Kingswood Market closing doors

After 70 years in business on Farmington Avenue, the Kingswood Market is closing down, according to a story in today’s Hartford Courant. The owner can’t afford the rent hike sought by his landlord.
While the market is only vaguely familiar to me — I’ve run in a few times over the years — this strikes me as [...]

Ben & Jerry’s opens on Memorial Day weekend

Torrington Register-Citizen’s Business Blog
Why does Torrington give a damn? I have no idea.

Stop & Shop needed in West Hartford

The King’s View blog, a wonderful West Hartford blog, make a great case for a better grocery store in our town. Check it out.

A devastating blow to West Hartford schools

Today’s story in The Hartford Courant quotes David Sklarz, the school superintendent, as saying last night that he faces “the most difficult reductions that I’ve had to present” in searching for ways to pare $1.8 million from the next education budget.
Now I could understand why this year posed problems if we were in the middle of [...]

Blue Back Square cited as model for growth

 Blue Back Square now
Developer Richard Heapes was heaping it on in Maryland this week, according to a  story in The Gazette, which covers the DC suburbs.
Pushing for more developments like Blue Back Square, Heapes “pointed to a project his company, Street-Works, is building in West Hartford, Conn., as an example. West Hartford gave his company $50 million [...]

Pawn shop has no place in West Hartford

The Hartford Advocate has a sickeningly sympathetic story today about Seth Boynick, a commercial real estate broker whose application for a pawn shop on Park Road got unanimously rejected by town councilors last month.

West Hartford-based Colt could lose contract

 From a forum on www.militaryltd.com:
“The debate over the Army’s choice to purchase hundreds of thousands of M4 carbines for its new brigade combat teams is facing stiff opposition from a small group of senators who say the rifle may be inferior to others already in the field.
“In an April 12 letter to acting Army Secretary Pete Geren, [...]

New hi-def studio for Channel 30 in West Hartford

Good news from the Hartford Business Journal.
West Hartford’s Conservation Commission is likely to give the nod Monday for the television station “to construct a new, approximately $20 million state-of-the-art television studio,” the weekly reported.
A groundbreaking is scheduled for August.
 Hartford Business Journal story link

West Hartford is home base for campus security professionals

It turns out that the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators is based right here in West Hartford.
Here’s its statement in the wake of the Va. Tech massacre:
IACLEA President Healy’s Statement on Virginia Tech Shootings
Statement of IACLEA President Steven J. Healy
WEST HARTFORD, CT (April 16, 2007)– The shootings at Virginia Tech University today are [...]

The worst blight in West Hartford

On the far side of the railroad tracks, where not even McDonald’s could survive, is a vast wasteland that is, amazingly, still part of West Hartford. It’s full of auto shops, dollar stores and other places that barely hang on. Most of us go there only when we need to track down the post office [...]