Author Archives: Ben Prawdzik

New Haven’s Board of Aldermen struck down a proposal Tuesday that would have provided financial relief to the owners of 360 State Street after the complex received a tax bill far exceeding initial city projections. The vote comes as the latest blow to the union-backed pension fund Multi-Employer Property Trust, which owns 360 State, the »

In a 2011 study, the consulting firm Right Management found that over 84 percent of working Americans want to change their jobs or career paths. Tierra Driffin, a New Haven resident who falls firmly into that category, hopes her time at the new downtown Gateway Community College campus can help her achieve that goal. “I’m »

When University President Richard Levin steps down in June, he will leave behind a transformed relationship between Yale and New Haven. Levin assumed the presidency in 1993 in the midst of what many alumni, administrators, city officials and local residents consider to be the lowest point for the University’s relationship with its home city. Between »

After over a decade of planning and construction, the new Gateway Community College campus officially opened on Tuesday with a morning ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring politicians, donors and school officials. The ribbon cutting, part of a full-day schedule of opening events, was led by Gov. Dannel Malloy and Gateway President Dorsey Kendrick. Speeches from the governor, »

Growing up in Cleveland housing projects and living off welfare checks, Patricia Melton ’82 had to beat the odds to earn a degree from Yale. Now, as the new executive director for New Haven Promise, she aims to help high school students in New Haven’s public schools overcome barriers to college. Melton, now 53, was »

Though fewer students applied for New Haven Promise scholarships this year compared to 2011, the program saw a jump in students both qualifying for and accepting scholarships, causing administrators to conclude that a “college-going culture” is gaining traction in the Elm City public schools. New Haven Promise, the Yale-funded college scholarship program for New Haven »

After nearly a year of negotiations, Yale administrators and leaders of the University’s Local 34 and Local 35 labor unions announced on Wednesday that they had reached an agreement on new four-year contracts. The new contracts, which will succeed current contracts expiring in January 2013, address all aspects of employment for the unions’ combined 4,700 »

Despite a strong showing of local support, Downtown Crossing — New Haven’s biggest construction project in half a century — hit a legislative snag at a public hearing Thursday as aldermen voted to send the proposal back to the City Plan Commission for reworking. Members of the Board of Aldermen’s joint finance and legislation committee »

More than a thousand students, labor union members and community activists flooded Yale’s campus and downtown New Haven in a call for the University and the city to provide more youth opportunities and union jobs. The “Let’s Get to Work” march and rally was jointly organized by the undergraduate community advocacy group Students Unite Now, »

When Joshua Adler ’96 first stepped onto Yale’s campus as a freshman in 1992, New Haven was “a very different place.” Adler began his Yale career during what many alumni, administrators, city officials and local residents consider to be the “ultimate low point” for Yale’s relationship with New Haven. The years from approximately 1970 to »

Less than 30 minutes after police began bulldozing the Occupy New Haven encampment on the New Haven Green, city officials were forced to halt the eviction when a federal appeals court issued an injunction allowing the protest to survive at least another week. City officials first started preparing to evict the protesters on Monday after »

A $135 million proposal for the Downtown Crossing project released last week that aims to replace a portion of Route 34 with a new hub of business and commercial activity now faces an approval process that could take several months, city officials said. After negotiating the terms of the development project for over a year, »