This is not the first or even second season that this repurposed dumpster has been on Capitol Avenue, so I am still surprised when people ask me about it, or when I see it misidentified in a news article about a legislator flipping her car in the roadway. 

I had been trying to think about why that is, and it came to me while telling a new friend about how apparently some people who have been in Hartford their whole lives were unaware that there was a river on the other side of I-91. If there is a closed door, I try the handle. An alleyway? I walk down it to see where it comes out.

Unless you are on the north sidewalk of the street, this container may simply appear to be a dumpster. In season, there are flowers, which hints that there is more going on with it. But there is nothing about three of the four sides to indicate that there is a bench. Not everyone will walk around it just to find out why. 

During its first life, it was a dumpster. Then, it was reconfigured to be this, though it looked a bit different and was placed on Main Street opposite the Wadsworth Atheneum. In 2020 it was repainted/redecorated and moved to Capitol Avenue between Flower Street and Babcock Street. Since the norm is for this object to change, I suggest that when it is due for a repainting, instead of the #CAPAVE text covering it, language to the effect of “take a seat” or “Frog Hollow invites you to sit down” is featured. Let people know what this is intended for, and that it’s not a fancy dumpster trying to rebrand part of a neighborhood. Because people have asked me this.