Real Hartford

More than Violent Acts

Hartford cares. Hundreds from Hartford and surrounding towns showed up to prove this. In the crowd, I spotted a former student of mine from a few years back, a former professor of mine from even more years back, and two colleagues–one from each place I’m employed at. There was an unofficial bloggers’ seating section, where innocent, objective reporters were being plied with strawberries by an unnamed city official. Under canopies, a dozen community groups set up to hand out literature, candy, magnets, and let people know what they offered. Knox Parks Foundation, Rebuilding Hartford, My Sister’s Place, CREC, Community Renewal Team, and Hartford Public Access were among these organizations.

A “Wall of Commitment” (giant posterboard) was set up for attendees to write on. Many used this as a place to publicly promise to make changes in their actions as related to Hartford; others used it to say what they are already doing (what organizations they are affiliated with) or what they think about the city.

The two-hour long program moved rapidly, lagging only during the extended candlelight vigil toward the end. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra performed several times during the night– a pleasant surprise for me, since I’m not the type to seek out orchestra music (or whatever kids these days call it).

Ted Carroll, President of Leadership Greater Hartford (organizers of the event) gave the greeting, which also moved along. I don’t want to be the person to point this out, but there is some irony in thanking the Hartford Courant and WTIC radio for being media sponsors of this event, since the Hartford Courant along with other local media are part of why the national media picked up on recent incidents, causing damage the Hartford’s reputation. Some on the Courant staff have written meaningful columns after this, but we should remain critical of any outlet that would post video without any context. We live in the age of the internet, when material is quickly picked up and dispersed. Few bother to investigate their sources, as Christine, Heather, and I were discussing. False information gets spread nearly instantly, and is difficult to rectify later. It’s fine to be diplomatic if a company is giving money, but let’s not forget their own role in why the event has to happen at all– even with such a great showing of people from Hartford who do care about our community, I have to wonder how much damage this will undo.

MIRA and Mind Evolution, both spoken word artists, earned robust applause from the audience. MIRA performed “I Wish We All Had Daughters,” and Mind Evolution, “When I Grow Up.” There was dance, drumming, a puppet of what I believe was a Phoenix (it was a bird of some kind, I think), and a series of “conversations” (interviews and speeches).

Rabbi Donna Berman announced that there would be a second Hartford Cares gathering held at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in July. That one will allow the community more of an opportunity to be active in the conversation.

From my chats with people, there was a lot of surprise about the number of people in attendance and the racial diversity. A few thought that the “cheese factor” would have been way higher than it was. Actually, until the grand finale of dozens of adults and children crammed on the bandshell stage, singing and swaying, it really was not corny. And for those who must know, there was absolutely no singing of Kumbaya.
Continue reading More than Violent Acts…

“There’s too many cracks in the structure”

A follow-up piece on Nick Carbone, the man who was mugged on his way to breakfast a few weeks ago, is the headline story of the Courant today. The most interesting parts, of course, got buried toward the end of the story, so I’m going to highlight them here:

On the morning of his attack, Carbone said, he was thinking through how state lawmakers could assist people losing their homes because of predatory lending practices and subprime lending. The subject was one of the many issues Carbone has taken on in recent years. He has also been a significant player in the federal court dispute between city officials and citizens who have complained about police brutality.

His attack has not left him bemoaning his fate, but instead thinking about the root causes [bold in quoted material is mine, for emphasis] of urban pathology.

For about two hours Monday, Carbone focused his conversation with a reporter on factors that he thinks have fueled urban violence: predatory lenders; teenage pregnancy; incarceration; the release of inmates into the city by the state Department of Correction; failing schools and judicial systems.

Continue reading “There’s too many cracks in the structure”…

Danger is in the Eye of the Beholder

Amy, who clearly has to answer this question often, explains how a person might figure out if an area is safe or not. The top three things she advises future homebuyers to do:

1. Call the local police department to ask about crime statistics in the area.

2. Walk around at various times of day and talk to the neighbors. Feel free to knock on doors. People will be happy to tell you about their neighborhood, both good and bad.

3. Visit the area at night. What’s it like? The noise level, traffic level, pedestrian level, street lighting.

I’d like to add a few things to this. For those who have internet access, crime statistics are sometimes posted on police department websites. The Hartford Police Department posts their arrest log almost daily (they slack off on the weekends, but are usually consistent during the week) and updates the crime statistics-by-neighborhood weekly. There’s no reason to get caught up in the politically- and ego-driven infighting between mayor, chief-of-police, corporate media, etc. when we can access statistics for ourselves. Continue reading Danger is in the Eye of the Beholder…

What Residents Want versus What Residents Get

For the past four years, the City of Hartford has been polling citizens about quality of life issues. Although the demographics of the survey seem a little skewed (disproportionate number of elderly, caucasians, and downtown residents are represented), it is difficult to get people to respond at all to phone surveys, so at a certain point, I think you have to take what you can get. Some of the answers are not terribly surprising to me (especially regarding computer [40.8% do not have working computers in their homes] and home ownership[67.8% polled rent. The actual demographic of renters is even higher.]), and I would venture to guess that if the surveys more carefully reflected the city’s demographics, these categories would shed even more light on certain disparities. So, why would some groups be more represented in the survey? My guess would be time. The elderly have more time. People in higher income brackets with no/smaller families (downtown) are likely to have more time than those who are working class and/or have larger families.

There were 600 people polled for the survey. Of these 51.7% said they thought that Hartford was going in the right direction. The remaining people seemed to be nearly evenly split between uncertainty, and thinking it was heading in the wrong direction. The biggest problems in Hartford? Unaffordable housing, lack of homeownership, and speeding. Continue reading What Residents Want versus What Residents Get…

Tales from the Cesspool: Part Three

The embellishments and lies distributed in past days by the media only damages Hartford’s reputation. Posting video of a person lying in the street after being hit by a car seems to be in bad taste, serving no function, except ironically, to show that the reports do not line up with reality. As several, including Heather Brandon, have noted, the time lapse between the accident and assistance was about 90 seconds. People did help. Those people happened to be the police.

Before making all kinds of judgments, let’s hear some reasons for possible bystander inaction:
1. callousness and/or apathy toward fellow human beings
2. trauma from witnessing a kind of violence
3. ignorance of first aid (most people are not required by their jobs to be trained in this)
4. lack of cell phone (that would have been my reason for not calling 911)
5. assumption that someone else had already alerted authorities

In times like this, we can’t trust the media or total outsiders to carefully assess the situation. For all of the judgments cast on witnesses, one could ask why journalists, who routinely capture violence (sometimes preventable) on camera do not put their cameras down to help. Just saying.

There have been a few more sensitive and sensible responses to recent highly publicized incidents, as well as to other misinformation distributed by the media:

breaks it down for you on her blog:

What’s happening in Hartford is happening “to us all,” it’s just that you may not see the same kind of hit-and-run just anywhere as a case-in-point demonstrating the ills of today’s society.

The city does not have a monopoly on purely self-interested behavior. That’s an issue we can all own, rich or poor, highly educated or not, wherever we dwell.

sent out a press release days ago:

Mayor Eddie A. Perez is calling on the people of the City of Hartford to turn
their outrage into action in the wake of recent incidents that have plagued the Capital City.

In a news conference with city leaders, business owners, clergy, and family members of victims,
Mayor Perez says, “We are here to stand together as a community and a city and send a clear
message: We are not going to let anybody take away the progress we have made to make
Hartford a safer city.”

The group was unanimous in their feelings that the “City of Hope and Opportunity” is filled with
law-abiding citizens who partner with police every day to make Hartford more vibrant. That
was made clear by announcing the fact that four 9-1-1 calls were made within one minute
of an elderly gentleman being struck on Park Street.

Joining Mayor Perez were Council President Calixto Torres, Majority Leader rJo Winch,
Minority Leader Larry Deutsch, Councilman Luis Cotto, Angel Sierra of SAMA (Spanish
American Business Association), businessman Carlos Lopez, Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts,
Superintendent Steven Adamowski, and Bishop Jeremiah Torres. Together they shared their
feelings of devastation about the acts of violence and prayed for the families. Angel Arce, whose
father is the victim in the dramatic video, shared in this collective plea for Hartford to continue to
show compassion and bring this and other crime cases to justice.

Mayor Perez says, “As a community, we have made the city safer over the past few years,
however, it is also true that these terrible acts that have harmed our community show we still
have a long way to go. Again, we as a city must turn our outrage into action and become full
partners in the drive to build on our progress.”

When I write about these issues, I feel like I am in my classroom, teaching about logical fallacies. It’s no surprise why quite a few students enter with the belief that one can only be entirely for or entirely against something–society emphasizes this kind of thinking. It is possible to have many emotions while at the same time understanding facts and statistics.

reminds readers that witnesses might be hesitant to act because they could be sizing up the situation. If it is true that the hit-and-run happened after a car was following another at high speed, then there’s a chance that the situation was not over. Last year I called the police when there was some kind of dispute happening on the street. Of course, the cops never showed for that one. After the people involved seemed to disperse, they reappeared in the same location a few minutes later, having raced around the block. Thing is, it’s easy to judge a situation when one is not in the middle of it.

explains why there can be hesitation to call the police. This is something that I have experienced when witnessing various activities that could have been crimes, or could have been something totally innocuous. Obviously, someone hit by a car would need help, but we can’t pretend that everything that happens is that cut-and-dry. And, most importantly, I think is that we can’t pretend that Hartford is an island experiencing unique problems. Again, let me remind that insidious crimes occur in the suburbs, and people routinely turn their heads. Instead of it being a hit and run, maybe the crime is domestic violence, a young teen developing a drug addiction, or incest. To be honest, I’m more understanding of someone being emotionally paralyzed after witnessing a singular horrific accident or crime, than I am of someone who refuses to act during a long term problem.

So, while Hartford is being (once again) cast as the villain, wonderful things are happening here. I’ll get to that in a minute, but I think we can’t lose sight of this. Last week, someone was brutally mugged, someone else was hit by a car, and someone’s decomposed remains were found in a basement. But, I think the norm here is to help others out, to not rob, to not ignore a situation, to be friendly. From now on, I might keep track of how many days I am able to safely walk to work or elsewhere. I should document the ways in which people do not behave like barbarians, because nobody is going to get this perspective from reading the newspaper. My neighbors hold doors for me. They’ve helped me when my bag of groceries bust in the elevator. People say hello when they pass. It’s not perfect. There’s broken glass and dog shit on the sidewalk; people crank their music and drive recklessly…but the extremes of gross behavior that we hear about are not the norm. Not by a long shot.

On Thursday there was a discussion at the library about discord between gays and transfolk in the GLBTI community. (And for the record, I spent a few hours there beforehand, and did not come upon anybody having sex in the bathroom, looking at porn on the computers, or stealing books) Not everyone agreed on where the problem was or even how to resolve it, but the conversation was civil and interesting. There was talk about youth outreach (to prevent suicide and keep kids off the streets), being a triple minority (black, female, and gay), recognizing the different pieces of ourselves, not letting others define us (coming up with our own labels, whether they be “queer,” “trans,” “genderqueer,” etc), and how being a parent can complicate how and when we decide to come out. I forget who said it, but my favorite thing said was this: “People who were happiest were living their lives in an uncompromising fashion.” Amen!

I left the discussion a few minutes early to get down to the park so that I’d catch some of the blues festival. Talk about diversity! There were bikers, bicyclists, families, teens, and that after-work crowd. Between the police presence and ample portapotties, event planners went out of the way to make concert goers feel safe and comfortable.

There are plenty more reasons to come into Hartford this summer. The City of Hartford website lists some upcoming events. On Tuesday, CCSU’s Institute for Regional and Municipal Policy, Soujourn Theatre, and HartBeat Ensemble will be having a presentation with time for community discussion on why “Connecticut has lost more young adults ages 25-34, since 2000, at a faster rate than any other state in the country.” This will be from 8:30-9:45 in the Hartford City Hall Atrium, and from noon to 1:15 at the Legislative Office Building in room 2B.

There will be a series of free events at the Riverfront, including:

How to Build Community (Against All Odds): Part One

The Syracuse Cultural Workers created a poster which I’m sure many readers have seen before, but which I feel compelled to discuss regardless. The items in bold are on their list of ways to build community, and my comments are in a regular font.

Think of no one as “them”: Creating categories based on difference allows individuals to more easily justify the unjustifiable, to excuse the inexcusable. The result? When some kind of crime or wrongdoing occurs in an certain area or to a person who belongs to a different group (race, class, sexuality, ability, gender, religion, political affiliation, you name it…), it is not thought of as something that might concern all in society. Thus, it’s remains to be addressed in a productive way. The “answer” goes something like this: “avoid Hartford,” “bulldoze it and start over,” “more prisons,” “send criminals/undesirables to Springfield.” Those sentiments are not productive by any stretch of the imagination.

Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety: In my walks to work, I have felt discomfort. In my old neighborhood, I would pass a homeless shelter and park where people who were basically up to no good, or had no other place to go, would congregate. Even with the verbal street harassment which made the trip sometimes irritating, I never felt unsafe. Continue reading How to Build Community (Against All Odds): Part One…

City Business

Here are two press release items:

HARTFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT PROTOCOL
FOR ARREST/DETENTION OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
—NEWS RELEASE— (March 7, 2008)— The City of Hartford Police Department has established clear and decisive
guidelines to enforce a policy already in place regarding the detention and arrest of undocumented persons and/or illegal immigrants. Mayor Eddie A. Perez and Chief Daryl K.Roberts recognize and value the diversity of the community and want to dispel any rumors as immigration issues make headlines.

Continue reading City Business…