The arrests came after dozens of protesters blocked the staircase and escalators that lead from the station to the tracks. In the station, protesters also unfurled a banner over the timetables that read “DeLAURO STOP FUNDING GENOCIDE.” Protesters sang, danced, chanted pro-Palestine slogans — including “free, free Palestine” — and locked arms during the sit-in. 

Over a dozen police officers with the New Haven Police Department and Metropolitan Transit Authority Emergency Service stood around the building during the demonstration, according to WTNH.

In a statement to the News, organizers of the sit-in wrote that their demand was for “Rep. Rosa DeLauro [to] stop voting to fund the genocide in Gaza and commit to divestment from the Israeli war machine.” 

On March 24, DeLauro — who represents New Haven in Congress — voted for a $1.2 trillion government funding package which passed overwhelmingly and included $3.3 billion in aid to Israel’s military. Israel disputes charges of genocide.

After U.S. President Joe Biden voiced his support for an immediate six-week ceasefire in his State of the Union address, DeLauro put out a statement on March 7 clarifying her position.

“We must work to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, free all the hostages held by Hamas, and enact a six-week ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict that allows for the protection and survival of innocent Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of war,” DeLauro wrote. “I am glad that President Biden is using every lever to ensure that desperately needed aid gets to innocent Palestinian civilians, including the recently announced seaport that will be established in Gaza to distribute aid.”

DeLauro did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the protest.

The sit-in at Union Station followed a protest on the New Haven Town Green, which began around 3:30 p.m., when approximately one hundred Yale students and New Haven community members gathered to urge New Haven officials to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 

The protest was organized by the joint efforts of Yalies4Palestine, Yale Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Citywide Youth Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine at UConn, Owls for Justice in Palestine and humanitarian activist group We Will Return. Members of political groups such as the Revolutionary Communists of America and Jewish Voice for Peace also joined in solidarity. 

An organizer from the coalition of pro-ceasefire organizations clarified on Friday that the organizers of the rally on the Green had not planned the march to Union Station. During the rally, an organizer learned about the sit-in, which was planned by individuals and not the coalition of organizations. At the end of the rally, the organizers informed protesters that they could march to Union Station to support the action but were not obligated to do so if they felt uncomfortable.

At the rally, organizers highlighted their recent push to encourage registered Democrats to vote “Uncommitted” in Connecticut’s presidential primary on Tuesday, to express dissatisfaction with Biden’s policies regarding the war in Gaza, specifically as Israel has signaled its intention to invade Rafah, a city in the southern part of Gaza.

“We launched a couple of weeks ago the Vote Uncommitted Connecticut campaign,” said a speaker from Vote Uncommitted Connecticut. “Vote Uncommitted Connecticut represents building a coalition — a diverse coalition of workers, students, Muslims, Jews, people of color and people of conscience.” 

In early March, a group of Connecticut residents unveiled a campaign to vote “Uncommitted” on the Democratic presidential primary ballot to show support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Advocates in New Haven and across the state have engaged in protests since October in support of a permanent ceasefire to end Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, through which Israel has killed over 32,000 people in Gaza, though experts believe thousands more to be dead under the rubble. Israel has undertaken the offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 people as hostages.

Biden has previously expressed support for a six-week ceasefire but has stopped short of calling for a “permanent” ceasefire, which many American voters support, according to polls.

Although Connecticut’s Primary Day is on Tuesday, early voting is already underway. Connecticut’s Democratic primary ballot will have four candidate options, and the option to vote “Uncommitted.” However, Biden has already earned enough delegates in other states’ primaries to be named the Democratic nominee.

At the protest, organizers also criticized New Haven’s Board of Alders. Pro-ceasefire organizers introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire to the Board in November. Board president Tyisha Walker-Myers moved the ceasefire resolution to the Committee of the Whole in February, and the committee will meet to hear testimony on the resolution on May 1 over Zoom.

Kirill Staklo, a speaker representing the Connecticut branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, expressed frustration at the committee meeting date.

“They want this to go on for months, they don’t see the urgency,” Staklo said.

After the speakers had finished, the crowd of protesters marched over a mile from the Green to New Haven’s Union Station, where they held the sit-in.

The protesters emphasized the importance of blocking public spaces to make people “uncomfortable.”

“I implore you all on April 2 get out and vote,” said Zachary Herring ENV ’24, a protester involved with JVP. “Right now I implore you all to stick around and clog up the streets so people aren’t comfortable – like us right now. ”

In advance of the protest, Yale’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine released a statement supporting the protesters and the civil disobedience action. Yale’s FJP chapter was joined by those from ten other schools.

In the statement, faculty expressed their “unequivocal support” of the protest and sit-in and their commitment to defending students from any repercussions they face as a result of their participation in the protest.   

“Their carefully planned interruption of business as usual reminds us that there is no business as usual when the United States is funding, arming, and defending the genocide in Gaza,” the statement reads. “If today’s action demonstrated how the flow of our days grinds to a halt when the infrastructure we depend on does not run properly, it is a reminder of the fact that the Gaza strip has been without working transportation, including serviceable roads, since late October.”

On Primary Day, polls will be open across the city from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for voters to cast their ballots.

Nathaniel Rosenberg contributed reporting.

This is a developing story that the News will continue to follow.

Correction, March 29: This article has been updated to reflect that the sit-in at Union Station was not planned by the organizers of the rally on the Green.

The post Pro-Palestine protesters arrested for sit-in at Union Station appeared first on Yale Daily News.

“The University of Idaho student band, a tribe from the North, brave and bold, bearing banners of Silver and Gold, donned blue and white, tried and true, to subdue all Yale’s foes,” the official statement from the governor said.

With Yale’s marching band unable to make the trip over spring break, Yale Athletics reached out to Idaho’s Vandal Marching Band on Sunday, March 17 — the day Yale defeated Brown to earn a spot in March Madness — asking if it could sub in.

The musicians, wearing Yale T-shirts and calling themselves the “Van-Dogs,” gained national media attention after performing during Yale’s first-round win over Auburn and also earned praise from the team’s players and coaches.

“It’s outstanding that the government did that to recognize the band,” head coach James Jones told the News after Lamont’s proclamation. “It was such a selfless act and I’m humbled that they were able to come out and support us and be recognized in this way.”

Lamont’s statement commends the band’s effort to learn “Bulldog,” the Yale fight song, and its commitment to “understanding Yale traditions.” It also credits the band as a contributor to the Bulldogs’ upset victory over Auburn.

After that game, the band briefly returned to the University of Idaho for a campus recruiting event before making another 90-minute trip to Spokane on Sunday to perform during Yale’s second-round matchup against San Diego State.

“Our entire goal was to do the best we could to represent Yale University and the State of Connecticut as well as the University of Idaho and the Gem State,” Spencer Martin, Idaho’s director of athletic bands, wrote to the News. “We are so humbled to be honored by Governor Lamont and the State of Connecticut.”

By all indications, Lamont is a big fan of college basketball.

The University of Connecticut men’s team won last year’s national championship, and the UConn women boast a record 11 national championships. Lamont has taken to calling the state “the basketball capital of the world.”

On March 21 this year, Lamont released his March Madness brackets, accompanied by a nearly two-minute video discussing the prospects of each of the five Connecticut teams that had qualified for either the men’s or women’s tournaments. No fewer than ten of the governor’s 26 posts on X in the past two weeks have concerned college basketball.

David Bednarz, a spokesperson for Lamont, wrote in a statement to the News on Thursday that the governor decided to declare “University of Idaho Day” after seeing news coverage about the Idaho band’s service to the Bulldogs.

“Proclaiming a day in the university’s honor is a fun way to show that while our two states may be on opposite sides of the country, acts of good sportsmanship like this can bring us together,” Bednarz wrote.

Thursday’s announcement was not Lamont’s first time focusing the ceremonial power of the governorship on March Madness.

Last spring, after the UConn men’s team qualified for the Final Four, Lamont proclaimed a “Husky Weekend” before traveling to Houston to watch the games. But Lamont ruffled feathers by saying on a radio show that Houston was “butt ugly” during his visit. He later apologized to the city’s mayor.

For the University of Idaho, there is no apology — only thanks.

Yale and the University of Idaho are 2,193 miles apart.

The post Lamont honors Idaho band for cheering on Bulldogs appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The senior Connecticut senator mostly recounted anecdotes from his long political career and offered advice for novices. The hourlong event in Linsly-Chittenden Hall was interrupted briefly by pro-Palestine protesters.

Standing before a crowd of roughly 100 students, Blumenthal stressed the value of starting out in politics by forming relationships through local campaigns and community organizations.

“Go back to your roots,” Blumenthal said he was told by Justice Byron White LAW ’46 during the now-senator’s year clerking for Justice Harry Blackmun. Blumenthal added, “You don’t have to go back to your hometown, but you do have to set down some roots.”

Five minutes into the senator’s introductory remarks, an attendee stood up and began to read a statement demanding that Blumenthal “call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”

About a dozen students pulled out pieces of white cloth with the word “ceasefire,” and some held them up while walking by Blumenthal at the front of the room.

“You refuse to hold Israel accountable, but we will hold you accountable,” the protester yelled, referring to the over 32,000 people Israel has killed in Gaza since Hamas killed 1,200 and took over 250 as hostages during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “Shame on you, senator, and shame on all of you who remain complicit.”

The protesters, numbering about 30, marched out of the room while chanting “shame.” Blumenthal resumed a minute and a half after he had been interrupted and said he regretted that the protesters could not hear his position on the ongoing war.

He told the remaining group that he supports an “extended pause” in fighting along with the release of Israeli hostages and certain Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. He also called for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“Many in the Congress, like the president, are losing patience with the Netanyahu government,” Blumenthal said, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The rest of the event focused less on current events than on sometimes extended stories from Blumenthal’s nearly five decades in public life.

When asked how individual testimonies affect policymaking, Blumenthal spoke about the PACT Act of 2022, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, and brought up legislation he has introduced to protect minors on social media.

During the Q&A section near the end of the hour, one student asked Blumenthal whether it amounted to a conflict of interest for members of Congress to trade stocks.

Blumenthal, whose wealth exceeded $80 million in 2015, said he holds no individual stocks personally and has no hand in trades by his wife’s company that he reports in disclosure forms. He would support banning members of Congress and their spouses from owning stocks, Blumenthal said, adding that it was “pretty tender territory” at home, a line that drew laughs.

Blumenthal told the News after the event ended that he enjoys returning to Yale, where he attended law school and where three of his four children have been students. The fourth will start at the law school in the fall.

He said he was not surprised by the pro-Palestine protests. “What I really hope to do with protesters is to engage with them and hear their point of view,” Blumenthal said.

The News was unable to seek comment from the protesters who marched out of the event.

“Our organization is in support of our peers’ right to stand up for the causes they believe in,” wrote the Yale College Democrats in a statement to the News. The group added that it adheres to the University’s policy against event disruptions, which the moderator announced before Blumenthal spoke.

Blumenthal, 78, has served in the Senate since 2011.

The post Blumenthal reminisces with Dems, interrupted by protests appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Lieberman, a practicing Orthodox Jew, was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, selected to be former Vice President Al Gore’s running mate. He was the first Jewish American to run for the position on a major party ticket. He passed away after complications from a fall in his home in Riverdale, New York, according to a family statement.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Lieberman attended Yale College and Yale Law School. During his college years, he served as chairman — now editor in chief and president — on the Yale Daily News Managing Board of 1964.

Neither of the senator’s parents had a college education, according to filmmaker Jonathan Gruber, who said his biographical documentary about Lieberman will be released in May. Gruber, who filmed part of the documentary on Yale’s campus with Lieberman this past summer, said that Lieberman considered his Yale education to be a “leg up.”

Paul Steiger ’64, a childhood friend of the senator, fondly remembered his experiences working on the News’ Managing Board with Lieberman.

“I first knew him in seventh grade,” Steiger said, “and then we were on the YDN together. We called it ‘Chairman’ those days, but he was our editor in chief and I was on his staff.”

After graduating from law school, Lieberman was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970, where he represented New Haven for ten years, including six as Democratic Majority Leader. After losing a race for Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District in 1980, he served as Connecticut Attorney General from 1983 to 1989.

Lieberman was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, where he represented Connecticut for more than two decades. In 1994, he won reelection by the largest-ever margin in a Connecticut Senate race, winning with 67 percent of the vote. 

Gore, who served as vice president under President Bill Clinton LAW ’73, selected Lieberman to be his running mate in August 2000, while Lieberman was campaigning for reelection to his senate seat. The Gore-Lieberman ticket, which won the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, lost the general election to Republican President George W. Bush ’68 and Vice President Dick Cheney after a recount and Supreme Court challenge in the crucial swing state of Florida.

Lieberman briefly ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election but suspended his campaign in early February. 

In the Senate, Lieberman staunchly supported the Iraq War, over which he was criticized by his more liberal Democratic peers. 

In 2006, Lieberman lost the primary for the Democratic nomination to now-Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, who clashed with the Senator over his stance on the Iraq War. Despite this loss, Lieberman ran as a third-party candidate and won the seat with over 100,000 votes more than Lamont.

“While the senator and I had our political differences, he was a man of integrity and conviction, so our debate about the Iraq War was serious,” Lamont wrote on X on Wednesday. “When the race was over, we stayed in touch as friends in the best traditions of American democracy. He will be missed.”

After his reelection as an independent, Lieberman still caucused with Democrats while at the same time shifting away from the party. In the 2008 presidential election, he endorsed Republican nominee John McCain. Lieberman even contemplated running on the Republican vice presidential ticket but was not picked by McCain. 

In his final term, Lieberman became the decisive 60th vote needed to break the filibuster on the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, he blocked the passage of a public insurance option, which then-President Barack Obama — and most Democrats — supported. 

When asked about Lieberman’s legacy, Gruber described Lieberman as a “man of courage” who took his moral cues from his faith. 

“He was a person who, as he said, was stubbornly, at least in the political world, bipartisan,” Gruber said. “I think where it comes from is his being an Orthodox Jew, and how much his religion and his faith guided him in terms of how he dealt with people on an everyday basis.”

In 2012, Lieberman retired from Congress. In recent years, he challenged the Democratic party line and worked as a co-chair of the political group No Labels, which sought to find an independent presidential candidate for the 2024 race. 

Lieberman is survived by his wife Hadassah, four children and 13 grandchildren.

Anika Arora Seth contributed reporting.

A full obituary will appear soon.

The post Longtime Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67 dies at 82 appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The question is on local leaders’ minds after alders voted this month to let certain city administrators seek exemptions to the typical residency requirements — a move Mayor Justin Elicker said he hopes is the first step toward greater flexibility for more officials.

The Board of Alders approved, by a 26-4 vote on March 4, an ordinance change allowing incumbent city coordinators to get waivers to move outside city limits if they prove to alders “a critical need or extraordinary hardship due to exceptional circumstances.” New Haven currently has three coordinators: top mayoral lieutenants who each oversee a large swath of the city government. 

Elicker told the News he appreciates the measure but would like to go further, by easing or removing residency requirements for all department heads, who are one rung below coordinators, except for the fire and police chiefs.

“There’s, I think, generally the concept that someone that’s a New Haven resident maybe has more skin in the game,” he said. “At the same time, for these highly specialized positions, it is incredibly difficult at times to identify people that are New Haven residents to fill them.”

For example, Elicker said, before the city hired Kristy Sampieri as comptroller, it took two years to fill the position. Elicker said recruitment for municipal jobs has only grown harder in recent years amid a competitive labor market, leaving roughly 200 of the city’s 1409 full-time positions vacant.

Ward 27 Alder Richard Furlow, the Board’s majority leader, said it would be more difficult to persuade the alders to weaken, let alone eliminate, residency mandates for department heads. While coordinators serve at the mayor’s pleasure, department heads work under four-year contracts.

“Part of our legislative agenda is good jobs for New Haven residents. And so these good jobs should start where we are, at City Hall,” Furlow said.

He added that he would be open to rethinking the residency mandate for certain posts but thinks the government should better advertise available jobs to New Haveners.

Board President Tyisha Walker-Myers, who represents Ward 23, is assembling a working group of alders and city officials to consider the merits of residency requirements for each department head position, according to Furlow.

Connecticut law since 1989 has forbidden residency mandates for unionized government workers such as police officers, firefighters and teachers. But other cities in the state have requirements for more senior office-holders, as New Haven does.

In 2021, Hartford loosened its residency mandate with an ordinance amendment that lets four department heads request waivers to live outside the city.

Hartford’s then-mayor, Luke Bronin — who is teaching a Yale Law School course about local and state governance this semester — told the News that officials who live out of town can be just as devoted to serving residents.

“It’s often very hard to get somebody to change school districts, sell a home and move in for a job that they might not have two years later,” Bronin said. “Especially where cities are small, a city should be able to have the flexibility it needs to attract the right team.”

Elicker proposed ending residency requirements for department heads during New Haven’s charter revision process last year, but the idea did not catch on as a charter amendment.

The measure enacted this month is far narrower. Exceptions are only available to coordinators, a senior rank that at most four people can hold — and only to coordinators who have already served for a year.

To receive an exception, a coordinator must be experiencing significant hardship, such as one related to their family, health or finances. Even with an approved waiver, they must live within 50 miles of New Haven’s borders and in Connecticut.

“I feel strongly that any leadership positions for this city should reside in this city,” Ward 10 Alder Anna Festa, one of the four alders to oppose the measure, told her colleagues before the vote. “We don’t have anyone that is qualified to fill these positions that resides in the City of New Haven?”

The most immediate effect of the ordinance amendment could be to allow Chief Administrative Officer Regina Rush-Kittle to move in with her family out of town.

Elicker has not formally asked the alders for an exception for Rush-Kittle, who continues to live in New Haven. Elicker’s spokesman said Friday that the mayor plans to do so but has no firm timeline.

“With my family based in Rocky Hill, like other working families, I’m glad to be able to do the job I love during the day and then commute home to be with family on the evenings and weekends,” Rush-Kittle wrote in a statement provided by the mayor’s office.

Elicker has also not set a timeline for proposing to the Board of Alders a measure to allow residency exceptions for department heads. Furlow said the question may have to wait until after the budget process concludes in May, or even until the fall.

The other two current coordinator-level positions, besides chief administrative officer, are economic development administrator and community services administrator.

The post As alders ease residency rules, Elicker wants more leeway appeared first on Yale Daily News.

After New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker submitted his budget proposal on March 1, the Board of Alders’ Finance Committee held two public hearings and listened to testimony from more than 40 residents. Those who testified mainly spoke in favor of the Livable City Initiative staff increases, expanded Board of Education budget, creation and investments in the Parks Department and the proposed red light and speed cameras program. 

“It’s heartbreaking when I think back on the effect that housing insecurity had on my own childhood and the lasting effects that it has had throughout my life,” Jessica Stamp, a housing organizer and a leader of the Blake Street Tenants Union, said. “I want to encourage the Board of Alders to address our affordable housing crisis in this budget cycle so working people can continue to call New Haven home and not be taken advantage of by mega-landlords or by corporations that don’t pay their share.”

A dozen residents, including New Haven tenant union representatives and tenants, New Haven Rising organizers and a former News staff reporter — Thomas Birmingham ’23 — who reported on LCI’s inability to address residents’ concerns testified in favor of the added housing positions. 

Many renters talked about unsafe conditions, like mold and collapsing ceilings, they experienced in rented properties. They also shared their experiences dealing with LCI, complaining about the long wait times and the inability of LCI to enforce safety standards and hold landlords accountable.

Gary Doyens, who said he was a property manager, asked alders to reject all new positions across all departments, arguing that the city could not afford it and that the running programs, including LCI, were ineffective.

The second most discussed issue during the hearings was the budget for New Haven parks. All those who testified were in favor of increasing funding and staffing for parks and sports fields in the city. 

10 residents, mostly park volunteers and employees, came to the two hearings to describe what they called a “decay” of park infrastructure over the previous decades. Many cited decreased staffing and equipment issues as obstacles to preserving city parks.  

“We need to invest more in our parks so that they can be well maintained, and we can all be proud of that,” Stephanie FitzGerald, who volunteers to clean and maintain New Haven parks, said. “This year’s budget increased the number of park workers, but we still have a long way to go … I implore you to fund parks as generously as you can.”

David Belowsky, the chair of the Parks Commission who has served as a commissioner since 1993, said at the hearing that the merging of the Parks and Public Works departments in 2020 did not work. Because of this, he said he supported separating the two departments, as proposed in the mayor’s budget. 

Six NHPS teachers, including New Haven Federation of Teachers president Leslie Blatteau, and two high school students, one of them being Board of Education student representative Harmony Solomon Cruz-Bustamante, testified in support of the proposed education budget. 

The teachers talked about staffing shortages and the lack of equipment, which they said impedes their work. Melody Gallagher, a visual arts teacher and executive board member at NHFT, said that the school she teaches at has leaks during rainstorms and added that she has to buy art supplies for her students with her own money.

Other teachers who testified spoke about needing more support from the city. 

“Equal opportunity in Connecticut is low. It’s unacceptable,” Blatteau said. “In partnership with our new superintendent, Dr. Negrón, New Haven is making significant progress [in education] as we prioritize our students’ needs. Given the increased and complex needs of our students, New Haven Public Schools need increased resources to do this work.”

The proposed budget includes an additional $5 million for the BoE, compared to last year, a large part of which will go towards increased teacher salaries, per the city’s contract with the teachers union. 

In her testimony, Blatteau said that the city needs to ensure students’ reading competency, protect their mental health and make schools safe. She claimed that the mayor’s proposed increase does not go far enough to achieve these goals.  

Five residents testified about the red lights and cameras program, which has to be approved separately by alders but is also included in the mayor’s budget. If approved, the program will install these cameras in 19 locations, as suggested by the Elicker administration. New Haven would be the first municipality in Connecticut to install red light cameras, which were legalized by the state last year.  

In the budget, Elicker added four positions to manage the project.

“If you go around New Haven and ask anyone what they think of our streets, they will say [that] they are dangerous,” Robert Rock, who worked on the mayor’s group on red light and speed cameras, said, talking in favor of the project. “Lots of people die in our city because our streets are dangerous.” 

Just one New Havener spoke out against the program, citing concerns about normalizing video surveillance and suggesting that the city should deal with traffic through different planning approaches. 
The Board of Alders will hold one more public hearing on the budget on April 18.

The post New Haveners weigh in on proposed budget appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Ahead of election day — which is on April 2 — residents can cast their ballots for the Democratic or Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, March 26, Wednesday, March 27, Thursday, March 28 and Saturday, March 30, Mayor Justin Elicker shared at a Friday press conference. The city’s early voting site, the New Haven Hall of Records, located in room G2 at 200 Orange St., will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The building will reserve ten parking spots for voters. 

“I think it’s really important for us to educate people, not just once, but many times about early voting, so people can get in the practice of understanding it,” Elicker said at the press conference.

Statewide victory for voting advocates

The implementation of an early voting program throughout Connecticut follows years of statewide efforts. In 2022, Connecticut voters approved a constitutional amendment to allow early voting in the state. With 86 percent of voters supporting the referendum, New Haven had the second highest share of “Yes” votes from any municipality in the state with 85 percent of voters supporting the referendum. The referendum passed statewide by a 20-point margin.

Patricia Rossi, who leads the New Haven chapter of the League of Women Voters, told the News that the LWV and other voting rights advocacy organizations have been working to bring early voting to Connecticut for over 10 years.

Following the referendum, the Connecticut state legislature passed early voting legislation in 2023 allowing up to 14 days of early voting for the general election and less for smaller contests such as special elections and primaries. The legislation required each municipality to establish at least one early voting site. Municipalities were each allocated a one-time grant of about $10,500 to set up an early voting site.

While Rossi acknowledged the limitations of this allocated funding, she said she believes that having more than one early voting site is ultimately ideal.

“I think it would have been better to have more than one in a city the size of New Haven, and especially since the chosen location is 200 Orange St., which is not easy for everyone to get to and there’s not easy parking down there,” Rossi said. 

The one early voting site contrasts starkly with election day, where New Haveners will head to the polls at 33 different locations.

This presidential primary will be the first of three elections this year where Connecticut voters can participate in in-person early voting. New Haven will offer seven days of early voting ahead of the Aug. 13 primary elections, and 14 days ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

Many days to vote, few people to vote for

Although incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have secured the delegates they need to be named the nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, Connecticut’s primary ballots will also feature several alternative candidates. 

Marianne Williamson, Rep. Dean Phillips and Cenk Uygur will be listed alongside Biden on the Democratic ballot. Williamson suspended her campaign in February and Phillips and Uygur suspended theirs in March. On the Republican ballot, Trump is joined by Florida Gov. Ron Desantis ’01, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Ryan Binkley, all of whom have also dropped out of the race. Before suspending her campaign, Haley beat Trump by a four-point margin in Vermont’s primary on Super Tuesday but lost in neighboring New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Voters from both parties will also have the option to vote “Uncommitted.” This year, many Democrats have voted for “Uncommitted” to express dissatisfaction with Biden’s candidacy and his response to the war in Gaza. 

On March 13, a group of Connecticut activists met in Hartford to announce a campaign encouraging voters to vote “Uncommitted” in the upcoming primary.

“This effort here that we have comprised and are putting together here today is about hearing the voices of people across this country and this state who are not having their voices heard,” said Abdul Osmanu, a member of the Hamden Town Council who is involved with Connecticut’s Democratic Socialists of America. Osmanu previously introduced a resolution in Hamden calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

At the event, Osmanu and pro-ceasefire advocates restated their support for a ceasefire and emphasized their frustration with Biden’s current approach to the war.

Biden has previously expressed support for a six-week ceasefire but has stopped short of calling for a “permanent” ceasefire, which many American voters support, according to polls. 

Unaffiliated voters in New Haven who want to partake in early voting for the primary election must “enroll” in a party by noon on Monday. Voters who register to vote with a party by noon on Monday, April 1 will be eligible to vote on April 2.

On primary day — which is Tuesday, April 2 — voters who did not vote early can cast their ballots from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at polling locations around the city.

The post First-ever early voting opportunities spice up uncompetitive presidential primary in CT appeared first on Yale Daily News.

At the meeting, the committee held a public hearing to discuss lawn pesticides and artificial turf and heard an update from the New Haven Climate Movement about the city’s progress in implementing the New Haven Community Electrification Resolution, which was passed three years ago and requires the city to develop and adhere to a schedule for replacing several infrastructure systems with electric alternatives. Laura Cahn, the chair of the city’s Environmental Advisory Committee, presented on pesticides and urged the city to rethink its system of licensing officials that use pesticides. New Haven Climate Movement representative Krishna Davis ’25 and Steve Winter, New Haven’s Office of Climate and Sustainability director, testified about electrification.

“The planet is gasping for air, and we are holding a plastic bag around it,” Cahn said, describing the urgency of her environmental work.

Cahn suggests goats, leaf blower regulations to curb pesticide use

Although the Board of Alders previously passed a resolution implementing a “voluntary ban” on lawn chemicals, Cahn testified that many residents still use pesticides on their lawns. Because Connecticut state law prohibits municipalities from actually banning pesticides, the Board’s resolution was largely symbolic.

Cahn pointed to Tweed New Haven Airport as a large user of pesticides because the Federal Aviation Association requires the airport to keep its sidelines clear. Cahn suggested using goats as an alternative to chemicals to keep out invasive plants. The city has previously used goats to clear invasive plant growth in Edgewood Park in 2018 — which Cahn also claims was her idea.

“They did such a good job eating the invasive species, they sent them home early,” Cahn said. “They are a huge visitor draw because they’re lovely goats — you just have to be careful not to let them out where they can eat your flowers.”

Cahn cautioned about the potential for leaf blowers to spread pesticide toxins, especially when pesticides are used near schools or residential areas.

She said that pesticides are commonly used on utility infrastructure like railroads and electric lines, and on golf courses and athletic fields. 

“Golf was invented in Scotland,” Cahn said. “Obviously they didn’t use pesticides in Scotland on their golf courses and so the fact that we’ve adopted their sport and tried to make it work in our territory by using these artificial means is very, very concerning,” Cahn said.

She also claimed that several of the employees she has seen applying pesticides are not licensed by the state to do so. If a company is licensed, Cahn claimed, not every employee will be individually certified.

In that vein, Cahn advocated for the city to make a registry of every licensed lawn care and landscaping company, to keep track of their use of pesticides and make sure that they don’t magnify the risk of the chemicals by using leaf blowers.

“New Haven does not know who is doing these things in our city,” Cahn said. 

Cahn also warned the committee about the danger of artificial turf, which requires pesticides for its maintenance. Artificial turf is used for athletic fields throughout the city.

After Cahn concluded her presentation, Alder Kianna Flores ’25 asked about education campaigns to raise awareness of the danger of pesticides and their continued use. In response, Cahn said that she has not come up with an effective way to educate people, because she believes people do not want to fully comprehend something that is so bad for them.

“I don’t think it’s by accident that nobody knows about this,” Cahn said. “I’m pretty sure it is a dedicated advertising campaign, just like cigarettes, just like alcohol, to get you to do something toxic to yourself.” 

Cahn then provided an update on the EAC’s current work, which includes monitoring initiatives such as a private recycling facility on the water, bird-safe building legislation, Tweed’s expansion, greenspace in public housing developments, garbage from Long Wharf food trucks and the possibility of a statewide ban on nip bottles that contain small quantities of alcohol.

Update from New Haven Climate Movement, electrification goals

Following Cahn’s presentation, Krishna Davis ’25 spoke on behalf of the New Haven Climate Movement’s Electric Future Committee about the city’s progress towards meeting the electrification goals it laid out in its 2021 electrification resolution. 

“We cannot meet our 2030 climate goals without persistent efforts of the city aligned with the commitments made in the electrification resolution in 2021,” Davis said. 

Although he recognized the city’s efforts to electrify some buildings, Davis called for the city to incentivize developers of new buildings in New Haven to only use electric sources of energy and report their carbon emissions to both the city and the public throughout the entire development process. 

According to Davis, the Electric Future Committee has found that only three of nearly 50 new construction projects in New Haven in the last 10 years have been completely electric.

Davis also said that other cities with climate goals similar to New Haven like Ithaca, New York which he said have taken more serious action to increase electrification.

“New Haven should follow Ithaca’s lead and cities like Ithaca, and make electrification a serious policy priority,” he said.

In response to Davis’ requests, Alder Festa reminded the audience that a new electric refuse truck should be arriving in New Haven soon. This new garbage truck will be arriving thanks to a grant that Steve Winter, director of the Office of Climate and Sustainability, applied for. He has since applied for another grant in hopes of securing a second refuse vehicle for New Haven. 

Following Davis’ presentation, Winter discussed the progress the city has made since passing the electrification resolution nearly three years ago.

For one, the city has worked to electrify its light fleet, purchasing seven Chevrolet Volts for city officials to use. According to Winter, New Haven will receive a $7,500 check directly from the federal government for each Volt they purchased. He also said that for every heavy-duty vehicle the city purchases, such as refuse vehicles, the federal government would write New Haven a check for 30 percent of the cost, with a cap of $40,000 per vehicle. 

The Office of Climate and Sustainability has also been working with The City Plan Department to write zoning language that incentivizes developments to be constructed completely electrically. He discussed a point system that will grant developers density bonuses for their projects.

“You can get five points if it’s all-electric, five points if it’s mass timber, and if you’ve got something that has solar, timber and all-electric, as well, you can get 12 points,” he said, regarding the point system. “And the 12 points are important thresholds where you get a density bonus.”

Winter also discussed his progress in outfitting buildings with heat pumps to replace gas heating systems. So far, the Office of Climate and Sustainability has worked on retrofitting community centers, youth recreation centers and senior centers with heat pumps. 

Alder Festa is the chair of the CSEP committee.

The post Environmental policy hearing urges new city priorities: pesticides, artificial turf, electrification appeared first on Yale Daily News.

If approved, the proposal will split the Livable City Initiative. The newly created Office of Housing and Community Development will take responsibility for the creation of new housing in the city, while LCI will solely focus on housing inspections. The mayor also hopes to add eight new housing-related positions. 

City activists have critiqued LCI due to delayed inspection and unresolved complaints, often leaving tenants waiting months without receiving support from the city.

“It’s clear every day that housing is one of the biggest challenges that we’re facing as a city,” Elicker told the News. “While we’ve made a lot of progress, we have a lot more work to do, in particular, in two areas. One is increasing the number of affordable units in the city, and two is … improving our ability to inspect existing housing stock to ensure that it is safe.”

In total, these two housing programs will get more than $1.4 million in additional funding compared to the last fiscal year. Elicker’s proposed budget also allocates an additional $300,000 to support unhoused people. 

The proposed Office of Housing and Community Development

Included in the city budget is Elicker’s proposal to create a new Office of Housing and Community Development, which will partner with local organizations to build new housing and administer grants for future housing projects. If approved, the office will be a part of the city’s Economic Development Administration Division.

Currently, the Livable City Initiative is responsible for this work. 

Staff at the LCI who worked on housing development will be transferred to the new office, and an additional position — deputy director of Economic Development Administration — will be created to oversee it, according to Elicker. 

“It’s more appropriate for this work to be done within the Economic Development Administration,” Elicker said. “Economic development is the place [to which] developers first go when they’re wanting to start projects.”

Michael Piscitelli, the head of the city’s Economic Development Administration Department, explained that the new office will distribute funding for ongoing housing projects. According to Piscitelli, there are currently 3,500 new housing units in the city’s development pipeline — about 40 percent of which are affordable. 

Some of these projects are led by the city, such as a new series of townhouses on Grand Avenue, while other units are being built by external housing developers. The new office will support the projects by monitoring construction and providing technical assistance on grant applications.

In addition to supporting housing construction, the office will be in charge of administering grants for construction projects approved by the Board of Alders. Some of these grants include funding from the federal Office of Housing and Urban Development, which annually administers between $3 and $4 million in funds to the city of New Haven. Additionally, the office will draw on funds from the 2021 American Rescue Plan.

Piscitelli noted the need for affordable housing across the state of Connecticut. He said that the city has built 1,900 new affordable housing units in recent years but that the overall gap in affordable housing in Connecticut is upwards of 90,000 units. The new office will help improve housing policy, looking to increase the number of affordable units in the city, Piscitelli said.

Changes and improvements to LCI

The budget proposal will also add seven new staff positions with the Livable City Initiative, the agency that, under the proposed plan, will focus only on enforcing housing code and public space requirements throughout the city.

“I think [it’s] very important for LCI to focus on the core mission, what it was originally created for, which is ensuring our existing housing stock is of high standards,” Elicker said. 

Five of the proposed staff are housing inspectors, who, if approved by alders, will join the current team of 13 inspectors. 

According to Elicker, the attorney employed at LCI will join the Office of Housing and Community Development. The mayor thus proposed adding an attorney who will continue to work with LCI on housing compliance and inspections. LCI will also receive a new administrative assistant.

According to Piscitelli, these new positions will expand LCI’s capacity to engage in on-site inspections of rental units and section eight units on behalf of the city’s housing authority. 

LCI’s work entails a multi-step process of inspecting units, issuing orders based on code enforcement inspection and ensuring that landlords comply with these orders. Piscitelli said that staff expansion would increase efficiency within the agency, allowing LCI to make better use of government resources and increase the timeliness of their work. 

“We’ll be expecting a high level of process improvements such that we’re good on the timelines and we address the issues and make sure that our outcomes are good for the tenant who may live in the unit,” Piscitelli said.

Karen DuBois-Walton, the executive director of New Haven’s Housing Authority, noted the significance of improving LCI’s efficiency. 

“The city must increase its capacity to meet the requirements of the landlord licensing program,” DuBois-Walton wrote in an email to the News. “City resources can be most effective [by diving responsibilities].”

Alder Adam Marchand, a chair of the Board of Alders finance committee, which plays a major role in the budget adoption process, commended Elicker for paying attention to housing in his budget proposal. 

The finance committee will have its first budget public hearing on March 14.

The post Proposed budget rethinks city housing programs appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The center will provide short-tcerm interventions for people who are experiencing a crisis and need stabilization, serving as an alternative destination to hospitalizations or jail. The center will be staffed 24/7, 365 days per year, with a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, nurses, licensed clinicians and peers with lived experience, according to outgoing Department of Community Resilience Director Carlos Sosa-Lombardo. The center can accommodate up to ten patients at a time, Celeste Cremin-Endes, the Connecticut State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services’ Chief of State-Operated Services told the News. 

The city has not yet announced the center, and Lenny Speiller, the city’s communications director, declined to give further details on the center’s opening until they are finalized.

Continuum of Care’s Vice President of Acute and Forensic Services John Labieniec, who will be spearheading the project with Program Director of Emergency Response Services Wanda Jofre, told the News that the center will be located in the Beaver Hills neighborhood and that the team hopes construction will be done by early April so that the center can begin operations later that month.

“Our community is struggling with a homeless crisis and with the rise in mental health needs during an emergency we need more alternatives other than ‘Yale or jail,’” Labieniec wrote to the News, referring to the Yale New Haven Hospital.

Labieniec said that the project began when Continuum received a grant to explore 24-hour community-based “therapeutic” stabilization centers around the country as alternative treatment centers to emergency rooms for individuals struggling with behavioral health issues.

Labieniec and Jofre, both licensed social workers, received grants from the state and New Haven, and are partnering with the Connecticut Mental Health Center, the City’s Department of Community Resilience, the Elm City COMPASS mobile crisis team and New Haven police. Labieniec specifically thanked Sosa-Lombardo for his involvement in the project, calling him “instrumental” in making the vision for a crisis stabilization center a reality.

Cremin-Endes explained that Continuum’s state contract was awarded through a Request for Proposal — or RFP — process, where the state solicited bids from organizations looking to take on a project similar to the REST Center. The highest-scoring bid is then given the opportunity to negotiate a contract.

She said that the state’s grant is intended to cover the cost of the center’s operations, while the grant from the city funds the center’s physical construction.

Jorge X. Camacho LAW ’10, a criminal justice and policing law scholar, noted the significance of the REST Center’s 24/7 care model. He said that despite hotlines like 2-1-1 — which connects callers to New Haven’s Coordinated Access Network — being available 24/7, the services to which operators can connect patients are often unavailable. 

Labieniec said that the REST center will follow a “living room model” — providing services in a non-institutional, home-like environment. 

According to Sosa-Lombardo, the center will accommodate individuals who may arrive by ambulance, police transport or from a crisis team like COMPASS. The crisis team, also founded as a partnership between the city and Continuum of Care, offloads specific cases, like mental health crises, from the city’s emergency service departments.

“The model is meant to partner with police and mobile crisis [teams] and serve as that alternative,” wrote Labieniec. “The idea is no one is turned away.”

Camacho said that the community-centered approach to intervention brings the sophisticated treatment that would normally only be available in acute care settings to the location where patients live, making the treatment process, for mental health issues or drug abuse, less isolating than typical forms of intervention.

He also emphasized a trend of increasing enthusiasm by police officials to collaborate with these types of crisis intervention methods.

“[Intervention] does not pose an existential threat to police officers, or policing in itself, but it can be seen as a really useful and beneficial supplement to the efforts of police officers to effectuate public safety,” Camacho said.

Crisis Stabilization Units — or CSUs — have risen in popularity throughout the country. The Wellmore Behavioral Health non-profit treatment provider in Waterbury currently operates a 24-hour Urgent Crisis Center for children. Three other pediatric CSUs currently operate in the state — at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, the Village for Families and Children in Hartford and the Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut in New London — but each of the centers has placed a limit on daily capacity. When the REST Center begins operations, it will be the only such service for adults in Connecticut.

Continuum of Care was founded in 1966.

The post New 24-hour crisis intervention center planned for New Haven appeared first on Yale Daily News.