Whalley

Laundromat Meets Library

by | Feb 23, 2024 5:11 pm | Comments (13)

A student gifts a book to the Little Free Library.

Sometimes when you talk, the universe listens.”

That’s what Chris Walker, manager of the new LaundroMax on Whalley Avenue, said to me as we watched 25 kids sit still between rows of gleaming washing machines and a cacophony of dryers tumbling and buzzers going off — and prepare to hear a story read aloud at New Haven’s most innovative new branch library.

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Laundromat Washes Ashore On Whalley

by | Jan 22, 2024 12:15 pm | Comments (3)

Jamil Ragland Photo

LaundroMax GM Chris Walker (center) with officials at ribbon-cutting.

By the time officials arrived to cut the ribbon on the west side’s newest laundromat, customers were already inside using the state-of-the-art washing machines. The air was fragrant with the smell of fabric softener and dryer sheets, and the speakers pumped in classic Mary J. Blige and Erykah Badu.

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Streetwear Trio Is "DA’W.O.R.L.D."

by | Jan 8, 2024 11:26 am | Comments (0)

Lisa Reisman Photo

Hallie "Rock" Bolden, Jr. with Hallie "Bizzy" Bolden III.

The bell above the door sounded at DA’W.O.R.L.D., the Whalley Avenue mecca for men’s urban clothing.

Coming in for some love,” the customer said, dapping up DA’W.O.R.L.D. manager Hallie Bizzy” Bolden III, wardrobe consultant Tariq Riq” Bolden and owner Hallie Rock” Bolden, Jr. behind the counter. Have a good one.” 

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$7M In State Aid Flows To Whalley Housing, Traffic-Safety Projects

by | Nov 1, 2023 10:55 am | Comments (32)

55 planned new apartments on Whalley, now boosted by state $.

A long-delayed, church-led affordable housing development on Whalley Avenue took a big step towards breaking ground — alongside a suite of traffic calming measures on the perilously car-heavy corridor near Stop & Shop — thanks to a $7 million infusion from the state.

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Dems Double Down On 4-Year Terms

by | Oct 30, 2023 11:01 am | Comments (58)

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker: "We cannot wait another 20 years to have a government that runs effectively and efficiently."

Confident in a victory at the polls in November’s contested mayoral election, Democrats from across the city and state turned their attention to a more uncertain proposition: a charter revision ballot question that, if approved, would increase mayoral and aldermanic terms from two to four years each.

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City To Style Up More Salon Inspections

by | Oct 12, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (10)

Laura Glesby Photo

Fatou braids a client's hair, hopes for more landlord accountability.

A new layer of city regulation is coming to local hair, piercing, tattoo, and nail salons — sparking a debate over the burden of annual inspection fees, and prompting one African hair braider to hope that more leverage against neglectful commercial landlords is on the horizon.

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1 Year Later, Unsolved Stabbing Death's Pain Remains

by | Oct 11, 2023 3:43 pm | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen photos

Police have put out a $25K reward for information that leads to the arrest of whoever killed Nico Saraceni (pictured).

Thomas Breen photos

A poetry collage memorial put together by Nico's sister for his funeral.

One year after somebody fatally stabbed Nico Saraceni outside of his Whalley Avenue apartment, city police and the family of the late 29-year-old Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) student are still looking for answers.

About who committed such a tragic act of apparently random violence. About why a young artist who loved the poetry of William Ernest Henley and the films of David Lynch and the pizza of Frank Pepe’s was taken from them so soon and so senselessly.

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"We're Not Sharks": Next Gen Mandy Aims To Do Better

by | Sep 15, 2023 2:43 pm | Comments (39)

Thomas Breen photos

Mandy Management CEO Yudi Gurevitch, at 399 Whalley main office: "We want our tenants, our residents to be happy, to feel safe, to have a good home. ... [W]e want them to feel that we're responsive, that we're there. Because we are."

At the warehouse, with a handful of plumbing supplies.

Inside a Wallace Street warehouse filled with refrigerators and stoves and plywood and snow blowers and water heaters and closet doors and toilets and sheetrock, Yudi Gurevitch engaged in the latest step of retooling, and rebuilding the reputation of, one of New Haven’s largest landlord empires. He wedged himself in between two shelves overflowing with plumbing supplies and lifted up one of dozens of plastic-wrapped SharkBite fittings.

The goal is to have everything you could ever need for a property management company in stock,” he said. That way, when a Mandy Management property needs repairs — big or small, day or night — his company has the right parts ready to go.

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Candidates Hit Streets For Final Pre-Primary Push

by and | Sep 11, 2023 8:50 am | Comments (0)

Yash Roy photo

Mayor Justin Elicker (center) surrounded by top Connecticut elected officials at Saturday's rally.

Thomas Breen photo

Liam Brennan at the doors on Sunday with West Rock Ave resident Tim Dagradi.

Elected officials from across Connecticut descended on Whalley Avenue to rally behind Mayor Justin Elicker, while Liam Brennan hit the doors in Westville to get out the vote for his mayoral challenger campaign — in a rush of political organizing in the final weekend before Tuesday’s Democratic primary elections.

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Abdussabur Presses For Petition Rejection Answers

by | Aug 31, 2023 5:32 pm | Comments (28)

Thomas Breen photo

Abdussabur, Lee, and a table full of campaign-annotated petition pages.

Mayoral challenger Shafiq Abdussabur doubled down on his critique of the registrar of voters office for gross inconsistencies” in its review, and subsequent rejection, of hundreds of his campaign’s Democratic primary petition signatures — even as he said he won’t appeal a state judge’s dismissal of his ballot-access lawsuit.

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Shoppers Stop & Sign Brennan's Petition

by | Aug 7, 2023 8:28 am | Comments (16)

Thomas Breen photo

Valerie Morrison, pasta salad ingredients in tow, signs Brennan's mayoral petition.

The high costs of housing — as close as downtown and as far as Austin, Tex. — were at the top of mind for Stop & Shoppers, as mayoral challenger and pro-development-zoning-reformer Liam Brennan brought his primary ballot petition to the Whalley Avenue grocery store.

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Harp Endorses Abdussabur, Kicks Off Petition

by | Jul 26, 2023 4:17 pm | Comments (23)

Laura Glesby Photo

Harp (right) signs Abdussabur's mayoral primary petition.

Former Mayor Toni Harp was the first to sign mayoral hopeful Shafiq Abdussabur’s petition to get on the Democratic primary ballot, the day after the city’s Democratic Party officially endorsed the now-incumbent who ended her tenure in the city’s top elected office nearly four years ago.

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Whalley Social-Service Job Hunters Seek A "Fresh Start"

by | Jul 10, 2023 9:35 am | Comments (1)

Asher Joseph photo

At Friday's Community Action Agency job fair.

Milani Glass and her family once turned to the Community Action Agency of New Haven (CAANH) for help making ends meet. She’s now the Whalley Avenue social service hub’s health literacy and outreach coordinator. 

On Friday, Glass sought to help recruit future colleagues-to-be at a job fair focused on available work at her former lifeline-turned-current employer.

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State Boost En Route For City E-Bikers

by and | Jun 21, 2023 12:39 pm | Comments (19)

Paul Bass File Photo

City climate czar Steve Winter: e-bikes are a "big step to fill gaps in our transit system"

Eco-minded New Haveners looking to get out of their cars and onto two battery-assisted wheels will soon be able to apply for up to $1,500 in state-subsidized vouchers to help cover the costs of purchasing a new electric bicycle.

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Search For Truth Hits Grocery Aisles

by | May 9, 2023 2:59 pm | Comments (3)

Paul Bass Photo

A box of fig bars in the snack aisle of Edge of the Woods caught Hamita Sachar’s eye.

Sachar, vice-chair of gastroenterology at Yale Medical School, wasn’t looking for a nosh. She was looking at the words on the box. 

She popped by the Whalley Avenue natural foods grocery Tuesday along with Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to make the case for passage of the first updating of food package labeling requirements in over three decades.

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