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.
by | Aug 4, 2021 9:45 am | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen photos
Bonnie Zapata: The rent is too damn high.
State Street self-storage unit.
The line is backed up for spots at local self-storage centers — thanks primarily to college students leaving town for the summer, but also to rising rents and monopolization of the low-income real estate market.
Continue reading ‘Self-Storage Crunch Reflects Renters In Flux’
by | Jul 26, 2021 9:05 am | Comments (2)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
“Rosie the Riveter” cake for Edie Fishman.
Edie Fishman celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by bubbles, bright balloons, and flowers in Wooster Square Park.
Comrades, community leaders, neighbors, and friends poured into the park Saturday afternoon to wish her a happy centennial birthday and thank her for her years of work.
Continue reading ‘Former “Rosie the Riveter” Celebrates 100’
by | Jul 21, 2021 3:51 pm | Comments (18)
The owners of Unger’s Flooring have a plan.
The longtime, struggling Grand Avenue retailer is looking to add two floors of apartments to its buildings, add townhouses in the back of the rarely used parking lot, and rescue a long-blighted building adjacent to the lot. The plan would also include converting an old masonry building across the avenue into five more apartments
The result: “An adaptive reuse of three blighted structures in a corridor where there’s a mixture of homeless people, neighborhood people, and it could certainly use some life.”
Continue reading ‘Neighbors Skeptical About Adding Floors To Unger’s Flooring’
by | Jul 15, 2021 2:01 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photo
335 St. John St., the morning after the wall collapse.
Here’s what neighbors in Wooster Square told the zoning board this week:
A landlord who allows a wall of an historic building to collapse should not be rewarded with legal permission to put in an under-sized basement apartment.
Here’s what the landlord’s attorney said:
We need that apartment to support a new wall to keep the building standing
Continue reading ‘After Wall Collapses, Apartment-Permission Quest Collapses As Well’
by | Jul 14, 2021 4:43 pm | Comments (8)
Epimoni
Renderings for Fair St.
When the easternmost block of Fair Street reopens as a public thoroughfare after 60 years, it will not be a new edition of Court Street with cute benches and shops.
Think rather of a dark alley serving as a driveway for another looming massive private development whose pricey market-rate rents will do little to address affordable housing needs.
One alder, at least, portrayed the planned reopening of that street. Another praised it for bringing back to life a dead street, with the potential to connect Wooster Square to the train station and the Hill.
A slew of Wooster Square neighbors registered opposition to approve the planned street reopening for now. While the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce said, in effect, All aboard!
by | Jun 25, 2021 10:20 am | Comments (27)
Columbus defenders pose with Karen DuBois-Walton.
A photo making the rounds on the web — and then TV — led a mayoral candidate to issue a clarifying statement Thursday night.
Continue reading ‘On Statue Removal Anniversary, Columbus Defenders Get Candidate In Their Photo’
by | Jun 21, 2021 12:50 pm | Comments (2)
Wooster Square Monument Committee
A sample design for the four panels.
Six artists are competing to design a monument to Italian-American heritage to replace the now-removed Christopher Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park.
The Wooster Square Monument Committee now faces the task of narrowing down the options.
Continue reading ‘Six Artists Vie For Columbus Statue Replacement’
by | Jun 21, 2021 11:57 am | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photo
424 Chapel: Future home of Health Dept. and public works garage?
The Board of Alders unanimously signed off on the city purchasing a state-owned warehouse, garage and office building on the eastern edge of Wooster Square — where the city plans to move the Health Department and snow plow and streetsweeper maintenance operations.
Continue reading ‘City Rushes To Buy State Office-Warehouse’
by | Jun 18, 2021 11:08 am | Comments (21)
Epimoni
Rendering for 186 new Fair Street apartments.
Thomas Breen photo
Fair Street: Olive & Wooster development on left; next site on right.
Thomas Breen file photo
Builder Seid: Renters will say, “You have to look at Wooster Square.”
Yet another batch of apartments are on tap for Wooster Square’s expanding downtown edge — and a closed road will reopen.
A New York developer plans to build those 186 market-rate apartments and open Fair Street — next to where he is almost done building 299 apartments.
by | Jun 15, 2021 1:08 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
La Bella Vita’s current location.
A popular Wooster Street liquor store is looking to move down the block — but first needs a thumb’s up from the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Continue reading ‘Popular Wooster Square Spirits Shop Seeks OK For Move Down The Street’
by | Jun 8, 2021 6:16 pm | Comments (8)
Adam Weber Photo
Newly completed designs in State/Chapel crosswalks.
The Hill’s right down the street. Wooster Square? East Rock? Right down those other streets.
by | Jun 7, 2021 1:32 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Alexandra Daum: Raising bar at the zoning board, cashing in on real estate market.
A top state economic development official and local zoning board member is also a city landlord on the move — actively buying, renovating, managing, and selling rental properties in New Haven’s red-hot housing market.