Hartford

[huskeynut]

It wasn't just Hartford and other CT cities that got screwed bu "urban renewal." I grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY. Not a large city but a good one in the 50's to early 60's. Then the big change came. Planners decided to run an arterial highway, 2 actually, thru the city. Main Street became a mall area with trees, brick pavers and the like. Properties were purchase, don't know if eminent domain was used, to run two lanes east to the Mid Hudson Bridge and 2 lanes west from the bridge to the Town of Poughkeepsie. Business lost their buildings, streets/ neighborhoods were cut up for the arterials. within 3 years the down town Main Street business area was done. Crime rose as kids hung out in the mall area. This also coincided the rise in the drug culture. Poughkeepsie never recovered.

 

[August_West]

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.

Boom.

I freakin hate nimbys and their 160 little fiefdoms.