Today, Hartford smells rotten and wasteful.

Drought advisory be damned, the new sportsball field will be watered!

 

You might be asking: did we need another sportsball field in Hartford? No, no we did not. Did we need the baseball field in Pope Park renovated a couple years ago? Didn’t need that either.

Unless you’re a career politician who loves to stamp your name all over things.

The state “rep” for this district actually has her name attached to the youth baseball league, which plays in this park, and get ready for the next layer of malarkey: instead of going to Burns School or United Way, voters are now being directed to the Pope Park Rec Center.

That move would make sense, were it not tainted by years of the politician making sure she was associated with it.

Could this rep have spent any of the several decades in office directing funds toward infill housing? There are numerous vacant lots and buildings, sprawling surface parking lots.

The need is great. Just look at the pavilion next to the brand new playing field in Pope Park: there are always people using it as overnight shelter. Tents and shacks are also set up in less visible sections of Pope Park. People deserve stable housing at least as much as a state rep deserves another vanity project.

And if anything at all should be done in Pope Park, it’s this: give attention to the soccer field — the area that actually receives frequent use. Stop allowing people to drive through the park and onto the grass. Clean the garbage from the park. Maybe there could be a [State Rep.’s Name Redacted] Needle And Construction Debris Removal Project.