City Hall

The State Of The City Is ... Onward!

by | Feb 3, 2025 10:23 pm | Comments (19)

Laura Glesby Photo

Mayor Justin Elicker: "In these difficult times, I’m so grateful and proud to live in this city we all call home."

Two weeks into an onslaught of federal policy upheavals and funding threats, New Haven is still tackling problems that long precede Donald J. Trump. 

That dual focus emerged from Mayor Justin Elicker’s annual State of the City address in the Board of Alders Chamber on Monday night.

Continue reading ‘The State Of The City Is ... Onward!’

Fed Freeze Frenzy Leaves City, State In Chaos

by , , and | Jan 28, 2025 5:55 pm | Comments (45)

DeLauro: "This is nothing less than highway robbery."

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker (right), with Acting CAO McCarthy Wednesday, after the Trump administration rescinded the funding-freeze memo: "What a waste of time and energy."

(Updated) Elected officials and grassroots nonprofit leaders scrambled to figure out how to keep government and social services running at home amid a frenzied nationwide battle over a Trump administration plan to freeze federal spending.

Continue reading ‘Fed Freeze Frenzy Leaves City, State In Chaos’

NHPS Parent Advanced For School Board

by | Jan 28, 2025 9:15 am | Comments (2)

Laura Glesby Photo

Daniel Juárez: En route to ed board?

When Board of Education nominee Daniel Juárez’s oldest child was approaching high school — with a daunting local school lottery process on the horizon — Juárez and his wife had a question for their two kids enrolled in New Haven Public Schools.

We said, What would you guys think about moving to the suburbs?’” Juárez recalled on Monday evening. 

They said, Absolutely not!’”

Continue reading ‘NHPS Parent Advanced For School Board’

City Stands For LGBTQ Freedom

by | Jan 24, 2025 4:50 pm | Comments (12)

Laura Glesby Photo

Erycka (with Alyssa-Marie, both of the Children of Marsha P. Johnson): "Our fear and anger deserves a healthy place to be felt."

Queer rights advocates and city officials gathered at the New Haven Pride Center Friday to send a resounding message: that no presidential executive order can erase the reality of transgender people — or dim New Haveners’ commitment to protecting queer rights and safety.

Continue reading ‘City Stands For LGBTQ Freedom’

Can't Sell Soda. Can Sell Cigarettes

by | Jan 21, 2025 4:33 pm | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen photos

Sodas and energy drinks, not allowed ...

... cigarettes and vaping products, still allowed, at 864 Whalley.

A Not For Sale” sign remains taped to the top of a beverage case filled with Monster energy drinks, Powerade and Diet Coke at the Grab n’ Go Market in Westville Village — where city zoners recently rejected Mohammed Ababneh’s bid to sell soda and prepackaged food in addition to vaping products and cigarettes.

Continue reading ‘Can't Sell Soda. Can Sell Cigarettes’

Democracy $ Sought For More Than Just Mayor

by | Jan 21, 2025 1:04 pm | Comments (3)

Nathaniel Rosenberg photo

Heimer: Expanding public financing to City Clerk's race would be "an increase in democratic participation."

New Haven’s Democracy Fund wants to test expanding its pioneering mayoral public financing program to other citywide races to make them more often contested and competitive. 

That’s why the program’s board voted to request $60,000 from the mayor’s upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 – 2026 budget to fund a pilot program for citywide seats, including City Clerk, Registrar of Voters and Board of Education.

Continue reading ‘Democracy $ Sought For More Than Just Mayor’

Tent Pops Up In City Hall

by | Jan 16, 2025 9:44 pm | Comments (27)

Laura Glesby photos

U-ACT protester Mell: “Show me the law telling me I cannot walk up those steps!”

Alexis Terry in the tent on City Hall's first floor.

Four dozen people showed up to City Hall on Thursday night to protest a city policy of issuing 72-hour eviction notices upon discovering outdoor encampments — leaving a symbolic tent outside the mayor’s office after a standoff with police.

Continue reading ‘Tent Pops Up In City Hall’

New Rules Take Effect For Democracy Fundees

by | Jan 16, 2025 4:23 pm | Comments (2)

Nathaniel Rosenberg Photo

Newly elected board Chair Lesley Heffel-McGuirk (left): "I feel very strongly about the Democracy Fund, and about democracy in general."

Mayoral candidates can now raise less money from individual contributors, and put a lot less of their own money into campaigns, if they want to receive a public grant and matching funds through the city’s public financing program. 

Continue reading ‘New Rules Take Effect For Democracy Fundees’

Crisis-Response Pilot Seeks 1-Year Extension

by | Jan 14, 2025 1:07 pm | Comments (4)

Nora Grace-Flood File Photo

COMPASS crew member Nanette Campbell on a call.

Is COMPASS a Yale-backed public relations stunt — or a good faith and effective effort to improve crisis response services all across New Haven?

Alders sought answers to those questions, and received testimony and data bolstering the program’s cause, as they advanced a plan to extend the police-alternative pilot for another year.

Continue reading ‘Crisis-Response Pilot Seeks 1-Year Extension’

Harp Fined For Trash, Missed Inspections

by | Jan 10, 2025 3:19 pm | Comments (18)

Laura Glesby Photo

W. Matthew Harp, right, and his attorney Kirt Westfall.

LCI Photo

The since-cleaned-up backyard of 75 Brewster.

One man’s trash is another man’s tenant’s loose tires, copper pipes, and splintering wooden cart of debris and furniture.

Local landlord W. Matthew Harp floated that idea at a series of back-to-back civil citation hearings involving some of his properties, which saddled him with nearly $20,000 in fines.

Continue reading ‘Harp Fined For Trash, Missed Inspections’

Yale's New Drama, Theater Building OK'd

by | Dec 19, 2024 12:00 pm | Comments (24)

5 demolished buildings to be repurposed as brick mural, on ground floor of new Yale drama building at Crown & York.

Yale won a key city approval for its plans to construct a new seven-story drama school and Yale Repertory Theater building — at a downtown corner where the university intends to demolish five existing buildings, and then incorporate the brick wreckage into a new mural.

Continue reading ‘Yale's New Drama, Theater Building OK'd’

HIV/AIDS Program Mistake, Change Spark Pushback

by | Dec 17, 2024 11:37 am | Comments (7)

Nora Grace-Flood file photo

Health Director Bond: RFP error corrected.

More than 20 representatives from nonprofits that help people living with HIV/AIDS sent a letter to the mayor criticizing the city for changing how it handles a federal grant program — and warning the Elicker administration against dismantling” a system of care they say works just fine.

The Health Department has responded by correcting an error regarding who is eligible to apply for these funds, and by arguing that centralizing oversight with city government is necessary to bring this program into compliance with federal requirements.

Continue reading ‘HIV/AIDS Program Mistake, Change Spark Pushback’

No Smoke Shops Here. No Smoke Shops There

by | Dec 9, 2024 12:51 pm | Comments (23)

City Plan Department map

Under proposed zoning update, new smoke shops wouldn't be allowed to open within the orange circles, which describe a 3,000-foot radius for each existing licensed tobacco retailer.

Would barring new smoke shops from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, and places of worship do enough to protect neighbors from those retailers’ harmful wares?

Would imposing a 3,000-foot buffer between new and existing tobacco sellers only serve to protect existing stores’ monopolies” on their blocks?

And, taken together, would these two distance restrictions effectively impose a citywide ban — when the law’s sponsors simply want to limit, but not outlaw, new shops from popping up?

Continue reading ‘No Smoke Shops Here. No Smoke Shops There’