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Sunday, April 24, 2011

WHAT DOES MIDDLETOWN OFFER THAT HARTFORD DOESN'T?

Sometimes I think that Hartford is its own worst enemy. We can study issues to death, fund all types of non-profits that are supposed to be addressing issues even though very little changes, yet we seem to be unable to find the missing part of the puzzle.

My mother had wanted to visit O'Rourke's Diner in Middletown for breakfast today. She had read about the diner in Yankee Magazine and seen profiles of O'Rourke's on various TV programs. I wasn't sure that we would even be able to get in on Easter Sunday, but we gave it a shot. After a short wait we had breakfast, even though I think my Irish Soda Bread has theirs beat handsdown.

During breakfast my mother told me that in all the years she had lived in Connecticut, she had never been to Middletown. After we finished we drove around Downtown Middletown. I was surprised by the vibrancy of Main Street in Middletown compared to Downtown Hartford. I didn't see rows of vacant storefronts. What I did see were retail shops and numerous restaurants that were open and seemed busy.

There was a waiting line to get into O'Rourke's and it seemed like most restaurants along Main Street were having the same problem. Wouldn't that be a wonderful problem for downtown Hartford to have on a Sunday?

We went by the First and Last Tavern which is housed on the groundfloor of the Middletown Police Department's relatively new building. That obviously took some leadership and foresight for someone to decide to offset the operations costs of the PD by incorporating retail and rental space into the construction of a Municipal building.

I was asking myself what Middletown was doing that Hartford wasn't. For anyone that remembers Hartford in its heyday, our downtown was vibrant and thriving. The streets were busy not only at noon time, but through out the evening and on weekends. Today Hartford is like a ghost town after the corporate world bails out.

One of the big differences I saw in Middletown was abundant parking and most of it was free at the time. Another big factor I'm sure is Middletown's tax rate, 26.4 mills compared to Hartford's rate of almost 74 mills. Downtown businesses in Middletown also pay a 5.5 mills "Fire District" tax, compared to Hartford's 15% surcharge on all businesses across the city. Hartford's downtown businesses also pay a Business Improvement District tax of an additional mill.

It just seems that rather than spend potentially upwards of $5 million dollars on taking the Capitol West building, it might make a lot more sense investing in business development in Downtown Hartford. A vibrant, growing downtown will snowball into small businesses seeing that Hartford has potential, one new business at a time.

More business closures such as the cutlery shop and the cigar shop that recently closed on Asylum Street send the reverse message that small business isn't sustainable in Hartford for tax reasons, lack of traffic, lack of interest, lack of City support or whatever excuse you want to use.



Try explaining to a potential business person why most of the north side of Pratt Street is vacant, a street so quaint with it's brick walkways and lightposts that would be bustling in just about any other town. Try explaining why the Bank of America building on Main Street is vacant. A building that is probably one of the largest buildings on Main Street.

Try explaining why the XL Center shops are still virtually vacant several years after construction was completed. The only exception being a wine shop that if the truth were known, probably was just as well off at their previous location before being lured downtown and a grocery store that seems to have more employees than customers.

I would love to see the Market at Hartford 21 thrive and survive, but it takes feet on the street to do that, seven days a week. Spiritus Wines always has a great selection as well as knowledgeable staff, but again, sales are what matters and you need a steady flow of customers and convenient parking to make that happen.

We can't afford any more vacancies downtown. When was the last time anyone can recall a McDonald's closing its doors, yet the one in downtown did a couple years ago.

I spoke with a State Representative today and during the conversation I brought up the idea that I posted a few weeks ago about the old Capewell Nail Factory and turning it into an outlet mall. He thought it was a great idea and could maybe even get some state support. We talked about the numbers of people that think nothing of driving to Clinton or even to Maine to get the deals available at the outlets.

Why shouldn't that be Hartford? The answer is quite simple. The lack of leadership and the will to get things done. It is the same thing that is keeping Front Street vacant, the XL center vacant most of Pratt Street vacant and so on.

Imagine one of the vacant lots surrounding downtown Hartford, such as the parcel Channel 3 was going to use before they were driven out of Hartford by the Perez Administration, and build something like a 5 Guys Restaurant. Other businesses would grow off of that. Vacant lots attract nothing, other than crime and more blight, even if we put up pretty fences around them like the former "butt ugly" sight.


If we are going to be serious about economic development, then let's take it seriously. Having no permanent Director of Economic Development for a couple years shows that we are not serious. Instead we have the Chief Operating Officer doubling as the Economic Development Director in a Department that clearly shows it doesn't understand the meaning of economic development.

If other towns are able to develop and maintain vibrant economic areas, then we can't continue to blame it on the economy. Let's look at Buckland Hills, Westfarms and even smaller towns like Enfield and Middletown. What are they doing right?

I think the answer is pretty clear, we have a great foundation to build on here, the only thing missing is leadership to get it done.

GREATER HARTFORD AFRICAN AMERICAN ALLIANCE HOLDS ANNUAL BREAKFAST AND MAYORAL PANEL

The Greater Hartford African American Alliance held its annual breakfast Saturday morning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hartford. The event was well attended by almost 200 people and featured an awards ceremony and a Mayoral candidates panel question and answer segment.

Connecticut's US Senator Richard Blumenthal made a short appearance also.

The introductions of the four Mayoral hopefuls can be seen below. Mayor Segarra's first few seconds was cut out on the video and the angles aren't the best, but the audio is clear so you can hopefully learn a little bit more about the candidates. The interviewers for the QandA segment were Len Besthoff from WFSB 3, Robert Cotto from the Board of Education and Rufus Wells from the Minority Construction Council.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Over the last few weeks I have received a few calls from readers that are getting an error message when trying to view the blog.

The message""Windows Internet Explorer. Stop running this script? A script on this page is causing Internet Explorer to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer might become unresponsive. Yes No".

I'm not sure what has changed that might be causing this, any thoughts from my computer savvy readers?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

EDDIE...PLEASE JUST GO AWAY


I was hopeful. The house was on the market and word was that Eddie Perez was moving out of the City to prepare for the prison stay and we might just be over the worst of the Perez era.

But no, Eddie Perez has once again proven that he knows no shame. Jeff Cohen at WNPR and Kevin Rennie at dailyructions.com, have both reported that Perez is once again surfacing to fleece the people of Hartford.

Apparently future inmate Perez has made a demand upon the City of Hartford to be paid for unused sick time and vacation pay totaling $131,590.32. If Perez really needs the money that bad, might I suggest filling out a job application for the Roldan for (fill in the blank office name here)Campaign. It seems to be working out well for Perez's former Chief of Staff who has been paid over $15,000 by Roldan already.

If Eddie pushes the issue, maybe the Council and Mayor will instruct the Corporation Counsel to file suit to recover all of the Attorney fees it cost the City for employees going before the Grand Jury to testify against Perez, those resulted from his criminal activity. That will more than cover the amount of his vacation and sick time.

AN ETHICAL CHALLENGE OR AN ETHICALLY CHALLENGED DECISION?

In March, Hartford's Green Ribbon Task Force on Hartford's parks completed its work and presented their recommendations to Mayor Pedro Segarra.

One of the recommendations the Commission made was to hire a “highly qualified Parks Director” within FY 2011-2012.

Now here is the ethical challenge, let me know what you think.

The commission made the recommendation to hire "a highly qualified Parks Director". That recommendation essentially created a new job position. If you were serving on that Commission and made a recommendation to create the new position, could you then ethically accept that new position that you essentially created? It seems like a large conflict of interest to me.

Well, that is exactly what happened last Friday at the entrance to Bushnell Park. Mayor Pedro Segarra announced the appointment of Jack Hale, a GRTF (Green Ribbon Task Force) Member as the Parks Operation Manager for the City of Hartford.

The other issue is the position being created at the same time that Public Works has been decimated by staff layoff and cutbacks. I'm not sure if the hiring freeze still exists, but shouldn't this position have gone before the City Council for approval ?

After the press event announcing the appointment, I asked Mayor Segarra if he thought it was a conflict of interest and his response is on the video below. The audio announcing the appointment has a lot of background noise (a lunch truck with a noisy generator was running in the background), my questions to the Mayor are much clearer.

I also asked numerous people a "hypothetical" question using the circumstances I laid out above, and everyone thought it was a conflict of interest to serve on a commission and then accept a position created by that commission's recommendations.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

M.A.R.G. MEETS THURSDAY NIGHT

The Maple Avenue Revitalization Group NRZ will meet Thursday night at 6:00PM in the basement of Saint Augustine's Church at 10 Campfield Avenue in Hartford.

Mayor Pedro Segarra is expected to attend.

All are welcome to attend. MARG is one of the most vibrant community groups in the city empowering neighbors to work together for a better Hartford.