Little annoyances

[jcrc]

Every major city I've been too has cops visible everywhere, especially in the Downtown. I don't know why there are not always a few cops walking or standing near Trumbull and Asylum and other parts of Downtown.

Yeah but we got a lot of metermaids visible in Downtown writing beaucoup tickets I think we should have some cops on horses.

[HartfordTycoon]

Yeah but we got a lot of metermaids visible in Downtown writing beaucoup tickets I think we should have some cops on horses.

We used to. I remember the cop, Officer Donald who used to come to my street on his horse and steal bites from the apples we had for the horse. That's was cool as a kid though. They should bring the mounted division back.

[drc72]

We used to. I remember the cop, Officer Donald who used to come to my street on his horse and steal bites from the apples we had for the horse. That's was cool as a kid though. They should bring the mounted division back.

Yeah I always wondered were the horse police went too.

[ctman]

panhandlers in hartford seem to be pretty aggressive. i've been approached while getting ketchup in mcdonalds at cityplace and while on my cell phone in front of cityplace. very annoying. the worst one was on albany ave stopped at a stop light when one came up to my car. my windows were down and wallet was on my passenger seat. i told him to 'get the #@#$ away from me' and he did. I refuse to give them a dime, no mater how creative the story. was stopped at old statehouse and told a sob story how he and his wife were up from san diego, they both graduated from san diego state and needed a couple of bucks for diapers for his kids. usually i cut them off and say i don't have anything. only once was i pressed further after saying no, i turned around, told him what i would do if he kept it up and suggested he move along, he walked away. its like this in any city, but they seem to be a bit more aggressive. maybe it's my boyish good looks?

[newlondonboy]

Ya know you may be on to something. Living on Long Island (the ultimate suburb) the last 2 and 1/2 years, I've sort of morphed into an ultra-suburban mindset.

that is why downtown needs a bid - business improvement district. because if the cops won't do anything, at least the monitors paid by the bid could move the panhandlers along and keep them away from tourists. unfortunately it will increase the cost of doing business downtown, but i do not see any other solution.

[paul514]

Panhandlers generally don't bother me, I just tend to ignore them. When I lived in Vancouver they were everywhere (much like San Francisco). Apparently they flock to Vancouver and Victoria from colder parts of Canada so that they can live outdoors year-round. I noticed this since many of them were Francophones. However, it doesn't scare people from living in the city and they're even in the upscale areas of downtown (hookers at night). It's what makes a city interesting. None of them ever harmed me, and some of them were real characters, so much so that I spoke with people on a forum from Vancouver about our favorite hobos, and everyone seemed to recognize the more prominent ones (including a woman with a pet duck on a push cart). I must admit though that I did get quite a few laughs at seeing newcomers or suburbanites appear so threatened by someone just because he or she was asking for money.

Some Advice on how to deal with hobos.

The people that tended to actually pay attention or offer money were usually suburbanites who felt threatened into giving money. So rule number 1 is ignore them and don't make eye contact, or else they won't stop badgering you until they get money.

Don't give them anything because many times they are crackheads and will spend the money on meth, heroin or something else anyway. Especially don't take out your wallet, many will snatch it.

Don't show intimidation or fear, they prey on these people, they use this to their advantage.

Finally if you want to help homeless people, volunteer at a shelter or give your money to a charity that will actually help these people.

[SOCOM]

Panhandlers generally don't bother me, I just tend to ignore them. When I lived in Vancouver they were everywhere (much like San Francisco). Apparently they flock to Vancouver and Victoria from colder parts of Canada so that they can live outdoors year-round. I noticed this since many of them were Francophones. However, it doesn't scare people from living in the city and they're even in the upscale areas of downtown (hookers at night). It's what makes a city interesting. None of them ever harmed me, and some of them were real characters, so much so that I spoke with people on a forum from Vancouver about our favorite hobos, and everyone seemed to recognize the more prominent ones (including a woman with a pet duck on a push cart). I must admit though that I did get quite a few laughs at seeing newcomers or suburbanites appear so threatened by someone just because he or she was asking for money.

Some Advice on how to deal with hobos.

The people that tended to actually pay attention or offer money were usually suburbanites who felt threatened into giving money. So rule number 1 is ignore them and don't make eye contact, or else they won't stop badgering you until they get money.

Don't give them anything because many times they are crackheads and will spend the money on meth, heroin or something else anyway. Especially don't take out your wallet, many will snatch it.

Don't show intimidation or fear, they prey on these people, they use this to their advantage.

Finally if you want to help homeless people, volunteer at a shelter or give your money to a charity that will actually help these people.

All great points.

You know what's funny, I pass by panhandlers all the time when I'm in NYC, and never once did I feel an urge to give any of them money. In Hartford, the panhandlers are a bit different, more agressive I think. They come after you in Hartford whereas in NYC, from the 100's of panhandlers I've delt with, they are much more mellow. I suppose in NYC they are used to getting laughed at and shunned away, while the Hartford panhandlers have a much higher success rate, and therefore pursue people more often.

[runawayjim]

i have only given money to a few people... one was a guy in providence who was carrying a broken guitar and was asking for money to repair it. i gave him the loose change in my pocket about 75 cents. another time i was in new york and this college-aged kid, white, decently dressed followed me and the girl i was dating saying he needed money to buy a train ticket to LI. she was scared so she gave him $10. i told her he didn't really need a ticket. another time she gave some people in central park money for some "charity" (i think she gave $20 and i don't think it was a real charity).

more recently, i was approached in a parking lot in philly (i think it was walmart, stupid fiancee likes the place) and a woman asked for $1 and made it sound like she was gonna give me 4 quarters. so i gave it to her... she just walked off. i guess she does the same thing everyday.

the worse people are those who have signs that say "disabled vet" and they stand for hours on end in the sun on a street corner and look for money from cars. i think they should all be beaten and left for dead, they're the sleaziest. obviously they're not disabled if they're able to walk from car to car for several hours everday looking for money. i don't know if any of you go to guilford at all, but i used to work there. there's a walmart there, used to be bradlees, and i think a big y in the same shopping plaza. a woman used to stand out there with a crutch acting like she was so disabled for 6 hours a day at the entrance to this plaza with a sign looking for money. i used to yell nasty things at her all the time because people i worked with used to see her drive to the place in a relatively new car. she obviously wasn't disabled and obviously had the money. she just chose to get it from being a scumbag rather than work. i used to tell her to get a job in the grocery store since she could stand there all day she could stand being a cash register for 8 hours and get $9 an hour.

this is a problem in every city, some have it worse than others. NYC did a great job at getting rid of most of them when guiliani cleaned house. there have been some in providence that really bug me as well.

[ctman987]

A few weeks ago I was in the city with my family and my uncle and cousin. We finished dinner at Hot Tomatos and decided to take a walk. Outside of Black Eyed Sally's a man approached my mom and gave her a story of how he needed gas money and that he just got out of work (he has his pay slip), his car was in the west end or west hartford and he needed to get back to Southington. My mom...a Hartford native did not give this man any money and walked away from him, my dad though (he his a bit of a big heart) gave the man a few $ and on our way home we drove down Farmington Ave and saw him actually walking towards the west end.

I do see the occasional panhandler in Downtown Hartford, an intresting and annoying two panhandlers are (1) a man who I saw as I got right off the highway in downtown New Haven. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon and everyone was moving out of there Yale dorms for the summer, the streets were packed, but before you get to this gem you have to drive by this guy walking up to cars asking for money (2) the man who asks for money by the entrance to I-84E by the Westfarms Mall (i havent seen him in a while though)

....

A few more annoyances...

The fact that the city gives out so many parking tickets. In the local Hartford community paper it said something like one month the city gave out 2500-3000 tickets and the next they gave out 10,000. Way to attract people to downtown attractions, businesses, restaurants and bars.

I was driving home tonight and I was on Warrenton Avenue between Farmington & Sisson and I saw a Hartford cop car drive right onto the curb and onto the front lawn of a home there, get out of the car and started yelling at someone to come back and then he started talking to these people about something. What bugged me was how he just drove right up on the curb (drove up in a city vehicle, onto a city curb and onto a private property, all probably done by an officer who lives in the suburbs). Who is going to pay to fix police car when it's suspensio goes b/c its being driven like that? Who's going to pay for new tires? for a new curb? ....the city....but that's ok because theres more revenue coming in with all those tickets being issued.

[runawayjim]

....

A few more annoyances...

The fact that the city gives out so many parking tickets. In the local Hartford community paper it said something like one month the city gave out 2500-3000 tickets and the next they gave out 10,000. Way to attract people to downtown attractions, businesses, restaurants and bars.

I was driving home tonight and I was on Warrenton Avenue between Farmington & Sisson and I saw a Hartford cop car drive right onto the curb and onto the front lawn of a home there, get out of the car and started yelling at someone to come back and then he started talking to these people about something. What bugged me was how he just drove right up on the curb (drove up in a city vehicle, onto a city curb and onto a private property, all probably done by an officer who lives in the suburbs). Who is going to pay to fix police car when it's suspensio goes b/c its being driven like that? Who's going to pay for new tires? for a new curb? ....the city....but that's ok because theres more revenue coming in with all those tickets being issued.

the cop shouldn't have done that, but people who park illegally should be ticketed. it's a real form of income for a city. it's better to enforce parking laws than to raise property taxes. i wish providence would enforce more traffic laws (both moving and non-moving). while i hate the law that says no overnight parking on the street in providence, i wish they would just enforce it and ticket people who do, either that or start a city-wide permit program so i have to pay for a street parking permit. instead, we have high property taxes because they don't give enough tickets for both parking violations and for moving violations (stop signs, illegal turns, speeding, etc).

on the panhandler thing... there's a "disabled vet" who likes to bug cars getting off rt 2 in cambridge, MA and just walks car to car. i've found that if you don't make eye contact, they don't bug you, at least not the ones who try to get money from cars. i just don't understand why people ever give these people money.... 90% of the time, they don't deserve it. on a rare occasion, you will meet someone who legitimately needs money to get to his car or get home... but most of the time, they're just scum.

[drc72]

....

A few more annoyances...

The fact that the city gives out so many parking tickets. In the local Hartford community paper it said something like one month the city gave out 2500-3000 tickets and the next they gave out 10,000. Way to attract people to downtown attractions, businesses, restaurants and bars.

Your not kidding about the parking tickets. It's getting very, very, very annoying when I have to keep running out to the meter to fill it with money. A couple of weeks ago I stopped to do a quick job for a client downtown, I put in a lttle less than a half an hour of time in the meter, so I end up going over 10 mintues. Low and behold there was parking ticket. Hartford was never this bad before. The city needs to lighten up a little bit.

[SOCOM]

(2) the man who asks for money by the entrance to I-84E by the Westfarms Mall (i havent seen him in a while though)

I remember that guy from like 10 years ago! Damn, you'd think he would have gotten a job by now. If I recall correctly, he had a sign that said "will work for food". I used to drive by him all the time when I lived in West Hartford on my way to and from Westfarms. I bought him food on many occasions, I don't know if he ate it but I'd always bring him some food when I was driving by there. He seemed to appreciate it very much and never once asked me for money. Still, it's amazing how these bums just sit around and don't get themselves a damn job, even if it's McDonald's or something.

[Luca Brasi]

Good article in today's Courant on this subject:

http://www.courant.com/news/local/columnis...hc-utility-home

I have to add the unresponsiveness of the Hartford Police. Twice I have called police for break-ins only to have them never show up after waiting a couple hours. Inexcusable.

[jcrc]

Regarding parking tickets being issued, I was told that Hartoford contracted some private firm to do the ticketing, and it has resulted in very agressive enforcement. Rather than just patrolling street by street, metermaids are marking down when time will expire on meters, and then make their rounds according to that which is why there are a lot people being ticketed with their time just expired. It's very annoying. By the way what is parking rate in downtown garages? I was in New Haven yesterday and it was $8.00 for the day in one of the downtown garages, and I noticed plenty of expired meters without cars being ticketed. It seems New Haven is much more visitors friendly when it comes to parking.

[robm324]

If you don't want to get a ticket, don't park illegally. I agree that this is an important piece of revenue for the city. I will say that a person should be given some grace period between the time the meter expires and when they get a ticket, maybe a half an hour?

I think it is unfair to characterize a city as visitor unfriendly just because they enforce their parking laws.

[runawayjim]

If you don't want to get a ticket, don't park illegally. I agree that this is an important piece of revenue for the city. I will say that a person should be given some grace period between the time the meter expires and when they get a ticket, maybe a half an hour?

I think it is unfair to characterize a city as visitor unfriendly just because they enforce their parking laws.

half an hour is a long time to allow someone to park illegally when spaces downtown are usually 2 hour spaces (i don't know about hartford, but providence and new haven are this way). i say no grace period because how are the meter maids supposed to know when the meters expire and how long they've been expired for. having this grace period allows anyone to park for half an hour for free in the city giving the city no revenue (not even the quarter).

if you're not sure how long you're going to be, put in extra money, it's simple and will cost you no more than an additional $0.50. i think that's a little easier than paying a $25 parking ticket.

[robm324]

half an hour is a long time to allow someone to park illegally when spaces downtown are usually 2 hour spaces (i don't know about hartford, but providence and new haven are this way). i say no grace period because how are the meter maids supposed to know when the meters expire and how long they've been expired for. having this grace period allows anyone to park for half an hour for free in the city giving the city no revenue (not even the quarter).

if you're not sure how long you're going to be, put in extra money, it's simple and will cost you no more than an additional $0.50. i think that's a little easier than paying a $25 parking ticket.

Well put. I agree.

[jcrc]

Let's just say of all the things city of Hartford are not efficient at, it is very efficient at issuing tickets. The reason for this efficiency is very simple - Hartford needs money, and this is a easy and fast way to get it. For a city that is trying to attract people to come in, aggressive meter enforcment does not help. Rightly or wrongly, getting a ticket leave a bad taste in people's mouth, and next time they just might go to New Haven, West Hartford or mall instead of ticket happy Hartford. In the long run it's not the smart way to raise revenues.

[SOCOM]

For a city that is trying to attract people to come in, aggressive meter enforcment does not help. Rightly or wrongly, getting a ticket leave a bad taste in people's mouth, and next time they just might go to New Haven, West Hartford or mall instead of ticket happy Hartford. In the long run it's not the smart way to raise revenues.

Agree 100%.

[HartfordTycoon]

Let's just say of all the things city of Hartford are not efficient at, it is very efficient at issuing tickets. The reason for this efficiency is very simple - Hartford needs money, and this is a easy and fast way to get it. For a city that is trying to attract people to come in, aggressive meter enforcment does not help. Rightly or wrongly, getting a ticket leave a bad taste in people's mouth, and next time they just might go to New Haven, West Hartford or mall instead of ticket happy Hartford. In the long run it's not the smart way to raise revenues.

I agree, especially if they are intentionally targeting cars where they know the meter is about to expire and then double back in 10 minutes to put the tickets on. I mean jeez. Gimme a break. Give a person the benefit of the doubt that they will come soon, then if they don't give them a ticket. It shouldn't be that difficult since they are so efficient and keep track of the almost-expired meters so well.

[runawayjim]

Let's just say of all the things city of Hartford are not efficient at, it is very efficient at issuing tickets. The reason for this efficiency is very simple - Hartford needs money, and this is a easy and fast way to get it. For a city that is trying to attract people to come in, aggressive meter enforcment does not help. Rightly or wrongly, getting a ticket leave a bad taste in people's mouth, and next time they just might go to New Haven, West Hartford or mall instead of ticket happy Hartford. In the long run it's not the smart way to raise revenues.

i still stand by what i said. i don't care if a city is trying to attract people... allowing them to illegally park causes 2 problems.

1. it takes away parking spaces from people who would otherwise legally park (and give the city proper revenue).

2. it allows people to block fire lanes.

parking meters are there for a reason, if you don't use it, it's your own problem, everyone who has been to any city knows that if you don't make sure your meter has enough time on it, you risk getting a ticket. how much does it cost for 2 hours of parking in a meter? $1? $2? come on, if you have time to go visit a city, you have time to put a few quarters into a meter. if you don't know that almost every city uses meters and parking tickets as revenue, you probably shouldn't be travelling into a city anyways. you could always park in a garage if you're afraid of getting at ticket, but a garage usually costs several dollars for 2 hours while a meter usually costs under $2 for 2 hours. i know people who get tickets every time they go to boston, does it prevent them from going? no. should they know better by now? yes.

[HartfordTycoon]

i still stand by what i said. i don't care if a city is trying to attract people... allowing them to illegally park causes 2 problems.

1. it takes away parking spaces from people who would otherwise legally park (and give the city proper revenue).

2. it allows people to block fire lanes.

parking meters are there for a reason, if you don't use it, it's your own problem, everyone who has been to any city knows that if you don't make sure your meter has enough time on it, you risk getting a ticket. how much does it cost for 2 hours of parking in a meter? $1? $2? come on, if you have time to go visit a city, you have time to put a few quarters into a meter. if you don't know that almost every city uses meters and parking tickets as revenue, you probably shouldn't be travelling into a city anyways. you could always park in a garage if you're afraid of getting at ticket, but a garage usually costs several dollars for 2 hours while a meter usually costs under $2 for 2 hours. i know people who get tickets every time they go to boston, does it prevent them from going? no. should they know better by now? yes.

Well, it is annoying. I will start by saying that. With that said, I wouldn't blame the city for giving me a ticket if I was parked illegally, but some consideration would be nice. I never have change on me, so I often don't pay the meter at all if I'm just running into somewhere for a second. I do realize I am taking my chances though. On to another topic, they need to hurry up and install meters that accept Credit/Check Cards. I don't have a problem paying, I really have a problem with carrying change.

[runawayjim]

Well, it is annoying. I will start by saying that. With that said, I wouldn't blame the city for giving me a ticket if I was parked illegally, but some consideration would be nice. I never have change on me, so I often don't pay the meter at all if I'm just running into somewhere for a second. I do realize I am taking my chances though. On to another topic, they need to hurry up and install meters that accept Credit/Check Cards. I don't have a problem paying, I really have a problem with carrying change.

i think providence has some of those that are relatively new... they're nice. it's once big machine and you just put a tag on your dashboard that it spits out at you.

[Cotuit]

but some consideration would be nice.

I think it's inconsiderate to park illegally. You're taking a space that could be being used by someone else and not paying for it.

Considerate is providing parking for your private vehicle on a public road at a more than reasonable price. Taking advantage of that by overstaying your time is inconsiderate. You've had as much time as you said you would need as indicated by the amount of money you put in the meter. Why should there be a grace period?

i think providence has some of those that are relatively new... they're nice. it's once big machine and you just put a tag on your dashboard that it spits out at you.

Yes, they are in Newport too, though the roll out in Newport didn't go so well with the machines malfunctioning and being unable to access credit/debit cards.

[drc72]

Let's just say of all the things city of Hartford are not efficient at, it is very efficient at issuing tickets. The reason for this efficiency is very simple - Hartford needs money, and this is a easy and fast way to get it. For a city that is trying to attract people to come in, aggressive meter enforcment does not help. Rightly or wrongly, getting a ticket leave a bad taste in people's mouth, and next time they just might go to New Haven, West Hartford or mall instead of ticket happy Hartford. In the long run it's not the smart way to raise revenues.

I totally agree here. If Hartford is simply looking at people that park as revenue targets, than yeah it will leave a bad taste in peoples mouths. As I said earlier Hartford needs to take it easy with the tickets. You want people downtown, then don't annoy them!!!! I'm all for paying for parking, but come on cut me some slack if I am a couple of minutes late. I can understand if I am parked for an hour in the same spot and I don't throw any money in, then yeah I deserve a ticket. No arguements there.