by | Oct 1, 2021 3:42 pm | Comments (6)
Jorge A. Martinez, Jr. Photo
Bond at Portofino’s: I’ll continue Denise Merrill’s agenda.
It’s not the resume that counts most. It’s the talent.
Continue reading ‘At Fundraiser, Bond Supporters Make Case For “Underdog” Bid’
by | Sep 27, 2021 11:31 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
The Ralph Walker Skating Rink on Upper State Street.
The Board of Alders unanimously approved two public-private agreements — one that will keep Cornell Scott Hill Health Center in Dixwell for the next two decades, another that will bring an ice rink management company to Upper State Street for the next five years.
Continue reading ‘20-Year Hill Health, 5-Year Skating Rink Contracts OK’d’
by | Sep 23, 2021 8:03 am | Comments (1)
Mary Lesser
Effects of Bad Government.
At first glance, Mary Lesser’s painting is playful, almost festive, the earth a bright orange, the characters frolicking on the slope a cotton-candy pink. But then it becomes clear that the house at the top of that hill is the White House, and the sky is black, and suddenly the whole painting inverts itself. Is it a frolic or a frenzy? A rampage? Once established, that sense of ominousness can’t be shaken — which is just how Lesser wants it.
by | Aug 31, 2021 1:26 pm | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden Photos
Carlos Eyzaguirre presents Mike Amore Jr. with mayoral proclamation.
Since the 1950s, much of New Haven has kept its attire fresh and clean thanks to Jet Cleaners, which celebrated its 65th year in business Tuesday with city officials and neighbors.
Continue reading ‘Upper State Street Celebrates Jet Cleaners’ 65th Birthday, New Parklet’
by | Aug 11, 2021 9:50 am | Comments (12)
EPIMONI DESIGN
BoomBoomBoom! 186 units on tap for Fair Street.
City zoners unanimously approved land-use relief for two projects that promise to bring hundreds of new market-rate apartments to Wooster Square and East Rock.
by | Aug 10, 2021 3:40 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Ralph Walker Skating Rink.
Alders unanimously advanced two proposed public-private accords — one that would keep a community health center in Dixwell for the next two decades, another that would bring an ice rink management company to Upper State Street for the next five years.
Continue reading ‘Hill Health, Skating Rink Contracts Advance’
by | Aug 2, 2021 8:36 pm | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden photo
St. Francis & St. Rose of Lima School at the ice rink in February 2020.
The city has tapped a Bridgeport-based management company with three decades of experience operating ice rinks to help turn the renovated Ralph Walker Skating Rink into a “wonderland of ice” starting this October.
Continue reading ‘City Pitches 5-Year Skating Rink Contract’
by | Jul 22, 2021 4:36 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
At the Scantlebury Park splash pad.
One new sign, four temporary security bollards, and a new operator for the skating rink were all voted up.
No vote was taken — yet — on a proposed new policy asserting the right of every neighborhood in town to have a playscape or playground and a water area.
Continue reading ‘Ice Rink Contract, Scantlebury Sign Approved’
by | Jul 20, 2021 9:52 am | Comments (2)
Contributed photo
Marshall cleaning up a scene on A&E’s “Dirty Rotten Cleaners.”
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Marshall gets ready for action.
Sadie Marshall’s team packed up her gear to answer a call to clean up two decomposing bodies, after answering a separate call from the A&E Network to broadcast her “Dirty Rotten” work to the nation.
by | Jul 16, 2021 1:44 pm | Comments (16)
John McFadyen
Design with planned new building at bottom right.
Four under-utilized and individually unusable parcels of land across from the Corsair apartment complex on the old industrial patch of upper State Street are slated to become the site of 75 market-rate units. Look for solar arrays on the roof and interior design features to appeal to people who have gotten used to working from home during the pandemic, among other amenities.
by | Jul 16, 2021 9:13 am | Comments (0)
Joy Bush
Troubled Turnips.
The turnip’s gnarled skin and desiccated sprouts stand out all the more because of the vivid red background they’ve been placed in front of. Nearby is a head of lettuce rendered inedible by time and neglect, a beet imploding with rot, a potato molding and sprouting at the same time. Joy Bush’s vibrantly decaying vegetables are part of “The Shape of Color” — the latest exhibit at City Gallery on Upper State Street, running now through Aug. 8, featuring the work of Bush, Judy Atlas, Rita Hannafin, and Tom Peterson — and, it turns out, born of a deeply political moment.
by | Jun 8, 2021 8:32 am | Comments (0)
Sheila Kaczmarek’s English Sycamore grabs the eye as soon as you enter City Gallery on Upper State Street. Viewed one way, it appears almost as if it could move, like a mobile. Viewed another, it’s possible to imagine it’s growing out of the wall. Its organic forms add up, fully, to an enveloping composition — and it’s possible to imagine it could have kept growing, or that the pod in the middle of it might hatch. That sense of completeness and open possibility isn’t just part of the finished piece, but also is present in the way it’s made.
by | May 21, 2021 10:41 am | Comments (4)
City of New Haven
That small triangle at bottom right now belongs, again, to the DOT.
The city has officially handed back to the state a vacant triangle of land on Mill River Street — with the hopes that that small parcel may one day grow into 70+ new apartments.
Continue reading ‘Little Land Triangle Ditched To Help Building Plans’
by | May 7, 2021 10:17 am | Comments (1)
Ransome
Coming Out.
Ransome’s Coming Out manages to be comforting and confounding at the same time. The artist’s use and rendition of a quilt makes it feel like safety.
But the men under the quilt don’t feel safe.
“It’s a painting about two gay slaves who were lovers,” said curator Howard el-Yasin, “which in itself speaks to rupture. One is looking at the arrows and the street, the other at the gallery. One is calling, and one is silent.”
Ransome’s painting tells a more complicated story of slavery and Blackness than one we might usually see in public, and it’s part of “Legacy and Rupture,” the show running at City Galley on Upper State St. through May 30. Curated by interdisciplinary artist and educator Howard el-Yasin, in addition to Ransome, it features artists Nathaniel Donnett, Sika Foyer, Merik Goma, James Montford, Kamar Thomas, and Marisa Williamson.
by | Apr 23, 2021 2:23 pm | Comments (5)
City of New Haven
The city plans to ditch the small triangle at bottom right to make the whole red triangle possible.
The triangle of land is only 0.06 square miles. Yet without it, plans for an entire 70-unit apartment building near the Mill River might fall through.
Continue reading ‘Little Triangle Plays Big Role In Building Plans’
by | Apr 16, 2021 9:14 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
The works in “Portals and Memories” — up now at City Gallery on Upper State Street through April 25 — are, on one level, simply the latest series of paintings by artist Joyce Greenfield, done in the past two-and-a-half months. On another level, however, they represent a breakthrough, for Greenfield, to a new way of making art.
by | Mar 23, 2021 3:26 pm | Comments (2)
A broken-in front door, or a smashed-in window as the point of entry. Computers, iPads, generators, items that might easily be pawned are taken.
Continue reading ‘Rash Of Business Burglaries Shakes Upper State’
by | Mar 23, 2021 9:35 am | Comments (17)
City of New Haven
The city plans to ditch a vacant lot (bottom right in photo) to facilitate the development of next phase of Corsair.
Thomas Breen pre-pandemic photo
City’s Carlos Eyzaguirre: Lot is currently empty and trashed.
Forty-four years after first acquiring a triangular sliver of highway-adjacent land from the state, the city plans to give it back — with the hopes that the parcel could soon sprout roughly 70 Upper State Street apartments as part of “Corsair II.”
by | Mar 22, 2021 9:04 am | Comments (6)
Kane with Momi.
Kimono: many people are familiar with it as an article of traditional Japanese clothing. But as artist Kathy Kane points out, it’s also “such a beautiful word.” The juxtaposition is apt. In conjuring up the practical and concrete with the aesthetic and the abstract, Kane has made a series of pieces that allow her to express her most recent ideas as a thoroughly abstract painter, while marrying it to a familiar form.
The resulting show, “Kimono,” runs now through March 28 at City Gallery on Upper State Street.
by | Mar 16, 2021 9:33 am | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photo
On Friday evening, Elena Augusewicz, Peter Cunningham, Jared Emerling, Jessica Larkin-Wells, Conor Perreault, and Charli Taylor — a.k.a. six of the Never Ending Books Collective — met in the storefront at 810 State St. They talked about how the beloved bookstore, music spot, and community space, which announced it was ending its decades-long run in December, may turn out not to be ending after all.
Continue reading ‘Collective Keeps Never Ending Books Alive’
by | Feb 12, 2021 11:24 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photo
Artist Meg Bloom looked over the pieces in “Buried in the Bones,” her new show at City Gallery on Upper State Street, running now through Feb. 28. “I love rotted trees and dead flowers,” she said. “I’m always interested in that, things decaying and falling apart, but with a touch of life in there.” If it sounds like she’s responding to current events, she is. But it’s also a statement about the way the New Haven-based artist has been doing art for decades.
Continue reading ‘Artist Meg Bloom Finds Response In Persistence’
by | Jan 21, 2021 6:29 pm | Comments (7)
Courtney Luciana photo
Mayor Elicker (second from right) helps cut the ribbon at The Neighborhodo Cafe on State Street.
City and state officials looking for a sign of small business hope amidst the ongoing pandemic found one — well, four — on Upper State Street, in the form of local restaurants still open during Covid.
Continue reading ‘4 Ribbons Cut For Resilient State St. Restaurants’
by | Jan 15, 2021 4:07 pm | Comments (1)
Dylan Sloan Photo
Chef Isaiah Perez applies the finishing touches.
Since adding the “Prison Reformer” hot dog — spicy mustard and his signature sauce — to the menu at Jordan’s Hot Dogs and Mac on State Street, Corey Spruill has gotten plenty of questions from customers.
He intended it that way.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Corey’s “Reformer” Frank’
by | Jan 6, 2021 10:18 am | Comments (0)
Ruth Sack
There’s a clock on the back wall of City Gallery. It doesn’t have hands, and the numbers by and large have been replaced by abstract shapes. It’s a sign of how time has drifted away, and the expression on its face gives an unmistakable sense of mixed feelings. The piece, by artist Ruth Sack, is about the election season, the sense of anticipation and worry it has brought, but in another sense it sums up how so much of the last year felt — and how we look to this coming year with beleaguered hope.
by | Dec 21, 2020 10:32 am | Comments (5)
The infamous Women’s Issues section, now holding a wider variety of selections.
State Street book & performance space closing doors next week.
