by | Mar 18, 2020 3:51 pm | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
John Aiello with his “kite,” or sign he uses to panhandle on East Street, near Sports Haven
“People walk by you like you ain’t nothin’, like you got the plague,” said the older homeless man. “And at night it’s a ghost town.”
“The libraries are closed, and you can’t apply for a job. And the only place to stay warm is riding the bus,” said the younger one.
by | Mar 13, 2020 12:54 pm | Comments (3)
Sally Fleming Photo
Homeless patrons gather outside Sunrise for meals to go.
Within 24 hours, a crucial meal-provider for the homeless found a way to keep free breakfasts flowing while helping stem the spread of COVID-19 — even if that means sacrificing some of a sense of community in the short run.
Continue reading ‘Homeless Meal Lifeline Shifts To Take-Out’
by | Mar 11, 2020 2:10 pm | Comments (1)
Project rendering.
Builder Andrew Consiglio got his final approvals Tuesday night to finally get start on building a house in historic — and architecturally protected —Wooster Square.
Continue reading ‘Zoners Give Final OK To Wooster Sq. Builder’
by | Mar 2, 2020 2:08 pm | Comments (0)
Everyone needs to learn to swim. It’s a great form of exercise that you can do throughout your life. It is also an important skill for safety’s sake.
by | Mar 2, 2020 8:47 am | Comments (4)
Emily Hays Photos
Quinnipiac student and SEAAV founder McKenna Haz.
For the next three months, New Haveners can buy leggings and sports bras in Wooster Square created by a Quinnipiac student –- and help reuse plastic waste in the process.
Continue reading ‘Designer Turns Plastic Bottles Into Clothes’
by | Feb 27, 2020 3:26 pm | Comments (4)
Courtesy New Haven Museum
Guitar found in the former clock factory on Hamilton Street.
Clocks. The Sex Ball. A punk club, then an R&B club. An indoor skate park. The state’s largest LGBTQ club.
All of these are part of the past of the old New Haven Clock Company building on Hamilton Street.
In the present day, that factory complex is being cleaned up in preparation for development into housing, some of which is to include housing for artists. The reason for that concept — and the deeper history of artistic life in New Haven — is brought to sparkling, fascinating life in “Factory,” an exhibit that celebrated its opening on Friday and will run at the New Haven Museum on Whitney Avenue until Aug. 29.
by | Feb 26, 2020 2:25 pm | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen photo
The current dirt pile at 87 Union St.: Soon to transform into nearly 300 apartments (below).
NILES BOLTON ASSOCIATES
The New York City-based developers of a planned new 299-unit, mixed-use Wooster Square apartment complex recently closed on a $50 million construction loan that should allow them to resume work at the site later this week.
by | Feb 26, 2020 8:16 am | Comments (19)
KENNETH BOROSON ARCHITECTS
Paul Denz’s proposed new Mid Block Chapel Street development.
Breen Photo
Farwell: Units worth more than cash.
Alders unanimously recommended moving ahead with two land deals that would bring in over $1.2 million to city coffers and produce nearly 200 new market-rate apartments.
The deals would also see nearly $120,000 set aside into a new city affordable housing fund — and let private developers off the hook from building affordable apartments themselves.
Continue reading ‘Deals Advance With Affordable $, Not Units’
by | Feb 24, 2020 4:06 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Chris Pacheco of Seacoast Mushrooms sells a bunch of blue oyster.
The flavors of seven sweet and savory food business ventures were sampled on the edge of Wooster Square Saturday at a Food Business Accelerator Farmers’ Market Showcase.
by | Feb 24, 2020 8:22 am | Comments (15)
Wayne Garrick
Rendering of 98 Olive St. plan.
A local developer is looking to turn a former law office building and parking lot in Wooster Square into — you guessed it — more apartments, as part of a project that would put the first dollars into a new citywide affordable housing fund.
by | Feb 18, 2020 12:43 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
The former factory building at 433 Chapel St.
Peter Chapman received a one-year extension to begin work converting a long-vacant former factory building into 25 apartments, several weeks after the city launched three new lawsuits against him seeking to foreclose on the property because of over $44,000 in unpaid taxes.
by | Feb 14, 2020 1:17 pm | Comments (12)
Christopher Peak Photo
Rendering for long-stalled home at 109 Olive.
Allan Appel Photo
Consiglio.
Wooster Square native Andrew Consiglio won permission from previously skeptical historic-zone gatekeepers to build a new brick house on a Wooster Square parking lot — emerging as not only “appropriate” but a model in their estimation.
It took four tries over four years.
by | Feb 12, 2020 1:13 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
The new home of Pasta EATaliana at 121 Wooster St.
A Naples native and former head chef at Anthony’s Ocean View plans to open a new Italian restaurant at the heart of the city’s Little Italy.
by | Feb 11, 2020 1:04 pm | Comments (1)
City assessor database photo
The Hemingway Center condo complex on Eastern Street.
Two investors spent over $1.1 million buying 19 different condos on the far east side of town, one year after the same investors spent nearly $1 million buying 18 condos on the city’s far west side.
by | Feb 4, 2020 1:18 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed Photo
Henry Fernandez of LEAP contributed the following:
LEAP is opening a free Saturday Code Club for all children and teens ages 11 to 15. (Kids do not have to already be in LEAP.) Young technology enthusiasts and beginners alike can join to learn more about coding, robotics, virtual reality, app design and more. Short workshops led by instructors and volunteers are followed by opportunities to further explore the topic on their own, with one-on-one help from program staff. Participants will have the opportunity to create projects based on their own interests, collaborating with peers and supported by program staff.
by | Feb 3, 2020 1:03 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
Carina Gormley on Grand: “My favorite walk.”
The four-block stretch of Grand Avenue between Olive Street and Wallace Street is scattered with empty lots, storefront churches, social service nonprofits, and Italian eateries, all overshadowed by a towering highway overpass and a rich working-class history.
It’s Carina Gormley’s favorite walk in New Haven. She sees the city’s past and present in each step.
by | Jan 28, 2020 4:33 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
Youth Continuum CEO Paul Kosowsky and Director of Community Services Kathy Grega. Below: Youth Continuum’s HQ on Grand.
Her face peeking out from a gray hoodie, a 22-year-old woman answered each question about her past homelessness and present temporary housing with a nod, a soft-spoken “No,” or a gentle request for more information.
Yes, she was homeless for two years after her mom fell sick and her family was evicted from their Munson Street apartment.
No, she’s never traded sex for a place to stay.
Does she drink alcohol? “I only drink if I don’t got weed.”
by | Jan 22, 2020 8:52 am | Comments (19)
Hines
230-unit complex, expected to open next summer.
LCI’s Carmen Mendez: Please pick up after yourselves.
• Comcast demolition to start within month.
• New owners update management team.
• Neighbors press for local hiring, property upkeep.
by | Jan 3, 2020 3:17 pm | Comments (40)
Paul Bass Photo
Crew razing the old Webster Bank at 80 Elm to make way for new hotel.
New Haven’s economy is set to expand by thousands of apartments, hundreds of hotel rooms, and a nearly $1 billion new neuroscience center in the coming years — if projects in the pipeline proceed as planned in 2020.
by | Dec 15, 2019 9:19 pm | Comments (1)
Laurentano Sign Group
Rendering for the sign.
The housing authority’s old Farnam Courts at Grand Avenue and Franklin Street — now the unfolding new Mill River Crossing development —is about to get a spiffy new sign.
The four-part grouped column, standing about ten feet high with a design of a meandering blue sash running through it — think Mill River — will not only let people know where the 13 buildings of the complex are when complete. It will also help to brand the new enclave and the neighborhood.
by | Dec 13, 2019 8:58 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen File Photo
Chapman with a proposed design for 433 Chapel St.
Thomas Breen Photo
The still-vacant building years after deal.
Peter Chapman came out swinging.
He said the city “stonewalled” and “obstructed” his planned factory conversion — and now seeks to “extract” $350,000 before he can proceed.
City officials swung back, accusing Chapman of leaving his property derelict for years, then of negotiating in public after reneging on a sweetheart deal.
by | Dec 11, 2019 5:28 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Grand Avenue looking east from Olive Street: No longer part of the plan.
Rezoning skeptics at Tuesday night’s hearing.
Grand Avenue and affordability mandates were both dropped from a long-in-the-works rezoning initiative that now advances to the full Board of Alders with only Whalley Avenue slated to be affected.
Continue reading ‘Biz Renewal Plan OK’d; Grand, Affordability Dropped’
by | Dec 10, 2019 4:40 pm | Comments (19)
Christoper Peak Photo
Teacher Nataliya Braginsky talks through primary sources.
Alyssa Washington couldn’t stop thinking about the multi-colored map of New Haven on her classroom wall: the narrow green around Prospect Hill and Westville; the swathed yellow, like a waning moon, from Beaver Hills to City Point; the foreboding red around Dixwell and Fair Haven — each section of the city walled in by fixed black lines.
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.