blackstone

as someone born in fairfield county, and after leaving 27 years ago has worked half of those years in fairfield county, let me assure you that most people from fairfield county know more about westchester county than about hartford county or any other county in connecticut. my point? dont be surprised or offended by their "out of touch" ways. their focus is definitely on themselves and to the west, more now than when i lived there, and they feel like the state's focus for funding projects is decidedly on hartford county. ned is not immune to the county's beliefs. and check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Lamont

This idea is brain dead. Not surprising in this state. Get the commuter line going new haven to hartford. now. I hear there is a railroad shuttle service from hartford to springfield. wow. what the F about the rest of us? Give new britain and newington a stop on the raii commuter line (I believe the tracks go through both). and provide plainville, southington, west hartfdord, farmington, avon, simsbury, rocky hill, cromwell, glastonbury, etc. buses running every ten minutes 6 to 8:30am and 3 to 6pm. and make them non-stop. forget town to town to town. who wants to take 30 minutes on a bus to traverse 10 miles?. We already have roads. we don't need another one and if people will use the buses, the highways will be much less used so again, why build more. The mayor of new britain is only interested in making his town a hub.

thanks for the clarification. on the commuter line side of things, it boggles my mind that there is waterbury to bridgeport metro north service, but not hartford to new haven; but then, it always has.

improving rail service linking Hartford and Springfield with Amtrak's main Boston-to-Washington route. i've never thought that this was a major reason for the project. it's supposed to be a commuter line (like metro north), no? we already are on an amtrak line.

well, i think you know that i couldn't agree more with you.

actually, it reminds me of south portland, me

ok, voice. i hear you. if i worked downtown, that would be different. the hbj said on 10/02 that the site was going to be a 150k sq ft retail and residential project, with 60k for retail and the rest for residential. the article yesterday says it is a 30 million dollar (20/10) retail/entertainment project. i think that is misleading. i don't believe that nitkin is getting 20 mill just to develop one-story retail buildings. the site did not somehow grow larger. can anyone clarify.

can't see where 115 units of housing means much. the idea of towers is dead. 230 people are not going to make retailers flock to the site. there is a solid base of nearby office workers, conventioneers, and science center visitors to interest retailers. why would anyone want to live in this district. other than the wadsworth, science center, or riverfront, to get to anything you have to walk blocks through nothing. if i'm living in the city, i want to forget about my car. the idea of this retail area is unique. it can be the largest entertainment district in the state and will have a captured audience. gottesdiener has failed with retail. what does nyberg know about retail? nitkin's business has been mostly strip malls, so he might know more about retail than the other developers. i'm an optimist. if you guys want to complain about the situation, i don't blame you. but i'm going to watch and see what nitkin does. where is that engineering guy who says his company is doing something at constitution plaza? i'd like to hear his take.

i have said in the past here that i don't think housing is important for front street. it might seem that living in an area overrun with drunken partiers from the suburbs and the convention center is desirable. but not to me. i'd rather live around the park and walk over to front street. hartford needs more retail and some different entertainment venues and i was hoping all of this could be at front street. if just that could go up and be successful, i would be happy. maybe it is time for more retail downtown before more will come to live there. with so many empty lots, there is plenty of room elsewhere for housing downtown.

i think that the entertainment and retail component of the front street project will draw suburbanites. if it does not, then why build it. it must certainly offer a little more than the union place/allyn street intersection. it should absolutely offer more than west hartford where perching on a bar stool or table, eating and drinking is all that is there for entertainment. front street should blow that away as an entertainment hub. front street should be unique to the region, never mind the city. i expect that the science center will draw hundreds and maybe a thousand people a day. this thing is going to be a big deal. the science center is unique to the state and beyond. and it has been my impression that the convention center does more than a sporadic business. the atheneum is there as well. the front street entertainment should be focused on drawing the people who are there for these existing attractions and making it fun for everyone; noon to 2am. there should definitely be more than a thousand people a day at adrian's landing for the attractions. suburbia will come for venues that offer more than their towns do. the housing would be great, but it does not have to be right there.

my point is that the residential part of front street is not that important. the retail and entertainment is. a modest amount of residential would be fine, but even if i thought tower apartments were important, i think the site is too small for all that was once planned; just like the area where the convention center, marriott, and science center are was too small for a football stadium. and comparing blueback square with front street is apples and oranges. adding on to west hartford center, where residential and retail already thrive is not the same as building something where there are/were parking lots.

taking the housing out of the equation makes it the right size for an entertainment area. i did not want to see apartment towers in there and without towers it was always too small for housing and retail. it should be looked at as being built first for people at the convention center, the marriott, and the science center. there will be lots of other people visiting as well.

what an extraordinary amount of surface parking. though i have driven and walked everywhere in the CBD, the reality of this satellite map is a revelation. what percentage of surface parking does gottesdiener own (ballpark) of these open areas? hopefully, he is the right developer to be controlling this space.

whats a signifigant improvement for those vacant 29 seats per flight? i think its way knee jerk and without merit to start predicting off of one month's statistics.

when did wikipedia become a trusted source?

well, you are the guy saying that smart people in hartford have no choice but to leave as the urban revatilization started by rowland has failed. i hope your future posts will not be dedicated to trying to prove this. why bother? only time will tell. things change.

he hasn't the slightest information regarding how the hartford21 is doing. he has no worthwhile reason to think anything about this building's success, failure or any other status. and by the way, your writing has improved dramatically all of a sudden.

if you are right about columbus not being more for pedestrians than what it is now, its a real lost opportunity for everyone involved with adriaen's landing. from builders to visitors. maybe i just don't understand the types of business that are going to be on front street. i see the area as the most densely populated on any day of the week in hartford because of the atheneum, science center, convention center, office towers, and housing. and yet 40 cars parking and leaving are important. is this place going to have convenience stores, drug chains, and takeout? and forget west hartford already. think bigger than that. there is no reason, other than to eat, to visit west hartford. think city.

cars are the enemy. the rendering shows street parking for 30 to 40 cars. this parking is irrelevant to business. having a street here will not make it a destination. cars speeding through this short street as a cut through is not going to create a retail atmosphere.. the layout is just too small for a street used by cars here. are people going to have to walk up to prospect or down to columbus to cross the street or dodge cars parking, coming, and going? or will some point in between be all mucked up with stop signs and traffic lights. there are lots of off street parking areas surrounding this location. without cars on this front street, the potential is spectacular. and if you have the hooks for people, they will come. if you don't they won't. also, somehow, columbus has to become a boulevard for people, not just cars. It would be really nice if science center people wouldn't mind walking down columbus to front street. if they have to get in their cars when leaving the science center, they are leaving town.

i not sure if there should be cars or car parking on this street. where they have cars might be better used for kiosks, street vendors, and maybe other nuances for pedestrians. actually i feel strongly about it, but will wait before commenting. also, i want to see what arch street might look like.

i'm interested in seeing how many people want to live in an entertainment district and more importantly, what the demographics of the tenants will be age-wise

http://www.wfsb.com/video/10020762/detail.html

i think that the demand will excede expectations. i know people in norwalk, newtown, and danbury that would rather fly out of bradley than the greater nyc airports. i am guessing that many people from wor/auburn west would rather fly out of bradley than logan. there is a lot of population west of auburn and east of norwalk. we shall see.