by | Dec 20, 2023 10:20 am | Comments (29)
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At Tuesday's ULA-hosted meetup at 200 Orange.
New Haveners who hail from Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Chile, Honduras, and elsewhere across Latin America gathered downtown to deliver a message to the mayor: that their adopted home city should be a “sanctuary city” — not just by executive order, but by law.
Continue reading ‘Immigrants Press Mayor For "Sanctuary" Law’
by and | Dec 18, 2023 9:15 am | Comments (15)
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198 River St.: Former factory, to be sold for $1.
The Elicker administration won approval to sell a vacant, contaminated waterfront industrial property in Fair Haven for $1 to a local builder and provide $400,000 in cleanup funds, to help develop the site of the now-demolished former Bigelow factory complex into a new 10,000 square-foot commercial/industrial building.
by | Dec 15, 2023 3:44 pm | Comments (15)
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Immigrant activists at a protest on Monday outside City Hall.
What happens when a city official reports your marriage to immigration authorities?
Immigration lawyers are working to make sense of that question as local families prepare for what could be years of scrutiny, uncertainty, and anxiety.
Continue reading ‘Next Steps Weighed After Marriage Reports To Feds’
by | Dec 12, 2023 2:10 pm | Comments (29)
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Norma Rodriguez-Reyes, who officiated Erika's wedding: "The day of a marriage is one of the happiest days in their lives."
Three weeks after getting married, Erika found herself wondering whether her family was one of at least 78 couples that a city official had reported to federal immigration authorities.
“I am very afraid,” she said in Spanish.
Continue reading ‘Fearing Feds, Immigrants Ask For Protection’
by | Dec 12, 2023 9:06 am | Comments (36)
Clockwise: Dennis Serfilippi, Michael Gormany, Alex Pullen, and Justin Elicker.
A local financial consultant and recent Westville alder candidate is suing the city for keeping non-residents in New Haven’s top financial offices — and is pushing to push out the current controller and tax assessor in the name of improved municipal fiscal management and compliance with the city charter.
Mayor Justin Elicker has responded by pressing the importance of keeping the most qualified people in those jobs amid a shortage of applicants, and has denied that the city is violating the charter as his administration seeks to keep those finance roles filled.
Continue reading ‘Lawsuit Seeks To Enforce Residency Requirements’
by | Dec 11, 2023 2:01 pm | Comments (26)
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Trish Clark: Now on leave for flagging 78 marriages in 3-month period to federal immigration authorities.
State DPH associate Katie Sehi emailed this guidance to Clark in February.
(Updated) A state employee told New Haven’s official responsible for maintaining marriage records to report “suspicious” marriage license applicants to federal immigration authorities.
The registrar replied that her office was “uncomfortable” issuing licenses to “numerous” couples — before reporting at least 78 marriage licenses for non-citizen immigrants in a three-month period to the Department of Homeland Security.
Continue reading ‘State Emails To City: "Report" "Suspicious" Immigrant Marriages’
by and | Dec 7, 2023 2:33 pm | Comments (40)
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Registrar of Vital Statistics Patricia Clark: "I've done nothing wrong."
(Updated) The city official responsible for maintaining marriage records has been placed on paid administrative leave as the Elicker administration investigates whether or not she violated a local executive order by reporting at least 73 marriages in a three-month period as “questionable” to federal immigration officials, on state guidance.
by | Dec 7, 2023 11:29 am | Comments (55)
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Mayor Elicker: City will make more money in near term if Yale takes 300 George off tax rolls ...
City of New Haven data
... because of city-Yale deal that requires university to pay portion of tax bills for 12 years after converting to tax-exempt.
Even if Yale does take the recently purchased med-tech complex at 300 George St. off the tax rolls, New Haven will bring in more revenue from that property over the next 13 years than if the university had never even bought it.
So argued Mayor Justin Elicker in an interview about Yale’s $139.6 million acquisition of the nine-story downtown lab-and-office building — and in defense of the near-term benefits of a key provision of a recently inked city-Yale deal.
Continue reading ‘Mayor: New Haven Budget Benefits From Yale's 300 George Buy’
by | Dec 5, 2023 9:01 am | Comments (23)
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Kica Matos: Time to lead again.
Sixteen years after New Haven became the first city to issue a municipal ID card to city residents regardless of their citizenship status, advocates are calling on the city to once again lead the way in protecting immigrant rights — including by creating a new city Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Continue reading ‘Advocates To City: Be Bold Again On Immigrant Rights’
by | Dec 5, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (0)
The 2023 hurricane season is underway and New Haven residents should plan for the possibility of flooding, which may lead to impassable roads, power outages, and property damage. To learn how to prepare for a flood, visit here.
Continue reading ‘Resilient New Haven: Continuously Improving Hurricane and Flood Preparedness’
by | Nov 30, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (18)
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Asst. Chief Bialecki at July swearing-in ceremony.
Assistant Fire Chief Justin Bialecki is stepping down from his city job at the end of the week, after nearly two decades with the New Haven Fire Department, including four months in the second-to-top role.
by | Nov 22, 2023 8:32 am | Comments (4)
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Alder Troy Streater, who petitioned for Geneva Pollock Way, on the block between the two renamed corners.
Geneva Pollock and Pearlie Napoleon were friends who both dedicated their lives to their students and their Newhallville community. So it’s fitting that the street corners soon to be named after them will be located just one block apart.
by | Nov 20, 2023 9:10 am | Comments (21)
Church to Elicker: "Turn on the heat"
Sixty tiny-home supporters at a church in North Branford lifted their voices in song. It was about electricity and housing affordability, and aimed at New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.
Continue reading ‘Suburban Fundraisers Sing For Hill's Tiny Homes’
by | Nov 16, 2023 12:54 pm | Comments (7)
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Friends Jean-Claude Harrison and Philip Paris after testifying before the Health and Human Services committee.
A few days after obtaining stable housing, Philip Paris approached a committee of alders with a message he’s still trying to fully believe: that regardless of the fact that his addiction played a role in his homelessness, “my need is just as valid as anyone else’s.”
Continue reading ‘Homelessness Update Uncovers Mental Health Toll’
by | Nov 13, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (8)
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Eliza Halsey at Thursday's Board of Alders meeting.
The Board of Alders officially approved local charter school founder Eliza Halsey to lead the city’s social services department — while passing new mechanisms to enforce elevator maintenance and salons’ health code compliance.
Continue reading ‘Halsey Confirmed As New Social Services Chief’
by | Nov 9, 2023 9:31 am | Comments (41)
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Church near Elm: Two-way street approacheth?
The city’s transit department is moving ahead with plans to convert a handful of downtown streets from one-way to two-way — and is seeking public input before deciding how many parking spots should remain on George Street, where protected bike lanes should go on York, and whether or not to place a Bus Rapid Transit lane in the middle of Church Street.
Continue reading ‘Wanted: Public Input On 2-Way Street Conversion Proposals’
by | Nov 7, 2023 9:42 am | Comments (13)
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Mayor Elicker (right) and one side of the contested flyer.
New Haven’s public financing program board members delayed acting on a complaint filed against the mayor’s reelection campaign until after the election, leaving up in the air just how directly taxpayer-funded local candidates can urge voters to support ballot measures like this year’s charter revision.
by | Oct 27, 2023 9:52 am | Comments (10)
URI Director Colleen Murphy-Dunning and Mayor Justin Elicker.
The Yale-affiliated environmental nonprofit that already oversees city tree plantings has been tapped to help figure out the future structure of New Haven’s parks department.
Continue reading ‘URI Picked To Consult On Parks Department Redo’
by | Oct 24, 2023 1:32 pm | Comments (2)
Yash Roy photo
Community Services Administrator nominee Eliza Halsey, at City Hall Monday.
The founder and long-time executive director of a Blake Street public charter school is one big step closer to becoming the city’s next head of social services, after winning a vote of support from a key aldermanic committee.
Continue reading ‘New Social Services Chief's Appointment Advances’
by | Oct 23, 2023 12:51 pm | Comments (5)
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A design of 6 new senior apartments coming to Ferry Street.
Six new one-bedroom apartments for seniors are coming to two vacant lots on Ferry Street, in a developer’s bid to help elderly residents get out of nursing homes and back into neighborhoods.
by | Oct 20, 2023 12:19 pm | Comments (51)
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David Belowsky: Vote no to charter revisions — and let him live out his life on the city's Board of Park Commissioners.
Lawn signs opposing changes to the city’s charter have started popping up around town — after the chair of New Haven’s parks commission printed 25 “Vote No” placards in a bid to preserve his lifetime seat on the volunteer body that oversees public greenspaces.
That man, David Belowsky, isn’t the only New Havener paying attention to this year’s general election ballot question.
Continue reading ‘Parks Lifer Campaigns Against New Charter’
by | Oct 19, 2023 11:57 am | Comments (10)
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45 Church St.: Get ready to club.
Those looking to boogie in a vacant former bank may soon be in luck — now that a new nightclub called “The Vault” has received its final needed city approval to open in the marble-columned confines of the ex-Connecticut Savings Bank on Church Street.
by | Oct 18, 2023 2:00 pm | Comments (1)
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Majority Leader Furlow (center) at Monday's Board of Alders meeting.
The city’s top employees are set to make more money and hopefully see more job competition — now that the Board of Alders has approved salary range bumps and automatic cost of living adjustments for department heads, coordinators, and managers not covered by public-sector unions.
by | Oct 17, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (23)
Alder Marchand: "This facility will support people on their journeys towards being housed.”
The Board of Alders signed off on a new $3.5 million contract with a local nonprofit that will oversee the crisis bed program at a Foxon Boulevard hotel that is slated to be converted into a homeless shelter before winter hits.
Continue reading ‘$3.5M Hotel-To-Homeless Shelter Contract OK'd’
by | Oct 16, 2023 9:58 am | Comments (16)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
A "smart" MK5 meter and a "dumb" MK3 meter on display, as described by city traffic deputy Bijan Notghi.
Drivers may soon uncover new routes to pay for parking in New Haven — as the city looks into buying 1,400 new meters and 50 new kiosks with capacity to accept card taps and Apple Pay rather than just inserted credit cards and coins.
