State

State Sends $2M To Fair Haven Childcare Hub

by | Jul 12, 2023 1:59 pm | Comments (3)

Thomas Breen photo

LULAC Head Start ED Mikyle Byrd-Vaughn: "Our services are impacting children's full development."

As a dozen preschoolers laughed and bounced around a fenced-in outdoor playground on Haven Street, city and state officials gathered in a Fair Haven childcare center’s parking lot to celebrate a $2 million early-childhood-education boost from the state.

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Bus Rapid Transit Plan Lands $25M

by | Jun 29, 2023 12:43 pm | Comments (26)

Thomas Breen file photo

Riding the bus up Dixwell ...

Thomas Breen photo

... to be made faster, cleaner, more efficient, thanks to Bus Rapid Transit program, as described by state transit chief Garrett Eucalitto Thursday.

City, state and federal officials took a victory lap Thursday at a politician-packed press conference celebrating a new $25 million grant that will speed up and electrify bus travel on Dixwell, Grand, Whalley, Congress and Columbus Avenues.

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English Station Mess Put Back In Spotlight

by | May 3, 2023 9:19 am | Comments (17)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Save The Sound's Roger Reynolds joins enviro allies in lamenting the still-polluted state of English Station (pictured above).

Local environmental advocates gathered in front of a graffiti-laden gate cutting off the contaminated former English Station power plant from the public — and lauded a recent move by the state’s attorney general pushing United Illuminating to finish cleaning up the site or pay a $2 million annual penalty.

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Don't Like Encampments? Fund Solutions

by | Mar 24, 2023 11:09 am | Comments (17)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Tent City, bulldozed on March 16: It doesn't have to be like this.

(Opinion) Last week the City of New Haven bulldozed an encampment of tents and make-shift structures along the West River called Tent City that was built by people experiencing homelessness.

City residents responded with cheers, harsh condemnation, and everything in between. 

While everyone will not agree on what to do about encampments, we can agree that we would prefer to live in a community where people do not feel that long-term camping by the river is their best option.

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Harm Reducers Seek OK For Safe-Use Pilot

by | Mar 22, 2023 4:53 pm | Comments (25)

File photos

City social services director Mehul Dalal, Yale epidemiologist Robert Heimer, and DESK leader Steve Werlin: All in support of harm reduction center pilot.

City public health experts and homelessness-services advocates traveled to Hartford — online and in person — to support a proposal to counter a fatally rising tide of local opioid overdoses by providing a safe area to consume drugs under medical supervision.

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Tong: Juul’s 2 UnCool 4 School

by | Feb 14, 2023 3:57 pm | Comments (7)

Paul Bass Photo

In town Tuesday announcing first $1.5 million in Juul bucks: DMHAS Deputy Colleen Harrington, Attorney General William Tong, city Maritza Bond, Mayor Justin Elicker, community services chief Mehul Dalal.

The state’s attorney general joined New Haven officials to proclaim the death of cool — at least for a certain e‑cigarette manufacturer.

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Skeptic Counters Camera Civil Rights Claim

by | Feb 8, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (26)

Paul Bass Photo

One of three fatal crash scenes in nine years at the corner of York Street and South Frontage Road.

Advocates of speed cameras” on perilous streets invoked traffic stop-sparked police violence to argue that the devices protect rather than curtail civil rights.

That’s a new argument. One camera skeptic who wore the badge isn’t buying it.

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Statewide Rent-Cappers Canvass Fair Haven

by | Feb 6, 2023 1:04 pm | Comments (36)

Yash Roy photo

Bianca Flecha with "Cap the Rent" organizer James O'Donnell.

Bianca Flecha opened the door of her Poplar Street apartment building to find an Australia-raised tenant organizer with a pitch that resonated. 

She said her rent has gone up a couple hundred dollars every year that she’s lived in her Fair Haven home. 

James O’Donnell, a New Haven-based organizer with the Connecticut Tenants Union, told her that she’s not alone in experiencing such hikes — and that a new bill before the state legislature would help put a cap on those ever-rising housing costs for renters. 

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State Lands $18M Homelessness Lifeline

by | Feb 3, 2023 5:56 pm | Comments (15)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Oscar Britt: Getting out of the cold at Columbus House Friday night.

Jim Pettinelli with Sen. Blumenthal, Gov. Lamont, and Sen. Murphy at Friday's funding presser.

Oscar Britt has a plan to survive subfreezing temperatures this weekend thanks to a connection he made with outreach workers who found him a hard-to-secure shelter bed at Columbus House. 

The state is hoping to hire many more such workers who can connect with many more Oscars in New Haven and beyond — thanks to a newly announced federal infusion of $18 million to pay for a variety of homelessness services.

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