cities

With the ongoing pandemic, what do municipalities need to do to stay afloat?  This hour, we look at neighborhoods and towns in Connecticut working to keep their residents connected and businesses thriving during this pandemic. We hear from residents in Westville, a small thriving community in New Haven. We also hear from New London - a city looking to revitalize and create more resiliency. 

New studies confirm that the coronavirus pandemic has led huge numbers of people across the U.S. to move from big, densely populated areas to smaller cities or suburbs. Connecticut is no exception, with its influx of transplanted New Yorkers. And with more parents working remotely, these new residents may decide to stay and enroll their children in local schools.

By way of mural design, performance, storytelling and photo documentation, a group of Hartford artists is embarking on a new project that celebrates the stories of Black, Latinx and Indigenous changemakers in Hartford. 

Over the past weeks, cities across the country have implemented curfews in response to George Floyd protests and to enforce stay-at-home orders during COVID-19.

This hour, we discuss whether emergency curfews really keep people safer or become another way to intimidate and discriminate. Also, the history and wisdom of juvenile curfews and what it's like to protest after curfew.

And we learn about early curfews across the pond during the British Empire.

As Connecticut reported an additional 98 coronavirus-related deaths Saturday afternoon, the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont said it looks to increase testing capacity across the state as hundreds of residents continue to test positive each day. 

Connecticut’s official coronavirus death toll rose by another 58 people Wednesday, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 335, the state announced Wednesday. The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 increased by 110 to a current total of 1,418.

In his first budget proposal as mayor of New Haven, Justin Elicker is proposing a tax hike for residents, cuts to vacant positions, a restructuring of city departments and a plea to Yale. 

William Outlaw is a natural leader. He's been a key figure in helping to lower New Haven's homicide rate over the last decade. He's a strategist and an organizer who can size up a situation quickly. He can defuse a threatening situation with his charisma and charm. He can run a business. 

As a street outreach worker in New Haven, he uses all the same skills today that he used when he co-ran New Haven's largest cocaine gang in the 1980's. 

As a bank building at Elm and Orange streets meets its maker, an edificial ghost has appeared: a long-forgotten church.

Passers-by have been doing double takes over the past week at the site of the demolition taking place at 80 Elm St. at the corner of Orange. That’s where a crew hired by Spinnaker Real Estate Partners is dismantling the 1948 Art Deco former Webster Bank building to make way for a new six-story 132-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel.

It's officially 2020, which means you may see a census taker knocking on your door this Spring. 

The decennial census also will be online. This hour, we talk with NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang about efforts to count everyone who lives in the United States, and why it matters.

The city of New Haven has a new mayor. Justin Elicker was sworn in Wednesday, Jan 1.

In his inaugural address, Elicker said the city is growing at a rate not seen since the 1920s.

William Outlaw is a natural leader. He's been a key figure in helping to lower New Haven's homicide rate over the last decade. He's a strategist and an organizer who can size up a situation quickly. He can defuse a threatening situation with his charisma and charm. He can run a business. 

As a street outreach worker in New Haven, he uses all the same skills today that he used when he co-ran New Haven's largest cocaine gang in the 1980's. 

When you head to New York, do you ever take a break from the city and get lost on a trail in Central Park? This hour, we take a look at the life of the man behind that beloved and iconic city park: Connecticut native Frederick Law Olmsted.

Today’s municipal elections feature unusual bids for redemption by losers of Democratic primaries in two of the state’s largest cities, as Marilyn Moore attempts a write-in campaign to unseat Joseph P. Ganim in Bridgeport and Mayor Toni N. Harp continues as a third-party candidate following her decisive loss to Justin Elicker in September.

Tuesday, November 5 is Election Day in Connecticut. This means another opportunity for residents to cast ballots for town and city officials. But who will turn out to the polls?

This hour, we check in with reporters and analysts from across the state, and we also hear from you. Will you vote this Election Day? Why or why not?

Tuesday was the deadline in Connecticut to register to vote before Election Day, Nov. 5. If you happened to miss the deadline and still want to exercise your democratic rights, don’t despair.

On April 25, 2018, Patrick Clough walked onto a dock at Fayerweather Yacht Club on Black Rock Harbor in western Bridgeport. He looked down. Swirling around the dock was a brown, foamy slick. Women’s sanitary products and other objects floated in it.

The city council in Fall River, MA voted Wednesday night to hire a Boston law firm and enforce the temporary removal of its mayor Jasiel Correia. 

Former New Haven alder Justin Elicker pulled off a huge upset in that city's Democratic mayoral primary, ousting incumbent Mayor Toni Harp. It was a rematch for the two. Six years ago it was Harp who bested Elicker to lead the city. This time, the challenger won a comfortable victory, with an unofficial total of 6,825 machine votes to 4,841.

Voters in two dozen Connecticut communities are at the polls today to choose candidates to run for mayor and other top municipal posts. Polling places are open until 8:00pm this evening.

Mayors in three of Connecticut’s four largest cities face challenges today as voters go to the polls in 25 municipal primaries, intra-family fights that typically turn on hyper-local issues, personal ambitions and, occasionally, old grudges. 

When you head to New York, do you ever take a break from the city and get lost on a trail in Central Park? This hour, we take a look at the life of the man behind that beloved and iconic city park: Connecticut native Frederick Law Olmsted.

Democratic candidates for the 2019 Hartford mayoral election debated Thursday night.

The field includes party-endorsed incumbent Mayor Luke Bronin, J. Stan McCauley, who is a Democrat endorsed by the Republican party, and two candidates that petitioned their way onto the primary ballot -- state Representative Brandon McGee and former Mayor Eddie Perez.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is seeking reelection this fall. The Democrat will face state senator Marilyn Moore in the September 10th primary. 

This hour, we talk with Democratic State Sen. Marilyn Moore who, in addition to representing the 22nd District, is campaigning for mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

What is her strategy to successfully unseat the city's current mayor, Joe Ganim? We find out and we also hear from you.

Abandoned factories tagged with graffiti. Vacant properties marked by broken windows and overgrown lawns. This hour, we consider the impact of urban blight on communities and hear how some local municipalities are working to improve quality of life.

We check in with the cities of Waterbury and Hartford, where significant strides have been made to survey and address blight.

We also talk with Laura Bliss of CityLab and with a housing official in Baltimore. How effective has the Maryland city’s Vacants to Value program been at reducing the number of vacant, blighted properties? We find out. 

A state jury has ruled in favor of the city of Hartford and against a developer in the controversial case of the bungled construction of the city's recently-built minor league baseball park. 

In a decision announced Tuesday, the jury found against developer Centerplan in a suit brought after the city fired the developer from the job.