Perez Calms The Bank Waters
by | Mar 13, 2023 2:23 pm | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby Photo
Banking Commissioner Perez at a New Haven Hill neighborhood housing groundbreaking.
Jorge Perez had a message for Connecticut Monday: “Don’t panic.”
State
Winfield, Mayor & Chief Clash On Gun Bill
by | Mar 7, 2023 4:47 pm | Comments (37)
3 officials, 2 opinions: Winfield, Elicker, Jacobson.
A killer might have been behind bars the day he instead shot Donate Myers to death had a proposed new state law been in effect. But would the law also unfairly lock up non-killers?
That question has divided New Haven officials over a measure aimed to stem gun violence.
Continue reading ‘Winfield, Mayor & Chief Clash On Gun Bill’
Suburb Shuts Out City Students
by | Mar 3, 2023 3:24 pm | Comments (38)
Woodbridge’s Board of Education voted to close its doors to new kindergarten students from New Haven next school year — sparking a debate about special education funding, racial and economic integration, and an urban-suburban divide that seems to be growing by the day.
State OKs All-Boys Charter School
by | Mar 2, 2023 3:12 pm | Comments (39)
Laura Glesby File Photo
Kimber: 2nd time the charm.
Six years after the local Board of Education turned him down, Rev. Boise Kimber took his quest for permission to create an all-boys charter school to the state — and succeeded.
Common Ground Lands Grants For Student-Led Projects
by | Feb 16, 2023 8:42 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Malek Alkhalawe at Common Ground Wednesday.
When Malek Alkhalawe graduates from Common Ground High School this spring, he will already have in hand several serious Google IT certifications allowing him to start his own business online while studying computer engineering in college.
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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.
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.
Continue reading ‘Statewide Rent-Cappers Canvass Fair Haven’
Ed Advocates To State: Let $ Flow Faster
by | Feb 6, 2023 1:04 pm | Comments (6)
NHFT President Leslie Blatteau at Friday's state hearing.
New Haveners joined teachers, students, and public education allies from across Connecticut for a marathon legislative hearing at which they called for more state funding for school districts that serve the most vulnerable students.
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.
Opinion: Changing Standards Would Be A Firefighting Folly
by | Feb 2, 2023 10:23 am | Comments (6)
David Yaffe-Bellany file photo
Ex-fire union President Frank Ricci.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Frank Ricci, a retired former New Haven Fire Department drillmaster, union president, and battalion chief. Ricci is currently a Fellow of Labor for the Yankee Institute and an advisory board member for FDIC and Fire Engineering Magazine. He was also the lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Changing Standards Would Be A Firefighting Folly’
With 218 Bills, State Delegation Digs In
by | Feb 1, 2023 10:16 am | Comments (27)
File photos
New Haven state lawmakers (clockwise from top left): Gary Winfield, Martin Looney, Robyn Porter, Roland Lemar.
Clockwise from top left: Toni Walker, Juan Candelaria, Pat Dillon, Al Paolillo, Jr.
Taking city ownership of the expansive former Gateway Community College campus on Long Wharf.
Handing back to the state the detention center at police headquarters.
Increasing property taxes on Connecticut’s most expensive houses to better fund its most cash-strapped public school districts.
And — of course — making pizza the state’s official food.
Those are among the 218 proposals contained in bills introduced so far by New Haven’s lawmakers in the Connecticut General Assembly session now underway in Hartford.
New Haveners Speed To Camera Defense
by | Jan 30, 2023 5:07 pm | Comments (51)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
DOT Commissioner and New Havener Garrett Eucalitto: "Intent" of speed cameras is not to surveil people, but to keep them from getting killed.
Yale medical student Aishwarya Pillai “Zoomed” up to Hartford to tell state legislators about the crushed skulls and other carnage she’s seen patients endure in the wake of local car crashes — and to relay her own experience nearly getting run over on South Frontage Road while trying to leave her shift at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Pillai recalled those gory details in a virtual plea made during a hybrid online/in-person public hearing at the State Capitol, where a host of New Haveners expressed their concerns with growing road dangers and then called on the Connecticut legislature to enact traffic safety measures — including allowing for speed and red-light cameras — to help cut down on future car-driven damage to life and limb.
Gateway Protesters To State: Don't Hike Our Tuition
by | Jan 27, 2023 5:20 pm | Comments (10)
At Thursday's protest outside of Gateway Community College.
Gateway Community College student and Board of Regents student representative Alina Wheeler lives on the edge — of affording to be able to stay in school, of being “just poor enough” to have her healthcare covered as she works towards graduating.
She and fellow community college students in similarly precarious spots are now worried they might not be able to finish out their educations thanks to a potential increase in tuition that could be coming down the pike now that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents has announced plans to raise tuition at state universities by 3 percent.
Continue reading ‘Gateway Protesters To State: Don't Hike Our Tuition’
Compost Headlines: Ready, Set ... Advocate!
by | Jan 27, 2023 12:20 pm | Comments (8)
Ted Littleford
(Opinion) Come listen to a story about a man named Ned.
Continue reading ‘Compost Headlines: Ready, Set ... Advocate!’
State Sets Up $12.5M Eviction Prevention Fund
by | Jan 25, 2023 3:25 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen file photo
State housing chief Seila Mosquera-Bruno.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday afternoon that the state has set aside $12.5 million for a new “Eviction Prevention Fund” that will provide eligible applicants with up to $5,000 to pay back rent.
Continue reading ‘State Sets Up $12.5M Eviction Prevention Fund’
Westville Biz Tour Centers "CTSavings"
by | Jan 18, 2023 8:52 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden photos
State Comptroller Scanlon (right) taking a baklava break with legislative liaison Kevin Kurian at Pistachio Cafe ...
... and talking retirement plans with Westville salsa entrepreneur Alisa Bowens-Mercado, Tuesday.
Angela Naranjo now puts aside 3 percent of her Westville massage-therapy paycheck towards her retirement — thanks to a new state program that encourages workers across Connecticut who do not have employer-backed retirement plans to start saving early, even if they have decades to go before leaving the workforce for good.
Naranjo, a 34-year-old Westville native, shared her story about getting ready for retirement — many years down the line — during a neighborhood walking tour promoting that program as hosted by newly elected state Comptroller Sean Scanlon.
Rent-Cap Doorknockers Hit The Hill
by | Jan 17, 2023 12:28 pm | Comments (23)
Kimberly Wipfler photos
Hannah Srajer and Emmett Santisi (right) make their rent-cap-bill pitch to Hill resident Johnna Davis during Saturday's canvass.
Hitting the doors in the Hill.
Tenants rights advocates from across Connecticut descended on the Hill to knock on nearly 100 doors in their bid to win local renter support for a new rent-hike-stifling legislative campaign.
Lawmakers, Activists Seek To "Cap The Rent"
by | Jan 13, 2023 12:36 pm | Comments (65)
Thomas Breen file photo
New Haven's Kim Hart, with Claudette Kidd: "Our purpose is to put the onus of evictions not on the tenant, but on the landlord."
Hundreds tune in for Thursday's Zoom campaign launch.
Hundreds of tenant rights organizers from across Connecticut gathered online to kickstart a new campaign focused on limiting annual rent increases — on the same day that two New Haven state legislators introduced a bill in Hartford that would cap such hikes at no more than 2.5 percent a year.
Continue reading ‘Lawmakers, Activists Seek To "Cap The Rent"’
Bysiewicz Taps 2 More New Haveners
by | Jan 11, 2023 1:58 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed
Bysiewicz's (seated) term-two team: Chief of Staff Taijah Anderson, Senior Adviser Joseph Carvalho, communications chief Chelsea Neelon, External Affairs and Constituent Services Director Brittany Foulds, Chief Legal Adviser Christine Jean-Louis, and John Kelly (scheduling and special projects).
The New Haven-to-Lieutenant Governor’s Office pipeline keeps flowing, with two new appointments announced Wednesday.
Russell Sworn In, Faces Baby Bonds Test
by | Jan 4, 2023 4:36 pm | Comments (12)
New Havener Russell being sworn in.
(Updated) Erick Russell raised his right hand Wednesday, took the oath to be the state’s new treasurer — and already found himself grappling with the first scandal of the second Lamont administration.
Bus Drivers Get A New Boss
by | Jan 3, 2023 4:39 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
See you later, First Transit. Welcome aboard, RATP Dev USA.
State Presses City On Absenteeism
by | Dec 21, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen file photo
CT Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker: "I want Team New Haven to know that the Department of Education is here to support the work that you are doing."
Tuesday's state delegation-organized meeting about NHPS.
Connecticut’s top education official and New Haven state lawmakers called city public school district leaders to the table for a reality check on student chronic absenteeism — and for a discussion on improving local public education while working as one “Team New Haven.”
Tax Reformers Target Film Credit
by | Dec 15, 2022 1:49 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen file photo
On the scene of a "48-hour film" set in 2016.
A New Haven-based fiscal policy watchdog has proposed cutting a money-pit state film tax credit as part of a broader suite of reforms targeting Connecticut’s “unfair tax system.”
Millions Flow To City For Building-Site Clean-Ups
by | Dec 13, 2022 4:30 pm | Comments (11)
Plan for the new Dixwell Plaza.
Over $4 million is coming to the city to help builders clean separate polluted properties in order to construct new homes and other public buildings.
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