Rebuilding Fair Haven
In New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, Poplar Street is replete with trash, beer bottles, and abandoned houses with gang symbols sprayed across the walls. But on an adjacent street, Ferry Street, there are freshly painted homes with brand-new siding and trash-free lawns.
NeighborWorks New Horizons — a nonprofit housing developer based in Fair Haven — has taken up the charge to transform some of Fair Haven’s most-troubled streets and homes. The organization, which was started at a grassroots level 16 years ago and is a local branch of a national establishment, currently has 14...
One overstatement (shared by a large number of people in my experience) does not make an article poorly researched: I think that while a native New Havener may realize that, the majority of people I speak to (even people actively engaged in Fair Haven) see it as a traditionally problematic neighborhood.
The exciting thing is that everyone I speak to in New Haven, who works in their community, is saying the same things: "We're trying to revitalize our neighborhood", "We're trying to fix neighborhood problems", "We're trying to build a sense of community."
New Haven's residents are proud of their neighborhoods, even when aware of the problems inherent, & I'm hoping we all succeed in our endeavors.
This is a poorly researched article -- the author claims that Fair Haven "has traditionally been plagued by persistent crime, poverty and drug problems." Actually, Fair Haven has "traditionally" been one of the more civically vibrant areas of the city, with a long history of grassroots organizing by its largely immigrant population -- which previously was largely Italian and Polish and now is largely Latina/o. The crime and drugs in Fair Haven are, in reality, a rather new development in light of the neighborhood's long and storied history.