The Hill

Roberto Clemente Principal To Retire

by | Oct 4, 2023 11:47 am | Comments (4)

Maya McFadden photo

Principal Mia Edmonds-Duff, with her NHPS longevity award.

It wasn’t until Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy Principal Mia Edmonds-Duff looked over at a longevity plaque” on her office desk thanking her for three decades of work in NHPS that she thought to herself: I was having so much fun I didn’t realize how far along I was.” 

With that revelation, Edmonds-Duff has decided that, after 38 years working for the city’s public school district, it’s now time to retire.

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Kickball, & Push-Ups, & Staying Active In PE

by | Oct 2, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (1)

Maya McFadden Photo

Best friends Monserrat Martinez and Dazani Hough: Ready for gym class.

As a white ball bounced towards Monserrat Martinez, the Roberto Clemente school sixth grader locked eyes with it — and then kicked it with all her might, sending it across the gymnasium and giving her the chance to sprint towards the safety of first base.

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Scenes From The Polls: Kids Count In Newhallville

by , and | Sep 12, 2023 3:59 pm | Comments (9)

Laura Glesby photo

Star Gilliams (center) with Harris & Tucker pollsters Memori Jones, Kauren Gaines, Shamar Sheppard at Lincoln-Bassett in Newhallville: "I'm concerned about what happens to this neighborhood."

Thomas Breen photo

Erica Rodriguez and Isiah Miller, side by side, but for different candidates, on Chatham Street in Fair Haven.

Allan Appel photo

Sam Tolkin, with 3-year-old Oliver, on Townsend Ave in Morris Cove: Brennan's "got the chutzpah to say how important education is.”

Thomas Breen photo

Barbara Dozier, at Roberto Clemente in the Hill: "It's always important to vote."

(Updated) Shamar Sheppard peered up at Jazmine Williamson, a clipboard and pencil in hand. Did you vote today?” he asked. Who did you vote for?”

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Mustangs Saddle Up With Gorilla Lemonade Sponsor

by | Aug 10, 2023 12:38 pm | Comments (0)

Lisa Reisman photo

Gorilla Lemonade's Kristen Threatt and CT Mustang owner and right guard Jose "Conie" Matos at new Hill mural.

Justen Wilson held up a finger on his right hand. It wouldn’t bend. It won’t for several months, until the off-season when he’ll have surgery. He strained the tendon making a tackle on the gridiron. 

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Trowbridge Campaign Talk: Homelessness, & Homelessness

by | Aug 9, 2023 12:53 pm | Comments (18)

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker speaking to a voter through a Ring camera intercom in the Hill.

Marisol Pagan and Jose Lugo stood on the sidewalk beside Trowbridge Square’s wrought iron fence as they urged Mayor Justin Elicker to do something about the marked increase in homeless people staying, and publicly urinating, in the Hill public park.

On the other side of that fence, Greg Abraham took a break from sipping on a can of paper bag-held beer to pace out for the mayor just how small his last apartment was — and to explain how he couldn’t afford the room’s rising rent, and is now spending his nights at a Grand Avenue shelter.

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Elicker: Mayor & Alders Should Serve 4-Year Terms

by | Aug 9, 2023 11:28 am | Comments (27)

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker knocking doors, and shaking hands, with Hill Alders Kampton Singh, Ron Hurt, and Carmen Rodriguez.

Two-year terms result in too many elections — which push municipal leaders too frequently from governance to campaigning, and create fatigue” among voters.

So argued Mayor Justin Elicker as he articulated his support for a newly finalized ballot question that, if approved in November, would bump up mayor and alder terms in office from two to four years each.

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Welfare Check Took A Turn, With A Knife

by | Aug 7, 2023 3:27 pm | Comments (3)

Thomas Breen photo

Officer Tyler Evans: "With a scene like that, my main thing is: Stay calm."

A young woman who had reportedly struggled with thoughts of hurting herself — whose father had reached out to the cops for help — ran down Davenport Avenue away from Officer Tyler Evans.

She then turned, took a knife from the front of her pants, and plunged it into her own body.

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Wilson Library Music Open Hour Reverberates With Joy

by | Aug 3, 2023 9:09 am | Comments (2)

Eleanor Polak Photos

Jakki Cousins and Azora Lindsay at the keyboard at Wilson library.

Hanhe Choi and Azora Lindsay ran around the Music Room at Wilson Branch Library like kids in a candy store. 

But instead of tooth-rotting sweets, the 23-month-old and 2‑year-old kiddos were focused on a range of keyboards, drums, and shakers, as pleasing to the ears as candy would be to the tongue. 

The toddlers rushed from instrument to instrument, touching everything they could and figuring out how to create the loudest sound. Before long, the room filled up with a cacophony of joy.

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Ed Board Challenger Wins Dem Endorsement

by | Jul 26, 2023 12:06 pm | Comments (5)

Laura Glesby photo

Andrea Downer with fellow Ward 27 co-chair Judy Sparer on Tuesday night.

Andrea Downer won the local Democratic Party’s endorsement in her challenger bid to serve on the city’s Board of Education, as two-term incumbent Darnell Goldson opted not to be nominated at the convention — and now must petition his way onto the primary ballot. 

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City Dems Endorse Elicker For 3rd Term

by , and | Jul 25, 2023 7:21 pm | Comments (14)

Laura Glesby photo

Mayor Elicker (right) before winning 47 of 54 votes cast at Tuesday's convention.

Mayor Justin Elicker won the local Democratic Party’s official support in a landslide on Tuesday evening in his bid for another term in the city’s top elected office — while his three intraparty challengers geared up to petition their way onto September’s Democratic primary ballot. 

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Family Prevails At Fixer-Upper's Foreclosure

by | Jul 10, 2023 11:16 am | Comments (11)

Mia Cortés Castro Photo

Daniel Marca (right) and fam: "We really just wanted a home in which our family can grow up and live for a long time.”

Looking forward to new memories to be made as new homeowners in the Hill, Daniel Marca and María González and their two young children explored the perimeter of an empty and partially boarded up house on Tyler Street that they won after ending on top of a crowded tax foreclosure auction.

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50 New Homeless Shelter Beds Open In The Hill

by | Jul 7, 2023 4:52 pm | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen file photo

Columbus House CEO Margaret Middleton: "Unsheltered homelessness is absolutely a crisis in our community."

Some of the 50 new emergency beds at 209 Terminal Ln.

Fifty new emergency shelter beds came online in the Hill Friday to help provide a safe, clean, indoors place to sleep for the city’s — and the region’s — rising number of people without a home.

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Shelter Plans 96 New Private Rooms

by | Jun 23, 2023 8:01 am | Comments (14)

Asher Joseph photo

Joel Davis (right) at Columbus House: "We all just want to feel safe.”

Pencils scratched against paper and voices intertwined as clients and staff at Columbus House came together in the shelter’s sleeping quarters to reimagine its Ella T. Grasso Boulevard location — which is projected to add as many as 96 single rooms in a construction project to begin later this year.

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Hill Pushes Back On Greenwich Plaza Plan

by | Jun 22, 2023 3:56 pm | Comments (2)

Hill North CMT Secretary Maxine Harris-Branham & Hill South CMT Chair Sarah McIver at Wednesday's joint meeting.

City-planned improvements to Kimberly Square.

Energized by the summer solstice sunshine on the longest day of the year, Hill neighbors brought a bit of good-natured heat and opposition to a preliminary city proposal to close off a section of Greenwich Avenue to make a little plaza or public realm” — as part of a broader street-scape redo of Kimberly Square.

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Busted Bike Brakes Made Better At The Library

by | Jun 13, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (1)

Mia Cortés Castro photo

Martin Chamberlin, Amanda Levi, and Sai work to fix Sai's bike's busted brakes.

Crouched over a broken bike trading wrenches and conversation, two Bradley Street Bicycle Co-Op volunteers helped a library-visiting Hill teenager fix his two-wheeler — and taught him how to make his own repairs the next time his brakes and wheels are busted.

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Step By Step, Rescuers Dodged Danger To Save A Life In Partial Building Collapse

by | Jun 5, 2023 4:17 pm | Comments (8)

Daniel Coughlin file photo

Firefighter Nathaniel Peragallo accompanies rescued construction worker on aerial rescue.

Capt. Ryan Almeida looked down into a 30-foot hole where a concrete deck had collapsed and a construction worker was now buried in rubble. He and his crew had to figure out a way to pull the man out. Fast.

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