Author Archives: Alon Harish

Polls are open this morning in what appears likely to be a dramatic Democratic primary. All eyes are on the mayoral primary, in which 18-year incumbent John DeStefano Jr. is confronting three spirited challengers as he runs for a record tenth term, but heated aldermanic races surrounding Yale’s campus have the potential to transform the »

As the aldermanic candidates in Ward 9, a mecca of Yale graduate students and faculty, head into Tuesday’s primary, the words between them have grown increasingly charged. In an election season that has been defined by labor tensions, Ward 9 is no exception. In an explicit push by both Yale and city unions to beef »

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel Malloy’s choice to fill the state’s top education post, Stefan Pryor ’93 LAW ’98, has deep roots in both Yale and New Haven. A former Ward 1 alderman, Pryor helped found one of the nation’s first charter schools, Amistad Academy, after working for Mayor John DeStefano Jr. as a policy aide »

Tuesday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting was a defeat for The New 18, a group of New Haven high school students aiming to lower the state’s voting age to 16. By a vote of 13 to nine, aldermen rejected a measure that would have put the question of lowering the voting age on the city »

While Yale students registered to vote in Ward 1 will have to wait until November to vote for their alderman, students in Wards 2 and 22 will cast ballots in two heated primaries in just one week. Mirroring what has been the most contentious election season New Haven has seen in a decade, aldermanic candidates »

A familiar face returned to the Yale College Democrats’ annual kickoff event Monday night: Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who is heading into the last week of the most intense campaign for his seat since 2001. While the event was not officially connected to the Sept. 13 mayoral primary in which DeStefano is attempting to fend »

A week after Tropical Storm Irene robbed more than 17,000 New Haven homes of their power, many Yale students’ homes were among the last still in the dark Sunday evening. Despite a vow by United Illuminating Company, Greater New Haven’s main power supplier, to restore power to all New Haven customers by Saturday night, 172 »

In the latest controversy of the city’s most competitive mayoral race in a decade, a television ad recently released by Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s reelection campaign triggered allegations of unethical campaign tactics from his opponents Thursday. Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools Reginald Mayo asked staff members to appear in the ad, a 30-second spot »

A teenager-led campaign to lower Connecticut’s voting age to 16 formally arrived on the political scene Wednesday. At a public hearing of the Board of Aldermen’s Youth Services Committee, several New Haven high school students testified in favor of a resolution that would put the question of lowering the state’s voting age on the city »

The apartments and houses of many off-campus Yale students are among the approximately 6,700 residences that remain without power as the city and the University work to undo the damage wrought by Hurricane Irene. About a third of New Haven was without power at the peak of the storm Sunday, and large swaths of the »

With the Democratic primary now less than two weeks away, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and his four challengers are gearing up for the home stretch in the most heated mayoral contest the city has seen since 2001. In his quest for a record 10th term as mayor, DeStefano faces budget watchdog Jeffrey Kerekes, civil rights »

Hurricane Irene’s visit to New Haven was shorter than expected, but it did linger long enough to knock down about 1,250 trees, flood several major roads and leave a quarter of homes in the city without power. With Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s lifting this afternoon of the mandatory evacuation order he issued Saturday for the »