A Valentine:

  1. Walking through Bushnell Park by the railroad tracks just as a train whistles by.
  2. Fuckup Nights at TheaterWorks. I don’t think the best way to feel inspired is to hear about others’ successes. This event features several people from the community who have messed up and survived. Past speakers have highlighted fuckups like failing a certification test multiple times, not considering the level of communication needed before rolling out a major change, and not acting soon enough on an idea. It’s about resilience, not perfection.
  3. The sandbar/island in the Connecticut River because (a) it offers an interesting perspective on Hartford, and (b) it’s just cool
  4. Little Free Libraries for borrowing books without time restrictions. If you want to grab a trashy novel but don’t want the shame of buying one, these are also good for that.
  5. People who care enough to feed feral cats
  6. Seeing the sun rise over Colt Park
  7. NightFall 2018. The last iteration focused on how trash is messing up the environment. It was darker than what we saw previous years, and I prefer this approach.
  8. It’s standard for people to play baseball on a baseball field and basketball on a court. Others find creative ways to use city parks. I’ve seen fencing and boxing in Riverside Park, golf in Bushnell Park, and cyclocross in Colt and Riverside Parks. People have played cricket in Bushnell Park on the concrete pad that was installed for the ice rink. When the Celtic festival was still a thing, folks were doing hammer and caber tosses.
  9. Small businesses that act like small businesses: Ashley’s, Red Rock Tavern, Dhaba Wala. These are a few of the establishments that I have seen recognize and respect their regular customers.
  10.  Wildlife: bobcat, skunk, coyote, deer, raccoon, crow, hawk, eagle, heron, woodchuck, grackles, beaver, opossum, turtle, fox, squirrel, and chipmunk. Bear have also been spotted in city limits, just not by me, so they don’t make the list.
  11. Whiskey Club
  12. ArtWalk Gallery and Upward Hartford: Gallery spaces that are accessible to artists without a deep art school background. I love that anyone visiting the library can just wander into an art gallery and not feel like they are entering a forbidden and intimidating space. Upward Hartford has been experimenting in so many other ways as well, which makes it exactly the kind of venture we should see more of here — the kind that will take risks, instead of saying “we can’t do this because we have done things another way for the last ten, twenty, one hundred years”
  13. The Museum of Natural and Other Oddities at the Old State House and the Wadsworth’s Cabinet of Art and Curiosity
  14. Walking paths along both the Connecticut and Park Rivers provide a connection to nature
  15. Keney Park Sustainability, especially their goats
  16. KNOX’s chickens, bees, and cob oven
  17. Desserts galore! Sol de Borinquen, bin228, Brazil Grill, El Mercado, Coyote Flaco, Mozzicato’s, Modern, First & Last, The Place 2 Be. . .
  18. The new hypnotic lights in the Burr Mall fountain
  19. Four breweries, with some creative approaches to engaging with people. Hooker has outlets so you can have a cider while working. Hog River regularly has food trucks. Hanging Hills welcomes social justice events.
  20. Not one, but two cinemas with balconies: Cinestudio and Art Cinema, though the latter is seemingly closed for renovations. And also, Art Cinema shows a different kind of artsy movie, so be aware.
  21.  Pierogi at the Polish National Home, which seems like a speakeasy because you have to creep in the back door.
  22. Wadsworth Atheneum’s “Wadsworth Welcome” program that gives free admission to city residents, any day of the week. No more waiting until the first Saturday when the moon aligns with Pluto to schedule your visit.
  23. Cedar Hill Cemetery: for just wandering around, it’s awesome
  24. The Hartford Circus Fire memorial
  25. Acres of wilderness in Keney Park, including small sand dunes.
  26. Fried brie at Vaughn’s
  27. Hartford Public Library’s Camp Field branch mural, which was painted as a WPA project.
  28. Red Rock Tavern understands how to be a business in a city. It remains open during blizzards, feeding the plow truck operators and others who don’t get to just sit at home in their jammies on snow days. Plus, they understand how to clear their sidewalk so customers can walk there without breaking their necks.As an aside, there is nothing inherently wrong or uncaring about a business in a city remaining open during shitty weather. If a place employs local residents, it means having a workforce who does not need to depend on a car to make their commute. They can take the bus, or walk or bike, to their job.
  29. Seeing city residents of all ages attending classes at the community college in downtown, striving to improve their lives by expanding their opportunities
  30. Multiple art house options, for when you need something besides the billionth superhero movie
  31. That beaver pond along Mark Twain Drive
  32. Making up excuses to eat food, like the bike-to-pastries slow roll
  33. The ladies at Armsmear — you know who you are with your drink carts and refusal to be demure, gentle elders. You are role models.
  34. Charter Oak Cultural Center — a gem. Their events range from solemn Kristallnacht commemorations to the at-times bawdy Vagina Monologues.
  35. Being able to borrow cake pans from the public library
  36. Spectra — a flexible space where you can meet for coffee or drinks, and always be guaranteed a place to charge your phone
  37. Heaven. A park was installed on the roof of I-84 and over time, its users decided that they were not interested in the way it was designed to be used. It transformed into a place for painting, skateboarding, and BMXing
  38. Watching autocross from the pedestrian cage bridge over I-91
  39. 100~ speedbumps have been slowin’ shit down so neighborhoods are safer for humans
  40. Tastease — we know where you can get cheaper donuts, but if you want doughnuts made with pride, go to New Park Avenue
  41. Tacos and margaritas at El Sarape
  42. Crow Hour: It’s amazing, just don’t look up in awe.
  43. Hopsy Turvy with Steve and Tomas
  44. The vibrant paint on Albany Avenue’s Kabbalah House
  45. MakeHartford, the makerspace on Arbor Street
  46. BiCi Co.’s WTF night
  47. Sarahnaid Designs
  48. The Mardi Gras parade
  49. Pope Park’s painted trees
  50. Every month, weather-permitting, volunteers take a few hours to pick up litter in Colt Park
  51. Stone Field sculpture. I accept that I may be the only person here who likes this.
  52. Catching people rowing on the Connecticut River first thing in the morning
  53. Cool, repurposed industrial buildings
  54. Taking the secret MDC road in the South Meadows
  55. Visiting the horse stables in Keney Park
  56. Drinking a cider next to one of the heavy metal presses in Hog River Brewery
  57. Jazz in Bushnell Park
  58. CTfastrak and the 913: Getting around to some corners of Hartford ain’t easy, but heading out to Storrs or over to New Britain is…and that means more opportunities for work, education, and shopping.
  59. The 224, from its mural to aerial yoga classes to hosting events like SERC.
  60. The Park River underground
  61. Curioporium: Finally, people are getting stranger.
  62. Community gardens: we have a good number of them, but could even have twice as many. Favorites include the Watkinson and Church of Good Shepherd sites
  63. History is everywhere
  64. Theater options: Trinity College, U of H, Learning Corridor’s black box, The Bushnell, Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks, Carriage House Theater, and probably others I don’t know about.
  65. Sea Tea Improv: about to mark ten years of being hilarious! Plus, they have a pay-it-forward ticket option which is a life saver if you are broke and desperately need some joy in your life.
  66. The clinic escort volunteers on Jefferson Street
  67. UConn Barnes & Noble: This almost feels like an independent bookstore given how great they have been about supporting and promoting local authors. You can find them at events around town. They maintain good hours (AKA, they are not merely here for the 9-to-5ers).
  68. The food pantry on Laurel Street
  69. Breakfast options: Fiddleheads, Mo’s Midtown, Ashley’s, and Donde Julio
  70. Pulaski Mall
  71. Cutting across the Twain House property while commuting home, and wondering if the writer would have yelled at me to get off his lawn
  72. Grabbing a tasty vegan lunch from Fire-N-Spice on Capitol Avenue
  73. That shrine on Wawarme
  74. The thirteen stones sharing  Wallace Stevens’ poem about blackbirds
  75. The Butler-McCook House garden
  76. Spaces that are open to the public like the City Place atrium
  77. Andy Hart: if you don’t know who he is, you don’t know Hartford.
  78. Little River Restoratives for cocktails when you want to sip slowly
  79. It’s impossible to have a bad time listening to the Professors of Sweet Sweet Music
  80. Salsa dancing at La Casona
  81. Charities of Hope thrift store on Wethersfield Avenue
  82. Open Studio Weekend
  83. Listening to live jazz and drinking an Espresso Take Off martini at The Flying Monkey while also watching planes take off
  84. Olive Street: This ghost of a street has been partially reclaimed by nature after having been killed by I-84. Its houses have been long gone, but the road remains a reminder that people used to live in many of the places that our highways have destroyed.
  85. Pelican Tattoo
  86. The pedestrian bridge over I-91
  87. Viewing electric orange sunsets from the Charter Oak Bridge
  88. Dragon Boat Races
  89. Painted utility boxes along Franklin Avenue
  90. Hartford Prints!
  91. The sound of roosters crowing in the neighborhoods
  92. Walking on top of the dike
  93. The bird sanctuary on the capped former landfill
  94. Viewing fireworks from a rooftop or balcony
  95. Connecticut Science Center’s rooftop garden
  96. Ogling the typewriters on display inside the Arbor Arts Center lobby
  97. Buy Nothing Hartford — it’s a Facebook group designed to promote a sharing culture among those in the same neighborhoods
  98. The year-round ice cream truck in Frog Hollow
  99. St. Patrick – St. Anthony‘s sunken garden
  100. Cedar Mountain — personally, I think this is more hill than mountain. Nonetheless, a short walk gets you distance from street noise and some nice views of the area
  101. The people who are actually — and thanklessly — trying to make Hartford a more innovative and livable city. You are constantly told why your ideas can not or will not work here. You and I both know that’s some bullshit. Push back. Keep on keepin’ on.