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RealHartford
Benches, Bridges, and Heated Bus Shelters
On a bitterly cold morning last month I decided to take the bus (two buses, actually) instead of walking to work, and the whole time I wondered why I was bothering since it did not reduce my commute time and I still had a lot of time outdoors, waiting for the connecting bus and then having to walk the last five minutes because of poor bus service in one section of Hartford. It was in a downtown bus shelter, waiting with others freezing their asses off, that I recalled something: a few years ago there were supposed to be heated bus shelters.
Invitation
“Our most dangerous weapon would prove to be modernity and its trusty sidekick, late capitalism. In the twentieth century human impacts began to increase not just linearly but exponentially. The decades following the Second World War were a time of unprecedented growth in population on the one hand and consumption on the other. Between 1945 and 2000 the number of people in the world tripled. During the same period water use quadrupled, the marine fish catch increased sevenfold and fertilizer consumption rose tenfold. Most of the population growth occurred in the Global South. Most of the consumption was driven by the US and Europe.”
Scattering
“To think of freedom as a place we create, share, and inhabit is instructive. We live on a planet in the throes of climate chaos, where powerful actors will use borders and captivity to maintain the norms of capitalism for as long as possible. To think of our organizing efforts as the work of making place helps ground us in the larger reality of what we are fighting for: not mere words or ideas, but transformed lives in transformed places. In working toward liberation, we are making place in opposition to those who would rob us of time, space, togetherness, and possibility itself.”
50 Ways to Love Hartford (2024)
1. CTfastrak: People who ride the Fastrak love the Fastrak. There’s service every single day of the week. The first weekday 101 bus leaves downtown Hartford at 4 AM and the last at 12:45 AM. On the busway, you can board through any door; this means that when fare collection resumed last year, CTfastrak buses were still making good time, while the regular buses on busy routes (Farmington Avenue and Wethersfield Avenue, for example) slowed way down. New Britain has fully embraced transit-oriented development and West Hartford (at least in Elmwood) is getting there. Even some stodgy businesses in Hartford have finally acknowledged their proximity to the CTfastrak Parkville Station. The future is not parking lots.
Dandelion Season?
“Impossible is not a fact. It is an attitude.”. in The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis. Wandering along the river and then through the woods this weekend all of nature might have appeared dormant were I moving fast and not really noticing my surroundings, or if I had decided months ago that we were in “stick season” and conditioned myself to expect drabness.
Humans: February 9
I debated posting more than the first photo this week. I did not ask to take their photo. I did not ask them to pose or have them say cheese. While walking through the park I was looking at the new picnic table pavilion and one of the people there called out to me and began posing. This happens sometimes, usually just one person. This was a group of characters and the banter was hilarious, but I’m afraid it won’t be read the same in print, so we will keep that as our own memory of that moment.
Sea, Seeing, and Next Season of #BeyondHartfordBeyondCars
“You and I, and all the animals with which we share the land, are all ultimately descended from marine creatures. We owe the ocean everything.”. This seagull was not photographed in Hartford. It posed by Long Island Sound. The #BeyondHartfordBeyondCars tour will be resuming soon, and there you can expect to see this seagull again.
Safe Streets Connecticut: January 2024
This whole series is an effort to honor the dead and “fight like hell for the living.”. That means telling hard truths that often push up against what we have been taught and are continuously told by media and half-measure public education campaigns. Before getting into the needless traffic...
Place This Place
Looking for a fairly specific answer — not a general neighborhood or section of town. Want to comment? (1) Take responsibility for your opinions by using your full name (2) Keep it brief (3) Keep it respectful (4) Victim-blaming will not stand (5) Read full article before commenting.
Shifting
“Bike riding shouldn’t be an act of bravery, and transportation leaders should redesign their streets so that they don’t depend on armor or surrender to survive. Arguing that streets are built for cars and are too dangerous to bike on is an argument for a safety intervention to upgrade those streets”
Humans: February 2
In the last week of January and beginning of the new month it remained gray, but less rainy, and people continued to leave their apartments and houses. There is nothing noteworthy about that. It is a gift to move about by my own power and not be encased in a...
Pieces
“every member of the community holds pieces of the solution,. even if we are all engaged in different layers of the work”. – adrienne maree brown, in Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. If you want a thriving yard that attracts a range of birds, bees, and butterflies, then you...
Constant Flux
“Water is in constant flux, moving through the air and between forms, shape-shifting from gas to liquid to solid and back again.” – Judith D. Schwartz, “Water is a Verb,” from All We Can Save. Our problem has always come when we have tried to contain...
Seeds
“What are the ideas that will liberate all of us?”. – adrienne maree brown, in Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. I like my arts institutions to have vision. When their leadership digs their heels in, refusing to innovate, it’s time for a change in leadership. Our cultural landscape...
May Peace Prevail?
Few religious institutions — including those sporting peace poles — have been willing to come right out and insist that people stop being murdered. Somehow, it has become controversial for them to stand by the values they claim to hold. They’re afraid to ruffle feathers, to create division, as if division is ever something we create rather than unveil.
Winter Colors
“What if you spent time at the feet of storytellers, rappers, musicians, craftspeople and elders, learning from their examples? What if you had time to daydream, to stare out the window, to dip your fingers into a glittering stream as it drifted past? What if you spent long hours with your hands and face covered in paint, clay, charcoal powder and ink? If you had ample time and space to play, to bring entire worlds into being because you played them into existence? What if your education included laughter? Lots of laughter. And taught you how to be independent, to manage money competently, to budget and live within limits? What if it gave you time with animals, watching them, feeding them, learning their songs? And gave you hands that were skilled, comfortable with tools, so that you could easily think of yourself as a maker, and actually be one?”
Humans: January 19
The Chihuahua Lab mix wouldn’t look at the camera; he must’ve known we couldn’t handle looking beauty straight in the eyes. Want to comment? (1) Take responsibility for your opinions by using your full name (2) Keep it brief (3) Keep it respectful (4) Victim-blaming will not stand (5) Read full article before commenting.
About People
“climate plans and policy proposals cannot just be about renewable-energy technologies and electric cars or government subsidies and taxes; they need to be about people.”. –Maggie Thomas, “The Politics of Policy,” from All We Can Save. The most recent episode of The War on Cars podcast illustrates this...
Two Paths Diverged, One Not Plowed
Every time we’re to get some type of storm, the media are contractually required — I’m guessing — to use the phrase “hunker down,” to the point that we clearly don’t know what it means anymore. I’m not the only person who’s noticed this silliness either.
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Life in Hartford, Connecticut, and beyond. Exploration, wandering, transportation, transit, art, and environment.
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