Alder’
by | Oct 13, 2023 12:22 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen file photo
Albertus Magnus' parking lot solar array: Just the beginning.
Solar panel canopies are coming to the parking lots of Hill Central and Beecher schools, as part of a city school district effort to become more climate friendly and energy efficient.
by | Oct 4, 2023 8:25 am | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Kimberly Stoner at WNHH FM.
Connecticut environmentalists are waging a years-long quest to convince voters to pass an ERA — and not your mother’s ERA.
Continue reading ‘Climate-Change Campaigners Eye State Constitutional Amendment’
by | Sep 28, 2023 12:23 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photos
Greg Menotti, charging up his "impulse buy" Tesla ...
... at the Hotel Marcel supercharger station on Long Wharf.
Greg Menotti had a good month making money trading Tesla stock — so, as an “impulse buy,” he dropped $30,000 purchasing a name-brand electric car of his own.
by | Sep 27, 2023 3:19 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
United Illuminating (UI), city officials, and small business owners kick off Small Business Energy Efficiency Campaign.
Flyer to be handed out during neighborhood canvassing.
Local small businesses looking to save money on their energy systems can also help address the climate crisis at the same time — by switching to LED lights, better sealing windows, improving insulation, adopting programmable thermostats, and other energy-efficient interventions.
So pitched city officials and representatives from United Illuminating (UI) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG) on Monday as they kicked off a week-long Small Business Energy Efficiency Campaign in the rain at 300 and 302 Dixwell Ave. that is designed to support some of those climate-friendly changes.
Continue reading ‘Small Biz Energy Efficiency Campaign Kicks Off In Dixwell’
by | Sep 22, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photos
Alex Morquecho, Aaron Goode and Jacob Smith with Sound School's newly planted peace tree.
Alex Morquecho and Jacob Smith crouched atop a raised bed of waterfront soil to uncover the city’s latest tribute to a hoped-for world without violence, alongside a newly planted “peace tree.”