Hundreds Brainstorm For A Better City
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.
Wooster Square
Spinnaker Flips Comcast Project For $14.6M
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’
Cupo Becomes First-Time Alder, First-Time Mother
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’
From Wooster Square, Back To Amalfi
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.
Spooky Doings Planned
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.
Homeless Youth Facility Moving Forward
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.
The Cowell House Celebrates 150 Years
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.
Tiffany Jackson Raises The Church Roof
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.”
Fire Recruits Find The Rescue Path
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!”
Annex Apartments Sold For $3.95M
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.
Quest Continues To Revive “Gateway Corridors”
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”’
Bank-To-Restaurant Conversation Gets Sign-Off
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’
Gentrification Fears Stall Rezoning Quest
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’
New Director Pitches Improved Shelter
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.
Mill River Office Building Sold For $4.65M
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’
Who Decides How To Spend $20K On A Neighborhood?
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?’
Local Landlords, Albertus Magnus Expand
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.
Pike Collects $890K On Wooster Sq. Sales
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.
Zeneli Brothers Bring Naples To Wooster
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.
Promise: Rezoning Won’t Zone People Out
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.
Schools Take Serious Look At Child’s Play
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’
2nd-Gen Labor Organizer Eyes Alder Seat
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.
1 Night, 7 Plans, 238 More Apts OK’d
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
Hostel Pitched to Wooster Square Neighbors
by | Jul 17, 2019 3:36 pm | Comments (7)
Laura Glesby Photo
Paul Hammer offers his pitch.
Paul Hammer has stayed in hostels across the globe, from Greece to Philadelphia to Mexico. He now hopes to open one himself, a bit closer to home in New Haven.
Continue reading ‘Hostel Pitched to Wooster Square Neighbors’
Candidates Blast Magnet Lottery
by | Jul 16, 2019 8:04 am | Comments (9)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Mayoral candidates Wendy Hamilton, Toni Harp, Urn Pendragon, and Justin Elicker at the Ward 8 Democratic committee meeting.
Seth Poole entered his 3‑year-old’s name into multiple school lotteries. His kid didn’t get into any of the schools.
He brought that up during a political gathering Monday night at which he and four other mayoral candidates agreed that the system needs to change for how kids get into desired New Haven schools.