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 | Jun 21, 2023 10:20 am | Comments (3)
Contributed photo
Mayor Elicker (center) at "summer fun" presser at Lighthouse Park.
Summer has officially begun — and New Haven is ready for it, with movies in the park and free basketball lessons and open swims and summer-slump-combatting reading challenges on tap.
by and | Jun 19, 2023 4:22 pm | Comments (1)
Kian Ahmadi photo
Jermaine Galberth at Scantlebury Park's splash pad on Monday.
As two-year-old Jermaine Galberth, Jr. pushed his little sister Jasmine’s stroller through the Scantlebury Park splash pad, proud dad Jermaine, Sr. watched his children at play — and remembered when he was a kid and there was little more than sewer water in a place now teeming with much healthier opportunities for cooling off.
by | Jun 15, 2023 2:57 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen photo
Kishaun Jenkins: Celebrating "the coolest spot to be."
A Boston-based affordable housing developer has dropped its plans to buy a Kensington Street public park and construct 15 new apartments in its stead — prompting the Elicker administration to move to end a related years-long lawsuit on the grounds that the contested public greenspace will remain public and green.
by | Jun 15, 2023 1:54 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass
Carmen Pajarillo took a break from studying for a medical board exam Thursday morning by bringing her dog Honey to a hidden pocket of paradise.
Continue reading ‘The Word On Jefferson Street: An Urban Oasis Beckons’
by | Jun 13, 2023 12:43 pm | Comments (2)
Abiba Biao photos
On the newly renovated and painted Goffe Street Park courts.
"Super" John Williamson's daughters Shareebah, Kali, and Raushana Williamson: Keeping dad's legacy alive.
Michael Evans-Benton watched as a trio of teenagers shot hoops on the newly renovated basketball courts at Goffe Street Park — and found himself captivated not just by the game before him, but also by the bright red and green colors and swirling eye design beneath the players’ feet.
by | Jun 12, 2023 2:55 pm | Comments (12)
Paul Bass Photo
Josh Philie finishing up one of the new Coogan murals.
The city’s youth and recreation department handed cans to graffiti artists to spray away on the walls of Coogan Pavilion and Edgewood skate park — in the hope of retaining a family-friendly feeling for the summer.
by | May 31, 2023 6:09 pm | Comments (22)
Zoom images
Clockwise from top left: Mayoral candidates Shafiq Abdussabur, Liam Brennan, Wendy Hamilton, and Tom Goldenberg at Tuesday's debate.
A network of green spaces linking every public park in New Haven. A larger role for people of color and women in building the city’s physical landscape. A pedestrian walkway connecting Union Station to Downtown. A ban on new parking lots and garages in favor of playgrounds.
Continue reading ‘Debate Pitch: Here's How I'd Fix The Parks’
by | May 25, 2023 12:10 pm | Comments (8)
Nora Grace-Flood and Austin Traver photos
Walter Pop Smith little leaguers play ball!
Coach Wayne Morrison to City: Please level the playing field.
City Little Leaguers pitched, slid, struck out and hit homers at the Munson Street baseball fields on which generations of baby baseball players have practiced for nearly 70 years — while attentive parents and coaches fretted about how the skewed state of those playing grounds could stymie their kids’ games and self-esteem.
by | Apr 28, 2023 4:43 pm | Comments (41)
City of New Haven rendering
A sketch of the proposed new Long Wharf Drive park.
City and state officials imagined a not-too-distant future when New Haven residents and visitors alike can comfortably walk along, eat by, play at, and enjoy a rebuilt and amenity-rich waterfront park, as they celebrated a recent $12.1 million windfall for Long Wharf’s coming transformation.
Continue reading ‘$12M State Grant Celebrated For Long Wharf Park's Renewal’
by | Apr 28, 2023 8:42 am | Comments (18)
Paul Bass Photo
De Anda: Regeneration nation.
Joshua De Anda knelt to pull weeds amid a forest of oak trees — that towered, for now, barely above his knees.
In the process he has been helping his city and his country figure out how to enable the “king of trees” to thrive again and truly tower in its indigenous habitats.
by | Apr 24, 2023 8:41 am | Comments (2)
Allan Appel photo
Team Popcorn Colonel leader Ariel Unger with designer ball and gifts of floss.
The tension was mounting (well, sort of) late Saturday afternoon at East Rock Park: Team Popcorn Colonel — dressed in matching Orville Redenbacher outfits, complete with red suspenders and bow ties — were busy jumping on a trampoline while trying to sink a beachball-size papier-mâché popcorn kernel into a bucket.
Nearby across a blanket strewn with bike look-alike food (Cheetos and toothpicks in the shape of a two-wheeler?), Team Bicycle were forming themselves into a human velocipede.
Continue reading ‘Who Needs Burning Man? We Have Competitive Picnicking’
by | Apr 21, 2023 1:13 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photos
Lifetime parks commission members Carl Babb, David Belowsky ...
... and Hector Torres.
David Belowsky, Carl Babb, and Hector Torres haven’t yet figured out the secret to living forever.
If they do find that key to immortality, they’d likely be able to stay on the parks commission for just as long — even if the city does wind up dropping the board’s longstanding, and mysterious, lifetime appointments.
Continue reading ‘Immortality Loophole Looms For Board Lifers’
by | Apr 21, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (9)
Yaakov Gottlieb file photo
Pop Smith All-Star Jayshawn pitches on Bowen Field in 2020.
The dugouts at Bowen Field need to be extended to let baseball teams sit together.
The Green needs more trash cans — with lids — to handle overflowing waste.
A woodsy park on Russell Street needs to be surveyed to resolve a tree-cutting dispute.
And an East Shore ex-skating rink needs to be renovated into a community center — which will be renamed in part to honor a Morris Cove teen who, before his sudden death last year, spent much of his young life playing with friends in the park.
by | Apr 19, 2023 2:50 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Outdoor fitness equipment slated for Wooster Memorial Park.
Wooster Street parkgoers should soon have a new climbing structure, pull up bars, and other outdoor fitness equipment to help them exercise in the public greenspace, thanks to a donation from the Dalio Foundation.
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 17, 2023 3:33 pm | Comments (7)
Lisa Reisman photos
A shower of pink, for 50th straight year.
Valentina Simon doing her thing at Sunday's fest.
Amid a riot of pink blossoms, the scent of spring in the air, and the sounds of Airborne’s “Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon,” Valentina Simon leapt and spun and twirled in front of the bandstand, prompting others to join her.
Continue reading ‘Wooster Square Blooms At 50th Blossom Fest’
by and | Apr 11, 2023 8:38 am | Comments (18)
City of New Haven rendering
A sketch of the proposed new Long Wharf Drive park.
New Haven has landed $12.1 million in state aid to help transform Long Wharf park into an amenity-rich destination, as part of a broader rebuild of the city’s industrial waterfront district.
by | Apr 3, 2023 4:59 pm | Comments (3)
Lisa Reisman file photo
Susan Comito takes a swing as pickleball enthusiasts square off at the Floyd Little Athletic Center-hosted regional tournament (below).
“Let’s pickleball,” city youth and rec director Gwendolyn Busch Williams called out, her words carrying through the rafters of Floyd Little Athletic Center and eliciting cascades of cheers and hoots.
Thus launched a scene unprecedented in the 385-year history of New Haven: hundreds of picklers pocking, popping, and dinking across a sea of orange nets in the 100,000-square-foot athletic space.
by | Mar 17, 2023 12:04 pm | Comments (9)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Nan Bartow at the West River Greenway.
A trio of park stewards offered a budget revision pitch: undo the recent merger of the Parks and Public Works departments, and keep in the proposed new hires who’d care for the city’s greenspaces.
Continue reading ‘Park Stewards Back Budget Bump, Seek Merger Undo’
by | Mar 16, 2023 3:16 pm | Comments (2)
Laura GLesby Photo
City Labor Relations Director Wendella Ault Battey at Monday's committee meeting.
(Updated) Seventy-five parks employees are now one step closer to a new contract — three years after their last city labor accord expired.
Continue reading ‘New 5-Year Parks, Public Works Union Contract Advances’
by | Feb 22, 2023 9:06 am | Comments (5)
FitLot photo
A FitLot "outdoor fitness park" in Oregon. Coming soon to the Elm City?
A New Orleans-based “outdoor fitness” company has set its sights on helping New Haven parkgoers break a sweat while exercising in one of the Elm City’s open greenspaces.
by | Feb 20, 2023 11:40 am | Comments (4)
Zoom photo
New Parks & Public Works Deputy Stephen Hladun at recent parks commission meeting.
A veteran of Bridgeport’s parks and rec department is now New Haven’s top parks official, after stepping into the role of deputy director in the city’s Department of Parks & Public Works.
by | Feb 16, 2023 3:41 pm | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby photo
The current Edgewood Park Mid Bridge, on tap to be replaced.
It may not match the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, but it “looks pretty decent.”
Continue reading ‘Pedestrian Footbridge Replacement Gets Thumbs-Up’
by | Feb 16, 2023 8:47 am | Comments (35)
Thomas Breen photo
Time to reset the clock? The Edgewood Park sundial.
A new group of citywide parks advocates is calling on Mayor Justin Elicker to up his administration’s care for open spaces — including by reinstating a stand-alone department for parks and trees.
Continue reading ‘"Friends" To City: Bring Back Parks Dept.’
