The Hill

Hill Sweep Tackles Trees, Parking, & Mess

by | Jul 30, 2022 9:25 pm | Comments (4)

Yash Roy Photos

Alston, Mata and Bombero during Hill problem-solving canvass

Here’s what the latest city Clean and Safe Sweep” encountered on Arthur, Hurlburt and Wilson Street in the Hill: Tangled utility wires, raised sidewalks, illegal driveways, trees blocking traffic signs, sagging roofs, and potholes the size of small children.

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Chief-Community Confab Calls For Compassion

by | Jul 15, 2022 2:28 pm | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen photos

Chief Jacobson: Police need community's consent.

At Thursday's top cop-community meetup.

Make sure city police officers are well trained in how to provide basic medical care to detainees in distress — as well as compassion to everyone they interact with on their beat.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson heard those recommendations, and many more, during one of his first community meetings since becoming the city’s top cop.

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Wet Ceiling Creates Cassius Condo Conflict

by | Jul 13, 2022 3:47 pm | Comments (16)

Thomas Breen photo

Youssef Zaimsassi in his first-floor condo's bathroom: "Can't tell you how many times we changed the ceiling."

Dripping water in the basement of 3 Cassius St.

Drip. Drip. Drip … is the sound that Youssef Zaimsassi hears in his Cassius Street condo’s bathroom and basement every time his upstairs neighbor takes a shower.

From that leak, he claimed, have come mold, rotted wood, a busted ceiling, a stubbornly empty rental unit — and endless frustration that he can’t get the second-floor property owner, or the city, to do anything about it.

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City: $ On Way To Revive The Barbell

by | Jul 11, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (4)

Laura Glesby File Photo

Darrisha McIver outside the Barbell, where she competed in double dutch, acted in plays, and got her first job.

Visions for a revived community center glimmered in Trowbridge Square alongside the fireflies, as alders, city officials, and Hill neighbors discussed the future of the building that once housed the Barbell Club.

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Barbell Club May Rise Again

by | Jun 29, 2022 4:51 pm | Comments (2)

Laura Glesby Photo

Darrisha McIver outside Trowbrdge Square's former -- and future? -- Barbell Club.

When Darrisha McIver walks by the abandoned city building that once housed Hill Youth Cooperative Services (HCYS), she remembers jumping double dutch as a kid, staffing The Store” full of after-school snacks, and growing up to become a camp counselor kids looked up to.

She also sees a hope for the future: a rebuilt community center where neighborhood kids can build confidence and learn life skills, the way she once did.

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Why The Politicians Crossed The Road

by | Jun 27, 2022 5:03 pm | Comments (5)

Yash Roy Photos

Elicker bikes across Orange while U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Alder Carmen Rodriguez, neighbor Thomasine Shaw, and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz walk down the pedestrian crosswalk.

A Congresswoman, a mayor, an alder, a lieutenant governor, and a longtime Hill resident crossed Orange Street Monday morning — because, after a half-century, they finally could.

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More Store-To-Apartment Conversions OK'd

by | Jun 21, 2022 11:29 am | Comments (8)

Thomas Breen photo

Empty storefront at 846 Congress, now approved for residential conversion.

A New Jersey-based landlord won permission to convert two vacant Congress Avenue storefronts into two two-bedroom apartments, in the latest example of property owners around the city seeking to change empty groundfloor places to shop into occupied groundfloor places to live.

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24 Riversiders Make It To Finish Line

by | Jun 15, 2022 1:29 pm | Comments (5)

Jonathan Torres walks up to receive a citizenship award at Tuesday's graduation.

Yash Roy Photos

Guihovany Perez, Alexis Smith, Jonathan Torres, Destiny Vasquez, and Mauriztio Wallen wait to enter the auditorium for commencement.

Jonathan Torres wasn’t destined to graduate high school: He got in trouble at Hillhouse. Then he got arrested.

He found his way 14 months ago to Riverside Academy, an alternative high school in the New Haven district. And he not only made it to graduation Tuesday: He was the class speaker.

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Head Start-Housing Pilot Expands

by | Jun 13, 2022 2:34 pm | Comments (0)

Yash Roy Photo

Gov. Lamont with LULAC families at Monday's announcement.

Meghan Gonzalez, her husband, and three kids had been homeless for 5 years before earlier this year they got the miracle call”: they would finally have a roof over their heads.

Gonzalez’s family is one of 20 in Connecticut that have benefited from a first-in-the-nation Head Start on Housing” program tying the federal Head Start pre-school program with the state’s Department of Housing to offer rent vouchers to vulnerable families with young kids.

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City Raids Illegal Rooming Houses

by | Apr 27, 2022 4:54 pm | Comments (32)

Thomas Breen photos

"Don't come into New Haven and shit it up": City Building Official Jim Turcio (right) lays down the building-safety law for landlord Bart Salyga.

Fire Marshall Scott Dillon checks in on two second-floor tenants.

A team of city building, housing, and fire safety inspectors descended on rooming houses in the Hill illegally crammed with nearly 100 tenants — and left the buildings’ New York-based landlord with orders to reduce occupancies, fix code violations, and treat New Haven’s immigrant and college-student tenants with more respect.

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Fire Displaces 11

by | Apr 18, 2022 1:42 pm | Comments (2)

Courtney Luciana Photos

The scene of the fire on Sunday night.

Next-door neighbor Angel Ojeda surveys the damage on Monday.

Forty-five New Haven Firefighters responded to a call at 9:22 p.m. on Sunday to extinguish a blaze at 150 Columbus Ave. that left 11 people homeless.

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Orange Intersection Ready; Temple Bridge Next

by | Apr 13, 2022 2:03 pm | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen photo

New Orange Street intersection, slated to open on Monday.

Thomas Breen file photo

Donna Hall and Development Commissioner David Valentino on Sept. 2021 walking tour.

Goodbye, flashing lights and detours. Hello, new protected and signalized intersection: Starting next week, a long-in-the-works Orange Street crossroads connecting the Hill and downtown will finally open — and officials will begin pursuing the next step of Downtown Crossing.”

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