by | Dec 5, 2024 11:38 am | Comments (2)
A 57-year-old New Havener named Russell McKenzie was shot and killed in the Jocelyn Square neighborhood in the early hours of Wednesday morning — marking the city’s third homicide in as many days.
by | Sep 24, 2024 12:06 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photo
Yvonne Watts (right), with neighbor Lourdes Oritz, at a Mandy Management building that has failed two recent LCI inspections: "If they fix anything else, they're going to go up on rent."
Yvonne Watts said she doesn’t want Mandy Management to repair her bathroom mirror or replace her kitchen countertops — because she’s afraid that will raise the rent too high.
Continue reading ‘Tenant To Mandy: Please Don't Fix My Apartment’
by | Jun 4, 2024 9:11 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
On Monday night, members of A Broken Umbrella Theatre gathered in the theater company’s rehearsal and performance space in Westville to roll the clock back to 1929, close to the origins of New Haven’s apizza culture.
In the scene they rehearsed, Pete Jr. (Otto Fuller) wants to introduce his friend Charles (Jonah Alderman) to the rest of his family: mother Lucrezia (Susan Kulp), Cousin Mike (Matt Gaffney), and Uncle Jimmy (Lou Mangini). Mike and Jimmy, behind the counter, roll out dough and slide apizza in and out of a brick oven. Charles isn’t there just to make friends; he wants a job.
Continue reading ‘Broken Umbrella Serves Up Slice Of History’
by | Sep 28, 2023 4:54 pm | Comments (39)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Half of the 18 Mill River St. property to be sold by the city to neighboring landlord Michael Smart.
Paul Bass file photo
City Clerk Smart: Just providing parking for tenant, following sliver lot rules.
Should the standard sale of a small plot of unusable city land to adjacent property owners trigger an ethics review — if one of the potential buyers is a citywide elected official?
Members of two city commissions recently raised that question at two separate public meetings, even as both boards ultimately voted in favor of selling a vacant 1,887 square-foot lot on Mill River Street to a holding company controlled by City/Town Clerk Michael Smart without first consulting the Board of Ethics.
by | Jul 10, 2023 1:35 pm | Comments (43)
Thomas Breen photo
Alder Cupo: "To know that there is a LGBTQ+-friendly affordable housing set of units [coming to] our city makes me believe that it is possible to win more."
Surrounded by elected officials and fellow Yale union organizers, Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo kicked off her reelection campaign by focusing on affordable housing initiatives the city has gained in the past few years — and the strip club her neighborhood pushed away.
Continue reading ‘Reelection Party Says Yes To Housing, No To Strip Clubs’
by | Jan 27, 2023 8:52 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Bluegrass Jamming
The back room at Next Door was jam-packed with bluegrass music lovers as the Humphrey Street restaurant featured its latest installment of the Bluegrass Jam, held on the fourth Thursday of every month and hosted by the New Haven-based band Five ‘n Change. According to band members Ken McEwen and David Sasso, the jam has been growing steadily since it began back in the spring of 2022.
by | May 30, 2022 9:40 am | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Sarya Provite leads dance in rain at mental health awareness fair.
Baron “Von Leek” felt nervous at the prospect of talking to others about mental illness for years, he said as rain poured from the sky.
An hour later, sunshine surprised Jocelyn Square Park — and Von Leek found himself rapping about his self-diagnosed schizophrenia to a moved audience of mental health activists and stigma-breakers.
by | Mar 9, 2022 9:11 am | Comments (5)
Eli Westerman, Darlene Casella protest before planned zoning vote.
Planet Venus won’t be landing by Jocelyn Square any time soon.
by | Mar 7, 2022 9:02 pm | Comments (9)
Nesta Allen: "Who are we, nothing?"
Residents gathered in Jocelyn Square Park and then walked surrounding blocks on the eve of a zoning vote to demonstrate that they live in a neighborhood — not in “Las Vegas” or an “industrial wasteland” befitting a midnight-to-dawn BYOB strip club.
by | Feb 9, 2022 2:52 pm | Comments (6)
Wikimedia image
Coming soon to Wallace Street?
An adult “Las Vegas-style” “cabaret” with exotic dancers and late-night night drinking will bring economic revival and safety to a forlorn industrial zone.
So said the people looking to open said strip joint.
To which neighbors responded: In case you haven’t noticed, people live here. People from New Haven, not Las Vegas.
by | Jan 28, 2022 9:45 am | Comments (11)
Coming to Mill River?
Mill River residents are weighing how to thwart a “Vegas”-style strip club — without demeaning the sex workers whom the club would employ.
by | Jul 26, 2021 9:36 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
Underneath the Humphrey Street Bridge.
The city plans to “scour-proof” the Humphrey Street Bridge after a recent routine inspection revealed significant erosion of the riverbed that supports the Mill River-crossing infrastructure.
by | May 12, 2021 1:46 pm | Comments (25)
Not allowed on Wallace Street … for now.
A plan to convert a Wallace Street warehouse into a “Las Vegas-style” entertainment complex hit a roadblock when a state judge upheld a city law that prohibits two strip clubs from being located less than 1,500 feet apart.
by | Aug 21, 2020 11:05 am | Comments (1)
Urbane NewHaven
A rendering of the proposed townhouses.
City plans to sell a vacant Jocelyn Square lot to a developer interested in building six new two-family houses advanced — even as city staff cautioned that the proposed development will likely require zoning relief.
Continue reading ‘Affordable Mill River Townhomes Deal Advances’
by | Jul 25, 2020 10:00 pm | Comments (20)
Urbane NewHaven
Plan calls for six new townhomes like these at corner of Mill River and Humphrey Street.
Why can’t all six of planned new Humphrey Street townhomes be affordable?
Mill River neighbor Joan Cavanagh asked this question on Friday evening of the developer hoping to build 12 apartments housed within six townhomes at 156 – 158 Humphrey St.
Continue reading ‘Mill River Plan’s Affordability Fleshed Out’
by | Jul 14, 2020 10:06 am | Comments (1)
Standing in the corner of the back room at Next Door on Saturday evening, Seth Adam rearranged his mask without dropping a beat. The rhythm he had looped stayed steady behind him, and he turned the pause into something musically dramatic, then kept going, singing, and into a lithe solo.
“That was tough with a mask on,” he said at the end, when the audience gave him its applause. He mused on the possibility of having a mask that would somehow make it easier to perform music while wearing one. “Someone’s going to design one — you know it.”
by | Jun 17, 2020 6:12 pm | Comments (6)
Urbane NewHaven
Townhouse-style apartments planned for the corner of Mill River and Humphrey Streets.
Twelve new homes may sprout near the Mill River where an empty brick garage now stands.
Developer Eric O’Brien of Urbane NewHaven presented his plan for 156 – 158 Humphrey St. to the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team on Tuesday to praise from neighbors. Four of the 12 homes would be deed-restricted to be affordable.
by | Mar 17, 2020 10:12 pm | Comments (1)
Vegan Ahava owner Poreyah Benton prepares tofu wraps in her truck.
Allan Appel File Photo
Sandra’s Next Generation co-owners Miguel and Sandra Pittman.
How restaurant owners are adjusting to the COVID-19 sit-down shutdown.
by | Jan 28, 2020 1:11 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Patrick Dalton performing at Next Door.
New Haven-based musician Patrick Dalton laughed and smiled. “I’m not really sure why I’m here,” he said. Those who know him or has worked with him would not respond similarly; as a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, producer, and sound engineer, Dalton is one of the people who makes New Haven’s music scene tick, and is about to embark on both hosting an open mic at the State House and holding down a monthly series of solo shows at Next Door on Humphrey Street.
by | Jan 20, 2020 10:02 pm | Comments (5)
City assessor’s database
487 East St. (center) and 485 East St. (right), two recent acquisitions by Ocean Management.
An affiliate company of the local mega-landlord Ocean Management spent $1.45 million buying seven different two- and three-family houses in Jocelyn Square, Fair Haven, the Hill, and Newhallville, in the city’s latest property transactions.
by | Jan 1, 2020 7:13 pm | Comments (0)
Marriages gone bad. Greek and Roman mythology. Midwinter malaise. These were a handful of many themes in the fifth installment of “Songs and Stories,” organized and hosted by Saul Fussiner and held at Next Door on Humphrey Street — a full Saturday evening of storytelling from Jeni Bonaldo, Marco Rafalà, and Mike Isko, and music from Kriss Santala and Stefany Brown, Shandy Lawson, and Daniel Eugene that packed the pizza place’s back room and turned it into a listening room.
by | Sep 26, 2019 11:57 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Lawson, Dyckman, and Gordo.
“Can you handle one more round?” asked Frank Critelli of the crowd that filled the back room and bar at Next Door on Wednesday night, but he wasn’t talking about shots or pints. He was referring to his latest music series, “Another Round,” which began at the Humphrey Street bar back in July and was on its third round Wednesday night with three more players. Critelli – singer/songwriter and Local Band Show cohost for WPLR and Cygnus Radio – is well known for his prowess at putting together shows with acts that complement each other and has kept the premise simple: three singer songwriters and their guitars offer up their selections one by one in a round robin style with Critelli throwing in a “challenge” at the end where they are asked to perform as a trio.
Continue reading ‘Frank Critelli Serves Up Another Round at Next Door’
by | Jul 22, 2019 7:49 am | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen photo
Ellen Cupo at Sunday’s campaign kick off.
Labor organizer Ellen Cupo kicked off her campaign to be the next Wooster Square alder with a commitment to fighting for affordable housing and community-developer communication in one of the hottest real estate markets in the city.
by | May 20, 2019 12:12 pm | Comments (15)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Joseph Villano addresses City Plan commissioners.
The owner of a local sign-making company does not want a proposed “Las Vegas-style” strip club to become his neighbor. And he stopped by the City Plan Commission to say so.
Continue reading ‘Vegas-Stye Strip Club Proposal Has An Opponent’
by | May 15, 2019 8:06 am | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
Peter Forchetti pitching plan Tuesday night: Planet Venus will bring a little Las Vegas to the Elm City. Below: Vegas strip club.
The owner of a soon-to-close Mill River strip club is looking to open a “Las Vegas-style” entertainment complex just around the corner that will include a restaurant, a speakeasy-themed bar, and a live performance venue for comedians, magicians, and dancing topless women.
Continue reading ‘Vegas-Style Strip Club Pitched For Mill River’