I want to start this post by sharing a Hartford Courant article with you:
Nonprofit Group Seeks To Open Grocery Store In Downtown Hartford By Summer.
Yes, that's my apartment building, and yes, those are many of my comments below the article (see comments posted by Jweb330). When I moved into the building, the residential management team informed me they hoped to get a small grocery store into one of the first floor commercial spaces. I subscribe, via Google Alerts, to all news relating to downtown Hartford and was thrilled when I finally saw a published article regarding CommonGround's plans to bring a grocery store to downtown Hartford. This article followed great news that the city will receive an influx of students next fall with the opening of the St. Francis School of Pharmacy in Hartford 21 and that Hartford 21 will soon have another retail tenant, New Alliance Bank. To me, it seems as though we have all the fixins' to build a city from the ground up, and I, for one, am eager to do my part to support the cities as it grows. I plan to rally my fellow downtown Hartford residents and employees to support the grocery store in The Hollander on High and Asylum street, even if it is a bit of a walk (that's part of city life, isn't it?) so we can finally see a successful retail outlet in downtown Hartford. Afterall, that would be incentive for even more retailers to come to the area. For all who are so eager to see a larger grocer in the Hartford 21 complex, it likely will not happen until the larger grocer sees a successful model on a smaller scale.
There were lots of comments on the Courant article about robbings and the area not being safe. Well, I have a small dog and I often take him out as late as midnight and have never encountered such crime. It is an extremely quiet neighborhood and is even more safe in the daytime, the normal operating hours of a grocery store. I would not be any more scared to walk around this neighborhood than I would be walking around the streets of Boston or New York (again, we are talking about city life, aren't we?)
I could go on and on about this topic, so if anyone wants to start a dialogue, please comment and let's get some discussion flowing. Anyway, I give props and all my support to CommonGround as they make efforts to improve life for downtown Hartford residents and employees. In fact, I plan to email the offices today and see how I can help. I hope you will all join me in my efforts and be a part of the growth of downtown Hartford.
2 comments:
Downtown may not have a terrible crime rate, but I know that at least to me, perceived safety plays a big part.
I haven't been to Hartford in five years, but I know that back then, I could walk all around downtown on a Saturday afternoon and not see another soul. It made me feel very exposed and vulnerable.
Compare that to Philadelphia -- a horribly violent city, but I feel much safer walking around because I'm always surrounded by other people on the streets. Busy streets create a sort of imaginary safety net, I guess.
I remember back then, there were a number of planned projects that were supposed to revitalize downtown -- the convention center, science museum, Hartford 21, and Front Street. Aside from the Front Street debacle, have these succeeded in generating any life into the streets?
Basically, I'm wondering if downtown has livened up at all in the past five years, or if it's still almost literally a ghost town outside business hours.
The solitude was one of my first qualms with downtown Hartford. It's very eerie walking around a city and not seeing another soul in sight. I'm relatively new to the area but I have been working downtown for a year and a half now and I have noticed some improvement.
I used to come downtown for shows on the weekends and the city was an absolute ghost town. About a month ago, I moved into an apartment right downtown and now, when I go out on the weekends, I see that there are in fact people around. JoJo's and other local retailers are now open on the weekends. I wish more would follow suit because what is the point of coming downtown if nothing is open? Also, I think the economy has put a major hault on downtown Hartford development. Maybe on the upswing, more retailers will be willing and able to take a risk on the neighborhood, especially with our newly increased student population (what students don't love cheap, late night food and shopping?)
I think people who work downtown see very little appeal in LIVING downtown as there are no amenities here; meaning they would have to leave home to get groceries, buy toothpaste, do laundry, etc. Putting a grocery store downtown would be a step in the right direction to making downtown living at least slightly more appealing.
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