Of SUVs and parking woes at Whole Foods

One blogger believes that Blue Back Square is already tying up traffic, at least at the Whole Foods parking lot.

Of course, there probably wouldn’t be a Whole Foods there if it werent’ for Blue Back, but that’s another story.

The blogger’s right about all the SUVs, though. You’d think driving around town that they were giving SUVs away with all the people taking them out on errands. 

I-84 exit/entrance changes

While I commend everyone involved for trying to fix an increasing mess where we get off and on to I-84, the new solution isn’t much better.

The biggest trouble at the moment, which I’ve already seen a half dozen times, is that traffic going north on Park gets tied up at the light for Trout Brook, backing it up across both the exit and entrance ramps for the highway. That just compounds the troubles, of course, since then people can’t make turns, blocking stuff up further back, too.

I’m no traffic expert, God knows, but there has to be a better way there. Perhaps it’s just the timing of the lights that need adjusting.

In the long run, the focus should be on making the other exits to and from West Hartford easier to use so that more people will shift away from Exit 43 and go somewhere else.

Useless reporting in the Courant today

This is exactly the kind of news story that makes it nearly impossible for residents of West Hartford to make informed decisions. We’re told next to nothing about what’s in the budget and given only hints about what critics have to say. There are no details, no real explanation, no nothing for any of us to make any kind of decision about who’s right and who’s wrong.

I don’t really blame the reporter. It’s just the whole thing is so truncated and short that it’s utterly without value. The Courant treats this town as an afterthought even though most of its readers and advertisers are right here in West Hartford.

An encounter with the West Hartford cops

One young blogger today details his experience with a recent police encounter that is quite typical of what I hear from many people in town. The police surely do look on the younger generation as likely criminals all too often, and hassle many of them over trivial matters. This is but one small example from somebody willing to speak up. Most of the incidents are like this – hardly anything to get worked up over except that the big picture shows that there’s an unfairness to law enforcement that deserves more scrutiny than it gets.

RIP Garbage picking in West Hartford

It hit me the other day as I watched two men in a station wagon cruising slowly down the street, inspecting the assorted trash outside everybody’s house, that when the town switches over to the new barrel system this fall, one of the town’s long-standing traditions will die.

If the only stuff that trash collectors will pick up is whatever we can cram in the barrel for the one-armed trucks to lift, dump and return to the curb empty, then there’s no place anymore for putting old Playschool climbing toys on the side of the road, or aging tv sets with “IT WORKS” signs taped on the tubes, or boxes of odds and ends from the basement. They either get tossed in the can or hauled off to …. well, I’m not sure.

What I do know is that I probably won’t be trying to lug an old bookshelf home that my neighbor down the block no longer wants. I’ll just see neat rows of big trash cans, with nothing to differentiate one from the other except perhaps whether the lids are firmly closed or propped up a bit by that final bag of kitchen litter.

I imagine this change will have quite an impact on the stores throughout the area that sell used goods and for the people who take out trash to flea markets.

What it really does, I’m afraid, is to push us a little further towards becoming the throw-away society we all loathe, even as embrace its ethos day in and day out. What’s old and unwanted simply disappears. It never even makes a pit stop by the side of the road, where a hope of new life still exists. 

Knife fighter from West Hartford

A 28-year-old West Hartford man, Justin Wakefield, was arrested in Windsor Locks this week after he pulled a knife during a basketball game dispute and started carving up another fellow, according to a story in the fabulous  Journal Inquirer. The injured man got sliced on his face, hands and arms, the paper reported, but is expected to recover.

Wakefield was charged with first-degree assault and breach of peace before securing his release by posting a $50,000 bond, the paper said. He is scheduled to appear in Enfield Superior Court on April 10.

I’m not too thrilled to have guys like this wandering the streets of West Hartford. 

Newsweek’s stunning new issue

Scrawled across the cover of the April 2 issue of Newsweek are a soldier’s words, in his own writing: “Any day I’m here could be the day I die.”

What follows inside is an extraordinary, deeply sad and wonderful look into the lives of our fallen troop — in their own words. It’s full of excerpts from letters, emails, instant messages, audio recordings and more that our warriors left behind after war took them from us forever.

Every reminder that so many of our soldiers are dying daily is a good thing, but this issue is a gift from Newsweek to America. It’s not particularly political in the narrow sense of bashing or bolstering President Bush, but it leaves an unmistakable impression that we’ve lost far too much.

Just looking at the pictures of men cuddling their babies breaks your heart, over and over and over.

I know the war is hell, that soldiers who perish leave gaping wounds at home, that battles grind up more than bodies. They blow up dreams. They shatter families. They leave a wreckage that goes far beyond the pieces of metal on a distant ground.

But what I realized as I read the words of these slain soldiers is that this war’s price is far too high for whatever it is that we’re getting out of it. After four years of conflict, it’s increasingly hard to see beyond the death toll, to see any vision at all for a future that isn’t just soaked in more patriots’ blood.

Bring ’em home.

Wrong decision on Veterans Day

After mulling it over for a couple of weeks, the Board of Education recently decided to hold school on Veterans Day next year. It took a 4-3 vote to make the call.

Now I don’t fault the school board members who voted to hold classes. They said there would be a concerted effort to use the time to teach students about what we all owe to our veterans. That’s probably better in many ways than just ignoring the day, like usual.

On the other hand, anyone who reads this week’s stunning Newsweek issue — which, for my money, is mandatory for all of us — can’t help feeling that what we owe these men and women goes far beyond a little classroom time. They’re fighting and dying even now, for our country, our freedom, us. The cause may not be worth the sacrifice, but the honor due to those who have answered the call is beyond calculation.

What ought to happen on Veterans Day is for everyone, from kindergarten to nursing home, to take time out to honor our warriors, past and present, and to thank them for making our nation strong, free and safe. A day off from school is a tiny price to pay for so much toil and blood.

Movin’ on up the primary date

I can’t see any real downside to holding Connecticut’s presidential primary on Feb. 5 instead of waiting more than a month, when the decisions are likely already made.

But I do wonder about the overall wisdom of having the system so frontloaded that candidates are selected almost immediately, with voters having little chance to see if they falter over time. It’s hard to take the measure of a man, or a woman, in a matter of days, yet that’s what we’re gearing up to do.

It probably opens the door to more successful third party runs if the Republicans and Democrats are locked in so early. Both of their candidates, after all, will seem entirely too familiar by Election Day.

Still, I don’t mind joining so many other states for the mass midwinter primary.

It just seems stupid that we have created this crazy system to pick the leader of the free world.

New letter re Blue Black Square, from town manager

Letter from the Town Manager (March 23, 2007)While the first year of construction was spent mostly underground as utilities were installed and foundations were being poured, the second year you will see steel coming out of the ground as the key elements of Blue Back Square are taking shape.

The South Garage, renamed Memorial because of its placement near Memorial Road, is slated to open for use in April. The North Garage, located across from Whole Foods, is nearing completion and will be open in late September.   New parking spaces in the town hall lot and a new main entrance to the lot off of South Main Street will be created mid-June. The Burr Street entrance will be closed at that time.

The HealthTrax wellness and fitness center will open in May for people to view its facility and sign up for membership. At the same time, the first and second floors of the Hartford Hospital medical offices will be finished in June. The remaining third and fourth floors will be completed over the next several months.

The additions to the main library and police department are well underway. On the north side of the library, a 17,000 square foot addition will contain a children’s area that will double in size, a 50% larger reference room, a computer training room, an improved public meeting space, a teen room, and an area for local history. On the south side, the library will have a handicap-accessible elevator and an entrance to the new public square. 

The police department’s 6,620 sq. foot addition will feature an easily-accessible, customer-friendly records center, community/training room and administrative offices. The existing police headquarters will be upgraded with a new heating-ventilating-and cooling system and the first floor will be rehabilitated to include a new Probate Court. Also, the female locker room on the second floor will double in size, and new holding cells will be installed.

The first two floors of The Heritage, a luxury condominium, have been framed with walls and windows and the remaining two floors will follow this spring and summer.

Each month new tenants sign on to lease space in the Blue Back Square. To date, Crate and Barrel, Barnes & Noble, Criterion Cinemas, REI, Lucy Activewear, The Cheesecake Factory, National Jean Company, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar will be part of the new West Hartford Center. Steel framing for these retail shops and restaurants have been erected. A grand opening is scheduled for November 2007.

As the project moves along, I will communicate with you again to keep you up to date on progress being made. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please call me at (860) 561-7440 or the Blue Back Square office directly at 232-4800.