Note: Answers appear at the bottom of this story along with links to relevant news stories from the past week.
1. What were the two men pictured at center in the above photo doing on Henry Street?
A. Joining a volunteer sidewalk tree-planting campaign
B. Participating in a community trash pickup
C. Outbidding the housing authority and other would-be buyers to win a foreclosure sale on failed co-op row houses
D. Distributing free samples of a new tattoo-illustrated nicotine patch
E. Surveying voters on reactions to Thursday night’s presidential debate
2. What is former senior economics adviser Martha Gimbel doing in New Haven?
A. Guest-teaching a “pizza-nomics” college seminar at Yale
B. Running a new “Budget Lab” breaking down the costs and benefits of proposed federal policies
C. Advising the Board of Education on how to close a $2 million deficit for a fiscal year that hasn’t started yet
D. Bidding on failed housing co-ops
E. Researching the costs and benefits of traffic-calming measures designed for Valley Street
3. What did unhoused individuals and housing activists do after erecting a 12-tent protest encampment on the Green Monday night?
A. Vowed to stay on site until New Haven builds more affordable housing and promises not to demolish other homeless encampments
B. Voluntarily submitted to arrests for trespassing
C. Clashed with cops who arrested them for trespassing
D. Occupied the Festival of Arts & Ideas mainstage
E. Took down the tents the next morning
4. Who said, “It’s hard when you’re cut loose and just thrown to the woods”?
A. A tenant who received a non-lease renewal from an unreachable new landlord at Emerson Apartments on Orange Street
B. An unhoused individual erecting a tent on the Green to protest encampment demolitions
C. A researcher with the new Budget Lab at Yale describing the impact of rising interest rates on first-time home-buyers
D. A recovering substance abuse patient at the suddenly shuttered Retreat Behavioral Health facility on the Boulevard
E. President Joe Biden, after his Thursday night debate with Donald Trump
5. How many “inclusionary zoning” reduced-rent apartments have been built in the two and a half years since New Haven passed its “IZ” law?
A. 0
B. 6
C. 16
D. 26
E. 66
F. Too many to count
6. What is unusual about the newly approved New Haven schools budget?
A. It builds in a record 17 percent raise for paraprofessionals
B. It covers just six months, not 12
C. All board members voted against it, but it takes effect next week anyway due to arcane procedural rules
D. It includes a $2 million deficit from day one
E. It’s calculated in base 6
7. What is Gwen Mills’s new job?
A. National president of UNITE HERE
B. Field director for U.S. Chris Murphy’s reelection campaign
C. President of New Haven Parkfriends
D. Producer of musical Tik-Tok reels for the Biden reelection campaign
E. Labor analyst at the new Budget Lab at Yale
8. What city effort is being restarted with a new approach?
A. The Livable City Initiative
B. The parks & rec reorganization
C. Bike Share
D. All of the above
E. None of the above
9. The state is sending over $10 million to New Haven to …
A. Create new cannabis dispensary licenses that this time will truly go to people of color impacted by the drug war
B. Help turn the old Monarch Laundry into 64 apartments
C. Support planning of a municipal power authority
D. Undo the bicycle light on Edgewood Avenue traffic signals
E. Hire a 30-person team of inspectors, supervisors, and attorney to conduct a three-year massive crackdown on poverty slumlords
10. Two dozen New Haveners showed up for the latest public-planning session for …
A. The next official delegation to the U.S. Capitol, this time to declare Ashley’s the nation’s official ice cream
B. Speed bumps and roundabouts on Legion Avenue and Martin Luther King Blvd.
C. The rebuilding of the former Church Street South into mixed-use “Union Square“
D. New recreation facilities in the Hill
E. Park improvements on the east side of town
F. Hosting the 2028 presidential debates in New Haven (assuming there’s an election)
Answers to the puzzle, along with links to the relevant news stories, appear after the following podcast of a “Headlines and Basslines” segment (music and more headline talk) of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program summarizing the past week’s local news. (Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.)
Answers
1. C Investors Win Row Home Auctions
2. B Think Tank Preps For Tax Showdown
3. E 1‑Night “Tiny Village” Tents Come Down
4. D 2nd Drug Rehab Exec Dies; Employees, Patients Left Scrambling For Answers
5. A No“Inclusionary” Apartments Built So Far
6. D Schools Budget OK’d, With $2M Hole
7. A Mills Elected Nat’l Union’s 1st Female Prez
8. D Bike Share Is Coming Back
9. B State $$$ Flow For 2 Local Affordable Housing Developments
10. C Hill Plans For Future“Union Square”
Jabez Choi Photo