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By Kerri Provost, January 30, 2012 6:06 pm

You could spend all winter working on growing out your leg hair while watching reruns of 30 Rock, but why? Here are some alternatives to that scenario: Continue reading 'February Events'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 26, 2012 10:36 am

Yesterday James Jones, the President of Trinity College, sent a message directed at Trinity students, staff, faculty, and parents, and potentially, to Hartford residents.

While careful to say Trinity does not want to cut itself off from the community, administrators described how the college may add cameras, fencing and police to the periphery, along with potential changes to the landscape:

January 25, 2012

Dear Trinity Students, Faculty, Staff, and Parents,

We write to update you on our efforts to improve campus safety at Trinity. As mentioned in our previous message to the campus community, we want to be deliberate in our efforts to make changes that are effective and lasting. We have visited other campuses in the Bronx, Boston, New Haven, and Bridgeport to examine best practices at other urban institutions. We have met with private security consultants and will, as mentioned in our previous email, host a visiting team of campus safety professionals who will do an external review of our staffing, protocols, training programs, and allocation of resources. We have also heard many constructive ideas from students, staff, and parents. While we want to make sure we factor in all the expert advice we can get, it is increasingly evident that we need to make some critical changes.

Back in December we told you that we would increase the number of officers on patrol and improve lighting. Under the leadership of Director Charles Morris, the Campus Safety staff has organized a tactical patrol of five additional officers during the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. who will focus on the periphery of campus in the areas of Summit Street, Crescent Street, and College property on Allen Place. We will be hiring five additional officers to permanently staff this team and rely on overtime until we are able to hire additional officers. We have, working with students from the Campus Climate Council, identified several areas on campus where we are adding new lighting and we have replaced or upgraded 275 lights across campus. We have also put in place an auditing program to ensure prompt repair when a light is not working. These efforts will increase the visibility of our Campus Safety patrols and provide better and more lighting. But we realize these efforts alone are not sufficient to make our community feel as safe as we would like.

We have received a formal proposal from the SGA and have heard from some faculty and staff and numerous parents and students that we need to do more to monitor access to the campus at certain times of the day. We have no intention of withdrawing our welcome to the local community to enjoy the benefits we extend to them, but we need to do more to discourage criminal activity that undermines safety and creates resentment and fear instead of appreciation for the assets of Hartford. At its meeting last week, the Board of Trustees authorized us to explore strategies for how we can do more to manage the routes of access to the campus. We are in the process of selecting a security consulting firm to help us determine the feasibility of such a plan. It would most likely require some additional fencing, landscaping, and cameras in critical areas and could mean providing internal access to some of the parking areas on the periphery of campus that are currently accessed from the city streets to allow for controlled access.

We want to hear from the campus community as we develop our plans. We also want to assure you that we have no intention of separating ourselves from Hartford and diminishing the mutually beneficial relationship we have with our neighborhood and the city. That is a relationship we want to see grow. Our focus remains on providing the highest level of safety and security for all members of our campus community.

We will write again to update you on our planning process as soon as we have the recommendations of the consultant and our visiting team. In the meantime we wish all of you the best for the new semester.

Very truly yours,

James F. Jones, Jr.

President and Trinity College

Professor in the Humanities

Frederick Alford

Dean of Students

None of the added safety measures address the most common types of crimes that occur on college campuses, which involve students violating the rights of other students, nor does it address how students are violating their own safety through binge drinking. Continue reading 'More Safety Measures at Trinity Fortress'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 22, 2012 3:31 pm

The American experience in Jamaica is typically limited to visiting resorts.

The documentary Life and Debt explores what happens behind the scenes at these resorts, along with how globalization has affected the rest of the island.

This film, released in 2001, will be shown at the Charter Oak Cultural Center at 7p.m. on January 26, 2012.

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By Kerri Provost, January 21, 2012 6:23 pm

Popular for its ability to turn a prohibitively expensive restaurant into an accessible one, Taste of Hartford is returning from January 23rd through February 5th. Each participating restaurant –there are over thirty this year– offers dinner specials for $20.12, though diners can still purchase from the regular menu.

Every year the majority of these restaurants exclude vegetarians from their Taste of Hartford menus.

Here is a list of the seven (possibly eight) participating restaurants that get it: Continue reading 'Taste of Hartford 2012'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 16, 2012 2:31 pm

Tomorrow will be the last day that Vice Versa will be open in Hartford. Goods will be half-price on Tuesday.

Vice Versa, currently located at the corner of Capitol and Main, will be moving to 266 Park Road in West Hartford.

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By Kerri Provost, January 13, 2012 6:55 pm

The installment of letter grades on restaurant windows and doors recently has created confusion, even though the ordinance responsible for this was adopted and in effect in June 2011, with an 8-0 vote from City Council.

Restaurants, already requiring inspection, now must display the outcome of these routine checks. The grades are large, on letter-sized paper. Those who attempt to camouflage, deface, or remove the letter grade could have their license suspended or revoked.

Restaurants that receive a grade lower than a ‘B’ (80%) have nothing to display within five feet of the front door or on the drive-thru menu at establishments to which that applies. They would be reinspected after a set amount of time, and the letter grade for the subsequent visit would be assigned, if they pass. If not, they must deal with a failed health inspection as before this ordinance passed, with the only difference being that the public knows something is amiss by the lack of grade affixed to the front entrance.

Not all food vendors must display letter grades. The ordinance explains:

Besides these exemptions, there are some exceptions for the requirement that the grade be displayed within five feet of the front door. For food courts, like the one in State House Square or in El Mercado, each vendor still needs to display its grade, but it can be in any number of places: menu, counter, in the “initial patron contact area,” or in another location deemed acceptable by the Director of Health and Human Services. Continue reading 'Restaurant Ratings'»

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By Kerri Provost,

Not a corset, but part of a woman's dress that requires a corset. It looks smaller than a size zero.

Back in 2002, when Abercrombie & Fitch sold thong underwear for children, many understandably interpreted this as the beginning of the erosion of America’s moral fabric.

They were wrong.

There’s proof — in the form of a corset designed to be worn by a four-year-old girl — at the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) that this trend of sexualizing young girls did not begin this century.

Starting on January 14th, CHS will be leading two behind-the-scenes tours every second Saturday of the month to give visitors the chance to see other quirky items, such as as a body preserver. This was a type of casket with space for ice, a spigot for draining out melted ice, and horse hair insulation. A lever allowed mourners to adjust the position of the corpse for better viewing. Emily Dunnack, the Head of Education Programs at CHS, said that other strange-to-us death customs from the past included making jewelery out of the deceased person’s hair, and evidence of this is also among items at CHS. Continue reading 'What’s Behind the Mantel?'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 9, 2012 4:56 pm

“There should be fewer bailouts for the auto industry” said the man who built this temporary tower of blocks in Minuteman Park last weekend.

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By Kerri Provost, January 6, 2012 4:54 pm

With schools closed today for the holiday, many families lined Park Street to watch the small parade. The “three kings” riding camels were the highlight.

The parade began near SAMA (Spanish American Merchants Association) at 95 Park Street. Here, people could pose for photos beside the camels while waiting for festivities to get moving. Continue reading 'Feliz Día de Reyes'»