Downtown's Future: A Place To Live Within Walking Distance of Public Transit

Downtown New Britain is no longer a "downtown," if that word means anything. But if it's no longer the city's commercial or business center, then what is it?

from NBBlogs

The revitalization of downtown New Britain was not much of an issue during the 2007 municipal campaign. The welcome news of Carvel Corporation's move to the long vacant Smart Park (the former Stanley Works factory parcel)and a meaningless flare up over the location of a new police station were about the only headlines drawing attention to the city's vital center this year.

Downtown is ripe for new investment and development that needs to be managed wisely by city and state officials over the next five years. One of the big challenges of putting a viable downtown New Britain back together has to do with Route 9, the highway that connects I-84 to I-91 and shore points. New Britain is not unique among U.S. cities in having a four-lane roadway built 40 or 50 years ago that hastened decline of the central business district. The major task now is to undo that public works and public policy fiasco that cut the city in two.

As Pat Thibodeau observes in a recent post on his blog about New Britain, there's no bringing back a downtown full of big retailers and big stores that people pouring out of factories patronized in the middle of the 20th century.

Thibodeau sees the opening of C-Town -- an urban grocer that people walk to -- as a harbinger of downtown's future. "Downtown New Britain isn't so much the place to be (the old city slogan), as it is a place to live. It has the potential to become an interesting and lively neighborhood," he says. He goes on:

Downtown housing is likely to be occupied by single adults or couples who want to be in walking distance to essential services and stores. I also believe that, more and more, people will be interested in living without having to own a car, even in Connecticut. (I just paid about $25 for 8 gallons of gas at the Sunoco near West Farms. What happens when gas hits $4 a gallon?)

Thibodeau's analysis needs to be heeded as key pieces of real estate (the old police station, the Herald building and the New-Brite shopping plaza) enter the development picture in the immediate or near future. Above all, officials at the local level need to be ready to take full advantage of the New Britain-to-Hartford busway that will turn the old Greenfield's property into a transit hub and instantly make the land and buildings around it more attractive for private investment. These investments will have little need (nor should they) for abatements and public subsidies for business that desperate cities often use to boost their grand lists. Like third world countries fighting poverty, distressed U.S. cities are engaged in a "race to the bottom" because of the property tax.

Last July experts, lawyers and developers were at New Britain City Hall to outline some exciting plans for a downtown in dire need of good ideas and new public/private investment. Careful listeners to a study prepared by Harrall-Michalowski Associates wouldn't be wrong in thinking they may have already heard much of what is being proposed. To paraphrase Yogi Berra: "It was deja vu all over again."

If you flashback two years to the 2005 campaign, Jason Jakubowski, the Democratic mayoral nominee, unveiled a plan called "Project Hope" that represented a comprehensive and very ambitious agenda to bring downtown back. Jakubowski, reviving some older proposals dating back to the DeFronzo administration and raising the new ones, defined "hope" for downtown with a nine-point plan that included a new police station and the conversion of New-Brite into a collegiate sports and conference center multi-plex. He urged an expanded role for Central CT State and Charter Oak State downtown and proposed an arts and entertainment district built around the city's existing assets. To correct the highway mistake of the 70's, a mini platform idea was floated again to bridge the divide between East Main Street and Columbus Boulevard.

Jakubowski's "Project Hope" and the master plan to come from consultants hired by the city this year are based on the same essential component: the federally funded busway planned to run aside the railroad tracks from New Britain through Newington and onto downtown Hartford.

While the busway is still five years away at best, the city and state -- working together -- could begin to put into place elements of a plan that will make downtown "interesting and lively" for visitors and residents who are ready to consider the center of the city a place to live if convenient public transit exists.

An interim step that could happen within a year is to upgrade the existing downtown bus stop. "One thing New Britain should try to get the state to do is improve the downtown bus hub," states Thibodeau. "The bus pick-up location at West Main and Main Streets is dismal and unattractive. It actually looks dangerous. It needs an extreme makeover to encourage new riders." A cosmetic makeover next to the municipal garage would invite greater use of public transit before the busway arrives.

And what would be wrong with a commuter bus direct from downtown New Britain into Hartford? There is a commuter Express near Corbin's Corner with limited services now. It should be expanded to downtown given the thousands of New Britain residents -- not to mention people from adjoining towns -- who trek into downtown Hartford to work every day. More local service -- a university downtown shuttle and a route up to the West Main Street business area -- would get people to work and shop without using a car at $3.30 a gallon.

It's time to implement a transit-based economic development strategy now and not wait for the first ride on the busway some of us plan to take circa 2012.

Celebrating The Life of Tony Norris: December 9th At Marchegian Hall

This is also the town I grew up in. It’s my community, so I appreciate doing something here. This community has given a lot to me, so I am giving something back. That’s a lot. Not many people get that much satisfaction out of their job. I feel I’m really honored that I get that much satisfaction.

from "City Farmer Gives Back To His Community" www.workingtheland.com (Simon Pure Productions)

Friends and associates of Urban Oaks Organic Farm Founder Tony Norris will hold a dinner buffet and program in celebration of his life on Sunday, December 9th, at 4 p.m. at the Marchegian Society Ballroom, 40 Acorn Street.

Norris, 59, died November 18th after a long battle with cancer. The New Britain native, a citizen activist who helped many Democratic candidates through the years, established Urban Oaks in 1999 with his partner, Mike Kandefer. The former Sandelli Florist property on Oak Street, blighted and unused, was converted into a working organic farm serving the public and restaurants throughout the state. It is considered one of the largest urban farms in the Northeast.

Interested persons may RSVP for the dinner to Maria Agramonte-Gomez at (860) 826-7585 or by e-mail to the Urban Oaks Farm at urbanoaks@earthlink.net. There is no admission charge but financial contributions in memory of Norris are encouraged to: Urban Oaks Farm, c/o Human Resources Agency of New Britain, 180 Clinton Street, New Britain, CT 06053.

An interview with Tony Norris may be found at
http://www.workingtheland.com/interview-norris.htm

Courant Turns Blind Eye To Mayor's Real Indiscretions

Last week The Hartford Courant editorial board found another way to endorse Tim Stewart by defending some foul-mouthed language of the incumbent in a call to a dispatcher during 2005 flooding. The call, widely circulated in a You Tube posting, drew considerable press coverage. "The most appalling thing about this episode is that New Britain's Democrats can't seem to come up with anything better," opined an editorial last week. "They ought to be playing ball by telling New Britain residents how they'll further the city's future; instead, they're low-balling."

The Courant states the obvious in saying voters could give a rat's *** (excuse the paraphrase) over Tim Stewart's mouth. More on "rats" in a moment. But the editor's indulgence of Stewart's trivial "indiscretion" comes after the same editorial board ignored the facts and circumstances of Stewart's public policy indiscretions --- indiscretions raised by James Wyskiewicz and other Democrats that can hardly be called "low-balling" unless the Courant feels transparency in government and telling the truth to residents matters. The Courant devoted no less than three editorials on "Tilcon Water Rat" legislation last summer, condemning legislators but not once mentioning that it was Stewart's request and misrepresentation of facts that prompted the special legislation. Subsequently, New Britain lawmakers rescinded the action that would have allowed a Tilcon lease of watershed land.

Did the Courant acknowledge that Democratic legislators addressed their concerns? We're still waiting.

According to one comment to the latest editorial: "So after giving the mayor three passes on negatively written comments, they proceed to give the mayor a glowing endorsement, and again not mention his significant role in the creation of hated legislation. To compound this oversight, neither the editorial board nor any reporters ever comment on the fact that the mayor actually went ahead and signed a lease with Tilcon a few days before the legislature repealed the enabling legislation. He did this despite the fact that the original bill had provisions in it clearly stating the mayor could not do this without first holding multiple public hearings and having the city council approve the lease."

As Courant editors defend the mayor on his salty language and his right to get a good night's sleep during '05's serious flooding, they ignore a far more serious indiscretion over the Tilcon "rat" they professed to care so much about. Colin McEnroe, whose blog is carried by the Courant, found no small amount of irony in the Courant's defense of the Mayor over last week's "potty mouth" episode.

Letters, Secret Agreement Reveal Stewart’s Doublespeak on Tilcon Deal

An exchange of August letters and documents between the administration of Mayor Tim Stewart (R-New Britain) and the state Department of Public Health shows that Stewart deliberately misled residents and other public officials in an effort to gain quick approval for a controversial deal giving Tilcon Connecticut, Inc. 131 acres of watershed land for its mining operation.

In September, State Rep. Tim O’Brien (D-24) and State Senator Don DeFronzo (D-6), reacting to concerns of residents and environmentalists as well as Stewart’s contradictory statements and actions on the issue, successfully sought repeal of a law that had initially cleared the way for a Tilcon takeover of watershed land to expand its quarry operation over the next generation.

The Tilcon lease move first saw the light of day shortly after Stewart visited state legislators at the beginning of June -- the last week of the Legislature’s session --seeking special legislation to gain personal pension rights for himself as a firefighter on leave from the city Fire Department and for the Tilcon proposal that required an exception to law protecting watersheds.

Public Act 07-244 was signed into law by Gov. Rell in July allowing the lease of watershed land. New Britain Democratic lawmakers supported the legislation in the waning days of the 2007 session at the behest of the Stewart Administration. They were informed that legislative action was needed quickly to make the land lease with a $15 million return for the city over 40 years possible. Legislators successfully inserted amendments into the law that required Tilcon to restore the leased land "for a public drinking water reservoir" and "the surrounding land for reforestation." At the time the measure drew sharp editorial criticisms three times in The Hartford Courant with the newspaper asserting that the legislative "rat" allowed the lease of watershed at the expense of environmental protection.

While the repeal nixes immediate approval and compels the company and city to pursue the deal with full public input and environmental oversight, the summer controversy shows how far the Stewart administration went to consummate a major public policy decision in secret.

At an August 7th neighborhood meeting of the Hickory Hill-Westwood Block Watch committee, Stewart claimed his administration had not acted on the proposed mining project lease -- a deal promising the city $15 million over 40 years for access to watershed that has long been part of a public trust and subject to environmental protection. "If the people don't want it, so be it," Stewart told the Hickory Hill committee as reported by the New Britain Herald.. "I will support you 100 percent. It doesn't have to go. Marilynn (referring to Marilyn Slate, a Block Watch leader), why don't you do this for me: Start a petition.”

On the same day (August 7), Mayor Stewart was telling residents that their wishes would be considered, however, his Board of Water Commissioners Chairman, Patrick Hamel, had already signed off on a lease proposal outline. The lease agreement -- the equivalent of a letter of agreement – stipulated the terms of the long-term lease between the city and Tilcon Connecticut. The agreement had already been signed on August 6th by Richard Mergens, Tilcon’s President. The agreement, labeled, "Lease Proposal Outline," clearly specifies that that city would have leased New Britain-owned watershed land to Tilcon for forty years for $130,798.17 per acre. The terms of the one-page agreement signed by Stewart's administration are unclear, raising the important legal question about whether it would have been legally possible for the city to withdraw from the deal or to change its terms – like the amount of the proposed lease.

As late as September 13th, Republican Town Chair Paul Carver, whose wife, Lisa, is Stewart's Chief of Staff, was quoted in the New Britain Herald saying that, "there is no deal. The legislation was to allow a deal, which will be followed by a public hearing. If residents are against the deal, Mayor Stewart has said he will pull a plug on the plan." This statement came after residents, taking Stewart at his word, had submitted 350 signatures on a petition opposing immediate approval of a Tilcon lease. But Carver’s statement to residents is contradicted by what had already occurred in August. Stewart’s attempted fast tracking of the watershed lease continued August 23rd in a hand-delivered letter from the city’s assistant corporation counsel, Joseph Skelly, to Dr. Robert Galvin, the state Commissioner of Public Health. “Our office represents the City of New Britain and Board of Water Commissioners,” Skelly wrote. “I have enclosed an executed Lease Proposal Outline between the Board of Water Commissioners and Tilcon Connecticut, Inc. for 0 Biddle Pass, Plainville, Connecticut. In accordance with Public Act No. 07-244, Sec 6 (b)(1), we will be submitting for your approval the name of an independent third party to conduct the environmental evaluation.” The letter sought state approval before the Legislature could meet to consider the DeFronzo-O’Brien repeal measure.

On August 30th, the Department of Public Health responded to the Stewart administration’s hastily sent lease agreement. Gerald Iwan, a DPH Section Chief responsible for drinking water, informed Stewart that “based on a recent discussion on August 24, 2007 with Mr. Gilbert Bligh of the City of New Britain Water Department, the Outline as provided is not considered final...Also, DPH can not consider approval of the lease until a number of items outlined within PA 07-244 are completed.”

With the successful repeal of PA 07-244 in September, the maneuverings of the Stewart administration to conclude the lease deal quickly and secretly are null and void. To legislators and residents, however, Stewart’s actions showed a disregard for the truth and a disregard for an environment long protected by a public trust.

Iraq On $330 Million A Day: Cong. Murphy Responds To Bush Plan To Stay The Course

NEW BRITAIN, CT (September 13) Two hours before President Bush layed out a vague, stay the course policy on Iraq from the Oval Office, Cong. Chris Murphy (D-5) made his strongest statements yet on why U.S. policy is on a disastrous course, and why he favors a "precipitous withdrawal" with a firm date.

Speaking at New Britain's Slade Middle School to a much larger audience than at a similar forum last April held in the same school auditorium, Murphy gave a troubling report to residents, many of whom shared his opposition and frustration over the five-year old conflict.

In striking contrast to the Bush-Petraeus report this week on progress made after a January troop "surge", Murphy said the current return on U.S. investment of $329,670,330 a day ($10 billion a month)has bought the "bloodiest summer of the war" in terms of American service men and women killed or wounded. Moreover "August may have been one of the highest months for civilian casualties." While we are informed about more than 3,700 U.S. dead and 27,000 wounded so far, Murphy said that data on Iraqi civilian dead and wounded is classified and unreported. Murphy, in fact, speculated that the leveling off of violent attacks claimed by the administration may be because "there is almost no one left to kill." Of so many communities destroyed in Iraq, the freshman congressman noted there is an enormous number of refugees and a humanitarian crisis that the U.S. will need to address for many years.

Speaking of the Iraqi government, Murphy said the practice of putting "cash on the ground" to buy the loyalty of sheiks and ethnic leaders would only go so far. He agrees with the conclusion of the nonpartisan General Accounting Office (GAO)that the coalition government propped up by U.S. money and soldiers is "bordering on collapse."

President Bush made clear his plan to extend a huge U.S. military presence beyond his Presidency and continue a strategy that seems to beget more violence as the U.S. expends $120 billion a year at current rates.

Cong. Murphy, conceding that more Republicans need to agree to a firm exit strategy to change policy, made equally clear his resolve to mobilize with other freshman to draw a line in the sand on continued funding for the war with a new $50 billion request due to come to Congress soon.

Finding a way to withdraw, Murphy said, will help to restore U.S. credibility in the world, ending a war built on lies and a bullying style of nation building that must come to an end in January 2009.

Hartford High School Plan Is Instructional For New Britain

In his earliest days as Hartford School Superintendent, Steven J. Adamoski was critical of the $100+ million investment that had been made in Hartford Public High School. The makeover kept the facility a big-box, comprehensive high school with too many students in one place.

One of the nation's oldest secondary schools, Hartford Public has faced years of accreditation issues and troubling measures of student performance that the physical overhaul and capital investment did not improve.

Adamoski, a former superintendent of Cincinnati, OH schools, was brought to Hartford by Mayor Eddie Perez and the Board of Education for change and reform in the capital city's troubled 25,000 pupil school system. His task is to implement a "turnaround plan." Several days ahead of the 2007-2008 school year the details of an "all-choice" plan for Hartford have emerged. According to the Hartford plan the district "will undertake a dramatic investment in the creation of new schools with the goal of bringing over 30 new, high-performing public schools into the Hartford system by 2017, with the majority of new schools up and running in the first five years."

Dismal student achievement scores have prompted a call by Adamowski for decentralization of its big high schools. A story by Bob Frahm in the August 24th Hartford Courant focuses on the effort to be made over the next several years "to break the high schools up into smaller units."

"We have to redesign our [large] comprehensive high schools. We can't have these high schools continue to operate" in their current form, Adamowski told the Courant.

Like Hartford Public High, New Britain High is facing accreditation issues discussed by school board members, school officials and the public at an August 14th community meeting in New Britain. And nobody needs to be reminded that New Britain High has too many students crowded into one place. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) Commission on Secondary Schools report of October 2006 noted deficiencies that NBHS needs to address: "The current plant at New Britain High School is not capable of adequately housing its rapidly increasing student body."

The NEASC site team noted that the Board of Education is taking steps starting with a 9th grade academy (to open this year). But the Commission also noted that "support for student learning is inadequate" with a student to counselor ratio of 330 to 1 and two library media specialists to serve 3,200 students.

Those ratios demonstrate that NBHS is still too much of a comprehensive high school that needs smaller units of students to deliver a better learning environment -- the sort of thing Adamowski is now trying to create in Hartford.

The New Britain Democratic Town Committee's 2007 platform calls for similar action: "The opening of a freshman academy is a positive first step toward a multi-faceted strategy of de-centralizing education and creating learning communities."

Despite the inequities that are built into the current means of financing the schools, a bold plan for high-performing schools [sometimes but not always contingent on more money] and similar to that being proposed in Hartford is needed in New Britain.

An Energy Broker Comes To Town: City Considers 5-Year Deal With World Energy

The days of your good, old, regulated electric light company are over.

That was abundantly clear at an August 16th meeting of the New Britain Common Council's consolidated committee. City councillors heard officials of Worcester, MA-based World Energy Solutions explain how they can lower energy costs for the city by being an "honest broker" in a deregulated marketplace where electricity's price is skyrocketing.

The New Britain meeting stemmed from a resolution filed by Council Minority Leader Louis Salvio that authorizes Mayor Stewart "to enter into a contract for a period of five (5) years with World Energy Solutions...for the procurement and contract management services to obtain the lowest energy prices for the city."

Obtaining a lower price for electricity is a necessity for financially-distressed New Britain with current costs of power by the local government and schools approaching $4 million this year, according to Ward 2 Councillor Adam Platosz.

Platosz was the author of a resolution early in the year that asked the city finance department to seek "aggregator" status for New Britain in light of double digit electric rate hikes. Under state law, a city on its own can pursue bulk buying and even allow residential users to take advantage of bulk buying through the municipality to lower their bills.

While the Platosz resolution has been ignored for months by the city administration, the arrival of World Energy at the invitation of Mayor Stewart re-opens the debate on the best options the city has to lower its energy costs and perhaps lower rates for residents.

World Energy Solutions representatives delivered an impressive portfolio of their company to the sparsely attended council meeting.

The company, using a sophisticated online auction platform, essentially acts as an "energy realtor" -- a term used by Council President Suzanne Bielinski in trying to understand procurement services. World Energy engages energy suppliers in bidding for the sale of power to their large customers, including states, the federal government and corporations.

Founded in 1996, World Energy describes itself as a leader in the "online energy brokerage market, providing technology and intelligence for brokering electricity, natural gas, wholesale power, fuels and green credits." The company, one of a number now engaged in brokering energy, was created at a propitious time when de-regulation dramatically changed the way public utilities did business.

The de-regulated industry has spawned a system of generators (power plant operators), suppliers (energy sellers) and distributors (utilities). Lest you think Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) and United Illuminating (UI) will disappear, think again. CL&P and local utilities remain the distributors, owning the wires, poles and infrastructure that delivers the power. Most of us still pay the utility for both supply and distribution as CL&P and UI purchase power from suppliers twice a year, passing costs on to residential and business users.

World Energy and similar outfits now act as the "middle men" in an industry that once was strictly regulated on price, but now is subject to wild swings. Taking advantage of deregulation, the brokers are now the auction experts who go out and find the best price for a city or state government. They take their profits from the generator-supplier-distributor chain before it reaches users.

Jonathan Harvey, a World Energy government relations official based in Washington, D.C., informed the City Council that his company makes its money through "performance fees" in a procurement process that knows no state or national borders. He assured the councillors that "there is no direct cost to you." According to World Energy its "online reverse auction platform" saves customers "an average of 11% compared with traditional paper-based approaches to energy procurement."

While World Energy's credentials impressed the city councillors, the proposal has been brought forward by the city administration without the customary requests for proposals and bidding process that would normally be part of a multi-year municipal contract. That will inevitably be brought up before a vote is taken on this particular proposal.

Council Majority Leader Michael Trueworthy asked how World Energy came to New Britain. Apparently, the Stewart administration has not shared anything with the Council, including Trueworthy who with Bielinski meets with the Mayor on a routine basis to discuss city business. Harvey, accompanied by Connecticut Marketing Director Bill Thibodeau, would only say that his company is knocking on the doors of Connecticut city and town halls because it has just won a State of Connecticut contract to provide procurement for state agencies.

A recently released press release from the company's website confirmed the state deal: "We are pleased that the State of Connecticut has selected us as its online energy procurement solution, which we view as further validation of our position as the leading provider to U.S. government agencies at both the state and local levels."

The proposal to authorize the Mayor to enter a five-year contract with World Energy Solutions deserves a thorough review and discussion by the Council. No matter what the outcome of engaging an energy broker, the discussion should also re-open Ald. Platosz' original plan to give New Britain aggregator status, empowering the city not only to seek fairer rates for itself but creating a municipal "pool" whereby residents could realize savings too. Absent a state law that protects consumers from spiraling rates, New Britain needs to be an aggregator of its own power with or without World Energy's services.