by | Dec 9, 2019 8:47 am | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photos
Three Newhallville advocates rode a school bus from Lincoln Bassett to High School in the Community — not to attend classes, but to join 300 fellow city residents looking to have their voices heard and earn “a seat at the table” with the new incoming mayoral administration.
Continue reading ‘Newhallville Boards The Transition Express’
by | Nov 21, 2019 2:35 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photos
Dixwell rezoning skeptics Jayuan Carter, Jonny Shively, Patricia Solomon, Lillie Chambers, Carla Chappel, Lisa McKnight.
Long-in-the-works zoning changes designed to promote dense, sustainable, and affordable development along New Haven’s “commercial corridors” moved ahead for Whalley Avenue and Grand Avenue — and have been temporarily dropped for Dixwell Avenue, with neighbors thanking city staff for heeding their concerns about potential gentrification.
by | Nov 18, 2019 8:56 am | Comments (29)
Christine Emmons pitches ideas for a better school system.
School-change ideas abound at Elicker Transition Team’s community dialogue at HSC.
by | Nov 13, 2019 5:39 pm | Comments (13)
Paul Bass photo
Fowler: “4 years of bogus litigation” precipitated sale.
Christopher Peak file photo
The old Comcast building at 630 Chapel St.
After overcoming a half-decade of hurdles to develop the former Comcast site and a nearby lot, one of New Haven’s busiest developers flipped the properties for nearly five times their initial purchase price to a Houston-based global development firm, in the city’s latest property transactions.
Continue reading ‘Spinnaker Flips Comcast Project For $14.6M’
by | Nov 6, 2019 1:55 pm | Comments (4)
Ian Dunn photo
Wooster Square Democratic candidate Ellen Cupo had a good reason for not spending all day outside Ward 8’s polling place: She was busy giving birth to her and her husband’s first child.
Continue reading ‘Cupo Becomes First-Time Alder, First-Time Mother’
by | Nov 1, 2019 12:31 pm | Comments (3)
Steve Hamm photo
Amalfi from the sea.
New Haven’s Frank Carrano with Amalfi Mayor Daniele Milano.
With a documentary in tow about new lives in the U.S., we traveled from the heart of New Haven’s Italian-American community back home to Amalfi — where we saw immigrants’ stories in a new light.
That doesn’t mean any minds were changed about pizza.
by | Oct 23, 2019 2:39 pm | Comments (1)
Contributed Photos
It’s that spooky time of year again and this Friday (Oct. 25) from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. all New Haven children and families are invited to LEAP’s annual Halloween Festival. There will be pumpkin painting, games galore and the LEAP haunted house.
by | Oct 15, 2019 10:03 pm | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen photo
Youth Continuum CEO Paul Kosowsky and Y2Y Co-Founder Sam Greenberg.
Brooks and Dickinson photo and rendering
924 Grand Ave. before and after the proposed Y2Y buildout
The social service providers behind a new temporary housing facility for homeless youth plan to begin construction in Wooster Square later this winter — but only if they have on hand the roughly $4 million they expect they’ll need to finish the project by late 2020.
by | Oct 7, 2019 3:22 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed photos
How do you say, “Happy birthday” to a 150-year-old house?
By throwing a party for those who over the years once lived in the Wooster Square building known as the Cowell House, of course.
by | Oct 7, 2019 7:57 am | Comments (2)
“Necessary Diva” Jackson, who performed a moving one-way biographical show Sunday night.
Dr. Tiffany Jackson began with her parents. Her mother was born in Alabama to sharecroppers who had “a lot of kids,” Jackson said, and raised them in a shotgun shack. Jackson recalled asking her mother why it was called that.
“If you stood in front, and you aimed a shotgun,” her mother told her, “it would go clear through the back door.”
by | Oct 4, 2019 12:29 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photos
Angel Martinez burst through the apartment’s front door, a faded basketball cradled in his hands, a cloud of smoke rushing out behind him.
“I got the baby!” he shouted through his face mask. “I got the baby!”
by | Sep 26, 2019 2:34 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Terrace Heights in the Annex.
A Westport-based investor purchased a 41-unit apartment complex in the Annex from a Waterbury-based investor for $3.95 million, in one of the city’s latest property transactions.
by | Sep 26, 2019 2:33 pm | Comments (11)
Paul Bass Photo
Aïcha Woods, Arlevia Samuel, Jonathan Hopkins at WNHH FM.
“C’mon already. Let’s fix this.”
New Haven has basically said that about the need for a long-overdue change in zoning rules — so that neighborhood commercial districts can come alive again and regain their former bustle.
Continue reading ‘Quest Continues To Revive “Gateway Corridors”’
by | Sep 19, 2019 2:13 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
Local attorney Ben Trachten and engineer John Gable.
Google Maps photo
To be a restaurant…in February!
Plans to convert a former Westville bank building into a restaurant serving tacos, ceviche, and mixed drinks won a key city sign-off, pushing the project that much closer to its planned completion date next February.
Continue reading ‘Bank-To-Restaurant Conversation Gets Sign-Off’
by | Sep 19, 2019 8:03 am | Comments (31)
Thomas Breen photos
Skeptics testify: Ming-Yee Lin, Jayuan Carter, LTania Wiles (top row); Alexander Kolokotronis, Lillie Chambers, Patricia Kane (middle row); Mona Berman, Melissa Singleton, Johnny Shively.
Nearly two dozen critics of gentrification, market-rate housing, Yale expansion, and city-led planning initiatives stalled a rezoning project designed to rekindle commercial development along portions of Dixwell Avenue, Whalley Avenue, and Grand Avenue.
Continue reading ‘Gentrification Fears Stall Rezoning Quest’
by | Sep 18, 2019 3:54 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photos
Aaron Haley (above) of Grand Ave. shelter (below).
The new director of the Grand Avenue homeless shelter has grand ambitions for the oft-maligned social service space: a full interior and exterior building rehab, better connections to permanent housing and jobs, and an expanded footprint with a new program space and full laundry room.
by | Sep 17, 2019 8:16 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photos
414 Chapel St.
Builder Mendy Paris with attorney Ben Trachten.
Local builders purchased a Mill River office building for $4.65 million and plan to hold off converting it to market-rate apartments until they’re convinced the neighborhood warrants the investment.
Among other land transactions, a sale has been completed of the Lesley Roy studio in Westville Village, where an agency aimed at foster children plans to take over.
Continue reading ‘Mill River Office Building Sold For $4.65M’
by | Aug 30, 2019 12:16 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
Management team Chair Caroline Smith.
Who should have a say on how a $20,000 neighborhood improvement grant is spent on sprucing up downtown and Wooster Square?
Continue reading ‘Who Decides How To Spend $20K On A Neighborhood?’
by | Aug 28, 2019 2:57 pm | Comments (3)
Albertus Magnus College photo
490 Prospect St.
An East Rock landlord snapped up three Wooster Square properties, a Shelton Avenue-based landlord expanded his holdings in Newhallville and the Hill, and Albertus Magnus College plunked down $5 million for more student housing, in the city’s latest property transactions.
by | Aug 5, 2019 4:43 pm | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen photo
66 William St.
The large New Haven real-estate empire Pike International sold two Wooster Square houses containing nine different apartments for $890,000, in the city’s latest property transactions.
by | Aug 1, 2019 1:00 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photo
Pizza restaurant brothers Gazmir, Aleko, and Jeshar Zeneli. Below: a Zeneli-made Queen Margherita pie.
Gazmir Zeneli spent nine years perfecting the Neapolitan “Queen Margherita”-style pizza as the head pizza chef for New York City’s Eataly Italian market and food hall.
Now, the Naples native and two of his brothers have brought their cheese and pizza-making prowess to their own new restaurant at the center of the city’s Pizza Row in Wooster Square.
by | Jul 29, 2019 3:28 pm | Comments (34)
Thomas Breen photo
LCI Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo and City Plan Director Aicha Woods.
Allan Appel Photo
Grand Avenue as it points towards downtown.
City officials promised to examine the potential impact that a rezoning project might have on low-income black and brown communities as they move forward with longstanding retail revitalization plans for Dixwell, Whalley, and Grand Avenues.
by | Jul 25, 2019 1:32 pm | Comments (8)
Christopher Peak Photo
Fatima tests if objects sink or float, at play-based summer pilot.
By herself, in the corner of Room 4 at Conte-West Hills Magnet School, a 4‑year-old was conducting an experiment, while the district’s top administrators watched her in an experiment of their own.
Continue reading ‘Schools Take Serious Look At Child’s Play’
by | Jul 22, 2019 7:49 am | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen photo
Ellen Cupo at Sunday’s campaign kick off.
Labor organizer Ellen Cupo kicked off her campaign to be the next Wooster Square alder with a commitment to fighting for affordable housing and community-developer communication in one of the hottest real estate markets in the city.
by | Jul 18, 2019 8:13 am | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photos
Developers and their attorneys on Wednesday night: Adam Haston; Carolyn Kone; Jim Segaloff; Michael Massimino.
New Haven’s market-rate apartment boom kept chugging Wednesday night as seven different developers looking to build over 200 new apartments won key city sign-offs