Express in artwork, essay, poetry, rap or song

What lessons can we learn from the youth movements of the past and present? What strategies, tactics, and actions can we use in New Haven or other towns? What role can young people play in the fight to ensure our schools and communities have the resources we deserve? How can young people in New Haven or other towns continue the legacy of youth activism to build a better world?

Requirements: Digital art work, drawings, paintings, collage, prints, photographs, etc. Essay, poem, rap or song – Not longer than 2 pages.

Entries must be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023 and include entry title, name, address, phone, e-mail, age, school, teacher’s name (where applicable). Email all entries to: [email protected]. Prizes: gift cards ($200 first place, $100 second place, $50 third place) and books.

The art and writing competition is sponsored annually by Connecticut People’s World Committee to remember the lives and dedication of Dalzenia Henry and Virginia Henry to the youth of New Haven and to make a better future.

For more information, email [email protected] or leave a message at 203-624-8664.

CT Green Energy News, Jan. 20, 2023

E-newsletter about clean energy, energy efficiency, and climate action, focusing on Connecticut. To subscribe, send an email to [email protected]. To find out more about People’s Action for Clean Energy, go to www.pacecleanenergy.org.

Connecticut homeowner associations can no longer block solar installations

Energy News Network. The provision was added to the 35-page Connecticut Clean Air Act before it was approved by lawmakers last session,” session. Associations may still adopt rules on the size and placement of solar installations.​..​ “This is one of the best-kept secrets from the past legislative session,” said Mark Scully, president of People’s Action for Clean Energy, or PACE.​..​ Condominiums are exempt from the rooftop solar provision.​..​ As written, the law only impacts a small subset of households, probably under 1,000, according to Kim McClain, executive director of the state Community Associations Institute.

Future CT electric rate increases would be left to legislature under new proposal

CT Insider. ​Representative Christine Conley introduced House Bill 5013 last week. The proposed legislation, if it became law, would give both chambers of the state’s General Assembly the opportunity to vote on any electric or natural gas rate increases approved by Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority… Claire Coleman is Connecticut’s Consumer Counsel and she said Friday she “would caution against adding yet another hurdle in the rate-setting process such as a legislative stamp of approval… I appreciate that the legislature is eager to find solutions for the high price of energy, and I stand eager to work with members on both sides of the aisle,” Coleman said. “Given the stringent process required by the Constitution for setting rates, and the detailed factual and technical record needed in order to meet those standards, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority is best suited to set rates for electric and natural gas companies.”

Branford, East Haven Collaborating to Offer Residents Energy Efficiency Programs

Zip 06. In 2023 Branford and East Haven will work together on HeatSmart. They are applying for Energize Connecticut Community Partnership Initiative funding. HeatSmart will reach out to all Branford and East Haven residents, with special emphasis on Income Eligible residents who struggle with utility bills and often live in energy-inefficient dwellings.

Republicans Outline Proposals to Reduce Energy Costs

CT News Junkie. ​House and Senate Republicans called Tuesday for state government to pick up the tab for more than a dozen energy charges and fees normally paid by rate-payers as part of a package of proposals aimed at reducing the cost of electricity in Connecticut…An element of their plan involved sparing ratepayers an estimated $362 million per year by shifting cost of expenses like supply and delivery fees onto the state budget. Based on 2020 energy costs, the change would save the average Connecticut household around $210 per year, they said. “The reality is that government is deeply entrenched in energy and is a partner in energy. There are many costs embedded into our bills that are policies that lawmakers have passed. Some of them are laudable but they are all paid for by the rate payers.”

Graduate and Professional Student Workers Vote to Unionize in Landslide Election

by Megan Vaz, Yale Daily News, Jan. 9, 2023

In a landslide victory, Yale’s graduate and professional student workers have voted to unionize, marking a historic first after decades of organizing on campus. According to the National Labor Relations Board’s final tally, 1,860 of 2,039 voters favored forming a collective bargaining unit under Local 33 – UNITE HERE, the graduate student union that has fought for University recognition since 1990.

Daily Union Elections, which tracks NLRB records, listed Local 33’s election filing as the second largest in the nation in 2022, with 4,000 graduate and professional workers eligible for union representation. Including challenged ballots that went uncounted due to wide vote margin, about two-thirds of those eligible to vote showed up to the polls or mailed in ballots.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for years,” Local 33 co-President Ridge Liu GRD ’24 said in a Monday press release. “Generations of grad workers have organized before us, and I’m really excited to finally win.”

Yale has officially recognized the results of the election and confirmed that it will begin contract negotiations with Local 33. University President Peter Salovey sent an email to the Yale community shortly after the NLRB’s announcement, stating that the University remained committed to the emphasis on “free expression and mutual respect” that preceded the election. “With today’s result, the university will now turn to bargaining in good faith with Local 33 to reach a contract,” Salovey wrote. “As we work with the graduate student union, we will continue to be guided by our commitment to Yale’s educational and research mission and to the success of all our students.”

On Monday night, Local 33’s members and supporters streamed into the Old Heidelberg bar at the Graduate New Haven hotel for a victory party. The Graduate’s staff secured their first labor contract under Local 217 in the summer of 2022, three months after announcing they were filing to unionize at a Local 33 rally.

“One of two union bars in New Haven,” organizer Abigail Fields GRD ’24 observed. “It’s a historic day in New Haven and there have been graduate workers organizing at Yale for decades. And the win today is really the culmination, in a lot of ways, of generations of organizing, and that feels really incredible, and really powerful and moving to be a part of.”

[Article can be read in its entirety at https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/01/09/graduate-and-professional-student-workers-vote-to-unionize-in-landslide-election]

27th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy of Social & Environmental Justice

Join the Yale Peabody Museum and CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) for the 27th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy of Social and Environmental Justice with two days of free, hybrid events open to all. Come Sunday, Jan. 15, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m. to 114 Whitney Ave. and Monday, Jan. 16, 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. to 260 Whitney Ave. Space is limited. Virtual and in-person registration is strongly recommended. Free parking is available in Yale Lot 22 at 260 Whitney Avenue.

On Sunday, Jan. 15, 12:30-3:30 p.m. there is Family Story-telling and Dance at the New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Avenue. The New Haven Museum and the Peabody are teaming up for an afternoon of inspiring family programs celebrating Dr. King’s life and legacy. Storytellers Joy Donaldson, Waltrina Kirkland and Clifton Graves will share stirring fables, anecdotes, and stories that honor King’s work and testify to his impact on the justice movement.

Ms. Hanan’s Dance and Beyond will present an interactive performance of cultural dance and drumming from the African diaspora and you’ll discover kid-friendly activities throughout the Museum offered by our program partners, including the CT DEEP, the Black Caucus American Library Association, and the Amistad Committee. Peabody scientists will introduce attendees to fascinating specimens from our Paleobotany collection.

Masks are required in the New Haven Museum and space is limited. To register, please go to peabody.yale.edu/events/mlk-celebration.

Monday, Jan. 16, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. features the Z Experience Poetry Slam at the Yale Science Building, O.C. Marsh Lecture Hall, 260 Whitney Ave. Join influential poet performers Croilot and Ngoma, in-person for the first time since 2020, as they emcee an electrifying spoken word experience, honoring Poetry Slam founder Zannette Lewis, in one of the largest auditoriums on Yale’s campus. Spend the day with us or tune in live and online as our hosts kick things off with a high-energy group performance and a curated open mic. Those talented storytellers will be followed by a slate of renowned featured poets competing in the poetry slam.

Visit tables hosted by the National Council of Negro Women and New Haven African American Historical Society to hear from their members about the work they are doing in the community. And museum staff will be on hand to offer the latest information on the Peabody renovation.

This event is appropriate for adults and young adults with the discretion of a parent or guardian. For current Yale University vaccination and mask requirements and to register, please go to peabody.yale.edu/events/mlk-celebration.

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Fair Haven’s PhotoVoice Project

Xóchitl García, Save the Sound Community Leader

This past summer, Xóchitl García led a photovoice project in Fair Haven. She recruited 13 neighborhood residents to document environmental assets and hazards through photography.

Residents took over 100 photos throughout the season, but only 50 were showcased in the final exhibit. Xóchitl identified five socio-environmental themes: Green and Blue Spaces, Abandoned Buildings, Trash Travels, A Safe Place, and The Homeless. To gather more perspectives and ideas on solutions to address these issues, Xóchitl, Melissa Pappas from Save the Sound, and New Haven Neighborhood Housing Services hosted two community charrettes at the Fair Haven Public Library. They then presented community-derived solutions from these charrettes in conjunction with the results of the PhotoVoice project to leaders, policy-makers, and city representatives at the final presentation hosted at Junta for Progressive Action at the end of September 2022.

Xóchitl and project participants plan to hold organizations and local authorities accountable for implementing these solutions through creative campaigning and a mini-series of workshops to further develop the ideas into proposal-ready projects. Ideally, an organization or a partner will commit to addressing these solutions in their capacity. At the same time, Fair Haven residents continue to be the source of inspiration and can hold organizations and decision-makers accountable for those commitments. Realistically, there will be one concrete solution as a first communal step toward environmental justice in Fair Haven.

Now, Xóchitl is establishing a strategic plan for community outreach and creating a winter workshop series next year. She wants to improve resident attendance in the spaces where people will make decisions. She believes representation is more important than ever in environmental justice. BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] cultures and non-English languages need the voice, the space, and the flexibility to communicate their matters that have been systemically disregarded.

To see the virtual exhibit of the Fair Haven PhotoVoice project, please visit: https://www.savethesound.org/urban-waters-initiative.

[On Thursday, Jan. 19, 5:30-6:30 p.m., see the PhotoVoice presentation in the Program Room of the Fair Haven Library, 182 Grand Ave.]

Do You Have a Right to Clean Air, Clean Water, a Stable Climate, and a Healthy Environment?

by Kimberly Stoner, CT Climate Crisis Mobilization

Of course you have a moral right, but, NO, you do not have a legal right to a safe and healthy environment under the Connecticut or US constitutions.

Our legal system protects some rights, but not the right to clean water and air, a stable climate, and healthy environments. Because environmental rights are not recognized, government decision-makers can disregard them in favor of other political or economic priorities.

Our current system of environmental laws accepts pollution and degradation as something to be managed rather than prevented. All communities suffer when there is pollution, environmental degradation, and an unstable climate; and communities of color, indigenous communities, and low-income communities carry a disproportionate burden.

We need a Green Amendment to the Connecticut state constitution — and ultimately to the US Constitution.

Green Amendments require government officials to put environmental protection first at the start of planning, decision-making, and legislating, and regulate industry, development, and the transition to renewable energy. Green Amendments require government officials to avoid/prevent environmental harm, not simply to manage it after the fact.

Green Amendments in Pennsylvania and Montana have been used to overturn state laws expanding fracking and to stop a destructive gold mine at the headwaters of a major river. A new Green Amendment in New York passed in a referendum with 70% of the vote! For more information on Green Amendments, see www.forthegenerations.org.

The Connecticut Climate Crisis Mobilization (C3M) has made this work a major priority. Join us in putting a Green Amendment into the Bill of Rights of the Connecticut Constitution! For more information, visit the website ctclimatecrisismobilization.org.

Mass Extinction: Art, Ritual, Story, and the Sacred

Yale Institute of Sacred Music

In January and February, the Institute of Sacred Music is hosting a series of four webinars that explore topics relating to Mass Extinction: Art, Ritual, Story, and the Sacred. The talks are all offered via Zoom from 12-1 p.m. Anyone is welcome to join, though registration is required. Please register for each webinar event separately. For more information on each webinar and for the links to register, please go to ism.yale.edu/news/mass-extinction-art-ritual-story-and-sacred

Webinars at a glance

  • January 27: Sacred Lands, Sacred Ecologies: Poetic and Photographic Engagements with Craig Santos Perez and Subhankar Banerjee
  • February 3: Narrating Extinction in History and Myth with Sadiah Qureshi and Nancy Menning
  • February 17: Aesthetics of Extinction with Sugata Ray and Stefan Skrimshire
  • February 24: Remembering Lost Species: Rituals for the Anthropocene with Persephone Pearl, Emily Laurens, and Rachel Porter

Native Plants from Seed: On-Site Workshops

Hamden Public Library

Growing native plants from seed makes it easy to provide important habitat for pollinators while adding color and variety to your garden and landscape.

In January, Hamden Public Library will be offering on-site workshops at all three library locations where we will demonstrate an easy and effective way to propagate many types of native plants, most of which come from seeds that need a period of cold “stratification” in order to germinate. During the workshop you will learn about the importance of native plants to our region, and can start a pollinator haven of your own by sowing seeds in a do-it-yourself mini-greenhouse.

Please register below for one of the workshops. Because attendance is limited, please sign up for only one session. Most materials are provided, including seeds, but please bring a clear gallon milk jug if you have one.

Hamden Public Library’s seed library offers a variety of native and other seeds on request during the winter months. Seeds suitable for winter sowing will be available for pick-up at the library branches in January and February. A list of available seeds (including several CT Ecotypes) and how to request them will be available in early January.

From February through June, we will put out a selection of garden seeds for you to browse and use. Do plan early, as we may well run out of seeds before June’s end. This year the bins were empty before mid-June. We ask that you limit your selections to five types of seed, and only take what you need (plus a little bit more).

We want to thank Diane Dynia, an intern through UConn’s Master Gardener program, who produced an informative brochure of pleasing design to give the seed library more reach in the community. Look at the Seed Library page here: hamdenlibrary.org/seed-library/

Info: [email protected], 203-287-2680.

Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s Anti-War Legacy

by Henry Lowendorf, Greater New Haven Peace Council

In January we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King with a national holiday focused on King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Why that speech? In the five remaining years of his life, King began to understand more deeply the forces governing the direction of our country. Perhaps his later speeches are not celebrated because they counter what we are told daily by officials and the press. King grew to realize that not only did the Black and Brown communities deserve civil rights, but they had to be released from extreme poverty.

King’s lens expanded beyond civil rights and inequality. By 1967 he also recognized that the U.S. war on Vietnam was disastrous for the country. Young Black men were pushing against the nonviolent resistance to segregation and discrimination that King led. He told “the desperate, rejected, and angry young men… that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems… that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked, and rightly so, ‘What about Vietnam?’ [W]asn’t [the U.S.] using massive doses of violence to solve its problems…?”

Humbled, a wiser King responded on April 4, 1967 at New York’s Riverside Church. In his speech, “Beyond Vietnam,” he analyzed and eloquently specified the “three evils” of inequality, poverty and militarism. To bring about a humane society these three evils had to be jointly defeated.

“Beyond Vietnam” is even more trenchant today than 55 years ago. The President and Congress, including the full CT delegation, just promoted a record 2023 war budget of $858 billion, more than half of federal discretionary spending. This is greater than the military spending of the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are U.S. allies.

This budget produces violence not only overseas but in the schools, supermarkets, and streets of our country. It starves spending on human needs like transportation, housing, education, clean air and water among others. Meanwhile our government finds tens of billions to prolong the insufferable war in Ukraine. The only thing this budget defends is the massive profits of death merchants: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, etc.

In “Beyond Vietnam” Martin Luther King enunciated one of his most memorable sentences: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” For spiritual uplift, you are invited to join in reading Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” at New Haven City Hall, 2nd Floor, 165 Church Street, Friday, Jan. 13, noon. Contact the Greater New Haven Peace Council: [email protected].

Journey in Place: An Expanding Oasis of Our Progressive Community

by Ben Ross, PAR subscriber

I got to watch the creation of this show in our home in Hamden among all the celestial, social and physical events leading up to the Solstice. Stories, colors and forms have kept me going, truly the fruit of the creative process. To share it with us you need to travel to The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main St. in Middletown, CT.

Journey in Place: an exhibition of recent works by Shula Weinstein has its opening reception on Saturday, Jan. 7 from 4-6 p.m. The exhibit ends Saturday, Jan. 28 with a gala closing 4-6 p.m. with the artist, followed by music at 7 p.m. with Shula Weinstein, Ben Ross, Craig Edwards and Joe Flood. See buttonwood.networkforgood.com/events/50609-admission-to-shula-weinstein-joe-flood-ben-ross-craig-edwards.

Cooped up for who knows for how long… too long? This is an invitation to a down-home relaxed musical sharing. We gave this song circle format a run at Volume Two – Never Ending Books a few months back and had so much fun… join us. Saturday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m. A modest donation of $15 is suggested.

In addition to the receptions, Journey in Place can be viewed from Jan. 4-28. Check with The Buttonwood Tree for more info. Phone 860-347-4957, or web https://www.buttonwood.org.

Thanks!

Anti-Fascism Yesterday and Today

by Frank Panzarella, New Haven activist

On Nov. 28, 2022, about 90 people, mostly on Zoom, participated in a program at SCSU that addressed the part of World War II history largely ignored. The event was sponsored by Promoting Enduring Peace, The Women’s and Gender Studies Program at SCSU and Jewish Voice for Peace. Speaking from London, authors Merilyn Moos and Steve Cushion spoke of anti-Nazi Germans and other partisan resistance rarely given credit in mainstream accounts of the war. These experiences are documented in their book Anti-Nazi Germans, about the hidden history of working-class resistance to Nazism. Many were young people who courageously fought the rise of fascism and were communists, socialists, anarchists (survivors of the destruction of the Spanish Republic), social democrats and Jewish activists.

The two-hour program explored the complex relations of political parties and conditions that led to the rise of Nazism. This included divisions that pitted social democrats against communists at a time when unity against Nazism was critical.

The book contains many individual stories of people brutally murdered who dared spread literature, post flyers, organize factory resistance (even within concentration camps), sabotage war industries, and engage in street battles against Nazi thugs. Another part of the book details resist-ance to collaboration governments, including thousands of prisoners of war forced to work in German factories in France, Germans who left Germany and joined the Under-ground and veterans of the Spanish Civil War who fled into southern France, as well as Jewish partisans who fled Germany continuing to fight in France.

The discussion included how to recognize the dangerous signs of extreme nationalism today. Many countries grappling with economic chaos, climate change, mass migrations and multiple wars are collapsing back to extreme ideologies that blame immigrants and rival nations. Participants mentioned Orbán in Hungary, Le Pen in France, the AFD (Alternative for Germany), Meloni in Italy and Donald Trump. Democrats and Republicans continue supporting authoritarian regimes and their floundering global capitalist empire. Discussion included Russia’s new imperial dreams under the fascist Putin regime, his invasion of Ukraine and China’s global capitalist ambitions.

Copies of this book are available for $15. Please call 203-562-2798.

New Ordinance Updates Language in New Haven Laws Concerning People with Disabilities

by Maggie Grether, Yale Daily News, Dec. 9, 2022

When Gretchen Knauff moved to New Haven and became the city’s Director of Disability Services last year, she began to examine the city’s laws concerning people with disabilities. She quickly noticed that many of these laws featured outdated terminology. Now, thanks to an ordinance submitted to the Board of Alders by Knauff, that language will be updated. The ordinance calls on the city to use “person-first language,” which emphasizes an individual’s personhood before their disability, according to Knauff. For instance, under person-first language, “handicapped person” changes to “person with a disability.”

“Language is important. How we talk about people is important; the way we portray them is important,” Knauff said. “I see this as something that’s truly basic that needs to be done to show that individuals are valued members of the New Haven community.”

Knauff submitted the ordinance to the Board of Alders July 5, and the Board passed it on Sept.19. Mayor Justin Elicker signed the ordinance into law Nov. 3. The ordinance only updates terminology and does not affect the intent of any laws.

“Updating and modernizing the terminology used in our ordinances to be more respectful and honoring of people with disabilities was the right thing to do and, frankly, long overdue,” Elicker stated in a press release.

For Carmen Correa-Rios, executive director of the CT Center for Disability Rights, the change brings New Haven law up-to-date with the language many disability rights advocates have been using for decades.

Correa-Rios said that seeing a change in the legal terminology was personally meaningful to her, both as a disability rights advocate and as a person with a disability.

Read the article in its entirety at https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/12/09/new-ordinance-
updates-language-in-new-haven-laws-concerning-people-with-disabilities

New Haven Homeless People, Advocates Push for More Resources

by Mark Zaretsky, New Haven Register, Dec. 17, 2022

If there’s one thing Tyrell Jackson and his neighbors, who live in a “tent city” along the West River off Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, could use this winter, it’s some sort of power source such as a generator.

If they had one, they could run heaters, charge their phones or even get an electric stove or hot pot to cook with or a refrigerator to keep food from spoiling.

“There are not enough resources,” said Jackson, 28, who grew up in West Haven and is a member of U-ACT, which stands for the Unhoused Activists Community Team.

“The biggest thing that I’ve been pushing for is some source of power,” he said before the start of a press conference that the Greater New Haven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness held at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen’s Drop-in & Resource Center at 266 State St. Jackson called that “the main thing I need.”

U-ACT member Arthur Taylor would like to see some proper toilets on the New Haven Green, for one thing, “not like these out-houses they have down here,” said Taylor, 70, a city native and James Hillhouse High School graduate who currently is on a waiting list for senior housing.

The purpose of the press conference, led by DESK Executive Director Steve Werlin and attended by Mayor Justin Elicker, State Reps. Robyn Porter and Patricia Dillon, both D-New Haven, and representatives of most of the organizations that provide homelessness services in the city, was to highlight the need for more resources — and a consistent source of funding.

Werlin asked for the $5 million the state set aside for emergency homeless services this winter to be made permanent, so providers don’t have to “cobble together” funds every year to keep people alive, warm and safe. “The solution to homelessness is housing — deeply affordable housing,” Werlin said.
But while all providers and their allies in city and state government and the private sector work toward that, “we cannot forget about the immediate” needs, he said. “Home-lessness is dangerous all during the year,” but its challenges become particularly acute in winter, he said.

Read more at www.nhregister.com/news/article/New-Haven-homeless-advocates-push-for-resources-17659171.php

First Official Tenants Union Recognized

by Noel Sims, New Haven Independent, Dec 7, 2022

A group of Blake Street renters delivered a 31-name petition to City Hall — and officially became New Haven’s first legally recognized tenants union. Tenants of the 311 Blake St. apartment complex took that legal-recognition step on Nov. 23.

City Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermudez confirmed that 31 tenants from the 311 Blake St. complex signed on to the petition that was delivered late last month to her office.

Because only 45 of that 70-unit complex’s apartments are currently occupied, Bermudez said, the petition clears the local legal threshold that a tenants union include signatures from — to quote directly from New Haven law — ​“a majority of the tenants listed as lessees within the housing accommodation.”

“As more tenants become involved in tenants’ unions, it can provide us with a better picture regarding the housing stock that is available,” Bermudez said in an email comment sent to the Independent on Tuesday, ​“and for discussions to occur regarding better ways to maintain properties and have a good well-maintained housing stock when items are needed to be addressed.”

The Blake St. Tenants Union is now the first officially, legally recognized tenants union in the city. ….
311 Blake St. renter Jessica Stamp is one of the lead organizers of the newly recognized Blake St. Tenants Union.

“I want to stay,” she told the Independent in a recent interview about her current apartment. Her rent is affordable, which allows her to save money, and she enjoys her ​“fabulous closet space.”

She said that she and her neighbors organized a tenants union partly because of a lack of response from her landlord, an affiliate of the mega landlord Ocean Management, when Stamp and other tenants have complained of rodents, disruptive construction, and other safety issues. ….

Stamp said she is excited that the union will help her neighbors that have been anxious about rent hikes, safety issues, and possible evictions. ​“This will give them relief,” she said. Having filed the petition, tenants are now protected from rent hikes and evictions for at least six months under
state law.

Now that their union is legally recognized, Stamp hopes this will ​“empower people to speak up.” Before, she felt that tenants withheld their complaints out of a fear of retaliation by 311 Blake’s landlord.

Read more at www.newhavenindependent.org/article/blake_st_tenant_union

NHCM Celebrates Hiring of City Climate Director, Steve Winter

by Chris Schweitzer, New Haven Climate Movement

In 2019, New Haven Climate Movement youth led the effort to pass the New Haven Climate Emergency Resolution. Soon after its passage, then Mayor-elect Elicker committed to create a climate office to work on cutting climate pollution and fossil fuel use. On Dec. 9, 2022, Alder Steve Winter was hired to become Climate and Sustainability Director.

Steve has supported climate organizing efforts, including helping pass NHCM’s Electrification Resolution in 2020, and supported the Board of Education Climate Emergency Resolution in 2022. The City has set aside $2 million in Federal funding for projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in neighborhoods (for example, energy efficiency programs).

NHCM is now working hard to implement projects identified in the BoE Resolution in 2023, and will be advocating for much greater investment in cutting fossil fuel climate pollution.

For more information about NHCM’s work or to get involved go to newhavenclimatemovement.org.

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