“We’re Here/We’re Queer/We’re Fabulous/Don’t Fuck with Us” was a chant heard on the Trinity College quad Tuesday afternoon. A few hundred students, faculty, and staff wearing neon green ribbons gathered in front of Mather Hall at noon to demand a Zero Tolerance policy for those committing acts of bigotry on campus. This protest was called in response to a series of hate crimes on the Trinity College campus. Most recently, a Latino Trinity student, according to a report in the Hartford Courant, was told to get off the campus by a white student. The Latino student was reportedly called a “nigger” after having a beer launched at his car. This was noted as the third reported racist incident on campus in approximately one month.
At Tuesday’s protest, a number of students held signs and wore name tags announcing who they were, that they were students, and that they were not to be referred to by various hate slurs. Before marching to the Dean of Students’ office and other locations on campus, several students and a professor spoke to the crowd. The professor said “we demand to live in a culture that is civilized.” A student speaker called for the isolation of those who commit hate crimes, explaining, “they divide our community [...] they create an environment of fear.” Continue reading 'Trinity Students Protest Hate on Campus'»
activism, Behind the Rocks, class, community, crime/justice, education/schools, Frog Hollow, gender/sex/sexuality, global issues, Hartford, myth busting, neighborhoods, perception bias, photos, privilege, youth
The First Night banners — displayed for months after the New Year’s Eve event had passed — around Bushnell Park were exchanged for fresher ones that are not specific to any season.
One banner depicts Tastease donuts, which have gotten a load of press, are located in a visible spot on a main thoroughfare, and are now stocked at The Market at Hartford 21.
Other banners declare that Hartford has “fun” and “style.” Well, duh.
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'»
access, commentary/editorial, community, design, downtown, environment, fun, parks, perception bias, quality of life, transportation, urban renewal
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'»
access, commentary/editorial, community, design, downtown, environment, fun, Hartford, money, 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'»
anti-war, city council, class, commentary/editorial, environment, global issues, Hartford, money, 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'»
access, food, Frog Hollow, fun, Hartford, how to, music, myth busting, perception bias, shopping, urban renewal
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.
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