by
Lisa Reisman |
Jun 9, 2025 2:15 pm
|
Comments
(3)
Lisa Reisman photo
Josiah, poised to block Damari, in Connect 4.
At the Celentano School cafeteria on a recent afternoon, city police Officer Alethia Moore made a bold proclamation. “No one’s beating me at Uno,” she told the group of young students at her lunch table with a smile.
At a nearby table, Josiah, a fifth grader, was on a roll, blocking each attempt of his opponent to make inroads in Connect 4. “You got this,” he said to himself quietly, eyes fixed in concentration, as classmates throughout the space engaged in their own heated games of Uno, Connect 4, checkers, and dominoes.
The occasion was a pilot run of the Games Academy, the brainchild of New Havener Neil Richardson, the 2018 City Spirit honoree, who started the program in the early 1990s at Jackie Robinson Middle School while at the Board of Education.
by
Mona Mahadevan |
Jun 6, 2025 9:41 am
|
Comments
(3)
Mona Mahadevan photos
William Perez: Spanish fluency helpful for connecting.
English-German-Arabic speaker Omar Dweck (right), with mom Shimaa Ebrahim: Proud of language skills, and a "proud Egyptian."
While both mean “straw” in Spanish, Wilbur Cross High School senior William Perez cannot explain why he reaches for sorbeto in some moments and popote in others. After years of learning Spanish at home and in school, he just chooses the right word instinctively.
He was honored for that skill, alongside 195 other graduating seniors, by the city’s public school district Thursday evening. Each student received a Connecticut Seal of Biliteracy, an award that recognizes their proficiency in English and at least one other language, in the Wilbur Cross auditorium at 181 Mitchell Dr.
by
Mona Mahadevan |
May 30, 2025 8:53 am
|
Comments
(4)
Thomas Breen file photo
LCI inspecting a Nash St. rental property in October.
Frustrations with ceiling mold, peeling vinyl siding, and unresponsive landlords prompted tenants and neighbors at the most recent East Rock Community Management Team meeting to try to figure out what can be done about deteriorating rental homes in East Rock.
The currently vacant firehouse building at 15 Edwards St. ...
Sam Gardner Rendering
... now slated for housing.
A local developer and a group of East Rock neighbors faced off once again over the fate of the old Edwards Street firehouse.
This time, the developer succeeded and received City Plan Commission approval to build 27 apartments both within and atop the firehouse — despite protests that denser housing would unleash the “gradual demise” of the neighborhood.
Community connectors: Reelection-runner Alders Caroline Tanbee Smith and Gary Hogan at WNHH FM.
First-term Alder Gary Hogan is meeting with some of his new colleagues this week to see if they can find more money for nonprofits when they vote next week on a new city budget.
First-term Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith is speaking with colleagues about whether they can find more money for a school system facing up to 129 staff layoffs.
If they find themselves back in City Hall’s alder chambers to help decide the following year’s budget, they hope to bring forward ways to boost library programming and budding catering businesses.
by
Jisu Sheen |
May 19, 2025 10:21 am
|
Comments
(0)
Brian Nguyen taking inspiration from one a book cover.
Amateur artists hoping for a turf war Sunday as two DIY art groups scheduled their meetups at the same time — and almost the same spot — in East Rock would be sorely disappointed. What happened instead was a fun, accidental crossover full of traitorous excursions to the other side.
by
Allan Appel |
May 12, 2025 9:22 am
|
Comments
(3)
Allan Appel Photos
The Sullivan family, down from New Hampshire to St. Mary's to visit grandma Jeannie Barry (third from right).
Michelle Florez, and son Deo, at St. Francis on Ferry St.: “If the new pope can shine light on issues, clear people’s minds, and add some hope, that’s what his role should be."
The first American pope, as seen in lobby of St. Stan's.
Let the new pope, Leo XIV, consider elevating Catholic women to become deacons, Jeannie Barry said in the lobby of St. Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue.
Whoa! Not so fast, said Barry’s daughter, Emily Sullivan. Sullivan is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College, in theology. “Women are equal in dignity but distinctive in their church roles,” she said. “And the church is bound by scripture and tradition.”
Or as Carlos Rodriguez put it more succinctly an hour earlier and at a different church across town, on his way into an 11:00 a.m. Spanish-language mass at St. Francis on Ferry Street in Fair Haven: “It doesn’t matter who the pope is. The pope is the pope and God is God.”
(Updated) City police are looking for a man who appeared to shout an anti-trans slur at a pro-Palestinian protester before spitting in that protester’s face.
by
Maya McFadden |
May 6, 2025 4:04 pm
|
Comments
(3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Danyele McCrory performs on Crosstalk.
With a guitar in hand, Wilbur Cross junior Danyele McCrory strummed a Pearl Jam song she first heard in a video game — a musical discovery that sparked her interest in learning an instrument, and that ultimately led to her showcasing her talents on a new student-led podcast.
At the latest hybrid online/in-person school board meeting.
Worthington Hooker’s school community is still looking for answers as to exactly why the superintendent plans to move the school’s assistant principal somewhere else.
by
Nathaniel Rosenberg and Thomas Breen |
Apr 23, 2025 11:31 pm
|
Comments
(10)
Nathaniel Rosenberg photo
Itamar Ben-Gvir (center) with Rabbi Shmully Hecht (second from left), as security protects the Israeli minister from water bottles thrown by protesters.
Nathaniel Rosenberg photo
Earlier in the day outside 442 Orange.
Protesters jeer attendees as they leave the event; water bottles were thrown at Ben-Gvir. Video by Nathaniel Rosenberg.
(Updated) Up to 200 protesters ranging from kaffiyeh-clad pro-Palestine activists to yarmulke-wearing pro-Israel Jews gathered at the intersection of Orange and Trumbull streets Wednesday evening to protest the arrival of far right-wing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to address a Jewish student society called Shabtai.
The night ended with water bottles thrown at the visiting minister and one arrest of a protester.
by
Thomas Breen |
Apr 23, 2025 9:07 pm
|
Comments
(4)
Below are photos from Wednesday’s protest of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the East Rock headquarters of Shabtai, a Jewish society directed towards Yale students. Click here to read a full story about those protests.
Welcome to New Haven? The view of Union Station from Columbus and Church St. South, looking across the future "Union Square" site.
The walk between Union Station and downtown could become a little less forlorn — thanks to a new 20-foot-wide “promenade” the city is looking to build out on Church Street South.
Meanwhile, the city is also applying for a state grant to help slow down Orange Street.
The New Haven Zine Scene was founded in 2023 by local zinester and trash artist Alice Prael to help people make and distribute zines. The group holds craft meetups two to three times per month around New Haven, including a gathering held this past weekend at Never Ending Books/ Volume II in East Rock where folks collaged, chatted, and shared zines with each other.
City Engineer Zinn: This project presents "a generational opportunity to create a first-class active transportation connection."
Looking north on Whitney, from Canner: Road diet en route.
The city’s Engineering Department plans to wrap up final designs for the northern section of a long-delayed, traffic-calming reconfiguration of Whitney Avenue this month — with construction expected to start later this year.
by
Thomas Breen |
Mar 26, 2025 12:36 pm
|
Comments
(0)
New women's locker room, coming to Ralph Walker.
With words of praise for “gender equality,” local land-use commissioners voted in support of a plan to build a locker room for Albertus Magnus College’s women’s hockey team that mirrors that of facilities already available to the school’s men’s hockey team, at a publicly owned ice rink in East Rock.
Atticus expansion rendering, now rendered obsolete.
The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) unanimously rejected Atticus Market’s bid to build a second bathroom at its East Rock grocery and convenience store — citing concerns that the proposed 600-square-foot addition would be “incongruous with the neighborhood.”
Lady Liberty sheds a tear: Former director Chris George (second from right) with the crew at Nicoll Street HQ before the dawn of a new era.
(Opinion) IRIS’s former director reflects on the “small-scale Ellis Island” that was 235 Nicoll St., as the storied refugee resettlement agency plans to leave its longtime East Rock office amid federal funding cuts.
by
Maya McFadden |
Mar 10, 2025 9:46 am
|
Comments
(2)
Maya McFadden Photos
Drawing partners Omar and Rosa Gonzales with finished renditions of Pikachu and Sonic characters ...
... in a class that brings Cross art students together with East Rock kindergartners.
Wilbur Cross sophomore Rosa Gonzales and East Rock School kindergartener Omar put pencils to paper to draw Sonic and Pikachu — as part of a monthly class-to-class collaboration focused on cartooning and literacy.
IRIS Executive Director Salem: Responding to vanishing federal support.
New Haven’s flagship refugee resettlement agency is closing its main doors at 235 Nicoll St. and shifting to remote work and satellite locations after losing millions of dollars in federal funding.
by
Maya McFadden |
Feb 21, 2025 11:28 am
|
Comments
(13)
Maya McFadden Photos
East Rock seventh grader Jeryl searches for frog's large intestines...
...while others check out the frog's tongue and teeth.
East Rock School seventh graders Leia and Lesly suited up in gloves and eye protection to pierce through the unexpectedly tough skin of a frog — and discover, through hands-on education, what a real three-lobed liver looks like.
AG Tong (left): “Let us commit to each other as we run.”
Sasha Watson (center) and her family at Sunday's run.
Five-year-old Tristan Jones stood beside his dad and grandmother and held his rainbow-emblazoned sign high: “I am the descendant of immigrants! I love mom! Go moms!”
His mom, Sasha Watson, was one of more than 3,400 people who registered for Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS)’s annual five-kilometer Run for Refugees, which raised more than $145,000. Around 2,500 runners took off from Wilbur Cross High School at noon on Sunday — undeterred by the four inches of snow from the storm the night before.
