by | May 27, 2020 10:41 am | Comments (12)
Chris Volpe Studio
Stop at bird-watching oasis In Edgewood Park, 7 a.m.
A bear took a morning stroll through Westville Wednesday morning, offering some off-screen pandemic entertainment for the neighborhood-bound.
by | May 24, 2020 6:07 pm | Comments (1)
Courtney Luciana Photo.
Jose Resto was fishing alone on the breakwater at Lighthouse Point Park at 8 a.m. Sunday. He was the first one out of approximately 20 people to show up by noon for the park’s official reopening in honor of celebrating Memorial Day weekend.
by | May 24, 2020 10:52 am | Comments (12)
Paul Bass Photo
Entrance to the new Orange Trail at Edgewood Park.
(Opinion) I was troubled when the mayor proposed killing our Department of Parks, Recreation & Trees by merging its functions into two other city departments back in March –- and am even more troubled now as we struggle to make our way through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our parks are our greatest opportunity for healthy, public space that supports social distancing. At a time when we should be lifting up our parks as places to recreate, recover, and simply breathe, I’m worried that we are squandering both their immediate and long-term promise.
Continue reading ‘Pandemic’s Wrong Time To Kill Parks Department’
by | May 18, 2020 3:07 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Martin Torresquintero stuck a sign in the ground to mark the launch of Edgewood Park’s newest trail.
by | Apr 30, 2020 12:08 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
The sunshine earlier this week beckoned pandemic-weary East Rockers from their homes out to the park, where they worked to maintain a “social distance.”
by | Apr 20, 2020 10:23 am | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
Use of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail has more than doubled in Hamden and risen more than 50 percent in New Haven in the Covid-19 pandemic, with regulars strolling or biking more and newcomers like Richard Maduka (pictured) discovering the path for the first time.
by | Apr 12, 2020 4:25 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photos
A plague killed the formal celebration. Wooster Square’s cherry blossoms put on their annual show anyway — drawing pilgrims like Gina Helland (pictured with Yasmerica Cortorreal) to drink in the splendor.
Continue reading ‘Cherry Blossoms Signal Rebirth Amid Covid’
by | Apr 9, 2020 3:26 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photo
On the New Haven Green.
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A neighbor gave Terrence Riggins two face masks. At least for now, he was leaving them at home when he ventured out to the Green.
by | Mar 25, 2020 5:04 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photos
by | Feb 25, 2020 9:50 pm | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Shhhh! Last July 4’s fireworks atop East Rock.
“Quiet” fireworks for this July 4th?
They would certainly make the birds stay in their nests and please other animals and small children. But would it add up to a good ole Independence Day bash?
by | Feb 25, 2020 9:45 pm | Comments (4)
Allan Appel Photo
The future Mulberry Jam site, State and Bradley Street, at the base of I-91 overpass, looking southwest.
The land for a future“Mulberry Jam” parklet on State Street near Bradley, which neighbors are trying to retrieve from disuse and long DOT neglect, got a big boost Monday night.
Continue reading ‘East Rockers Earmark $20K For “Mulberry Jam”’
by | Feb 21, 2020 1:58 pm | Comments (3)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Judith Beers stood facing the trunk of a tall ash, her leather clogs perched on its sloping roots. Her right hand rested on a massive boulder, rough with lichen in some places, soft with moss in others.
Continue reading ‘42-Acre Brooksvale Park Extension Advances’
by | Feb 21, 2020 1:18 pm | Comments (6)
Emily Hays Photos
Frank Cochran at work clearing invasive species in the park.
The mystery tree with red bark (center) hides behind a dead tree near the Edgewood Skate Park.
Frank Cochran looked up from clearing rose vines near the base of a large tree — and saw what looked like a California redwood.
An old one. Standing in Edgewood Park. In New Haven.
Could it be?
by | Feb 14, 2020 1:07 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
One of the statues in Broadway Triangle’s Civil War monument.
Sarah Adams walked between Elm Street and Broadway hundreds of times before she first realized that the unassuming triangular plot of grassy lawns and brick walkways between the two streets is a park.
by | Jan 22, 2020 8:45 am | Comments (6)
Allan Appel photo / Thomas Breen photo
Skate park promoters Steven Roberts and J. Joseph Jr.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison: “This park is really going to encourage friendships.”
The backers of a new skate park planned for Dixwell’s Scantlebury Park plan to have the concrete course built and open before this July’s Summer Olympics, now that the city is officially the project’s trustee.
by | Dec 16, 2019 3:22 pm | Comments (1)
A citizens group that has been reviving Goffe Street Park brought in the holiday scene with light — and warmth.
Continue reading ‘“Friends” Bring Holiday Warmth To Goffe Street Park’
by | Dec 12, 2019 2:46 pm | Comments (0)
NBC Connecticut
Where a pine forest once formed a canopy over picnic tables and a soft bed of fallen needles at the entrance to Sleeping Giant State Park, there is now a large clearing. It’s time to decide: Replant it? Or leave it open space?
Continue reading ‘When A Tree Falls In The Forest … Replant It?’
by | Dec 10, 2019 3:39 pm | Comments (4)
Atelier Cho Thompson design / Thomas Breen photo
The proposed new Mulberry Jam greenspace. Below: Ming Thompson, John Martin, and Keith Appleby at the prospective future park site.
A fenced-in, overgrown, and overlooked pocket of state-owned land that sits in the shadow of I‑91 may soon transform into a lush communal greenspace, thanks to the vision — and labor — of a volunteer group of East Rock neighbors.
Continue reading ‘Bradley Street Lot Eyed For “Mulberry Jam”’
by | Dec 6, 2019 1:12 pm | Comments (8)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Richard Watkins held a measuring tape in the position for a steel pole while Matt Viens leaned his weight into a drill that choked fragrant pink sawdust out of a slowly-forming hole in a red cedar post.
The future safety of New Haven’s stone stairway to the heavens hung in the balance.
by | Dec 6, 2019 8:21 am | Comments (2)
Allan Appel Photo
Isabella Herrera’s mom is Peruvian, and although the 9‑year-old has been to Peru, she had never actually seen a llama or its camelid cousin the alpaca.
On the New Haven Green Thursday night, Isabella crossed that off her must-do list thanks to New Haven’s festive annual tree-lighting ceremony and holiday village. The event featured a Ferris wheel, carousel, spinning cups, a Santa workshop, a carousel, lots to do see — and, of course, Chester the alpaca and her mom Lillie Mae.
Continue reading ‘Tree Lit. Llamas Fed. Xmas Season Officially Begins’
by | Nov 4, 2019 4:54 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
This year’s New Haven Green holiday tree hails all the way from … Bristol Street, just a few blocks from where the 60-foot Norwegian spruce now stands in anticipation of December’s lighting fest
by | Oct 1, 2019 7:46 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
It was 8 a.m. on Saturday in Edgewood Park. No one was playing at the tennis courts, or the basketball courts. No one was using the skate park. But about a dozen people from the New Haven Bird Club congregated in the parking lot with a common mission: to spot and count birds, and along the way, unveil Edgewood Park as a spot of wilderness in the middle of the city.
by | Sep 27, 2019 1:40 pm | Comments (5)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Rebecca Bombero with planners of a memorial to homicide victims.
Rebecca Bombero is stepping down as the city’s director of parks, recreation and trees.
by | Sep 27, 2019 8:01 am | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen photo
Darcel Reddick on his home turf in Edgewood Park …
… and in uniform at the YMCA.
Darcel Reddick showed up to Edgewood Park to play basketball, just as he’s been doing for the past 22 years.
What he didn’t know was that this time he’d get a chance to test his shooting, dribbling, and rebounding skills against city police officers and neighbors alike as part of an annual tournament designed to blur the boundaries between cops and the community.
by | Sep 16, 2019 7:22 am | Comments (56)
Thomas Breen photo
Skate park backers talk with skate park skeptics post-protest. Below: The skate park and rezoning protest in Scantlebury Park.
It started as a protest. It ended with both sides talking, and hearing each other out, about a controversial new skate park proposed for Scantlebury Park and Yale’s future role in the neighborhood.