Search This Blog

Thursday, March 10, 2011

DO WE NEED ANOTHER VACANT LOT ?

Capitol West photo from courant.com

Ask just about any Hartford resident how the demolition of the "Butt Ugly" building affected them as a Hartford resident, and most would answer it hasn't. The symbol of Hartford's corrupt former Mayor Eddie A. Perez's actions that sentenced him to prison, was quickly torn down by his successor. The result is even more symbolic of Hartford's past and future. Another vacant lot.

The area bordering the northern end of Downtown Hartford abutting I-84 sends a much clearer message than the Butt ugly building ever did. Hartford is unable to fill the large expanse of empty downtown acreage. There are a lot of reasons for this, the economy, crime, a City who has no clue what economic development means, business unfriendly tax structures and the list could go on and on.



One of those vacant lots showed a lot of promise a few years ago when WFSB Channel 3 announced plans to build a state of the art television facility and move their operations there from cramped headquarters at Constitution Plaza. That deal eventually fell apart and according to one high ranking official from Meredith Corp., the parent company of WFSB, he told me that "if it wasn't for the Mayor and his staff, we would still be in Hartford".

That was the night that Channel 3 had their reception and dinner showing off a beautiful new building a couple years ago when they left Hartford for Rocky Hill. That is a great facility that should be standing proudly on the corner of Main Street and Morgan Street in Hartford, filling one of those long vacant lots.

Today the Hartford Redevelopment Authority will be voting to branch out and create another vacant lot just west of Union Station. This vote will be an attempt to take the property known as Capitol West by emminent domain. This effort will most likely cost the taxpayers of Hartford upwards of $5 million dollars. The environmental cleanup alone has been estimated at $2.5 million from what sources have told me.

The sad part is that there is no plan for this property, other than to create another surface parking lot. I had thought that after the New London debacle, Kelo vs New London, the emminent domain laws had changed. That was a case where New London forced people out of their homes by grabbing the proerties through the emminent domain process. As it turned out after the property owners were forced out and the land cleared, the proposed project, an office park for Pfizer, never took place and the land sat empty.

I had thought Governor Rell had the emminent domain laws changed so that any taking of property by the government could only be done when an actual plan and project for the use of the land was in place, and I don't think creating a vacant lot counts as a project.

Similar to the "Butt Ugly" building, I doubt you could find anyone that can give you a solid reason as to how spending $5 million to create another vacant lot will affect their quality of life in Hartford. The Hartford Insurance has agreed to kick in to pay for the property, and I am not disputing that the Hartford has been a great Corporate neighbor to Hartford's neighborhoods. The Hartford though could afford the entire project and develop something on that property. The residents of the City of Hartford can not afford to fund this project at all.

It may be a feel good thing for the Mayor and City Hall to say they took away another eyesore, but it is not money well spent. That $5 million dollars could fund quite a few new police officers or at least prevent any from getting laid off at budget time. It could fund programs to revitalize our parks and re-hire some of the laid off workers from DPW. It could even fund the Adamowski bonuses for at least the next two years.

Creating a vacant lot at the taxpayers expense is nonsense. Maybe it would make more sense to leave the building there as a constant reminder that we need to do better to attract new business and celebrate when something useful actually goes there.The only plan that may possibly take place in that area is the eventual development of the high speed rail system from what I have been told

The Hartford Redevelopment Agency will meet tonight to hold a Public Hearing and Meeting in the Plaza Level Conference Room located at 260 Constitution Plaza, Hartford, Connecticut 06103. The meeting will be held at 6:00PM

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

KIRKLEY-BEY ABOUT BONUSES - "I'M PISSED"

Last week the Council and Board of Education members were summoned to the Capitol regarding the $2.7 million in bonuses handed out. 5th District Representative Marie Kirkley-Bey was asked what she thought about the bonuses, her response was quite clear "I'm pissed".

The videos below will give you an idea of some of the other responses. Some were political, some were quite candid. In the future I'm going to try to incorporate more video into the blog, let me know what you think.

Not all of the comments were recorded, but Councilman Corey Brinson actually made some comments at the end of the meeting that were interesting. It actually sounded like we may have a real Republican on the Council for the first time in a long time. He spoke about fiscal responsibility which may prove interesting this year at budget time. I doubt we will se him "abstaining" on tough budget votes.

The only Councilperson not present was Dr. Painter and the only Board member that was present was Robert Cotto. State Senator Fonfara came in midway through the meeting but seemed to make it clear that he did not want to be there.

BOARD MEMBER ROBERT COTTO'S REMARKS




MAYOR SEGARRA'S REMARKS



4TH DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE MINNIE GONZALEZ'S COMMENTS



5TH DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE MARIE KIRKLEY-BEY'S COMMENTS


Thursday, March 3, 2011

LEGISLATORS CALLING FOR ANSWERS

Apparently Hartford's Legislative delegation is finally showing some unity for an important cause. 5th District Representative Marie Kirkley-Bey has scheduled a meeting for today at the Legislative Office Building to find out more regarding the selection process for the new Superintendent as well as justification for over $2.7 million in bonuese handed out by Adamowski.

Here is the text of the e-mail sent out by Kirkley-Bey's Office today:

There will be a Hartford Delegation meeting held this Thursday, March 3rd, at 4pm in Hearing Room 1A. This meeting will be with the Hartford City Council, the Hartford Board of Education and Mayor Segerra to discuss the BOE Superintendent Search and the raises given recently by the BOE to administrators and staff.


Someone might advise the Hartford City Council that they have the same authority to conduct hearings and shed some light on the situation also.


It will be interesting to see if Representative Roldan and Senator Fonfara attend the meeting since they didn't sign the delegations letter to the Board members. Roldan is also an employee of the Board of Education and served on the selection committee for Adamowski's appointment.

And can anyone spell the Mayor's name correctly? It is S-E-G-A-R-R-A.

COUNCILMAN DEUTSCH CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF DAVID MEDINA AND STEPHEN ADAMOWSKI AND REVOCATION OF BONUSES


The following text was posted this morning in the comment section of another posting by Councilman Deutsch:

Below is a letter written shortly before Board meeting, distributed to press and handed to entering Board members; apparently too little and too late, after hoping many others in and outside City government would further intervene and change some Board minds:

Open letter to the Board of Education and its designated Selection Committee:

Many in Hartford are well aware by now of widespread doubts about the fairness and process in the choices made for the Selection Committee for Superintendent.
Doubts go back to October when a “Succession Policy” was launched.
Later, concerns were raised when the actual Selection Committee was formed, leaving out many representative voices. Later, there was recognition of this fact by the Board, with an poor and token attempt to add new members.
Most recently, openly as well as behind the scene, there were active, highly inappropriate, and unethical attempts by a Board official to influence the ultimate choice.

Many in the City are appalled at the slanting and bias of this process, and agree that the outcome is unacceptable. The Mayor is influential over appointments and decisions of the Board, and the City Council is responsible for accepting the Superintendent choice and the final School System budget. The Mayor rightly voiced concerns about the process as “flawed,” correctly saw the “perception in the city that the committee’s pick was ‘predetermined’, and rightly called for reconsideration -- especially after active biased lobbying by Mr. David Medina, presumably with Superintendent Adamowski’s approval.

Thereforeit is our obligation to presented this Open Letter to the Board, since it may be that the Chair will not permit the public - to whom the City Council is responsible - to express these directly:

1. The choice announced by the Board and its Chairman follows an invalid and biased process and is rejected by many citizens and several City Council members.
2. Revocation of recent bonuses for Mr. D. Medina and Dr. S. Adamowski, unless fully justified in writing for public examination, is necessary.
3. The immediate resignation of Mr. D. Medina and of Dr. S. Adamowski is demanded.

The Board and its Chairman are advised that many in the City will pursue appeals to legal and ethical authorities, and consider these items during upcoming Council budget decisions, regarding flaws and interference in what should have been a fair and transparent process in choosing for ALL the Hartford’s children the future course of the public education system in our City.

Representing views of many City residents and fellow Council members --

L. Deutsch, Hartford City Council March 3, 2011

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

MORE FALLOUT FROM A FLAWED SELECTION PROCESS AND B.O.E BONUSES

Apparently the Hartford legislative delegation has weighed in with their displeasure on the sham selection process and their thoughts on the inappropriate bonuses given by Hartford School's Superintendent Adamowski.

The issue of the bonuses was first reported here and WNPR's Jeff Cohen first reported on the improper lobbying efforts by Board of Education spokesperson David Medina. Hartford's legislative delegation sent a strongly worded letter to members of the Board of Education voicing their displeasure. Cohen posted the letter on his blog today, follow the link to the right to get to Jeff's blog.

Two names though were notably missing from the letter that listed all of Hartford's legislators with the exception of Senator John Fonfara and State Representative Kelvin Roldan. Their absence shouldn't be surprising though since Roldan actually received one of the bonuses that the rest of the delegation seemed to take exception with.

The letter can be read below:

HTFD DELEGATION LETTER

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

WHAT SHOULD REALLY MATTER FOR HARTFORD'S SCHOOLS

I had told myself I wasn't going to write about this, but I don't think there is a better example of what is wrong with Hartford's schools.

Last night I received a call from a 15 year old girl who is a student at Weaver High School, and I want to apologize to her upfront for writing about this, but even though I know her name, I won't post it out of respect for our conversation.

When she called she asked if she could talk to me about my blog. The caller was very well spoken and she told me that she was a student at Weaver and both herself and many or her friends read the blog and she wanted to talk about some of the things I posted.

The conversation went well for a while and she said that I was right about the conditions at Weaver. She told me how she had at times thrown her lunch out because she would lose her appetite watching bugs and roaches running on the walls. She told me about days when it seemed like it was warmer outside than it was in the school because of the lack of heat.

She told me about the lack of equipment and teaching materials. She even told me about the principal that would come into the classroom and scream at other students.

Suddenly, she began crying and told me she was going to drop out of school because she couldn't deal with it anymore. She said most of the kids realized that many of the so called "leaders" were all about the money and not at all about the kids.

How do you respond to that? How do you try to convince her that she is exactly right, many of the adults are about the money, but hang in there anyways since it is definitely better than dropping out and ending up on the streets?

It just doesn't make any sense and it seems difficult to try to make sense out of it to someone living it. As much as many try to blame the problems on children and parents who don't want to learn, I think it is so much more about a system that is so broke and doesn't want to change.

How fast do you think the conditions at Weaver High School would change if suddenly Superintendent Adamowski was told to pack up the 960 Main Street "Taj Mahal" because their offices were being moved to Weaver.
Adamoski's gold lettered signs and mahogany desks and woodwork would be replaced. Replaced with spray painted stencils on cinder block walls used as signs to direct you around a building eerily similar to a prison.

Imagine Adamowski and Kelvin Roldan eating their catered Max Bibo lunches on desks and tables with roaches scattering about. Imagine Dr. Kishimoto using a rest room with mold and filth and no toilet paper or handsoap.

Maybe then the conditions might actually become about the kids, and a fifteen year old who really wants to succeed wouldn't be crying about the thought of dropping out. Maybe then our schools would be about educating children rather than about making adults rich.

The phone call from a 15 year old seemed to bring it much more into perspective but it also makes you wonder what it will take to change things. Hopefully my fifteen year old caller will finish her education and consider going into education herself, with a commitment not to repeat the mistakes she has had forced upon her by the adults currently doing it for the money.

I guess we can hope.