Imagine living in a neighborhood where in the course of ten years, you cannot confidently count how many buildings have burned or partially collapsed. What you hear again and again is that the buildings are old, and that this is what happens. What you know is that this is preventable. Nothing ever just happens.
Last week, in the middle of the day, a long vacant building on Park Street partially collapsed. I was home at the time, which is about two blocks away from the site. That I did not go rushing out to investigate this most recent loud noise says a lot about how desensitized it’s possible to become when crashes, sirens, and so forth are routine.
By a miracle, nobody was injured; however, calling this a miracle hardly feels appropriate given the circumstances. The structure — 769-777 Park Street — experienced a fire in 2014, raising questions about what had been done to secure and rehab the building in the years since.
SAMA (Spanish American Merchants Association) is identified in an ordinance as the organization that runs and manages the funding for the Park Street Special Services District — similar to the Hartford BID — which covers businesses fronting on Park Street from Main Street to Park Terrace; the district also includes other scattered properties (see end note). The SAMA website claims there is a Park Street Ambassador who addresses graffiti, bulky waste, street garbage, minor security situations, and more. The link that would provide information about board of commissioners is broken. My request placed with the City of Hartford for SAMA’s Park Street SSD annual reports went unanswered.
How much money does the Park Street SSD take in each year, and how are those funds spent?
A stroll down Park Street reveals upkeep wildly different from what one sees in Hartford’s central business district. While the sidewalks in downtown are mostly in good condition, free of litter, the first thing to notice about Park Street is that the sidewalks are disgusting, covered in trash, filled with tripping hazards. This is the opposite of what one should experience on a street with so many storefronts. Walking along Park Street means being witness to open air drug deals. It means, often, being harassed. While there are thriving businesses, there are also an astonishing number of vacant spaces. Look at the stagnation at Broad and Park. Over the course of two days, interns working with the Transport Hartford Academy, funded by the Capital Workforce Partners, filed 65 complaints with Hartford 311 regarding graffiti, bulky waste, litter, sidewalk conditions, and other types of blight along Park Street between Main and Broad. If high school students are able to identify and report these issues, how is it that the adults have been unable or unwilling to address them?
There will be excuses made, of course, but glance again at downtown. Even the largely shuttered area of Allyn Street shows signs of minimal maintenance. In the last decade, how many structures in downtown have been destroyed by fire or collapsed?
There may not be the same density along Park Street as in Downtown, but gaps can be filled in other ways, such as installing metered parking which would send revenue back into the district for upkeep. This is not a new idea, nor is it one that has not been presented to SAMA in the past. If the agency tasked with providing simple improvements to a busy corridor is not up to the task, perhaps another organization — or better, a collaborative effort — could take its place.
It would be unfair to place all the blame for Park Street’s conditions on SAMA, so it made sense to ask Minnie Gonzalez, who has been the State Representative for the third district since 1996, what she has done to improve the area. I mean, if we are going to point fingers at politicians, it makes sense to go after one who has been in office far longer than our current mayor or anyone on City Council. Although the elected official– and my district rep — had responded to exactly zero of my letters over the past decade, I gave it yet another try, hoping to get an explanation for why so few improvements had occurred in 22 years. So far, no response. I had intended to ask this of her at Tuesday’s candidate forum presented by Hartford Votes, but the incumbent did not bother to show up for the debate.
The other day I was asked to give my opinion regarding blight in my neighborhood. My initial reaction was one long shrug. The Park Street corridor needs a strategy, and that strategy needs to be implemented by capable individuals and organizations. Whatever is going on now is not working.
Other addresses listed in municipal code as comprising the SSD boundary: 54 Lawrence St., 142-144 Park Terrace, 147 Washington St., 162-164 Oak St., 180 Oak St., 184-186 Hungerford St., 804-806 Broad St., 794 Broad St., 799 Broad St., 64 Lawrence St., 13-15 Wolcott St., 10 Squire St., 14 Squire St., 161 Washington St., 162-168 Washington St., 176 Washington St., 505 Hudson St., 406 Hudson St., 482-488 Hudson St., 452-456 Hudson St., 115 Main St., 111 Main St., 109 Main St., 99-105 Main St., 89-97 Main St., 14-16 John St., 135-157 Main St., 150-152 Washington St.,
Linda Pagani
I was on Park St. last Friday, where the focus on the street was, of course, the demolition crews setting up. I was thinking that the last thing Park Street needs is another vacant lot (or two, since the building next door is also slated for demolition) on the streetscape. Regarding drug dealing, in my limited experience of daily life in Hartford, I’ve seen suspicious activity in many busy public locations. Why don’t/won’t the police do anything to stop it?
Stephen Michael Rohrs
Big question for typical Ct. Politicians with no answers for how they mismanage tax $$$.
You will never get a answer only a spin!!
JB
Everyone in the Latino community knows that SAMA gets the grants and puts their family members and friends as if they attended the funded events/activities. In addition at the office they all sit on their bums and never ever walk down Park Street to see what is going on. It is a Scam organization. Gets Federal, State and City grants just for their salaries.
We all know that.
Kerri Provost
Oh, this is definitely known by anyone who spends time along Park Street. . . so the question is, why does it continue? How is it that nobody has managed to remove SAMA as the organization affiliated with the Park Street SSD?