Today is the launch of Real Hartford‘s HTFD NBHD series. This revives, relaunches, and reconnects previous with current series.

We will give our focus to a different neighborhood each week, connecting each part of the series by area of the city:

  • Place this Place (Monday)
  • Casa Linda (Wednesday)
  • In Your Neighborhood (Saturday)

Bonuses some weeks:

  • Suggestion Box
  • Grid, Interrupted
  • and more

For those who do not remember: Casa Linda presents a house and yard that is beautiful and/or interesting; In Your Neighborhood consists of pics of the neighborhood on a random day.  The idea is that we are out, on foot or bicycle, getting a look at how things are when we are not being called forth to report on a violent crime.

This isn’t defending, whitewashing, or attacking the city. This is just being there to show what is.

Why now?
Because stories from the local mainstream media still misspell street names (“Barber”, “Gerard”) as they report from the scanner and do not verify with a map or street sign.
Because those same sources misidentify neighborhoods. When a shooting happens in the West End, it is almost never identified as being in that neighborhood. In those instances, reporters give a street address. They convey, in that context, that hot spots are really just that– localized. Spots. Not miles of non-stop violence.

Meanwhile, a downright residential, suburban section of the Blue Hills neighborhood looks the same as Clay Arsenal, Upper Albany, North Meadows, or North East to that reporter. All of that, and sometimes parts of Asylum Hill and Downtown, even Evergreen Ave., conveniently get lumped into the category of “North End,” an amorphous and not-terribly-useful category that does nothing but give a silent nod to what some continue to believe about Hartford: the North End is where African Americans live, the South End is where Hispanics live.

That sort of narrative no longer works.

Because those reporters may only visit these areas when the media are summoned to stage near a recent crime scene. Those images of yellow tape, blue and red lights, and a few anxious passersby is what the broader community consumes. How many from the region, then, are coming in to see that this is anything other than what is portrayed on the television, radio, or even in print?

Because it’s not just the local mainstream media doing it either. There are those who work in the city and are caught by surprise when the Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend creates heavy traffic, despite this weekend of festivities going back decades. It’s when fresh-faced city high school teachers breezily demean their students at a social event, broadcasting how little they understand or bother to learn about their students’ backgrounds. Because we have elected officials who step foot in these neighborhoods for leverage, disappearing during their terms, emerging only for parades and major events, and then vanishing again until it is time to campaign.

Because Bushnell Park and Elizabeth Park are beautiful, but there are others. Because many people do not recognize that Hartford has a natural environment beyond what can be seen of the Connecticut River from the Constitution Plaza area. Because we have nature trails, bike paths, and rivers and brooks that few visit.

Because interesting architecture is not confined to the handful of museums and famous historical sites.

Because most of the time, actually, people are not shooting or stabbing one another.

HTFD NBHD starts today!