In any mention of the Hartford section of the East Coast Greenway, two points always seem to come up: people are unaware of its existence despite online cue sheets and markings on the sidewalk, and, the lack of signage.
Yet, ECG signs have popped up in places downtown, in the Riverfront Plaza area.
At the same time, the organization is more or less being forced to take steps away from its own stated goals. On Saturday, the East Coast Greenway Alliance had a booth at the Discover Hartford Tour, providing an opportunity for some answers about why they would agree to an action that would not add, but remove, an off-road section of the route.
As it turns out, nobody representing the organization is thrilled about the push to remove the ECG from Bushnell Park.
Yes, remove.
They said that “because of the iQuilt,” the City is trying to make Bushnell Park for pedestrians only, despite bicycles being allowed in all of Hartford’s parks.
This is not the only attempt to micromanage usage of the park. After unflattering coverage of the City shutting down pickup games of soccer and Ultimate Frisbee, Mayor Segarra has assured park users that a compromise was possible on those games; meanwhile, there is no word on whether or not he continues to support the TIGER money being used to build bike lanes that nobody wants, while the iQuilters continue to basically use coercion to ensure that plan is not challenged or sidetracked in any way. Despite not supporting the removal of the ECG from the park, the East Coast Greenway Alliance made it sound as if they have no choice in the matter– the City, they said, will not permit installation of better ECG signage in Bushnell Park.
Chris
The quilting set have given little indication that they actually know or care about bicyclists beyond generous helpings of lip-service. They’ve been told repeatedly that Main Street is the biggest problem area downtown for bikes and pedestrians, but they have repeatedly glossed over any real solutions for that in favor of fabricating a problem and promoting a “solution” that makes things worse.
Richard
This is all getting very crazy. I would be the first to say no wheels on sidewalks but no bikes in the park. Come on. For anyone biking the greenway the park is a nice place to rest.
I was told on Saturday that the iQuilt was pretty much a done deal and the only way anyone could stop any part of the project was through the Bushnell Park Foundation. But of course the iquilters will get what they want if they continue to give art and circuses to the people and the people continue to fall for such crap.
I asked if that planned trench of water was still going to run if we have a drought or would it become a dried up garbage dump and the guy at the iquilt booth laughed. I told him that was no laughing question as there are droughts everywhere and that to run water as entertainment in such a condition was just plain wrong. They could give me no answer on that one. So there is a lot of things to this whole mess that are not on the surface. I cringe at their father knows best, ruling class bit. Oh they have failed so many times before we should never allow our fate or the fate of the city or anything we hold dear to be in their hands.