Ward 15 - Alderman Rodriguez

This young man was popping wheelies down Peck Street and then kicked my car as he went by.

from atwater and chatham towards grafton or clinton av. constantly drivers peeling out or racing every day all hours day or night, fresh tire marks daily

I thought maybe I had become a curmudgeon, but after speaking with other friends and neighbors in the Chatham Square neighborhood, it's clear I'm not the only one who's sick of the ice cream truck. I don't know what the truck looks like, because I was afraid I would confront the driver (and not nicely) if I bothered to go out and check, but there is an ice cream truck that not only drives around with music blaring, but also has that horrible recorded "Hello!" bellowing well past 9:30 p.m. many nights, including weeknights. I make my children go to bed at 9:00 p.m., and I don't make it much longer, so this is a major annoyance, to say the least. All of my other friends who are parents find this after hours ice cream truck ridiculous and annoying, too. Is there some sort of noise ordinance against this? I would hate to egg the ice cream man, but I'm getting really close to doing it!

Drug dealers and prostitutes are using the bus stop on Ferry & Grafton St as their headquarters.

I took a walk through our park this morning with my daughter. As I was walking along, I noticed that over half a dozen trees in the park have been hacked up, possibly killing them!

These trees have had a lot of time invested in them through the Greenspace program, URI, the School of Forestry, and neighborhood groups through planting them and taking care of them. They shade our park in the summer and make it a beautiful place for everyone to enjoy.

And now some two bit hack (or group of said hacks) comes along and takes a shovel to the trees?! Do they know that the life of a tree flows through the bark? What is the point of killing our beautiful trees?

Some of the trees have obviously been just planted while others have been in the park for years and are quite well established.

What can we do about this?! Please New Haven Police, patrol this park at night! I have talked to the guys that hang out in the park during the day, as well as some neighbors who I saw about and none of them seem to know who is behind this.

I love my neighborhood very much but sometimes it seems to do nothing but want to self-destruct. I just don't get it.

in the block of atwater street between chatham and grafton two house people sit on the porch selling

Today (1/1/12), my husband and I witnessed two DIFFERENT sets of dirt bike riding teens riding very recklessly up and down Clinton Ave as well as the side streets around Chatham Square. Not only does this pose a major safety concern as there is no regard for stop signs/lights and other vehicles, but the riders are so brazen that they ride around in the middle of the day and even pulled up next to us as we walked our dogs, did their little "tricks" and then burned out as we shouted to them that we were calling the police. We did call the non-emergency number and were told that a patrol car would be sent out, but it would be more helpful if we had an origination address to report (?!?! not sure how that could be possible, but that is besides the point). The racing continued for a good part of the afternoon, so I'm not sure if anyone followed through on our call.
The bottom line is that someone is going to get hurt and the lack of response is sending the wrong message (well, the warmer than usual weather isn't helping either, but this is an issue that happens all year long). I understand that the NHPD isn't going to engage in any high speed chases, but maybe some increased patrol presence would send the message to these individuals to find something (better) to do.