by | Nov 28, 2022 3:11 pm | Comments (8)
Maya McFadden photos
Sabrina Gibbs with daughters Xora and Nova.
Alder Smith greets Stetson Librarian Diane Brown.
Sabrina Gibbs and her two daughters Xora and Nova got a slice of their new neighborhood — and a slice or two of pumpkin pie — at a reborn West Hills community center’s inaugural “Our Table” Thanksgiving dinner.
Continue reading ‘Shack Sets "Our Table" For Thanksgiving Feast’
by | Nov 28, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (9)
Allan Appel photo
Aubrey Bido and Aaliyah Jones trying to calm speeders.
“We have to worry so much about the cars going fast, we can’t learn how to spell!”
The remark by Common Ground High School freshman Aubrey Bido and her classmate Aaliyah Jones was jokey about the misspelled word on Bido’s sign,“Yeild” for “Yield,” but the occasion was anything but.
In fact, the message — and the West Rock safe streets sign-making workshop it sprang from — pointed to a matter of life and potential vehicular death.
Continue reading ‘Common Ground Plants Signs For Safer Streets’
by | Nov 21, 2022 6:17 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen file photo
Board of Ed member Darnell Goldson: "First, one of our schools was shut down due to a lack of proper maintenance of the HVAC system, now our seventh and eighth grade classes are being dismantled. What's next?"
A shortage of teachers at Brennan-Rogers School has led the city’s public school district to recommend that families transfer 7th and 8th graders out of the West Rock magnet school and to another New Haven public school that has more educators on staff.
Continue reading ‘Teacher Vacancies Spark Student Transfers’
by | Nov 11, 2022 2:14 pm | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden Photos
Philadelphia and New Haven moms walk together along the Valley St. memorial.
Philly's Johndell Gredic sketching a vision for a similar garden in her home city.
A group of moms from Philadelphia walked a brick pathway lined with the names of hundreds of New Haven victims of gun violence — to take solace in the tranquil Valley Street garden, and to find inspiration in how to build a similar memorial in their own home city.
Continue reading ‘Philly Moms Find Brotherly Love By West Rock’
by | Oct 28, 2022 3:17 pm | Comments (9)
Paul Bass Photo
Before he moves on from his city job next week, Martin Torresquintero is hustling to finish one last bridge to connect New Haveners to an overlooked nature wonderland.
by | Oct 13, 2022 3:40 pm | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden file photo
2021 graduation ceremony at Common Ground School.
An urban farming and ecology-centered local charter school has won the first-ever “Impact Community Engagement Award” from the national charter school development firm Building Hope.
Continue reading ‘Common Ground Wins Community Engagement Award’
by | Jul 29, 2022 11:09 am | Comments (1)
Chapel Haven accessible hiking group summits Lake Wintergreen park's western ridge.
Almost 30 members of the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center hit the trails this week through accessible hikes for people with disabilities, enjoying the views and proving that hiking is for all.
by | Jun 28, 2022 4:29 pm | Comments (5)
Jordan Ashby Photo
Peter Markle and Stacy Spell of Project Longevity.
Stacy Spell recognized 13 law-enforcement and community members with awards Tuesday morning for their work in a community program to reduce gang gun violence — then ended up honored himself as he wrapped his own role in the program
Continue reading ‘Stacy Spell Stepping Down From Project Longevity’
by | May 25, 2022 5:32 pm | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby Photo
Neighbors welcome: Clancy Emanuel begins compost demonstration at expanded operation.
A heap of discarded orange peels, eggshells, peanuts, and vegetables of every hue came one step closer to becoming reusable compost — by way of long shovels, animal poop, dead leaves, a group of committed community members, and an influx of federal funding for Common Ground High School’s urban farm.
by | May 17, 2022 8:48 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith with Monica Clark, Iva Johnson, and Von Robinson at City Hall on Monday.
A new music studio, a washer and dryer, a pottery kiln, and more programming for west side youth and seniors alike are one big step closer to coming to a reborn Valley Street community center — now that the alders have formally accepted a $550,000 state grant for “The Shack.”
by | Apr 26, 2022 9:53 am | Comments (15)
Disha Patel Photos
Students protesting Monday in support of teachers facing nonrenewals.
After a day of student-led protest, Common Ground High School’s board voted to allow the administration to discontinue contracts of four teachers at the end of the academic year amid a broader discussion of the school’s direction.
Continue reading ‘Staff Changes Spark Common Ground Protest’
by | Jan 5, 2022 2:31 pm | Comments (6)
Mary McFadden Photo
DuBois-Walton (fourth from left) at 2019 groundbreaking for Rockview Phase II.
The Omicron variant kept a majority of maintenance workers off the job this week at New Haven’s housing authority.
That hadn’t happened before since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even the boss had to work remotely.
That hadn’t happened before, either.
Continue reading ‘DuBois-Walton Navigates Omicron, Regional Housing Challenges’
by | Jan 4, 2022 10:31 am | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden Photos
Smith: “Centers like this is what makes people to become successful.”
The reborn West Hills community center, The Shack, received a $550,000 grant to continue restoring the safe haven.
by | Nov 12, 2021 9:16 am | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen photo
ECMS’ new chicken coop.
495 Blake St., newly bought by Elm City Montessori.
Elm City Montessori purchased its Blake Street school building for over $5.2 million, as the local anti-racist, outdoor-learning-themed charter school puts down roots in the shadow of West Rock.
Continue reading ‘Montessori Buys Blake St. School For $5.2M’
by | Jun 28, 2021 5:46 pm | Comments (16)
Paul Bass / Allan Appel / Thomas Breen photos
Clockwise from top left. Legal aid att’y White: “Good job”; the new Rockview Terrace; tenants Terry & Gatlin: No complaints; tenant Bert Person: Doesn’t mess with politics; Mill River Crossing under construction; tenant Waldron: Give Karen a chance.
Markeshia Ricks photo
Then-public housing chief DuBois-Walton (third from left) at 2018 Mill River Crossing ribbon cutting.
Justin Elicker’s record as mayor isn’t the only government tenure at issue in this year’s mayor’s race. So is the record of his main opponent, Karen DuBois-Walton, in running the city’s public housing authority since the second Bush administration.
by | Jun 22, 2021 6:56 pm | Comments (21)
Ex-Principal Laura Roblee.
A city-hired attorney cited concerns about whether a principal’s dishonesty about her repeated use of the “n word” with subordinates rendered her “fit” to “serve in any capacity” in New Haven’s public schools.
The attorney advised New Haven’s schools administration that they had legal grounds to fire the principal — and advised requiring her to accept a demotion or pay cut.
by | Jun 21, 2021 3:35 pm | Comments (43)
Ex-Principal Roblee: Reading “White Fragility.”
Releasing a previously withheld investigatory report, school officials revealed that the principal of a majority-minority school had used the “n‑word” at least four times on two occasions with staffers, in addition to incidents involving “hysterical shouting” and “slamming on the desk.”
Continue reading ‘“N-Word” Report Released; Principal Apologizes For “Disgusting” Remarks’
by | Jun 19, 2021 9:52 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Graduate Nouria Ntite.
Three years ago Nouria Ntite didn’t know any English. She spoke only French.
Continue reading ‘Common Ground’s “Perseverance Class” Crosses The Threshold’
by | Jun 17, 2021 10:09 pm | Comments (25)
Emily Hays Photos
Board member Darnell Goldson: Mayor should return to donors any funds raised on this incident.
Paul Bass Photo
Elicker: My opponent started it.
Two Board of Education members blasted Mayor Justin Elicker for sending a campaign fundraising email claiming a slur-uttering principal’s demotion as a victory for “accountability” and “transparency” — while withholding information about what really happened in the incident behind it.
Elicker responded that he is pushing behind the scenes for public release of the full investigatory report leading to the demotion.
Continue reading ‘Mayor Blasted For “N-Word” Flap $-Raising’
by | May 28, 2021 3:08 pm | Comments (5)
Contributed photos
Joanne Sciulli and Candace Jones Wright.
Joanne Sciulli, who has run New Haven’s Solar Youth program since founding it 22 years ago, is stepping aside to make way for new leaderhsip.
Continue reading ‘Solar Youth Founder Stepping Down After 22 Years’
by | May 26, 2021 9:12 am | Comments (3)
Nick Perkins Photo
Nurse Grace Gargles vaccinates student Delyany Vasquez Tuesday at Wilbur Cross.
Students filed into Wilbur Cross High School’s gymnasium this week not to run laps or shoot hoops, but rather to get vaccinated for Covid-19.
Continue reading ‘City Vaccine Clinics Turn Attention To Teens’
by | May 24, 2021 1:08 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Karen DuBois-Walton, Justin Elicker, Macye Torres at Sunday’s Ward 30 gathering.
West Rock and West Hills Democrats voted Sunday to endorse mayoral candidate Karen DuBois-Walton, Alder Honda Smith, and Town Clerk Michael Smart for the approaching municipal primary elections after a spirited conversation with the candidates about the future of the ward’s parks and the city budget.
by | Apr 27, 2021 4:38 pm | Comments (6)
Allan Appel Photo
William MacMullen outside the cemetery.
The new sign.
There’s a broad, sunny, rectangular field in a seldom visited corner of New Haven where kids inadvertently used to play baseball on the graves of the dead.
That’s because most of the nameless granite markers with metallic numbered plates have over the decades sunk invisibly beneath the soil.
by | Apr 23, 2021 2:42 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Trailbazer Team uses hedge shears to officially open trail.
Solar Youth’s Trailblazers celebrated Earth Day by cutting the official opening ribbon on a new trail that connects West Rock’s Westville Manor and Rockview developments.
Continue reading ‘Ribbon Cut On New Trail In West Rock Woods’
by | Apr 20, 2021 9:16 am | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden Photos
Retired Lt. Raymond Hassett, Acting Chief Renee Dominguez, Mayor Justin Elicker at Monday press conference.
The police department is preparing for protests gatherings this week after a verdict is announced in Minneapolis’s George Floyd case, as well as working on longer-term in-house training to avoid dangerous cases of officers’ use of force here at home.
