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You ask a question, and I before I can give you an answer you offer a rebuttal.
Should we subsidize any mass transit? Well it depends upon the circumstances and the on the conditions. Metro North is in many cases utilizing 90 year old technology. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have personal friends that have worked for them for 30- 40 years. I don’t think you know what I know.
The ridership numbers are taken right out of written documentation by state legislators. Simply put , the numbers of Fastrak riders are combined with some additional lines that have been incorporated into the slogan. The numbers of the less than 10 miles from New Britain to Hartford are nearly impossible to locate and quantify. I get around Hartford quite a bit over the past nearly 5 decades . I would say that I know the city more than the average person. The good , the bad and the ugly, and the changes that have occurred over that time period. Part of the Fastrak system does indeed travel on surface streets. In many cases , those trip were those incorporated into the Fastrak slogan.
But in any case, $ 50 million dollars a mile is a tremendous amount of money to be recovered. Times 10 miles. Add in the ongoing cost to run it, and it can only be construed as a colossal loss of taxpayers dollars.
I perfectly understand the purpose of reclaiming the surface parking lots. What kind of housing will be built? Who will be able to afford to live there? Hartford is basically , as many American cities are home to the wealthy and the working poor. Much of the middle class started abandoning Hartford
decades ago. Connecticut has one of the largest income gaps in the country. Hartford is a prime example. As it stands, that neighborhood does not have the income level to support the types of businesses that would locate there. The tax load if you own, the rents if you don’t to start a commercial enterprise for profit just aren’t happening, and won’t unless drastic changes are made.
You are talking about a city with a Children’s Hospital with terrific people and services to the area. 60 % of the children treated there are covered by Medicaid Almost 40 % of the patients at Hartford Hospital are on Medicaid. That isn’t going to change anytime soon.
And it isn’t a question if web commerce will change the retail environment in America, especially the cities it already has . Dramatically. New York City has street after street of shuttered boarded up storefronts that were once densely populated with shoppers . Not any more. One of the most ironic aspects of Amazon potentially locating in LIC is that they would be replacing some of the jobs their platform was responsible for eliminating.
Connecticut is losing higher income residents, and being replaced by lower income workers and 21st Century sweatshops. Being replaced by lower educated illegal immigrants estimated at 100,000 in the state . Businesses , if they even move to CT would consider outer areas like Windsor before they would consider Hartford. Have you driven on Day Hill Road and scoped out the area?
All that money for a garage and it won’t do the job? Does that mean we can eliminate some payroll? I guess not, as Democrats have promised no layoffs . Wouldn’t it be great if some of the private sector workers had such a guarantee. Working or not, they are guaranteed to be obligated to pay taxes, and any new and increases in taxes.
It isn’t a matter of only safety , but of the potential economic vitality . Why is Vito’s still vacant ?
Really Jay, have you done enough research and come to the conclusion that Connecticut is one of the most mismanaged states in the country over the past 40-50 years ? That Hartford’s mismanagement is a prime example of the cities in CT that are mismanaged? Because if you haven’t , I would suggest you do some more research. I am not alone
Hey look, I love Hartford. I wish things were better. I actually am thankful to be in this area, as compared to other areas in the state .But I have been around here long enough to observe and qualify , in my own opinion , what works and what will not work. I see the same mistakes over and over. Wasteful spending. Poor planning. Terrible vision and priorities at times. Right now, there are too many unanswered questions and not enough answers. Speculation and dreams are good, goals are laudable. But they need to be practical and achievable .
The Yard Goats and the Hartford Athletics are great additions to the city. Affordable, safe and fun entertainment. Some of that parking garage money could have been spent on the XL center.
The analysis is pretty laughable. They're comparing it to Cambridge. Boston is a commuter rail and subway city. Kendall Square or Harvard Square from the 'burbs is commuter rail to South Station or drive to Alewife and take the Red Line. You wouldn't drive unless you had to. The Green Line extension beyond Lechmere is happening now.
And Cambridge has all the economic vitality of two of the top-10 universities in the world. Hartford has some office towers.
Hartford's possible strengths relative to Cambridge is that it is the city proper itself and not a suburb of the main city, and it holds the state capital as well as some fairly large corporate headquarters. The article itself states that it's not apples to apples and makes mention of Grand Rapids and Pittsburgh as having enviably walkable downtowns and those are not satellite cities of larger core cities. I think the general point of Hartford and other US cities having tried to compete with the suburbs via offering more parking in lieu of trying to maintain its density and build densely was a poor idea overall and that the best thing is to get rid of parking requirements for developments and to encourage dense building.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 07-16-2019 at 04:20 PM..
You ask a question, and I before I can give you an answer you offer a rebuttal.
Should we subsidize any mass transit? Well it depends upon the circumstances and the on the conditions. Metro North is in many cases utilizing 90 year old technology. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have personal friends that have worked for them for 30- 40 years. I don’t think you know what I know.
The ridership numbers are taken right out of written documentation by state legislators. Simply put , the numbers of Fastrak riders are combined with some additional lines that have been incorporated into the slogan. The numbers of the less than 10 miles from New Britain to Hartford are nearly impossible to locate and quantify. I get around Hartford quite a bit over the past nearly 5 decades . I would say that I know the city more than the average person. The good , the bad and the ugly, and the changes that have occurred over that time period. Part of the Fastrak system does indeed travel on surface streets. In many cases , those trip were those incorporated into the Fastrak slogan.
But in any case, $ 50 million dollars a mile is a tremendous amount of money to be recovered. Times 10 miles. Add in the ongoing cost to run it, and it can only be construed as a colossal loss of taxpayers dollars.
I perfectly understand the purpose of reclaiming the surface parking lots. What kind of housing will be built? Who will be able to afford to live there? Hartford is basically , as many American cities are home to the wealthy and the working poor. Much of the middle class started abandoning Hartford
decades ago. Connecticut has one of the largest income gaps in the country. Hartford is a prime example. As it stands, that neighborhood does not have the income level to support the types of businesses that would locate there. The tax load if you own, the rents if you don’t to start a commercial enterprise for profit just aren’t happening, and won’t unless drastic changes are made.
You are talking about a city with a Children’s Hospital with terrific people and services to the area. 60 % of the children treated there are covered by Medicaid Almost 40 % of the patients at Hartford Hospital are on Medicaid. That isn’t going to change anytime soon.
And it isn’t a question if web commerce will change the retail environment in America, especially the cities it already has . Dramatically. New York City has street after street of shuttered boarded up storefronts that were once densely populated with shoppers . Not any more. One of the most ironic aspects of Amazon potentially locating in LIC is that they would be replacing some of the jobs their platform was responsible for eliminating.
Connecticut is losing higher income residents, and being replaced by lower income workers and 21st Century sweatshops. Being replaced by lower educated illegal immigrants estimated at 100,000 in the state . Businesses , if they even move to CT would consider outer areas like Windsor before they would consider Hartford. Have you driven on Day Hill Road and scoped out the area?
All that money for a garage and it won’t do the job? Does that mean we can eliminate some payroll? I guess not, as Democrats have promised no layoffs . Wouldn’t it be great if some of the private sector workers had such a guarantee. Working or not, they are guaranteed to be obligated to pay taxes, and any new and increases in taxes.
It isn’t a matter of only safety , but of the potential economic vitality . Why is Vito’s still vacant ?
Really Jay, have you done enough research and come to the conclusion that Connecticut is one of the most mismanaged states in the country over the past 40-50 years ? That Hartford’s mismanagement is a prime example of the cities in CT that are mismanaged? Because if you haven’t , I would suggest you do some more research. I am not alone
Hey look, I love Hartford. I wish things were better. I actually am thankful to be in this area, as compared to other areas in the state .But I have been around here long enough to observe and qualify , in my own opinion , what works and what will not work. I see the same mistakes over and over. Wasteful spending. Poor planning. Terrible vision and priorities at times. Right now, there are too many unanswered questions and not enough answers. Speculation and dreams are good, goals are laudable. But they need to be practical and achievable .
The Yard Goats and the Hartford Athletics are great additions to the city. Affordable, safe and fun entertainment. Some of that parking garage money could have been spent on the XL center.
This has gone WAY off topic to this thread so I won’t comment further except to say you do not know me or what I know. As a knowledgeable professional with many years experience, I will tell you that you are wrong in much of what you contend and fortunately you are in the minority. The plan for the Capitol area is good and CTfastrak is an excellent service used by many whether you believe the numbers or not. I am done arguing about it. Jay
The biggest issue with transportation is most suburbanites aren't getting the type of public transit they desire. While there are working professionals in the 'burbs who ride bus, overwhelmingly it is high-speed rail that people have expressed an interest in, yet there's a shortage of it. Yes, I know the Hartford Line is now out, I personally have used it and it's great, but it doesn't include enough stops. There are still plenty of densely-populated suburbs that share a border with Hartford that would benefit from it. West Hartford has nearly 65,000 people, no rail stop. Berlin has barely 20,000 yet they have one. Why is that dinky little town even included on the stop? They should give it to the towns that truly need it, where council members have expressed an interest in expanding residential and commercial development around it. We've waited long enough.
I think you mean good ol' passenger rail (commuter rail, regional rail) rather than high-speed rail which would likely need to bypass West Hartford and such in order to maintain a high-speed. Hartford Line does have five planned stations that haven't opened which are, from north to south, Enfield, West Hartford, Newington, North Haven, and Hamden. I think two things about the Hartford Line that are odd is that there hasn't been much of a push towards electrification and its schedule is so sparse--these, like the five planned but not under construction stations, need funding and that funding isn't there. What would ostensibly make most sense is to get a good lot of federal funding for such given the rather sorry returns in federal spending that Connecticut gets in relation to the federal tax revenue coming from CT and its residents relative to nearly every other state, but I don't think that trillion dollar infrastructure plan is really forthcoming, and even if it were, it doesn't seem like CT would be getting all that much of it. Better luck on the next one!
As far as high-speed rail proper though, there's been a few plans that involve Hartford and most of it is to avoid the rather wiggly tracks and many old bridge crossings that occur east (or rail north) of New Haven.
The Regional Plan Association recommends a mix of improving the tracks from NYC to New Haven as simply higher-speed rail (as in, not hitting the official speed for actual high-speed rail) and then cutting up from New Haven to Hartford and then to Providence along a new segment that is actually high-speed:
Another one is that after NYC and then New Rochelle, the line then extends out to high speed rail tracks to Danbury, Waterbury, and then Hartford and then to Providence.
There's this one that breaks up the Northeast Corridor into two which I think is silly as it asks for a new terminal berth in Manhattan when terminals in city cores are fairly inefficient
To me, what makes most sense for Hartford and Connecticut is for the entire region to essentially offer a standardized commuter rail network that operates like RER or S-Bahns do in Germany where there are multiple services that interline and so along key corridors there are combined services with fairly high frequency, electrified lines among the major CT cities and connecting to the major cities in the surrounding states. New Haven Line and its branches with SLE and Hartford Line are kind of getting along there, but SLE is still using diesel rolling stock despite the tracks being electrified and Hartford is going to be a while before it's electrified.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 07-16-2019 at 05:03 PM..
Again, please return to the topic of the OP which is development in Hartford. Since OyCrumbler‘s Post was made right after my last warning to return to topic, I will allow it to remain. JayCT, Moderator
Another interesting opinion piece on ways to fix the state’s underfunding of the PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) program. It calls for the state to sell a number of public buildings to private developers to put them back on the city’s tax rolls. I know a number of states that have done this. They found that it was more cost effective for public buildings to be leased back. For years the Arizona State Capitol Building was privately owned until recently when the state bought it back. Jay
The U.S. General Services Administration is examining building design and locating potential sites in downtown Hartford after concluding last year a new courthouse is needed, David Sellers, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, said Friday.
If a new courthouse is built, it is expected that the seven-story office portion of the Ribicoff building would continue to be used, perhaps consolidating other federally leased space in the area.
The mill rate in Hartford is astronomical but residental property is only paying 30% of it. What's the deal on commercial real estate? The same assessment at 30% of fair market value or are they getting slaughtered?
Personally, I have a problem with using lawyers, threats, and lawsuits to strike deals on property taxes. Vermont has a state school property tax and strikes deals with any potential larger employer who is sniffing around and with anyone threatening to close the doors and move. It's grossly unfair to all the rest of the commercial property owners.
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They should give it to the towns that truly need it, where council members have expressed an interest in expanding residential and commercial development around it. We've waited long enough.
