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
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’
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.
by | Jul 12, 2019 5:56 pm | Comments (5)
Laura Glesby Photo
The protest across from 88 Olive St.
Wooster Square neighbors gathered across from 88 Olive St. on Friday to protest United Illuminating’s plans to demolish its old electric substation at the property.
Given the neighborhood’s response, the city intends to ask UI for a 30-day delay in the demolition to explore other options for the property.
by | Jul 12, 2019 11:36 am | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
The developers of the Greene Street Apartments — 23 one and two-bedroom units slated to emerge from the old St. Michael’s School and Convent buildings at 234, 240, and 250 Greene St. in Wooster Square — promised to stay true to history and true to the sun.
by | Jul 11, 2019 11:47 am | Comments (9)
Rocco DeMatteo, Doishellys Rodriguez: Dramatic turnaround.
Christopher Peak Photo
HSC graduates await their diplomas.
To the sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance,” 50 members of High School in the Community’s senior class marched in to the middle of Wooster Square. Wearing caps and gowns of turquoise and white, they took their seats in the middle of the park for their graduation ceremony.
That scene would have been hard to imagine just five years ago, when almost as many students were dropping out as were making it through.
Continue reading ‘Experimental School Rediscovers The Magic’
by | Jun 27, 2019 2:43 pm | Comments (2)
A mime, a biker, a stripper, and a hardcore punk rocker walk into a dilapidated former clock factory.
That’s not the setup for a joke. That was just 1980s New Haven, as featured in a new documentary about the rich and bizarre history of the former New Haven Clock Company factory on Hamilton Street.
by | Jun 21, 2019 12:17 pm | Comments (3)
Allan Appel Photo
Mayoral candidate Justin Elicker used to work as a waiter during his college years in Middlebury, Vermont.
There he learned that when you a carry a tray one-handed at the shoulder level or higher, don’t keep your hand flat. Instead, spread the fingers out, giving you five points of contact and support for your heavy-laden tray.
by | Jun 20, 2019 1:05 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
414 Chapel St. today.
Paris and Trachten.
Plans to convert a 68,000 square-foot office building on the edge of Wooster Square into 87 new market-rate apartments won a key city sign-off in the latest entry in New Haven’s ongoing apartment construction boom.
Continue reading ‘87 More Wooster Square Apartments Planned’