The final community listening session for the Planning & Zoning Commission will be Tuesday evening at Rawson School. So far, there have been sessions at the Pope Park Rec Center, United Methodist Church, and Metzner Rec Center. Each session has focused on proposed land use for nearby neighborhoods.
Continue reading 'Proposed Land Use for Hartford’s Neighborhoods'»
Asylum Hill, Barry Square, Behind the Rocks, Blue Hills, Clay Arsenal, Economics, Environment, Frog Hollow, Hartford, POCD, Parkville, South End, Urban Renewal, West End, architecture/design, blight, class, commentary, community, downtown, housing, library, neighborhoods, north end, parks, photos, quality of life, south green, tax money in action, transportation
It’s way easier to delegate than to take on every last responsibility, so rather than work on gaining muscle mass or weaning myself off chocolate, I’m creating a list of things I would like to see Hartford work on in the upcoming year. Here they are, in no particular order:
- Make the Riverfront Accessible
After having my heart set on a lovely afternoon bicycle ride along the Connecticut River, my plans were thwarted. Continue reading 'Hartford 2010: Resolutions for the New Year'»
Crime & Justice, Economics, POCD, Race & Ethnicity, access, architecture/design, charter revision, health care, photos, quality of life, self-indulgence, shopping, transportation
ConnCAN has released its school reportcards. The data shows overall student performance (Average percentage of students meeting state goals across all subjects), performance gains, improvement, low-income student performance, African-American student performance, and Hispanic student performance. Findings reflected the oft-discussed racial and class-based achievement gaps. The Milner School, located on Vine Street in Hartford, and listed as Core Knowledge at Milner on the Hartford Public Schools site, had 5.2% of students meeting state goals across all subjects. Continue reading 'Report Cards'»
As reported by Cityline, rJo Winch’s recent taxpayer-funded trip to Texas for a conference cost $2600. Continue reading 'Math Problem of the Day'»
Public participation is encouraged at these meetings of Hartford’s Plan of Conservation and Development. The POCD site states that “Every ten years, the Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission is charged by Section 8-23 of the Connecticut General Statutes to prepare a Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) for the City. Hartford’s last Plan was adopted in 1996.”
The first of these meetings will be held Thursday evening at the library. Others will be at the YMCA on Albany Ave, Riverside Park Boathouse, Union Station, Lincoln Culinary Institute on Sigourney, and the CT Science Center.
The City of Hartford has been awarded a $1,372,700 block grant which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant is slated to be used to expand the single-stream recycling program. Continue reading 'Hartford Receives Energy Efficiency and Conservation Grant'»
Yesterday, volunteers for and supporters of Food Not Bombs set up a breakfast table in front of the Department of Public Health located at 410 Capitol Avenue.
Continue reading 'Sidewalk Scenes: Installment Five'»
What would Hartford be like with people on the streets? As Doug Suisman put it, “people attract more people.” A bustling city would seem like a happening place to be. One might even reserve a seat on the MegaBus from Boston to come here. One of the goals of the iQuilt project is to do just this– make Hartford a destination. Yet for those of us who live here, we know that there are people out and about in Hartford– they are just not plentiful downtown. Park Street’s activity was alluded to during the presentation on the evening of June 24th at the Belding Center for the Performing Arts, as was the need for such a downtown project to reach out to the neighborhoods, yet that part of the plan was more talk than design. It’s early still in the process and every idea was clearly up for further discussion. Some of the iQuilt ideas are hope-inducing and would be positive changes; some ideas did not go as far as they needed to and other aspects were ignored altogether. Leaving the forum, I would have felt better had Suisman asked for comments mainly from people whose names he did not already know.
David Fay–President of the Bushnell—explained that two years ago the Bushnell began thinking about a plan for Capitol Avenue, as the center is isolated from much of downtown. The iQuilt project began about six months ago; “up to this point,” Fay said, the project “has been paid for.” They want feedback and public support before an organization is developed to manage the project and move it forward. Getting questions and comments during the public forum should be a start, but not the only effort taken to gather feedback.
The presentation on Wednesday was given by Douglas Suisman, of Santa Monica, whose role as one of the project’s planning principals seemed less of an odd choice upon learning that he grew up in this area. He is the principal of Suisman Urban Design (Los Angeles), which describes its vision and guiding principles this way:
cities are complex human artifacts which evolve over time. We believe that urban design solutions must therefore incorporate a deep understanding of the physical place and a profound respect for its social and cultural fabric. We are committed to broad participation, clear communication, and high quality. We are motivated by a passion for the lived experience of cities.
Continue reading 'A Somewhat Holey Quilt'»
Art, Economics, Hartford, Urban Renewal, architecture/design, downtown, food, fun, library, parks, perception bias
I’ve always envied Linda Hamilton’s “I-will-throw-your-ass-off-a-building-as-soon-as-look-at-you” muscles in Terminator II. Just this morning I was lamenting the sad state of my biceps. Hours later, I learned via Hartford Cityline that a new gym was added to the third floor of City Hall. Continue reading 'Muscular Stimulus'»
The City has set up part of its website for information about how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will affect Hartford.
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