Real Hartford

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…

Out and About: Spring Flower Show

Thanks to Amy for the reminder that the Spring Flower Show is happening at Elizabeth Park.
Until March 20th you can go to the greenhouse between 10-2 to see and smell Spring.
I went up there today and must have chosen a good time because there were only a few other people there. Last year when I went, it was packed!
I got a bit photo-happy, since it was just so nice to be around living plants for the first time in months.

Continue reading Out and About: Spring Flower Show…

The End for Sprawl

Eduardo M. Penalver’s article, Beginning of the End for Sprawl? is a little more optimistic than I am about how soon people might return to sensible, urban dwelling, but he hits on the issues.

Here’s the thing– so many people will defend their way of life, even if it makes no sense. Continue reading The End for Sprawl…

How Does Hartford Get So Filthy?

A look at some mugshots of recently arrested “vandals” (whether spray painting is vandalism is something that I think is determined by what is being painting and what the message is) sheds some light into how graffiti ends up around downtown. While it’s lovely to think that all of the tagging that we see is done by Hartford residents, the reality is that, like dogs, not everyone wants to shit where they eat, so to speak. These two “criminals” are from Unionville and Simsbury.

Cool Heads

It seems like logic trumped emotion for a change.

Continue reading Cool Heads…

Anti-Sprawl in Vernon

The Vernon Planning & Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing for an application for a Home Depot at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 6, 2007 in the Senior Center auditorium, 26 Park Place, Rockville.

Diamond 67, LLC is applying for a 117,000 square foot Home Depot building with a 28,713 garden center at 117 Reservoir Road, Vernon near exit 67 off I-84.

The Home Depot application is a serious threat to Walker’s Reservoir and the Tankerhoosen watershed due to its size, amount of impervious surface and proximity to these important natural resources. The plan to use the existing septic system (the septic system previously used by New England Sportsplex) over an aquifer is also a threat.

The public will probably not have an opportunity to speak at this meeting, but please attend to show your opposition to this application.

 The area in question is near where I grew up. The area is wetlands and there is nearby forest. This part of Vernon, on the Tolland line, is one of the few areas not characterized by sprawl and strip malls. There is a Home Depot less than a ten-minute drive from this location. So far, the town of Vernon has been successful at keeping Wal-Mart out of that area.

Murderous Voyeurism

I’m not sure when the Courant, or any other local corporate media outlet, has given three pages of story to a rally or a crime, and yet, today that’s been done.

You could say that is a step forward. I wouldn’t.

I could not read past 1.5 pages of it. The details disclosed in it are not necessary for the public to know. What purpose does it serve by telling the public every lurid and horrible moment in the last hours of three females’ lives? Continue reading Murderous Voyeurism…

Media Complicity in Violence

CROSS-POSTED TO UNDERCURRENTS

As Josh reported, we have just returned from a press conference held on 2550 Main Street. The behavior of the media covering the event was just as telling as some of what was said by Cornell Lewis, Francis Davila, and Jerimarie Liesegang.Hartford Independent Media Center journalists overheard a WTNH employee ask the community activists to delay the press conference because his reporter was running late. Then, while waiting for things to start, the WFSB and WTNH photographers told each other that they were planning on taking a similar approach to covering the story because they could not figure out how else to deal with the absence of a speaker’s podium. Just as the conference was starting, Moses Price, an NBC 30 photographer, plowed into me, pushing me out of his way, as if he had more of a right to be in that space than I did. He apologized, but still, it’s unprofessional to do that, and I did not see him treat his mainstream media colleagues in that fashion.

NECN and FOX 61 reporters showed up much later than the 10am start time. Rush hour traffic had thinned long before and the location was easy to find. That only two news outlets (we are included in one of those two) bothered to arrive on time spoke loudly about how low of a priority this issue is to them.

Rev. Cornell Lewis did most of the talking, emphasizing to the media that this conference was happening to put out the message that “all life has value.” He said that when tragedy strikes the elite, it is viewed differently from when tragedy strikes the poor, people of color, and people in Hartford. Lewis said that when violence affects the non-elite, the response from society (including media and government) is to look at the victim’s environment to explain away why such a crime could happen.

Continue reading Media Complicity in Violence…

Land of Knee-Jerk Reaction

I’m hoping that there are important details left out of this story. Now, 200+ paroled burglars are going to wear tracking bracelets?! The article does not say if these are burglars with a history of physical violence, or even ones with severe drug addictions, like the two men involved in the Cheshire murders. Are these burglars with a long history of arrests, or does this include one-time criminals? Making no distinction between these is making a mistake. This seems like a misuse of money.

Rell is being reckless here. Throwing money at a problem (is a freak incident even an ongoing problem?) doesn’t usually have results, but could Rell even throw that kind of money at the root causes of crime that are in her backyard?