by | May 10, 2023 4:45 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photo
Gov. Lamont, YNHH's Chris O'Connor, and Yale epidemiologist Albert Ko on Wednesday.
Gov. Ned Lamont joined hospital officials in New Haven to declare an official end to the Covid-19 public health emergency — and reflect on lessons for the next one.
by | May 3, 2023 9:19 am | Comments (17)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Save The Sound's Roger Reynolds joins enviro allies in lamenting the still-polluted state of English Station (pictured above).
Local environmental advocates gathered in front of a graffiti-laden gate cutting off the contaminated former English Station power plant from the public — and lauded a recent move by the state’s attorney general pushing United Illuminating to finish cleaning up the site or pay a $2 million annual penalty.
Continue reading ‘English Station Mess Put Back In Spotlight’
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 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 | Mar 24, 2023 11:09 am | Comments (17)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Tent City, bulldozed on March 16: It doesn't have to be like this.
(Opinion) Last week the City of New Haven bulldozed an encampment of tents and make-shift structures along the West River called Tent City that was built by people experiencing homelessness.
City residents responded with cheers, harsh condemnation, and everything in between.
While everyone will not agree on what to do about encampments, we can agree that we would prefer to live in a community where people do not feel that long-term camping by the river is their best option.
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 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 14, 2023 3:13 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass photo
Erick Russell at WNHH FM.
Erick Russell isn’t holding a grudge. He’s negotiating a solution.
Continue reading ‘Russell Sees Progress In Reviving Baby Bonds’
by | Mar 13, 2023 2:23 pm | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby Photo
Banking Commissioner Perez at a New Haven Hill neighborhood housing groundbreaking.
Jorge Perez had a message for Connecticut Monday: “Don’t panic.”
by | Mar 7, 2023 4:47 pm | Comments (37)
3 officials, 2 opinions: Winfield, Elicker, Jacobson.
A killer might have been behind bars the day he instead shot Donate Myers to death had a proposed new state law been in effect. But would the law also unfairly lock up non-killers?
That question has divided New Haven officials over a measure aimed to stem gun violence.
Continue reading ‘Winfield, Mayor & Chief Clash On Gun Bill’
by | Mar 3, 2023 3:24 pm | Comments (38)
Woodbridge’s Board of Education voted to close its doors to new kindergarten students from New Haven next school year — sparking a debate about special education funding, racial and economic integration, and an urban-suburban divide that seems to be growing by the day.
by | Mar 2, 2023 3:12 pm | Comments (39)
Laura Glesby File Photo
Kimber: 2nd time the charm.
Six years after the local Board of Education turned him down, Rev. Boise Kimber took his quest for permission to create an all-boys charter school to the state — and succeeded.
by | Feb 16, 2023 8:42 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Malek Alkhalawe at Common Ground Wednesday.
When Malek Alkhalawe graduates from Common Ground High School this spring, he will already have in hand several serious Google IT certifications allowing him to start his own business online while studying computer engineering in college.
Continue reading ‘Common Ground Lands Grants For Student-Led Projects’
by | Feb 14, 2023 3:57 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
In town Tuesday announcing first $1.5 million in Juul bucks: DMHAS Deputy Colleen Harrington, Attorney General William Tong, city Maritza Bond, Mayor Justin Elicker, community services chief Mehul Dalal.
The state’s attorney general joined New Haven officials to proclaim the death of cool — at least for a certain e‑cigarette manufacturer.
by | Feb 8, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (26)
Paul Bass Photo
One of three fatal crash scenes in nine years at the corner of York Street and South Frontage Road.
Advocates of “speed cameras” on perilous streets invoked traffic stop-sparked police violence to argue that the devices protect rather than curtail civil rights.
That’s a new argument. One camera skeptic who wore the badge isn’t buying it.
Continue reading ‘Skeptic Counters Camera Civil Rights Claim’
by | Feb 6, 2023 1:04 pm | Comments (6)
NHFT President Leslie Blatteau at Friday's state hearing.
New Haveners joined teachers, students, and public education allies from across Connecticut for a marathon legislative hearing at which they called for more state funding for school districts that serve the most vulnerable students.
by | Feb 6, 2023 1:04 pm | Comments (36)
Yash Roy photo
Bianca Flecha with "Cap the Rent" organizer James O'Donnell.
Bianca Flecha opened the door of her Poplar Street apartment building to find an Australia-raised tenant organizer with a pitch that resonated.
She said her rent has gone up a couple hundred dollars every year that she’s lived in her Fair Haven home.
James O’Donnell, a New Haven-based organizer with the Connecticut Tenants Union, told her that she’s not alone in experiencing such hikes — and that a new bill before the state legislature would help put a cap on those ever-rising housing costs for renters.
Continue reading ‘Statewide Rent-Cappers Canvass Fair Haven’
by | Feb 3, 2023 5:56 pm | Comments (15)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Oscar Britt: Getting out of the cold at Columbus House Friday night.
Jim Pettinelli with Sen. Blumenthal, Gov. Lamont, and Sen. Murphy at Friday's funding presser.
Oscar Britt has a plan to survive subfreezing temperatures this weekend thanks to a connection he made with outreach workers who found him a hard-to-secure shelter bed at Columbus House.
The state is hoping to hire many more such workers who can connect with many more Oscars in New Haven and beyond — thanks to a newly announced federal infusion of $18 million to pay for a variety of homelessness services.
by | Feb 2, 2023 10:23 am | Comments (6)
David Yaffe-Bellany file photo
Ex-fire union President Frank Ricci.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Frank Ricci, a retired former New Haven Fire Department drillmaster, union president, and battalion chief. Ricci is currently a Fellow of Labor for the Yankee Institute and an advisory board member for FDIC and Fire Engineering Magazine. He was also the lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Changing Standards Would Be A Firefighting Folly’
by | Feb 1, 2023 10:16 am | Comments (27)
File photos
New Haven state lawmakers (clockwise from top left): Gary Winfield, Martin Looney, Robyn Porter, Roland Lemar.
Clockwise from top left: Toni Walker, Juan Candelaria, Pat Dillon, Al Paolillo, Jr.
Taking city ownership of the expansive former Gateway Community College campus on Long Wharf.
Handing back to the state the detention center at police headquarters.
Increasing property taxes on Connecticut’s most expensive houses to better fund its most cash-strapped public school districts.
And — of course — making pizza the state’s official food.
Those are among the 218 proposals contained in bills introduced so far by New Haven’s lawmakers in the Connecticut General Assembly session now underway in Hartford.
by | Jan 30, 2023 5:07 pm | Comments (51)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
DOT Commissioner and New Havener Garrett Eucalitto: "Intent" of speed cameras is not to surveil people, but to keep them from getting killed.
Yale medical student Aishwarya Pillai “Zoomed” up to Hartford to tell state legislators about the crushed skulls and other carnage she’s seen patients endure in the wake of local car crashes — and to relay her own experience nearly getting run over on South Frontage Road while trying to leave her shift at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Pillai recalled those gory details in a virtual plea made during a hybrid online/in-person public hearing at the State Capitol, where a host of New Haveners expressed their concerns with growing road dangers and then called on the Connecticut legislature to enact traffic safety measures — including allowing for speed and red-light cameras — to help cut down on future car-driven damage to life and limb.
by | Jan 27, 2023 5:20 pm | Comments (10)
At Thursday's protest outside of Gateway Community College.
Gateway Community College student and Board of Regents student representative Alina Wheeler lives on the edge — of affording to be able to stay in school, of being “just poor enough” to have her healthcare covered as she works towards graduating.
She and fellow community college students in similarly precarious spots are now worried they might not be able to finish out their educations thanks to a potential increase in tuition that could be coming down the pike now that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents has announced plans to raise tuition at state universities by 3 percent.
Continue reading ‘Gateway Protesters To State: Don't Hike Our Tuition’
by | Jan 27, 2023 12:20 pm | Comments (8)
Ted Littleford
(Opinion) Come listen to a story about a man named Ned.
Continue reading ‘Compost Headlines: Ready, Set ... Advocate!’
by | Jan 25, 2023 3:25 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen file photo
State housing chief Seila Mosquera-Bruno.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday afternoon that the state has set aside $12.5 million for a new “Eviction Prevention Fund” that will provide eligible applicants with up to $5,000 to pay back rent.
Continue reading ‘State Sets Up $12.5M Eviction Prevention Fund’
by | Jan 18, 2023 8:52 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden photos
State Comptroller Scanlon (right) taking a baklava break with legislative liaison Kevin Kurian at Pistachio Cafe ...
... and talking retirement plans with Westville salsa entrepreneur Alisa Bowens-Mercado, Tuesday.
Angela Naranjo now puts aside 3 percent of her Westville massage-therapy paycheck towards her retirement — thanks to a new state program that encourages workers across Connecticut who do not have employer-backed retirement plans to start saving early, even if they have decades to go before leaving the workforce for good.
Naranjo, a 34-year-old Westville native, shared her story about getting ready for retirement — many years down the line — during a neighborhood walking tour promoting that program as hosted by newly elected state Comptroller Sean Scanlon.
