The question:
Kevin, just saw on the news the city is replacing ALL the bricks on Pratt St!!!! The entire street is almost vacant! Aren't we in a fiscal crisis according to Bronin? How much is this costing and where is this money coming from. This has got to be a multi million dollar job. This could have and should have waited, we're a broke city, right? What is the matter with this mayor? Now is NOT the time for projects like this. Please report back Kevin.
Little Brick Road.
I did make a call to Mayor Bronin's Chief of Staff Thea Montanez and your question were timely. I guess a meeting was held recently in the Mayor's Office and many of the question's you were asking were brought up in that meeting. The project actually began design work in 2014, well before the Bronin Administration. The total cost is expected to be around $1.3million and a large portion of that, close to $400,000 is being funded by a "grant" from AETNA. Comcast is also underwriting some of the infrastructure repair required to upgrade underground systems. The project and contracts and materials had already been purchased and Bronin's people weren't in a position to break or breach those contracts now. I would hope that serious consideration will be given to turning the renewed Pratt Street into a pedestrian mall , free of vehicular traffic and find businesses willing to take a chance on Hartford to occupy the numerous vacant restaurants and make outdoor seating and entertainment a priority, very similar to what West Hartford Center has to offer, and make the Pratt Street pedestrian mall an integral part of a revamped downtown. Northland investment is a major impediment to that happening though. If you notice, most of the north side of the street that they own is vacant due to exorbitant rents that they charged and forced many of the restaurants out of business. Thank you Thea for your prompt response on this one.
Mayor Bronin's Chief of Staff, Thea Montanez was gracious enough to answer my questions promptly this afternoon.
In researching the issue further, I found a Courant op-ed article from 2015 that depicted a very interesting history of Pratt Street. If you enjoy Hartford history, it is well worth reading.
http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-barlow-pratt-street-still-a-gem-1008-20151007-story.html
10 comments:
Gizzie, give em hell, Give em hell!!
I drank three redbulls and smoked half a pack in your tribute!!!!
This is another blunder for Hartford. No on dose anything for free. Someone got a kick back for this Pratt Street brain storm. Hartford will never be a West Hartford center or have a Blue Back. Hartford has been a roller coaster for a long, long time. Presently, the roller coaster seats are empty. There is no longer any motion.
What happens to the Pratt Street bricks engraved with personal inscriptions/tributes/memorials that people purchased? Will they be re-installed?
Kevin,no surprise here. This is Government at what it knows best: spending.
Pratt was born in Peru, New York. In the early 1850s, he designed a milling machine for George S. Lincoln & Company of Hartford, Connecticut, which became the Lincoln miller, in some ways perhaps the most important American machine tool of the late 19th century. Over 150,000 machines were built on this form factor (by many firms).[1]
With Amos Whitney he organized Pratt & Whitney in 1860 to manufacture machine tools, tools for the makers of sewing machines, and gun making machinery for use by the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is credited with being first to permit production of fine gear work. Pratt promoted interchangeable parts and the adoption of a standard system for gages for the United States and Europe. Among several machine-tool patents, his most important was for planing metal granted on July 28, 1869.
He died in Hartford, Connecticut.
Peter, how do you know that Pratt died at 10;40 AM on April 12, 2016?
I paid for a brick with my father in laws name on it in his memory. A lot of private money went to pave the street the first time. now what?
I trust that they will save and put back those brick memoriam.
Pratt street looked perfectly fine to me. It looked very unique with the bricks. Why not put the money into fixing the pot holes in the city?
I understand this was a past segarra screw job project.
But its pretty sad that we are spending close to 2 million to switch out some bricks. When was that street even done? Maybe 10 years or so ?
What a joke ...
Engraved bricks are on the sidewalk, not the roadway.
Post a Comment