Untitled - Chapel West

31 Years on the Block

Chapel West News 7/14MEET YOUR NEIGHBORSLeah Whelan joinsChapel Medical GroupThis past May, Chapel Medical Group welcomed Leah Whelan, APRN to thepractice joining Drs. Sunil Menon, PatrickAsiedu, and Wayne Warren.

Leah completed her training as a nursepractitioner at Mass General Hospital inBoston, MA. Her interests include diabetes management and geriatrics.Leah is currently accepting new patients.

The Chapel Medical Group has been inpractice, in New Haven since 1958. Todayit is located at 1308 Chapel Street.

from left to right: Gurbeer, Jagdev, and Parmiot Athwal.

Athwal family school newsGurbeer Athwal begins 6th grade this fall having received from CHET (ConnecticutHigher Education Trust) a $500 scholarshipthis year.

Parmiot Athwal, finished with high honors at Eli Whitney Technical High Schoolin June. He also played tackle for theScreaming Owls football team. This fall hestarts at Gateway College with the intent of transferring to UConn, and finishing witha chemical engineering degree in four years.

Jagdev Athwal, owner of India PalaceRestaurant on Howe Street, is now in his18th year of business. The Palace has a fullIndian menu and many interesting beers. It’sbuffet luncheon continues to be a big draw.

The Athwals are yet another example of a Chapel West family who have made a success in their new home, America.

Officer Arpad Tolnay said he “got lucky” andended up catching two alleged carjackersbelieved to have attacked a Yale doctor. . .

He just happened to spot two teens withhooded sweatshirts crossing the street. He justhappened to match their appearances with thatof two suspects he’d been looking for. He justhappened to stop them and discover a trail of evidence. . .

He was at the right time at the right place, heinsisted.... Tolnay’s superiors disagree that hesimply got lucky. They say that his apprehension. . . demonstrates a keen combination of observation powers, “street sense,” and dot-connecting that Tolnay has honed in his 16years as a New Haven patrol officer. . . .

Sergeant Torquati spoke of the way Tolnay“talks to folks.”... Arp’s got this uncanny ability to communicate on many levels. He speaks multiple languages. He’s got his own street sense.”

“Clearly,” Torquati added, “he pays attention.”

Story from the NewHaven Independent. by Paul Bass, July 24, 2014

NHPD Officer Arpad Tolnay (photo by Paul Bass)

The future Senior Society building before moving to its new location (photo by Rod Topping)

A progress photo of work being done on the new apartments, taken July 29.

CW planters with boxwood, vinca vine, and petunias

Tidbits by Vin Romei“I became a professional fisherman, but discovered I couldn’t live on my NET income.

Tree planting programs with URI is tocontinue in the fall. Pruning starts shortly.There is great cooperation between Parksand Rec, URI, and CHAPEL WEST for theentire project. We are very excited for our district.

The Sullivan’s location hopes to complete renovations by mid to lateAugust. Omer Ipec always does a great, 1stclass job. We can’t wait to see the finished restaurant.

Mini-Mart Market on Chapel Street is completely remodeling the interior oftheir store. Nick and Varinder run a goodoperation. With the aid of a recentlyinstalled security camera, they nabbed a homeless person who was sleeping in and messing up the back of their building. Three cheers for SECURITY CAMERAS.

I have never killed a man, but I have readmany obituaries with great pleasure. - Clarence Darrow”

Best, Vin Romei

We’re always interested in new stories and tidbits!cwssd Telephone: 203-787-3000Vin Romei, Pres. [email protected] McGrath, Bus. Mgr. [email protected]

Chapel West gets wired up with Fiber Optics.Cameras to follow soon.

Woody Ford at Gaylord“Our prayers and thoughts arewith you daily. Get better. We need you.” - Vin

Chapel West News 6/14

A bit about Gag’s“Starting in 1975, Gag Jr.’sgraced the corner of Chapeland Park Streets, servingbreakfast and lunch.Gagliardi’s father, Antonio,began a café in 1920 at 74Greene Street, and it was

known for serving hot sandwiches. Antoniobegan working with his father and, eventually,opened his own place on Broadway, called GagJr.’s. After its move to Chapel Street, nearby theYale Repertory Theater, Gag Jr.’s began to haveits own rep for being the place to hang out.Over the years, up-and-coming actors likeMeryl Streep, James Earl Jones, andChristopher Walken, have signed theirphotographs, which eventually lined everycorner of the little diner. In 1989, the familyconsolidated their energy into Gag’s LiquorStore next door, and the old luncheonetteclosed for good. Today, the corner signs that honor the tradition were set up by Vinnie and Mary...Text and photos taken from Legendary Locals of NewHaven written by Colin M. Caplan, published in 2013. Photographs courtesy of Nick Boldano.

Vinny Gagliardi (above, taken by Virginia Blaisdell)and his diner Gag’s (below, taken by Cesar Tores)

New Apartments andSecret Society Headed ToChapel StreetThomas MacMillian, New Haven IndependentJune 13With a 19th-century house floating aboveground to their right, city officials liftedshovels of dirt to salute the 21st centurybuilding underway below ground to their left.

That was the scene Thursday afternoon(6/12) at a press conference at the corner ofChapel and Howe streets, where the mayorjoined with city lawmakers, local officials,and developer Randy Salvatore to celebratethe construction of a new mixed-useapartment building (rendering pictured above).

Construction has already commenced atthe site. Workers are setting the foundationfor the five-story building, which will have132 market-rate rental apartments and4,326 square feet of retail space on the first floor.

Just yards away, a historic home hasbeen jacked up and rests on piers, awaitinga 50-foot move. The 1890s house is beingpreserved and shifted just a small distancewest on Chapel Street, to make way for theapartment building. The house will be thenew home of the Lincoln Society, one ofYale’s “secret” senior clubs. Salvatore said hisbrother first showed him the opportunity.He considered the market: a city with thenation’s lowest vacancy rate, a one-acre loton the edge of Yale University.

Salvatore’s new building was hailed...by economic development chief MatthewNemerson, Mayor Toni Harp, Alder FrankDouglass, Alder Richard Furlow, and BrianMcGrath, former city traffic tsar, nowsecond in command at the Chapel WestSpecial Services District. He predicted thatthe building’s construction will be thebeginning of a snowball of development inthe area. It will be like the 9th Square,where the first investment took years, and then it took off, McGrath said.

From left to right: Nemerson, Romei, Harp, Salvatore, Douglass, and Furlow breaking ground

A Farewell to Geraldine’s... 35 years and counting

Geraldine says goodbye.Beautiful bouquet for Geraldine’s final day

Jim and CW’s lovable retriever, Sandy. Extraordinary Linzer tortes and cookies... suggesting Geraldine’s next career?

11 years of memories at Geraldine’s.


Geraldine, thanks for everything. We willmiss you, your guidance and satire. You,Jim and Sandy made Chapel West a betterplace to be.

Good luck and stay healthy.

Chapel West News 5/14Street-scape work has started on oursummer plantings in the concreteflower/shrub containers. Mark Espositoand his crew (at right) have done amarvelous job. We are doing something alittle different this year that should lookbeautiful and last longer. We are plantingBoxwood shrubs in all of the concretecontainers. They don't have to replacedevery year and will look great. We arethen planting our regular array ofsummer flowers in the whiskey barrels. The color and contrast will look wonderful. I can’t wait until they are finished! I think you will be as excited as I am about the changes.

Summer plantings begin

Our Tree Program is becoming a reality.Our partner, the Yale School of Forestryand Environmental Studies (FES), underthe direction of Colleen Murphy-Dunning,Program Director of Urban ResourceInitiative (URI), has already planted ninetrees. We are working with Parks & Recand our local Alders on the pruning andremovals. There will be even more treesplanted in the fall. Chapel West is takingon the responsibility of watering. Therewere over 400 trees, stumps and plantingsites inventoried and prioritized bycondition, pruning requirements, and afew slated for removal becauses of

diseases. Just anotherimportant projectChapel West hasundertaken to improvethe quality of theDistrict.

Yale Foresters plant new trees at Chapel and Day

Margaret Carmalt plants a ginko tree on Chapel St.

Vin helping out with the initial tree-watering in this photo taken on Day Street. Each tree requires 25 gallonsof water per week for the first three years after planting.

Seasonal flowers planted around Boxwood Shrub. FES crew members Raul Ayala and Rachelle Grahamworking on Chapel St

Murphy-Dunning

With the moving of the house, JoelSchiavone plans to revive desmos, a Yalesenior society that was founded in 1950but has not had a permanent physicalhome from 1967 to 2010.

House at 1249 Chapel ismoving to 1255 Chapel

Construction underway at Chapel and HoweRandy Salvatore has completed cityapprovals and permits for the mixed usedevelopment at the corner of Chapel andHowe Streets. He started construction thenext day. Hooray! It was a long timecoming and all are delighted to see it. Atthe closing, Joel Schiavone took possessionof the historic house at 1249 Chapel andwill be moving it to the former Schatzproperty at 1255, as promised during thepublic hearings. Good luck to Randy andJoel. Both of these developments willreally spruce up the neighborhood andcreate much needed positive activity.

Newly poured foundation for the house awaiting its move

when it turned out the lines were made ofbrick and many more had to be re-done.They starting re-paving the road in front ofthe Hospital so hopefully we are on ourway to returning to normalcy. It will be arelief for all when finished.

PS. To FSL & TICO...Schazzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmm.

"He has Van Gogh's ear for Music" -Billy Wilder

Till next time,VAR

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine torun up" -Paul KeatingI hear the former Sullivan's will besomething real special. Can’t wait! Also,former Meatball House/Avro on the cornerof Park & Chapel will be getting a newowner and face lift soon.

Joanie Forte is holding down PhoneDuties at Chapel West while Brian is on ashort vacation.

The Water Authority project on ChapelStreet is hopefully coming to an end soon.It appears that the original project callingto replace a few water lines got extended

Tidbits by Vin Romei


Brian and Vin met with Christina Rossetti, recently namedDirector of Operations at Pike International. They have started aprogram to provide major facelifts and interior renovations totheir numerous properties. They are committed to working withChapel West and plan to further expand their investments inour area. Pike Intl. is one of our largest property owners and weare delighted with their enthusiasm and anxious to worktogether to improve the quality of life in our District.


21 Edgewood Ave1367 Chapel Street

1447 Chapel Street

170-172 Park Street

165 Park Street

402 Crown Street / 45 Howe Street

Antonio, whose father is Anthony Giano and whosegrandfather is Chapel West Commisioner D.J. Ornato, played inthe Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl this past January in theAlamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas. He was chosen as one ofthe Nation’s top seventh grade players and was one of fourline-backers picked for the East team. In the large photoAntonio poses with Ct. Director Ron Marsilio. In the smallerphoto he is pictured with Eric Richards National RecruitingDirector for Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl.

Antoni0 Giano plays in All-American Bowl

Then and now photographs of Howe St buildingsKurvin Council funeral home in photos from yesterday andtoday. Other buildings in the top photograph were torn downfor apartments on the west side of Howe St. The topphotograph is currently on display in the Chapel West windowwith a selection of prints from the Joe Taylor collection.

Around the District

Christina Rossetti of Pike International

17 Edgewood Ave

1401 Chapel Street

1375 Chapel Street 455 George Street

Some of the properties purchased by PikeInternational in the CWSS District

12451249

12551263

139

135 1252

131

6

1267

136

128

1

1287

1289-12971283

1281

1305-1303

128

118

1302

13081312-1316

1324

12941298 1288

1290

13231319

1313-13111342

1349

1332

1348

1334

1330

1346

1354

13601365

1370

1361

13371335 1333

1331

1327 1/2

1327-1329

1380-1386 1376

1378

13711363

1385

330

323

1389 1381

13791375-1377

301

295

289

285

13691367

1343-1345 1339-

1341

13951

Chapel Street

Orc

hard

Stre

et

re

et

Proposed plan for the replacement and care of Chapel West trees

Trees around the DistrictWe’re beginning a project to inventoryevery tree in the district, tag it andcreate a computerized disc file des-cribing the condition and future of each.Any tree that has to be taken down willbe replaced by one more suited for thatlocation. We’re working with Yale Schoolof Forestry and New Haven Parks andRec who will help to replace the trees asneeded. This is a longer term project thatwe will allocate funds for as they becomeavailable.

ElmGinko

London PlanetreeJapanese LilacHoney Locust

Cherry/Plum

GoodFairCriticalDead (Stump)


There was a nice article in the NH Register onFred Parris ofThe Five Satins,who are on oneof our Notablesbanners onCrown Street.

SweetgumDogwood Norway Maple

Request a free street tree today!From Colleen Murphy-Dunning: Thanks to apartnership with the City of New Haven'sParks, Recreation and Trees Department, weare happy to plant street trees for New Haven

residents with the URI’s (Urban ResourcesInitiative) GreenSkills crews. Go to:http://www.environment.yale.edu/uri/get-involved/plant-your-own-tree/

to request trees for your curb strip or frontyard. In return for the free tree, your onlycommitment is watering the newlyplanted tree (or trees).

There was also an article on Sgt. SteveTorquati and his "Rookie" squad doinggreat police work in the Dwight-CWarea. Keep up the good work, Steve!

Plus, in the DailyNutmeg there is aterrific write up on ourown Strong Cohen(Tom and Marjorie)and the wonderfulwork they do for

Chapel West and Yale University. Tom ison our board and he and his staff workhard to bring out the best Chapel Westhas to offer. We couldn't do it withoutthem. A mighty thanks guys. Vin Romei

Chapel West in the news


Sgt. Steven Torquati


The annual Holiday party wasagain hosted at Rudy's and wasthe usual success. Chapel Westsupporters, past and present,showed up as always. Top Notch Trio, Chapel West'sjazz band, is so good, they nowhave the gig permanently!

Chapel West Holiday Party as captured by Arnie Lehrer & Woody Ford

Art Show at the Y

Community Builders and theYMCA held a gala celebrationof the completed renovations to the 52 Howe St. YMCAbuilding. The party was heldin the Community Room and guests were pleased andsurprised by the art showexhibiting the works of local

artists Bill Saunders, Chris Randall, John Keefer, Rob Greenberg,and Paul Duda. Thanks to the YMCA, this space will be used asan art gallery from time to time. The grand opening of theChristmas art show was held on December 21st. Each night at 7-9 pm thereafter will be another opening, until Dec.31st.

Winter Display in Flower Boxes

Mark Esposito (Mae Landscaping) withhis son Justin admiringthe CW planters they justcompleted filling withwinter foliage.

Hanging the Holiday Banner

Tidbits by Vin Romei“I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not sure."

CHAPEL WEST SPECIAL SERVICES DISTRICT - a reflection

As a business improvement district (BID) funded by a surtax onproperty in the west side of downtown New Haven and theChapel/Howe/Dwight neighborhood, Chapel West works toimprove property, business, and residential ownership values bymaking its portion of New Haven an internationally competitiveurban environment in which to live, work, learn, heal and play.Our core programs include clean, and safe, events andpromotions, economic prosperity and advocacy and communityoutreach and engagement . "Linking the Neighborhood."

"I know a guy who was addicted to brake fluid. He says he canSTOP any time.”

Happy Holidays to all! - Vin & Brian

Around the District

We’re always interested in new stories and tidbits!cwssd Telephone: 203-787-3000

Vin Romei, Pres. [email protected]

Brian McGrath, Bus. Mgr. [email protected]

Chapel West decided to try over the street holiday bannersthis year. Our friends at Traffic and Parking have alreadyerected one over Howe St at Chapel, and a second has justgone up at Chapel and Park.

The Chapel West Special Services Districthas invited the New Haven PhilatelicSociety to use our offices at 1205 Chapelas their Tuesday night meeting space.The Society is a venerable New Haveninstitution, celebrating its 100th year ofexistence in 2014. The Society holds thedistinction of being the the longestcontinuously meeting weekly stamp clubin the USA. If any readers are interestedin joining fellow stamp collectors, stopby a meeting any Tuesday night.

The Stamp Club Rental of CW

Stamp design byChristopher Pullman

The building at 1166 Chapel which housed the restaurantformerly known as Sullivan's is being renovated. Expect to seea top quality restaurant, under new ownership, to open soon.We don't have a name yet.

Sullivan’s Renovation


These prize-winning zinnias were grown in Dr. Ronald H. Delfini’s downtown New Haven office parking lot.He started them from seed at home. “Every year I look forwardto them, and I hope that my patients enjoy them as much as Ido.” The zinnias were entered in the Chester Fair. Six of themwere winners and the others were displayed at the Brag Boardsection of the judging.

Mr. Michael D. Ho lmes, Senior Vice President for Operationsand Saint Raphael Campus Chief Integration Officer is anexperienced executive with over 25 years of experience insenior leadership positions in multi-hospital Catholichealthcare systems. He served as the Executive Vice Presidentand Chief Operating Officer at Franciscan St. James Health inChicago, managing the daily operations of a two-hospitalintegrated delivery system. Prior leadership appointmentsinclude Chief Operating Officer positions with AscensionHealth and Trinity Health. Michael holds a Bachelor of Sciencein Public Health Administration from Indiana University and aMaster of Science in Administration from the University ofNotre Dame. Michael and his wife Renee have two children,Justin, 9 and Nicole, 10.

Michael has vast experience with neighborhoodassociations including the Neighborhood Housing Association,Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Neighborhood Watch groups.

New CW Board Member


Sergeant Steven Torquati is a 12 year veteran of the New HavenPolice Department. He started his career with the Departmenton a walking beat within the Dwight/Chapel District. Whileassigned to the Uniformed Services Division, he hadassignments in the Narcotics Unit, Sex/Bias Unit, and ID-NET(Information Driven - Neighborhood EnforcementTeam).He was promoted to Detective in February of 2008 where heserved with the Tactical Narcotics Unit and the Major CrimesUnit. During his time in TNU he investigated narcoticstrafficking and worked with agencies such as the ATF, the FBI,and the DEA.

He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in February of2013 where he served in the Uniformed Services Division.Currently he is the District Manager for Dwight/ChapelDistrict, a post which he took command of in June of 2013. Heis a member of the New Haven Police Special Weapons andTactics team (SWAT). He is also an active member of the NewHaven Police ice hockey team. He attended QuinnipiacUniversity where he received a Bachelors Degree in PoliticalScience with a Minor in History and a certificate in DiversityStudies. He is also former member of the United StatesMarine Corps.

Local Zinnias are Winners

Sgt. Torquati takes command in CW

Did you know that England hasno “kidney bank”, but it doeshave a LIVERPOOL?

It’s great to see all of thecolorful mums throughout theDistrict. Chapel West SSD isfiling with the Board ofAldermen to become aNeighborhoodPlanning Agency. This will serviceto give us legal status tocomment and have a say in allzoning matters in our District.

Sgt. Steve Torquati hasreported to us that the extrapatrolling of NHPD officers thatwe have authorized is being wellreceived by tenants andmerchants within CW. Good jobby Sgt. Steve and his squad.

We’re still awaiting thedevelopment of theNeighborhood security cameraproject. This is really importantto support a safe and securefeeling in the area.

Do you know why the Indians were here first? They had RESERVATIONS!

7th Annual CW Cookout brings largest crowd ever

Marco, who sells the New Haven Register atthe corner Dunkin’ Donuts on Chapel Street

The cookout this year was the bestattended ever. All of our regularfriends were there and many newresidents as well. Nearly all Citydepartments, including the Mayor,showed up.

Food and drink was supplied asalways by local vendors includingZachary's Package Store, Main Garden,Miya's, Kasbah Garden Cafe, Chap'sGrille, Heirloom Restaurant and PizzaHouse. A few last minute items camefrom our own Stop and Shop onWhalley and from the

Guilford Mooring. This year was thefirst time we ran out of everything,but not until 2 minutes before closing.That was a feat of good timing forwhich the eaters do not get the credit.Music was supplied by our old friendCharlie Salerno and our new ChapelStreet Walgreens provided all sorts ofgoodies for the guests. Newbusinesses on the block such as the Chapel Street Pharmacy which islocated at the corner of Chapel andCofield Way were also in attendance. Vin Romei, Pres. [email protected]



Our new contact at City Hall for all things related to economicdevelopment is LaToya Cowan (above with Arnie). She comes tous from her last post at the Upper Manhattan EmpowermentZone. She is no stranger to the area, having graduated fromQuinnipiac University School of Business. So far she has been inattendance at all Chapel West events and attends the monthlyboard meetings. Ms. Cowan fills the position in the EconomicDevelopment Adminstration once held by retiree Tony Bialecki.

Elaine Quinn (above with Vin) has been added to our AdvisoryBoard. We are very fortunate to have someone with her RealEstate, Management, Inner City experience, and backgroundjoin us. Elaine is a member of the Greater Dwight DevelopmentCorp. board as well as many others. We have a seat on theirBoard and it helps us to work with them. Our District and theGreater Dwight Neighborhood work closely on many projects.A hearty welcome aboard, Elaine!

Newly opened on Chapel Street

Muralikrishna is the owner of the Chapel Street Pharmacywhich is newly open for business as of July 15th. Kris is a firmbeliever in “the independent alternative” to big name chainstore pharmacies; he states that the prices and quality of theproducts in his store are equally as good, if not better thanthose found in larger competitors’ stores. Kris also takes pridein the fact that the pharmacy services offered are done so withcare for each individual customer’s needs, with little waiting inline, and with a friendly smile. The pharmacy, located at 1291Chapel Street, can be reachedby phone at203.777.2227.

Chapel Street Pharmacy Tamara’s Beauty SalonA brand new Dominican-style beauty salon has just opened on1289 Chapel Street. Specialities include wash sets, color rinses,hair highlighing, twists and curls, regular haircuts, and eyebrowjobs (see more below). Tamara can be called at the numberbelow to make an appointment.

Around the DistrictCW history murals on 19 switching boxes

The large green boxes that you see on manycorners around the district contain theswitching equipment for the trafficsignals,the street lights and the surveillancecameras. These boxes used to attract theirshare of graffiti, and Chapel West crewspaint them nearly every year. If you go lookat the boxes today you will see beautifulcolor historic photos of old New Haven,especially scenes from the old Chapel andDwight area.

The City has formed a coordinatingcommittee to study the entire downtownstreet grid with the intention ofidentifying all those one way streetswhich can reasonably be converted totwo way operations. The goal is to makenavigation inside the downtown easier,especially for the many visitors who arenot familiar with New Haven's pseudogrid system which can sometimes cause amotorist to travel 8 blocks just to goaround a block. The study group will beprofessionally staffed and led by theengineering firm of Fuss and O'Neill.

Target streets for conversion to two wayoperations in the Chapel West areainclude York, Park, Howe, Dwight, Crown,George, and one block of Elm. Aftertechnical studies, counts, andmeasurements are complete a series ofpublic meetings will be held to solicit therecommendations of the propertyowners, residents and users of thestreets. Chapel West will keep everyonenotified of all meetings.

One-ways to Go Away

We’re always interested in new stories and tidbits!cwssd Telephone: 203-787-3000




The banner program hasdeveloped very well. Wedo have two more thatwe are looking to installbut we need to findsuitable locations. Anywho would like a banneron their wall, pleasecontact our office.It’s amazing that theseindividuals were talentedand skilled in “other”areas of life in addition tothe ones that made themfamous. A.C. Gilbert wona Gold Medal for polevaulting at the 1908London Olympics. WalterCamp graduated from YaleUniversity and completedtwo years at Yale MedicalSchool before going on todevelop the rule changesthat cast the foundationof modern football. Dr.Benjamin Spock was amember of the Yalerowing team that won atthe Paris Olympics in 1924.We should all be proud ofNew Haven and Yale’sheritage and contribution tosociety and the developmentof the world. - Vin Romei

Foster Furcolo and Michael Bolton banners in need of a suitable location.

New Haven Notables

“Did you hear about the cross-eyedteacher who lost her job because shecouldn’t control her pupils?”

We are moving forward with filing ourrenewal to become a NeighborhoodPlanning Agency. This will enable us toparticipate in all planning and zoningmatters within the Chapel West District.We have met with NHPD Chief Essermanand were excited to hear about his planto consolidate all of the security camerasinto one program with a direct feed toNHPD. There will be viewing stations aswell. The plan will include Chapel West,Yale Security, LCI and other neighborhoodorganizations. It will greatly enchance thesafety and awareness in our District aswell as others. We have hired off dutyNHPD officers to walk/police the ChapelWest area for a few shifts per week. Thehours are random and we will be gettingreports on a regular basis of theirevaluation. We are working closely withSgt. Torquati and the Chief to help keepCW safe and preserve the quality of life inour neighborhood.

“I didn’t like my beard at first but thenit grew on me”. - Vin Romei

These images are a lotnicer than a fresh coatof paint and are notattracting anything butcompliments. Most ofthe pictures wereborrowed from thecollection of Joe Taylor (pictured right)of antique New Haven postcards andphotogrphs. The project was conceivedand directed by Strong Cohen GraphicDesigners, one of Chapel West'sbusinesses. This effort is part of theDistrict's ongoing desire to make thepublic space in the neighborhood moreinteresting to the residents and visitors.The murals will soon be available forviewing at chapelwest.com.

Vin replacing stolen flowers.

The Study at Yale was the scene of Chapel West's 27th annual membershipmeeting and dinner,and election ofCommissioners. Chris Alexiades, RonDelfini, and Howard Hill were reelected.The budget for the coming year is$417,000 with the mil rate remaining stable at 2.5 which was set by the newboard following the election and a publichearing. The budget will be automatically cut back if all projected revenues fromtaxes,PILOTS and contributions do notmeet estimates. Many planters and banners are due for repairs or replace-ments this year and the mural programwill continue as well as some street artprojects. The sweeping and cleaning

budget has been increased to coincidewith an increase in the number of districtproperties. A major tree project is under-way which will replace sickly trees andadd new trees in the empty pits. Fifteennew properties are being added to thedistrict this year.

The meeting was a successful gatheringof people who have helped Chapel Westthis year. The 75 attendees representedmost city agencies, property owners,andbusinesses. All speakers brought goodnews for the district from their particularjurisdiction. Speakers included StateRepresentative Patricia Dillon, DeputyChief of Police Archie Generoso, LCIDirector Eric Johnson, EDC New Haven

Business Director Carlos Eyzaguirre,Alderman Douglas Hausladen, andEnvironmental Health Director PaulKowalski. Topics of interest to the districtreported by the speakers included thelevel of State PILOTS which result from the district's tax exempt property, thesecurity camera project, electric energysaving grants, lead paint abatementgrants, and zoning initiatives.

Last year the Board of Aldermen amendedthe zoning map to include 80 ChapelWest properties into the BD-1 (downtown)zone. These are the properties on Howe Stbetween George and Edgewood, proper-ties on Chapel Street between York andDwight and several on Crown Street, ParkSt. and George St., This action increasedthe development rightssubstantially for all own-ers. This year the boardamended the zoningordinance to relax theopen space per housingunit to 125 square feetinstead of 250. It was considered a wasteof space to have lawns in the downtownrequired in order to build apartments.Parking was relaxed a small amount byallowing compact parking spaces to becounted. Basically more parking spacescan be fit into the same building area

than waspreviouslyallowed. It is hopedthat thesemeasures,which allowfor a denseruse of valu-able land,will attractinvestors tothe Districtand increase business and residentialactivity. Chapel West supported thesechanges and wants to thank the City Plan Department and especially our four dedicated Aldermen who guided theseamendments through the legislativeprocess. Thank you to Sarah Eidelson,Frank Douglass, Tyisha Walker, andDouglas Hausladen for their support.

Chapel West News 5/13Chapel West’s 27th annual membership meeting

seated: Marcus Pace, Karyn Gilvarg, Brian McGrath, Carolyn Kone.standing: John Scafariello, David Ornato, Jonathan Leff, Woodruff Ford, Vincent Gagliardi.

Doug Hausladen reporting on the status of the BD-1 changeand the level of State PILOTS support.

seated: Wendy Chang and husband.standing: Archie Generoso, Joel Schiavone, Martha Judd

Zoning change approved by aldermen

Sarah Eidelson (Ward 1)

Douglas Hausladen (Ward 7) Frank Douglass (Ward 2)

Tyisha Walker (Ward 23)

BD-1fix

Now!

Around the DistrictElaine Quinn from the Greater DwightDevelopment Corp has been added to ouradvisory board. She will be a welcomeasset in helping us work on joint projectswith the Dwight neighborhood communi-ty. Welcome aboard Elaine.

We’re still working on increasing oursecurity camera program. We’re hoping toconclude a joint installation project withLCI and the NHPD. This will lead to morecameras thru-out Chapel West, theDwight neighborhood and a direct feedto NHPD. We will keep you advised.

Also, we’re beginning a project toinventory every tree in the district, tag it and create a computerized disc filedescribing the condition and future ofeach. Any tree taken down will bereplaced by one more suited for that location. We’re working with Yale Schoolof Forestry who will help to replace thetrees as needed. This is a longer termproject that we will allocate funds for as they become available.

Signing off for now.... We’ll keep intouch..... VAR


cwssd Telephone: 203-787-3000



Proof that Spring has arrived is now planted in CW’s 102 planters.

“Did you hear about the butcher whobacked up to the Meat Grinder?He got a “Little Behind” in his work.

The Sun is out!!! Pansies are in ourflower pots!!! Is Spring finally here? Or is it gone already??? Crazy weather.

Sgt. Rob Criscuolo, NHPD is veryresponsive to our calls and brings a high level of comfort and competency to the District.

The banner project (N.H. Notables) is almost complete and we’re receivingcompliments from a variety of sourcesthrough-out the city and beyond. Thanksto Tom Strong and his staff (in particularLiz Garvey, the portrait illustrator) fortheir quality of work and professionalism.

We’re adding more mulch to our treebeds and tidying them up as well. Thanksto our cleaning and maintenance crew,the district has never looked better.

“Time flies like an arrow; “Fruit” flieslike a banana...... Vin Romei.

Jojo’s Coffee & Roasting Co.

Jojo’s Coffee and Tea on the corner ofChapel and Park St. is a welcome additionto Chapel West and the Yale community.Reviewers give rave notices about theirteas, lattes and cappucino. (In addition to their coffees.)

The owner Kathy makes amazingbaked goods. “This place is a gem.” Quaint atmosphere, great music and it also has sidewalk seating.

Vin and Sgt. Rob Criscuolo.

Kathy Wei and Rose Zeng

Criscuolo has been a police officer sinceJanuary 2000. He was assigned a walkingbeat in Newhallville for a few yearsbefore being sent to the ConnecticutState Police Narcotics Task Force. He spent5 years investigating narcotics violations.He was promoted to detective in Februaryof 2008 and assigned to investigatemajor crimes. He was promoted toSergeant in October of 2008 and super-vised the New Haven Police NarcoticsUnit.

He began his work in the Dwight /Chapel neighborhood in September of2012. Since that time he has been workingto make contacts and build relationshipswith the residents, merchants, propertyowners and leaders in this district. Crimeis down in several major categories in the district, including shootings andarmed robberies. His goal for 2013 is “tocontinue to reduce major crimes, addressquality of life issues and develop the newofficers assigned to our area.”

Sergeant Robert Criscuolo

We’re always interested in new storiesand “tidbits.” Call 203 787-3000

—Vincent Romei

Chapel West News 2/13Holiday Party at Rudy’s The annual Chapel WestHoliday Party was held Dec. 3rd, 2012 at Rudy’s.

1. The Salernos.2. “Yikes Conspirators”.3. Bill Kilpatrick

& Anne Demchak.4. Cordelia Thorpe.5. Len Yanavich.6. Omer, Lindy, Mike,

& Abby. 7. Dr. Delfini & Marcia.8. Gag, Brian, Bijan, Vin.9. Patricia Kane

& Susan Bradford.10. Arnie Lehrer’s parents.11. Pat Dillon. 12. Tim Hamlin

& Winfield Davis.

Photos by Arnie Lehrer

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After the storm slowed everything down,City contractors arrived on Chapel Street,cleaned away the snow neatly with mon-ster trucks, scalpels, and whisk brooms,and hauled it away in huge trucks. Only one full travel lane was open onWednesday and by Thursday every park-ing space was useable. Chapel West work-ers helped them by spending the entireday shoveling out one single fire hydrantin front or our office. They were tired from the previous three days.

Blizzard 2013

Around the District

We’re always interested in new storiesand “tidbits”. Call 203 787-3000

—Vincent Romei

Book Trader Cafe

The Yale Herald’s 100 best of New Havenissue, Dec 7, cited J & B as the BestRenovation of the Year. Staff writer Jack Schlossberg wrote—“Wrong! It’s not the Yale University ArtGallery (too easy)—it’s J & B Deli. J & Blooks great after its renovation.... Now, it’s kind of pretty clean. The only room forchange left is expanding their store hours(ever heard of a college student craving alate night snack?).” The Rhee family opened the store in2001 and have become a fixture onChapel Street for town and gown opening at 7am. The Rhee’s daughter Joan, started YaleCollege in September and is a member ofDavenport and a violinist with the YaleSymphony Orchestra.

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000



Attorneys Chris Demarco and MichaelMoscowitz have purchased a 100-year-old, Victorian-style property at 131 DwightStreet in New Haven to use as offices fortheir firm. We welcome them.

J & B Deli’s new renovation

On January 29th, I had an emergency operation to remove my spleen which had ruptured. The Doctors expect a complete and normal recovery, and I should be back inthe office in early March. I want to thank all for their concern and well wishes. I’m anxious to get back to work and keepmoving Chapel West forward.

“It has been a crazy year at The BookTrader Cafe,” says owner, David Duda. The used bookstore/cafe on the corner ofChapel and York streets is celebrating 15years in business.

The excitement began this past sum-mer when the cafe got a phone call fromAdam Richman, a Yale Drama School Grad,announcing their choice as a competitoron the upcoming Travel Channel's series,“Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich inAmerica.” Richman, of “Man vs. Food”fame, chose the Book Trader’s home-made oven roasted turkey sandwich asone of the best in New England.*

The cafe’s success on that show led toan invitation to the World FoodChampionships in Las Vegas, Nevada inOctober where hundreds competed inseven food categories. Head chef JenniferTift competed in the Best Sandwich cate-gory with her vegan sauteed artichokecake sandwich, “It Ain't No Joke, Choke.”

Back in New Haven, Bookstore ManagerKelly Pyers, kept things running smooth-ly. After almost 15 years of service, she

continues to buy and sell “gently usedbooks, CDs and DVDs." She works to keeptheir inventory fresh and, as the onlyremaining used bookstore in New Haven'sliterary community, gets new booksalmost “every damn day.” The BookTrader cafe looks forward to upcoming

renovations with more space to createtheir homemade soups, sandwiches, sal-ads, specialty coffees and more egan/veg-etarian options for many years to come.* Ingredients are: oven roasted turkey: with swisscheese, homemade coleslaw and russian dressing ononion rye., smoked turkey: with orange-cranberrychutney and mesclun greens on sourdough.

News from Vin

New Haven notables

The Five Satins, formed in New Haven, consisted of leader Fred Parris, Lou Peebles, Stanley Dortch, Ed Martin and Jim Freeman in 1954. The doo-wop group is best known for their 1956 million-selling song, "In the Still of the Night." In 1957, the single was number three on the R&B chart in and number 25 on the pop charts. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. In 2003, the Five Satins were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

The Five SatinsIllustration by Liz Garvey

Banner for the 5 Satins now hanging on CrownStreet.

Chapel West Murals Special Edition

Chapel West

A New Haven notable On March 29, 1882, while an assistant pastor at Saint Mary's Church on Hillhouse Avenue, McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, (an organization that encourages men to be proud of their American-Catholic heritage) with a small group of parishioners. The order now has over 1.8 million member families and fifteen thousand councils. In 1996, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford opened an investigation into Father McGivney's life, with a stated goal of his beatification and canonization, or formal recognition by the Church of his sainthood.

Michael J. McGivney

Murals celebrating 13 New Haven notables have now been installed throughout the District. The murals hang on walls kindly lent to us by property owners.


—Vincent Romei

Beers Street at Chapel Chapel Street between Day and Orchard

Chapel Street between York and Park

Howe Street between Chapel and Edgewood

Park Street between Chapel and Crown

Howe Street between Crown and Chapel

Illustrations by Liz Garveyemail: [email protected]

Howe Sreet between Crown and Chapel

C.A. White building C.A. White building

Park Street between Chapel and Crown

Bill Esposito’s bldg. (rear of Dunkin Donuts) Edgewood between Howe and Park

Illustration by Debby Pucillo

Chapel West News 9/12Sixth Annual CookoutThe 6th annual ChapelWest Cookout was heldTuesday 8/7. The weathercooperated and everyoneenjoyed the food, drinks,music and conversation, asyou can see by the photos.

1. Alex at the grill.2. Joan Forte.3. Anna S. & Mike P.(rt.)4. Annina5. Bob Richards, “Mr. Bill”, and Dr. Delfini.6. Helen Salerno & Brian “being Brian”. 7. Woody F., Cindy and Vin.8. Lt. Blanchard (center).9. Yale Officers Cordero & Hebron , and NHPD Chief Esserman.10. The ladies kick up their heels.11. Yale Officer Vitale. 12. Walgreens provides fun & prizes.

Photos 5, 6, & 9 by Tom StrongPhotos 2 & 4 by Brian McGrathAll others by Laszlo Feher

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The fun continues...13. “Beautiful Gina”.14. Sheila, Tracy, & Florita.15. Edie (left) and The

Charlie Salerno Trio16. Paul Kowalski & friends17. “Hot Dogs”18. Annina & friends19. Lenny & Rimage staff.20. Malla (left) & friends21. Tracy & the LCI crew

Photos 13, 17, 19 by Brian McGrathAll others by Laszlo Feher

What a great cookout we had this year!

Chapel West News 9/12Sixth Annual CookoutThe 6th annual ChapelWest Cookout was heldTuesday 8/7. The weathercooperated and everyoneenjoyed the food, drinks,music and conversation, asyou can see by the photos.

1. Alex at the grill.2. Joan Forte.3. Anna S. & Mike P.(rt.)4. Annina5. Bob Richards, “Mr. Bill”, and Dr. Delfini.6. Helen Salerno & Brian “being Brian”. 7. Woody F., Cindy and Vin.8. Lt. Blanchard (center).9. Yale Officers Cordero & Hebron , and NHPD Chief Esserman.10. The ladies kick up their heels.11. Yale Officer Vitale. 12. Walgreens provides fun & prizes.

Photos 5, 6, & 9 by Tom StrongPhotos 2 & 4 by Brian McGrathAll others by Laszlo Feher

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The fun continues...13. “Beautiful Gina”.14. Sheila, Tracy, & Florita.15. Edie (left) and The

Charlie Salerno Trio16. Paul Kowalski & friends17. “Hot Dogs”18. Annina & friends19. Lenny & Rimage staff.20. Malla (left) & friends21. Tracy & the LCI crew

Photos 13, 17, 19 by Brian McGrathAll others by Laszlo Feher

What a great cookout we had this year!

Tidbits by Vin RomeiAround the District “Those who get too big for their britcheswill be exposed in the end.”

The Cook-out on Tuesday, August 7, 2012was very successful. The weather wasbeautiful, and approx. 200 CW faithfulshad their fill of hotdogs, hamburgers,grilled chicken, pizza, sushi, Chinesespring rolls, Italian ice, cous cous, and avariety of liquid refreshments. A goodtime was had by all. Nice to see Chief Esserman attend. He brought along Lt. Ken Blanchard whois replacing the retired & much belovedLt. Ray Hassett. We thank the Yale PD forproviding security and their assistance inthis matter. The ambassadors seem to be doing agood job and the residents welcomethem with open arms. We will be thinkingof more uses for their services. John Cannon needs a hip replacementoperation. I offered to do it myself at adiscount price, but he refused me. He saidhis insurance wouldn’t cover it.

“Did you know that no word in theEnglish language rhymes with ‘month’?”Til next time.....V.A. Romei


—Vincent Romei

A restaurant named “Meatball” openedat the corner of Chapel St. and Park St. It’sa new concept and looks great. We’ll try itnext week and see what goes.

Seasons are changing and so are theplantings at Chapel West. The summerflowers are being removed as we speakand the fall mums are getting installed. We’re almost finished cleaning weedsand mulching over 130 tree beds. It’s really starting to shape up nicely. weeds,weeds weeds–go away... We’re getting rave compliments onour Banner Program. So far, it’s been a

huge success. Anyone having informationon other New Haven notables, I wouldappreciate you contacting me accordingly. You may have noticed the tentingaround “The Y” as interior and exterior renovations are under way. Ivy League LLC opened recently at 1146Chapel St. It is a multimedia arts studioand retail shop, specializing in vintagefashion, videography and music produc-tion. For 3 “urban New Haven natives, TheIvy League is their way of bridging thesocial and economic gaps between IvyLeague tradition and urban popularity.Check out the full article in the NewHaven Register. Nice story.

Meet your neighbor; The Yale School of ArchitectureThe Yale School of Architecture is one ofthe constituent professional schools ofYale University. It is generally consideredto be one of the most prestigious archi-tecture schools in the world. The Department of Architecture wasestablished in the School of the Fine Artsin 1916. In 1959 the School of Art and Architecture, as it was then known, wasmade into a fully graduate professionalschool. In 1972 Yale designated the Schoolof Architecture as its own separate pro-fessional school. The School is housed in the masterwork of its former Dean, Paul Rudolph. The school awards the degrees of Master of Architecture, Master ofArchitecture II, Master of Environmental Design, and Doctor of Philosophy in architectural history and criticism. Theschool also offers joint-degree programswith the School of Management andSchool of Forestry. Another distinguishing element in the Yale core program has been the Yale Building Project, a first-year studio andsummer program. The Urban Design Workshop extendsthe work of the School into the areas ofcommunity design and outreach, provid-ing design assistance to groups and municipalities throughout the region. At right are works by some of theSchool’s well known graduates.

Eero Saarinen b.f.a. ’34, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

Paul Rudolph, faculty 1958-65, Rudolph Hall, School of Architecture

Marion Weiss m.arch. ’83, Smith College Campus CenterLouis Kahn d.f.a. ’65, faculty 1947-59, British Art Center, interior

Maya Lin ba ’81, m.arch. ’86, Vietnam Veteran Memorial, 1982

Charles Gwathmey b.arch. ’62, Loria Center, interior

Turner Brooks m.arch ’70,Lombard Miller House

Left to right: Aquil Salaam, Andrew Buchanan, co-founders of the New Haven store. Nadir Salaam, co-founder, not pictured.Photo by Melanie Stengel/New Haven Register

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000



Chapel West News 6/12Meet your neighbor; Walgreens Pharmacy, 1415 Chapel.Walgreens provides comprehensive phar-macy services for Chapel West residents.

Walgreens pharmacy at 1415 Chapel St. continues to add value to its manyservice offerings. In addition to filling prescriptions, pharmacy manager RobertDelVecchio, RPH, provides one-on-onemedication counseling and has been certified in HIV and diabetes medicationmanagement to help patients get thecomprehensive medication therapy carethey need.

Walgreens also offers a range of med-ical supplies and over-the-counter med-ications, not to mention a wide selectionof household and beauty products. Free delivery is also available.

Walgreens arrived to this communitymore than a year ago when it acquired Medical Center Pharmacy from Yale-NewHaven Hospital. Since then, the locationhas been completely remodeled, and thestaff is continually undergoing medica-tion training to better serve the commu-nity’s healthcare needs. With its locationclose to Yale-New Haven Hospital and theHospital of Saint Raphael, the pharmacyis ideally suited to supporting the med-ication needs of discharged patients.

Walgreens combines the resources ofa national retailer with the local knowl-edge and healthcare expertise of its phar-macy staff.

The pharmacy is open from 9 a.m. to 5p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays. To contactthe pharmacy, call 203-777-7880 or visitwalgreens.com.

Meet your neighbor; The Yale School of ArtThe Yale School of Art is one of twelveconstituent schools of Yale University. It isa professional art school, granting onlyMFA degrees to those completing studiesin graphic design, painting/printmaking,photography, or sculpture.

According to the 2012 survey conduc-ted by US News & World Report, theSchool received the number one rankingin the United States for their Masters ofFine Arts program. The degree of Masterof Fine Arts is the only degree offered bythe School of Art. It is conferred upon recommendation of the faculty after successful completion of all course workin residence and after a faculty-approvedthesis presentation. The minimum resi-dence requirement is two years.

The Yale Alumni Magazine reported inits November/December 2008 issue thatthe School admitted sixty-five fromamong 1142 applicants for its class of2010, and that fifty-six of them enrolled.

In 2000, the art school opened a newbuilding at 1156 Chapel Street calledGreen Hall. It houses BFA and MFA students in photography andgraphic design. The painting MFAs havetheir own building behind Green Hall;sculpture MFAs, are now in a new sculp-ture building at 36 Edgewood Avenue.

At right areworks by graduatesof Yale College (2)and the School ofArt (5).

Gregory Crewdson mfa, Photograph

Richard Serra mfa, Torqued Spiral 2001, Bilbao, Spain

Kyle Cooper mfa, Film title sequenceFrederic Remington ycba, The Grass Fire 1908

Chris Pullman mfa, US Postage Stamps Jerry Thompson mfa, Street portrait Claes Oldenburg ycba, Lipstick36 Edgewood Avenue

From left to right: David, Tarina, Emmett, Monica, Dinean, and Bob.

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000



I hope that you have noticed the newmaintenance uniforms being worn by our cleaning crew. I think they are prettysnazzy. We are in the process of a majoruplift in sprucing up the streetscape. Wehave dug out grass and weeds from over130 tree wells and applied mulch to all.It’s an ongoing process and we will beweeding and adding more mulch as theseason goes on.

We have also almost finished paintingall of the street light poles, utility cabi-nets and various sign posts. Maintainingand beautification is one of our maingoals and the District looks better eachyear as we go along.

You may have noticed that we havestarted a Mural-Banner program depict-ing people with ties to New Haven whohave made significant contributions tosociety. We have erected six banners sofar and are projecting 15-16 in total. When we finish, we will produce a singlenewsletter dedicated to the program.We’re always interested in your ideas, solet us know your thoughts on this matter.

Our flowers are blooming nicely withall the rain and sun. The District hasnever looked cleaner. Our maintenancecrews continue to perform well.

Still waiting for the new restaurant toopen on the corner of Chapel & Park Sts.


Around the District

“How did the pirate stop smoking? He used the PATCH!!”

Our Ambassador program has begun andthe comments we’re getting are verygood. We would like to hear any sugges-tions you may have to improve upon it.Give us a call.

Nice article in Monday’s N.H. Registeron Tracy Claxton. She works for LCI andhas been very helpful to Chapel West ingetting our property owners to maintaintheir grounds, taking in trash barrels andassisting us in maintaining Chapel Weststandards throughout our District. Shewas a great high school and college bas-ketball player and a pioneer in her sport.Congrats Tracy.

Looks like the takeover of St. Raphael’sby Yale NH Hospital will happen soonerrather than later. We’re sorry to see one ofour stalwarts go, but we have been prom-ised that the new entity will carry on theassociation in Chapel West with the samecare and consideration afforded us by St.Raphael’s. Wish us all luck with our newventure.

Congrats to Board of AldermanPresident JorgePerez for receiv-ing the 2ndannual hispanicleadershipaward. It waswell deserved.Jorge has been along-time friendof Chapel Westand its causes.

“Don’t worryabout avoiding temptation. As you growolder, it will avoid you!”

Tracy Claxton Pole time

Anthony, Demetrius and Monte

Bun Lai, owner of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, prepares hisdish as Jason Sobocinski, owner of Caseus Fromagerie Bistro,is interviewed by Stephen Fries during the Picnic Battle Forthe Planet chef competition at East Rock Park.

Weed inhibiting mulch in place

Chapel West News 5/12Meet your neighborThe Yale Urban Design Workshop (YUDW)is a community design center based atthe Yale University School of Architecture.After a number of years on the Yale cam-pus, the YUDW moved to a storefront at1203 Chapel Street in 2003.

Since its founding in 1992 by ProfessorAlan Plattus, then Associate Dean of theSchool, the YUDW has worked with com-munities across the state of Connecticut,providing planning and design assistanceon projects ranging from comprehensiveplans, economic development strategiesand community visions to the design ofpublic spaces, streetscapes and individualcommunity facilities. Alan was joined byAndrei Harwell, AIA, an architect and grad-uate of the School in 2006 as the YUDW’sfull-time project manager. Alan andAndrei manage a staff of graduate stu-dents who participate in the projects ofthe office. They are also on the faculty of the School of Architecture, where they teach courses on architecture andurban design.

For more information on the YUDW,visit their website at: www.architecture.yale.edu/udw or email [email protected].

Annual Meeting

Andrei Harwell and Alan Plattus. Below are a few of their projects.

The Study at Yale was the scene of ChapelWest’s 26th annual membership meeting,dinner, and election of Commissioners.Vincent Romei, David Ornato, and ArnieLehrer were reelected to the Board ofCommissioners. The budget for this com-ing year will be slightly larger than lastyear, even though the mil rate will not beincreased. Budget estimates indicate thatthe State of Connecticut PILOT reim-bursements for hospital and universitytaxes will remain at least at the samepercentage as last year, and that manyproperties in the district have increasedin assessed value. These increases are dueto the strength of the neighborhood andthe resulting high demand for commer-cial and residential space.

The new budget reflects increases in the street cleaning program, both in territory covered and hours worked. Inaddition the banner program will beexpanded,and several restaurants willparticipate in the City’s facade improve-ment program.

Chief Esserman attended the meetingand spoke at length about his plans toradically increase foot patrols and returnto the community policing model thatwas used in New Haven several years ago.He also indicated he was in favor of secu-rity cameras and would work with us toexpand the program we already started

in Chapel West. It was a very positivespeech and we are excited to have himback in New Haven.

The Study Hotel did an outstandingjob as host for the event-very professional.The meeting was adjourned at 8pm.

Chief Esserman and Vin Romei.

Left to right: Alexandra & Chris Alexiades, Niki Papadopoulos and honorary Godfather Lt. Ray Hassett.

East Harlem Media City, competition entry, 2007,New York City

West River Gateway, waterfront redevelopmentconcept plan, West Haven, 2008-2011

Montessori on Edgewood Daycare and Greater DwightDevelopment Corporation Offices, New Haven, 2007

Chapel West News 5/12Meet your neighborThe Yale Urban Design Workshop (YUDW)is a community design center based atthe Yale University School of Architecture.After a number of years on the Yale cam-pus, the YUDW moved to a storefront at1203 Chapel Street in 2003.

Since its founding in 1992 by ProfessorAlan Plattus, then Associate Dean of theSchool, the YUDW has worked with com-munities across the state of Connecticut,providing planning and design assistanceon projects ranging from comprehensiveplans, economic development strategiesand community visions to the design ofpublic spaces, streetscapes and individualcommunity facilities. Alan was joined byAndrei Harwell, AIA, an architect and grad-uate of the School in 2006 as the YUDW’sfull-time project manager. Alan andAndrei manage a staff of graduate stu-dents who participate in the projects ofthe office. They are also on the faculty of the School of Architecture, where they teach courses on architecture andurban design.

For more information on the YUDW,visit their website at: www.architecture.yale.edu/udw or email [email protected].

Annual Meeting

Andrei Harwell and Alan Plattus. Below are a few of their projects.

The Study at Yale was the scene of ChapelWest’s 26th annual membership meeting,dinner, and election of Commissioners.Vincent Romei, David Ornato, and ArnieLehrer were reelected to the Board ofCommissioners. The budget for this com-ing year will be slightly larger than lastyear, even though the mil rate will not beincreased. Budget estimates indicate thatthe State of Connecticut PILOT reim-bursements for hospital and universitytaxes will remain at least at the samepercentage as last year, and that manyproperties in the district have increasedin assessed value. These increases are dueto the strength of the neighborhood andthe resulting high demand for commer-cial and residential space.

The new budget reflects increases in the street cleaning program, both in territory covered and hours worked. Inaddition the banner program will beexpanded,and several restaurants willparticipate in the City’s facade improve-ment program.

Chief Esserman attended the meetingand spoke at length about his plans toradically increase foot patrols and returnto the community policing model thatwas used in New Haven several years ago.He also indicated he was in favor of secu-rity cameras and would work with us toexpand the program we already started

in Chapel West. It was a very positivespeech and we are excited to have himback in New Haven.

The Study Hotel did an outstandingjob as host for the event-very professional.The meeting was adjourned at 8pm.

Chief Esserman and Vin Romei.

Left to right: Alexandra & Chris Alexiades, Niki Papadopoulos and honorary Godfather Lt. Ray Hassett.

East Harlem Media City, competition entry, 2007,New York City

West River Gateway, waterfront redevelopmentconcept plan, West Haven, 2008-2011

Montessori on Edgewood Daycare and Greater DwightDevelopment Corporation Offices, New Haven, 2007

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000




—Vincent Romei

Notice the new banners going upthroughout the area. They describe thenames of the streets in Chapel West andhow the names came about. “Kudos” toTom Strong and Strong Cohen for theresearch and design.

We’re working on a plan with YaleUrban Design Workshop (YUDW) to spruce up the neighborhood and bringmore life to the streetscape. We’ll keepyou informed about this exciting undertaking.

In a recent Connecticut Magazine article, The restaurant Heirloom at theStudy at Yale hotel was named BestHotel Dining-Statewide. Congrats to agreat operation. They run a good ship.

In early March of 2012, in conjunctionwith the Town Green SSD, we started apart-time Ambassador service. If it workswell, we will increase the hours of opera-tion and coverage. So far, the commentsfrom our residents and business ownersare very positive. We’re impressed withtheir performance and how they interactwith the neighborhood.

Yale has almost completed the renova-tions of their building at 1195 Chapel St.It looks wonderful and we can’t wait tosee it filled up. Stay tuned...


Around the District

Condolences:

To Alex Elsankary, owner of Chap’s Grilleon the passing of his sister in Egypt. Shewas only 41 yrs. old and left three youngchildren. Our thoughts and prayers arewith Alex. God rest her soul.

Did you know? A calendar’s days are numbered.

At least our flowers are benefitting fromthe rain and lack of warm weather.We normally change to our “summerflowers” on May 1st but this year we’reenjoying them for an extra two weeksand the colors are great.

We hear that a new and popularrestaurant is going into the vacant spoton the corner of Chapel and Park Sts.

Rudy’s is a great addition to ChapelWest. The Herald recently had an articlenaming it “Best Watering Hole”. Congratsto Omer Ipek, owner.

The “Workshop” at 1152 Chapel St. isdoing some innovating styling that isdrawing an increase in business accord-ing to owner Dickie L. Good luck to yourprogram from CW.

We had a number of street lights goout on Howe and Chapel Sts. It tookalmost a full week’s work from the city’selectrical contractor to repair and replaceold cables that simply wore out. Ourthanks to Dick Miller and Larry Smithfor responding to our problem.

Chapel West certainly gets noticed and is fast becoming a great place to liveand work.

“ A boiled egg is hard to beat”Til next time....

An important part of the Chapel Westdaily street cleaning activities is empty-ing the 56 fancy public trash receptacleswhich have been installed on every blockthroughout the district. The amount oftrash collected daily is nearly a dumpsterfull. The trash swept up from streets andsidewalks fills the rest of a dumpster.Under the old system, which was not effi-cient, the City would pick up the trashfrom individual barrels, from time totime. Under the current Chapel West system, District staff empty the barrels,thereby relieving the City of this dutywhile at the same time increasing the

frequency of collection. In return the City empties the dumpster on a regularschedule. The dumpster is currently located in a nook at the end of CofieldWay. The District recently contracted witha fencing company to install a screenwith a locking gate which completelysurrounds and hides the dumpster. Thiswas done for aesthetic reasons to com-plement the new Amistad Academywhich recently opened in that block. Thefence also serves to deter illegal dumpers.In the past, some construction companieswere detected placing building rubbleinto the City dumpster.

Talking Trash

1195 Chapel St. with its brand new porch.

Anthony and Monte “on the job”.

Chapel West Ambassadors Dana Mozell and Angel Cordero

Chapel West News 12/11Meet your neighbors at Chapel Medical Group

In MemoriumOur condolences to the family of localdeveloper Wendell Harp who passedaway on Friday 12/2/11. His wife, State Sen. Toni Harp and his brotherRay Harp along with Wendell havebeen long time friends of Chapel West. Our prayers are with them.

Dr. Russell Dallai, principal of NorthHaven High School, recently introducedthe semester’s first two Students of theMonth for September and October to theRotary club describing them as seniorswho are “wonderful representatives” ofthe school and “worthy” of the honor.

As he introduced one of the students,Ramneet Singh, a popular sportscaster oncable access, the principal stated that theAP student has also far exceeded the

graduation requirement of 40 servicehours, topping 200 hours. Although par-ticularly interested in basketball, Singhsaid he puts his sports knowledge to useas an editor for two sports websites,writes game reviews, and heads a club for like-minded students.

Chapel Medical Groupbegan in New Havenaround 1940, and arrivedat its present location at1308 Chapel Street inapproximately 1956. The group currently con-sists of 3 Board Certifiedinternists who have addi-tional interests beyondtraditional primary care.Sunil Menon, m.d. hasspecial interests in com-plimentary /alternativemedicine as well asweight management.Patrick Asiedu, m.d. holds a ph.d. in pharmacology,and has special interestsin travel medicine/inter-national health as well asdiabetes. Wayne Warren,m.d. has additional boardcertifications in lipidogy(cholesterol) and hyper-tension (high blood pres-sure) and is a contribut-ing author to the recentbook for patients 100Questions & AnswersAbout Managing your Cholesterol.

In addition, the practice has recentlyadded Jenifer Clark, aprn, to its panel ofproviders. Jenifer is seeing new patientson a regular basis. In addition to routineprimary, there is blood drawing and an x-ray facility on site. The Group alsooffers: testing of pulmonary function,evaluation of heart arrhythmias, and inhome testing of sleep disorders.

The providers are supported by a capableand dedicated staff, most of whom havebeen part of the group for many years.

For nearly 40 years, the practice wasled by Marvin Cousins, m.d. A number of current patients were delivered by Dr.Cousins in the 1950s and 1960s. A major-ity of our current patients have beencounting on Chapel Medical Group fortheir care for more than 20 years.

Each of the physicians has a facultyappointment at the Yale School ofMedicine and are active in the teachingprogram there and at the Hospital of St. Raphael. They are proud to be a partof Chapel West and to care for many local residents. For more information, call 203-865-5111 or visit them at www.ctmedgroup.com.

North Haven High Student of the Month

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Dr. Russell Dallai, North Haven High School princi-pal, congratulates Ramneet Singh. Ramneet is theson of Mr and Mrs Tijinder Singh, owner of theChapel Mini Mart.

From left to right— Wayne S. Warren, Patrick Asiedu, Sunil G. Menon, and Jenifer Clark

Photo by David M

archesseault, Rotary PR Chairman

Squash anyone?To fry zacabon:- Peel squash & cut into French fry potato shapes.- Dip into mixture of beaten egg and milkand roll in mixture of fish fry and flour.- Fry until golden brown, being careful notto overcook.

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Chapel West News 12/11Meet your neighbors at Chapel Medical Group

In MemoriumOur condolences to the family of localdeveloper Wendell Harp who passedaway on Friday 12/2/11. His wife, State Sen. Toni Harp and his brotherRay Harp along with Wendell havebeen long time friends of Chapel West. Our prayers are with them.

Dr. Russell Dallai, principal of NorthHaven High School, recently introducedthe semester’s first two Students of theMonth for September and October to theRotary club describing them as seniorswho are “wonderful representatives” ofthe school and “worthy” of the honor.

As he introduced one of the students,Ramneet Singh, a popular sportscaster oncable access, the principal stated that theAP student has also far exceeded the

graduation requirement of 40 servicehours, topping 200 hours. Although par-ticularly interested in basketball, Singhsaid he puts his sports knowledge to useas an editor for two sports websites,writes game reviews, and heads a club for like-minded students.

Chapel Medical Groupbegan in New Havenaround 1940, and arrivedat its present location at1308 Chapel Street inapproximately 1956. The group currently con-sists of 3 Board Certifiedinternists who have addi-tional interests beyondtraditional primary care.Sunil Menon, m.d. hasspecial interests in com-plimentary /alternativemedicine as well asweight management.Patrick Asiedu, m.d. holds a ph.d. in pharmacology,and has special interestsin travel medicine/inter-national health as well asdiabetes. Wayne Warren,m.d. has additional boardcertifications in lipidogy(cholesterol) and hyper-tension (high blood pres-sure) and is a contribut-ing author to the recentbook for patients 100Questions & AnswersAbout Managing your Cholesterol.

In addition, the practice has recentlyadded Jenifer Clark, aprn, to its panel ofproviders. Jenifer is seeing new patientson a regular basis. In addition to routineprimary, there is blood drawing and an x-ray facility on site. The Group alsooffers: testing of pulmonary function,evaluation of heart arrhythmias, and inhome testing of sleep disorders.

The providers are supported by a capableand dedicated staff, most of whom havebeen part of the group for many years.

For nearly 40 years, the practice wasled by Marvin Cousins, m.d. A number of current patients were delivered by Dr.Cousins in the 1950s and 1960s. A major-ity of our current patients have beencounting on Chapel Medical Group fortheir care for more than 20 years.

Each of the physicians has a facultyappointment at the Yale School ofMedicine and are active in the teachingprogram there and at the Hospital of St. Raphael. They are proud to be a partof Chapel West and to care for many local residents. For more information, call 203-865-5111 or visit them at www.ctmedgroup.com.

North Haven High Student of the Month

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Dr. Russell Dallai, North Haven High School princi-pal, congratulates Ramneet Singh. Ramneet is theson of Mr and Mrs Tijinder Singh, owner of theChapel Mini Mart.

From left to right— Wayne S. Warren, Patrick Asiedu, Sunil G. Menon, and Jenifer Clark

Photo by David M

archesseault, Rotary PR Chairman

Squash anyone?To fry zacabon:- Peel squash & cut into French fry potato shapes.- Dip into mixture of beaten egg and milkand roll in mixture of fish fry and flour.- Fry until golden brown, being careful notto overcook.

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CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000

Vin Romei, Pres. [email protected] McGrath, Bus. Mgr. [email protected]

I pointed to two old drunks sitting acrossthe bar from us and told my friend:“That’s us in 10 years.” He said, “that’s amirror, you idiot!”

Congrats to Ramneet Singh on hisselection of “Student of the Month” bythe North Haven Rotary Club. Mr. & Mrs.Singh own and operate Chapel MiniMart. Last year, their daughter Rachneetwas singled out by Yale University as anoutstanding student from North Haven. I don’t think Chapel West can take all ofthe credit but it’s nice to know that Momand Pop hold Chapel West dear to theirhearts.

Cucuzza is the Italian name for the“Large” Zucchini grown by Kasbah GardenCafe. There are many recipes for cookingthis squash. I have included one of them.

The weather has been beautiful com-pared to last year’s winter (snow). Let’shope it stays friendly.

A warm Chapel West Welcome for newPolice Chief Dean Esserman. During hislast tenure here, community policing wasvery popular with the New Haven localsand we were sorry to see it taken away.We look forward to it’s return and hope it has some positive results.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:“Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some other unspeakable disease.”“That depends, Sir”, said Disraeli,“whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”


—Vincent Romei

Sorry to see Rena Leddy leave the TownGreen District. She was a classy lady anddid much to move them forward in theright direction. They’re fortunate to haveWin and Daisy in reserve to carry on withthe fine work that has been going on. Ithelps us all to have good, strong leadershipin the various Special Districts. It’s a win-win situation for New Haven.

Nice to see our retailers getting into the holiday spirit with all the storefrontsdressing up their windows. Even therestaurants have joined in. Good to see the holiday spirit.

Around the District

100 plus CW property owners and guests graze and rock at Rudy’s.

Check out the new hi-tech parkingmeters installed on Chapel St. We askedthe City to turn over to Chapel West allparking meter revenues collected in ourDistrict, but so far we haven’t heard backfrom them. Heh, heh! Somehow I thinkwe’ll have a long wait.

The colorful decorations in the whiskeybarrels throughout Chapel West came out great. Thanks to our supplier, KogutFlorist and Landscaping, who does a veryprofessional job. We’re delighted withtheir services.

Chapel West, along with Rudy’s,co-sponsored a reception for our newAlderman. It was well attended alongwith many department heads and otheradministration officials. We thank theMayor for attending. A great time washad by all and it gave everyone a chanceto visit our District. Rudy’s did an out-standing job hosting the event with us.

Til next time....VR

As this newsletter goesto press, more than 65CW bows have been liberated from CW trees. Any witnesses?

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Chapel West News 10/11Meet Bill Esposito

There’s something new in the neighbor-hood, but it isn’t Vincent Gagliardi. It isthe new street sign “Gag Jr’s Corner”recently erected by the City Transpor-tation, Traffic, and Parking Departmentupon orders of the New Haven Board ofAldermen and the Chapel West SpecialServices District. The honor was conferredin recognition of the constructive pres-ence and contributions of the Gagliardifamily businesses in the City for over 60years, the majority of them in the ChapelWest neighborhood. How many stillremember Gag Jr’s Grille on the corner ofChapel and Park? Signed pictures were onall the walls. On a given day one couldrun into Sammy Davis Jr., Rosy Grier, orDion. They all ate at Gag’s. All the countertops still had the White Castle burgeremblems on them from an earlier day.You could get a burger or a sub back then,but breakfast was really the big deal anddrew the crowds. Son Gary worked there

with his father Vincent for many yearsand is now the proprietor of Gag Jr’sliquor store in the same building. MotherMary and brother Gene also worked hardat the business, opening at 5:30 A.M. forbreakfast without missing a beat. Onlyonce was Vincent missing for breakfastand it was rumored that he had run offwith Miss Sweden but he was only downin New York auditioning for a Broadwayshow.A tradition continues. Street corner nam-ing is a long standing practice of the Cityof New Haven which is and was doneonly after a petition of hundreds of Gag’sfriends and admirers submitted therequired documents to the City Board ofAldermen to establish their intention tobestow this honor. This was not hard toaccomplish given the many years of serv-ice the family has put into the area. The Chapel West Board congratulates Vin Gagliardi.

Meet Bill Esposito, a true Chapel Westveteran. Bill has owned properties in thearea since the early seventies. He hasmany apartment/retail units and is mainly concentrated in the Chapel St./Park St. section of our district.

He served on our board for a numberof years during the time of Evelyn’s presi-dency and was a strong supporter of allof our programs just as he is today. Hemaintains his properties well, doing mostof the work with his own company. Hehas seen the transformation from theworst part of our history to what we allenjoy today. He has been an integral partof that turn-around.

Chapel West wishes we had moremembers that have the dedication andstick-to-it attitude that Bill has. We’reproud to have him as a member of ourcommunity.

Chapel and Park – Gag Jr’s Corner

Right: Vin Romei, Bill Esposito, and Brian McGrath in front of The Esposito Building at 1172 Chapel St.Far right: Bill’s apartment building; Monterey at 1175 Chapel St.

Right: Gary and Vincent Gagliardi with Vin Romei in front of Gag Jr’s Liquor Store

Photos by Tom Strong

Photo by Tom StrongPhoto by Deborah Pucillo

Photo by Deborah Pucillo

Chapel West News 10/11Meet Bill Esposito

There’s something new in the neighbor-hood, but it isn’t Vincent Gagliardi. It isthe new street sign “Gag Jr’s Corner”recently erected by the City Transpor-tation, Traffic, and Parking Departmentupon orders of the New Haven Board ofAldermen and the Chapel West SpecialServices District. The honor was conferredin recognition of the constructive pres-ence and contributions of the Gagliardifamily businesses in the City for over 60years, the majority of them in the ChapelWest neighborhood. How many stillremember Gag Jr’s Grille on the corner ofChapel and Park? Signed pictures were onall the walls. On a given day one couldrun into Sammy Davis Jr., Rosy Grier, orDion. They all ate at Gag’s. All the countertops still had the White Castle burgeremblems on them from an earlier day.You could get a burger or a sub back then,but breakfast was really the big deal anddrew the crowds. Son Gary worked there

with his father Vincent for many yearsand is now the proprietor of Gag Jr’sliquor store in the same building. MotherMary and brother Gene also worked hardat the business, opening at 5:30 A.M. forbreakfast without missing a beat. Onlyonce was Vincent missing for breakfastand it was rumored that he had run offwith Miss Sweden but he was only downin New York auditioning for a Broadwayshow.A tradition continues. Street corner nam-ing is a long standing practice of the Cityof New Haven which is and was doneonly after a petition of hundreds of Gag’sfriends and admirers submitted therequired documents to the City Board ofAldermen to establish their intention tobestow this honor. This was not hard toaccomplish given the many years of serv-ice the family has put into the area. The Chapel West Board congratulates Vin Gagliardi.

Meet Bill Esposito, a true Chapel Westveteran. Bill has owned properties in thearea since the early seventies. He hasmany apartment/retail units and is mainly concentrated in the Chapel St./Park St. section of our district.

He served on our board for a numberof years during the time of Evelyn’s presi-dency and was a strong supporter of allof our programs just as he is today. Hemaintains his properties well, doing mostof the work with his own company. Hehas seen the transformation from theworst part of our history to what we allenjoy today. He has been an integral partof that turn-around.

Chapel West wishes we had moremembers that have the dedication andstick-to-it attitude that Bill has. We’reproud to have him as a member of ourcommunity.

Chapel and Park – Gag Jr’s Corner

Right: Vin Romei, Bill Esposito, and Brian McGrath in front of The Esposito Building at 1172 Chapel St.Far right: Bill’s apartment building; Monterey at 1175 Chapel St.

Right: Gary and Vincent Gagliardi with Vin Romei in front of Gag Jr’s Liquor Store


Photo by Tom StrongPhoto by Deborah Pucillo

Photo by Deborah Pucillo


Brian and I had a meeting with PikeInternational to review their plans forfuture expansion and how we can be ofhelp. It was a very informative and cordialget-together. We’re excited about theproactive stance he has taken towardNew Haven and more important, Chapel West.

On Monday night (10/3/11) The Boardof Alderman passed our proposed newzoning regulations for CW. This shouldhelp expansion of development in ourarea and bring additional foot traffic andbusiness. We also believe this will create asafer environment, increase property val-ues and raise the tax base for the City aswell as Chapel West. We’re very excitedand are already working with potentialdevelopers who want to locate in ChapelWest.

Through the efforts of Yale PD, Lt.Vitale, and NHPD Lt. Hassett and Lt. Sweeny, we have created a joint commit-tee on Crime Prevention and Quality ofLife Issues. We have had our initial meet-ing and plan to meet periodically to dis-cuss and implement programs to accom-plish these goals. I would like to congratu-late both Police Depts. for taking this ini-tiative and all of our property owners andboard members who have agreed toserve. Thanks guys.

The Sidewalk Project on Chapel St. is almost completed and it looks great.Laydon Construction has done a fine jobwith a minimal amount of disruption.Long time coming but it was worth thewait. ….Til next letter

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000


Around the District “Did you know?” The Statue of Liberty isbuilt so that it can sway up to 5" in anydirection without breaking? I know somepeople who can’t sway that much with-out falling down.

Chapel West restaurants continue torack up rewards .

Connecticut Magazine named Jo-Jo’sCoffee; Best of CT. The Study at Yale; BestCity Hotel, Mamoun’s Falafel; Best LateNight Bites, and Miya’s Sushi; Best Sake.Pretty good representation for our won-derful neighborhood.

Pancho Café got a nice write-up in theYale Daily News, as did Rudy’s.

We purchased a new (used) leaf collec-tor machine that actually vacuums themup & grinds them as well. This shouldmake our cleaning operation go faster,cleaner, and utilize less bags than the tra-ditional method. Looking forward to see-ing how well it works.

Did you know that celery has negativecalories? It takes more calories to eat apiece of celery than the celery has in it tobegin with.

Also, if you were wondering, theGuinness Book of Records has the recordfor being the book most often stolenfrom public libraries.

Til next time…Vin Romei

Three hundred and sixty-five days a yearyou will see Dennis White (above) sellinghis newspapers on the corner of George& Howe St. He always has a polite word and ready smile.

It’s a pleasure to have him as a fixturein our District. Good Luck Dennis.

A Man for All Seasons


—Vincent Romei

Got Milk? Insomnia Cookies coming soon to 1145 Chapel St.

Have you seenRobi Gallantwearing his colorful collec-tion of hatsaround theDistrict?


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Chapel West News 8/11Chapel West Rezoning Advances

The Chapel West Annual Cookout waswell attended by at least 200 people. Every bit of food and drink was easilyconsumed although we were well pre-pared for another 100 if necessary. Weused the back of the Pro-park lot this yearand this may be permanent now (untilwe build!). We found it was much betterthan the middle of the lot because wehad perfect shade.

All parts of the neighborhood andlocal organizations were represented aswell as a dozen City departments. PoliceChief Frank Limon came by with hisdeputy Tobin Hensgen. Lt. Joe Vitale from

Yale PD and Lt. Ray Hasset also came by, each with a crew in tow. Many propertyowners and businesses attended, loyal as always.

Food was catered by Miya’s, MainGarden, Casbah Cafe, Chaps Grille, Pizza House, Rudy’s, and Jack’s Italian Ice.Others offered to help but we simply had no more room. We have a lot of pic-tures. Anyone who needs a picture ofthemself should drop us an email [email protected] and we will sendwhatever we have. Good to see formerAlderman Nate Zeidenberg attend afterrecuperating from a recent illness.

With an approval from city planners,Chapel West moved a step closer tobecoming the kind of dense, mixed-useneighborhood you might find in Pragueor Milan—and without gun shops, pawnshops, or adult cabarets.

The City Plan Commission last weekapproved a change to the zoning of a por-tion of Chapel West, the area betweendowntown and the Dwight neighbor-hood. With aldermanic approval, the areawill change from BA and RH zoning toBD-1, which allows for more dense devel-opment and fewer parking restrictions.

The zone change is the brainchild ofthe Chapel West Special Services District,the organization of area businesses. At aprevious City Plan Commission meeting,Brian McGrath, the district’s BusinessManager, pitched the plan as a way to foster tightly packed, mixed-use,“European-style” development.

Tom Talbot, deputy director of zoning,highlighted the major changes. Someuses were nixed completely, he said.Those include “drive-in establishments”(whether they sell food or not), adultcabarets, game rooms. off-track bettingand auto repair. The revisions would alsoallow some uses currently prohibited, like

garden-supply stores and veterinarianoffices.

Another aspect of the changes dealswith parking. Existing BD-1 zoning doesnot include parking requirements for“nearly all commercial uses,” according toa City Plan report drafted by Talbot. Butthe new BD-1 would include “significant”parking requirements for hotels, dance

halls, and “places of assembly.”Thirdly, clubs, now permitted by right,

would require a special zoning exceptionand have to have on-site parking. Rest-aurants, including those which serve alcohol, would be permitted by right andwould not be subject to such a parkingrequirement.

Annual Cookout

Above: Jonathan Leff. Below left; Lahcen, Zahra and Vin. Below; Jack and Wally.

Photo by Thomas MacMillan for the New Haven Independent

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Chapel West was well represented in theannual “Best of New Haven” survey con-ducted by the N.H. Register.

Miya’s was voted Best SushiMamoun’s was voted Best MediterraneanM & M Pawn Shop was voted Best in itscategory.

In a further tribute, ConnecticutMagazine again named Dr Ron Delfini inthe Best of CT Periodontic’s Practice.

Congratulations to all. We’re all proudof you being part of our neighborhood.

Pancho Café (above) finally openedand the reviews so far are very good. Food is wonderful. Look forward to tryingit. It also received a clean inspectionreport by the health department.

Chap’s has a new executive chef. Theyhave spiffed up the menu and redecor-ated. I’m looking forward to a re-birthingof its restaurant. Alex has always workedhard to please.

Brian and I are working with NHPD toexpand our Security Camera coverage.…We’ll keep you updated as we progress.

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000


Around the District

“I love cooking with wine. Sometimes Ieven put it in the food.”!!!

I had an interesting chat with Tetsou Lai(Miya’s). She’s very interested in garden-ing, flowers, etc. She wants to work withus creating some ideas for improving thestreetscape of Chapel West. I was veryimpressed with her enthusiasm andknowledge in this area. Looking forwardto working with her next spring.

I think our cleaning crew has done anoutstanding job this summer in main-taining the District. The weather hasbeen hot and tough to work in but theneighborhood has never looked as clean.

The contract for new sidewalks onChapel St. from York to Park has beenissued by the City. We expect construc-tion to begin shortly. It should be a bighelp to all the merchants and residents inthat part of our District.

“Did you know”? Leonardo Da Vinciinvented the scissors. It took him tenyears to paint the Mona Lisa’s lips!!! Hecould also write with one hand and drawwith the other at the same time, hence,multi-tasking was invented.

Last week a mugger stopped 3 people onEdgewood Ave near Park, threateningwith a weapon. A review of the surveil-lance camera tapes, watching for a per-son of the description given by the vic-tims, showed the thief returning to aparked vehicle and his plate number wasclearly visible. Based on this information,Yale Police were able to apprehend theindividual. Chapel West will follow up todetermine if a conviction is obtained. If so we hope to publicize this and futurestories to the mass media as a deterrentto such activity in our area.

We also would like to report that aPolice Dept. camera has been installed at the corner of Chapel and Norton, on atest run, and that Chapel West is prepar-ing to install another camera at the cor-ner of Chapel and Kensington.

Surveillance Cameras Do Their Job

CondolencesLarry Schaffer, President of C.A. Whitepassed away July 22, 2011. Our sympathiesand prayers are extended to all. I hadknown Larry as a gentleman and a friendfor many years. He will be immenselymissed by me and many others. May God rest his soul.


—Vincent Romei

Dr. Ron Delfini and staff at the Annual Cookout.

Alex at the recent Cookout.

Orchard StAt first Orchard was just a one-block street,then gradually it was extended on bothends until now it stretches along fourteenblocks.

Named for the orchard that belonged tothe Downes families, who lived in the(Elm/Edgewood) area. James Downes was acoach lamp-maker, William, a carriagesmith, and Milo, a butcher. Almost everyonein the early days of the town had a sizeablegarden and small orchard near his house.

The Downes’ family house

George StNamed for George Washington, general ofthe Revolutionary Army and first presidentof the United States. General Washingtonvisited New Haven on July 2, 1775. He put upfor the night at Beer’s Tavern (College andChapel) and departed for Boston early thenext morning.

The History of the Foot Guard states thatthe street was named for King George III.This is hard to believe since the colonistswere fighting to be free of King George’s tyranny.

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Neighbors of all ages enjoy the Annual Cookout.

Photo by Thomas MacMillan for the New Haven Independent

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ChapelWest News 5/11Meet Your Neighbor Tidbits by Vin Romei

Did you hear about the guy who fell intoan upholstery machine? He’s fully recov-ered now.

I thought Spring was finally here but itwent before it arrived. Now we’re waitingfor Summer. Phoowie! At least the pan-sies in our flower pots give us a ray ofcolor to be cheerful for.

Congratulations to those businessenterprises in Chapel West who gainedrecognition from the recent AdvocateBest Of categories. Among those namedwere:Willoughby’s: Coffee & Beans,Rudy’s: French Fries,Miya’s: Best of NewHaven,Mamoun’s: Best Middle Eastern,Hull’s Art Supply & Framing: No.1,Miya’s:Best Wait Person-Frank Blazi, Study atYale: 2nd place, St. Raphael’s: 2nd place,and Yale University: No.1. Best wishesfrom all of us at ChapelWest. Keep up thegood work.

Many thanks to Joan Forte and BobbyJean Ellsworth who volunteer to help uswith our annual meetings. They man(woman) the front desk and keep tabson the election process.

A new office sign, art directed by Ron &Lisa has been installed at 1240 Chapel

“The man who complains about the waythe ball bounces is likely to be the onewho dropped it.”—Lou Holtz, Arkansas


—Vincent Romei

For over 40 years, Asis Medical AssociatesObstetrics and Gynecology, located at1435 Chapel Street in New Haven and2679Whitney Avenue in Hamden, hasproudly served the Greater New Havenarea with state of the art care whilebeing a valued member of the commun-ity. Our practice is known for our bondwith our patients and the commitmentand warmth of our dedicated staff. Theentire team at Asis Medical Associates,led by Dr. Maria Asis, Dr. Sean Flahertyand Dr. Ami Acharya, share the vision ofproviding the best care possible to eachand every patient.We provide obstetricaland gynecological care for all ages spe-cializing in adolescent care, evaluationand treatment of pelvic pain, infertility,

menstrual irregularities, menopause andprenatal care and delivery. Gynecologicalsurgery, both traditional and minimallyinvasive (da vinci robotic system), and thetreatment of pelvic organ prolapse andincontinence are specialties, as well.Our history, tradition and reputation inthis community are the cornerstone ofour practice.We are excited and commit-ted to providing care for many genera-tions to come. Please contact us at:203-562-6741 or visit us atwww.asis-medical.com,www.facebook.com/asismedical orwww.twitter.com/asismedical.Asis Medical Associates Obstetrics andGynecology is proud to be a memberof Chapel West.

Ann Acharya, MD Debra Tashlein, NPMaria Celeste Asis, MD Sean Flaherty, MD

Colorful pansies brightened the dreary spring weather.

Lily of the valley outside Cannon Agency at 1187 Chapel

Rezoning moves forward

HOORAY for Rudy’s, Pancho Cafe, Elm Barand Ivy Productions.

It’s spring and new businesses arespringing up all over Chapel West .

Rudy’s has finally opened and not onlylooks great, the food is awesome. PanchoCafe is in June and we’re looking forwardto wonderful Tex-Mex treats. Elm Bar isdoing a good amount of business alreadyand Ivy Productions is in the process ofsetting up shop at 1146 Chapel St. (2ndfloor). Everybody wants to come toChapel West and I don’t blame them.

At Last!!We have been assured thatnew sidewalks will be installed on ChapelSt. between York and Park. Both Sides...Ta-Da.. they’re in the process of puttingthe package together. Stay tuned.........

We are re-visiting a cultural art distri-bution program that would place variousobjects in strategic locations throughoutthe district. There is a possibility of grantmoney that may be available to us forthis purpose.We will keep you informed..

The staff at “the Study at Yale” areextremely professional, helpful and easyto work with. They have hosted ourAnnual Meeting for the last three yearsand have been wonderful. Kudos toAnthony Moir, G.M. and DanyelAversanti, Catering Mgr. Job well done.The food, decor and ambiance make foran enjoyable experience.

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000


Around the District

The four Aldermen representing ChapelWest (Shah, Jones, Clark Calder) havesubmitted a zoning ordinance mapamendment to change many of theChapelWest area business properties tothe less restrictive downtown zoning. It isbelieved that this action will provide anincentive to property owners to investmore in the development of their prop-erty as it increases the developmentrights on a property while relaxing somerestrictions on bulk. The best thing is thatthis type of incentive costs the City andChapel West nothing.

The rezoning proposal has already hadone public hearing each before the CityPlan Commission and the Legislation

Committee of the Board of Aldermen.Testimony was given by a dozen propertyowners and was overwhelmingly favor-able.Many suggestions were offeredregarding customizing the zone forChapelWest only and renaming it as BD-West. The action on the zoning amend-ment is currently tabled while all partiesrewrite the submission to satisfy all prop-erty owners to the extent possible.

A second round of hearings will bescheduled in the near future to considerany resultant changes to the original sub-mission. Chapel West staff will contactyou to come testify or send a letter forthe hearing record.

CondolencesTo John London on the recent death ofhis father. Our prayers are with you andyour family.

Park StThis was in the heart of what was oncecalled theWest Village. The blocksbetween Dwight Place and Park Street andLegion Avenue were in effect theWoosterSquare of theWest Village with the nowvanishedMaltby mansion providing a park.The area was rural until the 1830s,

when it was opened up in a rush. It wasadvertised as being desirable formerchants and mechanics.

Garden and pool in therear of the Maltby residence.

Dwight StProbably named for Timothy Dwight, theElder, president of Yale College, 1795–1817.Historian, theologian, author, lecturer, hewas one of the foremost educators of hisgeneration. He was a leader in the foundingof the Yale Medical School and theConnecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The College on Elm Streetnamed for the father and son,both Yale Presidents.

Rudy’s has finally opened and it was wellworth the wait. The Moules (Mussels)and Frites are to die for.

Owner Omer Ipek has done an outstand-ing job with the decor and themenu.Come sample the fare, the Belgium beersand the ambiance.

Pancho Cafe; opening soon

TeesideCumbria

Lancashire

GreaterManchester

WestYorkshire

North Yorkshire

Mersey

LincolnshireSouthYorkshire

EastRiding

York StFirst in 1840 Directory but among thosestreets officially named by the new citygovernment in 1784. This formed thewestern boundary of the original ninesquares.Named for the people from Yorkshire,

England, who first settled there. During theearly days of the settlement people hadidentified locations in terms of YorkshireQuarter or Governor Eaton’s Quarter, etc.The Yorkshire group, sent by Ezekiel

Rogers in the fall of 1638, tended to clustertogether in the beginning.

Yorkshire’s location within the British Isles

ChapelWest News 3/11Meet our Alderwoman Tidbits by Vin Romei

“He looks like an idiot and he talks likean idiot. But don’t let that fool you, hereally is an idiot.” Groucho Marx.....During each subsequent newsletter wewill be highlighting the various streetsin ChapelWest with a short history ofwhere the name is derived from. SeeChapel and Sherman stories in thecurrent issue.

We’re looking forward to installingnew sidewalks on Chapel St. from York toPark as soon as the weather breaks. Theyare long overdue and we have been prom-ised by the powers that be.

I'm always impressed by the energythat Geraldine and her husband Jim bringto their store. It always looks great andthey seem to have a lot of fun with holi-day and seasonal decorating. The samegoes for London, Ltd.

“Last week, I stated this woman wasthe ugliest woman I had ever seen. I havesince been visited by her sister and nowwish to withdraw that statement.”—Mark Twain

Till next time....... VAR

The Chapel West Annual Holiday get-together was again held at St. ThomasMore Chapel and Center at Yale. Picturedare Len Yanavich from Rimagé and D.J.Ornato from Off Broadway. This signatureevent was a huge success in every wayfrom the attendance, the catering byAnna’s, the live jazz band by the BobbyWinters Trio, and the beautiful St. ThomasMore meeting space, which we think maybe our permanent home base.


—Vincent Romei

Frances “Bitsie” Clark is in her fourthterm as a member of the Board ofAlderman for the City of New Haven. Sherepresents the Downtown 7thWard thatencompasses part of ChapelWest andmost of Town Green Special ServicesDistricts. Bitsie grew up in Brooklyn, NewYork. She was named Mary Frances afterher two grandmothers but it was such along name for such a tiny little girl thather family called her Bitsie. Now everyonecalls her Bitsie.

She went to Vassar College and in1950 she had a blind date at Yale andmarried that blind date four years later.Bitsie and her husband came back toNew Haven in 1956 so he could attendthe Yale Law School. She got a job at thelocal Girl Scout Council where she workedfor 10 years. After staying home for 16years to bring up two children she wentto work at the Arts Council of GreaterNew Haven as its Executive Director.After 19 years she retired in 2002.

Since her retirement she has workedpart time as an arts and communitydevelopment consultant with arts organi-zations and cities throughout the State ofConnecticut. Currently she serves on theBoards of New Haven’s Shubert Theater,The International Festival of Arts andIdeas, Creative Arts Workshop, and theConnecticut Mental Health CenterFoundation. She is also the Presidentof the Audubon Court CondominiumAssociation.

As an Alderman she is a member ofthe Community Development Committee,Chair of the Youth Committee, and ViceChair of Finance. She also represents theAldermen on the Board of the EconomicDevelopment Corporation. She serves onthe Commission on Cultural Affairs andthe Development Commission.

Bitsie has a Bachelor’s Degree inPolitical Science from Vassar Collegeand holds an Honorary Degree of Dr. ofHumane Letters from Albertus MagnusCollege. Her son and his family live inDallas, Texas and her daughter and herfamily live in Brooklyn. Bitsie has fivegrandchildren under the age of 10 whomshe sees often and enjoys immensely.

Officer “Rap” in the District

Officer Eraclito Rapuano is a very capableand highly efficient member of the YalePolice Department who regularly coversthe ChapelWest area. He currently is inhis 21st year at Yale and has been in the

Bike Patrol since 1997. ChapelWest is veryfortunate to have a dedicated officer suchas “Rap” to cover our streets andby-ways.

Photo:V

inRo

mei

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Rudy’s new restaurant at the corner ofChapel & Howe is coming along great. Itshould be opening the first week of April.Another restaurant, Pancho Cafe, at thecorner of Chapel & Park St. (picturedbelow), is remodeling and hopes to openby the end of March. The former Rudy’shas re-opened under the name Elm Bar.It seems that everyone wants to be inChapel West. I can’t blame them.

I thought it would never happen but itappears that Spring is around the corner.We have scheduled our first plantings forMonday 4/4/11. Colorful pansies will be asight for sore eyes. “See you around”V.A.R.

The architect behind iconic New Havenstructures such as the Knights of Colum-bus world headquarters is honored with aretrospective exhibition of his work at theYale School of Architecture, titled “KevinRoche: Architecture as Environment.”Feb 7-May 6, 2011

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000


Around the District

The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade was theoccasion for ChapelWest to host the FirstAnnual ParadeWatching and Eating andDrinking Contest Open House at ouroffices at 1205 Chapel. A nice crowdattended and enjoyed ringside seats,corned beef and cabbage and Irish beers.Three Aldermen in full marching gearstopped by to say hello-MaureenO’Sullivan-Best, Tom Lehtonen, andAlexander Rhodeen. Kelly Murphy fromCity Hall came by as did a host of busi-ness owners and residents. In the samepicture you can seeMike Morand fromYale and Charlie Salerno, our band leader.

When we first saw that old black carwe thought it was Arnie Lehrer’s fathertrying to park facing the wrong way in

front of his building in the middle of theparade route, but then we saw the StatePolice placard and red lights and realizedthat the State Police must simply beupgrading their fleet.

Photo:ArnieLehrer


The Chapel West District spreads outequally across the heart of four wards.We are thereby fortunate to be ably represented by four Aldermen, who seem to always agree on one thing, and that is that they are 100% in supportof Chapel West in its endeavors. We havedecided to introduce one of our Aldermenin each newsletter issue and we startwith Yusuf Shah.

Yusuf Ibn Shah was born to Sylvia and

Yusuf Shah in Manhattan at Mount Sinai Hospital, on February 20, 1961. He attended Muhammad University ofIslam in New York City where he studiedthe Holy Quran, Arabic Prayers, and world religions and was ordained a minister at the age of 12. Yusuf earned IslamicDistinguished service award fromMuhammad Islamic Center New Haven.He attended New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle New York and was further Educated at New York Institute of Technology, as a Communication Majorand DeVry Institute of Technology.

Yusuf married his wife Crystal Marie on April 14, 1986 in Mount Vernon andimmediately moved to Connecticut toraise his family. He is a father of four children, Chanel, Najla, Yusuf Nasim,Malik Aziz. and grandson Ophir Kalif

Yusuf earned his fcc License from theYale Broadcasting Company wybc 94.3where he was a talk show host andExecutive Producer of wybc�’s ElectricDrum. Yusuf is also a former DJ of wybc�’s

Evening Jam for 3 years. He went on tohost 1340 whnc�’s �Inside the Community�talk show for 2 years. He has been aProducer at Citizens Television since 1992where he produced Islamic Insights andCommunity Visions

In his spare time, Yusuf managed toearn a third degree Black Belt in Vee Jitsu,Jujitsu and has instructed martial arts for20 years.

Yusuf has been Alderman of the 23rdWard for the past 7 years, chair of thefinance committee, served as PresidentPro-tempore, acting President of the NewHaven Board of Alderman acting Mayor ofthe City of New Haven, State ofConnecticut Justice of the Peace,Community Activist, Media Activist, SocialWorker/hiv/aids hopwa Case Managerin the City of New Haven for over 15 years.

Congratulations to Mr. Yusuf Ibn Shahfor his dedicated service to the community.

Ronnie Kogut, pictured in the photograph on theright, installing HOLIDAY trees in our concrete recep-tacles. He also placed evergreen branches alongwith Holly & other colorful winter blooms in thewooden barrels thru-out the District. Looks great!

Meet Our Alderman

Mystery Tenant Does anyone know whois going to occupy this space at 1143 Chapel Street? Heh! Heh! Heh! "The SHADOW" knows.


The Chapel West District spreads outequally across the heart of four wards.We are thereby fortunate to be ably represented by four Aldermen, who seem to always agree on one thing, and that is that they are 100% in supportof Chapel West in its endeavors. We havedecided to introduce one of our Aldermenin each newsletter issue and we startwith Yusuf Shah.

Yusuf Ibn Shah was born to Sylvia and

Yusuf Shah in Manhattan at Mount Sinai Hospital, on February 20, 1961. He attended Muhammad University ofIslam in New York City where he studiedthe Holy Quran, Arabic Prayers, and world religions and was ordained a minister at the age of 12. Yusuf earned IslamicDistinguished service award fromMuhammad Islamic Center New Haven.He attended New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle New York and was further Educated at New York Institute of Technology, as a Communication Majorand DeVry Institute of Technology.

Yusuf married his wife Crystal Marie on April 14, 1986 in Mount Vernon andimmediately moved to Connecticut toraise his family. He is a father of four children, Chanel, Najla, Yusuf Nasim,Malik Aziz. and grandson Ophir Kalif

Yusuf earned his fcc License from theYale Broadcasting Company wybc 94.3where he was a talk show host andExecutive Producer of wybc�’s ElectricDrum. Yusuf is also a former DJ of wybc�’s

Evening Jam for 3 years. He went on tohost 1340 whnc�’s �Inside the Community�talk show for 2 years. He has been aProducer at Citizens Television since 1992where he produced Islamic Insights andCommunity Visions

In his spare time, Yusuf managed toearn a third degree Black Belt in Vee Jitsu,Jujitsu and has instructed martial arts for20 years.

Yusuf has been Alderman of the 23rdWard for the past 7 years, chair of thefinance committee, served as PresidentPro-tempore, acting President of the NewHaven Board of Alderman acting Mayor ofthe City of New Haven, State ofConnecticut Justice of the Peace,Community Activist, Media Activist, SocialWorker/hiv/aids hopwa Case Managerin the City of New Haven for over 15 years.

Congratulations to Mr. Yusuf Ibn Shahfor his dedicated service to the community.

Ronnie Kogut, pictured in the photograph on theright, installing HOLIDAY trees in our concrete recep-tacles. He also placed evergreen branches alongwith Holly & other colorful winter blooms in thewooden barrels thru-out the District. Looks great!

Meet Our Alderman

Mystery Tenant Does anyone know whois going to occupy this space at 1143 Chapel Street? Heh! Heh! Heh! "The SHADOW" knows.


Chapel West recently trimmed trees onPark St. from Chapel to Crown. Brancheswere getting into eaves and onto roofscausing considerable damage. We alsotrimmed trees in front of the DuncanHotel and on Park St. next to the DunkinDonut bldg. A constant, never ending job.

Monte Hunter from Chapel Westinstalling Paul Rudolph banner on Chapel St. in front of the Architecturebuilding. He also installed a genericChapel West banner next to it.

cwssd Telephone: 203-787-3000Vin Romei, Pres. [email protected] McGrath, Bus. Mgr. [email protected]

Around the District

"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the Vices I admire" – WinstonChurchill. • We’re excited and can't wait for Rudy's to open. Omer Ipek, owner,promises an exciting, up-scale operation with wonderful food and ambiance •Congrats to Tejinder and Verinder Singh. Their daughter, Rachneet, wasnamed by Yale Unv. as one of the outstanding students at North Haven HighSchool • Geraldine, A Florist and London's did an outstanding job in decorating their store front windows for the HOLIDAYS • "Some cause happiness where-ever they go: Others whenever they go" – Oscar Wilde.

Happy Holidays to all from Vin & Brian

New

Hav

en R

egis

ter,

Oct

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5, 2

010

Chapel West News 9/104th Annual CW Cookout Tidbits by Vin Romei

"My best job was working as a MUSICIAN,but eventually I found that I wasn't "note-worthy".

Our own Cindy Von Beren was recentlyselected as a Partner in Ministry by theSisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth. Cindyis V.P. of Corporate Affairs at SaintRaphael's and is a long-time member ofour Advisory Board. Congrats Cindy. Welldeserved.....

JOHN CANNON was trying to clean hisown sidewalk and asked me if ChapelWest had an opening ( job) for him. I said Iwasn't too impressed with the way hehandled the broom. I told him to practiceover the next Six(6) months. Were goingto have tryouts in the spring for thesweeping jobs.

Best ad I've seen in years is by Mike Criscioand his crew at M & M Pawn Shop. Greatjob. The advertisement appeared in theNew Haven Register.

FOOTBALL HUMOR: I could have been aRhodes Scholar except for my GRADES".Duffy Daugherty/Michigan State

The last issue of Chapel West News failedto mention that Bansit Chanhom’s ThaiPan Asian Restaurant and Bar was alsoincluded in The Register’s “Best of NewHaven 2010” selection as best Asianrestaurant.

Rudy's owner, Omer Ipek, appeared Tuesday night at the Board of Zoning appeals,accompanied by Brian McGrath of Chapel West, to discuss the transfer of Rudy's liquor

permit to the future new location at 1227 Chapel at thecorner of Howe. The next step will be an appearancebefore the City Plan Commission to adjust the legal parking requirements. All is expected to go smoothly. At this moment an extensive renovation is under way at 1227 Chapel. The iconic Rudy’s sign, at left, will be reinstalled at the new location.

On Thursday night - August 5th, ChapelWest sponsored their annual cookout inthe parking lot at the corner of Chapel &Howe Streets.

It was a beautiful evening and this year'sevent drew the largest attendance yet.Over 150 of out faithfuls enjoyed theburgers, hot dogs, chicken, spring rolls

(chinese) , stuffed grape leaves, pizzas andassorted beverages. The Charlie SalernoTrio entertained everyone with music,singing and dancing. Everyone had agreat time. Some of the locals think weshould do this monthly. On to our nextevent.

Chap’s Grille owner, Alex Elasankary, master of the grill, assisted by Freddie, hidden in the smoke.

Tony Bialecki, Joel Schiavone and Vin discuss the future of the District, the City and maybe the World.

Kyle Ralston animating the tent crowd

We Erred

Rudy’s Progress Report

Chapel West News 9/104th Annual CW Cookout Tidbits by Vin Romei

"My best job was working as a MUSICIAN,but eventually I found that I wasn't "note-worthy".

Our own Cindy Von Beren was recentlyselected as a Partner in Ministry by theSisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth. Cindyis V.P. of Corporate Affairs at SaintRaphael's and is a long-time member ofour Advisory Board. Congrats Cindy. Welldeserved.....

JOHN CANNON was trying to clean hisown sidewalk and asked me if ChapelWest had an opening ( job) for him. I said Iwasn't too impressed with the way hehandled the broom. I told him to practiceover the next Six(6) months. Were goingto have tryouts in the spring for thesweeping jobs.

Best ad I've seen in years is by Mike Criscioand his crew at M & M Pawn Shop. Greatjob. The advertisement appeared in theNew Haven Register.

FOOTBALL HUMOR: I could have been aRhodes Scholar except for my GRADES".Duffy Daugherty/Michigan State

The last issue of Chapel West News failedto mention that Bansit Chanhom’s ThaiPan Asian Restaurant and Bar was alsoincluded in The Register’s “Best of NewHaven 2010” selection as best Asianrestaurant.

Rudy's owner, Omer Ipek, appeared Tuesday night at the Board of Zoning appeals,accompanied by Brian McGrath of Chapel West, to discuss the transfer of Rudy's liquor

permit to the future new location at 1227 Chapel at thecorner of Howe. The next step will be an appearancebefore the City Plan Commission to adjust the legal parking requirements. All is expected to go smoothly. At this moment an extensive renovation is under way at 1227 Chapel. The iconic Rudy’s sign, at left, will be reinstalled at the new location.

On Thursday night - August 5th, ChapelWest sponsored their annual cookout inthe parking lot at the corner of Chapel &Howe Streets.

It was a beautiful evening and this year'sevent drew the largest attendance yet.Over 150 of out faithfuls enjoyed theburgers, hot dogs, chicken, spring rolls

(chinese) , stuffed grape leaves, pizzas andassorted beverages. The Charlie SalernoTrio entertained everyone with music,singing and dancing. Everyone had agreat time. Some of the locals think weshould do this monthly. On to our nextevent.

Chap’s Grille owner, Alex Elasankary, master of the grill, assisted by Freddie, hidden in the smoke.

Tony Bialecki, Joel Schiavone and Vin discuss the future of the District, the City and maybe the World.

Kyle Ralston animating the tent crowd

We Erred

Rudy’s Progress Report

Population Explosion

The Chapel West population temporarilyincreased by approximately 450 Yalefreshmen who came to visit the district at the conclusion of their city wide orientation bus tours. Yale UniversityOffice of New Haven and State Affairscame up with the idea to hold the end ofthe day pit stop and party as a means ofintroducing the students to the district,which is immediately adjacent to OldCampus, and will naturally be a frequentdestination for the students over the nextfour years. The new Sculpture Buildingcourtyard was filled with tables andchairs and a few Chapel West restaurantswere selected to provide snacks. Theseincluded Chap's Grill, Miya's Sushi,

Mamoun's, Jack's Concessions lemon icecart, and Pizza House. Chapel West hasmany more restaurants but we had tolimit the service to those nearest to theevent, for logistical reasons. We weredelighted to see one of the visitors eating her pizza with chopsticks.

This event is a new approach. ChapelWest does hold a WELCOME ELI night every year which is targeted to the Yalegraduate students who live everywherethroughout the District. This marks thefirst time that we have seen so manyfreshmen in the area and we hope theywill return every day.

It seems the “improvement” bug is aliveand well. Dr. Delfini is painting the outside of his beautiful building at 1204Chapel St. and Wendy Chang is doing thesame to her building at 1289 Chapel St.The district keeps improving.

We have been lobbying the City to re-pave Edgewood Ave. from Howe St. to Park St. and Park St. from Edgewood to Chapel. After a couple of years ofpatching pot holes, our pleas have beenanswered. The streets have been grounddown and will soon be paved accordingly.Thanks to all who made it happen. We’re pleased.

RUDY’S new restaurant is making goodprogress. They have completely guttedthe space and are currently in the process of obtaining permits, approvals,etc. It’s generating a lot of excitement inthe District.

We have installed the new signage on our concrete flower pots. They really lookgreat. We also recently replaced the summer plantings with FALL MUMS. I can’t wait for the colorful blooms to start appearing.

Around the District

Meet Your Neighbor

More than 50 concrete planters now display the CW identification.

Two Indian restaurants in the district are operating as one, run by businesspartners Nino, pictured at left, andDawinder. Tandoor and India Palaceboth have full Indian menus and someinteresting Indian beers. When you cannot get a seat at one, simply go across Chapel Street to the other.

ChapelWest News 8/10Meet your neighbor Tidbits by Vin Romei

“The thief who fell and broke his leg inwet cement became a hardened criminal”

Dr. Ron Delfini continues to be hon-ored by being named in ConnecticutMagazine as one of the top fifty peri-odontists in Connecticut.

New Haven Register named thefollowing ChapelWest business opera-tions as “Best of New Haven”:

Viva Zapata Best Mexican RestaurantMamoun Best Mid-Eastern RestaurantDunkin Donuts Best Cup of CoffeePizza Haven Best SandwichM & M Pawn Shop Best Pawn ShopMiya’s Sushi Best Sushi

Congrats to all.A warm welcome to Vincent Farricelli

in joining the team at Rimage Salon &Spa. Vin is a long-time friend and we’revery excited to have him here in ChapelWest.

Monte Hunter, ChapelWest cleaningcrew member, celebrated his 47th birth-day in July. Good luck to Monte & hisfamily.

“We will never run out of math teach-ers because they continue to multiply.”


—Vincent Romei

Dr. Stephen Piserchia, DC, more com-monly known as “Dr. Steve” has been inprivate practice for 17 years. He has beenon Chapel Street since 2001. Dr. Steve is anative of Connecticut and received hisundergraduate at Springfield College inSpringfield MA and his Doctorate fromLogan University in St. Louis MO.

Dr. Steve has been very active in thephysical medicine realm of healthcare inthe New Haven area.He has helped liter-ally 1000’s of New Haven residents,“If you have an ache or pain, I can help”.Skilled with the use of chiropractic, physi-cal therapy and acupuncture,Dr. Stevecan help almost anything. Acupuncture isa personal favorite for the treatment ofacne, bloating, cramping, quitting smok-ing, and weight loss. Dr. Steve has alsohad great success with fertility treat-ments with acupuncture.Working veryclosely with the medical community ofNew Haven, has made Dr. Steve, the chi-ropractor of choice for the treatment of

simple and complex cases ranging fromslipped discs to sprains and strains.

A big part of New Haven Medical,Sports & Occupational Health is keepingthe work force going. He provides com-mercial driving physicals for all the localcab, trucking and delivery companies,along with drug testing and other occu-pational services.He has been very activewith treating the City of New Havenemployees that are injured on the job,that is why you often see police cars out-side his office. He has also been a lecturerat the Police Academy on the preventionof work related injuries.

Dr. Steve lives with his wife, Laurie, inGuilford, CT. She is a Senior Director atChoate-Rosemary Preparatory School inWallingford, CT. They spend their freetime in Newport RI, where they have anendless project of renovating a homebuilt in the 1880’s.

Happy 47th,Monte!

Visit Carafano’s and you will clearly see this tower-ing sunflower emerging from our planter.

ChapelWest News 8/10Meet your neighbor Tidbits by Vin Romei

“The thief who fell and broke his leg inwet cement became a hardened criminal”

Dr. Ron Delfini continues to be hon-ored by being named in ConnecticutMagazine as one of the top fifty peri-odontists in Connecticut.

New Haven Register named thefollowing ChapelWest business opera-tions as “Best of New Haven”:

Viva Zapata Best Mexican RestaurantMamoun Best Mid-Eastern RestaurantDunkin Donuts Best Cup of CoffeePizza Haven Best SandwichM & M Pawn Shop Best Pawn ShopMiya’s Sushi Best Sushi

Congrats to all.A warm welcome to Vincent Farricelli

in joining the team at Rimage Salon &Spa. Vin is a long-time friend and we’revery excited to have him here in ChapelWest.

Monte Hunter, ChapelWest cleaningcrew member, celebrated his 47th birth-day in July. Good luck to Monte & hisfamily.

“We will never run out of math teach-ers because they continue to multiply.”


—Vincent Romei

Dr. Stephen Piserchia, DC, more com-monly known as “Dr. Steve” has been inprivate practice for 17 years. He has beenon Chapel Street since 2001. Dr. Steve is anative of Connecticut and received hisundergraduate at Springfield College inSpringfield MA and his Doctorate fromLogan University in St. Louis MO.

Dr. Steve has been very active in thephysical medicine realm of healthcare inthe New Haven area.He has helped liter-ally 1000’s of New Haven residents,“If you have an ache or pain, I can help”.Skilled with the use of chiropractic, physi-cal therapy and acupuncture,Dr. Stevecan help almost anything. Acupuncture isa personal favorite for the treatment ofacne, bloating, cramping, quitting smok-ing, and weight loss. Dr. Steve has alsohad great success with fertility treat-ments with acupuncture.Working veryclosely with the medical community ofNew Haven, has made Dr. Steve, the chi-ropractor of choice for the treatment of

simple and complex cases ranging fromslipped discs to sprains and strains.

A big part of New Haven Medical,Sports & Occupational Health is keepingthe work force going. He provides com-mercial driving physicals for all the localcab, trucking and delivery companies,along with drug testing and other occu-pational services.He has been very activewith treating the City of New Havenemployees that are injured on the job,that is why you often see police cars out-side his office. He has also been a lecturerat the Police Academy on the preventionof work related injuries.

Dr. Steve lives with his wife, Laurie, inGuilford, CT. She is a Senior Director atChoate-Rosemary Preparatory School inWallingford, CT. They spend their freetime in Newport RI, where they have anendless project of renovating a homebuilt in the 1880’s.

Happy 47th,Monte!

Visit Carafano’s and you will clearly see this tower-ing sunflower emerging from our planter.

“The Taxman Cometh”

Since 1968 and Still Doin’ It We’ve moved...Rooted in the 60s,GroupW Bench hasbeen a destination and now a landmarkon Chapel Street for 42 years. OwnerRaffael DiLauro says he likes the fact thathis customers are three generation deep,“maybe four”. He’s a granddad himself.

The shop is a kaleidoscope of art, jew-elry clothing, toys, pottery and fun stuff.

This oasis of peace and pleasure hasmushroomed over the years into some-thing delightfully unique.

“This is my favorite store in New Haven.”–K. Zallinger (local artist)

“This is my favorite shop in the world.”–Tommy Tune (actor/dancer)

...around the corner.To make room for Rudy’s new restau-

rant at the corner of Chapel & Howe, wecooperated with our landlord and agreedto move our office to 1205 Chapel St. (pic-tured below). This is the site of the formerHull’s Hobby & Hardware store.

The space is larger than what wehad and it gives us more flexibility to dothings we want to do.

Stop in and see us. The traffic patternis much better and many people arestopping in to learn more aboutChapel West.

On Friday, June 25, 2010, ChapelWesthosted an after work visit by CityAssessor William J. O’Brien.Mr. O’Brienhad been invited to the event, which washeld at the Kasbah Garden Cafe on HoweStreet, to explain all of the details of theupcoming 2011 property revaluation tothe assembled property owners and resi-dents. The event was well attended by 25ChapelWest members and all appreci-ated the refreshments laid out by LahcenAlouah.

Mr O’Brien explained the need forrevaluation and the methods by which itwould be accomplished. Following thepresentation was a question and answersession. Included amongst the questionswere a few loaded,misinformed, and/orcompletely unfair questions (by non-members of ChapelWest) which Mr.O’Brien handled like a pro. All assembledwere pleased with the event, finding itmore entertaining than they hadexpected.

A dangerous cave-in developed on ChapelSt. near the corner of CofieldWay late inMay. A hole opened up in the center ofthe street, exposing a 6' x 4' deep cavernthat washed away underground by aleaking pipe. The Chapel West clean teamdiscovered the problem and immediatelyinstalled traffic cones to warn the on-coming traffic. PublicWorks was thennotified and it responded immediately tomake the necessary repairs. (It took a fewdays).

Rudy’s, a landmark restaurant on ElmSt., is relocating within Chapel West. Theowner,Omer Ipek has already started todemolish the former “Ahimsa” restaurantat the corner of Chapel & Howe. He willexpand the operation and also took overChapel West’s office (see article). He plansto really do a job and make it into an“upscale” Rudy’s. All are looking forwardto it.

Property owners continue to clean upand also expand.Hang Seng has paintedthe entire outside of his building andplans to expand into the former Rudy’s.We’ll see what shows up. CommissionerArnie Lehrer is continuing to upgrade thefaçade of his apartment complex at 1214Chapel St.We are fast becoming theplace to be in New Haven.

Chapel West's clean team has startedpainting all of the fire hydrants, electricalswitch boxes and all of the poles through-out the District.We hope to complete theproject by early fall. It's already beginningto look great.

Flash–another dangerous cave-in justoccurred on George St. near the corner ofDwight. An SUV got stuck in a holeapproximately 10' x 10' and 4' deep.We’re following up with PublicWorks &City Engineering to determine why this ishappening.

Keep in touch for further news...

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000


Monday, July 12, 2010 was a sad day for allof us in ChapelWest. I received a phonecall in the morning that our long-timefriend and original member of our group,Freddie Joseph (shown at right) hadpassed away.

He was a stalwart and part of the fab-ric of the District. He was friendly, helpfuland had a steadying influence on our dayto day operations.

His advice, passion and character willbe fondly and forever missed.

Our thoughts and prayers are withhim and his family.

In Memoriam

Around the District

William J. O’Brien, left, speaks to property owners & residents.

At right: Raffael DiLauro in front of his shop

ChapelWest News 5/10Building for the FutureProperty owners in our District recognizethat they have an important role to playin the positive growth of Chapel West.Your Board of Commissioners work oncleaning, maintenance, safety, zoning,planning and bringing people together inorder to build a better community. Since

we moved into our offices at 61 Howe St.improvements and renovations have beenon going. From large projects like theHotel, Yale’s Rudolph Hall, Loria Center,renovations at AYA & 1195 Chapel St. toHoward K. Hill’s Funeral Home refurbish-ing and John Cannon’s 1187 Chapel St.

In between these projects, VinGagliardi renovated 1179 Chapel, Rimageupgraded the entire front of his building,Chapel Pediatrics upgraded their land-scaping at 1441 Chapel, Michael Crisciofollowed suit at M&M Pawn Shop alongwith Off Broadway, Inc., EST, EST, EST,and the Pizza House investing in improve-ments to their real estate. Arnie Lehrer isjust finishing up with a new brick stair-way that looks great.

ChapelWest, with the help of theCity’s Dept. of Economic Development,is now spearheading a facade programthat will standardize and improve side-walk dining areas for nine restaurants inCW. It is a pilot type operation that if itgoes well, we will offer it to all restau-rants in our district.

It is this kind of cooperation of all ofour property owners and tenants thattruly makes ChapelWest a very special“Special Services District”


On an employee resume: “My first jobwas working in an orange juice factory,but I got canned. I couldn’t concentrate.”

ChapelWest welcomes a new additionto the neighborhood. Sophie Cullinan,Geraldine’s Golden Retriever. Sophietakes Jim for a walk 3-4 times per day.Brian wanted to register her to vote. . . .

We are meeting with the new PoliceChief Frank Limon to discuss ChapelWestand his approach to city policing.We lookforward to forming a good working rela-tionship and discussing areas of commonconcern.

Congratulations to Len Yanavich onthe celebration of his 25th year of busi-ness in ChapelWest. He’s been a wel-comed addition to our area.

Sorry to see long-time proprietor BillCramer closing his store,Hull’s Hobbiesand Hardware, after 48 years in CW.He will be sincerely missed.

“They said he had a photographicmemory, which was never developed.”

We’re always interested in new storiesand “tidbits”. Call 787-3000

—Vincent Romei

Rimage in bloom

Arnie’s new front steps 1441 Chapel St. landscaping

Renovations at AYA

ChapelWest News 5/10Building for the FutureProperty owners in our District recognizethat they have an important role to playin the positive growth of Chapel West.Your Board of Commissioners work oncleaning, maintenance, safety, zoning,planning and bringing people together inorder to build a better community. Since

we moved into our offices at 61 Howe St.improvements and renovations have beenon going. From large projects like theHotel, Yale’s Rudolph Hall, Loria Center,renovations at AYA & 1195 Chapel St. toHoward K. Hill’s Funeral Home refurbish-ing and John Cannon’s 1187 Chapel St.

In between these projects, VinGagliardi renovated 1179 Chapel, Rimageupgraded the entire front of his building,Chapel Pediatrics upgraded their land-scaping at 1441 Chapel, Michael Crisciofollowed suit at M&M Pawn Shop alongwith Off Broadway, Inc., EST, EST, EST,and the Pizza House investing in improve-ments to their real estate. Arnie Lehrer isjust finishing up with a new brick stair-way that looks great.

ChapelWest, with the help of theCity’s Dept. of Economic Development,is now spearheading a facade programthat will standardize and improve side-walk dining areas for nine restaurants inCW. It is a pilot type operation that if itgoes well, we will offer it to all restau-rants in our district.

It is this kind of cooperation of all ofour property owners and tenants thattruly makes ChapelWest a very special“Special Services District”


On an employee resume: “My first jobwas working in an orange juice factory,but I got canned. I couldn’t concentrate.”

ChapelWest welcomes a new additionto the neighborhood. Sophie Cullinan,Geraldine’s Golden Retriever. Sophietakes Jim for a walk 3-4 times per day.Brian wanted to register her to vote. . . .

We are meeting with the new PoliceChief Frank Limon to discuss ChapelWestand his approach to city policing.We lookforward to forming a good working rela-tionship and discussing areas of commonconcern.

Congratulations to Len Yanavich onthe celebration of his 25th year of busi-ness in ChapelWest. He’s been a wel-comed addition to our area.

Sorry to see long-time proprietor BillCramer closing his store,Hull’s Hobbiesand Hardware, after 48 years in CW.He will be sincerely missed.

“They said he had a photographicmemory, which was never developed.”


—Vincent Romei

Rimage in bloom

Arnie’s new front steps 1441 Chapel St. landscaping

Renovations at AYA

Welcome a new Commissioner Around the District

Rimage’s 25th anniversaryTwenty years ago, I moved uptown fromCollege Street, eventually settling in our1850’s home. I shared space across thestreet with Bill and Marilyn at Hulls,Bobby at Carafano’s and the Schaeffers asa landlord and the old Santa at Lenoce’s.To stake claim to a growing neighbor-hood, beautify it w/gardens and welcomenew people to an area that had oftentimes been shunned was a goal of mine,and with the help of other new busi-nesses like London Ltd. and Geraldine’swe’re seeing it happen. I’m proud tostand on our “new porch” and look out atwhat progress and healthy developmentcan bring.Here’s to another 25!

Len YanavichArtistic Director, Rimage Salon

Howard K. Hill was recently elected to theBoard of Commissioners at our annualmeeting in February.

Howard is a native ofWindsor, CT.He received his Mortuary Science degreefrom the American Academy McAllisterInstitute of New York in 1991. He is aLicensed Funeral Director/Embalmer inthe states of New York and Connecticut.He later obtained the designation of aCertified Pre-Arrangement Counselor(CPC). He founded the Howard K. HillFuneral Services located at 1287 ChapelStreet, New Haven, CT on July 19, 2004.

Howard has been married for 9 yearswith three children who make great sacri-fices to allow him to give himself to thecommunity as a public servant. He is acurrent member of the National Associa-tion of Funeral Directors (NFDA), NationalFuneral Directors and Morticians Associa-tion (NFD&MA), Connecticut FuneralDirectors Association (CFDA), NationalAssociation of Realtors (NAR), the GreaterNew Haven Chamber Commerce, theGreater New Haven Business & Profess-

ional Association, the NAACP, and theOriental Lodge No. 6, FNAM, PH. He alsoserves as a Board member for the HannahGray Home and the Community Founda-tion of New Haven.

The weather has finally broken and wegot our flowers planted. They’re alreadylooking great.We have ordered ten moreconcrete containers and hope to eventu-ally have them throughout the District.

Nick Singh of the Chapel Mini Mart isstarting to upgrade the property he pur-chased at 1182 Chapel St.We’re lookingforward to his complete renovation.

Chapel West is collaborating with theEconomic Development Dept. and thevarious restaurants that provide sidewalk-dining services to upgrade their space.We are looking to make improvementswith fences/railing, lighting, tables &chairs, flowers, shrubbery, awnings, etc.Everyone is quite excited about the proj-ect and the cooperative effort being putforth by all involved.

Chris Alexiades, Clay Studio, hasagreed to head up aMerchants Commit-tee to take on the various events spon-sored by CW and to create more.We arejust starting to put a team together andwill keep you informed.

Alex from Chap’s is starting anotherrestaurant at 821 Chapel St. It’s calledGolden Rock and should open soon.Good luck to Alex.

We have trimmed the trees on Park St.from Chapel to Crown.We are now work-ing on Chapel St. and hope to completethe project by the end of June.

Our new website should be up andrunning soon.We will KIT….

Condolences

To Nancy at Hair Niche due to the passingof her daughter Shannon. She was muchloved.

To Helen Papa, wife of Stephen Papa,longtime ChapelWest businessman andcommunity leader.Our prayers are with your families.

Dr. Ronald Delfini and staff, along withMarcia Delfini, volunteered at the thirdannual Connecticut Mission of Mercy,which was held March 12-13 in Middle-town, CT. The Connecticut Mission ofMercy is an organization of dental andhealthcare professionals along with com-

munity volunteers who provide muchneeded dental services to individuals whohave difficulty accessing dental care. Thisyear’s Mission of Mercy treated over2,000 patients and provided approxi-mately $800,000 worth of dental care.

CWSSD Tel: 203-787-3000


ChapelWest News 2/10Zone Plan The Gift of GivingChapel West published a master plan 2years ago. It can be read online at http://www.infonewhaven.com/chapelwest/

Click on “Master Plan” and downloadit to your desktop.

The District has been carrying out therecommendations in that plan, slowly butsurely. One of those projects is to increasethe development possibilities of thecommercial sections of Chapel West bychanging the zoning on portions ofChapel and Howe Streets from low densi-ty commercial (BA) to high density com-mercial (BD or BD1). The District hasengaged the services of a project mana-ger and a professional city-planning firmto assist in preparation of the documen-tation and presentations that will berequired before the City Plan Commissionand the Board of Aldermen.

Basically, the new zoning would reflectwhat has already taken place over thedecades in sections of Chapel West thatare higher density mixed uses. A greatmany properties already are developedwith six floors and contain mixed uses.

The District intends to encourage suchdowntown development patterns. Thischange would be especially beneficialto owners of currently vacant property.A higher density of both businesses andresidents is desired by all propertyowners.

The District Board will notify you asthis project progresses.When the pro-posed legislation is ready for submissionby our 4 Aldermen, you will be notified ofall public hearings. All property owners,especially, will be needed to testify favor-ably on this proposal.

Antonio Giano, age 9, recently donatedall of his birthday presents to Yale NewHaven’s Children’s Hospital. He hadrequested that party attendees bringgifts for kids of all ages in order to satisfyhis desire to make as many of them as hecould happy.He donated 70 gifts in all.Antonio is the grandson of long timeChapel West Commissioner D.J. Ornato.His father is Anthony Giano, who ownsthe company that so capably performsour street cleaning operation.

A big thank you from ChapelWest toAntonio for his kindness and considera-tion for less fortunate children.

The January issue has named Heirloom,the restaurant at the “Study at Yale” asthe best Hotel Dining Statewide and NewHaven County. They also were voted BestNew Restaurant for New Haven County.Miya’s Restaurant was voted Best SushiStatewide and New Haven County andalso Best Asian-New Haven County.

In earlier issues, Jo-Jo’s was voted BestCoffee House-New Haven County and

Dr. Ron Delfini was named one of theTop Fifty Periodontists in the State.

A banner year for ChapelWest. Kudosfor each category winner.We’re pleasedthat they have chosen to locate in ourDistrict. Dr. Delfini also serves as a com-missioner on CW’s Board and has been avery valuable member of our team.Again, congrats to all.

Chapel West Members Honored againby Connecticut Magazine (readers)

ReminderOur Annual Meeting will be held onFebruary 24, 2010 at the Study atYale. Dinner and refreshments will beserved starting at 5:30pm. The meet-ing will begin at 6:30pm. All propertyowners are invited to attend.We willbe electing 3 board members forthree-year terms.We will be present-ing financial information, budgetprojections, and plans for the upcom-ing year.We look forward to seeingyou there.

Dr. Ron Delfini, 1204 Chapel Street68 Howe Street

1157 Chapel Street 1177 Chapel Street

Around the District

On exhibit & now playing in the districtEero Saarinen: Shaping the FutureYale University Art Gallery, Chapel St.February 19 – May 2, 2010

Yale School of Architecture, York St.February 18 – May 2, 2010

The exhibition conveys the technologicaland structural ingenuity of Saarinen’sbuildings. The show features full-scalebuilding mock-ups, never-before-seendrawings, models, photographs, films,and ephemera.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday treesthat we had installed in our concrete con-tainers on each corner of the Chapel WestDistrict.

We also put in an assortment of firtree branches and other colorful items inthe wooden bbls. located throughout thearea.We thought it gave a very wintry,festive look. It also provided about eighttrees to families who might not have hadone.We think we will be doing it againnext year.

Street-scape improvements will beone of our main focuses this coming year.We have commissioned Dean Sakamoto,A.I.A. to do a study of all areas in needof attention along with pictures anddescriptions of the work to be accom-plished. It’s detailed and impressive.Wehave already started meeting with theappropriate city officials to solicit theirresponse and prioritize the work to bedone.We’re concentrating on sidewalks,tripping hazards, tree wells, blighted treesand any other unsightly areas. Our aim isto maintain an on-going program to keepimproving our infrastructure and presentChapel West in the best possible light.Feel free to contact us with any thoughts

or suggestions you may have on thismatter.

Chapel West considers itself a “GardenCommunity” and as such is interested increating our image to reflect it. That’s oneof the reasons we’re interested in ourstreet-scape, flowers, artwork etc. In thisregard, we wish to encourage outdoordining as much as possible.We are in theprocess of developing standards for ourvarious restaurants that want to partici-pate in serving outdoors (sidewalk cafes).There may even be some funds availablefor planters, shrubbery, and other ameni-ties. We will be contacting our eateries tofurther develop this theme and get theirthoughts and ideas accordingly. Pleasecall Brian or myself if you’re interested.

We constantly monitor our streetlightsto make sure they are working.We seemto have a high percentage of lamps thatgo out and we have to notify the City tocorrect it. Please report to us any mal-function that you may notice so that wecan attend to it ASAP. These are not justdecorative lights but are low mass light-ing designed to light up the sidewalksfor security purposes. Thanks for yourcooperation.

“Did you know that thieves who stealcorn from a garden could be chargedwith stalking?”

Varinda and Nick Singh, new ownersof the building on the corner of Chapel &Park St., just returned from a vacation inIndia. The only problem is that theybrought back Indian snow and coldweather with them. I told them nextyear go to Florida for their vacation.

Alex from Chap’s Restaurant is open-ing a 2nd location on Chapel St. betweenChurch St. and Orange St.We wish Alexluck with his new venture.

Weird Fact: It’s physically impossiblefor you to lick your elbow..........

Ahimsa restaurant has closed but weunderstand that the corner is attractinga lot of interest from various restaurantoperators and we hope to see progresswith a new tenant there very soon.Wewill keep you informed.

The Holiday party in December was awonderful celebration. The Saint ThomasMore lobby is absolutely beautiful and agreat place to enjoy good company, finefood, refreshments and world-class musicby Ron Lawrence & Co. Anna’s cateringdid an outstanding job with the foodand we will be sure to use Anna again.Thank you all for coming and we will lookforward to next year.

On several occasions we have had theopportunity to use Geraldine’s florist forvarious considerations. Each time we do,the feedback is extremely positive. Veryprofessional and fresh product.We highlyrecommend her for any of your needsalong these lines.

I’ll bet everyone who read this columnhas tried to lick their elbow by now.C’mon.....Fess up. Until next time....



—Vincent Romei

Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair (1956) was designedas part of his “one piece, one material” furniturephilosphy, and minimizes the clutter of feet thatmost furniture creates.Aluminum base, fused plastic finish, molded plas-

tic shell reinforced with fiberglass, and upholsteredseat cushion. Yale Repertory Theatre

January 29–February 28

Anthony Blockberry, left and Monty Hunter, right.

Ingall’s Hockey Rink,designed by Saarinen and builtbetween 1953 and 1958 for Yale University.

ChapelWest News 11/09

St. Raphael’s goes Smoke Free Tidbits by Vin Romei

Meet Your New NeighborDavid Thompson Architects is pleased tojoin the Chapel West community at theirnew location at 1211 Chapel Street. Inpractice for about a decade, DTA movedhere last fall from across town to be incloser proximity to Yale, a frequent client,and to enjoy all the benefits and excite-ment of the Chapel Street area. It’s a wel-come change for everyone at the firm,who are now able visit the nearby artmuseums, attend lectures, and walkabout at lunch time in our vibrant andup-and-coming neighborhood.

You can see some of DTA’s work inand around the area, such as the newcity bus shelters at 55 Church Street andthe corner of Temple and Crown Streets(recipients of both State and NationalAIA design awards), and at the BarnardSchool at Derby Street and the Boulevard.The firm has also served as architects forthe new Leitner Planetarium at Yale,which some of you might enjoy visitingsome Tuesday evening at one of theirregular public viewing events.

It’s easy to spot the DTA offices at thesecond floor of 1211 Chapel. Just look forthe plaster bust of “The Discuss Thrower”gazing down onto the oncoming trafficbelow. David explains that the bust foundits way here as a light-hearted manifesta-tion of Yale’s new sculpture building hid-den mid-block just behind the C.A.Whitebuilding. “With the British Art Museum,

Yale Art Gallery, Yale Rep and both the Artand Architecture Schools all holding courton Chapel Street”, David explains, “wewanted to give the new sculpture build-ing a street presence here as well.We’rehappy to be their storefront!”

Saint Raphael’s is joining otherConnecticut hospitals in going totallysmoke free on its campus, effectiveNovember 19, 2009. This date coincideswith the American Cancer Society’s GreatAmerican Smokeout.

This means that smoking will be pro-hibited everywhere on Saint Raphael’scampus, including in its garages and onthe land surrounding the Hospital. SaintRaphael’s is also asking the Board ofAldermen to approve its designation ofthe sidewalks surrounding the Hospitalas “smoke free.”The Hospital’s outsidedesignated smoking area will be closed.Smoking has been prohibited within theHospital for many years.

Being totally smoke free is consistentwith Saint Raphael’s role in preventingdiseases and promoting health, and sup-ports its work helping people overcomecancer, heart disease, and respiratory ill-nesses, among others. Numerous com-plaints from patients, visitors andemployees who currently walk throughsmoke outside Hospital entrances alsocontributed to the decision.

The new policy will apply to allpatients, staff, visitors, vendors, volun-teers and anyone else coming to SaintRaphael’s. Hospital Security staff will behelping to enforce the policy.

Saint Raphael’s recognizes that smok-ing is an addiction and has initiated pro-grams to help people quit.Group smok-

ing cessation classes have been underwayfor staff and the public. Employees partic-ipate for free, while the public is refunded$25 of the $125 cost upon successful com-pletion. Medicare, Medicaid and somehealth insurance plans also pay for smok-ing cession classes. Nicotine replacementtherapy is being offered to patients. Also,Saint Raphael’s is offering everyone–including the public–discounted over-the-counter nicotine replacements such asthe nicotine patch. These items are avail-

able at Saint Raphael’sApothecary Pharmacy,located adjacent to thefirst floor cafeteria.Saint Raphael’s

announced plans to gosmoke free to staff,patients and the com-munity last fall sosmokers had time toprepare for the policychange. It has alsobeen working withneighborhood groups,businesses and resi-dents to make themaware of the policychange.The Connecticut

Hospital Associationasked all its memberhospitals to go smokefree by 2010.

“ Did you hear about the guy whosewhole left side was cut off? He’s all rightnow.” Congrats to Bruce Alexander, YaleUniv. V.P. of New Haven and State affairswho was recently honored by the GreaterNew Haven Chamber of Commerce withthe community leadership award. Brucedoes a great job and he’s been very help-ful to ChapelWest. Steve Kovel of Hull’sArt Supply and Framing received the“Small Business Achievement Award”.Steve is a Commissioner of ChapelWestand has long been active in promotingour district. Our cleaning crews are gal-lantly trying to maintain pace picking upthe falling leaves. It’s an up-hill battle atbest!! It seems that ChapelWest is theplace to be. In addition to Bruce and Stevereceiving awards, the September issue ofConnecticut Magazine honoredMiya’s forBest Sushi, the “Study at Yale” for BestCity Hotel and Jo-Jo’s for Best CoffeeHouse. A wonderful tribute to all. ChapelWest is on the board, as they say. Wehave a lot more work to do, but we’regetting there. Congratulations to all.

Mark Twain said: “I didn't attend thefuneral but I sent a nice letter saying Iapproved of it”.

Above: The Barnard School; Right: City bus shelterphotos courtesy of David Thompson


—Vincent Romei

Chapel West Landmark Lost

New Business Fun, Food,Music Welcome Eli’s NightPark Street Lock & Safe LLC is now openand ready to service the security needs ofthe community, both with duplicatingkeys and in shop work and road service.Gabe Tarsi, the operator of the lock shop,has been a locksmith for over 20 years.He is experienced with all phases of lock-smithing and master keying systemsas well as security surveys, industrial,institutional and residential repairs andinstallation.

He is currently the president of theLocksmith Association of Connecticutand a long standing member of theAssociated Locksmiths of America. He iscertified and registered with the StateDepartment of Consumer Protection(as required by law).

ChapelWest held its annual cookout inAugust and a great time was had by all.Hot dogs, hamburgers, pizzas, salads, andrefreshments were served to the fun-lov-ing group. Music and singing by CharlieSalerno’s trio kept the night lively andentertaining.We had a 50% increase inattendance and food prepared.We’realready looking forward to next year.

On a beautiful night in early September,Chapel West held its annualWelcome tonew Yale students living in the CW–Dwight neighborhood.

Kasbah Garden’s was the perfect spot.Wonderful food, refreshments and livemusic. Over 100 people attended the fes-tive occasion. Lahcen and his staff did agreat job in hosting and providing tastyregional food for the event. As usual,everyone had a good time. ChapelWestmembers are a fun-loving group and hadno problem making the young Elis feelright at home. Good to see Police ChiefLewis attend the event as well as mem-bers of Yale Security and Police force. Ourthanks to Yale University for co-sponsor-ing this event. V.A.Romei

A Chapel West landmark, along withmany of our institutional memories, dis-appeared on the night of September 3when the Schatz property at 1255 ChapelStreet burned down. The fire totallydestroyed the entire wooden frame struc-ture and the City was obliged to removethe remains of the building over the nextfew days for safety reasons. The houseitself was at one time a mansion built in1800. It is said that one of Connecticut’sgovernors had lived there for a time.Morris and Evelyn Schatz opened their furbusiness at this location in 1958. A newhouse as well as a concrete storage vaultfor furs was added to the rear and side ofthe mansion at that time where Evelyn

and Morris lived. Evelyn was the founder,President and Business Manager ofChapelWest and the organization operat-ed out of 1255 Chapel Street for manyyears. After Evelyn died, ChapelWest con-tinued to maintain their offices in thestorefront at this location until eventuallymoving into our office at 61 Howe St.

The site of the former Schatz house aswell as much of the surrounding block isbeing considered for a larger develop-ment. In that case, the house probablywould have been demolished anywaybecause it was in poor condition. An his-toric rehabilitation would have been pre-ferred, but most likely could not havebeen accomplished.

Around the DistrictThere has been a lot of activity through-out our neighborhood that I am happy toreport on. Vincent Gagliardi has re-builtthe front of his two stores (Gag’s Liquor& Ultimate Universe) on the corner ofChapel & Park St.. The project came outterrifically and all were greatly pleasedto see the “ugly”metal lock down doorremoved. Vin is also working on newsignage for the properties, and togetherwith the up-scaling of the Dunkin Donutsstore has brought good improvementsto that corner. Thanks Vin.

Great News...We have just beenadvised that Varinda & Tejinder (Nick)Singh (shown in photo above), operatorsof the Chapel Mini Mart store, have justpurchased the real estate property at 1180and 1182 Chapel St. (Corner of Park &Chapel) They plan to make substantialimprovements to the building, includingthe facade, the upstairs apartment, andthe interior of their store.We’re excitedfor them and the positive effect it willhave on Chapel West.We wish them luck.Our banner program is coming to lifeagain. We have installed over 20 genericbanners and have placed orders from St.Raphael’s, Albania Dental (additional) Dr.Delfini (additional), Temporary Laborand M &M Pawn Shop.We’re lookingforward to the installation of these units.Anyone interested in pursuing more ban-ners, please contact us. It adds great vital-ity to the neighborhood. Call us if youhave any information that might beinteresting to our CWmembers.

photos

byWilliam

Fran

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photoby

CalLevee

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Beautification Comes to Chapel West Tidbits by Vin Romei

Bob Richards...a man for all seasonsBob Richards owns and operates CarofanoOpticians. A product of New Haven, Bobattended Hillhouse H.S. and University ofNew Haven before committing to a twoyear stint in the Army.When he returnedhome in 1969, he started his apprentice-ship at Carofano’s under the watchful eyeof James (Jim ) Carofano at his 1215AChapel St. location. He’s been there eversince. In 1975 he received his operatinglicense and when Mr. Carofano passedaway in 1980, Bob was a member of agroup who bought out the practice. Hebecame 100% owner in 1997. He has awonderful collection of Old (Antique)eyeglass equipment.

Bob has been married to his wifePatricia for 38 years. They have two chil-dren and four grandchildren (all girls). Heis a devoted family man and that is hisfirst passion (sometimes). He playedbaseball under Frank “Porky” Viera atUNH and has been playing some sort ofsoftball (Fast pitch, slow pitch, semi-fastpitch, i.e. for 54 years. Still plays. Some-times 3-4 nights a week. Also playsbasketball in the winter and finds timeto golf.

Bob has been in ChapelWest for 39years. and were fortunate to have him as

one of our retailers. He’s passionateabout ChapelWest as well.

We enjoyed a month and one half with awonderful array of colorful pansies in ourplanters throughout the district. Theywere a welcome sight after the long anddreary winter.

We now have replaced them with anassortment of summer flowers, vines andother greenery. These draught resistantplantings should last until Septemberwhen Fall Mums will be the order of heday. You will notice that we installed four-teen more masonry pots bringing ourtotal up to 42. By this time next year we

hope to have these concrete units on allof the street corners in Chapel West.They do look great.

We have undertaken a project to paintall of the light poles, traffic signals poles,fire hydrants and utility boxes through-out the district. As we go to press, wehave completed Chapel Street from Yorkto Howe and have started up from there.It's a never ending challenge to maintainthe neighborhood but it's a rewardingchore.

“Visiting France on a wine tasting trip, awoman drank too much, fell from thehotel window and ended up in a bodycast. She swore never to get plastered InParis again”

I can't wait until Eddie Donuts (DunkinDonuts) takes off his hat to show us thecurls he has grown.

Bob Richards, Carafano’s Opticians, isstill playing Fast-Pitch softball. He tellsme he went 3 for 4 the other night. I toldhim to take it easy on the young kids.

Thrilled to see all the restaurants thathave decided to utilize outdoor dining/eats etc. on their sidewalks. It reallybrightens up the area. Thanks to Chaps,Est-Est-Est, Jo-Jo’s, Sullivan’s, Ahimsa,Tai Pan Asian, Pad Thai and Mamoun’s.We hope more will join them.

Clay Studio’s Chris and Laura are work-ing onmedallions that will be adhered toour planters. I suspect they will be objectsof beauty and look forward to seeing thefinished product.

“My last job was working in Starbucks,but I had to quit because it was alwaysthe same old grind.”

photos

byBillFran

k

Patrons enjoy dining alfresco on Chapel Street.

photoby

Laszlo

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Security Camera Update Around the District

Meet Your NeighborMike Criscio runs theM and M Pawnshopat the corner of Howe and George. After17 years in business at this location, theexact nature of he operation has becomehard to define. The services availablehere include check cashing, key making,Western Union, automatic bill paying, tra-ditional pawn loans, phone cards, and bailbonds. You might think that a pawn shopis all used goods, but you would be mis-taken.M and M carries a great deal ofnew merchandise including motor scoot-ers, guitars, jewelry and toys of all kinds.Dozens of other products are new as well.Used tools are big here and equipment ofall sorts, as well as cameras and iPods.The old stuff is best though and a listwould fill his entire newsletter. You needto go and have a look. If you don't see it,ask for it and come back the followingweek.

When asked about the most unusualitem ever purchased Mike will show youthe 4 foot python he keeps in a largeaquarium at the shop. The most expen-sive item ever bought was a 3 carat dia-mond. Mike also likes stamps, coins, andany collectibles. Need a $6,000 bicycle orjust a $100 one? It will all be here on oneday or another.

The Cameras have been installed and areactivated at the corners of Crown andHowe streets and also Edgewood andHowe. In addition, we have programmedthem to zoom in and out along the side-walks so that a much clearer picture canbe obtained.We recently had a streak ofsmash & grab incidents that have nowsubsided.We think the word is gettingaround about the cameras.We had a cou-ple of decent shots of the perpetratorsand they are being pursued by NHPD.

Alex Rivera, Yale PD apprehended twoyouths who committed a purse snatch-ing. Alex is a ChapelWest property owner,so we are proud toclaim him as one ofour own.We are inthe process of plan-ning future installa-tions that shouldtake place this fall.Stay Tuned...

Vin Gagliardi has up-graded the front ofGag’s Liquor store and Alternate Universeat the corner of Chapel & Park Streets. Healso recently did the same to the DunkinDonut store.We’re always happy to seeour property owners maintain their build-ings in first class style.

The Howard Hill funeral home alwayslooks great. Last year Howard did majorrenovations to his property. He recentlyinstalled a security system throughoutthe building and cleaned up the sectionin back of the Temporary Labor building.He has installed a planting bed andintends to plant shrubs and flowersaccordingly. Our Chapel West cleaningcrews are helping by cleaning up CofieldWay and also maintain the rear of 1289Chapel St. “Keep up the good work,Howard.”

Anthony and his crew are maintainingthe streets, curbs, and sidewalks in a firstclass manner. They are cleaned daily andthe area has never looked so good.

Welcome to David Thompson, AIAArchitects who have just moved into theSchaefer building at 1211 Chapel St. It’salways good to see new companies thatrecognize the vitality of our neighbor-hood and are willing to make a commit-ment to join The ChapelWest Neighbor-hood.

We have a new owner of the lock-smith business at 177 Park St.Gabe Tarsihas opened Park St. Lock & Safe Co. It’s agood move because we need this type ofbusiness and it helps stabilize the area.“Good luck Carl.”

COOKOUT

Reserve the date ofTuesday, August 4, 2009

for our 3rd annual Cookout.

Place: Parking Lot-Pro ParkCorner of Chapel and Howe Streets.

Time: 5:00 pm–9:00 pm

Food and fun...You’re invited.RSVP 787-3000 Condolences

To Sue, Asst. Manager at Dunkin Donuts,due to the passing of her mother. “Ourprayers are with you and your family”.

Left to right; Enoc, Mike Criscio, and Troy.

ChapelWest News 4/09The Study at YaleThe Study at Yale is a new lifestyle hotel,offering an experience in service, styleand comfort unparalleled in the NewHaven area. The property boasts 124 guestrooms including 7 studies, a PresidentialSuite and an artist’s studio.

There is also wireless iPod hook-up andcomplimentary internet access through-out the Hotel. The restaurant,Heirloom,serves modern continental cuisine that isto die for. They have a fitness center,meeting rooms, and valet parking. All theamenities you could ask for. The 1200 sq.ft. Penthouse Lounge has a panoramicview of the Yale campus and is ideal for asmall reception or cocktail party.

Owner Paul McGowan did a masterfuljob in designing this facility.

We’re thrilled that they are located inthe Chapel West District.

Rooms overlooking Chapel Street.

A typical bedroom overlooking the Yale Campus.Heirloom restaurant.

The Lobby at “The Study.” “Study at will.”

Dunkin Donuts Tidbits by Vin Romei

Camera Coverage Expands Around the DistrictThe Board of Alderman recently held apublic hearing to determine what theCity policy should be regarding the useof crime deterrent cameras in the publicright of way, including the equipmentalready installed by Chapel West.Opposition testimony came only froma representative of the American CivilLiberties Union. His testimony was notconvincing. Favorable reaction was thenorm, including a good discussion by theChief of Police, James Lewis, and ChiefAdministrative Officer Robert Smuts.Favorable legal opinions were presentedby both Chapel West and the City’sCorporation Counsel. Chapel West hadearlier surveyed all of the 200 propertyowners in the district by mail and person-al visits. Brian and Vin attended the hear-ing and presented the Aldermanic panelwith evidence that 2 property ownerswere opposed to camera use. 1 was neu-tral, and 181 were in favor. The remainder

had not responded by the time of thehearing. This was impressive and beliedthe claims that people did not approve ofcamera use in public spaces.

The panel directed that the City staffcome up with a written policy regardingthe use of cameras in public spaces, theadministrative mechanisms to be used,control of access to the images, etc. Thisdocument has been completed and pub-lished. In general, the images generatedby Chapel West or the City, presently andin the future, will be transmitted to theDepartment of Transportation, Traffic andParking for recording. This Departmenthas the equipment and expertise to han-dle this task. Chapel West does not haveaccess to the images nor do they requestaccess. The images are available to thepolice for use as evidence after an inci-dent has occurred and improvements tothe City network connections are under-way to make the images available to thepolice in real time.

Recent news stories indicate that theNew Haven Police have obtained a grantto install sonic “shot finders” and willlater supplement that system with cam-eras in various City locations. In themeantime, Chapel West is proceedingwith its project and has ordered the cam-eras for the intersections of Howe/Crownand Howe/Edgewood. Signs to notify thepublic that activity on the street is moni-tored by video are currently visible in thewindows of many businesses. The Districthas ordered more. Please stop in at theoffice if you would like to display one onyour property.

We expect a lot of new activity to takeplace this year and we’re very excitedto begin once the weather breaks. OurSecurity Camera project has been sancti-fied by the City and we are moving for-ward with plans to expand upon our cur-rent installation. (See article on Cameras)We anticipate purchasing and installingmore Concrete Planters (Howe St.) thisyear and also planting pansies for theearly spring followed by summer flowers,then fall mums. It should look great. VinGagliardi is planning to upgrade the frontof his buildings; (next to Dunkin Donuts)Gag’s Liquor Store and Ultimate Universe.We have also formed amarketing com-mittee headed up by Steve Kovel andAbbi Rider along with a Temporary Artproject committee to be led by DeanSakamoto.We’re looking forward to aninvigorating year and we will keep youwell informed as it develops. Nice to seethe winter coming to an end.

“Shave and a haircut–two bits”Dunkin Donuts got an uplift. And what ajob they did. They have all new state ofthe art equipment and fixtures. The out-side has been completely redone alongwith new signage. The place looks greatand the employees are very excited about

their new environment. Menu is expand-ed and Eddie Donuts tells me he is goingto let his hair grow and get it coiffed tobe more in style with the new “digs”.

Wow....What next for Chapel West?...Can't wait.

Did you know? A chicken crossing theroad is Poultry in motion. Chris & Laura(Clay Studio) along with Geraldine andTom Strong are designing a Chapel West(Logo) Medallion that will be adhered toour concrete flower planters.MichaelDezura, G.M., and Danyel Aversenti, cater-ing sales manager at the “Study at Yale”did a superb job in hosting our AnnualMeeting’s breakfast held at their wonder-ful facility.We look forward to returningfor other functions. A good time was hadby all. Sorry to see David Benfer retiringas President of St. Raphael’s Hospital. He’sdone a splendid job and has been a goodfriend to Chapel West. Vin Gagliardi hasrecovered from a slight stroke he sufferedand Alex Elsankary from Chap’s Grille isalmost fully mended from a fall thatbroke his arm. It required a metal plate tobe inserted and was very painful. Verytough winter....Glad it’s over....We’re look-ing forward to warmer weather and out-door activities that we have planned.Mark Twain said “Why do you sit therelooking like an envelope without anyaddress on it?”Till next time....v.a. romei

In MemoriumMarilyn “Boots” Cramer passed away lastmonth. She and her husband Bill operat-ed Hull’s Hobbies & Hardware on ChapelSt. since 1963. They were part of the fab-ric of our district. Marilyn was a strongsupporter of Chapel West and a dearfriend. Mother of daughters Kim andKristin, she will be missed by all....God rest her soul.

CondolencesTo Nick Papadopoulos (Pizza House)due to the passing of his brother George.Our prayers are with you and your family.


—Vincent Romei

Left to right: Jessie, Sue (assistant manager), andWill.

Left to right: Vin, Debby (CW News designer) and Brian.


Meet a Commissioner Tidbits by Vin Romei

Paul Rudolph HallIf you noticed one thing last Friday itwould have been that all of the parkingmeters on Chapel Street between Yorkand Howe were occupied with visitorsfrom many states, no doubt an overflowfrom the York St. garage.Well over 600people spent most of the weekend herein the District attending the many eventsspread out over two days associated withthe completion of the Jeffrey Loria Centerat the corner of Chapel and York. Manystayed at the new Study at Yale Hotel.The building we used to know as Art andArchitecture has been completely reno-vated and renamed Paul Rudolph Hall. Anaddition to the original building calledthe Loria Building has been constructedon the site where Gentree’s used tostand. The new addition will be the homeof the Art History Department This prop-erty, among others on York Street, joinedthe ChapelWest District last year. For theDistrict, the construction period waswithout event. Yale went out of their wayto minimize construction inconveniencesfor the businesses in the area and all ofthe construction companies were mostcooperative. The new corner of York andChapel is more inviting now and feels likea part of the District.

The dedication ceremonies resultedin a gathering of a vast number ofarchitects from all over the world whoengaged in their favorite pastime of

criticizing or praising other architects’creations. News reports in the Yale DailyNews were filled with backhanded com-pliments and adjectives that architectslove such as enigmatic, challenging,

complex, humbling, overwhelming,heroic, brutal, monolithic, too busy, frag-mented, etc.Well, Chapel Westmustknow nothing about architecture becausewe think the whole project is beautiful!

Abigail Rider is Associate Vice Presidentof Yale and Director of UniversityProperties, the University office whichoversees the management of Yale’s one-million-square-foot commercial realestate portfolio, which includes office,residential and retail space (including 85retail tenants near campus); markets andleases Yale-owned properties; directs thedevelopment of new commercial realestate projects; and works with NewHaven officials, groups and businessesto promote positive relations. She serveson the Boards of the Chapel West SpecialServices District and the NeighborhoodMusic School.

Rider, who holds a B.A. from SmithCollege, began her professional careerat The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.,rising to the post of Vice President ofthe Merchant Banking Group. Shesubsequently worked for Old StoneCorporation, a Rhode Island financialservices company well-known in theindustry as a national real estate lenderand investor, eventually becoming aSenior Vice President as well as Presidentof Old Stone Funding Corporation. Sheserved as an executive managementconsultant for Rider & Co. and KaiserAssociates, working extensively withNew England banks on various aspects oftheir real estate portfolios, before joining

eCredit.com, Inc., first as director ofprofessional services and later as vicepresident of marketing and productstrategy. She was with Brown Universityfrom 2002-2007 where she served asDirector of Real Estate and AdministrativeServices; she joined Yale in May oflast year.

DID YOU HEAR?: Every time you givesomeone an inch, they think they’re aRULER ! ! !.... Congrats to CHRIS ANDLAURA (Clay Studio). Both were selectedto have their ARTWORK published in 500Tiles–A Ceramic series book from LarkPublications.....The colors in our FallMUMPLANTS were exceptional..... Halloweenwas really in full swing this year withnumerous decorations around the dis-trict. On Friday night there was alarge number of characters on thestreets.....It’s hard to believe Christmasis right around the corner. This year isflying by.....Connecticut Magazine hastheir eye on ChapelWest. The July issuenamed DR. RON DELFINI as one of the top25 Orthodontists in the state and theSeptember issue has a Full feature articleon Restaurateur BUN LAI. “NICE JOB”.....MICHAEL at James Camera is lookingto CW for a job to personally take careof all the Trash BBLS. on Chapel St. fromYork to Park St. I told him he doesn’t haveenough experience. DID YOU HEAR?:The Police were called to a day-carecenter where a Three (3) yr. old wasresisting a REST ! ! !See you soon. ....v.a.romei


—Vincent Romei

Meet Your Neighbor...Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi Around the District

EST•EST•EST Outdoor Movie Excitement

One of ChapelWest’s best known, oldest,and busiest restaurants is EST EST EST atthe corner of Park Street. This Italian stylerestaurant has been here since 1937.Under the “new” ownership (12 yearsalready) of Ayman Gebril, the restauranthas just completed a 100% total remodel-ing to improve all aspects of the opera-tion. New and larger seating areas, foodpreparation areas, and counters, etc. havebeen installed. Ayman’s talents in thisbusiness are not just evidenced by thelarge crowds seen in the place after mid-night from Thursday through Sunday.Ayman was the former owner of twoother successful places, the Villa Villa inWest Haven and the former Cape CodderinWestville.

EST EST EST is open til 1 AM on allnights except Friday/Saturday when it isopen til 3 AM. Chapel Street is still prettybusy at 3 AM on weekends and much ofthe credit for this goes to our businesseswhich stay open. The area is loaded withresidents, hotel guests, students, and cus-tomers coming from the many clubs atclosing time. The menu at EST is veryItalian with over 100 items. Virtuallynothing you are used to is missing andnothing on the menu costs more than$10.50 except perhaps 32 chicken wings,all at once. Good luck eating that!. Aymanemploys 3 people full time to handle allthe business.Waiting a long time to beserved does not happen here. Everythingon the menu will be delivered if one calls777-2059, faxes 562-1721 or orders on theinternet at www.campusfood.com.

On Tuesday night – October 14, 2008,CHAPELWEST held it’s first OUTDOORMOVIE presentation in the parking lotat the corner of Chapel and Howe Sts.The film “YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN” washilarious. It was a beautiful night (therain had held off) and we had compli-mentary soft drinks, candy and a popcorncart. The aroma up and down the streetof the fresh popping corn was heavenly.We had approximately eighty (80) CWneighbors, property owners and commis-sioners attend. Everyone had a good timeand they all are looking forward to show-ings next year. One gent asked if we weregoing to do this weekly. One more stepin our goal of “LINKING THE NEIGHBOR-HOOD”. Thanks to Chris and Laura (ClayStudio), Geraldine (Florist) and Anthony &José from our Maintenance crew for help-ing us with the event. It’s wonderful tosee everyone pitching in to help.

Did you know that one of the mostacclaimed restaurants in the state,Miya’sSushi, has been located in the ChapelWest district (on the corner of Chapeland Howe Street) for over twenty-fiveyears? The October issue of ConnecticutMagazine features 2nd generation ownerBun Lai, in a riveting five page personalityprofile. The magazine wrote of him;If there is a more creative or passionatechef, we have not met him yet. If youhappen by a copy, be sure to take a peek!

Miya’s clientele is an eclectic mixtureof people from the immediate neighbor-hood and others from outside of NewHaven. Says Bun Lai, I love that we are acozy, bustling and affordable neighbor-hood hole in the wall; but I also love thefact that people travel for us, often fromas far away as Manhattan, Boston andProvidence to experience dishes that youcan only get here in our little restaurant,in our little neighborhood...ChapelWesthas improved by leaps and bounds overthe last couple of years...people love com-ing here to eat and shop, more than everbefore. I, personally, rarely feel the needto go to any other neighborhood in townbecause all the fun is here.

Bun Lai is the 2008 nominee forBest Connecticut Chef by Flavors OfConnecticut. The New York Times wrote ofhim; For sheer gutsy inventiveness, noth-ing I’ve eaten this year beats Miya’s ofNew Haven.When the young chef isat the stove, the food is sublime. As awrestling coach, he has trained State and

New England Champions. He is himselfa 2004World bronze medalist. He waslast seen on NBC cornering super starwrestler, Sally Roberts, in the finals of theOlympic Trials. A big beer drinker, he wasthe token cool Asian guy in a Carlsbergbeer commercial that ran in Asia. He wentto Asia for vacation that year, but nobodyseemed to notice that he was famous,other than himself.

Miya’s supports local and children’scharities. For donations, contact Bunat [email protected]. For moreinformation on Miya’s and Bun, visitwww.miyassushi.com

Our Maintenance crew is ready for thefall weather with their new HOODEDSWEATSHIRTS. They look pretty snappywith our logo on the front and CHAPELWEST across the back….A lot of construc-tion projects were completed since ourlast newsletter. THE STUDY AT YALE(hotel) has opened and it was well worththe wait….The renovations at theRUDOLPH BUILDING and the new LORIACENTER have also been completed.Wewill be doing feature articles on theseprojects in future publications. EST, EST,EST and the HOWARD K. HILL buildingare finished and operating. The LowerChapel Street end of our district has gonethrough dramatic changes in the pastcouple of years and we’re all very excitedover the outcome. Keep tuned for furtherdevelopments.

Left to right: Monty, Felipe, José, Anthony

Let the leaves fall where they may...WE’RE READY!

NOTICE

HOLIDAY PARTY: Save the date….Tuesday night–Dec. 2, 2008 at Saint Thomas More, 268 Park St.

6:00PM–9:00PM Music & Refreshments

José & Vin popping corn.

Enjoying the movie.


Meet a Commissioner/Designer Tidbits by Vin Romei

CW 2nd Annual CookoutThe 2nd Annual ChapelWest Cookoutwas held on Tuesday, 8/5/08 at the park-ing lot on the corner of Chapel and HoweSts. AndWHAT A GREAT TIME was had byall. Over 150 property owners, tenants,retailers and friends of CW attended.

Festive music was provided byCHARLIE SALERNO & KYLE RALSTON.They kept the night lively and entertain-ing with their various renditions.Everyonecertainly brought their appetites withthem. It was truly a community affairand ChapelWest was on display.

THE PIZZA HOUSE served over 24 hot,freshly made pizzas along with Greekand Pasta salads. CHAP’S grilled off 40Hotdogs and 50 Hamburgers to get usgoing. KASBAH GARDENS provided thestaff and equipment to grill 150 Chickenbreasts, 100 additional Hotdogs and80 more Hamburgers. In addition theyserved stuffed grape leaves and also CousCous. The food was delicious and nothingwas left over.WINE, BEER & SODA wasprovided by CW and served by FORBESSMITH and his able staff. Many thanksto ANTHONY GIANO, our maintenancecontractor, in helping us set up and pulleverything together, including the rentedtent, tables, and chairs.

All in all it was a night to rememberand also look forward to for next year.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE THIEF WHOSTOLE A CALENDER? HE GOT TWELVEMONTHS! ! ! !.... Congrats to DR. RONDELFINI who was named in ConnecticutMagazine as one of the top twenty-fivePeriodontists in the STATE. Nice Job Ron....The Yale Police Dept. has announced thatRONNELL HIGGINS has been named Ass’tChief and JOSEPH VITALE has been pro-moted to Lieutenant. Both have been veryhelpful to CW. Joe has been a semi-quasimember of our board for years. Congratsto all. .... KYLE RALSTON, who performedwith CHARLIE SALERNO at our cookout,was a member of the nation-wide tour-ing cast of the “Sound of Music”. Sheplayed one of the Von Trapp daughters.....N O T I C E : on Tuesday, October 14, weare planning an outdoor Movie Night,“Young Frankenstein”, in the parking loton the corner of Chapel & Howe Sts.There will be popcorn, soft drinks, Candy,etc. .....Word has it that WILLOUGHBY’scoffee house isgoing to locate inthe new JefferyLoria Center onYork St. –next tothe Rudolph bldg.(Arch. School).DID YOU KNOW:If you jump off abridge in Paris, youare in SEINE ! ! ! !See you soon.....v.a.romei

Delfini’s Dancing Dolls Romei’s Clan Vin & Dean Sakamoto

Charlie Salerno & Kyle Ralston

From left to right: Marjorie Cohen Gordon,William Frank, and Commissioner Tom Strong at Strong Cohen Graphic Designon Chapel Street. (Working on this newsletter, out of camera range, is Deborah Pucillo)

“Make it strong and simple.”1“Color everywhere is no color at all.”2

“Books should lie open regardless of size”3At Strong Cohen we apply these principals to print and signage projects for

schools, banks, city governments...and yes, Chapel West.1. Herbert Matter 2. Paul Rand 3. Alvin Eisenman

Photos

byWoo

dyFord

Photoby

“Dutch”

Meet Your Neighbor...Albania Dental Around the District

Rimagé Salon & SpaLEN YANAVICH announces that RimagéSalon & Spa is ready to celebrate it’s 25thyear serving the beauty and wellnessneeds of the New Haven Community.Located in the heart of the ChapelWestdistrict at 1210 Chapel St. and offering afull range of services from manicures andbarber cuts to body wraps, sauna treat-ments as well as massage, skincare andneuro-muscular work.

After an 8 year operation next doorto London Ltd. & Geraldine’s Florist, Lenmade the move to renovate a beautiful1800’s Victorian Lady to accommodatehis growing business and offer a one stopwellness center to his loyal guests andan opportunity to add more reasons tovisit the friendly family that is RimagéSalon & Spa.

Walking through the door, you’retaken back to a time when life wassimpler and pampering was a way of life.The smell of fresh baked goods and brew-ing coffee greet you throughout the day,and a cool glass of wine and a snack arethe order for evening appointments.

Offering a tiered pricing schedule,Len has created an opportunity for alllifestyles and budgets to experience thepassion for beauty and wellness that isshared by all staff members.Whetheryou’re looking for solutions for fine orthinning hair, skin that is sensitive orproblematic, or an old sports injury.Employing nationally certified colorists,body workers and skincare technicians,Rimagé Salon & Spa also maintains afull boutique offering Organic hair and

skin care products as well as artisanhandmade soaps and gift sets maderight here in New Haven.

Celebrating the creation of a “familyoriented community” in the heart of thecity, Len and his staff take immense pridein the very special “SCENTSATIONAL CUT-TING GARDEN” created for the enjoymentof neighbors and guests in front of thespa, and a “secret garden” in the parkingarea offering native tomatoes, basil andan assortment of surprises for his tenantsand guests. “I’ve recently supported theCornell University bird watchers and

record the arrival of seasonal finches,woodpeckers, cardinals and mockingbirds to the inner city which brightensthe days of guests seated in the sun filledcolour and processing area of the salon”.

Offering a discount on services to theYale student body and a 20% referraldiscount to all recommended guests,we invite you to visit us and enjoy the“Rimagé Experience”

For other discounts and specials,please visit www.rimagesalon.com orWTNH www.ctwoman.com

Most of Chapel from Kensington toSherman has evolved into a medicaldistrict providing every type of healthcare, dentistry being no exception. Oneof our best neighbors, ALBANIA DENTALhas been located at 1395 Chapel forthe last nine years making the world amore beautiful place.Walk through thebeautifully kept front yard garden tomeet DR.MARIA JIMENEZ who returnedto New Haven in 1998 from New YorkUniversity to set up her practice hereon Chapel Street. The building had previ-ously housed a dental office.When thedoctor returned to New Haven from NYUand a stint in the Dominican Republicproviding dental care, this building wasavailable. It certainly looks better todaythan it did then.We wish all properties in

the district could be kept up as nicelyas this.

The doctor is ably assisted by FloriGuerra and Melina Incarnacion, her twodental assistants, and her beautiful officemanager Karina Jimenez whose imageyou see on the banner in front of 1395Chapel. Albania Dental is a full servicepractice including implants and cosmetictreatments.

The area is TEEMING with excitementover the returning YALE STUDENTS.Somehow, it seems more lively than inyears past. The renovations and expan-sion programs throughout the District areclosing in on completions. EST, EST, EST isdoing a wonderful job at their restaurant(completed as we go to press); Yale’sLORIA CENTER AND RUDOLPH BULDINGSare masterpieces of Architecture and theformer “Colony Hotel” now THE STUDY ATYALE is absolutely beautiful.We’re excitedthat all this work is going on (finishing)in ChapelWest. On Tuesday, 9/23/08 weheld aWELCOME ELI’S get-together fornew Yale students residing in the ChapelWest/Dwight neighborhood @ KasbahGardens. It was a beautiful night and theevent drew over 100 students, CW westmembers and their friends. LAHCEN,JAMAL and their staff did a wonderfuljob with the food and service. It was amemorable evening and a great time washad by all.NOTICE: The Dwight CentralManagement Team (DCMT) has formeda Youth Committee. This summer, theydid a study to obtain information andthoughts from residents about the futureof The Timothy Dwight School Building.We plan on obtaining a copy of the reportas soon as it is completed and will followup accordingly. Good job by our friendlyNeighbors. FALL PLANTINGS have beencompleted in our various containersthroughout CW. They really look great.We were very satisfied with the summerplantings and how well they weremaintained. Until next time.......

Len Yanavich at Rimagé

Dr. Maria Jimenez


—Vincent Romei


Meet a Commissioner

The Yale Update

The Yale Alumni Association (AYA) hasjoined the ChapelWest District with anew office located at 1140 Chapel Streetin the building that formerly housed theThree Chimney’s Inn. The AYA provides a

channel for communication between thealumni and the University, and overseesthe direction of alumni organizations andprograms.

This will be a second office for the AYAwhose main location is at Rose AlumniHouse on York Street. Twenty-three ofAYA’s forty-nine member staff will oper-ate out of the new Chapel Street office.The building has benefited from a fullinterior renovation, which preserved thebuilding’s historic features such as thesweeping wooden staircase and stonefireplaces. In addition to staff offices, thebuilding now features meeting space aswell as satellite desk space for visitingalumni to use during campus visits.

According to Carolyn Claflin, AYA’sDeputy Executive Director, “This newlocation will aid us in better serving theYale alumni community.We’re delightedAYA is growing and expanding its pres-ence as a new neighbor in the ChapelWest District.”

Editor’s Note: Chapel West is excited thatthe University has chosen our Districtto expand its Alumni Association opera-tions. We will be more than delighted toassist them in their transition.Good Luck to Yale AYA.

A historic yellow Colonial house built in1858 at 1204 Chapel Street houses thebusy Dental Implant and PeriodontalPractice of Dr. Ronald Delfini. Dr. Delfinifirst came to Chapel St. in 1983, purchas-ing and remodeling the historic buildingon Chapel St. He has been an activemember of the ChapelWest SpecialServices District since its inception in theearly 1980’s. A pleasant surprise in theparking lot behind his building is his arrayof flowers. He takes as much pride inbeing the “King of the Zinnias” as hedoes in being a dedicated doctor.

Dr. Delfini grew up in Hamden andgraduated from Hopkins. He then wentto Lehigh University and did his dentaldegree at Georgetown University. Healso did his periodontal training atGeorgetown as well as Bethesda NavalHospital. He has practiced periodontics inNew Haven since 1972 and has taught atYale for over 20 years. Dr. Delfini is aPeriodontist with most of his practicedevoted to Dental Implants. Dr. Delfinifeels that implants are a true miraclewith the technology to allow him toreplace missing teeth with teeth thatfunction and look as good as the original.He has a commitment to keep his

patients out of dentures and has success-fully treated hundreds of people whoonce had dentures and now have teeththat stay in.

Dr. Delfini resides in Branford withhis wife Marcia. He has 2 children and 5grandchildren.When he’s not practicingon Chapel St. he is an avid tennis playerand golfer.

I was thinking.... To write with a brokenpencil is pointless!!! GroupW. Benchowner, Raphael, is entering his 40th. yearon Chapel St. He has 3 wonderful grand-children, Connor 2-1/2 yrs, Torrin 2yrs, andJulian 1-1/2 yrs old. They keep him hop-ping. He calls them the three Kings....Eddie Donuts, (Dunkin Donuts) maintainsthe flowers in our new pot in front of thestore. “He waters them every day”. Theylook great.... Soon Yale will be finishedwith the re-hab of the Architecturalbuilding andMichael Onofrio from JamesCamera will be bored. He calls me threetimes a day to complain about the trashbbls. being full in front of his store.... Jose,one of our cleaning crew members haslost over 10lbs by sweeping sidewalks &curbs! Anyone wanting to lose weight cansign up....Did you know that when thesmog lifts in Los Angeles U.C.L.A....

We’re always interested in new storiesand “tidbits.” Call 787-3000.

—Vincent Romei

1140 Chapel Street

Dr. Ronald Delfini


Meet your Neighbor...The Mini Mart Around the District

HASSETLt. Ray Hassett is the New Haven PoliceDistrict Manager for the Chapel/Dwight/West River Neighborhood. During histime in this position, he has always beena strong supporter of the growth in theChapelWest business district. “I pridemyself in being a good problem solverand a strong communicator. I try tomake myself accessible to all”, Ray says.“HASSETT”, as he is sometimes affec-tionately referred to around the neigh-borhood, believes that crime is part ofthe fabric of any city and being preparedmay save you the embarrassment ofbecoming a victim or possible injury.

“Be aware when you’re walking. Lookat people’s faces. Most victims are pickedbecause they are not paying attention.If something, or someone, doesn’t lookright to you, get out, walk away, or moveon and you should be fine.” For occasionalcrime tips, stay tuned to further editionsof the ChapelWest newsletter.

HASSETT started his assignment toChapelWest in 1998 as a Sergeant andwas promoted to Lieutenant in 1999. It isa clear measure of his success that he hasnot been transferred. The District appreci-

ates this continuity and we keep RAY inour cell phones. The District ManagementTeam is always in touch with the ChapelWest Commissioners and they work onmany projects together over the courseof a year.

We are very fortunate to have LT.HASSETT here. He has become a fixturethat exudes professionalism and weall have a common sense of securityknowing that he is about.

This month’s ‘meet your neighbor’ profileis about Tejinder Singh and his wifeVarinder Singh who own and operatethe Chapel Mini Mart at 1182 Chapel St.Tejinder and Varinder moved to NewHaven from New York in 1993 and shortlyafter that (1995) opened their own busi-ness. After 13 years at this location, thingsare going well. Tejinder believes thatthere could hardly be a better location.He gets such a large cross-section ofcustomers that you may have to wait inthe fast moving line. Local businesses,construction workers,Westville com-muters, students, and local residentsfrom all surrounding blocks patronizethis business.

You might define this business as agrocery store. The Singh’s appear to carry

at least one brand of anything you canthink of, similar to a supermarket. Onequick visit and you will only be able toremember some of it. Groceries, house-wares, non-prescription drugs, fruit, mag-azines, newspapers, beverages of everykind, ice cream, lottery tickets, magazines,Western Union service, umbrellas, hotcoffee, cigarettes.Who knows what else?

Despite the small space availableTejinder is talking about remodeling togain a little more efficiency and a facelift.The District will participate by arranginga City of New Haven facade grant, adollar for dollar match of up to $2,000,for any expenditures on improvements tothe exterior of the building that meet theprogram guidelines.

Renovations and Rehabs are continuingto flourish. The Architectural School build-ing and the Hotel both hope to be com-pleted by Late August. The Gannon build-ing is finished and it really came out nice.Howard Hill’s funeral building is well onits way. Est, Est, Est, is remodeling by mov-ing the entire restaurant to the front ofthe building and preserving the originalwalls inside. They have also added a newoven. Should be very attractive. The MiniMart and Dunkin Donuts are in the plan-ning stages of remodeling. Chapel West iscontinuing to come alive with activity.

Pro Park is taking over managementof the Parking lot on the corner of Chapeland Howe. They will install a validationsystem for local merchants and also dis-play signage that promotes Chapel Westas well as the parking lot. Good luck toPro Park.We are in the early planningstages of a BEAUTIFICATION projectthat will place temporary works of Artthroughout the district.We have been inthe process of identifying possible loca-tions for their display. We will keep youinformed as we move along.We havebeen getting raves for our new plantersand the flowers contained therein.Next spring we plan on purchasingmore planters to complete the District.They look great!!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT...We are having our 2ND ANNUALCOOKOUT on Tuesday, August 5th from5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. It will be held in theParking Lot on the corner of Chapel andHowe.We’ll have a tent and traditionalcookout fare prepared by our localRestaurants.YOU’RE INVITED...

Lt. Ray Hassett

Varinder and Tejinder Singh

ChapelWest News 5/08New Haven Science Fair programis to work with k-12 children andteachers as they carry outinvestigative hands-on sciencefair projects, and exercise skillsin critical thinking, scienceprocess and communication.Several Career students workwith Yale faculty mentors. Publicviewing of science fair projectswill beWednesday, May 14thfrom 1-6pm.Middle schoolstudents from Troup work withYale University undergraduatesin the Science and MathAchievement teams (SMART)program, which pairs Yalestudent volunteers with studentsin grades 5-8. Participants work onmath or science projects which arethen displayed at the Science Expo openhouse at the end of the semester. TheScience Education Outreach Program(SEOP) brings graduate students andpost-doctoral fellows into the city’s mid-dle schools to teach topics in geneticsand encourage children to considercareers in science.At Timothy Dwight Elementary, Yale

supports an after-school enrichment

Yale has many cooperative programswith New Haven public schools whichencourage students to study scienceand consider careers in science and engi-neering. Several of these partnershipscenter on schools near the ChapelWestDistrict including Hill Regional CareerHigh School, Troup Magnet Academyof Science and Timothy DwightElementary School.The Yale Schools of Medicine and

Nursing partner with Hill RegionalCareer High School (CAREER) to providemore than 200 high school studentswith the opportunity to spend timeon Yale's campus in classes, laboratories,and structured internships duringthe school year. Each year, 15 to 20 Yalefaculty members and 50 Yale College,Medical, and Nursing students tutorand support 8 different courses that areoffered for credit at Career. Yale alsooffers a free three-week residential aca-demic enrichment program (SCHOLAR)on campus for 60 Career High Schoolstudents each summer.Students from the ChapelWest

neighborhood also participate in thecitywide science fair held in May at YaleUniversity’s Commons. The goal of the

The Yale Update

program. Every Tuesday and Thursdayduring the academic year, Yale under-graduate volunteers tutor students andorganize math and science activities.To learn more about science education

programs run by Yale faculty, staffand students visit HYPERLINK:http://www.yale.edu/scienceoutreach

Shana N. Schneider

AJ Scheetz teaching biology to Career High School SCHOLAR students

Meet A Commissioner . . .

ever changing industry. He enjoys thewater and hanging out on the Thimbleislands on his boat with Krista, hisgirlfriend of five years and her puppyJake. He also enjoys a margarita or twoon a nice summer day.

Gary Bello, left and Joel Schiavone, right

Gary Bello graduatedfrom Keene State Collegein 2005 with a Bachelorsdegree in business andquickly entered theReal Estate/PropertyManagement field tobegin his pursuit forsuccess. The Carharttwearing young mangot a great start makingconnections with CWSSD.Through the extendedhelp and experience ofJoel Schiavone, he hasbeen able to gain greatknowledge and put it togood use. The last three years hasbeen a long journey for the up-comingproject that Chapel & Dwight has beennegotiating for the corner of Chapeland Howe. Gary is strong in supportingdecisions made by the executive board.He fulfilled a dream by starting twoof his own businesses.MGB PropertyServices (a landscape and lawnmaintenance co.) and Extreme Rooterand Remodel (plumbing and remodel-ing). With his love of the Real Estate busi-ness, Matt Short and Rick Murphy havegiven Gary the opportunity to grow in an

TidbitsBob Richards of Carofano's Optical hasgreat news. His daughter recently gavebirth to twin girls. That's a handful forGrand-Ma and Grand-Pa. "DID you hearabout the butcher who backed up intothe meat grinder? He got a little behindin his work" Clay Studio's Chris Alexiadesand Laura Litvinoff have agreed to heada committee to work on our "Arts andBeautification project.Geraldine (water-ing prognosticator) has agreed toassist our crews on our Floral/containerprogram.We are planning on newmasonry flower pots for Chapel St.corners from York to Sherman Ave."EDDIE DONUTS" does a great job withhis hard to control employees at DunkinDonuts. Some of them even practiceArt Sculptoring while at work. ...FreddieJoseph is back to work after recuperatingfrom his recent operation. Hard to keepa "GOOD" ChapelWest regular down."DID you hear about the Dentist whochallenged the Manicurist to a duel?."They fought Tooth and Nail".

Vincent Romei

We’re always interested in new storiesand “tidbits.” Call 787-3000.—Vincent Romei

Saint Raphael’s pioneers use ofnew cancer-fighting technology

CyberKnife radiosurgery is analternative to conventional surgery forbenign, cancerous or malignant braintumors; metastatic disease to the brain;spinal cord tumors; and tumors of theneck, lung, liver, pancreas, and prostate.This leading-edge technology is

precise, painless, and requires noanesthesia or incisions. Treatment variesaccordingly to tumor location. They aredone on an outpatient basis, generallytake 1-2 hours per session and usuallyrequire 1-5 visits. Patients are able toresume normal activities after treatmentwith minimal side effects.Availability of CyberKnife, combined

with an April 30 groundbreaking fora satellite cancer treatment facility inHamden, reflect Saint Raphael’s long-standing commitment to provide themost advanced cancer care, in conven-ient, compassionate ways, to patients.

The Hospital of Saint Raphael is the firsthospital in southern Connecticut, andonly second in the state, to offer theamazing, state-of-the-art CyberKnifestereotactic radiosurgery system. Initialpatients will be treated in May.The most accurate radiation system

in the world, CyberKnife combinestwo advanced technologies to targettumors. An image-guided system tracksand verifies a tumor’s location with sub-millimeter precision, and automaticallyadjusts to compensate for patientmovement—even breathing—duringtreatment. As a result, it’s possible totreat and destroy tumors anywhere inthe body, including those that previouslycould not be surgically removed. It cantarget multiple locations in a singlesession and also treats lesions that havealready undergone the maximum dosesof traditional radiation therapy.

Tops/Temporary labor of New Havenhas been a New Haven institution since1967. It was established to deliver areliable,dependable and cost efficientwork force to the New Haven area.Michael McGrath has owned and

operated Temporary labor since 1985when it was located at 36 Howe St. Thatyear he moved with it's sister company,Maid for a Day to it's present locationat 1291 Chapel Street in the heart of theChapel West District.Since 1985, Michael has taken Tops/

Temporary Labor and expanded from asmall, employment day labor companyto a full service staffing agency. Todaythey serve The greater New Haven andBridgeport markets doing close to $2mil.in sales.In 2004,Mike expanded again by

buying Contemporary Personnel inWestHaven and bringing all the clients underthe Chapel Street location. in 2007, theyalso bought Temps Now ofWhalleyAve. and merged all of it's clients andemployees to Chapel St. as well.Today, Tops/Temporary Labor of New

Haven employs about 100 men andwomen each day to various companiesaround the state. Many jobs that arefilled from this location range from

administrative/clerical, assemble andproduction,warehouse shipping andreceiving, pickers and packers, foodservice and much more.At the start of 2008, he further

expanded by adding two new corpora-tions into the mix.Medical link staffingis a full service medical staffing agencythat provides Nurses, SNA'S and MedicalAssistants to Local health care facilitiesaround the state. Safe Staff, Inc. is aservice focused on the everyday needof security. They employ former Lawenforcement and seasoned professionalsto service our client's needs.Staying in the Chapel West District

while expanding our companies'resources was a "no brainer".With theheart of New Haven expanding upChapel St. and the wonderful job ChapelWest has done with keeping the areaclean, safe and vibrant, we had no choicebut to stay "home".We looked around atvarious office spaces and kept comingback because ChapelWest has been agrowing area and it only made sense forus to grow with it!

Yale University has completed the renovations of the former Inn atChapel West. They have moved in the Yale Alumini Association to asecond location there. The AYA will still remain in their Alumni Houseon York St. as well.We are excited that they chose to locate in ourdistrict.

ChapelWest is getting an influx ofnew businesses. Peoples Medical openedat 1415 Chapel St. They are a full servicehome medical equipment co. ...Yale AYAhas opened a 2nd location at the former"Inn at ChapelWest" site...Hair Niche hasopened a full service Barbershop in theHotel Duncan...CathyWe has openedJoJo's Coffee House on the corner ofChapel and Park St. The word must begetting out...Construction and Renovations keep

moving along. The Hotel looks absolutelybeautiful with it's new glass front...Wecan't wait for it to open. Ditto for Yale'sRudolph Building (Architecture School)and the adjoining Luria Building.Gannon's property looks great and Isee that Howard Hill is doing majorimprovements on his building at 1287Chapel St.As we go to press,our street Security

Cameras at the corner of Park and Chapeland Howe and Chapel should be upand running.We will be doing a Majorarticle on this program in our next issue.Were very excited about this longawaited development.

Around the district

CathyWe, owner/operator of the newly opened Jobo's Coffee houseon the corner of Chapel and Park St.

Meet your neighbor...Temporary Labor

Bob and Michael McGrath

Our condolences to the family ofLouis DeSimone on his recent passingfrom a tragic automobile accident. Hewas a long time friend and business/property owner in ChapleWest.Wewill miss him.David Schaefer recently passed away

in Florida after a lengthy illness. He wasa partner in Schaefer Associates and C.A.White. Our condolences to the extendedSchaefer family.

Most people are familiar withMamoun'son Howe Street, possibly the oldestrestaurant still in business in the District.Today the restaurant is run by twobrothers Suleyman and Tarek Chater,both the nephews of Mamoun whoopened the first restaurant in GreenwichVillage in 1971, and sons of MohammedChater who opened the Howe Streetbranch in 1977. Suleyman runs the 11 amto 7 pm shift and his brother Tarek the 7pm to 3 am shift. If you bring a crowdwith you they will stay open later. This isa 365 day a year operation. Mamoun's hasbecome a well known icon in Americanculture. A Google search will bring up13,000 references because either theNew Haven or the New York stores havebeen mentioned so many times inarticles, reviews, blogs, biographies, etc.Everyone has hung out late night in oneof the Mamoun's restaurants at sometime in their life, and many have writtenabout it. So check there if you wantanecdotes from the past. Now middleeastern food is much alike across theworld but the Syrian style is the core ofit all and the best, we think. Mamoun'scarries a full menu of all the traditionalfoods.We are not going to list any ofthem. Go in there yourself and drink atea while you think about the menu.

to purchase supplies for architecturaland set design model making. In additionto attaining this unique position formodel makers we believe that we havepreeminent excellence for the State ofConnecticut in art materials. Our framingcraftsmanship also excels as a localresource acknowledged as best for fiveyears running.How we got to where we are and why

such a distinctive store should haveevolved in the small city of New Haven,Connecticut is a tale of coincidence andperseverance.Hull’s began in business in 1947 as

Hull’s Hobbies founded by Harry Hull.Hobby stores in 1947 and through at leastthe 1960s were very different than theyhave become today. Before television andcomputer games a hobby in every house-hold was not uncommon. Kids came tothe hobby shop for their balsa wood tomake airplanes and bass wood to make“towns and cities” for their railroadlayouts. Coincident with this flourishinghobby business, New Haven, being a latetwentieth century Mecca for design ofmodern buildings, the architects of thecity and the architecture students ofYale University used the hobby store’sresources to build their models. Thesymbiosis persisted and the product lines


Meet your Neighbor...Mamoun's

Steve Kovel, is the owner of Hull’sArt Supply & Framing and an activeparticipant in the efforts of ChapelWestsince 1999. He became a commissionerin 2004 after taking some time to gethis feet on the New Haven ground. Stevehas operated in the art materials industryfor over 25 years formerly owning anassortment of stores (now only one).Prior to his retail work he spent someyears as an engineer involved in govern-ment contract adminstration for theproduction of naval reactors. After hiscollege he spent seven years in nuclearsubmarines. Some where in between hespent two years getting hismba degreeat Yale.Hull’s Art Supply & Framing has

become an institution as the mostcomprehensive and complete location

Meet a Commissioner

The prices are amazingly low. You willbe surprised. It is a little dark inMamoun's so sit by the window if youwant to do the crossword puzzle. Inthe summer you can use the sidewalktables. Oriental rugs,scimitars,plants,and unidentifiable objects adorn thewalls. The chandeliers are so large Ipersonally refuse to sit under them. Theymay have been designed by Damocles.One usually drinks the traditional middleeastern tea with sugar but Mamoun'swill give you honey if you ask. Suleyman

for architectural model makers as well asset design model makers grew and grew.Hull’s was a real New Haven fixture.

But as changes occured the “hobby”side of the business largely disappeared.However, with its proximity to Yale’sarchitecture, drama and art schools, themodel making aspect of hobbiesremained a mainstay of Hull’s business.In 1999, the business was acquired by

Steve Kovel, moved eastward down theblock about 300 yards to its present loca-tion (more central to New Haven andYale), and re-named “Hull’s Art Supplyand Framing.”From its long evolving retail history;

its support of architectural model build-ing, set design and fine art; and withthe benefit of today’s technologies,Hull’s now seeks to fulfill a vision as:“Suppliers to Model Makers, Artists andArchitects Worldwide.”You’ll find us uniquely prepared to

fulfill the needs that any customer, nomatter how specialized, will require.Fascinating products await all who crossthe threshold. Decorative handmadepapers, the funniest greeting cards inNew Haven and Moleskine journals arebut a few of the legion of items that willgrab your attention. Come discover oneof the great fun stores in New Haven!

...

Steve Kovel, right with Vin Romei, left

Suleyman with good friend, Spencer Lucky.

has a thing about the sugar jar and thereis only one allowed in the whole restau-rant and it can be tough to find at timeswhen the place is crowded! The addressis 85 Howe and you can call 562 8444 toorder in advance or for takeout orders ifin a hurry. Parking is really never a prob-lem because there is a small lot behindthe building. There are many people inthe neighborhood here who have beeneating at Mamoun's for 30 years now.

Michael and Anthony Onofrio at JamesCamera on Chapel St. are very helpfulto customers. Especially if you are amember of ChapelWest. Stop in andsay "Hello" They have everything youmay need for your Photo jobs.Congrats to Bill Cramer, Hull's

Hobbies and Hardware. He and his familycelebrated his 75th Birthday last month.He looks great. Marilyn must be goodto him.Renovations to Cannon's building

at 1187 Chapel St. are nearing completion.It looks terrific! There is City moneyavailable for Facade improvements.If your interested, Call Brian McGrath atour office. Tel. No. 787-3000 or 787-3300.Brian and I are in the early stages of

planning an Art/ Beautification/ renova-tion project.We hope to work with Yale'sArt , Archectiture and Sculptor schoolsto indentify any unused available space(Walls, ground, etc.) for this purpose.Anyone having an interest or thoughts onthe subject should contact Brian or me.

Around the districtFreddie Joseph stops by my office once ortwice a week while taking his daily walk.He often tells me stories about his tourof duty in the Army duringwwii. He wasanmp stationed in Germany. His son-in-law Tom pays me $10.00 to keep him hereas long as possible.Geraldine has promised that she will

get a new hair-style to match the galin her wonderful banner on Chapel St.Bob Richards of Carafano's Optical is

getting Itchy. He can't wait for softballseason to start. He's been playing basket-ball to get in shape. "Go get em Bob".Congrats to Nancy Delgado upon

opening her Barber Shop/Salon in theHotel Duncan. Formerly with Phil's andBroadway Hair, she's been cutting hair inthe Yale Community for years.Did you hear about the Fisherman

and the Mermaid who got married?"They met on line"

CONDOLENCES to Len Yanavich on therecent death of his mother. Our prayersare with you and your family.

The Yale Updatediscourse and drawing such leadingtalents as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadidand Richard Rogers to its faculty. Sternalso introduced the regularly scheduledexhibitions at the School of Archi-tecture, which have filled the groundfloor of Paul Rudolph’s landmark Art +Architecture and drawn visitors fromaround the world. Stern will presideover the historic reopening next fallof the Art + Architecture Building, to berenamed The Rudolph Building afterits architect, following its extensiverenovation.

Ten Yale alumni chosen for 2008WhitneyBiennialEver wonder what Yale art students

do after graduation? Ten graduates fromthe Yale School of Art, whom you mayhave known or past by walking downChapel Street, are being honored intheWhitney Biennial, one of the mostimportant contemporary art exhibitionsin the nation. From March 6 throughJune 1, you can see the artwork ofWaleadBeshty ‘02mfa, Shannon Ebner ‘00mfa,and Michael Smith ‘81mfa (photogra-phy); William Cordova ‘04mfa and LisaSigal ‘89mfa (painting); David Reinfurt‘99mfa (graphic design), Rashawn Griffin‘05mfa, Leslie Hewitt ‘04 mfa, CharlesLong ‘88mfa, and Adam Putnam ‘00mfa (sculpture) alongside the works ofseventy other artists at New York’sWhitney Museum of American Art.

http://whitney.org/www/2008biennial/

Part of The Link

A new business has opened in ChapelWest. It is called Hair Niche and islocated in the lobby of the Hotel Duncan.The business name Niche is after thetwo grandchildren of the owner NancyDelgado, Nicholas and Chelsea.Along with her daughter Shannon,

Nancy provides full barbershop servicesto all and that includes men's haircuts.The barbershop is open 7 days a week8am to 5pm and all walk-ins will beaccommodated. Nancy and Shannonare well known haircutters in the areaand have doing this since 1984 and1991 respectively. Nancy’s is the newestbusiness to locate in ChapelWest.Welook forward to others following herexample. Adding another link to the“neighborhood”.

Yale Raises Incentives for Employees toBuy Homes in New HavenYale University has enhanced its

highly successful Homebuyer Programand extended it through 2009. Inthe new phase of the program, Yale isincreasing the annual payment to eachparticipant from $2,000 per year to$2,500. Together with a first-year incen-tive payment of $5,000, the grant totals$30,000. The number of Yale Universityemployees who have bought homesthrough the program reached 835 at theend of 2007. Yale University’s programis the largest and most generous suchemployer-assisted homeownershipprogram offered by any institution ofhigher education in the nation.

http://www.yale.edu/hronline/hbuyer/

Stern Continues as Dean of ArchitectureRobert A.M. Stern ’65 M.Arch. will

begin a third five-year term as dean ofYale School of Architecture this July. Sincehis appointment in 1998, Stern has trans-formed the Yale School of Architectureinto an international hub of architectural

What's a neighborhood without some-one selling newspapers on the corner.Meet Russell Pittman, our local man onthe beat. Russ is out there from 5:30 a.m.til 11:30 a.m. on a daily basis.He has a quick smile and a ready

handshake. He's even agreed to helpkeep the corner clean and pick up anytrash to be found on his turf. You canfind Russ at the corner of Chapel andPark Sts., in front of the Dunkin Donutshop. He is a welcome asset to ourcommunity. Eddie Donuts keeps himin line.

Yale’s Homebuyers program celebrates its 800th mark in 2007.


—Vincent Romei


Hair Niche opens

Nancy and Shannon with a Chapel Street regular.

news from St. Raphael's,"Around the District" andHuman interest notes from"Brian and the Prez".Banner Program: This project

has been very active and wellreceived.We have signed up27 to date. We urge all proper-ty owners and retailers to join.It's great for business and looksterrific on the street. TomStrong and his staff do a realprofessional job and gives avariety of looks to choose from.Improvements: New decora

tive meter poles have been installedthroughout the District. Twenty fivenew bbls. were purchased this year andwe planted colorful flowers for thespring/summer period.In the Fall, wereplaced those with three different colorsof Mums. Next year, we are comtemplat-ing masonry pots that will last from yearto year.We embarked on our tree trim-ming program in Sept.Building Contructions:Many property

owners and new investors have cometo recognize the positive aspects ofChapelWest and have invested thou-sands of dollars in new construction andrenovations. Yale's magnificent newSculpture School building and Garage haschanged the landscape on Howe St. andEdgewood Ave. They have also investedmany dollars in renovating the Rudolphbuilding and the new Loria Center forthe History of Art next to it on York St.The Hotel (former Colony) is moving


Meet a Commissioner

2007 will go down in ChapelWest historyas the year of transition. Your Board ofCommisioners is proud of it's accomplish-ments and the opportunity to bring ourorganization to new levels in it's quest toimprove the quality of life in our area andcontinue to "Link The Neighborhood".Welist below some of the highpoints.New Office:We opened at 61 Howe St.

in January. The location is great and it hasenabled us to be more available to ourDistrict members. Many of them stop indaily or weekly to chat about problemsor areas that we can improve upon.Weencourage all to do so.New Sidewalks: The City finally came

through for us. They took out the paverblocks on Chapel Street from Park toHowe and constructed new walkwayswith a very colorful red feature stripe.They had some monies left over in thatbudget and installed new Curbs andWalks on Park St. from Chapel St. toCrown. Many thanks to Mayor DeStefanoand Tony Bialecki. A job well done.Annual Meeting: Our yearly get

together was held at Yale's AlumniHouse. The setting was beautiful and agood time was had by all. There was a lotof interest and good communicationsamong the approximately 85 memberswho attended.Newsletter: In April we instituted our

ChapelWest Newsletter that we produceevery two months. In it, we highlight a"Meet your Neighbor" column, Yaleupdate,Introduce a Commissioner, Reviewnew construction and re-hab projects,

AndWhat a Year it was...

Meet a commissioner…David (D.J.)Ornato came to CW in 1989. He quicklybefriended the beloved Evelyn Schatz.She and her husband Morris becamefriends of the entire Ornato family, join-ing them in celebrating birthdays andholidays. D.J. awaited Evelyn’s call every-day to give him the latest news andfor her to ask him for a favor or runan errand.D.J.’s family is also very active in New

Haven. His wife Deb works in their officeat 100 Howe St. as does his son-in-lawAnthony. One daughter owns the suc-cessful Bottega Guiliana at 906 ChapelSt. Her husband is a partner who partici-pates with a major developer that hasturned around several large properties inthe central downtown district of NewHaven. His other daughter is growing uphis 3 grandchildren (ages 3, 5 and 7) andalso works as a computer consultant.Over the years, D.J. has acquired several

properties in the district and has becomea very active member of the ChapelWest

board, serving as its 2nd V.P. He has advo-cated and pushed for new sidewalks,lighting and stability of problematicproperties.Both grandfathers came to New Haven

together in 1916 from Italy. After theymarried, both families lived on HumphreySt. In 1946, when his dad returned fromthe war, he opened Elm City Photo onHumphrey St. And sold it in 1984 toEastman Kodak.

D.J. has his BA in elementary educationand was a 2nd grade teacher in NewHampshire for many years. During thattime, he also traveled around theworld by land rover twice.D.J. has been a tireless worker for CW

and has made many positive contribu-tions to our district.We’re fortunate tohave him here.

along with it's up-scale exciting project.Cannon's building on Chapel St. and BillEsposito's on the corner of Chapel andPark are also in the process of upgrading.Joel Schiavone has demolished the for-mer Far East Restaurant building andis contemplating a new develpmentfor the corner of Chapel and Howe.The future continues to look bright forour neighborhood.Other Activities:We had a very

successful cookout in July at KasbahGardens that was followed with areception for returning Yale students inAugust at the same location. Our expan-sion program continues to move along.We have signed up 17 new propertieswith more to come. It has been a verybusy and rewarding year.We lookforward to continue the programs in2008. We thank you all for your support.Happy holidays and best wishes to all.

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Brian and Vin in front of the Howe Street Office

Chap’s Grille and Bagel Bakery has been afixture on Chapel Street near Park since1998. The owner and operator, Khalil“Alex” Elsankary, is our profiled ChapelWest businessman this month. Khalil, anative of Egypt, became a US citizen over20 years ago, and has been a restaurantowner all of his life.One look at the enormous menu of

gourmet foods will attest to this. Onewould never know from the outside whatan unusual restaurant this really is. TheChapel Street insiders know! The menuhas hundreds of items ranging fromsteak and salmon dinners to panninisand the biggest seller of all wrap sand-wiches. Breakfast,lunch,and dinner isserved here from 7am til 11pm. Khalil hasa full menu of middle eastern foods,american foods, vegetarian foods, NewYork style deli foods,appetizers,salads,burgers of all kinds,and more. It mighttake you a year to run through this madmenu. If you do not see it, ask Khalil andhe will make it. He also has an ice creamparlor counter, and bank of juicers,and aGreen Mountain coffee bar.If that is not enough, Khalil also runs a

full scale catering service with over 60items to choose from a special menu. Allorders of any kind will be delivered uponrequest.A big secret hiding in the back room is

Chap’s Grille and Bagel Bakery

a giant antique New York City bagel mak-ing machine. This monster is capable ofcranking out 25 dozen fresh bagels everyhalf hour. You have not tasted bagels likethese since the 1950’s. This may be thesecret behind the breakfast sandwicheshere. Khalil mostly makes the bagels forhis customers but there are a few whole-sale customers buying them for theirown resaturants.The Colony Inn used toserve these bagels to their guests in the

The Yale UpdateChapelWest has trimmed the trees onChapel St. from Park to Howe and onHowe St. from Crown to Elm St. They lookquite beautiful. Now you can clearly seethe traffic signage, banners and the lowlevel security decorative lights can shineunobstructed on our sidewalks. We planon doing Chapel St. from Howe toSherman Ave. next and the rest of thedistrict in the Spring... The area looks fes-tive with all the holiday wreathsinstalled. We purchased forty five newones this year and Geraldine’s made upthe new bows. Good job by AnthonyGiano in resurrecting and installing theolder ones... The Colony Inn renovationsare in full swing. Were hoping for a com-pletion date by late spring or early sum-mer...Cannon’s building at 1187 Chapel St.shows great improvements. We urge allproperty owners to call Brian McGrath toinquire about the City’s cost sharing pro-gram for facade improvements.... Yale’sRudolph Building re-hab project shouldbe finished by late summer...ChapelWest’s “Holiday Party”was held

in the Yale School of Art in spite of ice,snow, and freezing rain. More than 50 CWfriends and members enjoyed foodcatered by Yale Dining Services. JoeTaylor’s slide show of “old”New Havenbuildings and streets, from his extensivepostcard collection, led to many spiriteddiscussions about “what, when, andwhere.”The Art School with its currentshow of undergraduate course work, wasa colorful venue.We thank StaceyGemmil for making it happen.

Around the districtWondering how to escape the cold tem-peratures and lose those winter blahs?Come explore the exciting world of art inthe Yale art galleries this season. The YaleUniversity Art Gallery and Yale Center forBritish Art are featuring two stunningexhibits that run through the end of theyear.The Yale University Art Gallery is

celebrating its 175th anniversary with Artfor Yale. This exhibition showcases morethan 300 exceptional works of art drawnfrom each of the Gallery’s curatorialdepartments—American Paintings andSculpture, American Decorative Arts,African Art, Asian Art, Early European Art,Ancient Art and Art of the AncientAmericas, Coins and Medals, Modern andContemporary Art, and Prints, Drawings,and Photographs. Included are manyworks by major artists never before onpublic view.To commemorate the bicentennial of

the British slave trade abolition, the YaleUniversity Center for British Art is pre-senting a remarkable exhibit entitled Art& Emancipation In Jamaica: Isaac MendesBelisario And His Worlds. The lithographsby Jewish Jamaican-born artist, IsaacMendes Belisario provides the firstdetailed visual representation of the cele-brated Afro-Jamaican masquerade per-formed by the enslaved during theChristmas and New Year holidays. Art andEmancipation also features works pro-duced in the Caribbean and Britain,including a number lent from public andprivate collections in Jamaica that haverarely or never been exhibited.

Both museums are free and open to thepublic and stay open until 8pm the firstThursday of every month.All of the people at Yale University who

work with ChapelWest want to expressour thanks for the wonderful work thatthe District's staff and board does day inand day out and how deeply we appreci-ate their counsel and support as we havebuilt and opened our new facility.Welook forward to continuing to share withyou news about the University and work-ing with the District.

morning. There were complaints that thebagels were too BIG!In the summer months of course you

will sit outside. Chap’s is lucky enough tohave a patio the whole length of therestaurant. You can eat outside andwatch the parade.

Art for Yale exhibit: Stuart Davis, Combination Concrete #2,1956-58. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery, Charles B.Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection. © Estate of StuartDavis/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Khalil “Alex” Elsankary


—Vincent Romei

Both are certified asgeriatric pharmacists,so are an excellentresource for seniorsmaking Medicare PartD prescription cover-age decisions.

The pharmacyaccepts all majorcommercial medicalinsurance plans, aswell as government-sponsored plans suchas Medicare, HUSKY,SAGA, and The com-munity HealthNetwork . It isexpecting its Medicaid license soon, andwill then accept those prescriptions aswell. Costs beyond what insurance coverscan be paid by cash, personal check, ormajor credit card.

Persons interested in transferringexisting prescriptions to Saint Raphael’sapothecary pharmacy just need to asktheir physician or other care providerto fax or call in the prescription, or bringin an original prescription form fromtheir doctor. The pharmacy’s phonenumber is (203) 789-4076. Its fax numberis (203) 867-5593.


The Yale Update

Earlier this year, Saint Raphael’s openeda “therapeutic” pharmacy—meaningone that only sells prescription and over-the-counter medications–as a convenientservice for patients being discharged,patients seeing physicians in nearbymedical offices, and our staff. It’s alsoa convenient option for our neighborsand people who work in the neighbor-hood–to stop by and check it out!

Because Saint Raphael’s buys themedications through a large nationalpurchasing organization, prices are com-petitive with large chain drug stores. Soyou get good pricing, and exceptional,personal customer service too.

The pharmacy is located right nextto our cafeteria on the first floor of theVerdi Memorial Building ( just a few yardsto the left when you use our ChapelStreet entrance). It’s open Mondaythrough Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30p.m., and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1p.m. It is closed Sunday.

Called the “Apothecary andWellnessCenter,” it offers a personal, caringenvironment that features a privatecounseling room where patients candiscuss medication needs with ourexperienced, knowledgeable pharmacists,Renee Havriliak and Christine Stella.

Saint Raphael’s new apothecary pharmacy welcomes neighbors, the public

The apothecary pharmacy is expectedto eventually carry durable medicalequipment. Although it does not sellcandy, magazines, flowers, or gifts, SaintRaphael’s Glass Door Gift Shop is justdown the hall. So visit this end of ChapelStreet, get your prescription filled, andwhile you wait, enjoy a snack in our cafe-teria or from our coffee bar, and do someshopping in the Gift Shop!

Ribbon–cutting for St. Raphael’s new pharmacy. ( March 2007 )

Recycled materials have taken on awhole new look at the new sculpturebuilding on Howe Street—paneling inthe building is made from 100% postconsumer recycled newspapers.Whenyou look up, you may see green–the roofof the Gallery houses growing grasses!

As part of Yale’s sustainability initia-tive, the Sculpture Building was designedby the architects at Kieran TimberlakeAssociates with an emphasis on its envi-ronmental sustainability. During con-struction, priority was given to utilizingsustainable design features such as ener-gy efficiency, locally manufactured mate-rials, easily accessible location, and waterand waste management.Where possible,locally manufactured materials and prod-ucts were chosen: 51% of materials wereassembled and 78% were harvested with-in 500 miles. Because of these elements,the Building is under consideration forLEED (Leadership in Energy andEnvironmental Design) certification andis expected to achieve a Gold rating.

Keeping with the theme of sustain-ability and urban design, on view at theGallery, with an entrance on Edgewood, isan exhibition hosted by the School of Artand Architecture entitled “A Field Guideto Sprawl”, featuring images of photo-

journalist JimWark along with thetext of Dolores Hayden, a Yale professorof Architecture and American Studio.

While the Sculpture Building iscurrently housing the Yale School ofArchitecture, both the graduate andundergraduate Sculpture programs areexpected to move in around mid–2008.Until then, upcoming exhibits open tothe public and presented by the Schoolof Architecture include “Ecology. Design.Synergy” and “Painting the Glass House:Artists Revisit Modern Architecture”, aswell as a year–end exhibition of student

work in late May 2008. There are ongoingexhibits at both the Yale Art Gallery andthe Yale Center for British Art, which arefree and open to the public. They bothstay open until 8pm the first Thursdayof every month.

Yale University thanks all the ChapelWest leaders and members who support-ed this project from its inception,through construction, through to itsopening as a dynamic new addition tothe district.

Shana Schneider

The Sculpture Gallery on Edgewood is currently exhibiting “A Field Guide to Sprawl”which is free and open to the public.

changed everything," he said. To remaincompetitive, Papa&Sons began sellingfruit baskets around 1960. Today, thoughthe market still sells individual piecesof produce, the baskets comprise thebulk of its business, especially aroundthe holidays.

With Paul Papa, 45, now at the helm,the market remains committed to stayingin the family.

"It was always a family affair, “ArthurPapa said, attributing the business' long-evity to its quality products and customerservice. "We just did everything right.”

Meet your Neighbor. . . Papa’s store still in family, 90 years later

Tidbits from Brian andThe PrezMeet Commissioner Arnie

Lehrer. He purchased his 39unit apartment complex at1214 Chapel St. in 1984.From the day one, Arniehas been our staunchestsupporter and is the epito-me of what ChapelWeststands for. He has worked side by sidewith us in every battle we have had to"clean up” the District. He maintainshis property in first class conditionand expects all the other owners to dothe same.

In 1995, he purchased another 13-unitproperty on Lynwood Place that we planto include in our new boundary lines. Noone works harder for CW than ArnieLehrer. He is the consummate familyman and is devoted to his lovely wifeNaomi along with their two childrenElana and Alan. He treats his tenants likefamily. Each year he throws a party for allof them so that they can get to knoweach other. He rarely has a vacancy oradvertises because word of mouth fromleaving tenants on how well they weretreated takes care of that. I love to speakto his Jewish-Ukrainian father Irwin. I say"Bon Giorno" to him and he replies inItalian. Sometimes he says a few morewords (in Italian) and asks me if I knowwhat that means. Sometimes I don't. Hehas an advantage because he lived inItaly for 3 yrs. Arnie is more than a CWCommissioner. Arnie Lehrer is my friend.

Vincent Romei

Meet a Commissioner

Cara BaruzziNew Haven Register (with permission)

In 1917,When customers could buy threedozen oranges for $1 and a watermelonfor less than 50 cents, John Papa openeda produce stand next to a supermarket,aiming to launch a business by sellingitems the grocery store did not.

"He knew we were going to go on fora good many years," said John Papa's son,Arthur Papa.

The business' founder was right: Papa& Sons open-air market, at 1385 ChapelSt., is celebrating its 90th anniversary.

John Papa opened the business, withthe help of wife, Lucy, on Grand Avenuein Fair Haven in 1917. It has been at 1385Chapel St. since 1938.

Originally, he opened the businessnear a neighboring A&P supermarket.He sold mainly produce, having noticedthat the supermarket did not sell fruitsand vegetables.

Eventually, John's sons, Arthur andStephen Papa–the latter was a longtimecity leader, serving on the Board ofEducation–took over the business, andcurrently Arthur's son, Paul, runs it.

The corner where Papa & Sons islocated, at Chapel and Orchard streets,was named Stephen J. Papa Cornerseveral years ago, and Papa portrayedSanta Claus at the city's Christmas treelighting for 59 years until a broken legrendered him unable to do it last year.The market has always been a familybusiness, said Stephen Papa, 90. Like hissiblings, he began helping his parents at

Chris & Laura at the Clay Studio had asidewalk sale of pottery in Septemberthat was very successful. Some reallybeautiful items were offered. Stop in andsee what they have. Their beautifulChapelWest Banner on Howe St.helped...We held a "Welcome to ChapelWest" night for returning students at theKasbah Gardens in August. It was wellattended and…Our retailers got a chanceto offer discounts in their shops for all.One more successful step in "LINKINGTHE NEIGHBORHOOD".NH Park & Recsdid a nice job trimming the trees onChapel St. from Park to Howe. Theyhad been interfering with drain spouts,gutters, blocking signage and bannerlocations. Thanks to Christy Haas forhelping us.We have a lot more to go...Ournew cleaning/ maintaince crew, AnthonyGiano,MGR., removed the dried out sum-mer flowers and planted colorful mumsin our containers. Next spring we are con-templating buying masonary pots for allof the street corners. Should lookgreat…More banners were installed–Howe Apts., Schiavone (2),Dimeo, PizzaHouse, Clay Studio, Hill Funeral, Gag's,Ultimate Universe. Anyone wanting abanner should call Tom Strong or VinRomei ...Sidewalks being installed on ParkStreet from Chapel to crown should becompleted by the time we go to press.They were badly needed.We hope tohave Chapel from York to Park completedthis spring. Thanks to Mayor DeStefanoand Tony Bialecki.

the market around the time he was 7years old."We all had to work; we all helped,

"he said, and the children would packagefruit and make deliveries. "It worked outjust beautifully."

But times have changed since "thegood old days," as Arthur Papa, 80, callsthem.When national chains startedopening larger supermarkets in town,stocked with much larger inventoriesthan in the past, Papa & Sons had toadapt to survive.

"The supermarkets came along and

Eddie donuts (Mgr. Dunkin Donuts) hasa problem with his employees. Theyreport to work between 6 & 7 A.M. butCarmen doesn't wake up until 9:30 andSue between 10:30 and 11:00…BobRichards, Carafano's Optical, still playssemi-fast pitch softball. His teamwonthe championship division in theirCheshire league. Bob got the winning hitto send them into their final game. He'snow playing in the Fall League. "GoodLuck Bob”...Geraldine (florist) has been ahuge supporter of Chapel West. Shehelps us in buying our summer flowers,mums, holiday decorations, flower pots,etc. She also plants and maintains thepots on Chapel St. In front of The C.A.White Building. They always look beauti-ful. Thanks Geraldine...Did you ever won-der why we don't see any original andthoughtful INSULTS anymore? Such as:Lady Astor once said toWinston Churchillat a dinner party..."Winston, if you weremy husband I would poison your coffee!"Winston replied, "Madam, if I were yourhusband, I would drink it!” or this one,"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening,but this wasn't it" Groucho Marx.

Legendary New Haven resident and family patriarch Stephan Papa, 90, left, with nephew, Paul Papa, 45,brother Arthur Papa, 80, and his son Stephen Papa Jr., 62, stand in front of the neighborhood fixture, Papa &Sons open-air market on Chapel Street. Paul Papa is the owner of the market.

Around the district

PeterH

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/Reg

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We’re always interested in new storiesand “tidbits.” Call 787-3000.—Vincent Romei

Around the district

Brian and I ran into Vincent Gagliardi theother day and we started talking aboutthe old days. Vinnie owns the property onthe corner of Park and Chapel whereDunkin Donuts, Alternate Universe andGag's Liquor Store (Run by his son Gary)is now.

He used to operate Gag Jr.'s SandwichBar at that corner and was known for hisbreakfast and subs. It was a landmarkluncheonette for the drama crowd in thatarea and had many famous actors' pic-tures on his walls such as:Meryl Streep,The Fonz, Vincent Price, Rita Moreno,Brook Adams, Christopher Walken,Sammy Davis Jr., John Glover and JamesEarl Jones. Vin was on a first name basiswith them.

After a short stint as a hair dresser,Vin went into the restaurant businessand purchased the building in 1966. Heretired in 1988 but is still active with theproperty.With the good weather, you willsee him daily on the street. He recentlyhad a severe case of the shingles in hisarm and shoulder and is now recoveringnicely.We wish him well.Were talkingabout 41 years of Chapel West Historyhere.

ChapelWest News 8/07The Yale UpdateWith the Yale University Art Gallery, YaleCenter for British Art, Yale RepertoryTheatre, New Theater, and the additionof a working gallery in the new sculpturebuilding all within a few blocks, theChapelWest District includes muchof what can be considered Yale’s artscorridor.

September kicks off with a series ofevents to encourage visitors and resi-dents to come explore the area. OnSeptember 6, the Yale University ArtGallery, in conjunction with the YaleCenter for British Art, celebrates thebeginning of the academic year with anopen house for the public, featuring greatart, free tours, music, and refreshments.Special events run from 5:30pm to 8pm.The evening coincides with the ChapelDistrict’s ‘1st Thursdays’ series, with shopsopen late.

At the Yale University Art Gallery,enjoy a new series of family programs,“Stories and Art,” offered on the secondSunday of each month, beginningSeptember 9; “The Architect’s Table: SwidPowell and Postmodern Design” opensSeptember 25; the master class “Designby Architects” investigates the role of thearchitect and begins on Thursday,September 20.Weekly gallery talks by

curators and students explore the collec-tion and are free and open to the public.Admission to the Yale University ArtGallery and the Yale Center for British Artis free year round.

The Yale Repertory Theatre, one ofAmerica’s leading professional theaters,opens its season in September with abold interpretation of a classic, Richard IIand will be followed by several excitingnew plays.

The new Yale sculpture building willinclude a working gallery with anentrance on Edgewood Avenue. Thegallery was designed to accommodatewall and ceiling installations and will dis-play the creations of graduate studentsand also likely be used to showcase thework of established artists. TheArchitecture Gallery will host the firstexhibitions in the space this fall.

After many starts and stops, at long lastNew Sidewalks have been installed onChapel St. between Park and Howe. Awonderful job was performed by TheLaydon Construction Company and prop-erly supervised by Ron Coens from CityEngineering.

The feature stripe really dresses upthe walkways and everyone hasremarked how great it looks. The con-struction work was performed timelyand with as little disruption as possibleto our merchants and residents.

Tony Bialecki, City EconomicDevelopment, worked very hard to getthis project out to bid and completed. Aprofound thanks to Tony.We hope to alsoinstall new sidewalks on Chapel St. fromYork to Park and then Park St. fromChapel to Crown.We’re looking forwardto getting this done before year-end.

We also just completed putting innew decorative meter pole sleeves onHowe St. and Park st as well.We are con-stantly looking for ways to improve theinfrastructure of ChapelWest.We'll keepin touch.

A new kind of walk

Visitors to the Yale University Art Gallery standing before the late 19th century painting Richard, Duke ofGloucester and Lady Anne by E. A. Abbey

Before: Tree growth had buckled the surrounding bricks.Less than 5 feet between tree and building line.Frequent falls and lawsuits.

After: Poured concrete has replaced the bricks.Gravel around the trees allows for future growth.

sculpture by a student rather than towater the plants.Whatever the itemmight be, Hull’s Hobbies will have it orthe Cramer’s will do their best to find itfor you.

Although organizing stock, takinginventory and keeping the financialbooks is an important part of the busi-ness at Hull’s Hobbies and Hardware, themost important part of the business forBill and Marilyn is their customers. Theylook forward to talking to and assistingthem each day. They enjoy the cama-raderie of the family created among thebusiness owners of the Park to Howeblock on Chapel Street. If you have notvisited Hull’s Hobbies and Hardware juststop in anytime and introduce yourself.You will definitely enjoy the familyatmosphere. Remember they are easy tofind, just look for the familiar blue andwhite awnings.

Meet your Neighbor. . . Hull’s Hobbies & Hardware

Tidbits from Brian andThe Prez

Chapel West heldtheir first SummerCookout onThursday night,July 26th at KasbahGardens and what atime it was. Theweather was beau-tiful, the stars wereout, and everyone(about 85 people)had a good time.The food (roast chicken, roast lamb, couscous and a variety of salads) prepared byJamal, Lahcen and their capable staff wasoutstanding. Forbes Smith handled thewine, beer and soft drinks. It was like oldtimes having him there.

Joel Schiavone got thepeople warmed up with hisexpert Banjo playing of somefavorite tunes.We all enjoyedthe music. Good to see PatLimauro and Nate Zeidenbergenjoying themselves.

From the Yale Communitywas ChapelWest’s adoptedson Mike Morand. Rick andGeorge from Yale Security,property owner Alex Riveraand other members of the

A grand success!

Hull’s Hobbies and Hardware is located at1205 Chapel Street, the block betweenPark Street and Howe Street. All you haveto do to locate it is look for the familiarblue and white awnings. It has served theNew Haven and Yale communities fornearly 65 years. It was established in 1947byMr. Duke Hull. In keeping with the tra-dition of a family owned business it waspurchased by Bill and Marilyn Cramer in1963 and still today remains as an oldfashioned neighborhood business. Oftencustomers will stop by just to say hello orto share a cup of coffee. Customers willstop by to ask Marilyn advice on their lat-est knitting project, she is an avid knitter,or to ask Bill for advice on a householdproject. Most customers are on a firstname basis with Bill and Marilyn.

Hull’s Hobbies began primarily as ahobby business selling everything frommodel train sets to motorized modeltanks and boats to assorted match boxcars. It is often that you can hear some-one say “I got my first match box car atHull’s” or “I still have the first train set Ibought at Hull’s a million years ago.”Kim and Kristen, the Cramer’s daughtersstill have many “cool”match box carsthat their mom and dad treated themwith when they were children. Many ofthe current hobby customers have beenpurchasing their model train supplies atHull’s since they were children and it is awelcoming atmosphere to the new hobbycustomers.

Over the years art supplies and cus-tom framing became a part of the manyitems that could be purchased. The Yale

Yale Police Department also stopped byto say hello. City guests included TonyBialecki, old friend Anna Simeone withRose Vega and Bijan Notghi.

I got a chance to chat with PaulKowalski from the Environmental HealthDepartment along with his wife and son.Kathy Fay from Neighborhood Housing,enjoyed her first ChapelWest event.

A good time was had by all of theproperty owners, retailers, residents andfriends of ChapelWest. Another steptoward our goal of "Linking theNeighborhood."We are already makingplans for next year's event.We hope itwill be bigger and better. Stay tuned.

art and architecturestudents becamepart of the Hull’sHobbies family. TheCramer’s looked for-ward to their returneach year for thestart of the newschool year. It was acommon activity forthe Cramer familyto attend the manywonderful thesisshow’s organized bythe students at theend of each schoolyear. The Cramer’shave many beautiful art and photogra-phy pieces hanging on their walls athome that were gifts given to them bycustomers over the years.

Although art supplies are no longerpart of the Hull’s Hobbies inventory theCramer’s have made many good friendsthrough that part of the business. Manyof whom still come by just to say hello. Itis not uncommon to see “old” customersat various Cramer family functions.

In 1985 the hardware department ofHull’s Hobbies was established, againproviding the students with a place thatcould sometimes be a home away fromhome. This part of the business providedthe neighborhood with a place to pur-chase so many needed and sometimesunusual items. Someone might need newpaint for the kitchen, a light bulb or ashade. They might also need a gardenhose which might actually be used for a

Our condolences to the family, employ-ees and friends of Mamoun's Falafel, 85Howe St., on the passing ofMohammadChater, one of the brothers who foundedthe Restaurant in 1977. Our prayers arewith you,may he rest in peace.

I saw Steve Papa the other day andhe just turned 90 years old on July 24th.A warm and hearty "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"to Steve from his many friends at ChapelWest.

Ron Coens, NH City Engineer seemedto really enjoy himself helping to installthe feature strip on our new sidewalks.He was like a Maestro doing his thing.Great job Ron.

Steve Kovel, Hull's Art Supplies, pur-chased eleven ChapelWest hats for hisemployees. Atty Irving Pinsky purchasedfour. Thanks guys. I hope that all retailers,restaurants and businesses follow theirlead.

Brian and I had lunch at Thai PanAsian Restaurant the other day withemployees from Traffic and Parking. Itwas pleasant sitting outside and watch-ing people go by. The buffet was greatand reasonably priced.Operator Tony isan excellent host.

Bill Cramer, co-owner, standing beneath his familiar blue and white awning.

Neighbors having a good time at the Kasbah Garden

Sprucing up the DistrictA neighborhood eyesore is finally goingaway. The boarded up property at the cor-ner of Dwight and Elm has been sold toNeighborhood Housing Services Inc. Thisorganization will renovate the propertyinto two high quality residential units.

The City has passed the contract toreplace the sidewalks on Chapel Streetbetween Park and Howe. All of the trip-ping hazards and the pooling water thathave annoyed the area will be corrected.All will have noticed that the overgrowntrees that were constricting the sidewalkarea to less than the legal minimum of 5feet have already been removed.

Bill Esposito is renovating his proper-ty on the corner of Chapel and Park. Thebuilding was always pretty ugly on theupper floors. Look above Est Est Est nowand you will see all new brickwork.

Flower plantings are underway upand down Chapel and Howe Streets. 60barrels have been planted already.Geraldine is busy rounding up more flow-ers and more barrels will be purchased toget us up to 75 locations. ChapelWestemployeeWill Newton has invented a 40gallon watering machine to mount onthe back of his golf cart. Vinny and Brianhelped him build it last week.Will wantsto patent the Barrel

CW has ordered decorative meterpoles for Howe Street from Chapel Streetthrough Elm.We hope to have them in bythe end of June. These are similar to theones installed throughout the rest of thedistrict.

About 25 years ago, thearea of Chapel and HoweStreets were over-run withdrugs, prostitutes and theassorted crimes that gowith them. How it got thatway is a long story, butabout 12 individuals in this neighborhooddecided it was enough and that some-thing had to be done.We formed thebasis for the ChapelWest as we know ittoday.

We were not paid and the work wehave done and time spent cannot bemeasured in dollars. Our lives werethreatened, properties vandalized andbad things too numerous to mention.Thanks to the Mayor, Yale University, St.Raphael’s Hospital, the New Haven andYale Police departments and other vari-ous city agencies, the public can see thewonderful things that are happeningtoday. The neighborhood is alive and safe.This would not have happened withoutthe cooperation of all of the above.

I have been on Chapel Street all ofmy 80 years and my father before me fora total of over 100 years. Now with anew generation taking over our businessI only hope that 100 years down the linethere will still be a Joseph’s on ChapelStreet.

Editor's note: Fred has four apart-ments above the store that he rents toYale students. Among the more notableswho have lived there were Paul Newman(3 years) when he went to Yale DramaSchool andMichael Morand of Yale.

Meet a CommissionerFred Joseph, ChapelWest Vice President

ChapelWest News 6/07The Yale Update“The play’s the thing” this summer in theChapelWest District with the commence-ment of the Dwight/Edgewood Projectand the Yale Summer Cabaret.

For many students in New Haven,June brings the start of summer baseballand the end of school. But for a group ofstudents from Troup Magnet Academy,June brings a month of learning abouttheatre and playwrighting in an afterschool program at Yale RepertoryTheatre/Yale School of Drama.

Now in its 12th season, the Dwight/Edgewood Project pairs students fromTroup Magnet Middle School with men-tors from the Yale School of Drama. Theprogram takes place over four weeks, dur-ing which the students learn the funda-mentals of playwriting, write their ownoriginal play, observe the ensemble as itrehearses the plays in preparation for twopublic performances featuring costumes,setting, and props designed and con-

structed by the young playwrights in col-laboration with Yale School of Dramadesigners.

This year's project culminates withperformances of the original plays onJune 22 and June 23. Admission is free butreservations are recommended.

The drama continues to unfold at theSummer Cabaret. Yale School of Drama’sresident summer theater-and-restaurant-in-one is home to the industry’s nextgeneration of artistic leaders—actors,directors, designers and producers alike.This summer, experience the multi senso-ry performances drawing from Greekmythology, The Bacchae, to modern dayshort stories by a Brazilian playwright.The 2007 season opens on June 20 andruns through August 11.

As an update on the construction onHowe Street, the ‘red curtain’will rise onthe garage and sculpture building in Juneand the ‘second act’ is slated to featurethe opening of the Gallery space in July.

The ChapelWest District holds thecore of Yale’s Arts offerings, including its

theaters and art museums, where admis-sion is free. This summer come exploreand enjoy.

For more information and ticketreservations: Dwight/Edgewood Project:Jeff Rogers, Executive Director(203) [email protected]

Summer Cabaret 2007www.summercabaret.org203.432.1567 Senior, student and groupdiscounts are available

Students warm up before rehearsal.

Sometimes it may seem that we focus alot on the Chapel/Park area, but theDistrict pays a lot of attention to theWest End also. The St. Raphael's area hasa small retail commercial section and alarge number of medical practitioners ofevery type. Traffic out there often sur-passes that of the Chapel/Howe intersec-tion. Over 60% of our street frontage iswest of Howe and you will see our menout there every day sweeping and rakingall of the lawns and cleaning the Citypark at Day Street.We recently addedGeorge St. behind the hospital to ourcleaning route. It's a lot of work.

TheWest River NeighborhoodRevitalization Zone has just celebratedits 7th anniversary with a party spon-sored by theW.River Neighborhood Serv.Corp. This group already provides servicesto many blocks at the westerly end ofChapelWest and we continue to havediscussions with them about extendingour Boundaries further into this area.Our State Rep. Pat Dillon, spoke at theparty and pledged her support to ourefforts.

In later issues we will do a profile ofour State Rep. and our 4 Aldermen whohave helped us greatly over the years. Anew business has recently opened onChapel near the corner of Beers. It iscalledWok Right In and carries a fullChinese restaurant take out menu. Nextdoor to that is a full service pharmacy. Itis our job to "link the Neighborhood" andthat's what we’re working on.

On theWest End

out as other busi-nesses shuttered—Howe Convenient,Tillies’ packagestore and countlessothers—workingside by side withEvelyn Schatz tofound the ChapelWest SpecialServices District.Perseverance andhard work havehelped bring the neighborhood forward.Now Nick and Niki’s son Peter runs theshop, making dough every morning andkeeping a perfectionist’s eye on qualitycontrol.

Most gratifying for the family is howthe Pizza House reflects the ChapelWestcommunity. In a world that so oftenseems divided, people from all walks oflife come together for pizza, toastedgrinders, salads, spaghetti and lasagnathat round out the menu, and good fel-lowship. Inside you’ll find people who liveor work in the neighborhood or who stopwhile passing through—Howe Street res-idents, office workers, construction work-ers, business executives, police men, fam-ilies, sports teams, and yes, even a fewYalies once again, all feel welcome.

Meet your Neighbor . . . Pizza House

Tidbits from Brianand The Prez

It's a happening andwere getting ravereviews. In our quest to"link the neighborhood",ChapelWest is givingeach retailer a blackbaseball hat with our logo embroideredon the front. They are GREAT looking.Were asking them to buy hats ($5.00 -they cost us $10.00) for their employeesso that we can flood the District withthese wonderful looking caps.

We have also supplied our mainte-nance crews with red tee shirts, completewith our Logo on the front and ChapelWest on the back. You can buy these for$5.00.

In addition, we have produced a highquality polo shirt with the logo embroi-dered on the front, available for only $25.You would be proud to wear these at anytime. They are being well received andorders are coming in. To buy these items,contact Vin Romei @ 787-3000 or stop inat our office

Kudos to Strong Cohen GraphicDesign, Tom Strong, Amanda Damour,and Debbie Pucillo, for the wonderful jobthey have done in designing our Signage,Banners, Logos and helping produce ourNewsletter. All this could not have beenaccomplished without their enthusiasticsupport, hard work and talented imagi-nations. Chapel west is fortunate to havethem in our District. Tom also serves usas a Commissioner. Thanks guys.

Fashion in Chapel West

Master Plan Continues

The District continues to work on theexpansion plan recommended in DeanSakamoto’s excellent master plan. Theareas being considered this round are thetwo blocks just outside the existing areabounded by Elm, Park, Edgewood andHowe. This includes all of Lynwood Place.

There are two options proceedingsimultaneously. If ALL property ownerssign the petition to join the District thena simple vote of the Board of Aldermenis all that is required to complete theexpansion. If any owners in the expan-sion area decline to join the District, thevote of the Board of Aldermen willinclude an authorization to proceed witha referendum election among the ownersof taxable property. If a majority of tax-able properties representing a majorityof the assessed value vote yes, then ALLof the properties will be included in theDistrict.

So far the response has been veryfavorable.Many owners have expressed adesire to see Lynwood Place as cleanevery day as all of the other streets in theDistrict. Many have commented thatLynwood is currently filthier than anystreet in the City. Once in ChapelWest,the Board would begin attempts toimprove facades of buildings and repairsto all public areas including sidewalksand lighting.

Eddie at Dunkin Donutsmakes agreat Ice Coffee.

Geraldine did a wonderful job withthe flower pots in front of C.A.Whitebuilding on Chapel Street.

Brian and I had lunch at KasbahGarden Café last week. It was a beautifulday for relaxing outside in the Garden,Good Food. . . Try it. . . A real joy.

Chapsmakes the best Bagels inTown. . . I attended the ground breakingceremonies for 203 Dwight St (corner ofEdgewood). Neighborhood Housing tobuild a two family structure. Happy tosee development in our Neighborsdistrict.

Nate Zeidenberg, former Aldermanand 7thWard Chairman has enthusiasti-cally purchased a ChapelWest Cap. He iswearing it proudly in his travels aroundthe City. Lets everyone take his lead andacquire hats for themselves and theiremployees to show some ChapelWestSpirit. Thanks Nate!

Comments, suggestions or ideas forthe Newsletter to:Vin Romei 787-3000e-mail: [email protected]

“The best pizza in New Haven (andtherefore perhaps the world) is at thePizza House on Edgewood and Howe.”“Four Stars.” “Oh what pizza!”

These postings from the blogospheremean that ChapelWest’s best-kept secretis out. Pizza House Pizza, baked in panswith a slightly thicker crust that is crisp,light and chewy all at the same time,with fresh toppings and cut in squares,has been a neighborhood favorite sinceNick Papadopoulos began making pizzaon the corner of Edgewood and Howe in1963, when he and his brothers pur-chased the old Mitchell Dairy from a mys-terious Greek known as “Captain.”Theystarted with small 10 inch pizzas, pack-aged to go between two paper plates.After perfecting the recipe they expand-ed to medium and large sizes but contin-ue to bake small pizzas in those original10 inch iron pans.

Soon the Pizza House became aneighborhood hangout for Yale studentswho would pack the place, nursing foun-tain sodas and snacking on those smallpies late into the evening. As the neigh-borhood wen through changes in the late60’s and early 70’s the students movedon but the neighborhood folks remainedloyal.Nick and Niki Papadopoulos stuck it

Celebrating Summer

Chapel West is throwing a cookout foreveryone on Thursday, July 26, from5-8 p.m. All owners, tenants, friends ofChapelWest, and their friends too, willbe there.

The menu will be amazing as will bethe location. The party will be held at theKasbah Garden Café at 105 Howe Streetwhich was recently opened by LahcenAlouah, the owner of the Casablancaboutique on Chapel Street.

We will be grilling outdoors in thebeautiful garden which has seatingunder trees, stars, and umbrellas for 100people.We have an indoor restaurant aswell for preparing the more difficult dish-es. Do not be concerned if you do not geta mailed invite--we are not good withlists, the cast is always changing, and wedo not know which friends you wish tobring, so just feel invited and show up.

Joel Schiavone has agreed to providemusic for our entertainment.Were alllooking forward to having a good timeas we Link The Neighborhood.

100 Years of Hope and Healing

For its entire 100 year history, theHospital of Saint Raphael has proudlycalled Chapel Street home.

On January 30, 1907, the New Jersey-based Sisters of Charity of SaintElizabeth agreed to partner with 14 NewHaven physicians to open, manage andstaff a new hospital. At the time, thecity’s two existing hospitals didn’t alwayswelcome doctors or patients of Irish,Catholic, Jewish and Italian descent.

The new hospital allowed any doctorto care for any patient—regardless ofrace, religion, culture or financial status.Itwas named after the archangel Raphael,the Catholic patron saint of healing. InHebrew, Raphe means “heal,” and Elmeans “God.”Together, Rapha-el means“God heals.”

The physicians bought a home at1442 Chapel Street (shown above), and

the Sisters mortgaged their Motherhousefor $100,000—providing funds to convertthe residence into a 12-bed hospital andbuild a new structure on adjoining prop-erty. Four Sisters arrived on February 2,1907, got to work, and were able to admitthe first patient on January 10, 1908.

The rest is history. Today’s 511-bedhospital is fourth largest in Connecticut.It is part of the Saint Raphael HealthcareSystem, which also includes the 125-bedSister Anne Virginie Grimes Health Center(at 1354 Chapel Street); Hamden SurgeryCenter; Saint Raphael Foundation; andVNA Services, Inc. A community teachinghospital affiliated with Yale UniversitySchool of Medicine, Saint Raphael’s is rec-ognized as a clinical leader, particularly incancer, cardiac, orthopedic, neurologicaland geriatric care. More adults needingsurgery, and more patients over 65 requir-ing any type of care, choose SaintRaphael’s over all other hospitals in thisregion.

Saint Raphael’s is equally proud of itsinvolvement in its neighborhood and thebroader community, including member-ship in the ChapelWest Special ServicesDistrict.

“A strong, vibrant neighborhood isextremely important to us,” says DavidW. Benfer, Saint Raphael’s president.“Patients and visitors want to feel safewhen they come here, it’s critical inrecruiting and retaining staff and physi-cians, and many employees live in thisarea.We intend to be an integral part ofthis neighborhood for 100 more years—and beyond.”

Only some property owners and businessin the District are aware of the othercomplementary agencies working toimprove our neighborhood.

In subsequent issues we will profilethese organizations with missions similarto ChapelWest. For starters, theWestRiver Neighborhood Revitalization Zone,theWest River NeighborhoodAssociation, and the Greater DwightDevelopment Corporation are all workingon various economic or community devel-opment plans and projects within theDistrict.

The ChapelWest Board participatesand supports the activities of theseorganizations on a regular basis. ChapelWest actually has a seat on the Board ofDirectors of Greater Dwight. Some ofthese organizations are in fact moreadvanced in their redevelopment plan-ning than ChapelWest and will producemore projects in the very near future.

As ChapelWest proceeds with imple-menting the recommendations of its newmaster plan, the District intends toschedule a few summit meetings withthese groups to ensure that theRedevelopment Plan, which ChapelWestwill propose to the City, does not haveany overlapping or inconsistent actionsor recommendations.

It is the intention of ChapelWestthat all existing plans and directions ofthe neighborhood be reflected in the newplan. It is believed that a unity of purposehas the potential to increase the futureeconomic activity within the District forthe benefit of all.

Chapel West Partners

ChapelWest News 4/07The Yale UpdateBlue fences and orange cones have dot-ted the streetscape in the ChapelWestDistrict for the last few months due toYale’s construction of the new sculpturebuilding and parking facility on HoweStreet as well as the art history buildingon York Street. These new buildings willnot only serve Yale students, faculty andstaff, but also residents throughout NewHaven.

Yale’s sculpture program will be relo-cated to the new 51,000 sq. ft. building inthe middle of the block bounded byEdgewood Avenue and Park, Chapel, andHowe Streets, and will house both gradu-ate and undergraduate sculpture pro-grams. Sensitive to the foot traffic andother merchants on the street, the sculp-ture building will incorporate retail spaceon the ground floor, a new 3,000 sq. ft.working gallery and a new 288 spaceparking structure that will also serve thevisitors to the retail space. Additionally,

Yale Security will locate a satellite officein the base of the new garage. The proj-ect is scheduled for completion in June.The building will then serve as a tempo-rary home for the School of Architecturewhile the Art & Architecture building isbeing renovated.

The new Art History building willinclude the History of Art Department,the Arts Library and the Digital MediaCenter for the Arts (dmca). Constructionfor the new History of Art building andrenovation of the existing A&A buildingis scheduled for completion in the fall of2008.

Yale’s construction contributes to theeconomic vitality of the ChapelWestDistrict through the PILOT program andto the city of New Haven as a whole. Inaddition to the construction permit feesthat totaled nearly $4 million for 2006,Yale University supports New Haven’sConstructionWorkforce Initiative, whichensures that substantial numbers of thehigh-wage construction jobs are held byminorities, women and New Haven resi-

dents. In 2006 alone,New Haven resi-dents received approximately $3.3 mil-lion in wages from construction jobs onYale’s campus.Over 30% of the work-force are minorities and over 25% areNew Haven residents, which well sur-pass the goals outlined by the city’s ini-tiative.

Additional information on Yale’sconstruction projects can be foundonline at www.yale.edu/facilities.

Left to Right standing: Bruce Alexander, Thomas Harry, BenCozzi, Nichole Jefferson, Ernest Pagon, and Shawn MoodyLeft to Right sitting: HopetonWright, GeorgeWatson, ToddSutcliffe, Steve Perez, and Jimmy Cooper

Saint Raphael’s firstbuilding: a convertedChapel Street home

Colony Inn Update

By now everyone has noticed that theColony Inn has closed. The number ofpeople on the street has diminished andyou can always find a meter now. Thehotel has been missed in the short term.

The good news is that Hospitality3New Haven LLC has City approval to add40 rooms in two new floors and to com-pletely renovate the building into abeautiful state of the art hotel. TheDistrict Board has seen the plans of theway the new building will look from thestreet, and it will be beautiful.Work hasstarted preparing foundations to receivethe new floors.

On the same block renovation isunderway byWilliam Esposito on hisproperty at Chapel and Park where Est EstEst Pizza is located.Within two years thelook of this block will be greatly changedfor the better. More projects are plannedfor this block, and will be announcedlater.

Meet your Neighbor . . .Raffael DiLauro

We Moved!

All of New Haven knows that theChapel/Park section of our District hasbecome the center for sampling everyvariety of food from Thailand and othercountries of the far east and middle east.

The Chapel/Howe section has nowemerged as the center of varieties ofIndian food with the opening of Ahimsa,the third Indian restaurant at this loca-tion, right on the corner of Chapel andHowe. This is a vegetarian, natural foods,full service restaurant with a menu asextensive, but quite different, from theother two Indian restaurants here.

We wouldn’t even try to summarizethe menu. You must go in and see foryourself.

A New Taste of India

What is the Master Plan?

ChapelWest has one!We will unveil a lit-tle more in each issue and notify owners,businesses, residents,and our partnerorganizations when they will be neededto attend public meetings and hearingswith the various Boards and Commissionsof the City of New Haven to voice theirsupport for the District’s physical devel-opment and boundary expansion plans.

An award winning master plan hasbeen pulled together during a series ofpublic meetings in the District and pub-lished by Dean Sakamoto, Architects LLC.Dean had his business in our District formany years and is an advisory member ofthe Board of Directors at this time.

The plan recommends much, includ-ing the participation by the City and theNew Haven Redevelopment Agencyin the acquisition and renovationof a number of poorly used prop-erties, as well as an expansionof the territory included in andserved by the District.When theplan can be made available on theChapelWest website, we will let everyoneknow via this newsletter.

Existing area of the Special Services District

Expansion area of the Special Services District

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DWIGHT STREET

Our new office has opened at 61 HoweStreet. Vin Romei and Brian McGrath arethere approximately 4-5 hours per day.Stop in and say HELLO.We are alwaysanxious to hear any ideas you may haveto improve and better “Link theNeighborhood”Give us a call at 787-3000or 787-3300.

GroupW. Bench isan eclectic shop fullof collectables,clothing, hats, jew-elry, pottery, tintoys, incense andbeads.

Raffael DiLauro,the owner, has forthe past 39 yearssuccessfully run hisshop at 1171 ChapelStreet. Both areoriginals and rooted in the 60’s. Raffaelan artist himself feels, “We need beauti-ful and sometimes fun objects in ourlives to lift our spirits and give us causeto reflect.”

Gallery Raffael is the sister store ofGroupW. Bench and showcases some ofhis own artwork. Stop by sometime andyou’ll love Raffael’s choice of music andincense. But don’t ask “where do you getall this stuff?” He’s not telling. But he willtell you what’s on his mind.

Like when asked about ChapelWest,“It’s good to see ChapelWest movingalong with Vin’s input but I still think weshould go back to calling us UpperChapel. You know which way up is, butwhich way is west?” He also feels the dis-trict needs an art director to keep thingslooking beautiful.

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