New Haven Region

Firehouse 12 in New Haven  is an innovative space that is part of a neighborhood resurgence in downtown New Haven .

In fact, the jazz trumpeter and composer Taylor Ho Bynum says that there are only a few places like it in the world.

It's a high-tech recording studio that presents avant garde jazz, while attracting a crowd to its downstairs cocktail bar.  The setting is a renovated firehouse in the up-and-coming Ninth Square neighborhood, newly filled with restaurants and galleries.

Firehouse 12 in New Haven  is an innovative space that is part of a neighborhood resurgence in downtown New Haven. In fact, the jazz trumpeter and composer Taylor Ho Bynum says that there are only a few places like it in the world. It's a high-tech recording studio that presents avant garde jazz, while attracting a crowd to its downstairs cocktail bar.  The setting is a renovated firehouse in the up-and-coming Ninth Square neighborhood, newly filled with restaurants and galleries.

Frank and Bogumita Budleski immigrated from Poland in the early 20th century. Their two children, Frances and Stanley, grew up on the family farm in the Yalesville section of Wallingford. Frances attended Skidmore and New York University and taught and performed music in Wallingford for many years.

Nearly 30 million trips are made every day using public transit, mostly in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.  And the main destination of these millions of commuters is, not surprisingly, work.  So a new Brookings report surveyed public transit in 100 cities in the U.S. including Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, to see just how effective public transit is in getting people to their jobs every day.

New Haven is home to one of the last remaining membership libraries in North America. The Young Men's Institute Library hired a new executive director in February, and hopes to become the center of community life it was nearly 200 years ago.

Tucked between a vacant storefront and a tattoo parlor in the Young Men's Institute Library in New Haven would be easy to miss. But on a recent Saturday morning, volunteers could be found renovating the unused top two floors of the library. 

New Haven is home to one of the last remaining membership libraries in North America. The Young Men's Institute Library hired a new executive director in February, and hopes to become the center of community life it was nearly 200 years ago.

Tucked between a vacant storefront and a tattoo parlor in, the Young Men's Institute Library in New Haven would be easy to miss. But on a recent Saturday morning volunteers could be found renovating the unused top two floors of the library. 

People told Giuliana Maravalle she was crazy when she moved her piano bar and gelato factory to a neglected industrial warehouse on Sargent Drive. One year later, she’s ready to expand the business with a new country and western bar, and people are eating her “artisanal” Italian treat from the Boston Symphony to JFK airport thanks to the work of a dozen additional employees.

Contract negotiations are underway between musicians and management of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. But some of the proposed changes have performers taking to the streets. 


Dressed in her concert black, cellist Chris Coyle stood in front of Woolsey Hall, passing out bright yellow flyers to audience members as they arrived for an evening performance by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

"We're afraid that our next season we're going to be cut down to the bone, playing very small works, leaving out some of our colleagues."

Earlier this week, Connecticut received $30 million federal dollars for the New Haven to Springfield rail project. As the money starts to trickle in, WNPR is checking in with a few towns along the line to see how they're preparing. The first stop is Meriden, a city well on its way to welcoming the train.

Meriden's downtown isn't that different from those in other industrial towns in Connecticut. After manufacturing dried up, retail fled to the malls and slowly, all that was left behind started to crumble.

Could our higher education system, once seen as a great equalizer, actually be adding to the nation’s inequalities?

As high schoolers grapple with the grueling spring admissions process, one author argues that students’ true courses into college are forged by many factors other than their grades.

In her book Degrees of Inequality: Culture, Class, and Gender in American Higher Education, Ann Mullen analyses two New Haven schools.

Last year, the city of New Haven announced the start of an ambitious 5-year education reform program. Schools were assigned levels, or “tiers". That’s something that might not affect kids as much as teachers and school administrators. 

With summer vacation just a few weeks away, we visited a lower-performing “Tier Three” school to talk with educators and parents about what’s changed this year.

It's been more than a month since freelance journalist Clare Gillis was detained in Libya.  Gillis' parents still live in New Haven, where she was raised, and they are anxiously awaiting her release.  Last night, friends held a candlelight vigil for her at Harvard.

Connecticut commuters reacted with cautious relief Monday to news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Some say they’re concerned about a possible backlash.

Police look on as Connecticut commuters rush to catch trains at New Haven’s Union Station. Madison businessman Jim Morrissey says he’s not sure yet what Osama bin Laden’s death will mean for Americans.