Image from theiquiltplan.org
Part 1: Overview and “Users and Uses”
Part 2: Lighting and Nighttime Use of Park; Water and Landscaping
Bushnell Park’s Relationship to the City
A question that I am always asking about any development is who will be benefiting. It’s fine to want to draw wealthy professionals into the city, but not if it means ignoring the needs of current residents. Something heartening about these discussions was that nobody was proposing anything that sounded like an attempt to change an historical park Downtown into a Disneyland. There was a balance between providing for existing park users and potential park users. Even in the discussion about raising up Gully Brook, nobody asked for anything (like duck boats) that would not fit in a small city.
This last session dealt with not so much what happens within the park, but how the park happens in the city. There was discussion about its entryways and boundaries. One idea was to extend the park to Tower Square, which is that foreboding slab of concrete you see when walking out of the park and up Gold Street. It’s always cordoned off now and functions as a dead space. The concept of extending the park space in this way is one that was mentioned in the very early stages of the iQuilt project.
There was discussion of creating a “better city edge” that would support the park. Basically, this entails, as Suisman put it, “putting streets on a road diet” by paring some down. When streets are wide, motorists drive faster. This means that they are not slowing down to look at their environment, and they certainly are not slowing down for pedestrians. Anyone who has ever tried to bike down Capitol Avenue near the I-84 on/off ramp can attest to this. Basically, the infrastructure sends the message that we want people to move through as quickly as possible.
When narrowing travel lanes, there would be potential to add bike lanes or make other use of the space.
The need to make the area along Elm Street more walkable was discussed. In all of this, one hopes that there is attention given to the need for these areas to all be walkable during the winter months as well. Having a nice view is a plus, but if people can not go from point A to point B because some clown left a snowbank in the middle of the sidewalk, that view does not really matter. This past winter demonstrated this issue all too well, as there were no thru-paths in the entire park for several weeks. Just as the city does not shut down at 5pm, it should not be expected to shut down during January. Continue reading 'iQuilt Phase II: Part 3 of 3'»
Environment, Urban Renewal, access, architecture/design, commentary, community, downtown, fun, parks, perception bias, quality of life, transportation
This is a continuation of summary and commentary about the 30 March 2011 iQuilt workshop. The first section is available here.
Lighting and Nightime Use of Bushnell Park
As someone who regularly walks and bikes through Bushnell Park after dark — it’s the safest route from Downtown to Frog Hollow as this segment of the East Coast Greenway is separate from motorized traffic — I definitely had some opinions to offer up on the concept of adding more lighting. Continue reading 'iQuilt Phase II: Part 2 of 3'»
Economics, Environment, Hartford, access, architecture/design, commentary, community, downtown, fun, myth busting, parks, perception bias, quality of life, transportation
The next time I hear somebody run his mouth about how people in Hartford don’t care about anything, I’m going to drag him to a City Council meeting. He would then see that even at meetings without a public hearing session, residents are willing to stand — if there are no chairs left, which often is the case– for over an hour to listen to public servants make decisions that will affect them.
Monday night, many residents showed up at City Hall to support designating roughly $50,000 for the Salvation Army’s Marshall House emergency shelter to remain open through the end of June. Because there was no public hearing, they held signs. This agenda item was not debated because its sponsor apparently missed a deadline. Items that were discussed: trees, the impact of war, and whether or not voters were too dumb to know what they were voting for in 2008 when they gave an 80% pay raise to City Council. Continue reading 'Removing Trees, Ending Wars, and Repealing Raises'»
Economics, Environment, Hartford, anti-war, city council, class, commentary, global issues, perception bias, political b.s., privilege, system, tax money in action, war
A mash up is a song or video made my blending two (or more) others together. It can also be the combination of new with pre-existing texts. When I heard about “The Mash Up at Billings Forge,” I was a little confused about why they were calling it such when it’d be more accurate to describe this as a festival. Maybe the use of “mash up” was to appeal to the hipsters and young people, just like every staged public performance this year was called a “flash mob” by the media, even though press releases were even sent in advance of some of those events.
Whatever you want to call it — since it’s right at the Chinese New Year, I’m considering it a New Year’s festival — the Billings Forge compound has a number of activities planned for February 3rd.
The Winter Farmers’ Market has been operating in The Studio on Thursdays, but tomorrow’s market will have demonstrations and tastings for an organic herb and spice line based in Litchfield. The Executive Director of Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA) will give a talk on how to develop our local, organic food system. The farmers’ market goes from 3:30-6pm.
From 6-9pm there will be a discussion on drink and dessert pairings in The Kitchen. No word on whether or not any samples will be available. At the same time and in the same building there will be a “Bore(d) Game Night.”
WNPR, perhaps tired of being snowed in on Asylum Avenue, will be broadcasting for part of the day from Frog Hollow. At 9 in the morning, Where We Live will be broadcasting live from The Lyceum. Continue reading 'Beer-Tasting and Adult Storytelling at Billings Forge'»
Frog Hollow, Hartford, Urban Renewal, access, food, fun, how to, music, myth busting, perception bias, shopping
An article on The Grist claims that cities are safer places for parents to raise children. In summary, the author writes that children are much more at risk of injury and death by way of automobile accidents than by “stranger danger” or being caught in crossfire. In fact, according to the CDC, “Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the U.S.”
Thanks to Julie of Live in Hartford for making me aware of this article.
At the beginning of this month I drove to Boston for the evening. Normally, when I go such distances, I make a day of it and take public transportation part of the way, but due to some tricky scheduling, drove directly to the event. I had my parking validated, so it was less expensive than it would have been. I was not stoked about the cost of parking, but for the sake of convenience, was willing to endure it given the quality of the experience I was having that evening.
My recent trip to Boston was first thing that came to mind after I read the Courant’s editorial, “Luring Cars Back to Hartford.”
How can they get it so very wrong? Continue reading 'Luring Cars Back to Hartford: Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results'»
If you search the internet for weapons in Connecticut schools, the first stories that appear (as of publication) are mostly related to the incident last month involving a student at the Latino Academy at Burns Elementary School. On several occasions this week, when I walked to work, I had to pass a small media circus stationed outside my neighborhood’s school. One report even referred to this area as being the “tough streets.”
Really?
No child, teenager, or adult should be carrying weapons to school. With that said, I have difficulty believing that this incident is something to be particularly alarmed about, especially because the student with the weapons turned them in to authorities. He had the opportunity to continue to make wrong choices, but he stopped and did the right thing. That’s something.
A little searching of the Connecticut State Department of Education website indicates that the incident at Burns Elementary was in fact blown out of proportion by the media. Using the most recent data available (school year 2007-2008), I learned that more often than not, weapons get brought into schools. This table shows data related to some elementary, middle and high schools in Hartford, as well as several other high schools in different regions of Connecticut.
What these numbers tell us is that youth across the state (yes, even in top performing schools) make bad decisions; what we can not tell from this data is the severity of their poor choices. In a school setting, virtually anything can be dubbed a weapon. We do not know if the seven disciplinary actions related to weapons in Greenwich involved pen knives, switch blades, throwing stars, hand guns, or pepper spray. Someone might have gotten creative with a can of hair spray and a cigarette lighter. We just do not know.
Instead of looking at the Burns School controversy as this anomaly that reflects upon the climate of the neighborhood, we might do well to look beyond North Frog Hollow, beyond Hartford, and even beyond Connecticut.
A roof in good shape, hanging plant, and potted chrysanthemums — it’s positively bordering on suburbia, except this house is another from the Blue Hills neighborhood.
In real life, it’s not crooked, obviously.
What I find really striking about certain neighborhoods, or even blocks, including the one that this house is in, is how residents can be almost competitive about taking care of their homes and yards. Here, most of the houses are on the smaller side, but there is a sense of pride. These are some of the benefits of home ownership. If you want to find a yard that’s dirt year-round or covered in litter, just seek out the property that is not owner occupied. Chances are, the landlord does not come around enough to clean up or care. But here, on this particular street, I have a feeling that if someone so much as drops a cigarette butt on the sidewalk, the homeowner is going to come outside right away to either give the offender whatfor or pick up the debris. That does not seem like such a bad place to live.
Tonight twelve people spoke in favor of the Hartford Civil Rights ordinance at the public hearing in City Hall; none spoke against it. Several organizations on board with this proposed ordinance include the American Civil Liberties Union, Council on American-Islamic Relations (Connecticut), National Lawyers Guild, and Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
Although nobody spoke against this at the hearing, the ordinance received some dissent from those who felt it would weaken the Hartford Police Department’s ability to fight crime. Others spoke in opposition because they feared that homeland security would be threatened.
Shahid Buttar — Executive Director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee — told the three City Councilors present that “no one’s trying to tie the hands of the police department.” The ordinance, in fact, had been revised to include language found more suitable by HPD Chief Darryl Roberts, who was present for the hearing. During the hearing and before, at the press conference and rally on the steps of City Hall, several people told stories of how they had experienced or witnessed profiling. Mongi Dhaouadi — Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations CT — described several occasions on which Muslims had been “arrested under false pretense,” which he said wastes resources; one such case was of a Muslim cited for loitering while he was waiting for a bus. Mary Sanders, a resident of the South End, described how a few months ago she awoke to the sound of the SWAT team smashing windows of her neighbor’s house. She said that a young, black male who lived there had been tasered and spent a few days in the hospital as a result. During the raid, the police found a single marijuana joint in the home. Another resident spoke of the racial disparities of prisoners serving time for drug offenses. He pointed out that there are plenty of Trinity College students using illegal substances, but that drug busts are not happening on the campus. A West End resident said that she learned of racial profiling occurring in her neighborhood.
The common thread through these and other stories shared was that racial, ethnic, and religious profiling occur here, and that it is not happening in just one section of the city. The message of the press conference was that this ordinance, if passed, would focus “police officers on their core public safety mission” and that it would help Police Chief Roberts to enforce the current state law against profiling, which supporters of this ordinance describe as being weak. Supporters insisted that the police would still be able to fight crime, but that they had to do so with “reasonable cause” on a “behavioral basis.”
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