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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, September 8, 2012 3:01 pm

The Livable & Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative (LSNI) has been troubled since its inception due to poor hiring decisions compounded by an absence of management. Why take time and money to provide training for LSNI employees when more qualified individuals could have filled these positions from the start?

That is just one of the questions that emerges after reading the recently leaked assessment of the six-month-old program.

Despite its critique of various employees, pieces of the assessment continue to show how the program is being handled too delicately. It begins:

Continue reading 'Another Look at the LSNI Assessment'»

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By Kerri Provost, August 31, 2012 9:46 am

Connecticut was ranked 44 out of 50 for bike friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists in 2010; now, the state has moved to 20. South Windsor was the only new “Bicycle Friendly Community” in the state, receiving a bronze award.

Given the United States’ abysmal cultural attitudes toward people-powered transit, this move up the list may mean little. Continue reading 'Connecticut Improves in Bicycle Friendliness?'»

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By Kerri Provost, June 29, 2012 9:25 am

First Rule: You do not talk about it. Continue reading 'Blight Club'»

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By Kerri Provost, May 29, 2012 5:39 pm

This afternoon Governor Malloy and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that Connecticut will receive a waiver exempting Connecticut from fulfilling some of the mandates under No Child Left Behind (reauthorization of ESEA). NCLB has become increasingly unpopular as it exhorts educators to teach to the test, thus reducing time spent teaching material not included on standardized tests. The curriculum has increasingly narrowed to focus on STEM and basic literacy. Instructors in higher education have noticed a reduction in critical thinking abilities since the implementation of NCLB. Additionally, the federal mandate labels schools as “failing.” Schools falling under this category are pressured to be shut down, redesigned, and reopened; some have interpreted this underfunded mandate as an attempt to privatize education, as charter schools open in place of some “failed” public schools.

According to data gathered by the U.S. Department of Education, “67% of [Connecticut's] superintendents believe the state’s formulas for funding education [were] unfair or very unfair” previous to the granting of this waiver. Continue reading 'Connecticut Receives NCLB Waiver: Relief or fuss?'»

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By Kerri Provost, August 31, 2011 2:54 pm

photo courtesy of Afonso Lima

Click here to read about how a student in Hartford opted out of the Connecticut Mastery Test.

The Connecticut State Department of Education website makes the No Child Left Behind threats both clear and obscure at the same time:

Schools will be responsible for improving the academic performance of all students, and there will be real consequences for districts and schools that fail to make progress.

The phrase “academic performance” is Continue reading 'Back to School Guide: Reclaiming Your Child’s Education (2/2)'»

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By Kerri Provost, July 22, 2011 2:12 pm

Because the Hartford Democratic Town Committee convention did not start on time, there was opportunity to check out the fashions. Continue reading 'Is this what Democracy Looks Like?'»

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By Kerri Provost,

A large room crammed full of powerful people (and those aiming to be) dressed in red, white, and blue, with buttons and signs galore. The party casts its votes, maybe some numbers don’t match up and a recount is needed, but the endorsements get made and the evening moves on. Reporters pushing their way through to get to the newly endorsed or to those left behind. That’s the image that comes to mind, and to an extent, that is what happens. But for those who have never been to a convention and who are not politically connected, it might be eye-opening to learn that the behind the scenes “back room deals” are not so secretive after all.

The Hartford Democratic Town Committee’s convention was scheduled to begin at 5:30 on Thursday evening in Bulkeley High School’s air conditioned auditorium. We assumed that this was the fake time, which is told so that events kick off on time about thirty minutes later. Segarra’s supporters were gathered around the building’s entrance with signs and stickers at 4:30 pm. By all accounts, I thought I would be home by ten, latest.

Upon entering, we had our choice of seats. Nothing was roped off. Nobody was serving as an usher. I sat with Emily of Live in Hartford, and near reporters from The Hartford Guardian and The Hartford News, two small, local newspapers that work hard to get the story, like journalists from days of yore. We were in the second row, center, and nobody seemed to mind.

Waiting for the event to begin, we noted who was conversing with whom. Julio Concepcion, an HDTC member, stopped over and we chatted about the waves he made when he publicly questioned the 2-2-2 strategy days prior. In the audience was a young man, a teenager about to enter Hartford Public High School after attending Bellizzi. He began the evening as the embodiment of idealism. We never saw if he looked the same, or disenchanted, when he slipped out later.

At 6pm, we thought the event was going to begin when the committee announced that the little people had to move our seats:

The rationale made sense. Leave room so that HDTC members can easily access the microphone and be heard; one wonders why this was not announced earlier. One also wonders why this was even attempted, as the members were scattered throughout the auditorium, some griping that they could not hear, all the while not moving their seats, despite the vacant ones now reserved for them. Continue reading 'Behind the Scenes at the Hartford Democratic Town Committee Convention'»

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By Kerri Provost,

2-2-2 Continue reading 'Hartford Democratic Town Committee Convention: Numbers Game'»

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By Kerri Provost, April 12, 2011 4:39 am

A potential mayoral candidate — who has yet to say what he stands for — flings more mud at the current mayor. Without blinking an eye, all of the media outlets jump on it. Initially, this happens without an explanation for why the State Representative would care at all about this “issue.”

It’s simply not news. I had known that the Mayor’s husband owns investment properties and collected Section 8 from some of them well before Roldán dropped his press release, and I’m not someone who spends any time filing FOIA requests or getting information for gossiping city council aides who could spend their time better by actually working. The property assessment data for the City of Hartford is online. It’s searchable by address and by name. According to this data, Ortiz has purchased (investment) properties and an office between 2003-2007.  I am not sure what need there is to “investigate” when this is spelled out clearly. There are no secrets in Hartford; at any point in the past five years Roldán could have formally expressed his concern about a possible conflict of interest, yet he waited until exploring a mayoral campaign.

In a city where approximately 30% of residents live in poverty and thousands are on the waiting list to receive Section 8 subsidized housing, it’s not all that shocking that someone who owns an investment property would be collecting federal subsidies. While there may be a conflict of interest in here somewhere, as a resident, I am much more concerned that Ortiz is behaving as a responsible landlord. There are so many absentee landlords who do not maintain their properties and who turn a blind eye to tenants who engage in routine criminal activities. Those landlords who permit the erosion of quality of life in Hartford concern me far more than those who collect Section 8 for two tenants and do so while being married to the Mayor.

This is not about muckraking, it’s about having an agenda. Continue reading 'Scandals That Aren’t'»