A few Hartford residents and politicians should be cringing at how formulaic their response has been to the announcement that Asylum Avenue may be changing to include modest safety improvements for neighbors using bicycles.
Truly, it’s a cliché: a plan for a bike lane is discussed and people lose their minds over parking.
Let’s pause the conversation about the entitlement inherent in believing another person’s physical safety is less important than having convenient parking. Marinate in that shame another time.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not the government’s job to provide people with free places in which to store their private possessions; automobiles are a private possession. How differently would our world look if politicians spent as much time helping people secure housing as they do catering this wrongheaded belief that it is the municipality’s role to ensure folks have public storage for private belongings?
With that said, if politicians refuse to give this idea up, then let me not so humbly offer a suggestion: we already have far more parking than we need. It’s the distribution, stupid.
If you want to write me off, fine, but I can’t pretend to be the only one thinking this. The City of Hartford Comprehensive Parking Study, created in June 2022 using THA Consulting out of Jersey, says as much: “The largest discrepancy affecting the parking system in Hartford, CT is the distribution of [parking].”
This fabricated issue of a parking shortage comes up again and again. Recently, I watched as some members of Hartford’s City Council prioritized car storage over safety. They fell hook, line, and sinker for the claim that residents on a particular block of Asylum Avenue have trouble parking and therefore should not “lose” more by making the road safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
Because I spend time most days of the week in this area, I knew this immediately to be a false claim.
There is parking.
I can confirm that there is parking available at various times of day including before and after rush hour, mid-day, around 11 on a Friday night, all weekend. That parking is not always in the same spots, but it is ample and visible.
The problem has several parts, but it’s not all that complicated.
There’s the “you problem” stemming from those who expect to park directly outside their building. You want that, move to a suburb. Next.
Then, there are two connected issues. Resource hoarding and an unwillingness to talk to neighbors.
In this case, the resource is unused/underused parking lots that simply sit there. If you doubt the photographic evidence (all images from March 2023) provided here, go walk along Asylum Avenue, Sigourney Street, Niles Street, and Woodland Street to see it for yourself. Get out of the car. Walk/roll and look.
This does not mean the lots are empty all of the time, but that there are predictable times when the lots are empty. Most churches in this area have empty or significantly below capacity lots except for a few hours on weekends (and a handful of other occasions during the year). School lots mostly empty by 5 PM on weekdays and are rarely used on weekends. Same with the State of Connecticut parking lot sprawl at Woodland and Asylum.
I come bearing receipts.
These two screenshots are from a GIS map showing the neighborhood around the area in question. The yellow highlighting is mine. What’s in yellow? Parking lots, not affiliated with apartment buildings, that could be shared if property owners had the courage to be civic-minded by sharing resources. I did not highlight all of the parking in this portion of Asylum Hill, though you can see it with your own eyes, and as someone commented: there’s more parking here than city.

(Above: edge of Asylum Hill neighborhood by Park River bridge to just east of Atwood Street.
Below: area of West Middle School to The Hartford; southern visible street is Farmington Avenue.
Every highlighted parking lot is within an easy ten minute walk of the apartment buildings that allegedly lack parking)
These lots belong to the Board of Education — Classical Magnet on Asylum and Woodland and West Middle on Niles and Asylum; State of Connecticut; NPR; Grace Lutheran; Hartford Federal Credit Union; Knox Parks; Conference of Churches; Salvation Army; Trinity Episcopal; Cathedral Green; Jumoke Academy; Asylum Hill Congregational Church; NINA; St. Joseph Cathedral; HARC; the Archdiocese; Boys & Girls Club; Eagle Federal Savings Bank; and The Hartford. The very underutilized space behind the Family Dollar at Farmington and Sigourney has multiple owners.

I did not include in this St. Francis because while there is always parking visibly available, there’s no reason to add stress to someone trying to visit a loved one at the hospital. Likewise, while the funeral home parking lot at Farmington and Sigourney is usually empty, it’s less predictable when parking would be wanted and there’s no reason to add annoyance to someone’s day while they’re mourning. Even while omitting the funeral home and St. Francis properties, there is far more than enough parking supply that would meet the desires of residents with private cars, and even allow for visitors.
If they wanted to, the Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association with help from City of Hartford and Hartford Parking Authority could coordinate a neighborhood parking plan using existing surface lots. They could establish resident parking times and policies. Draw up contracts. Figure out a fee collection system that would go toward maintaining the lot, rather than making a few private parking barons richer. This is not a new or creative solution, so that means it’s fine now for Connecticut to adopt it.
This, of course, would require that everyone start acting like they are members of the community. It would mean collaboration, cooperation, and communication. For some, it would demand that they begin practicing what they literally preach.
If a school needed the lot at an atypical time, such as for an open house night or graduation ceremony, they would be responsible for communicating this with reasonable notice, and residents using the lot would be responsible for checking their messages routinely as to not miss such announcements. This would take some effort to get up and running, but it would be worth it to never hear griping again from people who are claim it took them almost an hour circling the block — polluting the air that whole time, mind you — to find a space that fit their desires.
If done well, everyone on that one block of Asylum Avenue who claims trouble finding parking should have no future issue getting a space in an existing surface lot within a five minute walk of their apartment.
Going back to the wild expectation some have of being able to park directly next to their building, there is a way to address this. Building management in these locations where there is allegedly not enough parking could make what is available handicapped parking only. Decouple parking fees from rent. Those who are able-bodied can walk five or ten minutes to their car in one of these other lots. Asylum Avenue is served by several buses and I have trouble finding sympathy for someone who can but just does not want to walk for a few minutes.
By shifting mindsets and practices, those who desire car storage can have it and we can keep safer those cycling on Asylum Avenue by creating consistent, protected bike lanes in existing space.