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I was thinking more of Williamsburg, but its the same difference.
The difference is that everyone in Park Slope owns a designer baby stroller. Williamsburg has a ban on having babies
I used to own a coffeehouse and managed a lot of 20-somethings for seven years. They're no different than my own generation (boomers). Some have a great work ethic, some don't. I'll note that with only a couple of exceptions, the older the employee I hired, the more they took advantage of employee discounts. We had to let go of one 40-something for consuming too many pastries & panini on the job.
One of my best friends when I worked in Norwalk was a Brit who moved here in 94. He now runs a very successful PR agency in Austin. You wouldn't think it'd be the case, but he said CT was not very accepting of his Brit-ness, but he's had no issues making friends in Austin.
I don't live in CT anymore, but gotta think with Lieberman retiring, a few big companies might pack up and leave. If not for Joe, EB likely would've closed a decade ago or more.
Now if Perry lobbied for UConn to join the B12 while he was in CT, that might endear him to more people, lol.
Gov. Perry has a radio commercial on WCBS News Radio 88 this morning telling NY are they tired of taxes and regulations and they should come to TX, etc. I wonder if they're running the same commercial on CT radio stations simply substituting "Connecticut" where he says "New York".
Meanwhile there was another plant explosion in a state with lax regulations.
While industrial accidents can happen anywhere (I seem to recall one near Merdien a couple of years ago here), it does state a case for sensible state regulation.
Hi, this is my first post and I thought I could shed some light (or at least give my two cents).
I love Connecticut and New England. I own a house in CT and my parents own multiple houses/properties in CT. However, if I had the chance to move (with my current company) or a new company I would do it. Connecticut is becoming too expensive even in the last couple years of owning my house (taxes, oil, insurance, etc.). I hope Perry does come and take all the jobs he can, Malloy and his clan are making this State too expensive. If CT didnt have FFC, we would be Detroit.
and speaking of Malloy, where is he...Atlanta. Sure does seem like he cares about CT. He's just about his agenda.
But need not fear, when gas/taxes/fuel become to expensive we'll have the busway between Hartford and New Britain to take us where ever we want to go.
First of all, welcome. I welcome and encourage you to keep posting here in the future.
That said, I wish people would stop putting the blame on Molloy for the busway. The New Britain-Hartford Busway was begun under Rowland (yes, the same loud-mouth convicted politician who now spouts his poison on the radio) and funded under Rell. Construction only began after Molloy took office and in a down economy, he would have been nuts to turn away hundreds of millions of dollars in construction. Besides that, the busway will be a major asset to the greater Hartford region when it is up and operating. Think long term. Jay
That said, I wish people would stop putting the blame on Molloy for the busway. The New Britain-Hartford Busway was begun under Rowland (yes, the same loud-mouth convicted politician who now spouts his poison on the radio) and funded under Rell. Construction only began after Molloy took office and in a down economy, he would have been nuts to turn away hundreds of millions of dollars in construction. Besides that, the busway will be a major asset to the greater Hartford region when it is up and operating. Think long term. Jay
I don't really care who funded it. I just think it's a horrible idea.
I used to own a coffeehouse and managed a lot of 20-somethings for seven years. They're no different than my own generation (boomers). Some have a great work ethic, some don't. I'll note that with only a couple of exceptions, the older the employee I hired, the more they took advantage of employee discounts. We had to let go of one 40-something for consuming too many pastries & panini on the job.
Have noticed the same thing (I'm in-between the 20 somethings and the boomers, though closer to the latter in age). The 20 somethings are just getting the same rap that my generation and for that matter the boomers got at that age.
Hi Jay and thank you. I have been reading posts for sometime now and thought it was time to speak up.
First off, I have thought about the long term about the busway and in the grand scheme it does make sense. With UCONN coming to downtown and the Civic Center getting a much needed upgrade there is potential. I attended CCSU which is getting a Station right near the school which is actually a smart idea and there are some "benefits" of having this busway. However; the bad outweighs the good. I present the following:
1) The cost of the construction to build the Busway will not end after the busway is done being built. According to CTDOT website, the ridership fees will only account for 25% of the annual cost to run the bsuway. The ESTIMATED annual cost to operate will be $10M a year in which on $2.5M of the will be paid for by riders. Where does the other $7.5M come from? CT's tax payer's pockets. Also, 16,000 by 2020, that means 5 years of spending more than $7.5M a year to maintain. Plus, the busway is supposed to be in use by 2015, however, I don't believe the 2015 CT Budget has any information about the Busway Operation Cost. IMO, gas will be further taxed to pay for this. Florida gave us the funds for this project because they didn't want the financial burden of upkeep on a mass transit project that would fail.
2) The ESTIMATED Cost to run the project are, IMO, far to low. I have reviewed the plans and even stopped and looked at this. The cost for snow removal was never fractured into the design nor the operation costs. There is a 4' high wall on both sides with a 6' high fence on both sides AND the shoulder is varies from 4' wide to 1' wide on spots? How is the snow going to be removed? Can't blow it over the walls because it will land on Amtrak rail or in people's backyards. This means a dedicated snow removal crew has to be assigned for the 10 miles, on OT, to clean the busway. Never accounted for.
3) Who is the bus supposed to carry into and out of Hartford...Insurance companies. In 1999 when the concept was proposed people drove in everyday. However, times have changed. Nearly all Insurance companies offer telecommuting and people take advantage of it. Which means, you only have to be at your desk for 2 days a week. So essentially it reduced the number of ridership. Also, AETNA, which one of the stations goes right in front of, already had a CTTransit system set up.
4) The 11 Stations only have enough room for 300-500 cars total. If 16,000 riders are expected they all better be stuffing into vans to even get to the busway.
Do I think the concept is there, yes, however, the money could have been spent in other places or on other jobs. Giving 3 companies the work on the busway did not create 4,000 jobs as promised. The $550M could have been spent on 10 $55M contracts that are shovel ready giving potentially 10 companies work instead of 3.
Great post, Mr_250 - those are pretty much my thoughts on the matter. When projects take a really long time to come to fruition, often the assumptions made at the start of the planning are no longer correct. That can prove disastrous.
I think there is a lot of wishful thinking by people that really just wish more people took mass transit and are willing to overlook all sorts of complicating factors just to get ANYTHING passed, because they think it's what the future should be and we should be taking steps even if they're imperfect... unfortunately that falls too easily into the wasteful government spending talking points..
I don't live in CT anymore, but gotta think with Lieberman retiring, a few big companies might pack up and leave. If not for Joe, EB likely would've closed a decade ago or more.
.
Great point, which I have often thought about. Having 2 essentially junior Senators in a state with just 1/87th of all House seats is a huge problem (especially when the one with more exp is not young, so DB will not become a 4 or 5 term Senator!).
It would have been prudent to retain JL at least 6 more years, with a younger Senator, not Blumenthal. That way, the younger one would be there 2 terms before the Senior left.
Hi Jay and thank you. I have been reading posts for sometime now and thought it was time to speak up.
First off, I have thought about the long term about the busway and in the grand scheme it does make sense. With UCONN coming to downtown and the Civic Center getting a much needed upgrade there is potential. I attended CCSU which is getting a Station right near the school which is actually a smart idea and there are some "benefits" of having this busway. However; the bad outweighs the good. I present the following:
1) The cost of the construction to build the Busway will not end after the busway is done being built. According to CTDOT website, the ridership fees will only account for 25% of the annual cost to run the bsuway. The ESTIMATED annual cost to operate will be $10M a year in which on $2.5M of the will be paid for by riders. Where does the other $7.5M come from? CT's tax payer's pockets. Also, 16,000 by 2020, that means 5 years of spending more than $7.5M a year to maintain. Plus, the busway is supposed to be in use by 2015, however, I don't believe the 2015 CT Budget has any information about the Busway Operation Cost. IMO, gas will be further taxed to pay for this. Florida gave us the funds for this project because they didn't want the financial burden of upkeep on a mass transit project that would fail.
2) The ESTIMATED Cost to run the project are, IMO, far to low. I have reviewed the plans and even stopped and looked at this. The cost for snow removal was never fractured into the design nor the operation costs. There is a 4' high wall on both sides with a 6' high fence on both sides AND the shoulder is varies from 4' wide to 1' wide on spots? How is the snow going to be removed? Can't blow it over the walls because it will land on Amtrak rail or in people's backyards. This means a dedicated snow removal crew has to be assigned for the 10 miles, on OT, to clean the busway. Never accounted for.
3) Who is the bus supposed to carry into and out of Hartford...Insurance companies. In 1999 when the concept was proposed people drove in everyday. However, times have changed. Nearly all Insurance companies offer telecommuting and people take advantage of it. Which means, you only have to be at your desk for 2 days a week. So essentially it reduced the number of ridership. Also, AETNA, which one of the stations goes right in front of, already had a CTTransit system set up.
4) The 11 Stations only have enough room for 300-500 cars total. If 16,000 riders are expected they all better be stuffing into vans to even get to the busway.
Do I think the concept is there, yes, however, the money could have been spent in other places or on other jobs. Giving 3 companies the work on the busway did not create 4,000 jobs as promised. The $550M could have been spent on 10 $55M contracts that are shovel ready giving potentially 10 companies work instead of 3.
That's my two cents and I'll leave it at that.
While I understand what you are saying, a few things you need to think about. One of the reasons the price of the busway is so high is the extensive grade separation project at Flatbush Avenue. This crossing is one of the worst in the Hartford region and would have to have been constructed with or without the busway project. And that would have come out of taxpayers pockets anyway.
The design of the busway does consider its maintenance and while not perfect (no road in Connecticut truly is) it is not the problem you make it out to be.
As for operating costs, if you were to only have mass transit that pays for itself, there would be NO mass transit in this state or pretty much any other state for that matter. The state government funds just about every form of mass transit we have to keep the cost to riders low. Also note that right now we subsidize bus service in the Hartford region and the busway portion will be mostly be coming from money already being paid to CT Transit.
I think you are confusing where funding for the busway is coming from. The Florida project that was canceled provided funding for the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield High Speed Rail project. And I really would not point out Florida's decision to not go forward with its high speed rail project. This is one of the most shortsighted decisions on major transportation that has been made in this country. It just shows how shortsighted Florida politicians are and believe me that is not good for anyone. Their highways will be clogged with traffic and more sprawl than there is today. A well designed and intergrated mass-transit system would have brought the state into the modern world and reduced its reliance on cars.
As for who will ride the busway, keep in mind that Hartford is still by far the largest employment center in the state with well over 100,000 people working within the city limits. Even though the insurance companies are allowing work-from-home options, some very high profile companies are begin to rethink the concept. Yahoo just changed their policy to strictly limit the option because they realized that there was a need for people to connect and work as a team on a daily basis. It will not be long before Hartford's insurers follow suit. Then where will Hartford be?
As for the station parking, note that the service to the busway goes beyond just being along the corridor. Buses feed into it from bus lines coming in from all over that part of the region so some people will be parking away the core of the busway and its stations. Anyway, I have gone way too far talking about this again. Jay
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