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By Kerri Provost, May 10, 2013 3:23 pm

The area around Broad Street and Capitol Avenue has always been congested around rush hour. This has steadily gotten worse with the closure of Flower Street to motorized traffic, then more so with the construction on the Broad Street bridge which has been narrowed in recent months.

It’s about to get worse.

On Monday, May 13th, the MDC is starting water main work on Broad Street, with initial work being done at the intersections with both Capitol Avenue and Farmington Avenue. Work is scheduled between 8am-4pm. Delays are expected.

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By Kerri Provost, May 9, 2013 12:03 am

Van Norden, making an appearance to read a letter

Following the latest hearing at the Connecticut Department of Transportation, one community member asked, “How much does Hartford’s Deputy Corporation Counsel Van Norden get paid to do nothing more than show up and read straight from a letter the Mayor wrote?”

The same could be asked of all ConnDOT representatives, aside from Judith Almeida, the Department of Transportation’s staff attorney and only employee appearing prepared for Wednesday evening’s first of two Flower Street Closing reconsideration hearings.

How could anyone have been prepared to respond to the City of Hartford’s 180° pulled minutes before the beginning of the hearing? This reversal, issued by Mayor Segarra, has been viewed by some in the community as a betrayal to residents and businesses, as a show of spinelessness, and one more poor decision in a stream of recent questionable choices.

In late April, officials from the City met with residents and stakeholders to discuss how to best move forward with the situation. The majority view was to keep pushing back against the DOT and not settle. This is what was supposed to be relayed back to Mayor Segarra: the neighborhood won’t settle. It wants to fight.

The few who did think having some settlement between the City and the DOT was a practical option insisted on having everything drawn up in writing to give it teeth. If it were to settle, the City, as of April, was going to include in its demands having the DOT commit to spend $30 million on Capitol Avenue improvements, look at making Sigourney Street safer for cyclists, alter State policies regarding affordable housing in Hartford, and more.

Throughout that meeting, the consensus was that nobody wanted a $6 million ramp built over the busway that would likely need to be removed in a few years when the viaduct is removed.

What also emerged in that meeting was the deep distrust everyone at the table — including City of Hartford employees — have regarding the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Thomas Deller, the Director of Hartf’ord’s Department of Development Services said he was “appalled” by how CTfastrak has done its planning, categorizing it as “haphazard.” A resident said, “the City has been victimized by the DOT for decades.”

By all accounts, it seemed that the City was going to fight the best it could for its residents and business owners.

Instead, Mayor Segarra effectively threw Hartford under the busway. Continue reading 'Constituents Sold Out in “Agreement” on Flower Street'»

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By Kerri Provost, April 29, 2013 5:49 pm

According to the CTfastrak “Construction Bulletin,” “The current pedestrian crossing on Flower Street Amtrak rail line will be completely closed from Monday, May 13, 2013 to Friday, June 14, 2013.  A temporary pedestrian walkway has been installed.”

Though they say nothing about cyclist usage, it can be assumed that this unrecognized population will also be banned from using the north-south route while this construction occurs.

The “temporary pedestrian walkway” is useless for those seeking a direct north-south route alternative, but if you’d like a lovely stroll through a parking lot below the interstate, go ahead and enjoy the walkway that links Flower Street to Broad Street, an east-west route.

Construction is weather-permitting and may be rescheduled if necessary.

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By Kerri Provost, April 26, 2013 2:36 pm

Anna Barry, the Deputy DOT Commissioner, left after a few minutes, but City of Hartford employees remained at the table with Frog Hollow and Asylum Hill residents and stakeholders for over two hours.

Barry’s contribution to the meeting was acknowledgement that the City has been engaged in “vigorous discussion” with the Connecticut DOT and that no conclusion has been reached between those parties about what is an acceptable path forward.

The remaining several hours were spent discovering how many different ways it is possible for all present parties — Barry excluded, as she removed herself from the Studio at Billings Forge before this conversation launched — to have independently developed a distrust of the State’s transportation agency. Continue reading 'City Meets with Residents about Flower Street'»

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By Kerri Provost, April 23, 2013 10:42 am

If you’ve been following the Flower Street debacle at all, you’re familiar with the CT DOT’s desire to “mitigate” the closure of a north-south route by creating an east-west one between Broad Street and Flower Street. Continue reading 'Reveal the Path to Nowhere'»

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By Kerri Provost, April 18, 2013 9:13 am

It’s almost time for another chapter in the ongoing fight for transparency and respect from the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

The State entity has been striving to close Flower Street — a quiet side street that serves as a safe connection between Asylum and Capitol for cyclists and pedestrians — to all traffic. Once construction on CTfastrak began, the road was sealed off to motorized vehicles. Though claiming that the desire to close the street is for safety reasons, the CT DOT, in various conversations, has straight out said that there is no data to back these claims. Activists seeking to keep the road open have speculated that there are other reasons and that this fight has nothing to do with the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

Closing this street entirely would go against the stated goals of Hartford’s One City, One Plan — Plan of Conservation and Development.

Residents, stakeholders, and neighborhood organizations have not given silent consent. There have been attempts to be heard at a DOT hearing, and when voices seemed ignored there, wherever the DOT would show up. The next step was to be fighting it out, again, at a Reconsideration Hearing requested by the DOT.

The DOT was petitioning itself to spread out the Reconsideration Hearing (with itself) over several days in early April. This was stalled, pushing the new Reconsideration Hearing into May.

None of these hearings –the outcomes of which most directly impact Hartford’s Asylum Hill and Frog Hollow neighborhoods — have been held in Hartford, where residents and stakeholders could more easily attend. Opponents of the Flower Street closure have viewed this entire process as being filled with attempts to suppress public engagement, from the Newington-based hearings, to multiple hearings, to refusing to grant “intervenor” status at these hearings.

Now, we have learned that the DOT has been meeting with the City of Hartford about the Flower Street matter. The City had been challenging the DOT during this process, but those closely involved in this ordeal have seemed less optimistic about the nature of these closed door meetings. The expectation from those fighting the closure is that some “agreement” has been reached between the City and the State that would render moot the Reconsideration Hearing in May.

On Thursday, April 25 at 5pm the DOT and City of Hartford will be having a public meeting at the Studio at Billings Forge to discuss the latest on the Flower Street closure(s). Because it is public, anybody can show up.

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By Kerri Provost, March 19, 2013 4:31 pm

CTfastrak Service Plan Routes

Walking into the Center for Contemporary Culture, one is surrounded by a half-circle of maps, seconds after having a pile of literature thrust into one’s hands. A long table, covered with brochures and smaller maps for takeaway, fills the space where one would typically find light refreshments. Early on, there are more people associated with the project than there are audience members, and they are all ready to provide information that should be apparent, but isn’t, by a single glance at the maps. Before reaching one’s seat there is a kind of information overload at work.

The presentation begins.

Slides flip by too fast for anyone who has not seen this material before to possibly absorb it. Speakers follow one another in a manner that more closely resembles speed dating than a professional attempt at communicating with residents and stakeholders. Continue reading 'CTfastrak: “Stasis through Obfuscation” or “Flexibility”?'»

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By Kerri Provost, March 12, 2013 8:56 am

While CTfastrak is attempting a series of  public engagement meetings this month, it is simultaneously attempting to disengage one specific segment of the public: those opposed to the complete closure of Flower Street.

Running parallel to Broad Street between Capitol Avenue and Farmington Avenue, Flower Street has been the subject of controversy since the announcement that it would be barricaded for “safety” reasons. Several inquiries made for data supporting this claim that the New Britain-Hartford Busway/CTfastrak and the existing rail would significantly endanger lives if Flower Street remained open have been disregarded by those affiliated with CTfastrak and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. At a meeting in February, one employee laughed at the request, saying no such data existed.

At the same meeting, anyone who expressed concern with any part of the CTfastrak project was labeled a “detractor.”

What are residents and stakeholders to do if they are portrayed as lousy rabblerousers for trying to help shape a project that cuts through their neighborhoods?

Take time off from work on three consecutive days, travel to the Department of Transportation headquarters on the Berlin Turnpike, and wait around to speak out, even though the agency may arbitrarily not grant the status required for one’s voice to have any impact.

This is, according to the DOT’s Petition for Reconsideration, what the agency has in store.

The DOT, by the way, is petitioning itself. All decisions related to Flower Street have been made internally.

This latest petition was filed on March 6, 2013 by Timothy Wilson, the Manager of Highway Design in the DOT’s Bureau of Engineering and Construction. After the City of Hartford and others filed documents showing intent of having witnesses at the scheduled April 4th hearing, Wilson, in his petition, requested that the hearing take place over several days:

Continue reading 'CTfastone'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 25, 2013 8:07 am

Yesterday the Department of Transportation held a reconsideration hearing for the ruling on Flower Street. This was requested back in November by Timothy Wilson, the Manager of Highway Design. When the request was granted, in November, only few of the stakeholders were notified of the new hearing date; the others found out just in recent days after a FOIA request was placed, essentially forcing the DOT to make contact with those who had opposed the closure of Flower Street during the first hearing. It is unclear what efforts were placed in filing public notice of this hearing; those who were informed of it were given scant details as to the nature of the evidence that the DOT would be presenting to itself.

The conflict of interest inherent in an agency ruling on its own matters has been controversial, but not enough to force reconsideration of how this matter is being handled.

What new evidence did the DOT have that would force the closure of Flower Street to pedestrians and cyclists in addition to motorists? Continue reading 'Under the Busway'»

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By Kerri Provost, December 13, 2012 9:48 pm

The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously denied the request for a special permit that would have allowed for installation of a changeable electronic billboard at 15 Flower Street. It is expected that the Courant will ask to install a static sign in that same location.