Real Hartford

Unreal

What is the deal with administrative/operating decisions lately at the Hartford Public Library? Weeks ago, there was criticism that librarians were not contacting the Hartford Police Department when circumstances indicated they might want to do so. Now, the Mark Twain Branch and Blue Hills Branch are closing, but a source quoted in the Courant makes it sound like there are political games going on:

Leo Laffitte, a representative of the library’s union AFSCME Local 1716, said Monday he does not believe that chief Librarian Louise Blalock intends to close the branches.

“She intentionally selected those branches because she knows community activists in those neighborhoods would not allow for that to happen.”

The union suspects that Blalock has inflated the number of layoffs and the amount of the budget gap.

“It’s a scare tactic,” Laffitte said.

The idea that this is all a mess created by pig-headedness and grandstanding does not sit well with me. It costs money to operate everything. We know that. Surely there are places to make cuts that do not involve closing branches. In the meantime, how’s about not toying with Hartford residents, who are dealing with enough garbage as it is?
The library finally got around to posting notices about the closures. Nothing like a little procrastination, y’all. Both say essentially the same thing:

Hartford Public Library sincerely regrets the loss of services at the Blue Hills Branch. The branch will close at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 3, 2008. Please visit the Albany Branch and the Library On Wheels for your library needs.

Albany Branch (1.56 miles)
1250 Albany Avenue (at Blue Hills Ave.)
(860) 695-7380
Monday, Wednesday 12:00 to 6:00 PM
Tuesday, Thursday 12:00 to 8:00 PM
Friday, Saturday 12:00 to 5:00 PM

Former patrons of the Blue Hills branch are referred to the Albany Avenue branch:

Summer Reading Program:
Student Folders will be transferred to the Albany Branch. The first 100 youth customers from Blue Hills visiting the Albany Branch to check out or report on summer reading assignments will receive round-trip bus fare reimbursement ($2.00) The Teen Leader you worked with at Blue Hills will be available to help you at Albany.

Likewise with Mark Twain Branch:

Hartford Public Library sincerely regrets the loss of services at the Mark Twain Branch. The branch will close at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 3, 2008. Please visit the Downtown Library and the Library On Wheels for your library needs.

Downtown Library (1.43 miles)
500 Main Street
(860) 695-6295
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Friday, Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 PM (October through May)

[…]
Summer Reading Program:
Student Folders will be transferred to the Downtown Library—3rd Floor Children’s Library. The first 100 youth customers from Mark Twain visiting the Downtown Library to check out or report on summer reading assignments will receive round-trip bus fare reimbursement ($2.00) The Teen Leader you worked with at Mark Twain will be available to help you Downtown.

The library is prepared to spend roughly $400 on bus fare. Giving a one-time bus fare voucher is more of an insult than any kind of proactive measure. This might get each patron to the library once over the summer, but it does not erase any inconvenience created by the situation.

Where else could money be saved? Continue reading Unreal…

On Foot

Yesterday I walked ten miles. I walked to work, the garden, and later to see a movie. Part of why I have been walking more is environmental, but part of it is that I prefer not to work four jobs simply to pay for gas. I took this photo today at the gas station on the corner of Broad and Capitol. I was cutting through the lot on my way to the farmers’ market, and not actually stopping there to buy gas.

Housing: Crisis and Rebates

Perez released this yesterday:



Hartford Rent Rebate Program to start on May 15, 2008
The Department of Health & Human Services will begin processing applications for the
Elderly/Disabled Tax Rebate Program on May 15, 2008 thru September 15, 2008. The
department’s Senior Services Division, which processed a record number of over 4000
applications last year, anticipates an increase for this year.

Continue reading Housing: Crisis and Rebates…

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…

Hartford Bookstore Closing

La Paloma Sabanera, one of the best places for coffee and organizing, will be closing on December 28th.  Luis writes that the closing is due to several reasons, including financial.

Is it too much to hope that some retired hippies with money buy the place out and preserve the community that La Paloma has helped build?

The Coca Cola Aetna Subaru Victoria’s Secret Camels Hanes Center

The Hartford Civic Center is changing its name, as is the case with many entertainment venues today. Rather than have it reflect the city or its purpose, the building will bear the name of an insurance company. As if the advertisements on the boards, floor, and zamboni were not enough…as if the penalties sponsored by such and such were not enough, now Hartford has another way that advertisement is being shoved down our throats.

So, sorry, that won’t happen here. “The Meadows” remains “The Meadows,” and the Hartford Civic Center will be referred to as such. Branding only works if people go along with it.

Greater Hartford Labor Council Endorses Candidates

The three Working Families candidates for Hartford’s City Council–Dr. Larry Deutsch, Urania Petit, and Luis Cotto–were endorsed yesterday by the Greater Hartford Labor Council. The GHLC has over 5000 members in the city. In Tuesday’s primary, only two candidates on the primay ballot received over 5000 votes–Ritter and Kennedy.

While the Democrats running for (and to retain their) council seats have been using crime as their big issue, with some mention of property tax and education, the Working Families party have named jobs, health care, housing, arts, and the environment as their top concerns.
Yesterday, Working Families candidates announced how they planned to develop jobs for Hartford residents:

• A “Green Jobs” public works program to retrofit existing public buildings and utilities for energy efficiency. The plan would create jobs and also produce long-term savings for the city.
• Stronger enforcement of local hiring requirements on city funded projects.
• Working with the Board of Education to develop a specialty school focused on training youth for construction industry jobs.
• Expanding the city’s Living Wage law to cover a broader number of jobs and projects, ensuring that more Hartford residents receive living wages and health benefits, not just poverty-wage jobs.

Their choices for how to foster job growth are interesting because they seem focused on the long term effects that such jobs might have in Hartford. This, at least on paper, sounds like an effort to do more than just attract young urban professionals into Hartford to grow the grand list with.