Each year on the day before the Greater Hartford Puerto Rican Day Parade, Park Street and surrounding roads in Frog Hollow and South Green become a place to show off the wheels, a practice not wildly unlike the romanticized cruising culture in American Graffiti. The main difference is the prevalence of flags and newer vehicles.
The tradition, like pretty much anything in Hartford, has gotten a reputation — much of it unearned.
It’s loud, at times — mostly because of car horns and air horns. The air quality isn’t great, with the occasional burnouts.
But there’s dancing, food, and far less open air alcohol consumption than what we see downtown in March.
A Saturday on Park Street is always busy, a fact that helps reveal how unfamiliar a person is with Hartford when he says that it is “dead” on weekends. On parade weekend, people travel from across and out of state. Most restaurants were open on Park and Broad. Food trucks and carts, along with clothing and accessory vendors lined the streets. People who showed up too late might have thought the police dispersed the food vendors, but items like pinchos had simply sold out by late afternoon.
Usually the police drive up and down Park Street, ordering people to stop loitering. This year, aside from a few trips with sirens on, they were relatively hands-off, only beginning to really break things up around sunset.
Below, a crowd takes pics and video of one of the few adult arrests to happen in this area on Saturday night.
According to the Hartford arrest log, there were only three adults arrested on Saturday on or in the area of Park Street; these all took place after 8pm, and were for loitering and carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and interfering with police, and interfering with police, respectively.
For those needing a point of comparison, in the vicinity of the Meadows/Comcast/Xfinity Theatre on Saturday afternoon, evening, and very early Sunday morning, there were ten adults arrested, according to the Hartford arrest log.
Seven of those were directly on the concert venue’s property, with arrests for criminal use of a firearm, second degree assault, disorderly conduct, injury and risk of, interfering with police, and carrying a dangerous weapon; disorderly conduct and interfering with police; third degree assault, second degree breach of peace, interfering with police, and second degree threatening; interfering with police and second degree breach of peace; second degree breach of peace and interfering with police; criminal trespassing and interfering with police; and unsafe backing, evading responsibility, and operating motor vehicle with a suspended license.
Three other adults were arrested on Saturday at locations near the concert venue, including on Weston Street, Market Street, and Leibert Road for second degree assault and second degree breach of peace; failure to drive in proper lane and operating a motor vehicle under the influence; and traveling unreasonably fast, failure to drive in proper lane, an operating under the influence.
Those arrested at or near Savitt Way are from Tolland, Hebron, Windsor, Simsbury, Guilford, East Hartland, and (2) West Hartford. Two, including the individual who allegedly made criminal use of a firearm, gave addresses in Massachusetts: Westfield and Florence.
Jude
Coming out of the Trinity campus yesterday around 5:00 pm, I encountered, on Zion Street, a parade of motorcycles, scooters, dirt bikes, and ATVs acting like total morons – no helmets, riding wheelies, a four wheel ATV / Dune Buggy thing up on two wheels, blowing through red lights.
All the while a Hartford PD cruiser just sat there and watched it all happen.
A parade or a party contained to a certain route is one thing, but this was more Mad Max or Lord of the Flies rather than a celebration. No thanks….
Justin
In my neighborhood, one block from my house last weekend, we were driving and saw a group ride of dirt bikes and motorcycles. As they turned onto Fairfield Avenue as a group, some of the motorcyclists held back to tell us to wait, with a hand out and I saw another hold up his left arm to signal that they were turning right, like you sometimes see bicyclists do. While pretty loud and while making a pretty aggressive right on red turn with oncoming traffic who should have the right-of-way, this ride looked a hell of a lot like a Critical Mass ride in any large U.S. city. Organized parades with distinct routes and organized joy rides of folks on two wheels are different kinds of fun. Lack of helmets and wheelies is someone else’s fun, maybe not everyone’s–but it is someone’s. I think we’re a bit too fast to see only menace when we see people on the streets outside of 4 wheeled traditional auto vehicles. Seems like a lot of the reaction to ATVs and dirt bikes in CT mirrors the heated rhetoric about out-of-control cyclists I’ve seen during and after critical mass rides in a place like San Francisco.
With improvements in infrastructure and access, these more confrontational critical mass bike rides have morphed into a more chill, red-light obeying party ride called Bike Party (started in San Jose, can now be found in Boston, etc). Couldn’t this happen for other kinds of vehicles like the ‘off-roaders’ in Hartford and elsewhere–oh except for the fact that in the case of bicyclists, the movement had the advantage of starting out largely white and middle class.
I’m interested in seeing/helping to put together a community conversation between atv and dirt bike riders and those who oppose them (which seems like pretty much everyone, everyone at my NRZ meeting anyhow)…wonder if this happened anywhere besides the comments sections of news articles on these issues?
((ducks for cover for entertaining a defense of these guys))
Tony C
Interesting defense Justin. I don’t hate the ATV and dirt bike riders. They are just acting uncivilized in a civilized and crowded environment. When their “fun” creates risk for other road users, particularly cyclists, pedestrians, and children, it becomes an issue that Hartford as a city should work to address.
At the same time I perversely enjoy the lawlessness and Mad Maxx aspect of roving ATV gangs. That doesn’t stop me from calling it in when I see someone pull into a driveway on an ATV.
FYI – The best time to call in ATV and dirt bikes to HPD is when you see them pull out of a driveway, or into a driveway. Make sure you give the street address. There is a no chase policy, as it seems to be bad policy to pursue an ATV rider. They tend to ride like idiots and get themselves killed / maimed.
Justin
thanks for your reply tony. i’m still trying to figure out what to think about all these issues with the ATVs… let’s talk more soon on this -j
Jane M-P
There is now a twitter account designed to assist HPD with the atv issue. @hartfordATV. No idea if it has been helpful. Although i hate how they often tear up the parks and race down streets in the wee hours of the morning, as part of the parade celebrations I fully enjoy them. We saw many scooters out and about this weekend and the vast majority of them were riding at what can only be called sedate speeds, and with, dare i say it, excellent driving manners.
Tony C
Interesting observation Kerri that the festivities on Park Street appeared to be less active from an arrest standpoint than a typical concert with tailgating. The perception of danger isn’t fulfilled by the statistics. Hmmm.
Kerri Provost
Those perceptions rarely are.
It’s not that everybody behaved like angels, but frankly, it doesn’t feel more dangerous than, say, walking around downtown on the day of the St. Patrick’s parade when some folks have been drinking since sunrise.