Hill Heroes Memorialized
by | Nov 23, 2018 10:05 am | Comments (3)
Members of the Hill North Management Team this week unveiled the first installment in a beautification campaign with banners that honors neighborhood trailblazers.
Hometown Heroes
Libby Glucksman Packs Up On Her Terms
by | Oct 19, 2018 2:00 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
Holocaust survivor and local tailor Libby Glucksman.
As she prepares to close a tailor shop that was a West River fixture for five decades, Libby Glucksman has a lot of boxes to pack. She has even more of a story to unpack. A survivor’s story.
59 Years Later, A Public Servant Exits
by | Oct 12, 2018 2:01 pm | Comments (14)
Paul Bass Photos
Police union prez Craig Miller gives Lawlor a farewell hug at City Hall Friday.
Next Wednesday morning, Patricia Lawlor plans to show up for the same employer she has served since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
She plans to arrive at City Hall by 6:30 as usual. Before anyone else gets there.
John Soto’s Inspirational Life: The Movie
by | Oct 11, 2018 1:24 pm | Comments (1)
CPTV photo
Still from the film.
Allan Appel Photo
Pedro Soto with stepmom Gladys.
When he was a penniless young man of 19 in the Bronx, originally from Puerto Rico, with little or no machine shop experience, John Soto answered an advertisement for a “machinist with one year’s experience.”
As the employer looked at him skeptically, Soto added, “If you hire me, in a year, I’ll be that experienced machinist.”
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On 2nd Try, Mom Named Student Of Month
by | Oct 11, 2018 8:13 am | Comments (3)
Christopher Peak Photo
Tracey Davis-Massey with her family.
Tracey Davis-Massey might be the oldest person ever named as New Haven’s Student of the Month. She’s 45 years old, and she’s two months away from finally completing high school.
2 “Geniuses” Dubbed
by | Oct 4, 2018 6:59 pm | Comments (1)
MacArthur, Markeshia Ricks Photos
Gregg Gonsalves and Titus Kaphar.
Two pathbreaking New Haveners won prestigious MacArthur “genius” awards Thursday.
High School Artists Honor Heroes Of New Haven
by | Sep 5, 2018 12:13 pm | Comments (0)
In one portrait, a man with glasses gazes from the frame, friendly but appraising. In another, Ruth Bader Ginsburg peers out from a background swirling with color, bringing all her intelligence and experience to bear to size up the viewer. In a third, a woman, nobody’s fool, gazes out from a scintillating wall of hues, a clock tower to her left.
It turns out that the woman is Marilyn Walton, a construction worker, hairdresser, and business owner who happened to be the grandmother of artist Jaida Stancil. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is, of course, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, rendered by Aliya Anna Hafiz. And the man with the glasses is artist Salvador Bacón, father of Patricio Salvador Bacón Guaray, who painted his father’s portrait.
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Post-Death, Henry Green’s Story Continues
by | Aug 21, 2018 3:44 pm | Comments (1)
Daviya and Henry.
A bullet that pierced Henry Harris Green IV, aka Renegade, on a Newhallville street eight years ago, and remained lodged in his body is now evidence in an investigation into his recent death.
Call it one more chapter in a compelling story about a young man who embraced life against great odds while injecting humanity into the communal conversation about gun violence.
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Overdoses Put 911, Engine 4 To The Test
by | Aug 17, 2018 5:29 pm | Comments (6)
Engine 4 with K2 victim on the Green.
Paul Bass Photo
Lt. Ernest Jones helping a zoned-out man Thursday.
One person collapsed on the Green. Then another. Then another. More help was needed fast.
Meanwhile, a man went on Facebook Live to announce he was jumping off East Rock. A Cedar Hill building started collapsing. A fire broke out in the Annex.
Atop East Rock, It Was Life Or Death
by | Jun 15, 2018 3:50 pm | Comments (14)
Officer Doug Pearse thought he and his partner still had a “50 – 50” chance to rescue a suicidal woman at East Rock’s summit. Then she stood up at the precipice of a rock and bent her knees above a deadly drop.
A Star Ascends To Bluegrass Heaven
by | Jun 5, 2018 10:56 pm | Comments (23)
Lucy Gellman Photo
Dobro master Stacy Phillips, who died Tuesday at 73.
Watching Stacy Phillips contemplatively smoke his cigars in baggy pants and a T-shirt outside his Alden Avenue apartment or pass the hat between sets with his “bluegrass characters” at the Outer Space, you might not guess he won a Grammy.
7 New Haveners Celebrated At City’s 380th Birthday
by | Apr 25, 2018 7:47 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
City arts czar Andy Wolf and Mayor Toni Harp.
New Haven celebrated its 380th birthday Tuesday afternoon with a party that promoted diversity, opportunity and progress, and singled out seven individuals who have left a lasting imprint on the city’s cultural, physical and spiritual landscape.
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Crusading Public Defender Tom Ullmann Dies While Hiking
by | Apr 17, 2018 7:55 am | Comments (6)
Paul Bass Photo
Tom Ullmann at his famous desk in Spetember at the time of his retirement.
(Updated) Tom Ullmann was training for a far more challenging hike as he set out Friday morning on the OK Slips Falls Trail in the Adirondacks.
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President Chapman Takes A Bow
by | Mar 29, 2018 4:16 pm | Comments (0)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Chapman Wednesday at her last Historic Wooster Square Association Inc. meeting as president
Elsie Chapman never intended to be president of the Historic Wooster Square Association. She was just helping a founding member of the association navigate how to use email.
New Haveners Of The Year: Under-30s
by | Dec 24, 2017 10:31 am | Comments (7)
Watch out, baby boomers. Twenty-something New Haveners began stepping into leadership roles in 2017, suggesting a long-overdue transfer of power may not be far away.
Gala Honors City Hall ‘Godmother’ Lawlor
by | Oct 27, 2017 4:49 pm | Comments (0)
Markeshia Ricks Photos
Lawlor in all her splendor Thursday night.
The Black and Hispanic Caucus took time out from its annual benefit for the city’s youth and seniors to honor a woman who truly has the keys to the city, Pattie Lawlor.
Visionary Returns, Feted
by | Oct 25, 2017 12:39 pm | Comments (2)
Allan Appel Photo
Mayor Harp joins Paley at the table of honor.
They celebrated buying, rehabilitating, and selling scores of homes to first-time homeowners and in the process revitalizing a stretch of Newhallville that many had given up on.
Not on the agenda but very much part of the event was also celebration of the return to action of the man who has lead that effort for decades: founder and executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services, who has returned from a life-threatening stroke to be the very model of optimism and resiliency.
NHFD Hails Its Heroes
by | Oct 16, 2017 8:02 am | Comments (5)
Allan Appel Photo
Ret. Firefighter John Cretella, Ret. Lt. James Schwartz, Ret. Lt. James Kearney, and Capt. Miguel Rosado, Jr.
“You’re crawling down the hallway of a burning building. Your ears are beginning to burn. Your hair is beginning to catch on fire … then you hear a moan. You reach up and grab someone lying on a bed, and out you go.
“There’s no greater feeling than to be be able to save people’s lives.”
Crusading Public Defender Moves On
by | Sep 2, 2017 8:35 pm | Comments (17)
Paul Bass Photo
Tom Ullmann in his last day in the office.
Tom Ullmann sees much still wrong with Connecticut’s criminal justice system. But he also sees a lot right — and, in 43 years of tireless advocacy, he can claim some of the credit.
Millennial Takes Downtown-Wooster Helm
by | Jun 29, 2017 12:47 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
New management team chair Smith: Next-generation civic leader.
When Caroline Smith first moved to New Haven from Lexington, Kentucky, she would never have defined herself by her relationship to a city.
Ortiz’s Parting Plea: Civility & Courage
by and | Jun 28, 2017 7:45 am | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photo
Ortiz Monday evening at her final Board of Ed meeting.
Coral Ortiz noticed “something fishy.” She noticed that adults around her were too “intimidated” to mention it. So she spoke up — and stopped a speeding political locomotive in its tracks.
Dixwell Librarian Passes The Torch
by | Jun 16, 2017 2:17 pm | Comments (0)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Neal-Dixon with Brown, who inspired her to become a librarian.
When Tyshawna Neal-Dixon was in her early teens, showing up to Dixwell’s Stetson Branch Library with her brother to use the computers and pick up books, she didn’t know that the foundation for her future was being laid every time she stepped in the doors.
Teacher Of Year Sets High Standards
by | Dec 13, 2016 9:05 am | Comments (2)
Michelle Liu Photo
Carlos Reyes-Couvertier with wife Lucia Rafala and twins Eric and Abby at Teacher of Year reception.
One of Carlos Reyes-Couvertier’s favorite compliments came from a student who told him: “You were tough, but I really appreciate it.”
“Miss Librarian” Passes Half-Century Mark
by | Oct 26, 2016 11:56 am | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
Boss Brogan (left) hails Carolla at her 50th annviersary party.
Marianne Carolla remembers when there were eight neighborhood library branches, not only the five current (including the main). In particular she remembers the storefront branch on Chapel at Norton, where the paperbacks hung on spindles as in an old book store window.
Once a man, a library patron, came in and said to her, “I want something that’s hot to trot.”
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Geller’s Work Inspires “Geller Homes”
by | Apr 18, 2016 4:09 pm | Comments (4)
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Gov. Malloy at Monday’s ribbon-cutting.
Barbara Geller.
Just eight months after the death of New Haven’s Barbara Geller, her work lived on anew as local leaders cut the ribbon to open a supportive housing complex in her name.