Jump to content

Unspoken Problem with Downtown Hartford


grock

Recommended Posts

I was talking to an investor about what he perceives to be a major obstacle to downtown development, a white elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. That would be public housing and homeless shelters. There is a project right near Front Street between Charter Oak. He believes that is a deterrent to people flocking to build around there. How can they put upscale housing right next to public housing? The shelters on the way to the Colt Building are the reason you don't see people wanting to invest there. There are no major retailers or restaurant or hotel chains rushing to build there or to become a part of Front Street or Colt because of that. Same for the housing project on Wadsworth Street/Hudson between Hartford Hospital and the Bushnell. Look at the vacant lots there that are prime development. The city is going to have to make a decision and a tough one as to what it wants to be. Does it want downtown to be the home of public housing or something upscale? Both will not work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 42
  • Created
  • Last Reply

There is a huge difference between low income housing and homeless shelters.

The place that grock is referencing is home to many of the cities sex offenders.

When I was doing some research on crime in the city because of buying a house. I also did a search in the sex offender registry. There was one area that kept popping up so it made me curious, and I found out it was in what I thought was the area with the most potential. Its that homeless shelter over near capewell, colt and front street.

In some ways I agree that something needs to be done, but if you guys have been paying attention you might have heard a few rumblings about the mayors plan on homelessness. they have something in the works and I do not know what it is. I know where to find out, though. if you go the Hartford Lyceum web site there is a link I never clicked.

I would love to see the shelter moved but, well it needs to be placed somewhere. It seems the North Meadows makes the most sense, but don't the people in the N meadows have it bad enough? I suppose if there could be a way to put it up there near that jail and then place a police sub station near by and of course provide all the necessesary counseling and such to the homeless.

I dont know but it generally just sucks that hartford has so many people who have completely lost their way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are also several property owners who do not care about their properties. There are a few on Elm near the old muni and some on Wadsworth and Cedar, and on Buckingham who have let their properties become eyesores. The low income housing between Cedar and Wadsworth is very dark at night and sketchy looking.

I'm sure some cities have low income housing in the middle of downtown, but it doesn't work in Connecticut. Why do yuou think the developers of Blue Black Square fought it tooth and nail. They told the town their project would not work if they were forced to have affordable housing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure some cities have low income housing in the middle of downtown, but it doesn't work in Connecticut. Why do yuou think the developers of Blue Black Square fought it tooth and nail. They told the town their project would not work if they were forced to have affordable housing.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As horrible as this sounds, Hartford needs to "hide" the "less desirable" people in the city. By this I mean that the people who fear downtown do so out of ignorance, but they also do so because downtown appears too rough for them.

Think of the bus stops at the old state house and CCC. Many white suburbanites see groups of brown people standing outside at a bus stop as neer do wells, and would not concider living near there or even walking by the bus stops. If the city made a point to put the bus stops on slightly less visable streets and made a point to make the most attractive and well traveled streets cleaner and appear safer to the paranoid suburbanites things would change downtown.

Most of us here know downtown is safe, but most people do not see this because when they do come downtown they assume every black or hispanic kid in a hoodie is looking to rob them. and to boot they see a croud of these kids in front of the old state house.

people feel reletively safe on pratt and Allyn because there are no bus stops.

its sillyness, but the reality is that suburbanites are the target audience for downtown.

lets market ourselves better while we work on cleaning up some of the areas that are legitimately still too dirty to show visitors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As horrible as this sounds, Hartford needs to "hide" the "less desirable" people in the city. By this I mean that the people who fear downtown do so out of ignorance, but they also do so because downtown appears too rough for them.

Think of the bus stops at the old state house and CCC. Many white suburbanites see groups of brown people standing outside at a bus stop as neer do wells, and would not concider living near there or even walking by the bus stops. If the city made a point to put the bus stops on slightly less visable streets and made a point to make the most attractive and well traveled streets cleaner and appear safer to the paranoid suburbanites things would change downtown.

Most of us here know downtown is safe, but most people do not see this because when they do come downtown they assume every black or hispanic kid in a hoodie is looking to rob them. and to boot they see a croud of these kids in front of the old state house.

people feel reletively safe on pratt and Allyn because there are no bus stops.

its sillyness, but the reality is that suburbanites are the target audience for downtown.

lets market ourselves better while we work on cleaning up some of the areas that are legitimately still too dirty to show visitors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it does sound a bit horrible, coming from someone who was once a brown kid waiting at the bus stop after school to know that I'm what has been keeping Hartford down all this time! J/K, I get what you are saying, I just don't really know how to address some of these issues. We can't overburden the people who wait for the bus and have them walking 2 or three extra blocks after a long day. We also can't stick the bus stops in some dark back alley so as not to startle folks, because the bus stops would become more dangerous for the kids if they are too out of sight. I wish we had a train system, and the kids were waiting in an enclosed platform somewhere, that would be an improvement for all. But, that's not going to happen in Harford, so here we are. What to do, What to do?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You've got to be kidding me with moving the bus stops?!?!?!?!?!

As a whitey who waits by the Old State House everyday with many "brown people" this is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Bus stops are part of the fabric of a city. We need to encourage public transportation not handicap it. Combining the stops along Travelers and the Old State House would be a nightmare. The Travelers stop is where the northbound express buses stop and the Old State House is the local bus traffic.... the queues would be insane.

As far as anyone afraid of walking by us (yes I'm including myself along with my other bus peeps), I say, F them!

I appreciate the sentiment of the original post, yes certain facilities should be considered for relocation if it truly is impeding development. That said, I've worked for fortune 500 companies in Boston with their HQ next to soup kitchens and shelters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I gotta say that regardless of the moral and social issues associated with this, There are some small changes that would make some positive differences. For one, we have bus stops at Capitol community college on both sides of the street, and this is a place that bus stops make sense, but maybe the stop should be moved a little further north, and a nicer more substantial bus stop could be built along the edge of that flat parking lot. Also across the street on that dead piece of streetscape a complimentary stop could be built.

furthermore, there are stops at the old state house as well as in front of the UTC building. If these stops were combined and moved over by the UTC stop and across the street at Travelers.

Sure This means that if you worked in State House square you would need to walk 1 more block in either direction, but I think 1 block is not the end of the world. What this also does is it would clean up the look of the main public area by removing the shelters. Would the stop by UTC and CCC become less desirable to the paranoid suburbanites? sure I guess so, but they likely would see two isolated places they dont want to walk 4-5 blocks apart rather than a 4-5 block strip they do not want to walk near.

As far as the homeless thing

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-senbi...2,0,77136.story

todays news :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are also several property owners who do not care about their properties. There are a few on Elm near the old muni and some on Wadsworth and Cedar, and on Buckingham who have let their properties become eyesores. The low income housing between Cedar and Wadsworth is very dark at night and sketchy looking.

I'm sure some cities have low income housing in the middle of downtown, but it doesn't work in Connecticut. Why do yuou think the developers of Blue Black Square fought it tooth and nail. They told the town their project would not work if they were forced to have affordable housing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is both. Downtown proptery owners have an obligation to keep their properties from looking blighted. There are too many bus stops. They should be spread apart more. You can't have people littering in front of the Old State House or the Wadsworth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is an old joke at City Hall that Hartford would solve so many of its problems if we could have the police station and the downtown homeless shelters switch places. Only in Hartford would the decision be made to put three homeless shelters downtown and put the police station way out in the North Meadows.

Sad.... but true.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who is a downtown police officer. He told me that a majority of the panhandlers, car break-ins and other nuisance crimes originate from the residents at the downtown Y. Hopefully, now that it is not being used for housing anymore, we'll see some of that crime go away this summer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again the Voice sounds unreasonable.

I personally would love to move the bus stops.... back on State Street along with the Isle of Safety. But they need to be right in the middle of the city. I don't care what kind of people are there, they are people and this city needs to have people on the streets as much as possible. Anyone would feel safer on Main Street with 10 trashy looking folks waiting for a bus than Main Street with nobody around (no witnesses...). Seriously I walk past those bus stops everyday and never encountered a single issue. I DID however have a pushy panhandler the other weekend on Pratt Street. Irony. Nevertheless I was undaunted, not that I'm anything like a delicate flower from Farmington. My warning level on here proudly proves that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rather than hide Bus Stops, why not have more a police presence. HArtford doesnt feel that safe, too many guns in the hands of idiots, teenagers driving around doing 60 in 40mph zones.

A Mayor and Chief of Police who have the gall to say violence is down, when murder is rampant. I mean are these guys for real. You want a fix in Hartford? Does the City council really want a fix? Anyone ever have a real Job.....?

Get off the Parking Pack money, and put some parking downtown that is cheap and city subsidized. I'm talking a Dollar a day, Safe and light and no problems. get a cop or two walking around downtown. I mean jeez what is it like 4 blocks.

Help businesses grow. I was at a business convention and saw the Hartford booth. It was manned by some old guy in a 1970's Jacket and tie. It was like here is great representative for this town.

Lastly, Lets just turn West Hartford into the center of Activity, and turn the lights off already. The discussion gets tired.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amen. If they are scared of some people waiting at the bus stop there isn't much anybody can do to help them.

As far as the homeless shelter goes........why does it have to be in Hartford? Why not put it in Avon or Farmington?? They have plenty of space. The same goes for the methadone clinic. Don't think that there aren't any former suburban residents that are in those places. There was just a story in the paper about some rich CEO from New Milford that fell on hard times and ended up in a shelter in Bridgeport.

Everything the rich people don't want gets dumped in the city.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rather than hide Bus Stops, why not have more a police presence. HArtford doesnt feel that safe, too many guns in the hands of idiots, teenagers driving around doing 60 in 40mph zones.

A Mayor and Chief of Police who have the gall to say violence is down, when murder is rampant. I mean are these guys for real. You want a fix in Hartford? Does the City council really want a fix? Anyone ever have a real Job.....?

Get off the Parking Pack money, and put some parking downtown that is cheap and city subsidized. I'm talking a Dollar a day, Safe and light and no problems. get a cop or two walking around downtown. I mean jeez what is it like 4 blocks.

Help businesses grow. I was at a business convention and saw the Hartford booth. It was manned by some old guy in a 1970's Jacket and tie. It was like here is great representative for this town.

Lastly, Lets just turn West Hartford into the center of Activity, and turn the lights off already. The discussion gets tired.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, we could cut down on the bus problem by smashing more buildings down for parking lots so no one would need use the bus. That might help. Of course those who get into town late will have to park 1/2 mile or so away from their office. And then all the buses could be used to drive the homeless folks to the new large shelter built over the landfill. Kill two birds with one stone - use the ruined land and put the homeless where they won't bother anybody. The there's the problem of people just hanging around, if the bus stops are gone the might start using the parking lots. The only solution there might be a fence around all of downtown, with guarded entrances. If we landscape nice around the entrances then commuters will feel real comfortable because it will look almost as nice as the gates they drove out of when they left for work. As the downtown area grows, which now that everyone feels comfortable it naturally will, the parking lots will have to be moved further out, the walls moved and new buildings put up inside for the vibrant youthful people moving in. Ultimately there will be the issue of the downtown parking lots encroaching on the insurance companies territory, so we'll have to move level more of the neighborhoods and merge the lots. Since many employees bounce from one financial intstituition to another, they will be really comfortable because they can park in same spot and just walk to a different building. I haven't forgotten those who have to ride the bus everyday. A shiny new transportation hub can be put in just over the river and they can enjoy the wonders of nature as they walk acrosse the bridge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

with regard to buses, i don't think who or how many people are waiting for buses matters i don't care how big the buses are or how many buses are travelling, don't care where they are going. don't care about the noise the make or the sweet fragrance of diesel. don't care if they are silent. what makes me puke are the very, very ugly, needless, space eating, problem-causing bus shelters. if they don't have them in manhattan, why are they needed in hartford?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem I see with so many bustops is not the people taking the bus, but the unbelievable amount of trash people leave behind. Can't these people use trash receptacles? More bustops means more trash. It is amazing how much garbage is left behind at the Old State House, The Wadsworth and especially Constitution Plaza. People leave these areas downtown a disaster. Because of this, I'm all for consolidating bus stops... there are too many.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back to the unspoken problem of public housing and homeless shelters. Is it true CT cities such as Hartford, New Haven, Danbury are dumping ground for all CT's undesirables? Mayor of New Haven recently made such point, and I have read that here as well. But the State denied such charge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.