[BPt111]

What your thoughs on this




Welcome to DoNo, short for "Downtown North" — a new vision for an urban neighborhood of apartments, townhouses, offices, landscaped boulevards, parking decks, shops, galleries, restaurants, even a supermarket. And finally: finding a way to make pedestrians actually want to walk down Main over the highway.
City officials say if DoNo (pronounced DOUGH-no) succeeds, it would build on long-running efforts to revitalize the downtown area. Those efforts, they say, are beginning to pick up momentum with apartment conversions, leasing at the Front Street entertainment district and the prospect of the University of Connecticut establishing a downtown campus.
"We're looking to build a lively downtown where people want to come and spend time," said Thomas E. Deller, the city's director of development.
Mayor Pedro E. Segarra said DoNo also would bridge the gap between downtown and the city's North End: "Downtown North connects our neighborhoods in the way they should be."
The heart of DoNo, a name that plays off SoDo, a name used by some neighborhood residents for the city's south-of-downtown neighborhood, would encompass about 16 acres, half of it owned by the city. The area covers a broad swath, stretching from the newly renamed Radisson Hotel on Morgan Street west to the city's new public safety complex on High Street. It includes a portion of Ann Uccello Street, formerly Ann Street until it was renamed in honor of the former mayor.
The vision is certainly ambitious, estimated to cost $325 million with construction in phases over a decade or more. The city estimates that it could eventually reap $7 million annually in much-needed property taxes.
Right now, DoNo is just a vision outlined in a soon-to-be released city report. The tough work would then begin: finding developers, holding hearings and lining up financing and, probably, public subsidies.




read the rest....


Redevelopment In Hartford Could Expand Downtown North - Courant.com

[theguyfrompluto]

Woah...Hartford's actually trying? They lost 75k people since 1950...the first time they are trying!

[Stylo]

Eh. The problem is 84. That area is choked and also near some nasty neighborhoods. New Haven is trying to reverse that highway-choking effect with Downtown Crossing, but unfortunately 84 is not going anywhere. That area would have to be totally self-sufficient. It's not going to get foot traffic from downtown. I just don't see it working unless they attract some huge anchors there.

[BPt111]

The struggle to reverse the effects of the 1960s urban renewal-era highway construction is hardly new and is being confronted by cities elsewhere in Connecticut.
In New Haven, the Route 34 connector, which wiped out an entire neighborhood, is going underground with new buildings constructed over it to reunite the city.
On a smaller scale, New London's Hodges Square — long separated from city's downtown by highway overpasses — plans improvements to attract more visitors and revitalize the area.
Hartford has been studying the DoNoarea since 2008 and bore down on those efforts last year. Housing would be a key component, with more than 800 apartments and townhouses envisioned, the city hoping to tap into a trend nationally of people wanting to live in the cities.
DoNo faces considerable obstacles, including I-84 itself. The stretch of Main Street that runs in the area of the highway is among the least pedestrian-friendly in the city, yet it is a crucial link to DoNo.
The vision also could generate some push-back.


"The city needs a plan for that area," Poland, the urban planner, said. "But we have to be cautious going forward and be realistic about the market demand and what can be supported there."
Poland said Hartford also faces competitive pressures in the apartment market from the surrounding suburbs that a city like New Haven, which has experienced a surge in renter interest, does not. The immediate area around New Haven doesn't have a suburb like West Hartford that has the power to draw prospective tenants.
"For Hartford, there are other options, with West Hartford being key here," Poland said. "I don't see a comparable competitor to New Haven."

The centerpiece of DoNo is housing over street-level retail and would come on top of efforts already in motion downtown. Four projects, totaling $30 million in public investment, are now underway and, if completed, would add 400 apartments in the next two years. An additional 600 are on the drawing boards.

The centerpiece of DoNo is housing over street-level retail and would come on top of efforts already in motion downtown. Four projects, totaling $30 million in public investment, are now underway and, if completed, would add 400 apartments in the next two years. An additional 600 are on the drawing boards.

[theguyfrompluto]

Originally Posted by Stylo

Eh. The problem is 84. That area is choked and also near some nasty neighborhoods. New Haven is trying to reverse that highway-choking effect with Downtown Crossing, but unfortunately 84 is not going anywhere. That area would have to be totally self-sufficient. It's not going to get foot traffic from downtown. I just don't see it working unless they attract some huge anchors there.

CTDOT wants to do what they did in Boston...a "Big Dig." They want to tunnel I-84 for 2 miles from I-91 for 2 miles keeping all exits.

[EUPL]

Hartford needs to do something or they mind as well erase it off the map, it's a ghost town at the moment.

[JayCT]

I really get annoyed by people who deride decisions made 50 years ago. Take for example Route 34. People will say that it was built through a neighborhood but they forget that the neighborhood did not have a good reputation at the time. The buildings were old and in poor condition and crime was high. The same goes for Hartford's Front Street which was replaced by Consitution Plaza, a project that kept thousands of jobs from leaving the city for the suburbs back in the 60's when businesses were beginning to leave the city. If I-84 were built somewhere else, say a mile north, how would people get into downtown. Some businesses may actually have left because their employees could not easily get to their jobs. Remember the preferred form of transportation back then was the auto (still is actually). Nobody knows for sure so I really think we should not address this.

The proposal for the area north of downtown has been proposed before. The problem is that the area is viewed as borderline unsafe because it is adjacent to the North End which is Hartford's worst neighborhood. I do not think that the city will be able to overcome this perception whether it is right or wrong. Until they do this area will likely remain a bunch of surface parking lots. JMHO, Jay

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I really get annoyed by people who deride decisions made 50 years ago. Take for example Route 34. People will say that it was built through a neighborhood but they forget that the neighborhood did not have a good reputation at the time. The buildings were old and in poor condition and crime was high. The same goes for Hartford's Front Street which was replaced by Consitution Plaza, a project that kept thousands of jobs from leaving the city for the suburbs back in the 60's when businesses were beginning to leave the city. If I-84 were built somewhere else, say a mile north, how would people get into downtown. Some businesses may actually have left because their employees could not easily get to their jobs. Remember the preferred form of transportation back then was the auto (still is actually). Nobody knows for sure so I really think we should not address this.

The proposal for the area north of downtown has been proposed before. The problem is that the area is viewed as borderline unsafe because it is adjacent to the North End which is Hartford's worst neighborhood. I do not think that the city will be able to overcome this perception whether it is right or wrong. Until they do this area will likely remain a bunch of surface parking lots. JMHO, Jay

well said Jay. They did things back in the 50s and 60s for different reasons than they did now. I'm sure it looked like a good idea at the time, but who knew how things would turn out and the downstream effect on other areas in the city and outside it.

And, perception has long been the bane of Hartford, and it will take a lot of effort and many years to overcome. We're the Land of Steady Habits, after all, and Hartford has been thought of as unsafe, steadily, now for decades...

[mrgmrg]

I don't think there's anything wrong with criticizing decisions made 50 years ago as long as it's done in the context of when they were made. That's the only way you can learn and avoid repeating the same mistakes again. The urban renewal projects were disastrous, and now that we have some opportunities to remediate them, we should absolutely take a critical view (not negative--critical).

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I really get annoyed by people who deride decisions made 50 years ago. Take for example Route 34. People will say that it was built through a neighborhood but they forget that the neighborhood did not have a good reputation at the time. The buildings were old and in poor condition and crime was high. The same goes for Hartford's Front Street which was replaced by Consitution Plaza, a project that kept thousands of jobs from leaving the city for the suburbs back in the 60's when businesses were beginning to leave the city. If I-84 were built somewhere else, say a mile north, how would people get into downtown. Some businesses may actually have left because their employees could not easily get to their jobs. Remember the preferred form of transportation back then was the auto (still is actually). Nobody knows for sure so I really think we should not address this.

The proposal for the area north of downtown has been proposed before. The problem is that the area is viewed as borderline unsafe because it is adjacent to the North End which is Hartford's worst neighborhood. I do not think that the city will be able to overcome this perception whether it is right or wrong. Until they do this area will likely remain a bunch of surface parking lots. JMHO, Jay

Hindsight is always 20/20. Doesn't make those decisions right for the long term though. Cities did have very different challenges back then, with an overall loss of commerce and white flight.

Left to their own devices, those neighborhoods might be flourishing now.

What always bugged me about how they built 95 was their total disregard for the coastline, one of CT's most beautiful assets - especially in Bridgeport and New Haven where it's practically on top of the water.

I was recently in Montreal, and I found it to be a great model for urban development. The highways are underground and the city has a smart layout. I wonder when that highway was put underground? Was it originally built that way?