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Otter, take a memo: The next AI frontier?
Here’s a prediction based on solid evidence: Not all of the following annual list of New Haven predictions for the coming year will come true.
How do I know?
Because I make these predictions every year. And, while some years a good number come true, there are always some that don’t — including a full half of the 2024 prognostications.
But more about that — the predictions that did and didn’t come true — at the end of this article. First, undaunted by the historical record, are New Haven predictions for the new year just begun.
1) Hearst Corporation’s proposed deal will go through to buy the Waterbury Republican, the last major (or even medium-sized) locally owned print daily newspaper in Connecticut. And the corporation will solidify its takeover as reigning mainstream print daily news outlet from the once-reigning, now hedge fund-owned and homeless, Hartford Courant. Hearst will continue increasing its reliance on AI and eyeball metrics to determine news coverage and pretending each of its mostly identical dailies from Greenwich to Stamford to Norwalk to Bridgeport to New Haven to Danbury to Meriden to Middletown to Manchester to Torrington are separate local news outlets rather than one statewide publication.
2) The Ocean management megalandlord/would-be developer behemoth will give up trying to finish building a new housing complex at 500 Blake St. and rebuilding the burned-out multi-family former Walter Camp Home at 1330 Chapel; and find buyers who believe they can do the job (or else sit on the properties and flip them for a better price).
3) The tenants union movement will target Yale-owned and housing authority-owned properties to organize new locals.
4) A judge will release convicted sex offender Rabbi Daniel Greer from prison because of failing health.
5) New Haven will report its first case of avian flu.
6) Tweed will receive its needed final approvals to build a new terminal on the East Haven side of the airport.
7) A regional bank with at least one New Haven branch will fail, amid uncertainty about the fate of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) under the new Trump administration.
8) Nine out of 10 New Haveners will remain unable to name the new president of Yale, as the corporation continues its disengagement from the city.
9) At least five incumbent alders will face challenges from either a Democratic primary slate or a Republican general election slate made up primarily of African-American activists and former alders disenchanted with the current Democratic leadership both in New Haven and nationally.
10) New Haven will close at least three public schools, including Brennan-Rogers, in time for the fall start of the next academic year.
11) City health and building inspectors will follow the police department’s lead in switching to AI-drafted reports. Meanwhile, the initial AI-drafted police reports will contain “hallucinations” (i.e. “The perp popped a Percocet into his ghost gun in a frenzy of thermal penny stock day trading on Nicodemus Avenue”) before the department gets the bugs out.
12) A new use will finally be found for the still-empty historic 17,322 square-foot two-story domed-ceiling marble-floored Corinthian-columned former Union Trust public bank-teller lobby across from the Green at the corner of Church and Elm Streets (now the empty first floor of a renovated apartment building). It will become the home of a new co-working space with common areas for catered communal lunches, a coffee shop, break-out rooms for special events, and related office space, similar to Detroit’s Tech Town. The location across from the Green, along with the stunning architecture, will help the project succeed where smaller coworking ventures have recently failed.
Oops, Oops, & More Oops
That last prediction may sound partly familiar: I had a different one last year for that wonderful space, and it did not come true.
Nor did many other predictions. A year earlier, six of 10 predictions did pan out. In 2024, only four of eight did (counting two as half-correct). Here’s how each turned out:
• With interest rates dropping, a plan to build housing on the vacant lot at Orange and Elm Street will be approved, and construction will begin. Nope. Still vacant.
• The historic 17,322 square-foot two-story domed-ceiling marble-floored Corinthian-columned former Union Trust public bank-teller lobby across from the Green at the corner of Church and Elm Streets (now the empty first floor of a renovated apartment building) will become a regional super-scale Escape Room destination, with a mix of permanently curated rooms and revolving temporary rooms designed by guest curators. Nope. See above.
• Nine years later, the protected Edgewood Avenue cycle track/protected bike lane from Forest Road to Park Street will finally be completed. Yes!
• A jury will finally be selected to begin the trial of Qinxuan Pan for the 2021 murder of Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang. Well — there didn’t need to be a jury, after all, because Pan changed his mind, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. I’ll count that as a half-correct prediction.
• The city and the police union will reach a contract a year after the last one expired. It won’t stop the exodus of cops from the department to higher-paying, lower-stress communities. Another half-correct. They did reach a contract. The exodus ended.
• Dixwell Alder Troy Streater will fall short in his quest to have Donald Trump removed from Connecticut’s 2024 presidential ballot, but Trump will still lose Connecticut. So true!
• By February, Donald Trump will live inside of all our heads through the end of 2024. The city’s mental health will not benefit. Alas, so true again!
• Mayor Justin Elicker will declare pickleball the city’s official sport. Nope. Maybe next year!