by | Jul 5, 2023 3:56 pm | Comments (31)
Thomas Breen photo
Abdussabur on Wednesday: Check out the stats.
A retired police sergeant-turned-mayoral candidate has a plan for beefing up the city’s walking beats: hiring back fellow retired cops to pound the pavement, without a gun or the power to arrest — and with a civilian “ambassador” by their side.
Continue reading ‘Abdussabur Eyes Retired Cops For Walking Beats’
by | Jul 5, 2023 2:47 pm | Comments (6)
File photo
A 2022 New Haven Climate Movement “Stop Climate Freefall” rally.
Young climate activists are calling again for the Board of Education to set aside funds for free bus passes for students to help New Haven’s public school district reduce air pollution and make it easier for students to get to and from school.
Continue reading ‘Climate Call: Free Public Bus Passes For Students’
by | Jul 3, 2023 9:50 am | Comments (10)
Laura Glesby Photo
Sarah Miller, center, proposes Board of Ed reform by charter.
Despite a push from dozens of New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) community members, alders decided not to amend the city charter to restructure the Board of Education to include mandatory seats for current public-school parents.
Continue reading ‘Parents Won't Get Their Own School Board Seats Via Charter’
by | Jun 28, 2023 6:31 pm | Comments (41)
Arts Paper / Lucy Gellman photo
IRIS Executive Director Chris George.
As director of a local refugee and immigrant service agency, IRIS, I have been following the New Haven alders’ discussions about revising the New Haven city charter to remove the requirement that one must be a U.S. citizen in order to serve on a city commission or board.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Let Immigrants Serve On City Boards’
by | Jun 22, 2023 1:06 pm | Comments (90)
Thomas Breen File Photo
The road to the top of East Rock: Let cars roll, again?
Parks commissioners delayed deciding on whether or not to fully reopen the road to the top of East Rock Park to cars — as they weighed the testimony of drivers and those who struggle to walk such a long steep slope alongside that of frequent pedestrians and clean-park proponents.
by and | Jun 9, 2023 2:33 pm | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen photos
Alder Guzhnay (right): It'd be "great for New Haven to be on the front lines."
ULA's John Lugo (right) at workshop about restaurant worker protection proposal.
Should non‑U.S.-citizens be allowed to serve on local government committees like the City Plan Commission or the Board of Library Directors?
And should the Health Department be allowed to crack down on restaurants for committing wage theft or worker harassment?
Continue reading ‘Immigrant Participation, Protections Eyed’
by | Jun 8, 2023 1:53 pm | Comments (17)
Paul Bass Photo
Micromobile mayoral candidate Liam Brennan, who led the pack with an 88 score on his "safe streets" report card.
NHV Safe Streets
If the latest round of mayoral competition is any guide, New Haven has come quite a distance from the days when the mayor’s aides talked him into ditching a Lincoln Navigator SUV for a Prius and photo-op bike rides.
Continue reading ‘Biking Brennan Breaks From Micromobile Pack’
by | Jun 7, 2023 2:57 pm | Comments (17)
City of New Haven photos
Blasting tunes? Time to pay up. Soon. Maybe?
Thomas Breen photo
Police Chief Jacobson and Lt. McDermott at Tuesday's committee meeting.
Watch out, Long Wharf music blasters — the volume on your $10,000 car-attached speaker systems may be lowered soon, now that alders have advanced a bill that would lead to higher fines and confiscated equipment for illegally loud motor vehicles.
by | May 23, 2023 3:36 pm | Comments (30)
Thomas Breen file photo
Church near Elm: One-way, but not for long?
The downtown one-way streets covered by this latest traffic study (in yellow).
A City Hall-adjacent stretch of Church Street could see cars driving both north and south — intentionally, and legally — in the not-too-distant future, as the Elicker administration prepares to act on one decade-old two-way-street conversion plan at the same time that it undertakes yet another study targeting rapid-fire downtown one-way streets.
by | May 12, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (7)
Laura Glesby Photos
Attorney Mednick and Commissioner Furlow charting charter's path ahead.
How much power should politicians have to restructure local government? And which city department heads should have to live in New Haven?
The Charter Revision Commission didn’t land on any answers to those questions at its final scheduled meeting. It voted to let the Board of Alders issue a recommendation instead.
by | May 10, 2023 8:54 am | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photo
Chief of Staff Matteson (left): Better pay would "help in recruitment and retention."
The Elicker administration is looking to stem the flow of City Hall departures and make top positions more competitive by increasing pay for department heads, coordinators, and other non-unionized managers — through salary range bumps and automatic cost of living adjustments.
by | May 4, 2023 5:59 pm | Comments (29)
Thomas Breen photo
Charter Revision Vice-Chair and Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow (right) at a recent aldermanic committee meeting.
Charter revisers took a step towards endorsing four-year terms for mayors and alders — and a step away from allowing city department heads to live outside of New Haven.
Continue reading ‘4-Year Terms, Residency Requirements Embraced’
by | Apr 24, 2023 5:00 pm | Comments (26)
Thomas Breen file photo
Who's playing identity politics? Squaring off in Wooster Square Park over the Columbus statue removal, in 2020.
Mayoral candidate Shafiq Abdussabur made a play for East Shore voters by calling for tax cuts for airport neighbors and questioning the removal of Wooster Square Park’s Christopher Columbus statue.
In the process, he and incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker ended up accusing each other of playing “identity politics.” Neither meant it as a compliment. Or as having the same meaning.
Continue reading ‘Candidates Clash On Columbus Statue Removal’
by | Apr 18, 2023 11:54 am | Comments (21)
Shafiq Abdussabur (left), then an alder, in Goffe Street Park last year pushing neighborhood concerns with city economic development chief Mike Piscitelli and mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Matteson.
Reorganize how the parks department works. Get high schoolers into a “pipeline” to fill green jobs. Bring back the rangers. And enlist neighbors to pick up all that litter!
Those are among the ideas offered by mayoral candidate Shafiq Adbussabur for taking the city’s parks to the next level.
by | Apr 13, 2023 12:26 pm | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen file photo
Speed radar sign on Dixwell Ave.
A road-safety proposal that would allow local traffic authorities to separate from police commissions is making its way through the state legislature — as city charter revisers consider how best to act if such a law change passes.
Continue reading ‘To Split Or Not To Split Traffic & Police Boards’
by | Apr 13, 2023 9:13 am | Comments (17)
Thomas Breen file photo
Charter Revision Commissioners: $5K could encourage more New Haveners to run for local legislative office.
Should alders receive their first pay raise in more than three decades — or is a $2,000 annual stipend enough to cover some of the costs of local legislators’ time-consuming and basically volunteer public-service jobs?
by | Apr 11, 2023 3:50 pm | Comments (10)
Members of Goldenberg's $1,000 Club: McKinsey's Vishnu Kamalnath, Kevin Straight, Kevin Buehler; former Philly Mayor Michael Nutter, who met the candidate at Columbia Biz school.
Staff Photos
Maxed-out developers: Elicker donors Yves Joseph, Carter Winstanley, Randy Salvatore, Lynn Fusco.
Mayoral candidate Tom Goldenberg grabbed $1,000 donations from 17 different people — and ended up with less cash than all his Democratic primary competitors who swore off taking four-figure checks.
by | Apr 3, 2023 1:00 pm | Comments (18)
Paul Bass Photo
Ludean Spears aboard the 243: Connecticut has the money.
Ludean Spears shelled out $68 for a monthly pass and another $48 for her daughter so they could return riding CT Transit buses Monday.
She wasn’t pleased.
by | Mar 28, 2023 12:22 pm | Comments (11)
Zoom photo
4-year terms, on the table at latest charter-review panel.
Hartford and Middletown recently moved from two-year to four-year terms for their mayors and local legislators. Should New Haven do the same?
The Charter Revision Commission considered that question while hearing from representatives of four other Connecticut towns, all of whom spoke in support of longer mayoral stints in office.
Continue reading ‘If It's Good Enough For Hartford, Middletown ...’
by | Mar 22, 2023 4:53 pm | Comments (25)
File photos
City social services director Mehul Dalal, Yale epidemiologist Robert Heimer, and DESK leader Steve Werlin: All in support of harm reduction center pilot.
City public health experts and homelessness-services advocates traveled to Hartford — online and in person — to support a proposal to counter a fatally rising tide of local opioid overdoses by providing a safe area to consume drugs under medical supervision.
by | Mar 21, 2023 12:23 pm | Comments (4)
You can help us fix this mess. Or we’ll do it ourselves.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent that message to tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
Continue reading ‘Blumenthal To Big Tech: “Reform Is Coming”’
by | Mar 20, 2023 11:39 am | Comments (25)
Thomas Breen Photo
Aboard the 206.
Roland Lemar decided to pass up a free ride to supporting constituents’ quests for free bus rides.
by | Mar 17, 2023 12:06 pm | Comments (35)
Paul Bass Photo
Elicker fielding questions at reelection campaign kick-off.
Justin Elicker said he can understand where his numerous mayoral campaign opponents are coming from when they say they can do a better job tackling the city’s challenges.
by | Mar 14, 2023 5:01 pm | Comments (14)
Maya McFadden photo
Monday's in-person watch party for online school board meeting.
Several dozen city teachers, parents, and public-school advocates were able to hear each other clap and cheer — live, in person, in the same room, together — during an in-person watch party for a Board of Education that has been meeting online only for the past three years.
Continue reading ‘In-Person Teachers Watch Online School Board’
by | Mar 9, 2023 2:19 pm | Comments (14)
Paul Bass Photo
Here to stay: The Koffee? outdoor parking-space patio.
Duncan Goodall won’t need to dismantle an outdoor dining patio this Friday and rebuild it five weeks later, thanks to a reprieve from City Hall.
