Can you imagine driving from Tolland to Hartford but then having the nerve to complain to the media about graffiti on a building here, as if your choice to commute ~20 miles is less offensive, less polluting to the air we have to breathe? Yep, someone just did that. No, I will not link to it.

I’m imagining someone sitting in rush hour traffic, spewing tailpipe emissions, having the audacity to be scandalized by a skyscraper with paint on it.

The building in question, by the way, is one with ownership/management that has generally neglected sidewalk maintenance for years, but allowing slipping hazards for pedestrians by not removing snow and ice was not enough to warrant attention. The fact that it has been vacant for years, sold by the State of Connecticut in 2018, hasn’t been enough to snag news cameras.  Not the fact that in 2020 a developer suggested that within months there would be tenants in the building; four years later, there still are no signs of legal tenants.

The repeated visits by police due to “suspicious” people on site, frequent silent alarms being tripped, the multiple fire calls there on one day in August, the need for HEARTeam to show up, none of that warranted press over the last several years.

It was the paint offending motorists on I-84.

The television reporters won’t call that into question, but I will.

The offended sensibilities of an exurban resident passing through counts more with them than the quality of life for those who live here and regularly walk by this skyscraper built foolishly close to a now-buried river.

Graffiti is usually just indicative of too much beige and gray, and of a space that is not cared for. Those who are of this place know that building has been doing a whole lot of nothing.

There are also other vacant buildings, not in sight of those living in towns that could not be demographically more different from Hartford. They go noticed, instead, by us. That’s what you can see in the photo above, taken of artwork posted on a boarded up home in one of the city’s neighborhoods.

Did the source from Tolland walk through any parks and notice the early signs of spring? A spring that is arriving after a year in which winter was a blip.

Did she see notice that our major library — the one with the most books — has been closed since December 2022?

The books were not redistributed to the branches so that residents could continue to access them. The books went into storage.  I have been told to expect far fewer books when the library finally reopens.

Whenever that happens.

Has she noticed where the words are not?

Has she noticed how there have been an abnormally high number of river floods this year? Those who use the trails along the Connecticut River for their bike/walk commutes or for recreation know this. Some of the paths are re-opened as of publication, but there’s mud everywhere. This most recent one was at least seasonally appropriate.

Did she notice how one of the many trees planted in the roundabout near 25 Sigourney is bent over? It was uprooted last year, and then not fixed timely, even though I sent out a bunch of emails to anyone possibly responsible for its maintenance. I stood on the sidewalk, making myself almost late for work, attempting to do what I was able to do. I think the tree is a goner, but maybe it will be a weird one, growing at an angle, until it “interferes” with the street or sidewalk, and is then removed.

That tree was meant to replace one that was killed by a motorist shortly after the roundabout opened. Early morning on a New Year’s Day, a driver went straight where the road used to be and took out two trees. The Honda left its parts everywhere.

Does she notice how vehicular violence mars our landscape, our lungs, our rivers, our seasons?

Or is it only what can be seen zooming through, at a speed that allows no understanding, that catches the eye?