Real Hartford

“Uncle Eddie Wants You Home by Nine” “But Mom, You Said…”

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There’s been a lot to digest lately. My emotions about the violence in Hartford are similar to those I felt following 9/11. The violence saddens me. I don’t feel a lot of surprise or anger about the actual acts of violence. I reserve my anger for how people respond to the violence.

When the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurred (and if your theory is that the government had something to do with it, I think the word “terrorist” still applies), I tried to comprehend what the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people meant. I had to figure out if I even knew the same number of people as were killed. With the local violence, the victimization is more sporadic, easier to understand in terms of its possibility. I worry when I read the headlines that one of my students from Capital Community College, many of whom live in Hartford, will be among those either killed or doing the killing.

As with the terrorist attacks, I feel a range of disappointment-to-anger regarding how we are responding to the violence in Hartford. My political perspective is such that I must question whenever a new law or ordinance of some kind is introduced. Before asking if it’s a good or effective law, I have to think about whether it’s necessary to even have a law. Of course, this gets complicated because we live in a culture which, on the surface, pretends to be one of laws. Continue reading “Uncle Eddie Wants You Home by Nine” “But Mom, You Said…”…

Frankenstein’s Monster

Lately, all I’m hearing and reading about is how shitty the economy is right now. I’m not going to argue that.

But I have to disagree with the way we are looking at certain financial problems.

Just off the top of my head, I know that there are reports on how the Mark Twain House and Old State House have been struggling. Two branches of the Hartford Public Library have closed. A number of public school employees have been laid off. The state is having budgeting issues (which apparently means that some state employees get to currently work without having the security of signed contracts. Employees can get paid for what they have worked, but be told not to return for the rest of the term. source: personal experience). When hearing about each of these issues, the message I am receiving is that nothing can be done. Our hands are tied. The library does not want to take responsibility for their budgeting mishaps. Some politicians don’t seem to want to step up and do their jobs, which directly involve city budgeting issues. What’s more, the city has this image problem (exacerbated by the media on a nearly daily basis) which allows outsiders to justify letting everything here crumble.

Money problems are not the same as late stage cancer or earthquakes–there is, in fact, something to be done. Capitalism, the whole concept of money, and esoteric budgets involving huge sums are all manufactured, aka, they are all man-made things. This is America, and no matter how awful our economy is right now, we, as a country, are faring better than many places in the world. The American Dream myth of pulling oneself up by his bootstraps is flipped. If anyone has the ability to succeed in that way, it’s not the individual, but the larger entity–the organization or corporation. Continue reading Frankenstein’s Monster…

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…

Moving Toward Success in Sheldon-Charter Oak

Thanks to the Courant for running a positive story today that shows how one school has turned itself around.

Among the reasons for why students were doing poorly in the past: high teacher and faculty turnover, minimal parent involvement (no PTO), and children’s behavior. With dedicated teachers and intervention from a family resource aide, the environment has begun to change at Betances– and 80% decrease in discipline referrals.

What the article leaves out are some things that are alluded to on the Betances website: economic, ethnic, and racial isolation. The elementary school is located in Sheldon-Charter Oak, the neighborhood right next to mine. Sheldon-Charter Oak is about 28% Black and 53.2% Hispanic–only 17.4% White (non-Hispanic). This area has a poverty rate of 40.2%. That is above the 30.6% citywide poverty rate. The poverty rate for Connecticut is at 7.9%, and the racial and ethnic population is totally reversed from the trends in the city.

Sentenced to be Stereotyped

Hartford’s got issues.

Most places do.

But when a city has got issues, it seems that all sorts of classist and racist attitudes come leaking out the woodwork. Since the collapse of industrial work, the development of a car culture, and welfare to create suburbs (FHA), white Americans have emptied out of cities, leaving mostly racial minorities in areas of concentrated poverty. In areas where there is a smaller tax base (poverty=not getting to own a home many times), there is less funding available for education. The kids get sub par educations, can’t get into decent colleges, and have far more obstacles to overcome from the start than their suburban counterparts.

A few weeks ago I played a game with my college students. I read a few statements and asked them to make educated guesses as to whether the statement I just read was fact or opinion. Now, most of the students are coming from private schools or good public schools. Very few could tell what was fact and what was opinion, and these were not trick questions.

Knowing this must indicate some kind of trend, I should not be surprised when I see people respond the Hartford’s problems in a way that ignores facts.

There was a letter to the editor in the paper today with a sentence that made me stop, in awe, of the various ways that Hartford can be labeled a cesspool:

Perhaps the city already has a good school system, but defective and unruly students.

Continue reading Sentenced to be Stereotyped…

Lost in the Bad News

Just about ten years ago, Hartford Public High was put on probation due to structural problems in the school along with overcrowding. It was announced yesterday that HPHS was returned to being fully accredited, thanks to the huge renovation. This news was perhaps overshadowed by the reports of “dropout factories.”

No Racism in Hartford

At the Free Jena 6 rally on Saturday, several speakers spoke to how similar incidents can and do happen in Hartford. This is something that we know and understand, but the racism we see daily is usually delivered in such an underhanded way–environmental racism or having the city policed largely by non-residents.

But then yesterday, I had to deal with something at work. Continue reading No Racism in Hartford…

Movin’ On Up

It’s about time that CCC employees got vocal. The past few weeks, we’ve seen several articles and letters to the editor regarding the college.  Then, there’s the backlash– people saying nasty things along the lines of “There shouldn’t be a college in Hartford anyway.” Several years ago, when starting employment with CCC, a friend remarked that he’d heard it wasn’t a good college. No doubt many of these comments are made by people who’ve never been to CCC, have a vision that every college must have a sprawling green lawn (grass is part of the environmental problem!), or, and I hesitate to say this, harbor racist or classist ideas about who deserves access to higher education.  In today’s Courant, another CCC employee responds:

Cost Of Parking In Hartford

Gone are the lofty days when education and the arts were revered and measured not by cost, but by the enrichment bestowed on community and self.

Now it’s all about the money.

The Courant’s June 27 editorial “Be Fair To Downtown College” cited parking for faculty, staff and students at the Morgan Street Garage as an unreasonable cost of having Capital Community College in downtown Hartford.

If the city, through the Hartford Parking Authority, feels the need to charge such an exorbitant rate, perhaps the state should tighten up usage of its own parking lots and no longer allow free parking to the patrons who frequent the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, myself among them.

Quid pro quo, Mayor Perez?

Anne Romus
Newington
The writer is a staff member at Capital Community College.

mobster mentality

What teachers do off of school grounds should have no bearing on their careers, granted those things don’t involve harming children. But when you’re at work, you need to be on the top of your game. I’m no expert here, but I believe that letting kids get out of detention for a small fee is just possibly teaching them a very bad lesson.

Living Under Rocks

Anyone who thinks Connecticut is a liberal hotbed hasn’t tried bringing up the issue of civil rights lately.

The Courant describes it as Transgender Rights Bill Loses Momentum, but it seems more like people with no imagination putting on the brakes.

“Our classrooms have to provide the best educational opportunity for our students,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Witkos, a police sergeant from Canton. “Do you honestly think young people will be able to concentrate in the classroom if their teacher is dressed in clothing of their opposite sex? I think not.”

Do you honestly think young people concentrate on anything in schools these days?

But seriously, when those of us who can be role models start behaving as such, schoolchildren will not feel inspired to act like assholes toward transgender teachers. That idea can be applied to other cases too. Parents can start teaching their children to accept and respect others who might be gay or female (and when I stop hearing “pussy” used as a slur, I’ll believe we’ve reached that point). I don’t believe that Brown vs. Board of Education made people automatically accepting of integration, but the law and society had to work together. When the people with the power to change laws are too cowardly to do so, I must question the part of the anthem that says, “home of the brave.”

But wait, there’s more:

State Rep. Arthur J. O’Neill, R-Southbury, questioned how the provision might be applied in cases where students come to school dressed in clothing of the opposite sex and in cases where a boy might want to play on the school’s girls’ basketball team.

“Would the school district be obligated to let the student go to school dressed in that way?” O’Neill asked. “Where would the boy shower?”

Didn’t Title IX clear all of that up?

That “boy” would shower where every teenager or child who was feeling awkward about his/her body anyway would shower– in the empty stall way before or after everyone else. I’m really thinking back to junior high and high school on this one, but I personally never shared a shower or changed directly in front of anyone else. I know a lot of others would change in bathroom stalls to avoid being seen. Maybe the guy’s locker room is a different place, but I’m guessing that a male-to-female transperson might not be totally identifying with machismo culture to begin with here–just a guess.

Sounds like some people need to get educated.