Hartford

[How Sway?!]

 

[REB1094]

Hartford has had much more issues in the last 90 years than the growth of highways..

..but I'm here to shitpost about UConn basketball so I'll see myself out

 

[Hoophound]

Hartford has had much more issues in the last 90 years than the growth of highways..

..but I'm here to shitpost about UConn basketball so I'll see myself out

Highways created the issues. One of the greatest American cities began a major descent that has ver stopped since the highways went in. Hartford was world class at one time.

 

[LIuconn]

By design. A shame the city didn't build around the river

 

[8893]

Same thing happened to New Haven

 

[TerryBoyz]

My father told me the story that the lady who owned GFox made sure the highway went through hartford when I was young…it was pre-internet so I never googled it till now.

Taking a tunnel-vision approach to I-84/I-91 interchange realignment

The vision is to tunnel I-84 from the Flatbush Avenue area in Hartford to the Roberts Street area in East Hartford and I-91 in Hartford from Riverside Park area to the MDC treatment facility in the meadows. The Connecticut Department of Transportation is working on the realignment of the I-84...

larson.house.gov

 

[WrenchFan69]

Sucks what the highways did to the city. Also would have loved for the Park River to be cleaned/improved vs buried way back when. Completely sold out the city for commuters, which, don't get me wrong, was certainly the goal.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Same thing happened to New Haven

If we ever have a spare $100bil, I can't think of a better idea than tunneling 95 and giving New Haven a real waterfront district by Long Wharf

 

[Dove]

If we ever have a spare $100bil, I can't think of a better idea than tunneling 95 and giving New Haven a real waterfront district by Long Wharf

"We?"

I95 is a Federal highway.

 

[Kolumbo]

It really is a shame.

I blame the boomers. They have made the decisions for themselves and they have always had everything new. We have a bunch of houses built in the 60's and 70's which are all run down while once again, they have their brand new senior and assisted living centers. We're tired of living with their mistakes and always getting their hand-me-downs.

 

[formerlurker]

Same thing happened to New Haven

And dozens of other cities around the country, unfortunately. It's no secret the wall that highways created.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Westfarms mall played a major role in killing Hartford and New Britain.

 

[SoFla Steve]

Farmington benefited when New Britain didn't want I-84 to go through some of its old, established neighborhoods. The State re-routed the highway through the east side of Farmington instead. Corporations built their HQs and office buildings along that stretch of highway. Over time, it resulted in a tax base with a 50/50 split of residential and business revenues.

As I recall, my mill rate was 17 when I moved into town back in the '80s. The town I moved out of had a mill rate of 50.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Westfarms mall played a major role in killing Hartford and New Britain.

72 and route 9 through new Britain also hurt the city.

CT really destroyed its cities with urban planning thst concentrated on making it easy to leave the city to the point if discouraging development. Even in the 1980s when I grew up in new Britain, there were stores and shopping downtown. Route 9 went in and connected city to west farms mall and essentially the entire downtown became a ghost town.

Highways really cut cities in half and what was done to Hartford is criminal.

 

[elmcityboy]

Same thing happened to New Haven

this is definitely true (the route 34 "highway to nowhere" is an obvious disaster, for instance) but downtown new haven was mostly spared, in large part due to yale's influence. none of the other ct cities had an institution like that to protect their downtown areas.

downtown bridgeport, for instance, is tragic.

 

[Chin Diesel]

What's the goal? Low density single family homes? More high density housing? Who is moving out to restore it to a more residential neighborhood environment?
IMO, biggest problem in CT in general is the small geographic size of the size of the cities; there just isn't room to shuffle things around within city limits before you start reaching in to the first ring of suburbs.
Until regionalism is embraced or CT decides to annex suburbs (Good luck with either of those), its older cities with existing infrastructure will have a tough time making more than minor tweaks.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

As a Norwalk resident, the Route 7 connector might be the only urban highway in the state that has actually helped the city. Makes it a breeze to get from the northern parts of the city to the downtown areas plus easy access for visitors from the north too.

Its biggest downfall is separating the Wall Street downtown area from SoNo.

 

[uconnfan68]

It really is a shame.

I blame the boomers. They have made the decisions for themselves and they have always had everything new. We have a bunch of houses built in the 60's and 70's which are all run down while once again, they have their brand new senior and assisted living centers. We're tired of living with their mistakes and always getting their hand-me-downs.

So full of it. Those decisions were made in the 50s. Boomers were teenagers at best.

 

[How Sway?!]

As a Norwalk resident, the Route 7 connector might be the only urban highway in the state that has actually helped the city. Makes it a breeze to get from the northern parts of the city to the downtown areas plus easy access for visitors from the north too.

Its biggest downfall is separating the Wall Street downtown area from SoNo.

Wall Street would benefit from infilling some of the parking lots in the area. Also finally finishing the apartment building near the movie theater.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Sure, the highways suck. Boston had a similar problem until the Big Dig. NYC also has some riverfront cut off by highways. Hartford's biggest problem is that it's tiny (less than 18 sq miles) and wasn't able to annex some surrounding residential towns. West Hartford, Newington, Wethersfield, Bloomfield, those should all have been annexed by Hartford.

You aren't going to be a great city at 18 sq miles. Boston isn't big, and it's 89 sq miles. NYC 322 sq miles. Chicago 234 sq mi.

 

[8893]

this is definitely true (the route 34 "highway to nowhere" is an obvious disaster, for instance) but downtown new haven was mostly spared, in large part due to yale's influence. none of the other ct cities had an institution like that to protect their downtown areas.

Separating the downtown from the water was also not a good development.

 

[SubbaBub]

What have we here? A bunch of people who read the internet and have misinformed opinions.

Here is the only thing you need to know about the CT river and Hartford. It floods, a lot. The highway doubles as flood protection. Experts can question the merit of that particular method, but the I-91 highway is doing double duty and it that regard it is an efficient use of the space.

I-84 is a slightly different matter, the drunken butterfly that mapped out such a squiggly noodle that resulted in a midtown intersection of 2 of the 3 major interstates was partly short sighted, partly under the thumb of powerful economic interests, and part moron. The percentages aren't important.

Then there is the matter of the Park River. Every few years you will here some fool call for unburying the thing, as if turning downtown into a lake is a positive move.

Scrap the nostalgia please, it's not useful on this matter. If you want to discuss improving the situation, show me your plan to raise about $50 billion dollars first.

 

[elmcityboy]

Separating the downtown from the water was also not a good development.

true, but my understanding is that this started happening well before the rise of the interstate highways and urban renewal. long wharf was being used for industrial and railroad purposes back in the 1800's. the old maps here are actually pretty crazy -- water street used to actually be on the water!

New Haven’s Long Wharf - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project

From the 17th through the 19th centuries, the economic prosperity of New Haven significantly depended upon Long Wharf.

connecticuthistory.org

 

[8893]

true, but my understanding is that this started happening well before the rise of the interstate highways and urban renewal. long wharf was being used for industrial and railroad purposes back in the 1800's. the old maps here are actually pretty crazy -- water street used to actually be on the water!

New Haven’s Long Wharf - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project

From the 17th through the 19th centuries, the economic prosperity of New Haven significantly depended upon Long Wharf.

connecticuthistory.org

My dad always blamed Robert Moses, whom he also linked to Walter O'Malley, whom he blamed for the unforgivable act of moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to L.A.

So, I gotta go with that out of solidarity.

 

[businesslawyer]

What's the goal? Low density single family homes? More high density housing? Who is moving out to restore it to a more residential neighborhood environment?
IMO, biggest problem in CT in general is the small geographic size of the size of the cities; there just isn't room to shuffle things around within city limits before you start reaching in to the first ring of suburbs.
Until regionalism is embraced or CT decides to annex suburbs (Good luck with either of those), its older cities with existing infrastructure will have a tough time making more than minor tweaks.

Winner winner chicken dinner. The highway development hurt, but the biggest problem is the small size of the inner cities.