New Haven Independent

It was a bright and clear morning, with a sharp December wind catching at legs and faces, yet about 70 of us came out for a three-hour walk in the Hill North Neighborhood. We met up at Career High, and got off to a bit of an inauspicious start when we were kicked out of the foyer where we were listening to Alderwoman Jackie James and City Planner Karyn Gilvarg give some of the opening words.

Karyn took it in stride and rolled her map back out on the sidewalk as she spoke of plans for the connector, with comments following by Nick Proto from the YNHH transportation office and Kevin Ewing of West River Neighborhood Services. We moved quickly along our route, following a trail of yellow balloons across the neighborhood towards Columbus Ave, venturing into the South Hill as far as Trowbridge Park, before retreating to Amistad Park and into the med school.

There was something for everyone as numerous neighborhood guides told us of the
community gardens (Jay Bell and Ana Arroyo), the churches and their many services (Ruth Drews of Resurrection Lutheran, Mark Colville of Sacred Heart and the Amistad Catholic Worker’s House and Pat Speer of ECCO), the beautiful new library (Nancy Moscoso), the (very) full service health care center (Gary Spinner), the new and growing offerings at Casa Latina (Yolanda Lopez), and community outreach efforts on the part of Yale University (Mike Morand). Joe Taylor made us a remarkable flip book of pictures of the neighborhood in years past —- it was amazing that he was able to track down something from just about everywhere we walked. And it was important to hear how the area has changed over time, sometimes for the good, but sometimes in ways we’d like to undo. I also loved the pictures that Jay brought out of his garden in warmer and blossoming seasons.

We all appreciated the hospitality of the Daniels St School, the library, Sacred Heart and Casa Latina —- all of whom let us come in and warm ourselves. Many people found it a special treat to venture into these spaces, and into place they had not been before, like the Jewish Home for the Aged, which opened its doors to us, and the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine, where we enjoyed a bounteous lunch catered by Mama Mary’s and the students of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition (who can bake some yummy cookies!).

Our speakers also called us to action with the neighborhood: we heard important views of the stresses on the area from Blest Peters a neighborhood resident and director of Uniting our Youth, Anstress Farewell of the Urban Design League, Gwen Mills of CCNE, Helen Martin-Dawson a neighborhood resident and CORD activist, Chris Ozyck of the Urban Resources Initiative and Lynne Bonnett of the Environmental Justice Network. Blest, in particular, as he spoke to us in front of the one-time Black Panther Headquarters, encouraged us not to make our visit to the neighborhood a one off event. The discussion at lunch gave us many ideas for involvement. There are spaces that need preservation like the Black Panther House and the UN Peace Garden that Kevin Ewing told us about. And there are projects we hope to get involved in including planting trees and doing a seed exchange with the Redfield St Garden, working to limit the idling and number of school buses that Rev Drews told us about, and developing an asthma education training and particle monitoring program in conjunction with Casa Latina.

Almost all of our very knowledgeable guides were able to walk with us, and it was wonderful to be able to talk with them as we walked along, for they all had so much more information than could be squeezed into the short presentations.

Each of the walkers also brought a great deal to the group. It was great to have Alderwoman Dolores Colon, the city asthma coordinator Ashika Brinkley, and the LCI rep Carlos Eyzaguirre with us, a strong turnout from our BioRegional regulars, plus some new energy from students of law, forestry, divinity and the medicine.