Parks

Volunteers Take Out The Trash At Beaver Brook

by | Jan 31, 2024 9:40 am | Comments (11)

Brian Slattery Photos

Davis and Burgess.

On Tuesday morning, Peter Davis, a volunteer river keeper with the city parks department, and fellow volunteer David Burgess were over the edge of the slope off Diamond Street in Beaver Hills, lugging a dilapidated couch out of the woods. Around them was a thin carpet of other discarded objects. Among the trash bags were a fan, a decaying rug, a mattress, a rusting wheelchair.

It was a lot of garbage. Davis and Burgess were taking it one piece at a time.

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Kensington Kids Envision Park Renewal

by | Jan 30, 2024 3:13 pm | Comments (8)

X'Nique suggests to City Engineer Giovanni Zinn that city prioritize shade and sensory play.

A tire swing. A skate park. A lot of butterflies.” And toys promoting sensory play.”

Neighborhood children eagerly offered those visions for a planned redesign of Kensington Playground, following years of adult-dominated debates over the future of the park.

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Volunteers "Edit" Out Invasive Vines

by | Jan 29, 2024 10:03 am | Comments (9)

Allan Appel Photo

Anthropology major Chris Kowalski (above) and Aaron Goode (below) de-vine by Beaver Brook.

Brian Slattery Photo

Clip high, clip low, create a window. Also don’t be a Tarzan and pull on those cut vines lest you disturb insect habitats or the birds high in the trees above.

Those were among the illuminating arboricultural tips offered for some serious de-vining of New Haven’s invasive-threatened native oaks, maples, sycamores, and hackberry trees growing on a beautiful but under-loved patch of city-owned forested greenspace.

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City Starts Reimagining Parks System

by | Jan 15, 2024 3:23 pm | Comments (29)

Laura Glesby Photo

Parks staffer Janice Parker, right, explains the department's current structure.

A public-private funding structure. A superintendent of fields.” A department divided into geographical districts, each with a point person for neighbors to contact. 

Those ideas are all on the table as the city moves forward with a plan to un-merge the Parks and Public Works Department.

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Public Preps Parks Priorities

by | Dec 7, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (8)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

URI's Chris Ozyck solicits public parks feedback at 200 Orange.

Pick up more litter, clean the bathrooms better, and designate more point people to deal with public park concerns.

Those are some of the top priorities New Haveners have for their city’s green spaces, as documented in a community input process overseen by the Urban Resource Initiative on behalf of the Elicker administration.

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5 New Cherry Blossom Trees Take Root

by | Nov 3, 2023 8:57 am | Comments (9)

Abiba Biao photo

Tashi at work planting cherry blossoms in Wooster Sq.

Drenched in sweat, Tashi loaded up a wheelbarrow with nutrient-dense wood chips and mulch from a truck, ready to wheel it to his tree planting crew in Wooster Square. Although the work wasn’t glamorous or pretty, it would be worth it in the spring when the cherry tree’s blossoms come into bloom. Until then, the newly planted trees would have to rest and gain their energy under the autumn sun.

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Parks Lifer Campaigns Against New Charter

by | Oct 20, 2023 12:19 pm | Comments (51)

Paul Bass photo

David Belowsky: Vote no to charter revisions — and let him live out his life on the city's Board of Park Commissioners.

Lawn signs opposing changes to the city’s charter have started popping up around town — after the chair of New Haven’s parks commission printed 25 Vote No” placards in a bid to preserve his lifetime seat on the volunteer body that oversees public greenspaces. 

That man, David Belowsky, isn’t the only New Havener paying attention to this year’s general election ballot question.

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Mayor: I'm Keeping Park Road Mostly Car-Closed

by | Sep 21, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (132)

Thomas Breen photo

At Wednesday's parks commission meeting: this crew doesn't have power over summit road.

The Elicker administration — and not the parks commission — will have the final say over whether or not the road to the top of East Rock Park remains largely closed to cars, and open to pedestrians and cyclists only.

The mayor said he has received widespread community support for keeping the road largely closed to cars, so he plans not to make a change.

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City Steps Towards Parks Department Re-Redo

by | Sep 21, 2023 1:21 pm | Comments (20)

Thomas Breen photo

Acting Director Rebecca Bombero: Consultant-led process "could lead to a reconfiguration" of parks-public works.

The Elicker administration is moving towards a potential un-merging of the parks and public works departments — or an entirely different parks-service setup altogether — by seeking a consultant to host community conversations around how City Hall should tend its public greenspaces.

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Fairmont Park Gardeners Send Trees Of Heaven Straight To ...

by | Aug 21, 2023 12:17 pm | Comments (7)

Aaron Goode, Jean Webb, Marty Lendroth take on the jungle in the Heights.

It’s technically Ailanthus Altissima, or colloquially Tree of Heaven, but in Fair Haven Heights’ Fairmont Park it’s more often called, with a grrrrrrrr, as gardeners labor to uproot it, the Tree of Hell. Or from Hell.

But there’s now a lot less of this quick rising (thus toward heaven?) invasive Chinese species, and that’s thanks to decades of effort by Sylvia Dorsey and her stalwart crew of Friends of Fairmont Park.

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Catching Porgies With Pablo At Lighthouse Point

by | Jul 5, 2023 12:18 pm | Comments (4)

Allan Appel photos

Pablo Sumba, marveling at the mouth of a freshly caught porgy ...

... at Lighthouse Point Park on the day before July 4th.

Pablo Sumba and his family left their land-locked home in Waterbury early in the morning to fit in as many waterfront activities as they could during a pre-holiday trip to Lighthouse Point Park — including fishing, swimming, grilling (some of the 12 porgies they caught), and just hanging out with five-month-old baby Lucas, who lay on a blanket on the green grass nearby.

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Splashing & Mulching At Kensington Playground With Ranezmay, Pat, Jane, & Friends

by | Jul 3, 2023 11:14 am | Comments (3)

Asher Joseph photos

Ranezmay (right) and her friends delight in the spouts of water on the splash pad ...

... as volunteers prepare to mulch a nearby patch of dirt.

The sound of rustling leaves merged with squeals of joy and the gurgling of the Kensington Playground splash pad as a light mist wafted through the heavy heat. Despite the stifling smog that hung in the air, neither the Friends of Kensington Playground clean-up volunteers nor the neighborhood’s kids let it deter them from rejoicing in the beauty of a recently saved public park.

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Sprucing Up Peat Meadow Park With AnneMarie

by | Jun 26, 2023 12:14 pm | Comments (1)

Kian Ahmadi photos

Annemarie Rivera-Berrios stands by the playscape with her rake and shovel

Chris Ozyck and Mike Simons add new mulch to the playground

It took just under half an hour for AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios and a small group of friends to level the mound of mulch that had been sitting by the swing sets at Peat Meadow Park for three months — to make sure that kids have a softer ground to land on the next time they come out to enjoy the Annex public playground.

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Who Gets To Go To East Rock's Summit?

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.

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Fun's In For Summer

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.

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