The Gold Street Report. It was a packed house tonight at City Hall tonight for the City Council Economic Development subcommittee hearing on the taking of 199 SF for an easement on Gold Street. As expected the conversation was rarely if ever about the actual square footage itself ,but all about what is and what is not necessary to achieve the goals of the iQuilt. Pretty much everyone in the room on either side of the argument was in favor of iQuilt, excepting one or two individuals ( William Hosley chime in) . And everyone treated everyone else with respect, only once at the beginning did Chairman Aponte have to quiet someone down, and that really speaks volumes about the decency of everyone there regardless of their positions on the issue. The Bushnell Tower owners were very sincere in their support of iQuilt, while most of them I have never seen at any public meeting, a few had attended the iQuilt meetings and felt the plan today just isn’t what is needed; that a pathway would do just as well. The Center Church folks rightly pointed out their long term commitment to the City. However, over all it remains we all want change and the city to improve , but can you do it in the other guys yard not mine, or at least do as little as possible in my back yard. I get it , it is the the Bushnell Towner back yard and the Center Church front lawn. So in the end the City Council punted the ball tonight, to see if a compromise can be worked out. The Council is in a tough position, they adopted iQuilt as part of One City , One Plan, they accepted the TIGER grants that is paying for this, but now they have a bunch of tax paying residents right in front of them wanting a path built not a road moved. Part of the problem here seems to be the failure to explain the design principles originally at work here. Because the owners and the parishioners were very sincere in wanting to support iQuilt but not wanting this road. Today Gold St curves so its green space is not aligned , instead its offset lumpy fat deposits, a lot on right, then liposuction hits right before Lewis Street while the reverse happens over by the Towers. The iQuilt Plan idea was always to create a Bushnell Gate on Main Street so that when you head down Gold Street toward the Park there would be one single flowing park promenade to your right, aside a narrow road. A pathway is a half way measure and won’t create the same sense space and linear park that a continuous broad swath would create. Since this project began there have been many compromises, a shout out to Councilor Raul DeJesus who nailed that point while questioning the lawyer for the Church, and when he asked folks to stay involved not only on this issue but the many other affecting the City. So while the Council agreed approving the easement or not won’t change the re-alignment of road, they have called on city staff to work with the owners for a compromise. As for myself, my feeling is Hartford is falling behind once again. Our competitors are the cities who are willing to spend money to make money, willing to move rivers and break eggs, while we just complain about the price. The Big Dig cost $14B and not one pot hole ridden road in Southie got fixed, while we don’t want to spend $10M unless every pot holed other road gets fixed first. We are left now after so many compromises on the design of Bushnell Gate whether there will be one more, and whether that will be the straw that breaks the camels back. Its like we made a promise to shoot for the stars, but decided its too far, it will cost too much and really isn’t Farmington just as good as reaching the stars ? Then after we don’t make it to the stars, we get to complain for ten years about how we never go anywhere but Farmington.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:47:39 +0000
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