A New Britain Biker Fights Global Warming

Merrill Gay of New Britain is nearing the end of a month without driving an automobile. It may not be that unusual for an individual who lives a short, pleasant walk from home to workplace in the Walnut Hill Park area of New Britain. But Gay, 46, is a busy father of young children who works as executive director of the New Britain Discovery Collaborative that engages the community in creating quality early childhood education. Given his activism and schedule, I'd say he needs a car in a city and state with a very sparse public transit system.

Between May 15th and June 15th, however, Merrill Gay has been "triking" through the streets of New Britain and beyond in a recumbent bike with a fiberglass frame that looks very much like a winning soap box derby entry. Gay is part of a "car free" challenge whose participants are sending a personal message on the over use of the automobile and the environmental benefits to be had if we reduce auto emissions.

To start his last week without gasoline-powered wheels Merrill triked to a meeting in Hartford. "This is now the 3rd trip into the capitol city," Gay wrote on his blog (www.nbtriker.org). "So I've perfected the route and shaved about 10 minutes off the trip. That's probably due mostly to having lost a couple pounds and gotten into better shape with daily riding. As of the end of the ride today my mileage for the challenge is 253 miles so far."

When he's asked why he's making this mostly personal effort for a greener earth, Gay has a ready answer: "It doesn't seem like a day goes by that I don't hear or read another story about global warming and its effects. I wonder what kind of mess we're leaving for our kids. As I ride I see that most cars on the road have one person in them and I've read that 40% of car trips are just a few miles long. So in a way I'm trying to prove to folks who see me that it can be different. It is possible to do most of what we use a car for by human power." And besides, he says, "I'm having a blast."

Not all of us need to follow Merrill Gay onto the streets with a recumbent bike to strike a blow for the environment. Some of us might take a bus to work if limited transit routes and schedules allow. We could walk down to the local drug store for a prescription instead of driving a couple of blocks using less gas and burning more calories. We could engage neighbors and family members in ways to car pool to work, events or other activities to which we mindlessly drive alone to the same place.

The point is that Merrill Gay is being a good citizen, showing us in a fun and interesting way that we need to heed the warnings and act personally and politically to reverse global warming and preserve mother earth for the next generation.

Blight At East And Kelsey: Sad End For Former Parochial High School Building

Alumni and friends of New Britain's St. Thomas Aquinas high school will gather for a reunion on May 19th at New Britain Stadium. The pre-game picnic is a fundraiser for a Noah's Ark of Hope, a Meriden playground named for a child of an Aquinas alumna.

Participants will bring many good memories of the hallways, classrooms and gymnasium of the parochial school at East and Kelsey streets.

But memories are all that is left now because the century-old school house attached to an addition and gymnasium built during the school's 1960s heydays is an eyesore. Over the last year the building's deterioration has accelerated. Its hulking presence hurts property values and the neighorhood's quality of life.

A Herald story by Francine Maglione last January described just how bad things have gotten at the former parochial high school site:

The St. Thomas Aquinas school, which closed in the 1990s, remains abandoned and somewhat open for vagrants or even school children to enter and wander around. Though many of the doors are boarded up, a few of them are open and easily accessible. Inside the building, broken glass and garbage litters the floor, and books and furniture are scattered about. Graffiti covers the walls outside as well as walls and chalkboards inside the classrooms. Next to the school in the former nun's quarters, boxes of old financial records still sit in the hallways and canceled checks lay all over the floor. The school building is currently for sale and remains boarded up.

The situation finally prompted the city Building Department to condemn the property, posting signs that the structure is a public safety hazard. Aquinas'deterioration is a main topic of concern for members of the East Side NRZ which regularly meets with city officials about blight and other issues.

For a time following the close of the parochial school there was talk the facility could have been turned over to the public schools -- giving the city an adaptable place to add classrooms for once and future needs. It would have been appropriate for the Archdiocese of Hartford to turn the parcel back to the city, having obtained it for $1 when the municipality could afford to give that kind of space away. Instead, the building housed a now defunct charter school and became a source of income for the church. Eventually the Aquinas property was sold off to an absentee realty interest. The result -- so common in urban properties acquired for speculation -- has been a quick decline into blight for the once proud secondary school whose graduates include city leaders such as State Senator Don DeFronzo and State Rep. John Geragosian.

The Aquinas property demonstrates the limits city government faces in dealing with abandoned, absentee-owned buildings. The federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program has guaranteed funds to New Britain for a generation now. CDBG, which emerged in the 1970s, is supposed to address blight issues with funds for the acquisition of property and the rehabilitation of residential and non-residential buildings. Through the years federal appropriations have precipitously declined, however. According to an estimate by the Northeast-Midwest Coalition federal money for CDBG dropped 51% from 1981 to 2006. Twenty five years ago New Britain possessed more than double the CDBG funds it has today -- less than $2 million. When inflation is taken into account the city has no more than a third of the resources it once had to address blight and community development issues. Of CDBG dollars currently available, much of current funding is dispersed to human and social service agencies because the federal and state pipeline for their services has been cut to the bone as well.

Despite the absence of federal dollars for interventions and no apparent bidders to purchase the property from out of state owners, the city needs to adopt a more aggressive approach to revitalize the Aquinas parcel. It's too large a piece of property and too important a space on the East Side to ignore on the list of abandoned buildings in New Britain.

What should be done?

Talks should open or re-open with the owner on marketing and finding a re-use of the property.

The feasibility of tearing down the facility should be explored. Its age and deterioration would seem to make rehabilitation and costs such as asbestos removal prohibitive at this juncture. An open parcel would accelerate the process of restoration and identifying a good use of the land.

The city on its own should contact developers interested in moderate income housing or similar appropriate uses (There have been no shortage of them inquiring about the Pinnacle Heights public housing site).

Officials should pursue any opportunities for competitive community development grant funding, including a University partnership program from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that could involve Central CT State University's construction studies programs.

(Photo courtesy of East Side Community Action)

'06 Postscript: Lamont Still A Voice To Challenge Conventional Wisdom

Ned Lamont, returning to New Britain for the first time since his U.S. Senate campaign last year, addressed a packed room of students and faculty at CCSU’s Marcus White Hall on April 26th.

Invited by History and Philosophy faculty to speak on “Challenging the Conventional Wisdom”, Lamont recounted how he decided to run against incumbent Joe Lieberman after failing to persuade more seasoned politicians to take on an 18-year incumbent who had become increasingly aloof from rank and file CT Democrats. The turning point, Lamont said as he did often on the campaign trail, was Lieberman’s late 2005 admonition: “It’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he’ll be commander in chief for three more years. We undermine the president’s credibility at our own peril.” When he heard those words, Ned Lamont knew he could not abide “George Bush’s favorite Democrat” any more. Having held just a town office in Greenwich, the upstart Lamont decided he would have to give the Democratic Party the much needed debate over the U.S. course in Iraq it yearned for. As the campaign moved from winter to spring in 2006, Lamont found that Lieberman’s increasing estrangement from the people who put him in the Senate back in 1988 was real and growing.

Appearing at ease and reflective during his CCSU appearance, Lamont said his overtures about a Lieberman challenge were dismissed out of hand by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Lamont’s assertions that Lieberman was undermining other Democrats and walking lockstep with the GOP fell on deaf ears within the party hierarchy at the state and national level.

The Greenwich Democrat, who is a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government this semester with former Cong. Nancy Johnson (R-New Britain), credited the internet bloggers for fueling what became a grassroots movement that led to his improbable victory in the August 8th Democratic Primary.

Lamont’s primary win, many have since contended, gave Democrats a spine and the gumption to forcefully take on the Bush administration over Iraq. It certainly spawned an unprecedented upsurge in voter registrations in favor of the Democrats. Arguably, the Lamont general election campaign gave Joe Courtney his razor-thin win in the 2nd Congressional District and helped propel Chris Murphy’s overwhelming win in the 5th Congressional District. With Lieberman as the Democratic nominee the Democratic message and the important contrasts to be made between Democrats and Republicans would have been blurred considerably.

In the general election Lamont conceded he may have been hurt by Lieberman’s emphasis on “experience”, and the incumbent’s hammering home the message of “bringing home the bacon.” Lamont said his campaign sought to counter Lieberman with his own experiences in building a business and challenging the go-along and get-along atmosphere of Washington, which was not being particularly responsive to the state’s problems in transportation, job dislocation and health coverage.

The decisive factor in the General Election, Lamont reminded an appreciative audience at CCSU, was the failure of the Republican nominee, Alan Schlesinger, to break over single digits as a percentage of the final vote. From July onward last year the Republican Party abandoned its nominee to line up behind “George Bush’s favorite Democrat”, a development that gave Lieberman the barely 50% he needed to win another term.

Last November a New Britain Democrat commentary assessed the impact of Lamont’s candidacy immediately after the votes were counted:

“Ned Lamont lost the electoral battle last Tuesday but his upstart candidacy and winning of the Democratic nomination helped start a movement within the Democratic Party that may win the peace in Iraq sooner rather than later and helped define the 2006 election in favor of Democrats. The ouster of Donald Rumsfeld last Wednesday was a sign that policy change is coming fast. The entry of grown ups (the Baker/Hamilton Iraq study group) into the Oval office are the beginning of the end of the Cheney/Lieberman policy of neoconservatism and intransigence. In Connecticut, Lamont, calling out Lieberman on his many accommodations with the GOP Administration, has inspired thousands of people to become involved, including newcomers to the New Britain Democratic Town Committee, who will stay involved for future elections.”

Ned Lamont, speaking as if he yearned to be on the stump campaigning again, ended his 30-minute talk by challenging his mostly young audience to take on conventional wisdom themselves. He let it be known that there will be no “woulda, coulda or shoulda” for him when he looks back on 2006. By choosing to challenge an incumbent U.S. Senator who thought he could ignore his base, Lamont used his own considerable resources to lead a grassroots movement that contributed to a change of power in Congress and inspired thousands of people to become involved in the political process. And his talk at the CCSU campus showed that he's not done rocking the boat nor being a prominent voice in the Democratic Party.

Murphy Reports On War Without End At First New Britain Forum

Cong. Chris Murphy (D-CT 5), just returned from a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan with a six-member Congressional Delegation (CODEL) led by Cong. Steve Lynch (D-MA 9), provided a sobering assessment of U.S.. intervention in both countries at a Slade Middle School forum on Saturday, April 21st.

Standing beside posters showing the growing costs of the war and an escalating insurgency, Murphy said the “life changing” trip reinforced his position in favor of a clear Iraq exit strategy now contained in legislation adopted by both the House and Senate.

Bush and the Congress are now at odds over the "Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health and Iraq Accountability Act" that sets a July 1 deadline for meeting benchmarks. If benchmarks are not met, redeployment of U.S. troops would begin within 180 days. Bush vows a veto over the timetable and falsely accuses Democrats of not supporting the troops.

Murphy confessed to a rookie congressman's awe about being part of the congressional fact-finding trip. But his command of the facts and analysis made for a compelling case against Bush and Cheney's intransigence.

Iraq and Afghanistan pose two very different challenges, according to Murphy. The fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan is difficult. Unlike Iraq, sectarian violence is not rampant and the country possesses a greater sense of nationalism. Murphy, however, worries that the U.S. may be "under-committed" in Afghanistan where post 9/11 efforts to thwart terrorism began.

In Iraq, Murphy and his colleagues held a meeting with General David Petraeus at which the U.S. military leader candidly told lawmakers that he could not say whether the latest “troop surge” was working or would work at all. Murphy said President Bush, who met with him and CODEL members in the Oval Office following the trip, remains “unreformed” and as obstinate as ever about his war without end.

Murphy pointedly added that those who think the U.S. can now easily extract itself from the quagmire are only fooling themselves.

There was an unspoken frustration at this first Congressional forum held by Murphy in New Britain. One woman, who jeopardized her nursing education to protest the Vietnam War, said the protests a generation ago had more of an impact than the protests of today. Others pointed to the Draft and Selective Service in the 1960s that made the war toll more of a shared sacrifice and led to a more potent anti-war effort. Cong. Murphy noted that this war involves sacrifice only among the soldiers and families who are facing multiple tours of duty. He put the number of troops who have been back more than once at 170,000. Those tours are stretching Guard forces and regular troops to the limit, but are necessary to patrol the streets of Baghdad and do for the Iraqis what they are unable to do for themselves.

Much on the minds of the New Britain audience was the neglect in the delivery of services for returning veterans. Murphy, noting the well publicized deficiencies in outpatient care at military hospitals, said that it takes a minimum of 18 months for returning soldiers to obtain veteran’s benefits and services. It shouldn't take that long, he said, pointing out that Congress' reauthorizing bill for Iraq and Afghanistan (HR 1591) includes an additional $1.5 billion for veterans.

The Bush Administration may be penny pinchers for veterans but they have been most generous to some of their friends. Among Murphy's "costs of the war" is $10 billion which is "the amount of Iraq reconstruction funds currently unaccounted for." Among the companies receiving war profits has been Dick Cheney's Halliburton. Halliburton's engineering subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root, was awarded $7 billion in no-bid contracts early in the "Iraqi Freedom" campaign, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Murphy, a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, indicated that Congress is uncovering "layers of contracting upon contracting" wherein no-bid contractors are skimming funds and sub-contracting actual work for Iraq projects to others.

House-approved legislation (HR 1362)known as the "Accountability In Contracting Act" would change federal acquisition law to end these "abuse-prone" contracts that have proliferated in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is opposed by the Bush administration but has gained new momentum with the takeover of Congress by the Democrats. Ironically, the measure has now gone to the Homeland Security Committee chaired by Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut for further action in the Senate.

Having gained firsthand knowledge of the Iraqi situation, Cong Murphy goes back to Capitol Hill to press for enactment of an Iraq policy that does not depend on an unending presence of U.S. troops. It is doubtful, however, that he and Democrats in Washington can succeed in the short term so long as Bush has enough allies in the Congress to maintain a status quo that fuels the insurgency, drains our resources and makes us no safer. Murphy and the Democratic majority now need Republicans to stand up to Bush and Cheney to change direction in Iraq before the President's term ends.

39 Years Ago Today

I remember exactly where I was on April 4, 1968. Thirty nine years ago today the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

That week day, like many others in my senior year in high school, I drove to Bradlee’s Department store on the Lynnway in Lynn, MA to punch in for the evening shift earning some money before entering Boston University in the fall.

The news spread quickly that Thursday evening that King was dead. It didn’t take long to realize that my shift as a retail clerk would be different from all the others. The store quickly emptied out. Not a customer in sight all night. No need for Mr. Silverman, the shaken and somber store manager, to send me out on outside carriage control. The bullets in Memphis were enough to bring a normal business day to a halt in Lynn and most of the nation. Just five short years before I had come home from junior high on a late summer day to watch King deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech – an event that would inspire so many of us to become active in politics and protest.

There are many good remembrances of what King said and stood for on his national holiday In January every year, but not so much is being said on this anniversary of the day he died. It's worth remembering on April 4th and throughout the year why King was in Memphis on a day I will never forget.

By 1968, Rev. King was widening the concerns of his movement. In Where Do We Go From Here? King opposed a Vietnam policy that had begun to break the nation further apart. The lunchroom sit-ins and battles over accommodations and voting rights were giving way to a broader agenda. He was planning a new march on Washington – “the Poor People’s Campaign” -- when he decided to take up the cause of 1,300 Black sanitation workers in Memphis, a city of southern segregation, where the white power structure opposed the right to unionize and the Mayor vowed never to bargain in good faith in a way that would give the sanitation workers their dignity. The strike and a citywide economic boycott were a cause King knew he could not ignore.

King’s prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech on the eve of the assassination is his best known from Memphis. But two weeks earlier, on March 18th, King galvanized support for strikers by saying: “So often we overlook the worth and significance of those who are not in professional jobs, or those who are not in the so-called big jobs…..One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive.” Following King’s assassination, the Memphis power structure gave up its intransigence – recognizing the union, awarding pay raises and instituting merit promotions.

King’s campaign for striking sanitation workers reaffirmed his greatness at the hour of his death and resonates today in the cause of social and economic justice. That is worth remembering most from the day he died.

Adapted from New Britain Democrat e-letter 15 January 2006

Taking A Step Toward Medicare-For-All

A plan being pushed by State Senate leaders calls for immediate action that would provide health insurance coverage to 140,000 state residents, 40% of the 350,000 individuals in the state who are uninsured.

State Senate President Donald Williams (D-Brooklyn) presented his proposal to reform the health insurance system at a crowded meeting room of the Community Health Center on Thursday, March 22nd. Speaking next to a wall-size sign “Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege…” at the 35-year-old community-based clinic, Williams put the price of health care in Connecticut at $22 billion. He described the system as rife with inefficiencies as it denies more than 10% of residents access and under insures many others, especially the working poor.

Williams, who has represented his eastern Connecticut district since 1993 and is serving a third term as Senate President, offered a sober assessment of the challenges reformers face in moving toward universal coverage. He observed that federal action won’t come any time soon despite current legislation in the Congress and the tilting of the U.S. House to a Democratic majority.

Through the “Healthfirst Connecticut” initiative the Senate Democrats seek to move incrementally toward a single-payer “Medicare for All” plan modeled after the federal Medicare law adopted in 1965 that has brought a measure of health security to senior citizens ever since.

Governor Rell has introduced a counter proposal that promises universal coverage but does not involve any significant state investment. The Charter Oak Plan would be fee-based and would involve private insurers selling low-cost coverage to the uninsured. Critics, including Williams, say reducing Connecticut’s uninsured will require more money and a more comprehensive approach to reforming the system. The Rell “universal” health plan would reduce the number of uninsured, but by much less than the immediate actions proposed by Senator Williams.

Introduced by State Senator Don DeFronzo (D-New Britain, Williams called for the passage of 2007 legislation that will reduce the coverage gap. The forum included personal testimony on a video brought by Williams and by audience members on the difficulties of navigating the current system and being denied treatment.

The Healthfirst initiative would use existing federal and state insurance programs to provide health insurance to 140,000 persons. The proposal would expand the Connecticut HUSKY insurance program and increase income limits for eligibility under the public Medicaid and SAGA (public assistance) programs. A key component would raise the age of coverage for dependent children from 19 to 26. This would extend coverage to young adults starting out in a first job. More than 40% of Connecticut’s uninsured are between 19 and 34 years old. The plan would increase the income limit for a family of two from $19,800 to $24,420 as a means of extending HUSKY-A coverage. A combination of raising income limits and increasing Medicaid rates for providers would create more access immediately, according to Williams who put the cost of the program at $450 million, 50% of which would be funded by federal reimbursements.

"Right now, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on direct care for the uninsured who, under the current system, end up treated in the emergency room when the problem is the most chronic and the solution is the most expensive. That has to change," Sen. Williams said. "Making an investment to keep the population--and the workforce--healthy is good for the economy. And it is the right thing for society to do."

To attain Medicare-for-all, Williams wants the state to “convene a health care panel to examine and evaluate policy alternatives that would consider “a statewide single-payer health care system.” These long-term strategies, said the Senate President, would be the basis for a universal health care program in Connecticut.

Juan Figueroa, President of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, has praised the plan Williams shared with his New Britain audience last week, saying “the goal to create a ‘Medicare-for-all type’ health care system in Connecticut recognizes the need for aggressive reform measure that address the many pressing and complex issues facing the beleaguered health care system.” Figueroa similarly thanked the Rell administration for joining the debate but was much less enthusiastic about the GOP's fee for service initiative.

The nonprofit foundation advocates that any new health care policy be measured against five principles established by the national Institute of Medicine. According to the Institute, universal health coverage must: include everyone; is continuous and portable; is affordable to individuals especially those with limited incomes; is affordable and sustainable to society, and; enhances health and well-being.

Figueroa, whose organization puts the number of Connecticut uninsured at more than 400,000 persons has urged Williams to “move forward with all deliberate speed” by convening the panel on new strategies and reporting findings and recommendations by May prior to adjournment of the Legislature this year.

The Little Team That Could: CCSU's Blue Devils

Over the holiday semester break (December 28) I walked over to Central Connecticut State University's Detrick gymnasium from my Belvidere home to watch the Central men play Vermont in a non-conference game. The team had a sub .500 record at the time and I was amazed to count only seven players in uniform. I wondered how a basketball team so depleted would survive the season in the Northeast Conference.

The undermanned Blue Devils showed promise early in the game against their America East opponent. They pushed the ball hard off missed shots; their team play, sure-handed passing and constant team motion evoking my memories of the old and great Celtics of another era. But they were shorthanded even more than usual that night and fell to Vermont and its 15-man roster, 55-48. Little did I know that the flashes of good play I saw in a loss, dropping Central to 3-9, would be a harbinger of things to come.

On March 7, the Central men gained their third trip to the NCAA tournament since 2000. Overcoming a second half deficit of 10 points, the Blue Devils defeated Sacred Heart University in dramatic fashion. Guard Xavier Mojica (Auburn, MA, Auburn HS),the league MVP, confidently drilled a a three pointer and Forward Jemino Sobers (Scarborough, Ontario, Mother Teresa) delivered a baseline jumper to catch and pass Sacred Heart as the clock wound down for victory.

CCSU's journey toward March Madness is an improbable story of determination by a team frequently undermanned and often smaller in size than many of their opponents; a team that played through injuries and pain. From that 3-9 start in December, they finished the regular season 22-11 overall and 16-2 in their conference.

In many ways this relentless squad is a reflection of their coach, Howie Dickenman. Dickenman's basketball resume begins as a standout player for CCSU, coming to the New Britain School from Norwich Free Academy where he was coached by his father. In workmanlike fashion, he was a New Britain High assistant and gradually earned his way up the coaching ladder. There was two years as coach of Greater Hartford Community College (now Capital Community College). Assistant's jobs would follow at CCSU under longtime coach Bill Detrick and Canisius College. For 10 years Dickenman was an assistant and top recruiter at the University of Connecticut helping to build the Huskies to national prominence with Jim Calhoun.

Eleven years ago Dickenman returned to his basketball home where he has led his team to a third trip to the Division I "dance". Dickenman's passion can't be missed at any game. He relentlessly paces the sideline and his shouts can be heard across the gym. His raspy voice shows that the season takes a heavy toll on his vocal chords. The yells rarely if ever are directed at referees over a bad call. He probably couldn't stand being thrown out of a game and miss a minute of the action. Instead, his court side manner exhorts his players to excel and they usually respond to their tough but caring coach.

The Blue Devils have earned their spot in the NCAA tournament through perseverance and hard work and what one commentator called their "old school coach."

They have gained the admiration of the community and state where they play. Now, it's on to face a Division I elite team in the first round in the familiar role of the out sized and undermanned upstart. Whoever they play, however, had better be ready for this hardscrabble and unselfish group from New Britain, Connecticut.