by | May 4, 2022 4:58 pm | Comments (37)
Thomas Breen photos
Builder Seid (center with scissors) and Mayor Elicker at ribbon cutting.
The interior courtyard at 87 Union, aka Olive & Wooster.
New Haven’s building boom continued apace — with the official opening of 299 new luxury apartments at the recently built Olive & Wooster complex on the downtown edge of Wooster Square.
by and | Apr 27, 2022 2:53 pm | Comments (1)
Edward Ray Van Epps leaves Sunrise Cafe well-fed.
For the first time since the pandemic broke, “Eddie Wigs” Wednesday ate his usual breakfast of eggs, smoothie and milk inside with other homeless New Haveners rather than out on the street.
Continue reading ‘Indoor "Sunrise" Breakfasts Resume For The Hungry & The Homeless’
by | Apr 25, 2022 10:17 am | Comments (2)
Kimberly Wipfler Photo
The annual Cherry Blossom celebration at Wooster Square Park returned for the first time in two years on Sunday — bringing back families, friends, puppies, and community to the park.
Continue reading ‘Community Comes Back Together For Cherry Blossom Celebration’
by and | Apr 20, 2022 3:57 pm | Comments (3)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Eddi M. photographs Alina ...
... in flower-filled Wooster Square Park.
Wooster Square’s cherry blossoms served as a fitting seasonal backdrop Wednesday morning — for a photographer aiming to turn the trees’ ephemeral beauty into immortal crypto wealth.
Continue reading ‘Cherry Trees & NFTs Blossom In Wooster Square’
by | Apr 5, 2022 4:25 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen / Google Map photos
Wooster Square apartments purchased by Mandy over the past two years. Top row, left to right: 23 Brown St., 19 Brown St., 17 Brown St. Middle row: 208 Wooster St., the Wooster Street arch (not owned by Mandy), 604 Chapel St. Bottom row: 325 St. John St., 191 Wooster St., 533 Chapel St.
Affiliates of Mandy Management bought seven apartments and a vacant lot on Brown Street for $1.1 million — the latest instance of the local megalandlord’s two-year, $14 million-and-counting expansion into Wooster Square real estate.
Continue reading ‘Property Roundup: Mandy Grows In Wooster Sq.’
by | Apr 5, 2022 3:49 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photo
Downtown Alder Eli Sabin speaks up in support of zoning change.
PMC image
13-story apt. tower proposed for 78 Olive.
Alders overwhelmingly approved rezoning an Olive Street lot to make way for a proposed 13-story apartment tower to be built on the downtown edge of Wooster Square.
Local legislators took that vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
Continue reading ‘Denser Zoning OK'd For Olive St. Tower Site’
by | Apr 4, 2022 9:10 am | Comments (14)
Project design for 78 Olive St.
(Opinion) Our affordable housing crisis is a complex issue, with many factors both local and national contributing to the rising rents and lower relative incomes behind it. And just as the causes are many, to help solve this crisis we need a multifaceted approach.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: More Housing On Olive Street? Yes, Please.’
by | Mar 2, 2022 2:45 pm | Comments (7)
Chris McKeon
The proposed zone change.
The Board of Alders’ legislation committee unanimously supported a request to rezone the lot at 78 Olive St. on Tuesday evening, inching one step closer to a 13-story apartment building at the site.
by | Mar 2, 2022 1:45 pm | Comments (9)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Starting fresh: Ex-offenders Robinson and Shabazz picking up litter.
Abdullah Shabazz woke up at 2 a.m. Wednesday, showered, said his prayers, read the Quran, then caught the bus from Bella Vista to Grand Avenue to start cleaning up the street — and keeping on a straight path.
by | Feb 22, 2022 9:43 am | Comments (26)
PMC
Project design.
A Wooster Square developer’s altered plans for a 13-story apartment complex include more affordable housing and sidewalk improvements — drawing a mix of praise and criticism in its quest for support.
by | Feb 10, 2022 4:16 pm | Comments (6)
Marc Massaro
New version of proposed monument.
Cristoforo Colombo was always aloft on his pedestal, looking out toward the harbor and sea, to catch the next ship and to sail off to his next conquest.
His replacement – the Italian, or perhaps universal, immigrant family – will have come from the sea, from far away, and to stay, to put down roots and to begin their American success stories.
That’s why they’re not going to be aloft on a plinth but at eye level, facing inward toward the park and the city they are helping to build. The viewer will be able look them in the eye.
by | Feb 1, 2022 9:52 am | Comments (28)
Thomas Breen File Photo
PMC's McKeon: "We can get a copy of the report out to folks."
Building rendering, behind 360 State tower.
What rents will you charge?
“We’re still crunching numbers.”
How will zoning affect the ground floor?
“The report does not address that.”
Will construction interfere with the Farmington Canal Trail?
“I don’t know the details.”
Skeptical neighbors posed those and lots more questions Monday night to the developer of a proposed new 14-story building at 78 Olive St. They received a variety of iterations of “don’t know” in response.
by | Jan 27, 2022 4:52 pm | Comments (8)
Marc Massaro
New version of proposed monument, with plaque.
Gone are the benches, planters, flood lights, and gravel walking paths.
The sculpture itself — of an aspiring immigrant family — remains in the picture, as a controversial plan to replace the former Wooster Square Christopher Columbus monument moved to a new stage.
by | Jan 24, 2022 8:52 am | Comments (6)
Make room for newbies: Current Wooster Square residents at dog park.
With new apartment complexes rising along and near Olive Street, Wooster Square is planning ahead of an anticipated influx of new neighbors — and the dogs they’re sure to bring with them.
by | Jan 21, 2022 3:33 pm | Comments (5)
Lyman pies: Soon to be "made in New Haven."
Lyman VP John Lyman.
A Middlefield-based apple orchard company is moving some of its pie-baking business to New Haven, after purchasing three industrial buildings in Wooster Square and Long Wharf for $3 million.
Continue reading ‘Farm-To-City: Pie-Baking Biz Moving To Town’
by | Jan 19, 2022 9:41 am | Comments (16)
PMC
Preliminary project sketch.
A Philadelphia-based developer revealed plans to build a 13-story apartment building on the ever-densifying border of Downtown and Wooster Square — if it can win a requested zoning change.
by | Dec 22, 2021 3:58 pm | Comments (19)
Mark Massaro's design for a new statue in Wooster Square Park.
Is the art too saccharine? Obsolete on arrival?
Does it tell only an Italian story and not one that reflects the diversity of Wooster Square today?
Has the community not truly been engaged in the process?
And where in the original charge to artists a year ago was there permission to pave over more than a thousand square feet of precious green space?
Continue reading ‘Neighbors Pillory Design For Columbus Statue Replacement’
by | Nov 8, 2021 9:15 am | Comments (18)
Laura Glesby Photo
Aaron Goode with voting reform advocates at Sally’s slicing session.
Aaron Goode
One alternative Congressional district map, with New Haven and Bridgeport combined.
Seven voting reform advocates gathered around a table at Sally’s, far more satisfied with the way their pizza had been sliced than with the way New Haven is currently split into state legislative districts.
Continue reading ‘Redistricting Critics Slice Own Voting Maps’
by | Nov 5, 2021 9:37 am | Comments (10)
Lisa Reisman Photos
Owner Chidi Onukwugha, grandniece Ke’lani, mother-in-law Elsie D. Dixon, and grandniece Kaiyden make it official.
Chidi Onukwugha, owner of Kaiyden’s Coffee, wanted to set the record straight.
Continue reading ‘Ribbon Cut At Kaiyden’s Coffee, As Wooster Square Gets Its Caffeine Fix Back’
by | Oct 21, 2021 4:23 pm | Comments (12)
Epimoni design
Rendering of the proposed new Fair Street “greenway,” to be included alongside 185 new apartments.
Thomas Breen photo
A view of Fair Street, in August.
The City Plan Commission unanimously approved plans to build a new seven-story, 185-unit apartment complex on Fair Street — paving the way for a reopened public connection between Union Street and Olive Street, and piling on to the residential-development blitz currently taking place on the downtown edge of Wooster Square.
by | Sep 21, 2021 8:16 am | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photos
Demolition underway at 276 Howard Ave…
… fire-damaged homes at 25 and 21 Sheffield Ave…
… and a partially collapsed rear wall at 133 Hamilton St.
A Howard Avenue barbershop has been reduced to a dusty pile of wood and bricks.
Two fire-damaged Sheffield Avenue homes are boarded up and awaiting repairs.
And the old clock factory on Hamilton Street has a collapsed rear wall, 20 leaking oil drums, a corner apron of fallen bricks — and no construction workers in sight.
City building inspectors have their eyes on those derelict properties and more, according to a half dozen newly issued “unsafe structure” notices filed by the Building Department on the city land records database.
by | Sep 3, 2021 8:31 am | Comments (19)
Epimoni design
Proposed Fair St. “greenway” beside 185 new apartments (below).
A closed-off section of Fair Street will open to pedestrians — but not to cars or bikes — according to the latest plans from a Wooster Square developer looking to build 185 more market-rate apartments in the neighborhood.
by | Aug 19, 2021 12:13 pm | Comments (5)
Zoom
Avi Meer, right, attorney Ben Trachten at management team meeting.
After butting heads with neighbors over a collapsed wall and a failed request for zoning relief, a landlord logged onto Zoom in a peace quest.
Continue reading ‘Landlord, Neighbors Hash Out Wall Collapse’
by | Aug 11, 2021 9:50 am | Comments (12)
EPIMONI DESIGN
BoomBoomBoom! 186 units on tap for Fair Street.
City zoners unanimously approved land-use relief for two projects that promise to bring hundreds of new market-rate apartments to Wooster Square and East Rock.
by | Aug 4, 2021 3:15 pm | Comments (22)
Thomas Breen photos
Construction workers, construction critics at Fair & Union Wednesday.
Proposed site of 186 new apartments.
Wooster Square neighbors took to the streets Wednesday to fight a planned new 186-unit market-rate apartment complex — opening the latest front in a building-boom debate over what new housing should get built, where, and for whose benefit.