Real Hartford

Anti War Events Today

Just a reminder that everything starts around 11:30.

Green is the new Green

Last year I read about a place in Pennsylvania that gives people incentives for recycling. It was really a matter of examining what was not working. Appealing to altruism was a wash. Asking people to think about their children and the future was not effective. Rarely enforcing the law by fining those who throw recyclables into the trash was not working either. What always seems to work? Bribery. Given the chance to earn giftcards for doing something so simple as rinsing out a few jars and putting them in a different bin from the garbage, people responded.

Today’s Courant reports that Hartford will begin doing the same. Not all of the city, of course. Like the free wifi that we were supposedly all going to have after its success in select areas, it seems like this will be another doomed-from-the-start project because of the mayor’s lack of commitment to it, as shown in choosing to pilot it in only a few neighborhoods first.
Continue reading Green is the new Green…

Reflection on Rachel’s Words

I was born the same year as Rachel Corrie, the dead woman whose letters home I read at the Quaker Meeting House tonight. I am thinking a lot about parallel lives these days. Maybe parallel is not the right word for it, but I can’t think of a better one. When I watched Persepolis, I thought about how Marjane, only a few years older than me, grew up in a war zone. What I feel about this cannot be described as guilt. It’s more like awe. There are some overlaps between us, despite what would otherwise be lives defined by opposite sides of the planet. The punk scene seemed to interestingly save and alienate us both. Being headstrong and vocal got us both into trouble. Yet her adolescence was wrought with gender-based oppression, bombs, and just a generally stifling and dangerous environment. My run-ins with peers at school over pieces of my own identity were nothing in comparison. I never had to fear imprisonment for speaking out. Continue reading Reflection on Rachel’s Words…

Fake St. Patrick’s Day

I didn’t realize the extent to which pubic drunkenness was a part of St. Patrick’s Day. I mean, I know people drink, but I guess that I expect individuals outside of college bars to know how to hold their liquor. In my little night downtown, this is what I saw/experienced:
-man speaking with a fake Irish accent putting his arms around me and a friend and guiding us into Vaughns, yelling to the staff to “let these birds in for free.” (We blushed, giggled, and ran the hell out of there once that guy left)

-someone stumbling into the side of a port-a-potty
-a few couples having verbal arguments in the street
-lots of staggering people
-someone chugging ketchup from the bottle in the restaurant that we decided to eat at. He was being egged on by friends, and then a neighboring table that I’m assuming didn’t know him, cheered and handed him another bottle of ketchup. In between chugging, he started singing that song “I’m not going to write you a love song because you asked for it” really really really out of tune. Like seriously out of tune. I could have done a better job. Then, he proceeded to run out of the place and broke the door.

I don’t have any crazy antics of my own to report, and I prefer to keep it that way.

If anyone’s interested, I’m pretty sure the St. Patrick’s festivities are going to continue on for the next few days. If green beer is your thing, I’m guessing you can get some tomorrow and Monday.

Cross-Pollination

I reviewed an environmental magazine at Undercurrents.

A Meandering Post

So, I’m trying something different with comments now. I had totally forgotten about changing code (d’oh!), so now I’m going to play around with different comment features. It may be a spam nightmare, but at least people will be able to comment without registering themselves.

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The other day I mentioned the illegal dumping that people are fond of doing in the parking lot here. Well, it happens all over the city, as Helder Mira shows us. While you’re over at his site, check out the other photos he’s taken.

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Because I’m a late bloomer, I saw Persepolis for the first time only yesterday. In fact, it’s been the only film I’ve felt compelled to see in the theater in months. I’ve read pieces of the graphic novel while tutoring students who have had it assigned to them, and had been wondering how they would make a film out of it. To me, it worked: subtitles, in French, punk and metal music, mostly black & white…I loved it. For one, the French was a dialect that was slow enough for me to actually understand some of. I’ve tried understanding other French films, like Amelie, and the pace is too quick. Of course, with subtitles it doesn’t really matter, but I’d like to believe my semesters of learning French were not an entire waste. Anyway, they did a great job of coming the very serious issues (war, revolution, oppression of women) with humor. This is playing at Real Art Ways until Wednesday.

Welcome to South Green

I wanted to put up more photos of my neighborhood, really to show that there is something between the “ghetto” and the gentrification in Hartford. There is an in between that I think many people here live in, where it’s typical to be woken up by some obnoxious individual’s subwoofer-on-wheels, rather than by gunshots. Usually, I just see people doing strange things.

On March 12th around 9:30pm I witnessed a man in his early twenties who did not appear to be homeless (clean shaven, well-dressed, and looked healthy) pissing next to a blue mail drop box on the corner of Hudson and Park Streets. Almost every afternoon there are men in the parking lot fixing cars. My theory is that this is a chop shop, but my roommate thinks it’s probably just an illegal d.i.y. “shop” that involves legitimate services, but without the licenses and taxes. There’s also invisible litterbugs that plague the area. I never seen people actually throw stuff down, but my backyard is pretty nasty if I don’t constantly pick up wrappers from things. Judging from what these things are (juice boxes, soda cans, and candy wrappers) I’m going to put the main suspects between the ages of 8-16. They are probably also guilty of stealing dollars out of their mothers’ purses so they can go to the store and buy this crap. I never littered, but I know all about maintaining a sugar high during those important years of growth. I suppose I could always go out back and lecture them on how they are stunting their growth, and use myself as a prime example.

Other activities of people in this area: yelling at the street, prostitution (which explains the random condoms in the parking lot, I think), budding gangs that basically exist just to write graffiti on buildings, paintball, driving illegal vehicles down street (quads, dirt bikes, etc.), jaywalking (of course), curb shopping (guilty as charged), schlepping around bags from C-Town, randomly ring doorbells asking for people who do not live there, and using the car horn as a doorbell. There are also some people who like to have very loud arguments out in the street. I’d say this happens once every few months, but I’m not home 24/7 to say for sure. It’s almost always females fighting, or young teens. From what I can tell, it’s also mostly yelling and posturing, which I can be thankful for.

South Green is a small neighborhood wedged between Downtown, Frog Hollow, Barry Square, and Sheldon-Charter Oak. The area seems to be contained between Barnard Park, Colt Park (but doesn’t include Colt Park), and Hartford Hospital. This area has about 2600 people, only about 53% of whom have completed high school. There is a 31% poverty rate for families in this area, which is higher than the poverty rate for the city of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.

There are also a ton of small yip-yip dogs in the neighborhood. I don’t hear them often, but if I look out the window, 75% of the time there is somebody bringing their Chihuahua or Pug out. Most people seem to be moderately friendly (you know, by New England norms), except for the few on the street who are involved in the street economy. They don’t get the welcome mat rolled out for them.

The OMaxfield site has more photos and blurbs about all of the city’s neighborhoods.

Insta-Crime Blotter

Reporting that there is some loud dispute on Alden Street. About three cop cars just showed up. The women fighting are all the way on the other end of the street, but they are loud, and apparently very fond of using the word “motherfucker.”

Story at 11.

Can’t Get Enough

If you are craving even more photos of the flowers at Elizabeth Park, check out Heather’s blog. If only someone could invent a way to scent-blog we could capture the whole experience.

Elizabeth Park Off Season

Continue reading Elizabeth Park Off Season…