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Saturday, June 11, 2011

GOING NOWHERE FAST


A Connecticut Transit bus was the latest victim of Hartford's streets today. The bus pictured above sunk into a sinkhole, or is it sank into a sinkhole. The sinkhole apparently opened up on Capitol Avenue near the intersection with Main Street.

Only one passenger was on the bus at the time and he apparently ran off once the driver told him the police had been called. No one was injured in the incident.

Tow trucks that were called to remove the bus originally backed off to regroup after concerns that their additional weight might cause the street to collapse more. Additional concerns were raised over an underground transformer under the bus that might have been on fire.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

THE ACTUAL BUDGET NUMBERS

Last week I had posted that the Hartford City Budget had increased almost $150 million dollars since the day Eddie Perez took office in 2001. I also said the mill rate had almost doubled from the low 40's in 2001 to about 75 mills now.

Someone had posted that those numbers were false. Well, here are the actual numbers year by year.

Keep in mind that no Mayor can single handedly increase the budget or the mill rate without the express approval of the City Council. The Hartford City Council needs to share the blame for this just as much as the "strong" Mayor.

Here are the real numbers, is it any wonder why we can't attract new business or spur economic development with tax rates like this? Just to give you some perspective, the next highest mill rate in the State of Connecticut is New Haven at 45.86, much lower than Hartford's. Just for a sampling here are a few others; East Hartford-33.82, Meriden-29.53, Bridgeport-39.64, Waterbury-41.81, West Hartford-38.38, Windsor-28.38. And if you wonder why Stamford is able to attract new business over Hartford, the answer is simple one, Stamford's mill rate is 17.17.For all of the Connecticut municipalities mill rates, click here to go to Connecticut's Office of Policy and Management website

Hartford Budget and Mill Rate Since 2001

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

MORE TORNADO RELIEF: PARKVILLE STEPS UP


Parkville merchants and property owners seem to be very appreciative of their Hartford Police Community Service Officer, Mike Allen.

So appreciative, that when they heard their CSO, Mike Allen, lived in the area affected by last weeks tornadoes they began a fundraising effort to collect money to be used to purchase storm relief supplies.

According to Bill Howard of Parkville, as of today their efforts have already raised over $600.00.

Congratulations and keep up the good work

TORNADO RELIEF: BOX DRIVE IS ON

As I posted last week, Hartford Police Officer Mike Allen had called me regarding the urgent need for cardboard boxes in the area damaged by last week's tornadoes.

Governor Malloy and his office responded almost immediately when I called looking for a drop off point for people to drop off cardboard boxes. Shirley Surgeon of the Governor's staff coordinated the calls and within a short time the State Office Building at 166 Capitol Avenue was set up as the drop off point.

Anyone with extra cardboard boxes can drop them off through Friday at the loading dock on the east side of the building (directly across from the Bushnell Theater)from 7:30AM until 4:00PM.

The boxes are needed so that the people whose homes have been damaged can pack up their belongings and put them into storage.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

I NEED TO VENT...NEXTEL/SPRINT IS A TERRIBLE COMPANY

For anyone who is a Nextel cell service subscriber, you probably already realize that.

Since Friday afternoon around 1:00PM there has been "some sort" of outage preventing most Nextel phones in the 860 area code from receiving incoming calls. Outgoing calls can still be made. I say "some sort" because Nextel/Sprint supposedly has been unable to identify, correct or even estimate when the problem will be fixed.

The major problem for me is that people trying to make incoming calls to Nextel cell phones don't even get any type of recording saying that they are experiencing a network problem or even directing the calls right to voice-mail.Instead all the caller hears is a rapid busy signal.

The frustrating part is the way Nextel is handling this. No text messages to their customers with updates as to what is going on, no e-mail alerts and nothing but a run around from their Customer Service people.

The final straw was just now when I called to get an update and the Customer "No-service" rep told me that it could be an AT&T problem because they provide the land line service to the cell tower and AT&T is closed until Monday. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? They were very accommodating though when they offered me a credit for 3 days. Then the operator I was speaking with told me I shouldn't feel too bad, that they have had an outage affecting portions of Michigan for three months now.

Oh, and now when I asked to speak to a supervisor, I have been on hold for over thirty minutes. Well the supervisor just got on the line, and lo and behold she wasn't even from the technical support department, she was a supervisor in the account cancellation department. They must be reading my mind.

I guess it is time to switch carriers after almost twenty years with Nextel. At the very least some sort of media notification should have been put out so that people might know what is going on.

Friday, June 3, 2011

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO COMBAT HARTFORD'S CRIME ?

If you read the comments here, and I know that many readers of the blog have an agenda one way or another, there doesn't seem to be a lot of change or increased attention to the fact that we have had 4 homicides in four days and we are rapidly approaching the total number of murders last year when we aren't even halfway through this year.

In case our Mayor and Police Chief don't realize it yet, we have a war going on in the streets of Hartford. A war that will most likely add more casualties this weekend at the rate we have been going.

It will be interesting to see who is out on Hartford's streets this weekend. Will any of the Assistant Chiefs be out at 2 or 3 in the morning to see what is actually going on and provide some leadership to the rank and file bailing water against the tide? If they can find time to start e-mail efforts with community groups to save their jobs, then I would hope they could find time to send a message to our street thugs that we are serious about fighting this trend of murders.

Does anyone on the corner of Albany and Vine even recognize Assistant Chief McKoy? When was the last time our Mayor or Councilpeople hit the streets to try to send a message to the young people of our City who are killing each other.

And where are our "Poverty Pimps"? Are they out working the street corners where these shootings are taking place? I know they make it a point to show up at the vigils and make their quick appearances while the TV cameras are rolling. They make even give a hug or two to victims families while they stand there crying. Then when the cameras disappear, so do they. What are they actually doing to quell the violence.

We pay good money to them and they should also be held accountable for the violence. Obviously what they are doing isn't working and it is time to try new ideas so that we as taxpayers start getting our moneys worth from those that have their hands out for the grant money.

And I am not a big believer in State Police coverage when the going gets tough, That money spent on Troopers coming in would me much better spent given to HPD for additional overtime for officers who already know Hartford's streets and its players. With that being said though, WE NEED HELP !!!!

I know for a fact that no request has been made to the State or the Governor's Office for assistance of any kind. Why not? When people are dying in Hartford's streets with 22 bullet holes in them from gunshots, it is clear that the situation is out of control.

How much overtime has been spent on the Intelligence Division at HPD to track these guns? How much has been spent on overtime for Vice and Narcotics to make a real dent in the drug trade that is fueling the violence. The answer is pretty much none, it is business as usual.

How many Community Service Officers and Conditions Teams are being given overtime to attack the hotspots in their areas. Pretty much none, more business as usual. The only overtime being spent is out of necessity for the Crime Scene Unit and Major Crimes detectives to come back after the murders take place because they have to investigate them.

Reacting to crime is not called leadership, planning ahead, identifying trends and working to prevent these crimes is a sign of leadership. Putting egos aside and asking for help when it is needed is also a sign of leadership. The people of Hartford deserve that, at the very least.

Which do you think affects Hartford's image more, people seeing the Capitol West building or reading daily about Hartford's crime. I would guess that the "4 homicides in 4 days" headlines harm Hartford a lot more than any blighted building ever could. Maybe we should take some of the money that is going to be spent on legal fees for that Capitol West mess and get some cops on the streets to hammer the hot spots and send a strong message or prevention.

In the meantime, the Governor's Office is listed in the phone book, call and ask for some help.