Promised Progress On Newhallville Menu

Lights and cameras on the Farmington Canal, student-designed no littering signs and possibly new life to a long abandoned Bassett Street building are on their way to Newhallvllle.

So Mayor Toni Harp promised nearly 50 neighbors Wednesday night who showed up at the Highville Charter School at 1 Science Park to have dinner with her and ask her about what’s good in The ​‘Ville.

So Mayor Toni Harp promised to the nearly 50 neighbors Wednesday night who showed up at the Highville Charter School at 1 Science Park to have dinner with her and ask her about what’s good in The ​‘Ville.

The meeting was hosted by the new iteration of the Newhallville Community Management team, which is led by chair Kim Harris, co-chair Teresa Hines, treasurer Paul White and acting secretary Nina Faucett.

Among other questions, neighbors asked Harp how an innovation grant that the city just received will benefit Newhallville and why the city is starting a one-stop ​“family justice center” for domestic-violence victims and perpetrators.

Harp called the justice center the next step in fighting crime. Harp said that after looking at the city’s already lowered murder and gun-violence rates, her administration noticed that a third of the remaining murders have involved domestic violence.

“One thing we don’t have in New Haven is a coordinated way to help those families afflicted by domestic violence,” she said.

Meanwhile, the city won a competition to receive a $2 million grant from the quasi-public state agency called CT Next designating New Haven an ​“innovation place.” Harp said that’s good news for Newhallville because it is part of the city’s strategy for helping residents start technology based businesses and also bridging the digital divide.

“We want to make sure every household has access to high-speed internet and we hope to make that happen for our city and its residents,” she said.

She said as part of the city’s Complete Streets program, she plans to have lights and cameras installed on the Farmington Canal, which runs through Newhallville, to make it safer for residents to enjoy.

Harp praised neighbors for their work in transforming a once-infamous crime spot known as The Mudhole, at Shelton Avenue and Hazel and Starr streets, into a community oasis with a bike-lending program, a weekly beautification meeting, clothing and food giveaways, and festivals.

The neighborhood could one day have another meeting place. Harp said her staff had done some research on a long vacant 196 Bassett St. building that was thought to be owned by the state. She said, in fact, the building is privately owned and that the city might have some tools to obtain ownership of it. She envisions that ultimately parts of it could be rented out, but much of it could be made available for the community.

“I know sometimes it doesn’t feel like it when bad things happen in the community,” Harp said alluding to the recent murder of 14-year-old Tyriek Keyes, ​“but I do think that together we have made progress in New Haven.”