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.
by | Jan 17, 2023 12:28 pm | Comments (23)
Kimberly Wipfler photos
Hannah Srajer and Emmett Santisi (right) make their rent-cap-bill pitch to Hill resident Johnna Davis during Saturday's canvass.
Hitting the doors in the Hill.
Tenants rights advocates from across Connecticut descended on the Hill to knock on nearly 100 doors in their bid to win local renter support for a new rent-hike-stifling legislative campaign.
by | Jan 13, 2023 12:36 pm | Comments (65)
Thomas Breen file photo
New Haven's Kim Hart, with Claudette Kidd: "Our purpose is to put the onus of evictions not on the tenant, but on the landlord."
Hundreds tune in for Thursday's Zoom campaign launch.
Hundreds of tenant rights organizers from across Connecticut gathered online to kickstart a new campaign focused on limiting annual rent increases — on the same day that two New Haven state legislators introduced a bill in Hartford that would cap such hikes at no more than 2.5 percent a year.
Continue reading ‘Lawmakers, Activists Seek To "Cap The Rent"’
by | Jan 11, 2023 1:58 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed
Bysiewicz's (seated) term-two team: Chief of Staff Taijah Anderson, Senior Adviser Joseph Carvalho, communications chief Chelsea Neelon, External Affairs and Constituent Services Director Brittany Foulds, Chief Legal Adviser Christine Jean-Louis, and John Kelly (scheduling and special projects).
The New Haven-to-Lieutenant Governor’s Office pipeline keeps flowing, with two new appointments announced Wednesday.
by | Jan 4, 2023 4:36 pm | Comments (12)
New Havener Russell being sworn in.
(Updated) Erick Russell raised his right hand Wednesday, took the oath to be the state’s new treasurer — and already found himself grappling with the first scandal of the second Lamont administration.
by | Jan 3, 2023 4:39 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
See you later, First Transit. Welcome aboard, RATP Dev USA.
by | Dec 21, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen file photo
CT Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker: "I want Team New Haven to know that the Department of Education is here to support the work that you are doing."
Tuesday's state delegation-organized meeting about NHPS.
Connecticut’s top education official and New Haven state lawmakers called city public school district leaders to the table for a reality check on student chronic absenteeism — and for a discussion on improving local public education while working as one “Team New Haven.”
by | Dec 15, 2022 1:49 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen file photo
On the scene of a "48-hour film" set in 2016.
A New Haven-based fiscal policy watchdog has proposed cutting a money-pit state film tax credit as part of a broader suite of reforms targeting Connecticut’s “unfair tax system.”
by | Dec 13, 2022 4:30 pm | Comments (11)
Plan for the new Dixwell Plaza.
Over $4 million is coming to the city to help builders clean separate polluted properties in order to construct new homes and other public buildings.
Continue reading ‘Millions Flow To City For Building-Site Clean-Ups’
by | Dec 8, 2022 5:23 pm | Comments (7)
Dixwell Plaza's planned new ConnCAT Place redevelopment.
Dixwell Plaza’s mixed-use redevelopment, a new health center on Grand Avenue, and new affordable apartments on Shelton Avenue were some of the dozen New Haven projects to receive over $21 million in support from Hartford in an end-of-year windfall of state aid.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Housing, Healthcare Projects Get $21M+ State Boost’
by | Dec 1, 2022 11:24 am | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen file photo
Lemar: "I am excited to guide the legislature through this transformative time for our state's infrastructure."
New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar will again be in a top legislative role for developing statewide transportation policy come January as he prepares to serve a third term as House chair of the Transportation Committee.
Continue reading ‘Lemar Tapped For 3rd Term As Transportation Chair’
by | Nov 30, 2022 9:42 am | Comments (17)
Paul Bass Photo
Valerie Tanner, pictured, helped her cousin Quiana Tanner pitch her local "Try This Pie" bean pie business to attendees at Tuesday's economic summit.
Job creation? Or filling jobs already created?
Economic development gatherings have tended to focus on the first question. A statewide confab held in New Haven Tuesday afternoon pivoted to the latter.
by | Nov 23, 2022 12:00 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen file photo
DOT Commissioner-to-be Garrett Eucalitto, on the Green in March 2021.
Gov. Ned Lamont has tapped yet another New Havener from within the ranks of his administration to lead a major state government department during his second term.
Continue reading ‘Eucalitto Tapped As State Transportation Chief’
by | Nov 23, 2022 9:30 am | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen file photo
So long, fares? Alders endorse permanent holiday.
A week before the state legislature gathers to vote on whether CT Transit buses should remain fare-free through April, the Board of Alders formally called on state government to make public buses free to ride forever.
Continue reading ‘Alders To State: Make Bus Rides Free Forever’
by and | Nov 16, 2022 4:53 pm | Comments (20)
Paul Bass Photo
Newly tapped next state economic development Commissioner Alexandra Daum with Gov. Ned Lamont at Thursday's announcement at Hotel Marcel.
Gov. Ned Lamont turned to a New Havener from within the ranks of his administration to shepherd Connecticut’s economic development for the next four years.
by , and | Nov 9, 2022 12:24 pm | Comments (12)
Erick Russell with rest of Democratic statewide team at Wednesday presser: LGBTQ history made.
Thomas Breen photo
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (right) with supporter Sydney Perry Tuesday night.
Democrats elected to fill all of Connecticut’s statewide elected offices for the next four years — including the first New Havener to win one of those offices in 36 years — claimed a mandate Wednesday to continue and build on the policies of the previous four.
Continue reading ‘Dems Sweep Elections; Urban Vote Plummets’
by | Nov 8, 2022 1:01 pm | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Green AG candidate Krayeske with Veronica Douglas Tuesday.
He talked about electric cargo bikes, being new neighbors in Fair Haven Heights, and how people in positions of power must be more compassionate and be held accountable.
All of that — delivered on a cool, sunny Tuesday morning on Lexington Avenue — got Green Party attorney general hopeful and recent New Haven transplant Ken Krayeske Larry Ardigliano’s vote on Election Day.
The successful exchange occurred at Krayeske’s polling place, the Benjamin Jepson School at 15 Lexington Ave., where the candidate had ridden on his spiffy yellow electric cargo bike to meet the folks and to solicit votes.
Krayeske and his wife recently moved into a condo on Lexington Avenue to comply with his wife Wildaliz Bermudez’s residency requirement as the new executive director of the city’s Fair Rent Commission.
Krayeske said he plans in the near future to move his now Hartford-based law practice to the Elm City. He’s there in part because the majority of Krayeske’s clients are state prisoners.
His aim outside of the Fair Haven Heights polling place Tuesday morning was as much to meet his neighbors as to garner votes in his long-shot attempt as the Green Party’s candidate to replace Democratic Party incumbent William Tong as the state’s attorney general.
Casually but effectively mixing the neighbor and policy messages, Krayeske made his case to Jose Maysonet. “I’m Ken Krayeske, running for attorney general on the Green Party. More importantly, I’m your neighbor.”
The candidate (right) with neighbor Jose Maysonet.
Then switching into fluent Spanish, he added (in the candidate’s translation): “The reason I’m running is I don’t like the way the current attorney general does business.”
Then Krayeske reprised for Maysonet a representative case in which the ultimate ruling compelled the state of Connecticut to test 20,000 inmates for hepatitis. (Click here to read more about that and other of his cases in Krayeske’s interview with the Independent). “The corollary benefit is that it helped to close the Northern Correctional Institution, which was a brutal place.”
Krayeske’s Spanish comes from a year spent in Spain as a Syracuse University undergraduate and also through his wife, who is Puerto Rican. Krayeske and Maysonet chatted, in more Spanish, about where his wife’s family hails from and where Maysonet’s family lives on the island.
Still, when Maysonet excused himself to vote, he wouldn’t tell a nosy reporter if the candidate had convinced him to vote the Green line for attorney general.
“It helps I speak Spanish,” said Krayeske, “And I know Puertoricanisms” through his wife.
A few minutes later, when he noticed Larry Ardigliano approaching wearing a bright lemon-colored bicycle helmet, Krayeske introduced himself and added, “I rode that awesome electric cargo bike. We just moved here. I’m running for attorney general and I do civil rights law.”
After a few words on the pleasure of riding bikes along the Quinnipiac and the Mill rivers and when Ardigliano expressed interest in the type of law Krayeske practices, the candidate went to the heart of his pitch: “I’m running because I don’t like the job William Tong is doing in holding his lawyers to account. We can exert state power with compassion. And the state can admit when it makes mistakes.
“But why doesn’t the state admit wrongdoing?” Ardigliano pressed Krayeske.
“Because if the state admits wrongdoing” instead of fighting each such allegation, he argued, “then it has to approach change. Women should not be raped in the state’s prisons. They shouldn’t have to give birth on a toilet. The attorneys I fought against were mean. This is the 21st century in America. That’s why I’m running, but I’m also here to meet my neighbors.”
Moments later when Ardigliano emerged from the Jepson lobby voting area, he said, “Holding people in positions of power accountable. That’s one of our biggest problems. He got my vote.”
Krayeske (right) with Larry Ardigliano.
He also got Maysonet’s vote.
Krayeske didn’t spend any money on his own campaign, he said. Instead, he gave what was available in his budget, he said, to the local diaper bank.
“Why should I spend money on what amounts to info warfare! Why make the media companies rich! Why are Lamont and Stefanowski spending millions when so many babies have diaper rash. This is why William Tong didn’t want to debate me. I’d have spanked him.”
As Krayeske mounted his bike, this reporter asked him what, on this election day, his next campaign stop would be.
It turns out this was his only one.
“I’m a lawyer, I’m going home. I’ve got briefs to write.”
by | Nov 8, 2022 11:49 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
Demarlo Allen with Winter outside King/Robinson polls: Is early voting safe?
Boosting electoral reform, with the help of stickers.
“If democracy isn’t accessible, it isn’t really democracy.”
With those words of caution — and with plenty of democracy-boosting stickers and flyers and lawn signs to boot — Steve Winter made an Election Day pitch to fellow Newhallville residents to vote yes for early voting.
by | Nov 8, 2022 7:08 am | Comments (13)
Yash Roy photo
Mayor Elicker (second from left) and Town Chair Vincent Mauro Jr. (far right) with entire statewide Democratic slate at BAR Monday evening.
Top Democrats from across Connecticut descended on a Crown Street pizzeria the night before Election Day to make their final case to voters in the “political capital of the state” that their party is the one to trust to protect democracy for the long term.
by and | Nov 3, 2022 6:46 pm | Comments (10)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Ray Pantalena: On track for recreational sales, thanks to Wednesday City Plan Commission vote.
Jordan Ashby Photo
Kebra Smith-Bolden: On track for cultivator license, thanks to Tuesday Social Equity Council vote.
A medical marijuana pharmacist is set to roll recreational bud and edibles onto Whalley Avenue as soon as December — after getting approved for the city’s first ever adult-use cannabis business special permit.
And another leading local cannabis entrepreneur has won a key vote of support from a state council to build out her own “social equity” cultivation and retail ventures.
Continue reading ‘Canna-biz Wins First City Dispensary Permit’
by | Nov 3, 2022 1:45 pm | Comments (6)
Paul Bass photo
Green Party gubernatorial candidate Michelle Bicking at WNHH FM.
Get ready to ride the rails from Sprague to New Haven in half an hour — aboard the Michelle Bicking Express.
Continue reading ‘Guv Candidate Boosts Transit, Single-Payer’
by | Nov 2, 2022 1:33 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass photo
Democratic state treasurer candidate Erick Russell at WNHH FM.
GOP candidate Harry Arora.
Erick Russell promises to put Connecticut’s investments to double use: building returns for retirees and “helping families in this state.”
Harry Arora promises to do the first in order to give the legislature more dollars to do the second.
by | Nov 2, 2022 9:27 am | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen file photo
The deadly Ella T. Graso-Columbus-Davenport-Orange Avenue intersection.
As another pedestrian death reminded New Haven of the perils of walking on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, plans to make that state-owned roadway safer have been pushed back yet again.
by | Oct 31, 2022 12:35 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Rob Hotaling (at right) and running mate Chip Becket at WNHH FM.
With the Democrats on abortion. In between the Republicans and Democrats on state “rainy day” finances and on affordable housing.
Those are among the positions a gubernatorial candidate is taking as a third party repositions itself from right-of-Republican to the political center
