A representative mural by Emilio Herrera Corichi.
As the city and community activists figure out the next incarnation for the vacant but venerable former Strong School building on Grand Avenue, vandals have been making it uglier by the day.
That’s about to change, thanks to the arts.
Allan Appel Photo
At the monthly meeting of the Fair Haven community management team this past Thursday night at the Columbus School, participants voted unanimously to award $918 to neighborhood activists Lee Cruz, Sarah Miller, and other folks who have created a crowdsourced “Make the old Strong School Beautiful” campaign on a “FundLatinos” site.
The money comes out of the current year’s $10,000 allotment given by the city, through the anti-blight agency Livable City Initiative (LCI), to each of the neighborhood management teams to put toward projects of their choice.
Other projects to be funded out of the current year’s $10,000 allotment to Fair Haven, which also received approval at Thursday night’s meeting, included $1,000 for the management team’s annual picnic; $1,500 to defray costs connected with the Thanksgiving dinner provided to older folks at the Atwater Senior Center; and $200 toward the travel expenses of the girls’ volleyball team at Piquenas Ligas Hispanas, which practices at the Columbus School.
The Mural Money
Sarah Miller, Cruz, Alder Kenneth Reviez.
The crowdsourced campaign for a Strong School mural had set a goal of $2,800. It had already raised $1,000 from a local business and approximately $900 in individual contributions, said Miller.
They had come before the management team to ask for a contribution, without specifying a number
A short way into the presentation, an audience member asked for the balance remaining to meet the $2,800 goal. It was $918, which would bring the financing to completion.
The project was so popular, the vote was unanimous for the full amount to put the project over the top.
The funding secures the dollars needed for paint, materials, other supplies, and most important, the services of the well known Puebla-based Mexican muralist Emilio Herrera Corichi, who Cruz said is well known for doing community-based paintings around the world. Corichi is scheduled to be in Fair Haven on the weekend of June 24 to work with the community to design and paint, all in one weekend, a mural on the now-boarded up plywood rectangles that have recently been used to secure the street-level windows at the school. The mural is to be painted only on the boards, not on the brick between them. So the mural’s narrative will play out along three sides, facing Clinton Street, Grand Avenue, and Perkins Street.
The mural at Lewis Street park.
“That’s the entrance to our neighborhood. It can’t be a dump,” said Cruz.
Durable paint will be used as well. When the city decides to whom it will sell the building for a renovation, the panels themselves can be dismantled and stored for possible reinstallation or reuse in other community buildings, such as the library.
The Board of Education, which owns the building, has already authorized the project, Cruz added.
Meanwhile, the city continues discussions with the sole bidder to buy and renovate the 69 Grand Ave. property, Litchfield developer Ted Lazarus. Lazarus proposes to buy the long vacant and dilapidated Strong School from the city for $500,000 and turn it into 37 studio and one-bedroom apartments. After criticism of his proposal from the community, Lazarus has been adjusting his proposal, including switching from a Meriden-based management company to New Haven housing authority’s private management arm as the envisioned property manager, according to city Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson. After the revisions, the proposal will go before a multi-step approval process.
Miller estimated that Strong School will be boarded up for at least a year. During that time, the mural, not the boarding-up, will become the conversation in the community, she predicted.
Cruz has also been one of the area’s leaders in insisting on meaningful community involvement in how the building will ultimately be redeveloped. Until that happens, however, at least let the grass be cut around the building and the plywood turned into something pleasing to the eye, he and Miller urged..
Detail from Lewis Street mural.
There was more to Cruz’s pitch before the vote. He spoke of Fair Haven’s experience back in 2010 with a community project painting the mural at the little park on Lewis Street at Front. The mural, painted in response to graffiti on the surfaces, resulted in an end to the graffiti problem in that location.
Along with a splash pad and new playground equipment, the mural helped the park no longer be a magnet for prostitution and drug exchanges.
Cruz said he hopes that the Corichi mural might engage more community people in the discussion of the Strong School’s future.
Other projects to be funded out of the current year’s $10,000 LCI allotment to Fair Haven, which also received approval at Thursday night’s meeting, included $1,000 for the management team’s annual picnic; $1,500 to defray costs connected with the Thanksgiving dinner provided to older folks at the Atwater Senior Center; and $200 toward the travel expenses of the girls’ volleyball team at Piquenas Ligas Hispaans, which practices at the Columbus School.
Other Fair Haven Bulletins
Jimmy Palumbo of Guilford Fence Works finishing up the 20 x 70 backstop at Criscuolo Park
Local LCI specialist Laurie Lopez announced that the rebuilding of the backstop, dugout fences, and installation of new lighting at Criscuolo Park is also near completion.
Major funding for that was provided by the $10,000 city grant back in 2015. The work should be done within the next two weeks, Lopez estimated.
Mayoral candidate Marcus Paca also attended the meeting. In brief remarks, he asked people to consider his candidacy as a “fresh new possibility for New Haven.”
He also announced that he has opened up an office in the area, at 103 Grand Ave., near Pearl Street. (Read more about that here.)
