Parkville, like a few of Hartford’s other neighborhoods, has been experiencing some dramatic changes over the past year due to the New Britain-Hartford Busway.
In the photo above, you can see a wide path of dirt and gravel. This used to be closer to a meadow with some trees, creating a place for wildlife like rabbits to live, along with creating a visual buffer between the rails and the homes and businesses.
There is a sense of disruption. A few weeks ago two deer found themselves trapped in a temporary path created between Broad Street and Flower Street in Asylum Hill, a nonsensical bit of fenced in walkway said on numerous occasions by employees of the CT Department of Transportation to solve the issue created by shutting down a north-south roadway. More and more deer have been spotted in places where deer ought not be, like Capitol Avenue.
From behind Real Art Ways, the changed landscape is apparent. An acoustical engineer will point out that trees do not effectively reduce noise pollution; all the same, a passing train that was once in the background is now difficult to ignore visually.
Not all of the changes to Parkville are irritating residents, workers, and visitors. The neighborhood’s park is getting a makeover. All of the equipment is in process of being replaced.
Elsewhere, it’s business as usual, with signs of autumn popping up in corners.
For those who don’t know, the buildings on Arbor Street house everything from dance companies to political headquarters to art studios to a bicycle advocacy organization’s office.
Parkville is home to one of Hartford’s book stores, The Jumping Frog.
Where is that book store? It’s in the same complex of buildings as Real Art Ways.
Some of the other old factories and warehouses have been turned into apartments and retail space.
Parkville has been one of the top walkable neighborhoods, but cycling and walking (along with driving) has been a challenge over the past year as busway construction has caused interruptions on nearly all of its busy roadways: Capitol Avenue, New Park Avenue, and Park Street. The sidewalks have been closed on both sides while work is being done on the crossing over the Park Street. The same has happened on Capitol Avenue, but in that segment, the existing bicycle lanes on both sides of the street at least have given pedestrians more buffer; on Park Street, one has to know the road well enough to cross to the wider space in advance.
There still is a lot of foot traffic as families walk to the grocery stores and laundromats on a recent Saturday morning.
The In Your Neighborhood series intends to show a neighborhood in Hartford as it appears on a given day (or days). We head out on foot or bicycle because the way of viewing a city from car is too shallow, too fast-paced. We set out with no agenda other than to get shots of what is visually interesting in the moment. This series emerged as an alternative to the way neighborhoods usually are represented by the news: only after something horrific has occurred or when there is a staged event.
