Wauregan Hotel in Norwich gets national honor

[damus]

http://norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../604250309/1002

Good news from Norwich. This is one of the handful of great treasures left downtown. The Hotel used to be the finest in all of Norwich (which for a long time was one of the richest cities in the nation), having hosted the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, and Frank Sinatra. It was turned into low income housing and rotted away poorly kept until a fire nearly destroyed it in the early 1990s. Now it's going to be converted back into low income housing. Not the best project for Norwich, but it's a start. They'll be receiving a $50,000 grant to go towards restoring the ballroom.

[damus]

NORWICH

[HartfordTycoon]

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.d...NEWS01/60510008

Doesn't seem like much of a big deal. I guess whatever publicity the city gets is good, though.

It's a really good thing. You have to take the projects one at a time in the city.

[damus]

Bulletin - Norwich ready for Wauregan

Day - Norwich officials marvel at rebirth of Wauregan

The renovated building offers apartments with below-market rents to tenants on fixed incomes.

[HartfordTycoon]

Bulletin - Norwich ready for Wauregan

Day - Norwich officials marvel at rebirth of Wauregan

The renovated building offers apartments with below-market rents to tenants on fixed incomes.

[damus]

Will they ever build some "affordable housing" for the middle class? I can't afford the good stuff and supposedly am too rich for the discounted stuff, so I'm stuck paying for the still overpriced crappy leftovers of whatever housing options are left.

In this area, some one will have to come along. We'll need a lot of places (presumably in Norwich) for the low income workers to go. There will also be an influx of those "in the middle". As it stands we already need hundreds more low income housing units. When the Foxwoods expansion and Utopia open, the demand will only rise.

I'll repeat what I think the best way/place to do this is. Not far from waterfront hotels and condos in mixed use developments with ground floor retail within walking distance of a "fareless" streetcar line running between the Sun, downtown, and Utopia. It would work. It should be advocated. With enough cops on the beat and zero tolerance to crime coupled with increased foot traffic from residents and visitors shopping and going to smaller attractions and hotels, we would not see a "Greenville section of Norwich" drug/prositution situation arise. It would be as "Utopian" a way to deal with the influx as anything.