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Subsidy-Choked Hartford

Whaler0718

By Whaler0718
in Greater Hartford

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robm324 Whistle-Stop

robm324

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I like that Cohen writes articles that concentrate on Downtown and city proper issues, but he is an idiot. I guess he would prefer that buildings continue to deteriorate in neighborhoods, and continue to bring down property values. Sure stay with the status quo, Laurence, you moron.

I'm not saying the government should throw good money after bad in subsidizing projects, but the city, especially the neighborhoods, still needs a push by government to recover.

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Whaler0718 Whistle-Stop

Whaler0718

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I think he's got a very valid point. I'm all about rehabilitating downtown, and I think the government has a role, but it's a racket as long as we have the property tax scheme we do; these subsidies just help line pockets rather than actually rehabilitate downtown. All of the subsidies the state threw at these projects would have been better spent helping to lower the city's mill-rate ... then see how private money comes into town. As for housing--it doesn't matter what the stock looks like as long as the schools in the burbs are better; people can rennovate homes, they can't invent good schools. The city should tear down blight, but that's it; install a park and sit on the land until there's a private market to do something with it. If it's a historic building, that's a different matter, but no grand schemes beyond preservation should be hatched.

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htfdtimeforchange Unincorporated Area

htfdtimeforchange

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For anyone who doesn't think Cohen is on point, I would suggest you stop by Hartford City Hall and look at the campaign filings for Perez and the upcoming election in the City clerks office, they are open to the public. Out of the 160 contributors listed, probably less than 15 are Hartford residents NOT related to the construction industry. The majority are contractors, architects, organized labor, developers etc and probably 90% or better are from outside Hartford and have some connection to school building projects. Cohen is exactly right and the potential for corruption and "pay to play" couldn't be clearer

Talk about ethics.

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blackstone Whistle-Stop

blackstone

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For anyone who doesn't thing Cohen is on point, I would suggest you stop by Hartford City Hall and look at the campaign filings for Perez and the upcoming election in the City clerks office, they are open to the public. Out of the 160 contributors listed, probably less than 15 are Hartford residents NOT related to the construction industry. The majority are contractors, architects, organized labor, developers etc and probably 90% or better are from outside Hartford and have some connection to school building projects. Cohen is exactly right and the potential for corruption and "pay to play" couldn't be clearer

Talk about ethics.

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jcrc Hamlet

jcrc

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Ok, on the one hand we have Cohen who doesn't want this funding in fear of mayor's ineptness and or as some here suggested, corruption, on the other hand we have our mayor who needs money to reduce blights. Do we have an one armed candidate running for mayor?

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Lowerdeck Burg

Lowerdeck

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Here's an idea that could work...

Have the city hire a bunch of bored teenage and 20 something youth that would otherwise turn to crime, let them hand by hand tear down blighted buildings?

Hey, let the kids destroy things AND help the city at the same time?

If it was only that easy.

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Whaler0718 Whistle-Stop

Whaler0718

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Well, in a way you've got a point. Why not have a program to teach troubled Hartford kids a trade--namely, construction/renovation--and put them to work on some of these multi-families. At the end, they get to buy the building for some ridiculously low price. Oh, but wait, putting them to work would mean fewer jobs for the unions. Forget that idea.

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jcrc Hamlet

jcrc

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Well, in a way you've got a point. Why not have a program to teach troubled Hartford kids a trade--namely, construction/renovation--and put them to work on some of these multi-families. At the end, they get to buy the building for some ridiculously low price. Oh, but wait, putting them to work would mean fewer jobs for the unions. Forget that idea.
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Whaler0718 Whistle-Stop

Whaler0718

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Seriously, I support giving people a fair wage, but I think unions can be terribly short-sighted. My father used to work on the ramp at Logan airport and he said one airline would push out freight 3x faster than another because it used some electric gizmo. That airline was non-union. The slow one had a union that fought tooth and nail to keep that tool from coming over to their hangar because the last thing they wanted was greater efficiency.

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jcrc Hamlet

jcrc

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Heh, that's not how Unions work, brother, there is no such thing as "volunteer". Volunteering is looked at as erosion of the job market, meaning doing work for free that a Union person could get paid for. Union people get paid decently to do their craft, enough so that they won't do it for free....
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