Plans Revived For Wooster Sq. Apartments

Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - A historic industrial building in the Wooster Square neighborhood that has sat vacant for years may soon be home to nearly two dozen new apartments and a street-level café or microbrewery.

Real estate developer Peter Chapman presented this vision for a building he owns at 433 Chapel St. during the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management team’s monthly meeting at City Hall on Tuesday night.

Chapman first bought the building at the corner of Hamilton Street — just on the other side of where I-91 bisected the historic neighborhood into residential and industrial zones back during urban renewal — from the city in 2002 with the intention of converting the six-story brick warehouse into 14 apartments and a street-level commercial space. After years of delayed development and political troubles stymied his first attempts to rehab, and then to sell, the building, Chapman told the management team on Tuesday night, he is now on firm financial footing. He said he has a plan for the building that fits well within the city’s zoning requirements; and that he, just like everyone in the neighborhood, is eager to see it once again occupied.

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Non-Jail Program For Low-Level Offenders Pitched In The Hill

Brown explains Albany’s LEAD program during Hill North CMT meeting.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 -  

The police get a call from Walmart that somebody has been caught shoplifting. The officers run the offender’s criminal history, and quickly find out that he has a 40-page rap sheet. Not 40 arrests; 40 pages.

Will one more arrest put this guy on the straight and narrow? Or is there another route, away from prison and toward social services, that would better change behavior, reduce recidivism, protect the community, and save the taxpayers money?

This was the central question under discussion Tuesday night during the Hill North Community Management Team’s monthly meeting at Career High School.

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Budget Critics Warn Against Reliance On Struggling State

Alders at Monday night’s budget hearing at City Hall.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - Weeks before the city has to finalize and approve a new fiscal year budget, a handful of government watchdogs expressed their deep concerns that the proposed budget relies too much on expected aid from a state on the brink of financial disaster.

Such was the prevailing sentiment at an hour-long public budget hearing held by the Finance Committee of the Board of Alders at City Hall on Monday night.

Although the aldermanic chambers were crowded with city employees waiting for a closed-door executive session meeting later in the evening about union negotiations, only a half-dozen citizens testified before the committee, which has spent the past few months holding hearings on the mayor’s proposed $554.5 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18. The Board of Alders must approve a final city budget by the end of the month.

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Wheelies, Helmets Abound At Kick-off Bike Block Party

Omarhie Wilson gets a new brain-colored bike helmet.

Monday, May 8, 2017 - As Vanessa Wilson and her son Omarhie crossed Ivy Street on their way to pick up food for breakfast, they stumbled upon a treasure trove of biking goodies: a bicycle repair station, a pop-up bike lane, a table full of seat covers and reflectors, and plenty of tips on how to bike safely in New Haven.

By the time they resumed their grocery shopping trip a half hour later, the Newhallville mother and son were the proud owners of two new bicycle helmets, and were already looking forward to their next family bike trip up the Farmington Canal.

“This is wonderful,” Vanessa said. “I take the kids on the bike trail all the time, and I was just talking with Omarhie about his bike because his light recently fell off.” Omarhie, who is in second grade at Lincoln-Bassett School, looked up with a smile, tugging lightly at his new brain-patterned headgear.

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DeLauro Pledges Support For Fasting Protesters

DeLauro joins the Local 33 fasters and their supporters in Beinecke Plaza.

Saturday, April 29, 2017 - On the fifth day of a graduate student-teacher fast taking place at the heart of Yale University, the sun-dazed but spirited protesters received a visit of support from a U.S. congressperson with deep roots in New Haven labor history.

On Saturday at noon in Yale’s Beinecke Plaza, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro paid a visit to the eight fasters and a few dozen supporters gathered beneath the sheer makeshift protest structure that has been standing between Beinecke Library and Woodbridge Hall since Wednesday.

By not eating or drinking anything but water and staying outside for an average of 12 hours each per day, the graduate student-teachers are seeking to get the university to negotiate a first contract with their newly formed union, UNITE HERE Local 33, which held elections earlier this year.

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After Fire, Jewish Community Asks: Where’s The Hub?

Ravski at Jewish Federation town hall on Wednesday night.

Thursday, April 27, 2017 - When New Haven native Jeffrey Levinson was a senior in college in 1991, he and his sister scraped together $1,800 to help relocate the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven (JCC) from downtown New haven to 360 Amity Rd. in Woodbridge.

“We believed in the people who were leading that effort to build a new JCC,” said Levinson, who now lives in Milford. “They had this sense that they carried from their parents, and from Legion Avenue, that the New Haven Jewish community had a culture that needed to be celebrated and constantly reinvigorated.”

Twenty-five years later, a fire that rendered the center uninhabitable for at least a year has put the future of the center and the community it serves at a critical juncture. Levinson called on local Jewish leaders to restore the JCC to its status as a true cultural and historical center “that’s alive, and that’s living. Give me a reason to get in the car and drive a half hour to come here.”

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A Moral Call To Action On Poverty

Desmond, Gage, and Salgado onstage at CCA forum at Career.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - After spending years interviewing tenants and landlords and reporting on urban evictions, Matthew Desmond reached a conclusion that surprised him: Conventional liberal and conservative explanations that heap blame on everything from deindustrialization to out-of-wedlock childbirth overlook the actual root causes of poverty in this country.

Poverty comes not from an absence of resources, Desmond discovered, but from a national unwillingness to confront a profound moral problem. With empathy and effort and understanding, the communal choices that lead to unstable housing for this country’s neediest can be collectively rethought and made anew.

That rethinking about poverty and housing and that moral challenge took center stage Tuesday night in the auditorium of Hill Regional Career High School.

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Garage Eyed As Temporary “Commons”

Powers presents to neighbors.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - As Yale closes up its “Commons” for a $150 million rebuilding, it’s looking to a York Street garage to serve as a temporary replacement for student dining and big events.

The university is seeking city permission to convert the former dialysis center-turned-parking garage at 150 York St. into a temporary event space that will host both town and gown functions. The university already owns the building, and is waiting on City Plan Commission approval of its updated site and usage plans before beginning construction.

On Tuesday night, two Yale representatives presented the university’s latest plans for 150 York at the monthly meeting of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team on the second floor of City Hall. The university has already submitted its new plans for the building to the City Plan Commission, which is scheduled to vote on the proposal later this week.

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First Responders Seek A Clearer Connection

Briscoe testifies.

Monday, April 10, 2017 - The city department that handles 911 calls is looking to upgrade a critical component of its communications technology to ensure that notifications sent to the fire department are appearing in a timely and accurate manner.

The technology it uses right now, which was first installed over two decades ago, is faulty and unreliable, and may exacerbate delays in dispatching emergency responders.

So testified Director of Public Safety Communications (PSAP, or “public safety answering point”) Michael Briscoe at a a Board of Alders Finance Committee hearing held at City Hall last Thursday night on the Harp Administration’s proposed $554.5 million operating budget.

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Lights, Cameras ... Action! Eyed For Parks

Edgewood basketball court, among those slated for resealing.

Friday, April 7, 2017 - New Haven basketball players can look forward to smoother surfaces and clearer three-point lines at courts throughout the city. Wooster Square will be better lit at night. And more security cameras may pop up in city parks.

City parks director Becky Bombero outlined those and other planned improvements during a presentation at a hearing held by the Board of Alders Finance Committee at City Hall on Thursday night on the Harp Administration’s proposed $554.5 million operating budget and $68.7 million capital budget for the coming fiscal year.

Bombero, joined by Deputy Director of Parks & Squares Bill Carone and Deputy Director of Recreation Bill Dixon, went through nearly each item of her department’s propsed $4.29 million city capital budget for fiscal year 2017-2018, zeroing in on the various improvement projects, both big and small, that are already or are about to be under way. The parks department’s proposed city capital budget marks a $1.395 million increase over this year’s; its proposed general fund budget is flat at $5,293,300.

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Is It 2017? Or 1984?

Gorlick.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017 - On April 4, 1984, in the fictional state of Oceania, a low-level civil servant named Winston Smith begins to write a diary. In the repressive, dystopian world of George Orwell’s novel 1984, where history is constantly erased and rewritten and individual expression is punishable by death, putting pen to paper to explore one’s innermost thoughts is truly a subversive act.

Thirty-three years later to the day, over 220 people filled a local independent arthouse movie theater to watch the 1980s film adaptation of Orwell’s mid-century novel to commemorate the beginning of Smith’s subtle rebellion against a totalitarian government.

As Smith struggled on screen to preserve some semblance of love, empathy, and hope in the face of a brutalizing political regime, the local audience was challenged to ask itself two critical questions: What are the parallels between this fictional 1984 and the real 2017? And how does one ensure that the actual United States government never slips into the suffocating, repressive dystopia of Oceania?

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Enviro Film Fest Revs Back Up In Age Of Trump

Warady.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017 - As the Trump administration begins to formalize its opposition toward taking action against climate change, water pollution, and the depletion of non-renewable resources, a nearly decade-old, student-run environmental film festival in New Haven is staking its claim on its mission to support environmental education through artful, entertaining, and socially significant films.

The annual series, the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY), kicks off its ninth year of programming this week, bringing five feature films and five shorts films to different venues around Yale’s campus and downtown New Haven. This year’s lineup of movies explores a diverse array of environmental issues, from the effects of climate change on U.S. national security to the fight to preserve seed biodiversity to the violence related to charcoal exploitation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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Shelter Starts Again In Home Search

Clients waiting for the Grand Ave. shelter to open. (Allan Appel file photo)

Monday, April 3, 2017 - New Haven’s top economic development official has promised to help a Grand Avenue homeless shelter find a new home now that the zoning board has denied its request for permission to move to an empty building on an industrial strip around the corner.

During the March meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), the board denied without prejudice the request from Emergency Shelter Management Services (ESMS) to receive a use variance to operate an emergency shelter in a light industrial zone.

ESMS currently runs the homeless shelter out of a building at 645 Grand Ave. The shelter is 6,400 square feet and serves 50-75 men per night, depending on the season.

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Youth Center Mired In Delays, Overruns

DANIELA BRIGHENTI PHOTO

Thursday, March 30, 2017 - A year after expecting to open a new center for disengaged and homeless youth, city officials offered explanations for a series of mishaps and delays — and asked for another $200,000 to complete the job.

The center is question is “the Escape, a drop-in center for New Haven teens that will also provide 15 beds for homeless young men between the ages of 17 and 24.

It was supposed to open by January 2016. Then March 2016. It still needs lots of work.

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“Milk Like Sugar” Finds Nourishment in Teenage Drama

West, Sellem, and Castro in Milk Like Sugar.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 - A red lollipop dangling between her fingers like a cigarette, her braids perched like a crown above her leopard-print dress, one teenage girl took a long, searing look at another.

“If you back out now, life’s gonna get very lonely,” threatened Talisha, staring down her high-school classmate and lifelong friend Annie.

“You’re gonna do this. It’s called friendship. Look it up: It’s called loyalty.”

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Bike Share Hits A Newhallville Speed Bump

Legislative rider: Alder Adam Marchand samples prototype at hearing.

Thursday, March 23, 2017 - Lawmakers were urged to approve a new bike share program in New Haven — as long as it includes neighborhoods away from downtown.

Which might not prove so simple, at least at first.

A public hearing Tuesday night drew enthusiastic support for the planned new project, which would eventually make at least 300 bicycles available for short-term rental at 30 stations located around the city. The Harp administration has chosen a company to run the program, which is similar to New York’s Citi Bike, and now needs Board of Alders approval to roll it out.

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Would 5 Miles Per Hour Make A Difference?

Antunes, at center, with Alders Delphine Clyburn and Sal DeCola.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - Two Alden Avenue neighbors offered different takes on how to slow down cars on their street — while lawmakers tried to figure out how much control they have over how fast people can legally drive in town.

The two-hour trip down Transportation Policy Road took place Tuesday night at a hearing at City Hall of the Board of Alders’ Public Safety and City Services & Environmental Policy committees.

The hearing concerned a proposed bill by Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow to explore the best ways to calm traffic and possibly lower the speed limit on city (as opposed to state) roads from 25 to 20 miles per hour.

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Top City Lawyer To Oversee New Department, Old Drama

Rose (center), his executive assistant, Counsel Pernal Paula Marie (right), Deputy Corporation Counsel Phoenix Cherie (left) at hearing.

March 17, 2017  - A hearing about the city’s top lawyer’s budget turned into an examination of why his office is taking over the labor relations department, when he plans to fill a top vacancy there, and whether he’s assuring that city officials are up to date on how to properly handle and dispose of official public records in the wake of a still ongoing controversy over a high-profile firing.

Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr. fielded those questions when he presented his proposed new budget at a three-hour-plus budget hearing held at City Hall Thursday night by by the Board of Alders Finance Committee.

Few of the questions had to do with the relevant numbers in the mayor’s proposed budget, however, which asks for Corporation Counsel to incorporate the three-person staff and $425,000 budget of labor relations into its purview.

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Storm Passed In Warmth, In Spades

Parish: “If someone’s hungry enough to chase their dream, I’m hungry enough to help them.”

March 14, 2017 - D’Mario Parish balanced his cellphone between his shoulder and his ear as he looked at his new hand of cards. Half of his attention was on the phone conversation, the other half on the game of spades before him. The storm outside seemed far away.

“It’s going well,” said Parish, a volunteer cook at the Trinity Baptist Church homeless shelter, as he smiled and winked at his fellow card players seated around the table. “We’re in here for the storm, playing cards, staying warm. You know, they’re all trying to cheat me, but you can’t cheat the best.”

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New Delays On All-Boys School, Superintendent Search

Joyner, Goldson at Monday’s board meeting.

March 14, 2017 - As the end of the school year approaches, two administrative questions loom over the near future of the district: Will the city have a new charter school come this fall? And who will be hired to lead the district as its new superintendent?

Continued delays at the Board of Education mean that New Haven students, teachers, and parents will have to wait at least a few weeks longer for answers to both of those questions.

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