What Does Hartford Need?

[Phillydog 80]

Hartford is a city with, it could be argued, too much going for it. It's ideally situated between NYC and Boston, the climate isn't too offensive, it's historic resources remain underutilized, and it remains home to several globally significant industiral and financial headquarters.

Physically, it lies along side an historic and visually dramatic river (something most American cities would give their left arm to possess.)

In any case, is there something else...something that if you could do anything without resistance, to make Hartford grow, prosper, and regain its place as one of America's greatest cities?

[Cotuit 0]

I know it is sooooooooo unlikely to happen in a New England city, but merger.

There are ways to unite New England Metro areas short of merger, but I think that New England cities and New England in general would benefit from more regionalism.

[M. Brown 0]

I think New England should be just one state. It would be soo much easier that way

[Cotuit 0]

I think New England should be just one state. It would be soo much easier that way

I think we should be our own country, and take Atlantic Canada with us.

[PghUSA 0]

Merge Merge Merge!!!

I'm sick of comparing cities when what we should be comparing is METRO AREAS.

What we are trying to do here in Pittsburgh is DIS-INCORPORATE then the county has to take us over, thus the city proper is also the county, although all the other suburbs remain they answer to PITTSBURGH CITY HALL cause there is no county its all the city/county of Pittsburgh HA HA HAHAHA. Sooooo Evil!

And hey Invade Raliegh-Durham and get your NHL team back, those traitors lol.

[Phillydog 80]

Merge Merge Merge!!!

I'm sick of comparing cities when what we should be comparing is METRO AREAS.

What we are trying to do here in Pittsburgh is DIS-INCORPORATE then the county has to take us over, thus the city proper is also the county, although all the other suburbs remain they answer to PITTSBURGH CITY HALL cause there is no county its all the city/county of Pittsburgh HA HA HAHAHA. Sooooo Evil!

And hey Invade Raliegh-Durham and get your NHL team back, those traitors lol.

Merge New England? Yikes. I don't I could stand having Boston as the capital. Egos there are already overinflated enough!!!!

I think Hartford, Springfield, and Providence should merge and then send an invasion force to Boston...

BTW, the Whalercanes seem to be doing pretty good in Raleigh. I went to game this year and the noise in that place was louder than anything I ever heard when they were in Hartford.

[BigCityAttitude 0]

I think we should be our own country, and take Atlantic Canada with us.

It's neat that others think like me. I think New England should try to secede along with New York, like they did before the civil war. Too bad they weren't successful... I never thought about taking part of Canada, but I guess it works out. Many northern VT and NH would get benefits for the opportunity of commute to Montr

[swags 0]

What would you define Atlantic Canada as? Because in my definition, Montreal is not part of Atlantic Canada. When I think of AC, I think Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland. Not Quebec...

[Cotuit 0]

Yeah, Atlantic Canada doesn't include Quebec, but the frenchies in Maine might try to get them to come with us.

[BigCityAttitude 0]

If it happened, which it probably won't, it would be better for the 'country' if Montr

[Cotuit 0]

Well if we took Newfoundland, they'd want to bring Labrador with them, although there is a border dispute between Quebec and Newfoundland over Labrador. So, to keep that from getting out of hand we better bring Quebec along. New England and Quebec are big trading partners and have strong ecconomic ties, it would be tidy to wrap them into the same country.

[PghUSA 0]

Whoa!

LOL I just meant consolidating the Metroplex there, watch yourselves you Patriots fans you, don't be gobbling up too much real estate just yet, just as long as you keep it east of the Alleghenies its all good, hey we will pay you to take Philly off our hands

[Evergrey 0]

Maybe Hartford could land some high-profile event like the Bassmaster Classic to reinvigorate the city.

[Cotuit 0]

Maybe Hartford could land some high-profile event like the Bassmaster Classic to reinvigorate the city.

I just read in the Courant that they lost the Bassmaster Championships to Pittsburgh. It was planned to inaugurate the new Convention Centre and was to be carried on ESPN (which is based in suburban Hartford). However, ESPN did say it was a close competition between the two cities and they definately want to have future events in Hartford.

[Phillydog 80]

Yeah, Atlantic Canada doesn't include Quebec, but the frenchies in Maine might try to get them to come with us.

"Frenchies in Maine", easy pal.

My guess is my Frenchies wouldn't want anything to do with those Frenchies OR the Anglos who burned them out of Acadia 400 years ago!

[Phillydog 80]

Whoa!

LOL I just meant consolidating the Metroplex there, watch yourselves you Patriots fans you, don't be gobbling up too much real estate just yet, just as long as you keep it east of the Alleghenies its all good, hey we will pay you to take Philly off our hands

OUCH!

[Phillydog 80]

What about those tiny little French departments off the coast of Labrador? Do we get them too, or do we just sink them and move on?

[CT-KID 0]

i voted for other and what they need to do is bring MORE people to the city to live, its only a working place, they need to bring it back up, make it a nice place, i live in CT and many people in my town commute to hartford daily for work, but after that, it becomes deserted, its doomed unless they can bring more people there with higher incomes, hartford has really great potential between location and transportation,etc. but none of its getting used, now with govenor rowland out (thank god) hopefully hartford can turn around and become a nice city with values and good recognition from others

[Cotuit 0]

Hartford is working to bring higher income people into the city. The problem is these are mostly young people, and are largely transient. These people may live in the city 5 to 10 years before finding a better job or wanting a house in the suburbs and moving on. To retain these people for the long term, and attract more stable middle and upper middle class families, Hartford needs to improve it's schools. This is a problem for every city in New England. The local funding formulas just don't cut it. There is not enough tax base in Hartford to bring the schools up to snuff. It's a chicken and egg issue, not enough taxes = bad schools, bad schools = the people who would bring that higher tax bracket won't come to Hartford.

[CT-KID 0]

i dont see what rebuilding historical sites would do, it wouldnt bring anything to hartford, because there not going to let development happen in historical areas, they should look at other neighborhoods (i.e. frog hallow, the north end of hartford, prospect street, etc.) that are known for crime and poverty and work on fixing those, go to the source of the problem, not something that has nothing to do with it, also restore that mall, dont demolish it, invest money in restoring broken parts of the city, not the old sections no one living in the city really care about, it would only make visitors and people in other towns happy, and not matter to the locals.

[PghUSA 0]

Golden opportunity for Hartford to get the Whalers back with the strike get the mayor and city council to don the old green whale tale unis and dare those NHLers in exile to beat them . . . you'd have the whole northern half of the hockey starved continent watching! Oh and sorry about the Ron Francis trade back in '90 but those cups are soooo purty

[Cotuit 0]

Well if the NHL does indeed collapse, perhaps Hartford could get in on a Canadian league. I think the Canadians would let the northern teir US cities play with them. Do they have a minor league team now, Providence and Springfield do I know.

[glassandsteel 0]

My suggestion, take it out of Connecticut.

[PghUSA 0]

aw that ain't right . . . CT is a one of the better states up there.

[glassandsteel 0]

I'm kidding. It's just that when you live in Providence, the 30-45 minute drive (depends on traffic and how fast you drive) to Boston seems long. Having just come back from Salmon, Idaho where it's 30 minutes to town makes the drive feel like less now. Regardless, everytime my friends and I would go to NYC we would have to go through Connecticut which is relatively wide compared to us. So it'd be a few hours (I know, poor me). I have always joked that if given the chance I'd magically crop out like 65% of the state. To all the people of my fine, neighboring state, I'd like to apologize. Good thing I didn't say anything about Massholes.

P.S. All is said in jest.

P.P.S. I don't know if I can say "Masshole" on this.