Best Low-Expense Improvements Award

Best New Dining: Little River Restoratives, 405 Capitol Avenue

PARK(ing) Day: Forget, for a moment, that these improvements were temporary. Pavement, usually reserved for parked cars, was covered with sod for a few hours. These tiny parks were populated with musicians, improv performers, and artists. In some cases, these were simply places to sit. The appearance of these spots changed the mood of passersby on their lunch breaks. No need to construct stadiums or monuments. A few square feet of green can be enough to make a difference, if not financial, at least emotional.

Reducing the thing people seem to believe there is not enough of actually boosted the quality of street life in downtown Hartford for part of one work day.

Sweetest Under-the-Radar Event Award

This is a tie between Cranksgiving and Sharing the Warmth.

The former is the local edition of a widespread event that is basically a scavenger hunt and food drive combined. It engages children and cyclists of all levels, and the benefits go right back to a food pantry in our community. Given its start at Trinity College, it also acts as a way of encouraging positive interaction between students and the community.

Sharing the Warmth was a one-day clothing drive and giveaway, but done in a way that allowed those in need to gather up what they need while maintaining dignity. Coats, gloves, hats, and scarves were brought to where those who’d benefit from having them could be found.

Best New Dining Award

It’s not so much the dining but the drinking. Little River Restoratives, using private funds, has created something in a storefront that had been either vacant or filled with unsuccessful half-attempts at commerce for several years. An attempt to revive the beloved coffee shop, La Paloma Sabanera, stalled when haters delivered an assumption-based rant to those hoping to open a co-op in the space. The building’s new owner vetted a few potential tenants before settling on this cocktail bar. Some long-awaited repairs to the brick work were made, the graffiti was finally removed from the structure, windows and doors were replaced, and by the time the soft-opening happened in the fall, word had gotten out that something different was going on here.

You can get a cocktail in pretty much any neighborhood, but here you can watch bartenders construct drinks by wielding eyedroppers and mallets, all while taxidermied mammals placed around the bar “look” on.

There has been talk of creating a patio space outside, which would bookend the block, as Red Rock Tavern is already doing that at Capitol and Lawrence.

Yes, it’s fancier than most of the neighborhood, though not unprecedented, with the presence of Firebox a few blocks away. And yes, some have yelped about gentrification, but none of those folks offered up viable alternatives to the space. Neighbors to the space have had positive feedback, enjoying that the building and environs are getting cleaned up and that there is another business in the neighborhood. There is some room for improvement in terms of service, but ambiance and quality are on.

Most Improved Park Award

This is a three-way tie.

Goodwin Park still has a ways to go, but it is already worlds better than even last year, and this is not just about the golf course. General maintenance has improved. The playground equipment has been replaced. Even the pond is less frightening. More could be done to enforce the noise ordinance, as some blast the slow jams while using the park as a car wash. There are improvements that could be made to the parking areas, including surveillance — which could be said about Colt and Keney as well. The holiday light display could be done for a shorter period and in a way that does not restrict park usage. But, this is far less crusty of a recreation space than it was. With any luck, the incoming administration will get all of our parks to a place that we can be 100% proud of.

There’s also the creation of a park/living room under I-84 between Broad and Flower. This included no public funds or official anything. Couches, chairs, a table, and bookcase were moved to the partially sheltered and completely unused space. Books were added. Sometimes people leave snacks and water. This produces no revenue, but the area gets use.

And then, there was the one day that life was breathed back into Burr Mall by way of a food truck festival on Prospect Street. Usually, all the can be seen here are City employees outside smoking, a few skateboarders, or a family or two cutting through to the Wadsworth Atheneum on the weekend. Nobody ever picnics here. For one day, that changed. Imagine that — members of the public lingering outside of City Hall and an art museum, socializing, eating, and having fun.

Biggest Bang for Buck from Non-Profit Award

BiCi Co. — So, technically Center for Latino Progress is the non-profit, but the BiCi Co. program has taken off. This has meant getting bicycles to those who need them — youth, those living in shelters, and city residents who are using bikes instead of the bus, rather than bikes instead of a car. This has also meant teaching members and prospective members how to maintain and repair their own bicycles.

Most Meaningful Event Award

Women were let out of the kitchen in November 2015.

Weirdest Waste of Time Award

Sweetest Under-the-Radar Event: Hartford Cranksgiving, 2015

While there is violence, homelessness, joblessness, addiction, and a bevy of serious issues the City of Hartford could be choosing to wrangle with, they opted to take on what amounts to evicting children, their parents, and various caregivers out of a spacious home in the West End.

This did not begin in 2015, but is amazingly ongoing. Two members of that household have since married each other. Another ran for City Council. The homeowners have moved along with their lives, as should the City of Hartford.

Recently, we learned that one of the other households on Scarborough Street has been allowing bow hunting of deer on their property, something that is not illegal on private property in Hartford, but maybe should be restricted by acreage or having to give notice to neighbors or something.

Being neither a lawyer nor someone with a six figure income, I clearly have no intellect here, but it would seem that weapons being flung about present more of a hazard to the neighborhood than people living together who are not all blood-related.

Going Downhill (in a good way) Award

Art Sled Derby: The marriage proposal on the hill may have been the most memorable moment of this year’s Art Sled Derby, but it only inched ahead of Mucha’s annual amazing performances or some of the theatrical stunts that accompanied the sleds.

I’m Still Standing (but shouldn’t be) Award

For the second year in the row, the award goes to 64 Babcock Street, and of course, the owners of that derelict building, Southern New England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Jury’s Still Out Award

CTfastrak: Since its inception there have been numerous crashes involving buses, including a recent pedestrian fatality. There is no useful social media presence for it; when there are crashes and delays, this information is not delivered. There is an arbitrary restriction on the number of bikes allowed on board, even when the bus is mostly empty otherwise and able to accommodate. You can’t get monthly passes at the payment stations.

It has also provided safe transportation for college students coming from New Britain to Hartford for the bars. Those employed along New Park Avenue have an easier time getting to work. The stations look like the soulless robotic future, which mixes up the landscape.

Flimsiest Bandage Award

The registrars debacle: Hartford was assigned an election monitor, yet there were still considerable issues at the polls, though the attempts to downplay that were as brazen as the screw ups we have seen in recent years. It seems like a witch hunt because the Republicans won’t cede minority party status to Working Families, and the blame has been passed along to WF. Look closer, this issue goes far deeper than how many registrars are required. Check the records of complaints filed with the SEEC.

If we want strong engagement of residents who are eligible to vote, then those residents need to feel confident that their votes are actually counted and recorded.

Jane Jacobs Cognitive Dissonance Award

Hartford Art Sled Derby, 2015

For those not paying attention, the mayor-elect was called a carpetbagger, among other things, by those who seem to believe that one should only seek office here if some unspecified residency requirement has been achieved. Having asked what length of time living in Hartford would provide a candidate with enough cred, nobody could or would provide an answer, though I was assured that despite living here roughly the same amount of time as Bronin, I qualified, while he did not.

Where the cognitive dissonance comes in is that many of those making such complaints about the “newcomer” were either pushing for James Woulfe, someone who has been in Hartford for a minute, for City Council; or still listening to and valuing the opinions on city matters from Hartford ex-pats, such as those of former City Councilman Luis Cotto, who left Hartford for Cambridge before completing his second term in office; or, completely unconcerned about the rumors that one of the Working Families Party members lives in Windsor, rather than Hartford.

Tone Deafness in Development Award

Hard Rock: Doesn’t it seem like we’re being punked? First, a minor league stadium with nebulous funding and oversight. Then, a team called the Yard Goats. And then, decades after the Hard Rock Cafe stopped being relevant, we learn there are plans for that plus a hotel. What’s next, Headbangers Ball?

Avoidance Learning AKA The Dodgeball Award

Outgoing Mayor Segarra’s State of the City Address: What do you do when you can’t actually come out and say there has been little in the way of progress? This. Duck. Weave. Make promises to fix things that could have been addressed at any other point in the tenure. Then, a few weeks away from leaving office, comment how glad you are that this won’t be your problem anymore. That, of course, comes after a Courant piece about how you are exiting with your head held high.

Snow Job Award

Closing down the city, but deciding to go on with a meeting of the City Council. A few people walked or snowshoed in, but come on. At best, this was thoughtless and irresponsible. At worst, it was an intentional way to shut down public comment.