by | Mar 13, 2025 3:16 pm | Comments (9)
Atticus expansion rendering, now rendered obsolete.
The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) unanimously rejected Atticus Market’s bid to build a second bathroom at its East Rock grocery and convenience store — citing concerns that the proposed 600-square-foot addition would be “incongruous with the neighborhood.”
by | Mar 11, 2025 3:51 pm | Comments (30)
Laura Glesby photo
Acting Assessor Pullen at Monday's Finance meeting.
More than 56 percent of real estate value throughout the city — or $10,132,855,885 in total — cannot be taxed this year.
Continue reading ‘56.79% Of City Real Estate Now Tax-Exempt’
by | Mar 11, 2025 2:25 pm | Comments (23)
Thomas Breen file photo
Compostables to be diverted -- on trash day?
The Elicker administration might build out a food scrap collection program as part of the city’s regular weekly trash pickups — if New Haven is successful in its application for a $3.3 million state grant.
by | Mar 7, 2025 8:12 pm | Comments (18)
Jordan Allyn photo
Climate activists come to City Hall.
A dog, a baby, and several young climate activists went into City Hall. Their purpose was not to deliver a punchline, but rather a request for the city to take transportation seriously.
“DANGER TURN BACK TOXIC FUTURE” read a yellow road sign-esque poster. “DRIVE LIKE YOUR KIDS NEED TO SURVIVE HERE” read another.
Continue reading ‘Alders Pressed On "Transportation Transformation"’
by | Mar 7, 2025 4:07 pm | Comments (15)
Allan Appel Photo
Figlus, DeLauro, and Melnyk, among others, at Friday presser.
“The past few weeks have been among the most shameful in our nation’s history,” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said at a somber Friday press conference. “Trump is willing to sacrifice the freedom of an entire nation so that he can be seen as closing what is in his mind just another real estate deal.”
by | Mar 4, 2025 2:29 pm | Comments (6)
Crypto bros and gals, rejoice!
In a not-too-distant future, New Haveners will be able to pay their taxes via Family Dollar kiosks or instantly converted Bitcoin.
Continue reading ‘I'll Pay That Parking Ticket In ... Bitcoin?’
by | Mar 4, 2025 8:34 am | Comments (24)
Laura Glesby photo
Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller quotes the Illinois governor on standing up to tyranny.
At a full Board of Alders meeting on Monday evening, Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller made the case for courage in the face of a constitutional crisis, by way of some “divine guidance” from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Continue reading ‘"Tyranny Requires Your Fear... Democracy Requires Your Courage"’
by | Feb 28, 2025 1:46 pm | Comments (35)
Thomas Breen photo
Elicker on budget day: Washington's crazy.
City of New Haven data
Proposed budget and mill rate changes.
With “tremendous uncertainty,” funding-freeze threats, and anticipated “draconian” cuts coming out of Washington, D.C., Mayor Justin Elicker proposed on Friday a “primarily status quo” city budget — which would see the general fund grow by 3.63 percent and the local tax rate rise by 2.3 percent.
Continue reading ‘Bracing For Trump Cuts, Elicker Proposes "Primarily Status Quo" $703.7M Budget’
by | Feb 27, 2025 11:28 am | Comments (11)
Maya McFadden File Photo
Reading reading reading, in a Barnard kindergarten class.
Two years after the school district switched over to a phonics-focused literacy curriculum, reading levels among New Haven’s youngest students are slowly but surely on the rise.
by | Feb 25, 2025 9:12 am | Comments (17)
Thomas Breen photo
No more Bigelow, hello "Bigelow Square"?
A vacant, contaminated waterfront industrial property in Fair Haven took a big step towards becoming a new 12,000 square-foot commercial/industrial building — thanks to a suite of City Plan Commission approvals for the redevelopment of the site of the now-demolished former Bigelow factory complex.
by | Feb 24, 2025 1:57 pm | Comments (12)
Abbey Kim file photo
Robert James (right) leads petition procession to the front office.
Elderly renters at a church-owned apartment complex on Goffe Street marched down their building’s hallway holding signs reading “Respect Seniors,” “Justice Matters,” and “Help Us Stay Safe.”
They then delivered a petition to the front office announcing their new status as a tenants union — and demanded a collective bargaining agreement.
by | Feb 18, 2025 8:42 pm | Comments (5)
Laura Glesby Photo
Daniel Juárez at a January Aldermanic Affairs Committee meeting.
The Board of Education has a new member in New Haven Public Schools parent, opera singer, and Yale fundraiser Daniel Juárez, who was unanimously approved for the position on Tuesday evening by the Board of Alders.
by | Feb 14, 2025 11:35 am | Comments (15)
Laura Glesby photos
Local licenses, inspections are on the horizon for tobacco retailers.
Health Director Maritza Bond: Inspections would protect kids from exposure to addictive carcinogens.
The city’s Health Department could soon have the power to crack down on smoke shops that violate the law — by way of a proposed municipal license system that would allow for stricter local regulation of the 212 businesses already OK’d by the state to sell tobacco in New Haven.
Continue reading ‘Municipal Tobacco License Proposal Advances’
by | Feb 13, 2025 9:28 am | Comments (30)
Zachary Groz photo
Atticus Market: Another bathroom to come?
Rendering of proposed addition, as viewed from Linden.
A group of East Rock neighbors are raising a stink about Atticus Market’s plan to tack on a new 600-square foot structure to the grocery and convenience store to make way for another bathroom.
by and | Feb 12, 2025 1:11 pm | Comments (22)
Zachary Groz photo
Applicant Villanueva: Spot is a "gold mine"
Thomas Breen photo
Landlord Marty Halprin: Time to look for another potential tenant.
A new smoke shop won’t be able to open up next to a methadone clinic and a strip club — after city zoners stamped out the latest bid to convert a vacant storefront into a tobacco sales “gold mine.”
by | Feb 7, 2025 8:24 pm | Comments (40)
Nathaniel Rosenberg photo
Elicker: "Trump is trying to punish those who disagree and coerce local authorities... into carrying out his agenda."
New Haven has teamed up with San Francisco and Portland to sue the Trump administration in order to protect its status as a “welcoming city” for undocumented immigrants.
by | Feb 7, 2025 7:24 pm | Comments (5)
Zachary Groz Photo
Mayor and union prez Cotto haven't always seen eye-to-eye.
In a matter of minutes, with two strokes of a pen, a contract that had taken the city over two years to finalize with the police union was finally made official Friday afternoon.
Continue reading ‘Mayor, Union Prez Ink 6-Year Police Contract’
by | Feb 7, 2025 9:34 am | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
LCI's Brennan, at the scene of a recent tenant-displacing fire in Newhallville.
The Livable City Initiative (LCI) has collected $27,200 over the past few months in hearing officer-approved fines of landlords who have missed inspections, failed to register with the city’s rental business licensing program, or not acted quickly enough to correct blight or housing code violations at their properties.
And the agency is now taking four more landlords to court in a bid to collect an additional $23,700.
by | Feb 6, 2025 10:18 am | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen photo
Snow blankets the Blvd.
The public schools are closed for the day, there’s no parking ban in effect, and nearly two dozen snow plows are out at work trying to keep the streets clean as a small snowfall turns to sleet.
Continue reading ‘Snow Update: 2 Inches; No Parking Ban; No School’
by | Feb 5, 2025 4:15 pm | Comments (7)
Nora Grace-Flood File Photo
COMPASS crew member Nanette Campbell on a call.
(Updated) Social workers and supportive peers plan to continue to respond to New Haven-based 911 calls related to addiction, homelessness, and mental illness through June 2026 — now that the Board of Alders has approved a no-cost yearlong extension of the pilot contract for the city’s COMPASS crisis response team and its associated programs.
by | Feb 3, 2025 10:23 pm | Comments (23)
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.
by | Feb 3, 2025 8:33 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen file photo
Jefferson announcing plans for 3rd annual Black Wall Street festival.
New Haven’s cultural affairs chief is bringing her diversity-focused toolkit to the cultural center of the Southeast.
Continue reading ‘Cultural Affairs Chief Headed For Atlanta’
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’
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!’”
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.