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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

IS HARTFORD A CITY WITHOUT RESPECT ?

When you drive around the City, just looking at the condition of many of our neighborhoods, it seems as though we have a hard time respecting each other. To me, throwing trash down is a major sign of disrespect and you need to look no further than some of our main streets to see the abundance of litter.

Our parks have become illegal dumping grounds for not only trash but abandoned vehicles, car parts, boats and just about any other garbage you can think of.

But I'm just wondering if the tone is set and allowed by City Hall. Trash cans placed along the streets are usually overflowing with trash, city properties are poorly maintained, including school properties and parks. This past week I received a call from someone who had family members buried in the city owned Zion Hill Cemetery. They were complaining about the deplorable condition of the cemetery grounds.

I drove through the Zion Hill Cemetery Tuesday afternoon and the conditions were worse than I expected. If we can't even respect the dead, how can we respect ourselves as a City? There is no excuse for conditions like this and the people responsible should be held accountable or replaced by someone that can get the job done.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a shame! You're right on about the lack of respect in this city. I wrote something similar in your blog last week.

It's definitely not the Hartford I was once proud of, that's for sure!

Anonymous said...

I would say its difficult for the city to handle the way the citizens dump on every square inch of the city. Why should and how can the city and the police teach the lessons mom and dad didnt?

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

anonymous 3:09pm,

I totally agree that parents need to start being parents and neighbors need to start being neighbors like we remember when we were growing up.

Unfortunately, ignoring the little things leads to the greater problems as we now see. A perfect example of the "broken window theory".

there is no excuse for a cemetery to look like that though

Anonymous said...

The city needs not not only to hold itself accountable for the condition of our parks and streets, but it also needs to fine landlords that dont upkeep their property (i.e. garbage, litter, necessary repairs to the property). Citizens who litter need to be fined, and homeowners need to be held accountable for the condition of their yards. If someone does not want to cut their lawn then the city should cut it for them and send them a bill, or just add it to their property tax.
Hitting people in their wallets is the only way to gain compliance from people that don't have manners. As an example, if I dont upkeep my property then my neighbors might not be happy, but that's the extend of it. There's no system in place to force people to be disciplined and eventually take pride in their neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

The monument in honor of Don Linde in Zion Hill Cemetary is well maintained by a whole crew of people.

mr x said...

Don Linde might be disliked for who he is, basically because he did not drink with the right people, but he was a ''real'' cop. Not some white shirt scared of pulling over a car once in a while.

This statement does not refer to Capt. Joe buyak in any way. He is better then sliced bread, and also a ''real'' cop.

Anonymous said...

When the mill rate is @ 75 combined with the highest auto insurance rates in the state it is going to be difficult motivating landlords and other tax payers here in the city whose yards are already crap to give a shit what their property looks like

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding Kevin. The city is crawling with every scumbag CT has to offer. Over time the once nice city of Hartford with its honest tax paying base has been traded in for as many section 8 properties as possible.
What home owner is going to be held accountable? None cause they all live in New York or some other state and have the rent checks mailed to them by the shady super who lives in the basement of the building.
Kevin lets just call a spade a spade, its not city halls fault that the city is a dump, its not HPD's fault that none of the residents have any respect for the law, Its the culture of poeple you have living in Hartford. They are as ignorant as the day is long, and truly believe that society owes them something.
You want an honest soultion, pass a law that if you cought commiting one of these quality of life offenses (littering, loitering, pan handling, driving an unreg vehicle or quad, fighting, public urination) in the city you will have you EBT benifits revoved for six months. If that happened Hartford would have the shinest streets in all of America. But guess what it never will because we live in CT the most liberal state in the nation. Its always easier in CT to blame the system instead of the people causing the problem.

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 246:
I agree.. we have all the welfare in the country right here in CT. Recipients even spread the word to come here to CT because we dish benefits out so easy..
What gets me is we're about to have 7500 state workers laid off to include DOT and Corrections. Granted not all of them are, but a large percentage are good, clean, hard working individuals who have a wife and kids to feed and eventually put through college on top of a mortgage to pay for that house with the white picket fence. But lets keep the welfare programs untouched.

Anonymous said...

Kevin, I think that any quality of life issue violations, such as pan handling, public drinking, littering, etc. a punishment should be to clean up the streets, not do the work for the ebony horse lady in the old stables. Put the frequent fliers, habitual criminals to work cleaning the streets and also cut the three foot tall grass.

Anonymous said...

Put the community court violators to work cleaning the streets. The court officials can easily select bight areas of the city to address. I would rather see streets cleaned rather then the ebony horse lady on vine street using the community court to do her work for her. That is a luxury item at this point the city should do without.