West Hills

EMTs To-Be Learn To Lend A Helping Hand

by | Sep 5, 2023 11:58 am | Comments (5)

Maya McFadden photo

Saving a gun shot victim at the Shack during a Yale EMT training program.

Aspiring Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) Andreanna Adkins, Iijonnia White, and Kimah Davis kneeled down to aid a plastic-dummy gun shot victim” on Elm Street — inside a West Hills community center, as part of their training to save a real life down the line.

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What To Do With 2 Closed School Buildings?

by | Jul 25, 2023 3:02 pm | Comments (12)

Thomas Breen file photo

Closed school, future black box theater, on Valley St?

Maya McFadden photo

Smith dreams of black box theatre and second community center for Ward 30.

If it was up to West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith, her ward would put two now-vacant former public school buildings — including the recently shuttered ex-Clarence Rogers School on Wilmot Road — back to use by creating a black box theater for family-friendly programming, a rental space, a second community center, and an all-boys charter school.

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Ex-Hill Co-op, McConaughy Tax Breaks OK'd

by | May 17, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen photo

Co-op demo, apartment construction in the works on Howard.

A rendering of the to-be-redeveloped ex-Hill Co-Op.

The Board of Alders approved two tax breaks for two different affordable housing projects across town — including at a former Hill co-op, which will see 32 apartments knocked down and 64 built up as part of a first phase of redevelopment.

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Investor Bows Out After Family Plea

by | Apr 24, 2023 8:45 am | Comments (6)

Thomas Breen photo

Ben Ajruli (right) enters another bid as Omar Kh prepares to counter at Saturday's foreclosure auction.

Omar Kh and Ben Ajruli had already gone back and forth and back and forth for 29 rounds at a Hilltop Road tax foreclosure auction when Kh leaned towards his bidding opponent and said seven words that tipped the sale in his favor.

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West Side Q: What Makes For A Safer Neighborhood?

by | Jan 12, 2023 1:48 pm | Comments (4)

Allan Appel photo

Neighbors Marjorie Weiner and Meg Friedman checking out Beecher Park photos before Wednesday's meeting.

Lizzy Donius was driving near Valley Street on Dec. 19 with a car full of 16-year-olds, including her own son, when a volley of police vehicles, sirens blaring, raced past. 

Later, she learned the cruisers were headed to a nearby scene where another local 16-year-old, Joshua Vazquez, had just been shot and killed while riding his bicycle.

That’s our community,” Donius recalled, choking back tears.

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New Havener Of The Year

by | Dec 23, 2022 11:01 am | Comments (10)

Maya McFadden photo

Honda Smith at the Shack: Banking on trust and community.

Honda Smith made a promise to herself and to her West Hills neighbors that, after retiring from three decades of working for the city, she would find a way to keep serving her neighborhood.

As a reborn westside community center thrives under her watch and neighbors keep busy and fed, that promise has been well kept.

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Progress Reported In Teen-Murder Investigation

by | Dec 20, 2022 6:17 pm | Comments (33)

Maya McFadden File Photo

Joshua Vazquez, second from right, with other West Hills teen "ambassadors" involved in a summer neighborhood clean-up program.

Paul Bass Photo

Remembering a neighbor: Housing authority chief Karen DuBois-Walton with Shelly Holness and Jordan Cunningham at Tuesday press conference.

(Updated) Police have good leads” and video in their investigation into the shooting death of 16-year-old Joshua Vazquez and are working with his former schools to try to prevent a retaliatory attack.

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Shack Sets "Our Table" For Thanksgiving Feast

by | Nov 28, 2022 3:11 pm | Comments (8)

Maya McFadden photos

Sabrina Gibbs with daughters Xora and Nova.

Alder Smith greets Stetson Librarian Diane Brown.

Sabrina Gibbs and her two daughters Xora and Nova got a slice of their new neighborhood — and a slice or two of pumpkin pie — at a reborn West Hills community center’s inaugural Our Table” Thanksgiving dinner. 

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House Demolished, Bill Paid

by | Sep 9, 2022 11:21 am | Comments (16)

Thomas Breen photo

The empty lot at 27 Valley Pl. North today ...

City of New Haven photo

... and in wake of March 5 blaze.

A fire engulfed and destroyed a World War II-era single-family house on the far west side of town in March, leaving the building in such a dangerous state of disarray that the city hired a contractor to demolish it one month later. 

This week, the Board of Alders closed the loop on at least one chapter of that now-houseless West Hills property’s history, when local legislators voted unanimously to approve spending $62,585 to cover the cost of tearing down the building.

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Free Cuts Send Students Back In Style

by | Aug 23, 2022 9:44 am | Comments (3)

Maya McFadden photos

Tamya celebrates new back-to-school hairstyle on Middletown Ave ...

... as Tanya Solomon's grandsons pick up books on Valley St. Monday.

Tamia Massey usually spends more than $200 getting her two daughters’ hair braided at the start of every back-to-school season. 

This year was different — thanks to one of a host of community-led events focused on helping families cut costs as students prepare to return to the classroom.

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Bus Tour Highlights Community Greenspaces Citywide

by | Aug 8, 2022 2:37 pm | Comments (5)

Paul Bass Photo

Greenspace outside Mitchell Library.

Kimberly Wipfler Photos

URI Intern Justine Phillips-Gallucci at the tour's new Valley Street stop.

Dozens of New Haveners peeled off of yellow school buses and down a pathway toward the Botanical Garden of Healing, nestled in the shadow of West Rock on Valley Street. They were grandmothers, grad students, kindergarteners, actual gardeners, high school friend groups, and everyone in between, who braved the thick August heat for a tour of New Haven’s ever-growing roster of community greenspace sites, including this new one on Valley.

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After Massacre, Guns On Campaign Radar

by | May 27, 2022 2:41 pm | Comments (10)

Paul Bass Photo

Rosa DeLauro (second from right) Friday at Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence with parent-survivors (from left) Michael Song, Marlene Pratt-Miller, Pamela Jaynez, Celeste Robinson Fulcher

This brick represents my son,” Pamela Jaynez said Friday as she and other moms whose lives were changed by gun violence guided their U.S. Congresswoman down a path of remembrance — and campaign issue-framing.

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Food Scraps, Composting Get New Life

by | May 25, 2022 5:32 pm | Comments (4)

Laura Glesby Photo

Neighbors welcome: Clancy Emanuel begins compost demonstration at expanded operation.

A heap of discarded orange peels, eggshells, peanuts, and vegetables of every hue came one step closer to becoming reusable compost — by way of long shovels, animal poop, dead leaves, a group of committed community members, and an influx of federal funding for Common Ground High School’s urban farm.

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$550K State Grant For The Shack OK'd

by | May 17, 2022 8:48 am | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen photo

West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith with Monica Clark, Iva Johnson, and Von Robinson at City Hall on Monday.

A new music studio, a washer and dryer, a pottery kiln, and more programming for west side youth and seniors alike are one big step closer to coming to a reborn Valley Street community center — now that the alders have formally accepted a $550,000 state grant for The Shack.”

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1 Year Later, Fallen Firefighter Remembered

by | May 12, 2022 4:00 pm | Comments (5)

Thomas Breen photos

At Thursday's ceremony honoring the one-year anniversary of Firefighter Ricardo Torres, Jr.'s line-of-duty death.

Rico was a hero.”

With those words, New Haven Fire Department Capt. Kendall Richardson remembered his former Dixwell station colleague Ricardo Torres Jr., at a ceremony held on the one-year anniversary of a Valley Street fire that took Torres’s life.

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