Last week, when I asked, “soon” meant that they would be opening the following week. The deli, located between Columbia Street and Putnam Street on Capitol Avenue has not opened quite yet, but when I rode by today I could see that more progress had been made since I took this photo recently.

On September 25th, dozens of teams will be wandering, or, dashing, across the neighborhoods in Hartford to take part in community service projects, but they will be doing this in the style of a scavenger hunt. The registration site refers to teams as a “carload” and the team leader as the “driver”, but I’m betting this could be more easily done with a pack of bikes. There are shortcuts that bicycles can take that cars can not.

After the day of volunteer work, participants are invited to the Celebration of Service Party, which is included in the $20 registration fee. For those who want to party without doing the work, it’ll cost you $120. The money raised from the scavenger hunt and the party held at the Riverfront Boathouse will go to several good causes, which Hands on Hartford lists as “MANNA emergency food programs, the Peter’s Retreat supportive housing program for people living with HIV/AIDS, Center for Youth academic program, and all community engagement programs.”

The day’s activities begin at 10 in Bushnell Park, the scavenger hunt goes from 10:30-4, and the party lasts from 4 until 8pm.

If you want a scavenger hunt that involves no community service, you can head to the West End in October.

This photo depicts a Jane's Walk in Mumbai India. Photo courtesy of janeswalk.net

Jane Jacobs was a writer and urbanist who, according to Jane’s Walk, “helped derail the car-centred approach to urban planning in both New York and Toronto, invigorating neighbourhood activism by helping stop the expansion of expressways and roads.” Jane’s Walk, happening on October 9th in the West End, is an event inspired by Jacobs. The West End Civic Association is sponsoring this event, which they say is a “walking conversation designed to bring together people who share a common concern for making their neighborhood more livable. WECA’s Jane’s Walk will put participants in touch with their environment in the West End in new ways that they had not thought of and bridge social and geographic gaps across the neighborhood.”

The West End is an economically diverse neighborhood. To see what that means, start on foot or bike (the car goes too fast) at South Whitney where it begins at Park Street. You will walk by apartment buildings and multi-family houses in various conditions. As it becomes Whitney Street the houses take on a more middle class appearance. When this turns into Scarborough Street you will pass houses valued at greater than one million dollars. Check the tax assessor website if you do not believe me. This end of what is essentially the same street has homes maintained by landscapers; a few blocks away, there is at least one apartment building where bullet holes are visible.

WECA says that this event will have six activities: visit artist studios, participate in a scavenger hunt, sample food from restaurants, walk along the Park River (this will be a guided walk), take an architectural/historical guided walk, and talk with long time West End residents on their porches about how the neighborhood has evolved. Jane’s Walk goes from 10 until 4. For more information about this, contact David Barrett, the WECA President, at wecaadmin AT hotmail DOT com.

It’s not free to play, however. It costs $500 to register a team; the registration deadline is September 30, 2010. This means you have a few weeks to decide whether to compete, study up, find better spellers than yourself to be on your team, and ask for help funding your registration. Team members can be high school age and up, and a word list will be made available so that spellers can study before humiliating themselves in public. A few past teams have included The Goode Spellerz (Asylum Hill Congregational
Church), Habeas Corpses (Law and Government Academy), and Ain’t mis-bee havin The Bee Sharps (Friends of Achieve Hartford!). Participants are encouraged to select names that will make the eyes roll.

Achieve Hartford! — a nonprofit organization that “has been established to monitor, support and be a catalyst for education reform and community involvement in the Hartford Public School District”– says that:

The Community Spelling Bee is our signature special fundraising event.  The funds raised from the Bee will go to support literacy-based resource programs that help students excel in reading.

For more information about the Spelling Bee or the organization, see the Achieve Hartford! website.

Live in Hartford, a local blog, has published a number of articles which implicitly, and at times explicitly, make the case that Hartford is very much alive. Heck, the name of the blog itself, no matter which version of “live” one reads it as, makes this exact point. While some are using economics as the way to take a city’s temperature, Emily and Julie measure life in another way. In an article published yesterday, Emily directly addresses the recent controversial list. In March, she took a similar approach by listing the plethora of arts and entertainment activities happening within city limits. In January, Julie wrote about the standpoint theory, and described how someone from not here referred to Hartford as a cosmopolitan city. Going back to June 2009, Julie shows what a party for the brand new science center looks like. A piece from March 2009 talks about what it is like to live here as young(ish) professionals. This is just a sampling of what a single blog has done to describe, in words and pictures, Hartford, at length. There are no bait-and-switch tactics, no sensationalism, and no appeals to emotions used here (well, except for when the bloggers try to find homes for dogs). It’s honest. But as Emily writes, “what do I know, I just live and work and shop and play here.”

Every so often a major media outlet declares something dead. Or, they will mask a statement by turning it into a question. They will ask if  God is dead, or feminism is dead. Egregious claims and controversial debates sell copies, more than nuanced argument will. Take for example the claims made by a District Attorney candidate in that state just to our north. One candidate described a neighborhood in Springfield as a “war zone.” We have heard similar exaggerated claims made about all or parts of Hartford. Such claims diminish the experience of those who have actually served in real war zones; they are also false analogies. In a war, civilians often become casualties. In urban violence, it’s rare for innocent people to be injured or killed. Well, in the Massachusetts case, one of the candidate’s opponents questioned the characterization of Springfield as a war zone by going into one of the “bad” neighborhoods, sans police escort, during the day at first, and then a second time, late in the evening. The MassLive article reports:

Spelman’s comparison, which he said he found insulting both as a resident of Springfield and of Hampden County, was also unfair to a neighborhood, Kogut said. Brightwood, while not without problems, is filled with decent, law-abiding residents like any other neighborhood in Springfield, he said.

“We need to solve our problems, not make everyone bitter with insults,” he said.

This story fits in well with such categorizations of Hartford as “dead” or “one of the worst” because such labels are insulting, they are unfair, and they create bitterness without actually solving anything. Instead of dwelling on how certain companies have left the city, why not work on bringing them back, boosting existing businesses, or helping to foster new ones? Instead of worrying ourselves sick about the “white flight” that reduced Hartford’s population decades ago (the controversial list Hartford recently landed on falsely implies that this decrease in population was recent and drastic, when in fact, it was a loss over several decades) we could be looking at positive measures for increasing the city’s population. One of those measures, which I have personally benefitted from, is the House Hartford program. Unfortunately, programs that provide assistance but still require the person benefiting to be  financially responsible (unlike, say, Section 8, which can be abused by many parties involved. I know of a local landlord who was collecting payments after his Section 8-receiving tenant moved out. I’m certain he is not the first, only, or last landlord to work the system.), are not advertised well. If anyone needs a history refresher, it was programs similar to this (along with the creation of the interstate system) that actually enabled the development of the suburbs. Besides working on improving the economy, it would not hurt to let people know that there are programs to help with first-time home-ownership. There are opportunities here.

Why be defined by a one-dimensional list? We should be questioning such claims. Anytime anything is described as dead, sad, boring, awful, or worst, we should be questioning. How is this conclusion being reached? Who is the author? More often than not, asking such questions will ultimately tell us more about the author’s worldview than about what that place is like. Some people, no matter what, will be bored easily. Bring them to the Mardi Gras or put them on a space shuttle, and they will be bored. Similarly, there are people who have such a narrow worldview that anything not fitting into their prescribed vision is instantly denounced or dismissed. Recognize them for what they are and move along.

This home appears almost identical in style to most of the houses that were in my hometown before the whole McMansion craze hit in the early 1990s. The area of Hartford near Wethersfield has a number of single family homes that could easily pass as something found in Newington or West Hartford.

It’s comforting that this style of home exists here, even if it is not one I could visualize myself living in. People who want homes that are not multifamily (which, honestly, are often ugly) can find them if they look around. I’d suggest wandering in the area by First and Last Tavern/Goodwin Park.

Visitors easily notice the difference in park maintenance when crossing Prospect Avenue. The section of Elizabeth Park that is in West Hartford is always spotless (or close to it), while the section in Hartford is often decorated with broken glass and other litter. Volunteers diligently cleaned and weeded this morning. This was no small effort, so it was great to see just how many people donated time on a gorgeous weekend.

The Broken Window theory states that if a window is broken and left in a state of disrepair, then more windows will be broken. People see neglect as a sign that vandalism is acceptable. In the same way, it’s hoped that this space in Elizabeth Park (which just ranked fifth in America’s Best Rose Garden Competition ) will be regularly cleaned and maintained, to discourage the notion that littering here is acceptable.

Other parks that experienced cleaning, repairing, and beautification this week include Keney Park, Bushnell Park, Goodwin Park, and Colt Park.

The art opening was a see-and-be-seen event for those in politics– folks from City Hall who never come out to such events were present, or their aides were. Those who go to various art events in Hartford quickly know who everyone else is, or at least recognize each other; this event brought out lots of different faces.

The People of Goodwill provided music for those perusing the art, or just relaxing on the patio. The Legacy of Hartford Parks Exhibit featured work that portrayed the parks in some way. Some of the work was truthfully underwhelming, but the gems in the mix are worth checking out. Unfortunately, the best pieces — historical photographs and prints — in the exhibit are not for sale. There is work on display by Donald Boudreaux, Robert Charles Hudson, Maurice D. Robertson, Ron Thompson,  Chris Wachtelausen, and Lauren Zarambo.

One of the criticisms that I heard of the event was that it was unclear who was in charge of the gallery. It was a little chaotic — lots of people in a small space — and one had to elbow through the people grazing at the snack table just to get information sheets about the artwork. Placing a small table at the entrance would have made the information more accessible, and it would not have hurt to provide information about when the Pump House Gallery would be open again. The information that was available listed art, prices, and how to contact the artists, but nothing about the gallery itself. The Bushnell Park Foundation website has out of date information regarding this structure, though it does provide interesting historical facts, like that the Pump House was built “using stones from the bridges that were removed when the Park River was buried.” Hopefully we will see hours posted and a better web presence (beyond Facebook) for the renewed Pump House Gallery. If we want to see this last, people need to know it exists.

East-West Grille, a Pan-Asian restaurant with a generous number of vegetarian dishes, sells lunches from a spot in front of the garden.

If these quick lunch options are not adequate, Firebox — a slower and pricier alternative — is just steps away from the weekly farmers’ market.

There are vendors from several local farms. Finding fresh food is no problem. A recent visit showed variety in abundance: tomatoes, peppers, melons, beets, raspberries, blueberries, apples, plums, basil, and more. Pies made from local fruits and berries were for sale, as were loaves of bread baked on the Billings Forge grounds.

On September 16th there will be a Farm-to-Table Dinner. This is by far the most expensive of the options listed here and is included to show the range that exists on a single city block: Broad Street between Capitol Avenue and Russ Street.

I would observe how others moved about, spoke to one another, sat in certain groupings. In both experiences, even when I gained cultural literacy, when I began to blend, I knew that at the end of the day, there was part of me that would never, ever, feel at home. Today, as I walked home from The Hartford Club, it became much more apparent. The achievement gap that was being spoken of was purely academic for much of the audience. It was one thing to talk about discrepancies in performance and economics; it is quite another for these disparities to be palpable. In the Georgian Revival private club on Prospect Street, there is mouthwash in the “ladies lounge.” In my neighborhood, there is litter strewn across the school lawn. The litter has been there all summer long and the school is one of the lowest ranked in Hartford. It remains so, even after being shut down and later reopened as a “new school.” The kids who can not read, who are dropping out, who are creating all the financial burdens we heard about in this morning’s forum — they are not some sad abstract statistic; they are the kids that I pass every time I take a walk around the block.

Slamming the Door on the Achievement Gap

The MetroHartford Alliance forum held at The Hartford Club this morning was titled Hartford Public Schools Education Reform and Next Steps. Presenters included Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools, Dr. Steven J. Adamowski; Executive Director of Achieve Hartford!, James L. Starr; and the Commissioner of Higher Education for the State of Connecticut, Michael P. Meotti. All speakers addressed the issue of closing Connecticut’s achievement gap.

The very phrase “achievement gap” softens the issue. Education Week explains the achievement gap as:

[...] the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. It is most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between many African-American and Hispanic students, at the lower end of the performance scale, and their non-Hispanic white peers, and the similar academic disparity between students from low-income and well-off families. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates. It has become a focal point of education reform efforts.

While National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results have shown that, over time, black and Hispanic students have made great strides in narrowing the breach that separates them from their white peers, that progress seems to have come to a halt since the mid-1980s.

The achievement gap, to put it in more direct terms, refers to the racial and economic disparities in educational outcome. Connecticut has the dishonor of having the greatest achievement gap in all 50 states, based on the NAEP results. The Superintendent stated that there is a 93% poverty rate within the Hartford school district, based on eligibility for free/reduced school lunch. There are correlations between poverty and other social problems: of those in Hartford who have dropped out of school, 60% have been incarcerated. One of the strongest predictors of whether someone will graduate high school, Adamowski said, is how well someone is reading in third grade. For example, in 2006, 28% of third graders in the city were reading on grade level; the high school graduation rate at that time was 29%. He went on to say that education is the “best anti-poverty program in the world.” As a result of the achievement gap, there are expenses: social services, health care, taxes (those not paid due to poverty), and incarceration.

A point not made in the forum was related to incarceration. How many students drop out because they have already become entangled in the legal system? How many later go on to obtain GEDs and enter higher education in a nontraditional way? Some gray area was presented as too black-and-white, but the fact remains that the achievement gap has abysmal consequences.

The Superintendent gave three reasons for why Connecticut has the widest gap in the country. First, students experience a “preparation gap.” This refers to how unprepared they are when they enter kindergarten. Adamowski said that a middle class student enters school with about 1000 words in his/her vocabulary, whereas, a poor student enters with a 400 word vocabulary. Another reason this gap exists, he said, is that the 167 distinct school districts “enable extreme income and tax base disparities among school districts.” Finally, he argued that the gap is maintained when schools all follow the same model; new schools need to be different.

While all students do not learn in the same style, is there something inherently different about urban students that demands another model of schooling? In terms of economic disparities, this makes some sense. Those who do not have the luxury of spending four years using college as an extended summer camp while they figure out what to do with themselves, in other words, those who live in perpetual economic instability no matter how the nation’s economy is faring, may be most concerned with how information and lessons are going to help them. This is something one sees in nontraditional adult students who are largely concerned with how information in a given class is going to help him/her get a (better) career or grow in his/her field. Those who do not know firsthand what poverty is like may be more willing to entertain the traditional model of schooling — teacher teaches and students absorb. But, if a major part of the achievement gap is tied into the disparities between various races, one has to wonder if there is also an underlying message that people of different races and ethnicities learn differently. That’s not an argument I believe to have any merit. What could be asked, instead, is why schools anywhere are clinging to traditional models of education, like learning by rote, when skills like creative and critical thinking are increasingly valued today.

Is it Segregation of Nobody Dares to Speak the Word?

Seeming to dismiss the Sheff Mandate, Adamowski said that the district would be reaching its goals soon, but then indicated that this was nothing more than jumping through hoops. He said that “parents want [to enroll their children in the] best school in their community,” and that when such schools are available, the need for regional schools will decrease. He said that high poverty/high performing schools are possible, and that some are almost entirely comprised of minority students. Aiming for high performance is noble, but dismissing the need for racial integration is not responsible. Data from a Trinity College study shows that of the elementary schools, most had a minority enrollment above 90%. The lowest percentage of minority students was found at Naylor in 2006-2007, at 79.2%. In terms of numbers, what this means, is that some elementary schools have extremely low numbers of white students: Barnard and Sanchez each only had one white student enrolled in 2006-2007. Eleven other elementary schools had enrollment of white students in the single digits. (More recent data shows the racial makeup of schools in form of pie charts.) This kind of segregation may not affect literacy or numeracy, but it impacts students’ social educations.

Change

To reduce the achievement gap, Adamowski spoke about two theories of action: incremental improvement versus fundamental change. He said that Hartford Education Reform uses managed performance empowerment. In other words, low performing schools that “fail to improve are subject to district intervention, redesign, closure, or replacement.” High performing schools receive “autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic operating constraints.” Carrot and stick. With the No Child Left Behind mandates, one wonders how much autonomy teachers are working with in the first place.

According to the Superintendent, money must follow the child, “quality blind seniority” should be replaced by “qualifications-based seniority,” and there should be a reduction in government involvement. The question of seniority is more controversial than it should be. Those who have tenure can currently count on keeping their jobs, even if budget cuts result in poor outcomes. For example, the only instructor in Subject A at a school could be cut due to lack of seniority, while an entire Subject B Department goes untouched.

While there have been some steps made in closing the achievement gap, progress is not as it should be. Adamowski said that the district has closed its achievement gap by a third in the past four years. Jim Starr of Achieve Hartford! painted a less cheerful picture. Starr said that 28 schools improved in 2010, but 12 did not. Only 16% of tenth graders are reading at grade level. The Achieve Hartford! website states a grim reality: “the Hartford Public School District has an unacceptably low high school graduation rate, measured at 42% in 2009, compared to 95% for the state as a whole.” Though this is a sign of improvement, a graduation rate of 42% is low. Something more optimistic is that parents are getting more involved: school choice applications increased 50% from last year. On the other hand, since neighborhood schools are disappearing and being replaced by “choice” schools, the increase in parental involvement might be forced. Are they more involved in other areas, or just this one?

Actually, We Can Put a Price Tag on It

For many in the audience who do not walk from opulence into concentrated poverty (it’s less than 1.5 miles and can be done in heels, by the way) the consequences of this achievement gap were spelled out by Starr:

• a high school drop out costs the State $100,000
• a high school graduate contributes $400,000 to the State
• a college graduate contributes $1.1 million to the State

Michael Meotti, Commissioner of Higher Education, discussed how there is a partnership between k-12 and higher education. Even though the college drop out rate (only half of incoming first-year students will graduate in six years) is something those of us employed in higher education are concerned with, it’s not a hot topic in general. Getting students to college is part of the equation; retaining them is another.

School, Interrupted

When another audience member asked about how students are being served when schools have constant change of leadership, his core question was not answered. To be more specific, he noted that over the past four years Bellizzi Middle School has had four different principals and now has no guidance counselor. He indicated that it is not fair to the students and wanted to know how this would be addressed? The answer he received was, and I paraphrase, Bellizzi is being reopened as a new school, so the problem is solved. The new Asian Studies Academy at Dwight/Bellizzi does sound exciting. There are eight speakers of Mandarin Chinese who will be teaching there and students will have nine years of exposure to the language. The school will focus on knowledge that will give students a more competitive edge in a global economy. The new principal will be from the Dwight school, which Adamowski claims means the school will have stable leadership. All of this sounds great, but questions remain. If there are budget cuts, how many of those Mandarin Chinese instructors will be axed? Then what happens to the “academy”? How is this fair to the students? These types of questions can be applied to any of the “new” schools that open– what happens to new instructors with no seniority once budget cuts require some teachers lose their jobs? The issue of qualification-based seniority was raised without any indication of how well this concept is supported. A vote last Spring did improve the seniority system somewhat, taking a teacher’s time with an individual school instead of just in the entire district into account.

The forum lasted only about 90 minutes, a time frame which explains the lack of depth given to some very complicated issues. To learn more, check out the following:

Achieve Hartford!

Hartford Board of Education

Hartford Public Schools

Cotto’s Corner

ConnCAN

A mattress itself is not very interesting. Every week there are piles of mattresses taking up the sidewalk. Between bed bug infestations and an ever-so-mobile society, all manner of furniture decorates the roadside.

Take a closer look.

Who writes on a mattress?! Someone on Hungerford Street.

]]> http://www.realhartford.org/2010/08/24/scenes-from-the-sidewalk-installment-seventeen-3/feed/