Shafiq Abdussabur (left), then an alder, in Goffe Street Park last year pushing neighborhood concerns with city economic development chief Mike Piscitelli and mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Matteson.
Reorganize how the parks department works. Get high schoolers into a “pipeline” to fill green jobs. Bring back the rangers. And enlist neighbors to pick up all that litter!
Those are among the ideas offered by mayoral candidate Shafiq Adbussabur for taking the city’s parks to the next level.
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Lisa Reisman |
Apr 17, 2023 3:33 pm
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Lisa Reisman photos
A shower of pink, for 50th straight year.
Valentina Simon doing her thing at Sunday's fest.
Amid a riot of pink blossoms, the scent of spring in the air, and the sounds of Airborne’s “Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon,” Valentina Simon leapt and spun and twirled in front of the bandstand, prompting others to join her.
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Thomas Breen and Laura Glesby |
Apr 11, 2023 8:38 am
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City of New Haven rendering
A sketch of the proposed new Long Wharf Drive park.
New Haven has landed $12.1 million in state aid to help transform Long Wharf park into an amenity-rich destination, as part of a broader rebuild of the city’s industrial waterfront district.
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Lisa Reisman |
Apr 3, 2023 4:59 pm
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Lisa Reisman file photo
Susan Comito takes a swing as pickleball enthusiasts square off at the Floyd Little Athletic Center-hosted regional tournament (below).
“Let’s pickleball,” city youth and rec director Gwendolyn Busch Williams called out, her words carrying through the rafters of Floyd Little Athletic Center and eliciting cascades of cheers and hoots.
Thus launched a scene unprecedented in the 385-year history of New Haven: hundreds of picklers pocking, popping, and dinking across a sea of orange nets in the 100,000-square-foot athletic space.
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Laura Glesby |
Mar 17, 2023 12:04 pm
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Courtney Luciana Photo
Nan Bartow at the West River Greenway.
A trio of park stewards offered a budget revision pitch: undo the recent merger of the Parks and Public Works departments, and keep in the proposed new hires who’d care for the city’s greenspaces.
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Thomas Breen |
Feb 22, 2023 9:06 am
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FitLot photo
A FitLot "outdoor fitness park" in Oregon. Coming soon to the Elm City?
A New Orleans-based “outdoor fitness” company has set its sights on helping New Haven parkgoers break a sweat while exercising in one of the Elm City’s open greenspaces.
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Thomas Breen |
Feb 20, 2023 11:40 am
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Zoom photo
New Parks & Public Works Deputy Stephen Hladun at recent parks commission meeting.
A veteran of Bridgeport’s parks and rec department is now New Haven’s top parks official, after stepping into the role of deputy director in the city’s Department of Parks & Public Works.
Time to reset the clock? The Edgewood Park sundial.
A new group of citywide parks advocates is calling on Mayor Justin Elicker to up his administration’s care for open spaces — including by reinstating a stand-alone department for parks and trees.
Rendering of a proposed new "Gateway District" on Long Wharf.
Laura Glesby Photo
Community members hear a presentation at the Betsy Ross School Parish Hall.
A park and pedestrian-friendly walkway where cars now roar down Long Wharf Drive.
An automotive trade school where the former Gateway Community College building is starting to crumble.
A new home base for all of the APT Foundation’s New Haven substance-use treatment programs in a building specifically designed to address neighbors’ concerns.
Those ideas stand at the center of a new plan put together by top city officials on how to transform Long Wharf — a waterfront neighborhood currently dominated by big-box stores, parking lots, and the highway — into a mixed-use district bustling with education, healthcare, and outdoor recreation.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn at Tuesday’s Zoom meeting.
A dance venue. A community garden. A set of lights for the skate park. A … West Rock-bound gondola?
Those were a few of the ideas that made it onto a community-built wish list for $800,000 worth of improvements for Edgewood Park, as put together by roughly 100 parkgoers.
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Laura Glesby |
Dec 21, 2022 11:33 am
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Alling Memorial Golf Course: Fees bumped.
Laura Glesby photo
Tom Verderame pitches fare in November.
Local golfers will have to pay slightly more to hit the links in Fair Haven Heights come April — as alders signed off on a higher fee schedule for the Alling Memorial Golf Club that still makes the Eastern Street venue less expensive than courses in Hamden, Woodbridge, or Orange.
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Kimberly Wipfler |
Dec 6, 2022 9:00 am
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Kimberly Wipfler photo
Nova and Zora Zanders at Sunday's Hill holiday fest.
Eight-year-old Nova and her three-year-old sister Zora shared big smiles as they posed for a photo on Santa’s lap. When St. Nick asked Nova what she wants for Christmas this year, she surprised him. She said she didn’t care about what to ask for.
“I just want to be grateful no matter what I get.”
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Thomas Breen and Laura Glesby |
Nov 22, 2022 9:34 am
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Marc Massaro design
The approved new Wooster Square monument.
Thomas Breen photo
The Wooster Square Monument Committee at the site of the past and future statues on Tuesday.
(Updated) The group charged with coming up with an Italian heritage-celebrating sculpture to replace the long-gone Christopher Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park gathered at the site of the past and future monuments on Tuesday to celebrate a major milestone for the project — and to kick off a $300,000 fundraising drive.
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Allan Appel |
Nov 18, 2022 10:49 am
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Allan Appel photo
Volunteer Kevin McCarthy and Tusker Pickett at the Trowbridge Environmental Center Thursday.
Years ago when Anna Pickett was potty-training her boys, taking them walking outside could be a challenge because she was always on the look-out for a bathroom.
Back then if she was in the College Woods area of East Rock Park, she often could not find one.
No longer — thanks to a city effort to reopen long-shuttered public parks buildings and turn them into active community centers. With working bathrooms.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 15, 2022 8:59 am
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Trekking with the New Haven Bioregional Group through Edgewood Park.
Sunday marked the first cold morning of the year, with rain, and at the Edgewood Farmer’s Market, people hurried from stall to stall. But another group of people gathered at the gazebo and soon headed farther into the park, unharried by the weather. The occasion was a walk of the New Haven Bioregional Group, into a part of the city where trees and moving water had something to do with preparing the Elm City, and the region, for the future.
Parks and fields across the city — as well as a flood-prone westside road — are a big step closer to receiving long-awaited improvements, now that the Board of Alders has formally accepted state money earmarked to make those upgrades a reality.
by
Maya McFadden |
Nov 11, 2022 2:14 pm
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Maya McFadden Photos
Philadelphia and New Haven moms walk together along the Valley St. memorial.
Philly's Johndell Gredic sketching a vision for a similar garden in her home city.
A group of moms from Philadelphia walked a brick pathway lined with the names of hundreds of New Haven victims of gun violence — to take solace in the tranquil Valley Street garden, and to find inspiration in how to build a similar memorial in their own home city.
A contingent of Wilbur Cross community members, including Board of Ed Student Representative Dave John Cruz-Bustamante, art teacher Melody Gallagher, and soccer captain Matteo Festa.
Laura Glesby photo
A lightly muddy Blake Field on Friday afternoon.
Broken ankles. Used syringes. Mud-induced match cancellations. Low morale.
Those were just a few of the high school sports-related obstacles that Wilbur Cross coaches and students spoke out about having to surmount time and again, as they successfully urged alders to move forward with long-awaited upgrades to the East Rock Athletic Complex.
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Laura Glesby |
Nov 8, 2022 9:53 am
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Marc Massaro design
The proposed new Wooster Square Park monument.
A laborious and sometimes controversial process to replace the long-gone Christopher Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park took a big step closer to completion — as alders favorably recommended a new Italian-American-heritage-celebrating monument, which could cost $250,000 in privately raised funds to build.
Before he moves on from his city job next week, Martin Torresquintero is hustling to finish one last bridge to connect New Haveners to an overlooked nature wonderland.
