Heights Park Playground OK'd
by | Jan 22, 2024 2:20 pm | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby Photo
New parks chief Siciliano: Intends "to learn the town."
Parks
City Starts Reimagining Parks System
by | Jan 15, 2024 3:23 pm | Comments (29)
Laura Glesby Photo
Parks staffer Janice Parker, right, explains the department's current structure.
A public-private funding structure. A “superintendent of fields.” A department divided into geographical districts, each with a point person for neighbors to contact.
Those ideas are all on the table as the city moves forward with a plan to un-merge the Parks and Public Works Department.
Mini-Encampment Dismantled
by | Jan 9, 2024 3:59 pm | Comments (10)
The city ordered six people to clear out of a four-tent encampment in Edgewood Park after working with them to find indoor places to stay.
Public Preps Parks Priorities
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.
Make Way For A New Playground At Fairmont Park
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’
$360K Planning Grant To Bolster "Urban Forests"
by | Nov 17, 2023 9:20 am | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen file photo
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"’
5 New Cherry Blossom Trees Take Root
by | Nov 3, 2023 8:57 am | Comments (9)
Abiba Biao photo
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.
Parks Lifer Campaigns Against New Charter
by | Oct 20, 2023 12:19 pm | Comments (51)
Paul Bass file photo
David Belowsky: Vote no to charter revisions — and let him live out his life on the city's Board of Park Commissioners.
Lawn signs opposing changes to the city’s charter have started popping up around town — after the chair of New Haven’s parks commission printed 25 “Vote No” placards in a bid to preserve his lifetime seat on the volunteer body that oversees public greenspaces.
That man, David Belowsky, isn’t the only New Havener paying attention to this year’s general election ballot question.
Continue reading ‘Parks Lifer Campaigns Against New Charter’
Sign Of Hope OK'd For East Rock Overlook
by | Sep 26, 2023 12:01 pm | Comments (17)
Thomas Breen photo
A newly installed 988 sign on the Ferry Street Bridge.
Three hopeful numbers will be posted atop East Rock Park, in a sign urging those who are considering harming themselves to reach out to a new national suicide-prevention hotline instead.
Mayor: I'm Keeping Park Road Mostly Car-Closed
by | Sep 21, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (132)
Thomas Breen photo
At Wednesday's parks commission meeting: this crew doesn't have power over summit road.
The Elicker administration — and not the parks commission — will have the final say over whether or not the road to the top of East Rock Park remains largely closed to cars, and open to pedestrians and cyclists only.
The mayor said he has received widespread community support for keeping the road largely closed to cars, so he plans not to make a change.
Continue reading ‘Mayor: I'm Keeping Park Road Mostly Car-Closed’
City Steps Towards Parks Department Re-Redo
by | Sep 21, 2023 1:21 pm | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen photo
Acting Director Rebecca Bombero: Consultant-led process "could lead to a reconfiguration" of parks-public works.
The Elicker administration is moving towards a potential un-merging of the parks and public works departments — or an entirely different parks-service setup altogether — by seeking a consultant to host community conversations around how City Hall should tend its public greenspaces.
Continue reading ‘City Steps Towards Parks Department Re-Redo’
Fairmont Park Gardeners Send Trees Of Heaven Straight To ...
by | Aug 21, 2023 12:17 pm | Comments (7)
Aaron Goode, Jean Webb, Marty Lendroth take on the jungle in the Heights.
It’s technically Ailanthus Altissima, or colloquially Tree of Heaven, but in Fair Haven Heights’ Fairmont Park it’s more often called, with a grrrrrrrr, as gardeners labor to uproot it, the Tree of Hell. Or from Hell.
But there’s now a lot less of this quick rising (thus toward heaven?) invasive Chinese species, and that’s thanks to decades of effort by Sylvia Dorsey and her stalwart crew of Friends of Fairmont Park.
Continue reading ‘Fairmont Park Gardeners Send Trees Of Heaven Straight To ...’
Pizza & Playground Plans Prevail At Kensington Park
by | Aug 14, 2023 12:14 pm | Comments (2)
Allan Appel photo
Friends of Kensington Park's Olivia Marston, Myles Branch and his sketch of future equipment.
How about an upgraded splash pad — one where there’s not only refreshing spray, but the really cool kind where buckets of water fall on your head?
Continue reading ‘Pizza & Playground Plans Prevail At Kensington Park’
Bus Fix Floated For East Rock Park Impasse
by | Jul 20, 2023 3:03 pm | Comments (93)
Thomas Breen Photo
After a months-long debate and impasse over whether to fully reopen the road up to the summit of East Rock Park, the Board of Park Commissioners may have stumbled upon a solution: a magic bus.
Continue reading ‘Bus Fix Floated For East Rock Park Impasse’
Catching Porgies With Pablo At Lighthouse Point
by | Jul 5, 2023 12:18 pm | Comments (4)
Allan Appel photos
Pablo Sumba, marveling at the mouth of a freshly caught porgy ...
... at Lighthouse Point Park on the day before July 4th.
Pablo Sumba and his family left their land-locked home in Waterbury early in the morning to fit in as many waterfront activities as they could during a pre-holiday trip to Lighthouse Point Park — including fishing, swimming, grilling (some of the 12 porgies they caught), and just hanging out with five-month-old baby Lucas, who lay on a blanket on the green grass nearby.
Continue reading ‘Catching Porgies With Pablo At Lighthouse Point’
Splashing & Mulching At Kensington Playground With Ranezmay, Pat, Jane, & Friends
by | Jul 3, 2023 11:14 am | Comments (3)
Asher Joseph photos
Ranezmay (right) and her friends delight in the spouts of water on the splash pad ...
... as volunteers prepare to mulch a nearby patch of dirt.
The sound of rustling leaves merged with squeals of joy and the gurgling of the Kensington Playground splash pad as a light mist wafted through the heavy heat. Despite the stifling smog that hung in the air, neither the Friends of Kensington Playground clean-up volunteers nor the neighborhood’s kids let it deter them from rejoicing in the beauty of a recently saved public park.
Continue reading ‘Splashing & Mulching At Kensington Playground With Ranezmay, Pat, Jane, & Friends’
Believe-It-Or-Knotweed In Edgewood Park With Sierra
by | Jun 26, 2023 4:59 pm | Comments (1)
Asher Joseph photo
Sierra Welch, a participant of New Haven's Youth @ Work program, with her handy clippers.
Stalks snapped as tie-dye-clad Sierra Welch hunched over a cluster of Japanese knotweeds, wrenching the invasive plant out of the ground off a beaten path in Edgewood Park on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading ‘Believe-It-Or-Knotweed In Edgewood Park With Sierra’
Sprucing Up Peat Meadow Park With AnneMarie
by | Jun 26, 2023 12:14 pm | Comments (1)
Kian Ahmadi photos
Annemarie Rivera-Berrios stands by the playscape with her rake and shovel
Chris Ozyck and Mike Simons add new mulch to the playground
It took just under half an hour for AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios and a small group of friends to level the mound of mulch that had been sitting by the swing sets at Peat Meadow Park for three months — to make sure that kids have a softer ground to land on the next time they come out to enjoy the Annex public playground.
Continue reading ‘Sprucing Up Peat Meadow Park With AnneMarie’
Who Gets To Go To East Rock's Summit?
by | Jun 22, 2023 1:06 pm | Comments (90)
Thomas Breen File Photo
The road to the top of East Rock: Let cars roll, again?
Parks commissioners delayed deciding on whether or not to fully reopen the road to the top of East Rock Park to cars — as they weighed the testimony of drivers and those who struggle to walk such a long steep slope alongside that of frequent pedestrians and clean-park proponents.
Fun's In For Summer
by | Jun 21, 2023 10:20 am | Comments (3)
Contributed photo
Mayor Elicker (center) at "summer fun" presser at Lighthouse Park.
Summer has officially begun — and New Haven is ready for it, with movies in the park and free basketball lessons and open swims and summer-slump-combatting reading challenges on tap.
Monday In Scantlebury Park With Jermaine
by and | Jun 19, 2023 4:22 pm | Comments (1)
Kian Ahmadi photo
Jermaine Galberth at Scantlebury Park's splash pad on Monday.
As two-year-old Jermaine Galberth, Jr. pushed his little sister Jasmine’s stroller through the Scantlebury Park splash pad, proud dad Jermaine, Sr. watched his children at play — and remembered when he was a kid and there was little more than sewer water in a place now teeming with much healthier opportunities for cooling off.
Park Saved; New Housing Plan Dropped
by | Jun 15, 2023 2:57 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen photo
Kishaun Jenkins: Celebrating "the coolest spot to be."
A Boston-based affordable housing developer has dropped its plans to buy a Kensington Street public park and construct 15 new apartments in its stead — prompting the Elicker administration to move to end a related years-long lawsuit on the grounds that the contested public greenspace will remain public and green.
The Word On Jefferson Street: An Urban Oasis Beckons
by | Jun 15, 2023 1:54 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass
Carmen Pajarillo took a break from studying for a medical board exam Thursday morning by bringing her dog Honey to a hidden pocket of paradise.
Continue reading ‘The Word On Jefferson Street: An Urban Oasis Beckons’
Goffe Mural Puts Eyeballs On The Court
by | Jun 13, 2023 12:43 pm | Comments (2)
Abiba Biao photos
On the newly renovated and painted Goffe Street Park courts.
"Super" John Williamson's daughters Shareebah, Kali, and Raushana Williamson: Keeping dad's legacy alive.
Michael Evans-Benton watched as a trio of teenagers shot hoops on the newly renovated basketball courts at Goffe Street Park — and found himself captivated not just by the game before him, but also by the bright red and green colors and swirling eye design beneath the players’ feet.
"Good Graffiti" Goes Up ... For Good?
by | Jun 12, 2023 2:55 pm | Comments (12)
Paul Bass Photo
Josh Philie finishing up one of the new Coogan murals.
The city’s youth and recreation department handed cans to graffiti artists to spray away on the walls of Coogan Pavilion and Edgewood skate park — in the hope of retaining a family-friendly feeling for the summer.