Fwd: East Rock News
Lisa Siedlarz
From: Elicker, Justin <justin....@yale.edu>
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 11:30 AM
Subject: East Rock News
To: "justin....@gmail.com" <justin....@gmail.com>
Hi everyone,
A lot of important things below. I’d like to highlight one thing in particular – I get a lot of questions about the city’s budget and so I created a video to walk you through it. If you are even mildly interested in how the city’s budget works (or any city’s budget for that matter), I encourage you to watch it. I’ve tried to make it somewhat entertaining and I combed my hair this time.
Justin
New Haven City Budget 101
Want to understand the budget, watch the video I made by clicking this link or the picture below. I think you’ll find it informative, easy to understand and somewhat surprising.
Rock to Rock Earth Day Bike Ride! – This Saturday, April 21! Sign up now!
Rock to Rock is New Haven’s biggest Earth Day celebration. You and a few hundred others travel from West Rock to East Rock with celebrations on both sides of the city. Along the way, eat tasty food, hear great music, take on environmental service projects, and explore our city’s parks and neighborhoods. Everyone is welcome – families and college students, serious riders and weekend warriors are all part of Rock to Rock. This event is a great one, it benefits many of the environmental organizations throughout the city, and I encourage you to sign up and participate. Find out more here: http://www.rocktorock.org/register.php and register here: http://www.rocktorock.org/register.php.
Traffic Calming Meeting for Cold Spring Street – This Wednesday, April 18, 5-6pm at the corner of Cold Spring and Livingston Streets.
The City Engineer, residents in the Cold Spring/Livingston area and I will be meeting this Wednesday at 5pm at the intersection of Cold Spring Street and Livingston Street to discuss traffic calming options for the area and we welcome you to join us. Nearly every street in our neighborhood has speeding and dangerous drivers and we are working to implement traffic calming on the major thoroughfares through the neighborhood one by one. As you can imagine, two other particularly problematic streets are Whitney Avenue and Willow Street and they are on my list to tackle in the near future.
Please note: It is important that everyone understand that we all need to work together to determine what works best for each street and for the neighborhood. Some people like one form of traffic calming and others like another. Ultimately, any traffic calming plan we come up with wont be perfect for everyone. Also, projects need to be implemented one at a time for financial reasons. Projects that have been implemented so far have been successful because there have been active neighborhood residents who have worked to build consensus among their neighbors. If your street currently does not have traffic calming infrastructure, it’s likely that I am working with the city to implement such traffic calming in the future and I look forward to working with you to make this happen. Let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Friends of East Rock Park Meeting – Everyone Welcome! Tomorrow (Tuesday, 6pm, 821 Orange Street, 3rd Floor)
The Friends of East Rock Park will meeting tomorrow evening to discuss their summer youth program, finalize the panorama sign of New Haven that they are designing for the summit of the park, and to help you implement your idea, whatever it may be. Meetings are always casual and fun and include snacks, beverages and nice people. Everyone is welcome. Lost? Call me at 203-500-2969 as the meetings at my place!
East Rock Community Magnet School Survey on Pre-K Programs - Please fill out the survey if you have kids <=3 years old.
Construction of the East Rock Community Magnet School Is progressing at an active pace and the building is on target to open in early 2013. One question regarding the reopening of the school is how the preschool (most likely starting in Fall 2013) will be structured, as this will strongly affect Kindergarten enrollment in subsequent years. A number of parents working to encourage more neighborhood involvement in the school are interested in knowing what type of preschool would work for families in the neighborhood and East Rock School “attendance zone” (aka. the East Rock School District). If you are a parent of a child (or children) 3 years old or younger, please fill out the East Rock Community Magnet preschool survey. Please feel free to pass the survey on to others you think may be interested as well. Thanks to Britt Anderson for spearheading this!
Here is the Pre-K Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XV25H8H.
Cedar Hill State Street Rooming House – Zoning public hearing on Tuesday, May 8 at 6:30pm in the basement of 200 Orange Street
1294 State Street has been operating an illegal rooming house for quite some time now. (A rooming house means the landlord rents out rooms individually and there are common bathrooms and kitchens.) In many cases rooming houses can be problematic because rooms are rented month to month and therefore attract transient populations that can be involved in illegal activities. This property is such a case and has consistently attracted tenants who have added to crime and neighborhood blight issues. I am working with the Cedar Hill Merchants Association to address the problem. The owners are requesting a special exception because they are in violation of the parking regulations on the site. I encourage you, if you are familiar with the property, to come to the public hearing to voice your concerns about the rooming house and how it is operated. Properties like this can have a large negative impact on the overall health of the neighborhood.
For more background on the property check out: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/rooming_house_riles_neighbors/
Edith B. Jackson Child Care Program Family Reading Event – Sunday, April 22, 2-3:30pm, Wexler Grant Community School, 55 Foote Street
Come and enjoy picture books read by local personalities! Come and hear the music of St. Luke’s Steel Band! Come and make an Eli Whitney craft! When it’s over, leave with a yummy cupcake from Katalina’s Bakery. The event is free and open to everyone. Attendees are asked to bring a new or gently used book to donate to New Haven Reads. Sponsored by the Edith B. Jackson Child Care Program celebrating 40 years in New Haven.
Neighborhood Cat looking for home
Ringo is a wonderful, mellow, healthy male cat about 2-3 years old and he’s looking for an indoor, non-smoking home. Contact Mary McMullen for more info: marymc...@yahoo.com. He was living with an East Rock resident who suddenly had to go to a nursing home and Mary has been kind enough to foster Ringo until he can find a new home.
Justin Elicker
Ward 10 Alderman
203-500-2969 (cell)
justin....@gmail.com
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Lisa
53 Pearl
(203)623-0857
WWW.SoHuNewHaven.org