New Haven Independent

12/24/2025

New Havener of the Year.

Tabitha Sookdeo’s phone rang in the middle of her climate change solutions class. It was a fellow immigrant-rights organizer telling her federal authorities had seized a Wilbur Cross High School student named Esdrás Zabaleta-Ramirez. "Please dear God," Sookdeo thought, "I hope this is not one of ...

12/24/2025

Liquid Lunch with The RWA: Christmas Tree Farming

12/24/2025

A top-secret spice blend adds flavor to downtown: Jisu Sheen hangs out with the brothers behind the new Yemeni coffee shop on Orange.

A top-secret spice blend adds new flavor to downtown.

12/24/2025

Mona Mahadevan charts how New Haven embraced "YIMBY" in 2025, as well as the debates that ensued.

Long a testing ground of bold planning ideas, New Haven broadly embraced the "Yes in My Backyard" (YIMBY) call to build more housing, even as debates flared over how homes should look, where they should go, and who should live in them.

12/23/2025

A great 25-year run training young environmental stewards comes to an end.

After 25-year run training thousands of young people to be environmental stewards.

12/23/2025

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2025/12/23/city-fights-latest-fed-immigration-move/

Joins 15 cities in opposing proposed new rules on public benefits.

12/23/2025

From road diets to street closures to e-scooters to airline boycotts, 2025 saw New Haven transform its transportation network — and debate each step of the way how best to get from one place to another.

From road diets to street closures to e-scooters to airline boycotts, 2025 saw New Haven transform its transportation network — and debate each step of the way how best to get from one place to another. Time and time and time again this year, what it means to travel around New Haven changed. Somet...

12/23/2025

A chapter in New Haven history closes: the oil drum-shaped, off-track-betting hall that opened on Long Wharf in 1979 closed on Nov. 30. Local filmmaker Travis Carbonella chronicled its final days.

The oil drum-shaped, off-track-betting hall that opened on Long Wharf in 1979 closed on Nov. 30. Local filmmaker Travis Carbonella chronicled its final days.

12/22/2025

After a year of debate, Woodbridge zoning commissioners voted to allow 96 new apartments to be built on the town’s border with New Haven — a project that has incited so much controversy that the suburb might amend its zoning rules to prohibit similar projects moving forward.

After a year of debate, Woodbridge zoning commissioners voted to allow 96 new apartments to be built on the town's border with New Haven -- a project that has incited so much controversy that the suburb might amend its zoning rules to prohibit similar projects moving forward.

12/22/2025

Earlier this month, Eddie, 40, spent his nights sleeping in a car outside of Union Station. It was one of the lowest points in his life. Without a home and out of touch with his family, he was “spiraling.”

On Monday afternoon, he sat in the heated, holiday-decorated homeless shelter at 645 Grand Ave. — where he ate two slices of Pepe’s cheese pizza and looked forward to starting a warehouse job he said he’d just secured.

Eddie was one of around a dozen homeless men seeking shelter from the cold inside 645 Grand Ave. on Monday at around noon, when local lawyer Jake Dressler and a half dozen other volunteers came by with free pizza and donated blankets.

As local lawyer Jake Dressler dishes a hot New Haven meal for New Haveners with nowhere else to go.

12/22/2025

Stuck at home in the early years of the pandemic, New Haven’s budding musicians turned boredom into bangers, making their virtual mark on an uncertain future.

In 2025, this new generation of artists unafraid to hit “record” brought their homebrewed skills to New Haven’s public stages.

Stuck at home in the early years of the pandemic, New Haven's budding musicians turned boredom into bangers, making their virtual mark on an uncertain future. In 2025, this new generation of artists unafraid to hit "record" brought their homebrewed skills to New Haven's public stages.

12/22/2025

Cannabis Corner Radio: Dec 22, 2025
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