Jim Boucher -- "The Latest in Hartford's Community Happenings & Revitalization"

The Only Solution - It's Time to Work and Win Together

Last week's challenging events relative to the debt ceiling impasse and then temporary resolution, followed by the stock market downturn and Standard and Poor's downgrading of the nation's credit rating -- is leaving a number of us in a very pensive mood (to say the least) as the week begins.

In reading several of today's news articles, those that stand out most to me includes the Washington Post's story about the debt ceiling potential negative impact on the Washington D.C. area municipalities; and coupled with the New York Times' business page article about a conceivable new recession being more harmful than the prior recession, registers a number of dire implications to consider.

In considering these implications in relationship to Hartford's point of view, an already hard hit public and private sector has very little room to absorb more difficult events. The city's unemployment rate is 20-25% when including those individuals who have stopped looking for jobs. The number of individuals and families on food stamps are at record highs. At the same time the local business community is still trying to recover from the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, and more disturbing news can further diminish their local options to reinvest in new jobs and reinvestments.

One can only hope, that in reading the New York Times' Thomas Friedman's article that the time to "Win Together" will require the need to "Work Together" to transcend the many differences guiding competing political philosophies. A number of Hartford public/private institutions have pulled together in the past and present to assure that the city's safety net, economic sectors and public health, safety and welfare would be supported during difficult times, and efforts will need to continue as we review amd respond to the events of the upcoming week(s).

CIty Updates Hartford's Neighborhoods Initiatives

Mayor Segarra's Livable and Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative continues to gain momentum with additional city staff capacity to be added in the next 30-45 days which will include targeting neighborhood development areas with the following:

• Blight Strike Force
• Infrastructure Improvements and Community Development Projects
• Programmatic Alignment
• Performance Measurements

If you are interested in the recent plans released by Mayor Segarra's Office, please download below:

Download AH_BH_WE_Parkville2

Download BS_BHR_SE_SW

Download CA_NE_UA

Download CA_NE_UA

Budget Storm Ahead?

Budget Storm Ahead - What Direction to Take?

With the City budget in front of the Hartford City Council, we are beginning to analyze and consider a municipal budget that we hope will provide essential services necessary for a good, quality of life environment in the City -- acknowledging the importance at the same time to not over-burden the city's taxpayers.  Yet, as we analyze this year's budget, a "recessionary storm" has descended upon us with decreased state revenues, increased energy costs, and increased economic pressures and hardship -- particurly adversely impacting our most vulnerable city residents the most, and possibly seriously jeopardizing many of the city's new initiatives!

The best way of describing this is similar to stewarding a boat into an upcoming storm (of recession) -- that has numerous implications to the passengers on the boat.

With a storm in the midst and likely to get worse, the 'iron rule' for captains and their crew in setting the chart of direction, first is the safety of the passengers; followed by what destination did the passengers of the vessel pay for?   And if this were not enough, as we head into the impending storm we find ourselves in the midst of a major updating of the vessel with massive overhauls to the 'education' engine and 'worried business investors' opting out of the boat for calmer,less-taxing waters.  At the same time the captain works overtime to suggest ways to lighten the load on the boat --suggesting that we might do better without excessive non-essential baggage carried on the boat over the years.

Yet as we 'take budgetary stock' in what might be the best way to move through the recessionary storm to our destination -- we also get 'piece-meal' observations of the condition of the vessel that we are depending on...and the need to fix and/or restock and/or redirect it.

As we better focus our radar on the budget charts and the recessionary storm in front of us in the days and weeks ahead -- I am increasingly focused on assurring that our health and human services safety net is secure enough, that we not lose any further business and economic assets -- that the education overhaul leads to better performance and vital services do not get dislodged -- and that most important that no passangers are lost in the wake or even worse -- washed into the sea.

This may seem like an overly pessimistic view and cautious approach to the budget, but I am becoming increasingly aware of increased numbers of people relying on food pantries with increased food and energy costs; increased economic pressures on residents finding affordable, quality housing; increased joblessness, and other recessionary pressures on the city.  As we continue to review the budget, I am most interested in your views.  You can also watch the budget deliberations on Hartford Cable Access and/or attend the department presentations in person. Click on the following link (Download annual_city_budget_2008.doc) to download the schedule of meetings. Please send your thoughts to jimboucher@comcast.net.

CITY LEADERS ADVANCE NEW, CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

NEW, CREATIVE SOLUTIONS ADVANCED BY CITY LEADERS

A number of creative proposals have been put forth to revitalize Hartford's community, education and economic development in recent weeks.  A group of community organizations have spearhead a project entiled Hartford Options for Tomorrow, where they hope to partner together to increase resources for badly needed services in Hartford.  Their report [Download HOT_Report_Draft_091807.doc; Download HOT_Final_Presentation_A.ppt] has been received by City Council and will be heard at a public committee of the whole meeting of the council on March 24th at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall.

State Representative Kelvin Roldan has been working with other state stakeholders in trying to introduce a new bill, entitled "Connecticut's Promise," where students residing in Hartford could be eligible for significant scholarships at Conecticut colleges and universities by meeting certain academic standards.  More information can be found at the Hartford Public Library's -- Hartfordinfo.org website.

In addition, the City Council will be likely enacting a resolution [Download singlestream_recyling.doc] on March 10th, introduced by the Mayor, for a new city recycling program aimed at creating incentives to increase recycling.  Other recent creative efforts include Hartford's HUB Project, a review of renewed transportation strategies, such as redeveloping the "Aetna Viaduct," and considering other mass transit options to revitalize the city.   Also, council leadership strategies to enhance the involvement and creativity of youth leadership, young professionals and other city commissions is moving forward. 

In the days and weeks ahead I will be updating you on some of these issues, and more (ie.: charter revision, upcoming city budget, local education fund, etc.!)  I would be most interested in your thoughts and additional ideas to improve Hartford's quality of life -- email me at jimboucher@comcast.net.

Hartford's # 1 Pillar - Improving Education & Student Achievement

Hartford's #1 Pillar: Quality Education & Investment in Student Achievement

As I previously listed the "top ten" issues brought to my attention in my recent posting, I also wanted to provide a brief update to what are some of the education reforms that the City and the Hartford Board of Education are putting into place, and recognize further the strides that we must make to continue to improve student achievement. 

First, as I speak with a number of parents, educators, and community leaders -- I get a good deal of optimistic feedback about Hartford's "new school-choice program."  It is clearly evident that parents, students and families welcome the latitude to choose neighborhood schools based on various academic and career interests that have found previous success in the City's "new magnet school" approaches.  The challenge is how to take the best practices that the higher performing magnet schools demonstrate and build them out system-wide.  This is what the Hartford Board of Education, with support from the City of Hartford and State of Connecticut is proposing to do. 

This is not a new concept, but one developed as part of the Sheff Movement, a long standing advocacy movement in Hartford. Further, in order for this to reach scale, it will require significant additional resources, as indicated in the 'school adequacy study' conducted by CCJEF, where the study showed clearly that over one hundred-million additional dollars will be required in commitments from the State of Connecticut to provide an adequate education for all Hartford's children to meet NCLB standards.

Second, the emergence and importance of 'school based small learning communties,' 'parent involvement,' 'new school uniform and discipline policies,' 'early childhood education expansion,''and 'increased opportunities for educational professional development' -- are just some of the other newly invigorated education reforms aimed at improving academic achievement.

Third, an aggressive plan at school building modernization is vastly improving our school facilities and bringing them into the 'new global educational economy of the 21st century.'  Hartford is almost doubling its capacity for high school programming -- leading to smaller sized classrooms and small learning communities and academies at the high school level. 

Most important to all of these renewed intiaitves, is that many of these reforms have been tried in the past -- yet student achievement still lags.  This leads me to another point that I referenced in the 'top ten issues' that I raised: "follow-through!"  If we are to be successful we must follow through on these reforms and not get half-way, and then claim that it's time for 'new reform' and rewind back to a new starting point.

As an example of this 'stagnated stepping back belief' that too often becomes a 'rallying point' for some -- at a recentl City Council Public Hearing I heard a few people state that we should consider not going forward with an $80-million school renovation project at the present Fox Middle School site.  Yet the vision and plan for an education corridor that combines a number of other educational assets in this area into a full-scale community revitalization project -- similar to what occurred in Frog Hollow with the Learning Corridor -- could be a major opportunity for families and young people in the Upper Albany and Blue Hills neighborhoods of Hartford. 

To me the response is very straight-forward: Education is the #1 Pillar and we must Follow-Through with these important investments and education reforms -- towards Hartford's future!

Top Ten Responses to Hartford's Future Progress

Top Ten Responses to Hartford's Future Progress

As mentioned in previous postings I have been gathering responses from the hundreds of conversations that I have been involved in over the past several months, of what I am hearing about how City leadership should focus its energy toward building a better future for Hartford residents, businesses, community and institutions. 

The following are listed in a "top ten list" that I have been taking note of -- and admittedly It's difficult to put them in any rank order -- but if I was pressed about the frequency of discussion I would list them in the following way:

1. Our Shcools are our # 1 Pillar:  education for Hartford's students is the foremost commitment and investment that we should be making, and that we need to be 101% committed and undaunted in our determination to assure that all students get the resources necessary to gain a quality education.
2. J-O-B-S for Hartford residents continues to run a close second to the biggest issue(s) raised with concerns that more Hartford residents have access to employment enhanced by the MDC project, the continued construction job opportunities; and the need to increase job access for youth and also offenders released from prison;
3. Follow-Through!! -- Sustain and finish the work begun on important neighborhood and downtown development projects, as opposed to either (a) starting lots of new intiatives, or (b) starting over again from scratch.
4. Do Sweat the Small Stuff -- that the City must 'step up our energy and follow up' on basic quality serivces in the City that often focus on small but important city response to quality of life issues, and customer service requests.
5. "Don't Ask What You Can Do for Me, But What You Can Do for Others" -- is a famous slogan made famous by President John F. Kennedy, and is very relevant in today's Hartford. So many of the issues facing our community can be resolved by supporting renewed leadership and volunteerism and "getting involved" in community improvements.  As opposed to asking others to fix it, how can we all be lending each other a hand to fix it ourselves?
6. Pay Attention to Small Business! Certainly the property tax burden shifted to a number of small businesses, further signifying the importance of recognizing the need to do all we can to make the City more 'business-friendly,' and rcognize the value of small businesses.
7. It's the Traffic Stupid! Perhaps the number one issue and complaint heard throughout the city is the need for traffic calming in every neighborhood. In some neighborhood speed tables, speed bumps, speed cushions and other devices are making such a measured impact that there is a cascading cry for more of these traffic calming devices throughout the City -- placing a significant burden on traffic engineering to act quickly enough to attend to this issue.
8. Take time to celebrate Hartford's Diversity: Hartford's people assets, cultural assets and community assets have a depth and breadth to them that we do not often take enough time to celebrate and recognize the many good things that are happening in the City!
9. Ready or Not for the 21st Century - what more can and should Hartford do to compete in the 21st century global economy: mass transit -- regional and cross city bus routes, environmental innovations, smart growth, and other community innovations must be given much more atention by the City;
10. Trusting in our Public Servants - the need to assure integrity and trust can be an unquestionable quality and standard for all public servants, and to acknowledge the need for more citizens to engage in public service.

These 10 items reflect only partially a much longer list of issues and concerns that people have brought to my attention -- and clearly many more issues have been raised than these -- yet this is my best attempt to summarize what I have been hearing.  What do you think?  Am I missing something that you see as equally or more important?  What would be your top ten?  As always I am very interested in listening to you so that I can account for the public need in the various public policy discussions that I engage in.  I have greatly appreciated everyone's contributions to this public discourse in recent months and I hope that this will continue!  E-mail me at jimboucher@comcast.net.

Thank you!

Jim

Hartford Community Development - The Pieces Are Coming Together

Hartford Community Development: The Pieces Are Coming Together

In my previous posting I identified the hundreds of millions of dollars of community investments targeted to North Hartford, as a result of the very significant leadership planning and implementation by North Hartford leadership and many other stakeholders and supporters throughout the City, State, Federal and community and private sectors.

Similarly, we see major projects underway in other parts of the City: in Frog Hollow the Plaza Mayor project at the corner of Main Street and Park Street will be a gateway to Park Street.  In Parkville the commercial sector thrives and old industrial buildings have been redeveloped. In Sheldon Charter Oak the new HOPE IV housing development effort coincides with both the Colt redevelopment and a new Sports and Science Academy. In the southend the Franklin Avenue and Maple Avenue streetscape projects are enhancing both business and residential settings. 

In Behind the Rocks the finishing touches are being put on the newly refurbished A. I. Prince Vocational Tech School, a multi-million dollar renovation -- coupled with the redevelopment of Charter Oak, Rice Heights -- in addition to a new Jobs Corps facility and the highly successful new Breakthrough Academy School.  Farmington Avenue, the West End and Asylum Hill are also witnessing significant development.  Altogether these investments are only a segment of even further community investments occurring throughout the City.

All in all , the pieces of community development are coming closer and closer together to further strengthen Hartford's quality of life.  Some of the remaining pieces to the puzzle continue to be: will Hartford residents have access to the new job opportunities and benefit from these investments?  Can mass transit provide cross town travel and accessibility between urban and suburban communites?  Will affordability of housing continue for many of Hartford's working families and seniors and individuals on fixed incomes? 

It is my belief that we must continue to sustain and follow through on these projects as our #1 priority in the next few years.  A theme constant in the conversations that I have had with many Hartford leaders is that Hartford has had some history of shortchanging itself by not following through at critical intervals of its development.  I hear this argument time and time again, and it causes me to think hard about how we 'double our efforts' and assure that we finish the job begun by so many of our dedicated leaders -- working to enhance Hartford's quality of life.

Most of all I am interested in your opinion on this subject.  Do you think the community development pieces are coming together?  Your thoughts are appreciated, and you may e-mail me at jimboucher@comcast.net.

.

Building Strong Neighborhoods in Hartford

 

Building Stronger Neighborhoods

In recent months I have had the opportunity to attend a number of neighborhood meetings and discuss firsthand with community leaders the fact that significant revitalization efforts are under way throughout the City, which will have major positive impacts on the City's quality of life and enhance the grand list.  One community that is realizing significant community revitalization investments is North Hartford. As Mayor Perez suggests: "the City of of Hartford is in the midst of an unprecedented revitalization and North Hartford is seeing the benefits as vacant lots, blighted buildings, and deteriorating schools are being transformed as part of an economic development action plan for the entire city.  In fact, more than $527 million in public and private money has been and is being invested in North Hartford neighborhoods since 2002."  The attached presentation provides a specific breakdown of these projects: Download Future_Projects_North_Hartford.pdf.

In addition to these efforts the Mayor and the City Council are in the process of developing plans for a $50-million Hartford Neighborhood Development Program, leveraging millions of additional funds for the expansion of affordable housing, homeownership and community improvements.  This investment in revitalization is also taking place in significant ways throughout the City:  Sheldon-Charter Oak and Dutch Point, Farmington Avenue area, Franklin and Maple Avenue areas, Park Street corridor, Parkville and the Charter Oak/Rice Heights areas -- as well as a number of other neighborhoods in Hartford. As these neighborhood imrovements connect with an aggressive downtown development effort(s) the City grand list will realize a renewed growth and basic city services and amenities will be furher enhanced.  I will be reporting on some of the other plans that are underway throughout the City in some of the next postings.

In the meantime I suggest that you might also visit the Hartford 2010 website.

What's Important to Hartford Leaders

I am resuming my written activity on this blog after a long hiatus, where I had to totally devote myself to the budget season, significant renewed campaigning for re-election to city council -- and the need to attend to some personal milestones happening in my life. 

When I consider turning 50 years old, celebrating 25 terrific years of marriage with my wife - Kristen, and my oldest daughter graduating high school -- all within the past 30 days -- blogging did not rank up as high on the list of personal milestones that drew so much of my attention.

A further major challenge over the past 30-45 days has been working with the Mayor, City Council, State leaders and community leaders to resolve critical issues around developing a budget to assure quality services, yet with a large focus on finding solutions to effectively deal with the issue of property tax shifts to Hartford's small businesses, while protecting homeowners and renters. 

In the next few days with the passing of the State Legislative Budget we will have a better vantage point for the gains that the City has intended to make, and the pains that the City has worked to avoid. I will be sending periodic updates on what I believe the outcome to be.

And lastly, I have found the past 30-45 days to have been steeped in numerous discussions about my candidacy for re-election to the Hartford City Council.  A few themes have emerged that I would like to report on and get further feedback.  I would say that on one hand there is a healthy amount of optimism for the progress made on a variety of issues, but with strong encouragement that we must follow through on the important initiatives started before embarking on lots of new initiatives.  On the other hand it is clear that a range of challenges exist that need even more aggressive action by city leadership.  I look forward to being more specific on these issues in the next few days.

Again, I have found posting information on this web-blog to be very helpful in gaining additional feedback on important issues, and will try to be consistent in providing those 'blogging' opportunities.  The eventful months of May and June are about to subside, and now we turn our attention to the arrival of the events of the summer.  More to come!