South Street Group, LLC, a real estate investment company in Glastonbury, sent me a letter last month offering to buy my home. I gave them the details about my 800 square feet of Victorian condo. On Jan. 10, I received South Street's offer: $14,000. I paid $25,500 in 2003, and owe almost $19,000. Even funnier? My bank recently assessed my unit at $35,000.

Itâd be hilarious if South Street didn't "Buy Hartford!" properties six times in 2005.

John DiBacco, owner of DiBacco's Market on Franklin Avenue appeared on Newspeak, the cable 5 television show on Thursday nights at 8 pm with Helder Mira, Francisco Gomes and myself. DiBacco, a Republican, sparred with Mira, a liberal. Afterwards, DiBacco and I discussed traffic on Franklin Avenue.

DiBacco's walk-in business from his normally loyal customer base has dwindled because traffic calming slimmed Franklin to two lanes. He said what once was a five minute journey down the old four-lane Franklin now takes at least 20 minutes, if not more during rush hour.

Traffic calming works, I argued. While bicycling, I have been hit by cars twice on Franklin. I escaped both incidents without injury, but pedestrians die on that road.

Reducing vehicular volume on an arterial is a Gordian knot. Franklin was designed decades ago for a different transportation system, and Franklin, like many roads, operates beyond its capacity to everyone's detriment.

DiBacco agreed, and liked the idea of limiting the number of cars one family or household can own. That is 30 years away because not only does it contradict the American mythos that cars are our right, no major efforts exist, apart from oil prices, to reduce the auto's impact.

Thus, the good practice of traffic calming is failing our merchants.

Drumming up business among neighborhood residents hasn't worked for Dibacco, so he is focusing on catering. He also said that he may move his business off of Franklin by 2007. Other Franklin merchants surely feel the same pinch.

Why isn't Hartford's leadership calling for cooperation with surrounding towns for more carpooling? What about promoting and offering fiscal incentives for using alternate modes of transportation?

"Buy Hartford!" Walk to work and the market.

Are we citizens or customers or both? And which bears more weight? The phrase "customer service" appears 108 times on Hartford.gov, while "citizen" appears 133. "Citizen service" merits only two.

Do residents buy goods (trash collection, public safety) from a provider (the city) or is the city the sum of what its residents give back?

"Ask not what your country can do for, ask what you can do for your country."

"Buy Hartford!"

My girlfriend Liz and I strolled down by the Connecticut River on Thursday to enjoy the springlike afternoon. Liz, the animal lover, spotted a goose with a broken wing resting on a bridge stanchion, halfway across the river. I know animal rescue farms help wounded birds, bats, and other wildlife. We called the state Department of Environmental Protection, and they said call the city.

HPD's animal control officer's phone rang into voicemail, and I didn't leave a message. We felt hopeless and left, only to find a woman's purse and driver's license in the traffic circle in Bushnell Park. "Steal Hartford?"

After Brenda McCumberâs Laurel Street Community Meeting last week, I saw our Community Service Officer Jim Barrett. He said tumbleweeds are blowing down South Marshall Street because of raids to arrest dealers. In a month, we agreed that the drug business would return. Rather than blame the courts, prohibition is the problem.

A more humane approach might ask Licensing and Inspections to follow police into neighborhoods to cite the landlords for slum conditions, and then bring in Social Services should help the families.

Or suppose we corral drug distribution into a regulated area, and those who approach to buy drugs are offered clean needles, safe shooting galleries and counseling for their addiction? The city could license and tax dealers. "Buy Hartford!"

The children's section of Hartford Public Library featured a "Holiday Wishes for Hartford" poster, where kids in the Homework Prize Club wrote what they most wanted. Wishes included: no selling drugs, no guns, no fighting, no bad words, a zoo, be free, no bad jobs, and peace on earth. My wish: "Buy Hartford!"

1/16/06

Email this to a friend.

"How long will South Marshall Street remain a veritable ghost town? Until the drug dealers arrested in the latest round of arrests get out of jail?"

"Buy Hartford!"? As in real estate. Abandon your track mansions and cars. Live in the city. Renovate green.

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Buy Hartford!

"Buy Hartford!"? As in real estate. Abandon your track mansions and cars. Live in the city. Renovate green.