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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, March 19, 2013 6:13 am

In 2003, to oppose the United States’ invasion of Iraq meant setting oneself up for anything from ridicule to threats. Having been called a traitor in no uncertain terms, I know this firsthand. Seeing the biased coverage of the anti-war movement was what compelled me to participate in Indymedia, as there was (and is) a great need for reporting on social justice from the perspective — or at least, with empathy — of those not in the dominant culture.

Too often, the stories are still told from those in positions of power. We can see this in the narratives created about the protests of police brutality in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Most mainstream news outlets attached the word “riot” to what had been happening, despite citizen journalists’ video footage showing that the majority of the protests were peaceful, if not in language, at least in action.

A press release does not a story make. Continue reading '10+ Years In'»

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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, March 6, 2013 7:49 am

In Hartford, the Working Families Party has displaced Republicans as the minority party on City Council. We have three Registrar of Voters because of the strength of this third party.

Knowing this makes Hartford’s recorded results from November’s presidential election seem unlikely. How can a city with a sizable progressive-minded population only have two votes for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, and none at all for Stephen Durham, the Freedom Socialist Party candidate for president?

It can’t. Continue reading 'When Every Vote Doesn’t Count in Hartford'»

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By Kerri Provost, February 10, 2013 9:58 pm

Severe weather situations seem to bring out the best and worst of people. On the same street there can be a strong sense of community, with many striving toward a shared goal, while at the same time, further down the road, there are individuals acting with complete disregard toward others. For as many stories we hear about neighbors helping one another clear driveways, there are tales of disrespect, like trucks dumping snow on side streets and plows trashing someone’s landscaping, with drivers not so much as apologizing. As tempers flare while residents are given more unsatisfying excuses for slow progress on snow removal, it’s helpful to take the long view, or at least, get out of the house and take a walk.

Vehicles freshly parked on Putnam Street during the parking ban on Sunday evening.

Continue reading 'Snowy Sunday Walk'»

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By Kerri Provost,

Frog Hollow residents began shoveling a path the width of a van down the middle of a one-way side street on Sunday morning. What started with a lone shoveler quickly snowballed into a community effort. Continue reading 'When the Plows Don’t Show'»

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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, November 23, 2012 4:00 pm

After being told that Walmart wanted protestors moved because they were allegedly impeding pedestrian and vehicle traffic, the singing and chanting group moved down to a space on the sidewalk where they were told by the police they needed to remain. Shoppers never lost access to the store, nor did motorists find themselves barricaded in the parking lot where many spaces remained empty.

Despite cooperation, the prisoner transport van appeared and police began to assemble a so-called free speech zone with sawhorses, an effort that seemed confusing and laughable to most, as the activists had long been sticking to walking between two cones placed on the sidewalk for the better part of an hour. Continue reading 'Police Ignore Ordinance as Activists Show Solidarity with Walmart Employees'»

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By Kerri Provost, November 21, 2012 7:53 am

It’s often assumed by those in City Hall that everyone understands how to access services funded largely by our tax dollars, but for the average resident, the workings of City Hall can seem mysterious. If it has been decades since one sat in a U.S. Government and Politics class, the chances of remembering exactly who is responsible for what are slim.

Hartford 2000 will be sponsoring a program in which residents learn about the divisions (Economic Development, Planning, Housing & Property Management, Licenses & Inspections, and Marketing, Events & Cultural Affairs) of Development Services and meet the new Director of Development Services, Thomas Deller.

The event in the Center for Contemporary Culture at the Hartford Public Library will explain how the City enforces permitting and zoning, inspects houses and buildings, provides financing for housing construction, rehab, and purchase, and more.  Continue reading 'What Does the Department of Development Services Do Anyway?'»

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By Kerri Provost, November 15, 2012 11:24 am

Flower Street, facing North. Nov. 15, 2012

In mid-October, we reported the appearance of stop signs on Flower Street, which indicated that Department of Transportation contractors were preparing the area for the shutting down the street. Michael Sanders, Public Transit Administrator at the Connecticut DOT, vehemently denied these signs had any connection to the government agency; he suggested these were related to the marathon that occurred over that weekend.

But why would a marathon be responsible for placing road closure signs in the middle, rather than at the ends, of a street?

The signs were then pushed to the side of the road, near the tracks, where they were less visible, but not removed. Had these been related to the marathon, it seems someone would have gotten around to retrieving them.

One month later, we call shenanigans. Continue reading 'Flower Street Shenanigans'»