Search This Blog

Sunday, April 24, 2011

HOMICIDE NUMBER 12 IS ON THE BOOKS


In what seems to be the precursor to a summer of violence on Hartford's streets, homicide victim number 12 for the year was pronounced dead at Saint Francis Hospital at 9:30pm this evening.

The 29 year old victim was shot a short time earlier in the area of 38 Martin Street

ANOTHER ARREST FOR HARTFORD FIRE DEPARTMENT OFFICER

In July of 2009 I wrote here about Hartford Fire Lieutenant Gregory Simon and his arrest for allegedly stealing electricity at a rental property he apparently owned. Lt. Simon was also a licensed electrician and had apparently rigged the electric meter to bypass it and steal electricity.

Now Simon is apparently in trouble once again. According to both fire and police department sources, Simon was arrested on April 22, 2011 at 1:02am on various charges including weapons in a motor vehicle, strangulation, assault and breach of peace.

According to HPD arrest logs, Simon was not released and was being held on $250,000 bond.

WOULD THIS MAN BE FIRED IF HE WORKED FOR THE HARTFORD FIRE DEPARTMENT?

I am still trying to make sense of actions by the City of Hartford in relation to the Dan Nolan termination. One of the main questions is how and why did it happen in the first place? Who in their right mind could fault someone for encouraging young adults entering into a career of public safety to become involved in charitable events?

I think the hearing officers report was pretty clear that the actions by the City of Hartford were not appropriate when he ordered Nolan re-instated with all back pay, benefits and seniority. That leads me to the next big question. Why is the City dragging its feet when it comes to getting Nolan back to work?

The clock has almost expired on the 30 day period that the City had to decide whether to bring Chief Nolan back or appeal the hearing officers decision. The report seemed pretty clear. There was no question what so ever as to Nolan's truthfulness or character. Even the City's witnesses seem to have been better witnesses in Nolan's favor.

But more interesting is the video below. On February 11, 2011 the Worcester Massachusetts Fire Department graduated their most recent recruit class of new firefighters. During the ceremony, a Lieutenant assigned to the Fire Academy speaks about efforts to get recruits involved in charity events and their efforts. He talks about raising funds for scholarships, collecting turkeys to donate to the Salvation Army and even chipping in to buy a piece of equipment for the Training Academy.

Clearly, if we go by the standard used in the Nolan case, this Lieutenant should be fired immediately.

Some of the layers are being peeled back though to shed light on the real reasons for Nolan's termination. It's a very interesting story involving a former Fire Chief, a corrupt Mayor, a City Councilwoman, a strip bar in Springfield, a Doctor specializing in Lasik surgery and his checkbook and don't forget to throw in a Union President to complete the picture.

Watch the video below, I left the bagpipes in at the beginning because I love hearing them, but the good part starts at about 3:20 minutes in.

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?