On February 10th, the City of Hartford was announced as one of three American cities participating in the federal Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Challenge. The program is a competition, looking for proposals from the general public with economic development ideas. More specifically, entrants are intended to be multidiscipline teams working to bring “new perspectives to an entrenched set of problems.” The winning team will “develop a transformative economic development plan — one that establishes
This is the current status of the Kane Street stop of the CTfastrak transit system that is under construction between Hartford and New Britain. Enough work has been completed to imagine what this station will be and how it will work. This stop will be a quick pull-off for the buses covering non-express routes, meaning they stop at each station. The shelter in the left foreground is for passengers on their way towards New Britain,
There were 509 single-family contracts that came together in Hartford County in February of 2014. This is slightly fewer than last month, and slightly more than February of last year. Like February of 2013, the winter weather influenced the real estate market. This time it was a couple snow storms and severe cold. Sellers have been reluctant to list their homes for sale, for a couple reasons. They worry that the it’s not quite spring,
I have learned a secret for changing the light bulbs in those huge chandeliers that hang over the grand stairway of big houses. All you have to do is install a winch directly above the fixture and wire the light with a plug. You can then disconnect the electrical and gently lower it down to a comfortable level to replace the bulbs, or to clean it. Here is an example of such a system from
Building houses in the shape of an octagon was apparently fashionable in the 1850s. The promoter’s arguments didn’t connect with the masses, however, so most of us live in rectangular houses instead. Some historic octagons are still present in Connecticut, but there are also some newer vintage octagons in the area. Here are two that we have come across in the past few months. Both were built in the 1980s. Note: These homes are
