Lisa Reisman photo
Chef Marc Ramirez at the grill.
On a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon, kids moon-bounced, Fats Domino crooned, and Barbara Montalvo was dancing in the middle of Glen Road.
Barbara Montalvo.
“This is a fun, joyous event, neighbors loving neighbors, this is the community coming out embracing everybody, regardless of age, gender, color, creed, background,” she said, mid-swivel, amid the aroma of grilled hotdogs and burgers and the air of late-summer revelry in the tree-lined shade.
Alder Brian Wingate.
The occasion was the third annual Beaver Hills block party, which temporarily closed Glen Road between Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and Osborn Avenue to car traffic.
Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, who billed the event as an opportunity for “community building,” said the idea for a block party arose from a chance meeting with neighbor Ainissa Ramirez at Union Station sometime before the pandemic.
“I was going to DC and she was coming back, and we were just passing by each other, and we both had a little bit of time,” Wingate recalled. We need to have a block party, Ramirez told him. Wingate agreed. As it turned out, neighbors James Dorman, another organizer, and Byron McFadden had the same idea, they said.
Everyone welcome.
Among the reasons, according to Ramirez, one of the organizers: the diversity of the Beaver Hills neighborhood, with both a sizable Black population and a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish population affiliated with the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement, and tensions at times running high over public safety concerns, general violence, and anti-Semitic incidents.
“We wanted to bring people together,” said Wingate, a facilitator at Yale University, as well as Vice President of Local 35.
James Dorman, with Emory Dorman, introducing incentives for electric vehicles for neighbors.
Ramirez agreed. “Everyone had a theme. Brian’s a connecter. I’m a scientist by training, so I brought in museums, so that we could have science education, and James [Dorman], he’s more in the electrical, so he brought that in, and then my brother [Marc Ramirez] is a chef, so he’s at a grill. Everyone has different talents.”
The first block party happened during the pandemic two years ago, Ramirez said.
“Everyone is at home, people are walking by each other, but no one knows anyone, so by having it then, people could start saying ‘hey neighbor,’” she said.
“What was cool about 2021,” said Wingate, “is that we had a truck to get people vaccinated, we had outreach about Covid. It was just a great opportunity to do all that plus have all different cultures come out and represent themselves at a party that’s free and open to everybody.”
Sandra Enimil of Pretty Afrika Designs.
Not just residents. Last year, event organizers, which also include Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB) Community Management Team Chair Rebecca Cramer, opened the party to local entrepreneurs.
Among them was Sandra Enimil of Pretty Afrika Designs, with a vibrant display of her own beaded jewelry and clothing made by her mother, as well as accessories, fans, and home goods from Ghana and Kenya.
“I’m friends with James and Candice [Dorman] and they invited me to come be a vendor,” she said.
LCI's Nicole DeGioia and Laura Daniels.
At the next table, representatives from Livable City Initiative were handing out LCI-stamped giveaways like coasters, refrigerator magnets and canvas bags.
LCI and its wealth of services.
“A lot of people don’t know what we offer,” said project manager Nicole DeGioia, offering a flyer to former Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn that listed LCI’s range of services including security deposit assistance, utility deposit assistance, and the emergency elderly and disabled repair program.
Delphine Clyburn with LCI's John Lahey
Clyburn, who lives in City Point, said she had come to the block party at Alder Wingate’s invitation. “I’m going to take this back to all my seniors, share this information with them,” she said.
Project manager John Lahey joined them. “Most people think of us as housing code and inspections, but we have a lot of other programs, so we’ve been doing these pop-ups in different neighborhoods,” he said, adding that LCI just started an affordable unit lookup on its website.
“If people can’t make it downtown to City Hall, we’re going to get to them, and they can make appointments on the spot,” he said.
Erik Hluchan and Sarah Ficca.
Near the kosher grill, Sarah Ficca and Erik Hluchan, who migrated to the block party from Wooster Street, said they too had been invited by Alder Wingate.
“I love this,” Ficca, said, as she prepared to tuck into her hotdog. “It’s really good for the community, and it’s great to close off streets and remind people that people come first before cars, plus any chance I get to stand in the middle of the road where there’s normally traffic, I’m there.”
Yale University Art Gallery's Elizabeth Kitson with cousins Victoria Williams, Gabrielle Williams, Damaris Williams, and Candace Williams.
Over at the Yale University Art Gallery table, Elizabeth Kitson, the gallery’s public education coordinator, was encouraging partygoers to help themselves to a wealth of colored pencils, notebooks, and drawing paper.
“Everything is free and open to the public,” said Amanda “Semente” Caroline de Oliveira Pereira, a fellow in museum education at the gallery. “We’ve got an afterschool program. We’re open for school groups or adult groups. We just have a lot of opportunities for people to learn.”
Wendy Rawlins with Elizabeth Kitson.
“I’m interested,” said Wendy Rawlins, who had just appeared at the table. She brought up her kids in the neighborhood and recently bought a house on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, she said. “I’m actually about to retire, and I find myself doing a lot more in the New Haven community, and visiting the Yale Art Gallery will be one of those things.”
Eli Bogart and kids.
Just beyond them, Eli Bogart’s three children were stretched out on a grassy strip, sketching with their new Yale Art Gallery colored pencils.
“It’s a celebration of diversity,” said Bogart, a Beaver Hills resident, who said the party was the first for his family. “You get to know everybody. You tend to think everyone’s different until you meet them.”
Mathias Viedh and the Marble Wall.
Over at the Eli Whitney Museum table, Mathias Viedh was demonstrating the equal influence of gravity by fitting variously shaped wooden blocks in a pegboard that he called The Marble Wall.
“We’re trying to get kids to be hands-on, trying to get them back to being interactive after Covid, trying to breed creativity,” said Mathias, a high school senior who’s part of the apprenticeship program at the museum.
Callie Barnes, 2, and Kori Perry, 1, cousins.
Just then, there was a squeal of laughter.
Callie Barnes, 2, and her cousin Kori Perry, 1, were industriously organizing plastic rings by color onto a ring holder in a life-size Connect Four.
Claudia Barnes.
Their grandmother, Claudia Barnes, stood nearby. “I think it’s nice to get out and meet people in the community,” she said. “And it’s such a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold. If I had a hammock, I’d be on it with a book.”
Wingate, turning over burgers on the grill, sounded a similar refrain.
Byron McFadden.
“This is the best part of being alder for me,” he said, thanking Byron McFadden, Cramer, and Marc Ramirez for their efforts, as well as Yale Local 35, the New Haven Age Group Track Club, and the Giordano family for their support.
“Sometimes we gotta give good news, sometimes we gotta give bad news, but pulling people together on a day like this is what it’s all about.”
Brian Wingate, showing love.
Block parties create villages and neighbors become friends. I hope more neighborhoods create neighborhood block watches and block parties and their alders and city administrators and local businesses and colleges and universities all show up to support them and get to know the community. There is so much positivity in creating stronger inclusive community ties to create villages in our little city.