The Hartford Charter Revision Commission, after five months of meetings, voted unanimously last night to approve its recommended changes (PDF) to the city charter. The previous evening the commission held a legally required public hearing at the downtown library branch. The public was also invited to be heard at almost every meeting of the commission prior to last night’s vote.

In his letter today to Dan Carey, the city clerk, commission chairman Rich Wareing outlined the essentials of the recommended charter changes. See the entire letter below.

Broadly, revisions include changes to the makeup of the City Council (a hybrid system, with eight elected at large and five by district); a related change to staggered terms of office for City Council; clarification of compensation provisions, including making it clear City Council can reduce its own compensation; changing the mayor’s involvement on the Board of Education to an ex-officio, non-voting member who cannot be chairperson; mandating an Ethics Commission; giving the City Council sole authority to appoint a three-member freedom of information advisory board; a new protocol for the appointment of boards and commissions that would give City Council authority if the mayor fails to act in a given time period, and if City Council fails to act, the boards and commissions themselves would have the authority to reappoint; clarification that there may be three (rather than just two) Registrars of Voters (required by state statute); and some changes to the language related to the city’s corporation counsel (more on that in Wareing’s outline, under item number 6).

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Apologies for my hiatus while I worked on a term paper. Back to business: Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez (pictured, at center) announced this evening that the city’s Department of Development Services received over 70 letters of intent Monday in response to its announcement two weeks ago welcoming proposals for its arts and heritage jobs grant program. Formal applications are due Monday, May 11, with award notification some time in June.

Proposals for funding may range between $10,000 and $200,000 in any of three categories.

The mayor’s office announced that 12 proposals arrived in the category of facilities improvement, totaling over $1,500,000 in requests; 42 in new or expanded works, totaling over $3,000,000; and 17 in youth employment, totaling over $1,500,000. Two additional proposals totaling $250,000 arrived without a category, which brings the grand total for likely applications to about $6.4 million.

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In his state of the city address last month, Mayor Eddie Perez announced what he called a Hartford arts stimulus—a proposed $1.7 million increase in grants to Hartford arts organizations to “create new works, new performances, and expand facilities.” He anticipated the stimulus would create hundreds of new jobs in the city—and would be used exclusively (the mayor’s language) to create new Hartford jobs. He added that funding for the arts stimulus would come from reprogrammed city funds as well as federal grants.

A release issued this week by the Greater Hartford Arts Council—a regional non-profit organization based in Hartford—indicates that at some point in the last month, the mayor’s stated goal of exclusively creating new jobs with this funding got massaged into a different kind of goal.

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At its meeting this week, the Springfield City Council unanimously passed a resolution initially submitted by Councilor Bud Williams, opposing the efforts of Mayor Domenic Sarno and the Finance Control Board to privatize the forestry division of the Parks Department and the vehicle maintenance division of the Department of Public Works.

Less a direct concern about the welfare of trees, the resolution references “past privatization attempts” which “have been met with poor results” in fiscal savings as well as effective performance. The resolution notes that no independent studies have been done to ascertain whether savings or performance would benefit. It also suggests a focus on privatizing management instead of staff.

The city council suggests an independent “comprehensive study” to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” (as though there were a crime committed somewhere) that privatizing will save cash and maintain a high level of service. The text of the resolution is below; a related committee meeting was scheduled for today at noon at City Hall.

Track other activities via City Council records somewhat recently made available online here.

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Today’s Springfield Republican includes an article about the latest developments in the city’s zoning ordinance revision project. Apparently there was an informational session on Monday this week for city councilors, where consultants working on the project delivered a detailed update (PDF) on progress so far, including edits following a public comment period last summer and fall.

In May, the revised ordinance was presented to the public (see the city’s former chief development officer David Panagore explain it on video here), and there were hopes it could go before the city council before the end of the year. The project had been in the works for two years at the time, and it has since seen further delays and complications.

One question the city seems to face now is, are the changes to the city’s zoning code too sweeping, too much reform all at once—and might this cause the city council to fail to support them?

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At 12:15 pm today, Hartford City Councilman Larry Deutsch (pictured) will offer a People’s State of the City address at City Hall, either in the spacious atrium inside, or on the front steps if weather permits (inside is looking likely).

In a press release issued late yesterday, Deutsch invited all Hartford residents and media to the event, adding, “A state of the union or state of the state address by a majority party is often followed by minority party comments on crucial topics. We think it important to inaugurate such a dialogue in our city of Hartford.”

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In a recent press release made available today in a post at Cityline, the non-profit Billings Forge Community Works in Hartford announced the addition of a community garden to its existing farmers’ market and the city’s latest gem, the Studio performance space.

The place seems to be gaining momentum. On Broad Street just down the hill from the state Capitol, it’s an area already designed for mixed-use like so many otherwise expensive developments outside the city. All it has needed is a few key ingredients.

The non-profit’s mission—with support from the Melville Charitable Trust—includes creating “a shared sense of mission” and replacing divestment with investment. Its goals include encouraging economic growth through enterprise in the surrounding Frog Hollow neighborhood.

The Studio, a spare but beautifully simple, modestly-sized, multi-purpose room, has featured several jazz performances and literature readings since opening in January with a mission to “nourish creativity and promote cultural exchange and learning through the performing and visual arts.” A March 7 article in the Courant captured a taste of its success so far in achieving its aim. Councilperson Luis Cotto, who did similar work running La Paloma Sabanera Coffeehouse and Bookstore, has been curating the programs as director of performing arts for the Studio. Artist Janice La Motta has been added as program coordinator.

The new community garden will be in the northern courtyard (pictured; the courtyard is just above the A) of the late 19th-century building complex, originally intended for manufacturing—home to the first commercial drop forge in the US. For much of the 20th century, electrical switchboxes were manufactured there, and according to the Melville and Billings Forge Web sites, the complex was transformed into apartments in the 1970s and then mixed-income housing in 1981.

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At its meeting on Monday this week, the Hartford City Council was faced with a pressing deadline to nominate individuals for the city’s new three-member Freedom of Information Advisory Board. Last December, when it passed an initial version of an ordinance creating this board, it was unclear who would appoint the board members—Mayor Eddie Perez, or the city council itself.

On Monday, the executive and legislative branches were evidently trying, awkwardly, to make these appointments in some joint compromise fashion. The mayor’s office was collecting nomination suggestions from councilpersons last week, which resulted somehow in Perez’s submission of two names to the city council in time for its meeting. Then the council had to figure out what nominations to confirm in order to pass the matter back to Perez for approval.

In all, they had five or six suggested board members to consider and most of them were Democrats. State law requires the appointment of at least one minority party member.

Earlier on Monday, news emerged that a recent city council appointment to the Metropolitan District Commission—Ron Armstrong—was in violation of a state statute, as he was not a member of a minority political party. Speaking before the city council that evening, Armstrong expressed deep disappointment, and confusion over whether the law of ratios applied to the whole commission or just to the city’s appointments.

When it came down to appointments for the FOI advisory board, there was a sense everyone was testing the waters.

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5:36 pm Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez will offer a state of the city address starting at any time now. I’ll be liveblogging the event via the city’s government cable channel. Currently the city is broadcasting a blue screen announcing the speech, accompanied by some smooth jazz with the lyrics “I’m searching for my soul” and “how many times will my conscience be divided? How many times will a fork be in the road?” The speech was supposed to get started at 5:30 pm.

5:40 The speech is finally getting started, with Council President Calixto Torres announcing the mayor. Mayor Perez steps up to the podium in Council Chambers, a room packed with people. He gets a standing ovation. The City Council is seated at the semicircular table behind a podium on the raised dais.

5:41 Perez opens by talking about the economic crisis and how Hartford is feeling the pain. He says he has been fighting “this economic storm” and cites the city’s deficit. “We’re fighting to keep our urban economy afloat. All of Connecticut’s big cities are facing the same challenge.” Perez notes his alliance with other Connecticut mayors.

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At its last meeting, the Hartford Charter Revision Commission voted to recommend to the City Council a change in council membership from an all at-large system to a mix of at-large and district representatives. The recommended change will be five district representatives and eight at-large, for a total of 13 members up from the current nine.

Having grappled solely with this issue over the majority of its five meetings so far, the commission—on which I also serve—included some members who favored an all-district system, some who favored maintaining an all at-large system, and some who thought a mix was the best option for a variety of reasons. For the die-hard government wonks, the minutes of the commission’s meetings are available online.

One of the concerns that arose repeatedly in discussions was whether or not a system including district seats would receive enough votes to pass at the City Council, once the commission hands over its final report in a few months. Another was the potential loss of minority political party seats on the council. Much now hinges on what how campaigns for district elections are organized and carried out, right now something we can conceive only in the realm of imagination. Among the questions the commission faces at its meeting tonight is: how might the city divide the proposed five electoral districts, and how is it possible to encourage fair elections?

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“What about senior staff and non-unionized [employees], what are you asking from these people?” Ellen Nurse (pictured, far right) challenged city officials at last Thursday night’s public budget presentation and discussion at Hartford’s downtown library branch.

Mayor Eddie Perez and his staff members Lee Erdmann (the city’s Chief Operating Officer), Christopher Wolf (newly-appointed Finance Director) and Rick Galarza (Management and Budget Director) did their best to explain the deficit and the reasons Hartford faces this predicament.

“We are applying concessions across the board,” Perez responded. Thus began the public discussion portion of the second of three budget presentations at the library.

More than just a difficult set of questions between the crowd and the administration, the meeting put on display the murky picture facing the city, the state and the nation. According to city administrators, Hartford is facing an $8 million deficit this year and a $40 million budget deficit next year. As Jeffrey Cohen wrote in a post for the Courant’s new Cityline blog following the meeting, the city is not self-sufficient, and things do not seem to have any easy answers.

Forty-six percent of city land is tax-exempt, officials said, and the state does not come through with its obligation to reimburse the city for that property. Hartford is home to many groups of people that don’t pay city taxes. Essentially the city spends more than can it can raise.

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According to a report in today’s Republican by Mike Plaisance, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno (pictured at his desk in City Hall) will return two percent of his annual $95,000 salary to municipal coffers, effective immediately. As he told Plaisance, “You have to lead by example.” He will apparently write the $158 monthly checks to the city himself.

Is this a good idea? It does set an example of sacrifice of some kind especially in the midst of painful layoffs. But the potential amounts of money gained are rather small. It seems more like a politically savvy move than a fiscally prudent one—and who knows, maybe a number of employees doing the same would make a difference in the budget.

Union officials were quoted in today’s article referencing their frustration over layoffs and a possible request from the city to freeze wages. On February 2 the city issued a request to waive a 60-day union contract requirement for layoff notices, resulting in more savings for the city in salaries and benefits, and apparently (maybe) keeping the layoffs lower in number. The request didn’t seem to be all that well-received; it’s not clear whether any union has granted a waiver yet.

Sarno was quoted saying he thinks the Finance Control Board executive director, Stephen Lisauskas, and deputy executive director, Patricia Vinchesi—who earn $120,000 and $95,000 respectively—should also take pay cuts. He reportedly asked the city’s law department to look into whether he has the authority to order department heads to do the same.

Lisauskas and Vinchesi have already deferred annual two percent salary increases. Their jobs will cease to exist as of July 1, with the control board era coming to a close at the end of the fiscal year. Vinchesi is a finalist following her application for the position of town manager in Hopkinton.

The city is currently seeking to fill the newly-created position (examine the legislation here and here) of chief administrative and financial officer to more or less take their place. Applications were due March 1. According to a February 22 report in the Republican, the city has recently been weighing whether the search committee required for filling the position must open its meetings to the public. Which is the better political move? Or the fiscally prudent one?

In the wake of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s recently-announced transportation and economic security plan, which includes a proposal to raise the state’s gas tax by 19 cents per gallon, key meetings are set to take place in the Springfield area on Wednesday, March 4 to provide input to leaders and hopefully give voice to shaping policy.

At 4:00 pm at Springfield Technical Community College, State Rep. Joseph Wagner of Chicopee will chair a public transportation plan hearing, the first of four in the state focusing on the governor’s proposals. (Directions to get to STCC are here.)

Just prior to that, starting at 2:00 pm, representatives of the area’s Metropolitan Planning Organization will meet at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s office in West Springfield to confirm the first round of federally-funded transportation stimulus projects, according to a press release today from Pioneer Valley Advocates for Commuter Rail. The advocates group will offer direct testimony to MPO officials requesting support for commuter rail in the area.

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Four panelists attempted to answer the question, “Can Rail Save Connecticut Cities?” at an event at Hartford’s UConn Law School on Friday, February 20. Boosting cities will take efforts on multiple fronts, and rail ought to be a part of the effort, the experts said. This is part three of a series capturing their remarks. Read part one here, and part two here.

For State Rep. David McCluskey (pictured) of West Hartford, rail can revitalize Connecticut cities, but not by itself. Noting a number of contributing factors that need to shift in order to help urban centers, McCluskey repeatedly emphasized a need for regional cooperation on transit. He said he thinks Connecticut should reduce its number of regional planning agencies and figure out a way for localities to work together more collaboratively with state agencies.

A member of the state legislature’s Transportation Committee, McCluskey said, “We need regional entities to support transportation projects. We need to work with our surrounding states. We need to improve our zoning, and our local governments’ functioning. We need to make brownfields recapturing a priority along our transportation corridors. Our bureaucracies in the state and city agencies need to be able to talk to each other seamlessly.”

McCluskey, who works as Education Coordinator for the Connecticut State Employees Association, added, “We must demand [more coordination] from our policy people. It’s all our money, and we deserve it.”

He said our goal in doing all of the above should be to form a better link between our two economic engines in the broader region, New York City and Boston. McCluskey’s wish is to invite the governors of New York and Massachusetts, along with related heads of transit agencies—the MTA in New York City and the MBTA in Boston—to meet in Hartford and discuss what can be done to connect services. “Connecting through Hartford,” McCluskey said, “would do more for smart growth, economic development and affordable housing than almost anything else.”

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Four panelists attempted to answer the question, “Can Rail Save Connecticut Cities?” at an event at Hartford’s UConn Law School on Friday, February 20. Boosting cities will take efforts on multiple fronts, and rail ought to be a part of the effort, the experts said. This is part two of a series capturing their remarks. Read part one here.

For Sara Bronin (pictured), Associate Professor of Law at UConn, the deceptively straightforward question of whether rail can save Connecticut cities was less compelling than considering ways rail transit has been regulated in the past, and the many complicated issues to consider in looking at how it might be regulated in the future.

Why does law play a role in rail transit? Bronin said legal regulation has a strong influence over the layout of rail, operation of transit systems, and preservation of the landscape and existing structures. Overall, she said, law can be a “transformative tool.”

A LEED accredited real estate development consultant, and an expert in property, land use, and historic preservation law, Bronin listed several challenges a renewed focus on rail in the northeast would most likely face. These challenges include zoning, land use, environmental and employment laws, extensive safety regulations, eminent domain powers and restrictions, and the current fragmentation of numerous entities involved, including private rail companies as well as local governments and their agencies.

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Four panelists attempted to answer the question, “Can Rail Save Connecticut Cities?” at an event at Hartford’s UConn Law School today. Boosting cities will take efforts on multiple fronts, and rail ought to be a part of the effort, the experts said. This is part one of a series capturing their remarks.

For Professor Norman Garrick (pictured), director of UConn’s Center for Urban Transportation and Planning, the answer to the question was yes, with several caveats. “The real issue is: can our cities save Connecticut?” he said, turning the question on its head.

He posed the challenge to state and local leaders, planners and policymakers, who he said must “re-learn the art of place-making.”

The state ought lead the way in helping cities become relevant, competitive, and reactivated, he said, in order for the cities to be beneficial to the state in turn.

Showing several photos of Bristol and Waterbury in Connecticut, towns he had only just visited for the first time after living in the state for 23 years, Garrick explained that the state’s highways and elevated viaducts have “ripped apart” the fabric of its cities and placed a high value on paving land for parking in order to be competitive with suburbs.

“You cannot sustain a city with this running through it,” he said. “Cities built on rail cannot survive in that atmosphere.”

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Mark Muro (pictured) of the Brookings Institution appeared today by phone on WNPR’s “Where We Live,” along with Heidi Green of 1000 Friends of Connecticut and Bill Cibes of the Connecticut State University System in the studio. Along with several others, Green and Cibes co-authored the recently-released “Prosperity for All: A Blueprint for Connecticut’s Future” (PDF), a broad, visionary document for the state.

The episode, titled “A New Blueprint,” is part of a Thursday series looking at “big ideas” for Connecticut. Next week’s show will feature David Osborne, senior partner of the Public Strategies Group, and author of Reinventing Government and The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis.

Big ideas can be useful, and they can also be overwhelming and sometimes a little too broad to feel relevant. While today’s show was intriguing and important, it also exacerbated my own sense that for all of our talk about putting cities at the center of discussions and revitalization efforts, we’re forgetting to put cities at the center in any practical fashion. In some ways, “metropolitan area” has become a cliché to talk about networks of suburbs where people really live, and cities are relegated and reduced conceptually to being empty places that just make us feel sad.

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Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno (pictured) held a press conference this morning in City Hall to announce 89 layoffs of city employees, many of them as of March 2.

According to initial reports, 44 jobs will be cut in the Department of Public Works, 17 in the Library Department, 12 in the Parks Department, seven in City Hall, six in Facilities, and three in animal control.

WHYN has audio of the mayor’s comments today, available here.

During the press conference, Sarno said there will be workshops to assist the city employees being laid off. He also said the city will consider outsourcing some services to the private sector. Finance Control Board Executive Director Stephen Lisauskas also spoke, explaining that “managed competition” will ease the situation for some of the employees being laid off. Sarno decined an opportunity to elaborate on what this means in response to a reporter’s question, but Lisauskas explained that it essentially is a way to allow right of first refusal for employees when jobs are being outsourced.

Last week, the City Council Planning and Economic Development Committee held a meeting apparently in response to a letter from the city’s Library Commission protested the large 10.7 percent cut proposed for the library budget. Library Commissioner Sheila McElwaine provided a report following the meeting, available below. More related information for reference is available here; a related CBS 3 report is here. See also Maureen Turner’s comprehensive article in today’s Valley Advocate.

In defending his choices today, Mayor Sarno said, “I had to choose between keeping police on the streets, and books.”

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A state legislative caucus representing eleven cities in Massachusetts, which formed last year to advocate specifically for the cities’ economic development, recently filed a bill entitled, “An Act to Promote Economic Development in the Gateway Cities” (full text at the bottom of the post).

The bill was filed on behalf of the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus by caucus co-chair State Rep. Antonio Cabral (pictured) of New Bedford.

It begins with a legal definition of a gateway city. Any municipality so named may remain as such for at least three years.

According to the nonpartisan think tank MassINC, the bill parallels recommendations in a July 2008 MassINC policy brief written by Benjamin Forman, “Going for Growth: Promoting Business Investment in Massachusetts Gateway Cities” (PDF). The bill expands the state’s Historic Tax Credit Program, and provides market rate housing development and housing rehab resources including a new homeownership rehabilitation tax credit. It also offers a job creation tax credit, allows tax credits for manufacturing and research and development, and expands the state’s Economic Development Incentive Program.

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A special meeting of the Hartford City Council last night concerned one matter only: the possible removal of its president, Calixto Torres, an effort that failed in a 5-3 vote, with one abstention from Councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson, who is connected to the state’s corruption probe of the mayor’s office.

Ken Krayeske provided coverage of the meeting in a piece published both on his blog the 40 Year Plan as well as at CT News Junkie. The maneuvering was triggered by the amicable relationship between Torres and Mayor Eddie Perez, who was arrested on bribery charges last week. From an article in today’s Courant:

[Councilmen Matt] Ritter, [Pedro] Segarra and [Ken] Kennedy took advantage of the upheaval in the aftermath of Perez’s arrest to mount an effort to remove Torres from his council presidency, citing his close ties to Perez and saying that he is unwilling to work with the council. The three have also said that the council needs to show the residents of Hartford that it takes the allegations against the mayor seriously.

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At yesterday’s Finance Control Board meeting in Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno (pictured left) shared information about which city departments will receive mid-year budget cuts in the wake of cuts at the state level. The previous day, he appeared before the City Council to share information, which amounted to no information at all, to the great frustration of some city councilors. City employees have been waiting anxiously to hear word.

City Councilor Bud Williams (pictured right), who recently announced a bid to run for mayor (hear audio from both Sarno and Williams on this subject from WHYN), issued a January 23 letter to Sarno and the control board complaining about a lack of communication to the city council. The letter demanded a hiring and wage freeze.

Lack of communication, Williams wrote, “is particularly disturbing given the fact that these potential ’09 cuts will have a tremendous impact on the FY ’10 budget and the fact that the budget and budget process is being returned to the City Council after the Control Board is abolished on 6/31/09.” Read the entire letter at the bottom of the post, followed by corrections to the letter as received from city council aide Bob Arieti.

According to a report in today’s Republican, the city department seeing the biggest percentage cut, at 15.7 percent, will be the new CitiStat department, which includes the new 311 Citizen Service Center. The cut amounts to about $100,000, which in dollars is less than cuts other departments are facing, but as a percentage of the whole department could represent half the four-person staff, unless the cuts are shifted somehow to operational or personnel costs for maintaining 311 services.

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Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez surrendered himself to Connecticut state police today after having been served with a warrant for his arrest. He has been charged with bribery as well as fabricating evidence and conspiracy to fabricate evidence.

During a press conference today in City Hall, Perez issued a prepared statement and had his lawyer take questions for a brief time.

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The Connecticut state deficit is “skyrocketing” toward $1 billion, according to Governor M. Jodi Rell in a press release yesterday. Estimated income tax payments as of January 15 were 20 percent below projections, leaving the current-year deficit estimate at about $922 million. At a press conference yesterday, Rell said, “Every economic indicator has deteriorated over the last two months.”

“The economic tempest that has already ravaged so much of the nation has now made landfall in Connecticut with all of its fury,” Rell said in her release. “The last three months of 2008—the job losses, the slump in sales, the concern in the eyes of Connecticut’s working men and women—have been an extraordinarily difficult time. Yet we are a resilient state—a place synonymous with innovation, a small state with the greatest work ethic and best-trained work force in the nation.”

Unfortunately, many in this talented and well-trained work force seem to be facing the prospect of job loss. “[S]tate government cannot be all things to all people,” Rell continued, “and cannot afford to do everything we might like…. [S]tate government must be limited, especially in times such as these, by what the people who pay its bills can afford.”

A January report (PDF) from the US Conference of Mayors about the role of metropolitan areas in “recovery and reinvestment” points out that job loss will be profound in cities across the country. “The recession of 2008-2009 will be among the deepest on record,” the report states. “Dramatic action by the  federal government is required to halt the losses and re-invigorate the economy. Metro economies need to be at the center of the recovery. Job losses and unemployment are rising sharply across the nation’s metro areas.”

Unemployment will rise to above ten percent in 70 metropolitan areas, the report claims, and 297 of the nation’s 363 metro areas will see jobless rates rise by more than one percentage point this year. “We project that 85 percent of the job losses during this recession will occur in metro areas,” the report adds, “and 83 percent of unemployed workers in the nation reside in metro areas.”

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Live TV : Ustream

In a keynote speech at a breakfast event on Tuesday this week, at the Connecticut Convention Center in downtown Hartford, Mayor Eddie Perez offered up a state of the city address (full text below). The theme of his speech, an emerging concept surrounding the occasion of a pending federal stimulus package, was “Hartford Now!”

The city has asked the federal government for $70 million for various “shovel-ready” projects (see December 23, 2008 press release, at bottom). The spending, Perez said in his speech, will build on a momentum in the city, paying for a new public safety complex, school construction, “greening” of buildings, streetscape improvements, and a job training program.

Among the city-owned buildings anticipating an environmental upgrade, Perez said in his appeal last month for funding, are City Hall and two buildings on Jennings Road, receiving new heating and cooling systems and new windows. Perez also said the necessary work involved could create about 500 jobs. The $85 million public safety complex could create 800 jobs, he said—and Mayor Perez has requested $25 million in federal spending to help make that possible. He also requested $7 million for a new Hartford resident job training program.

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Violent crime is down in Springfield, but Police Commissioner William Fitchet sure sounds kind of glum about it. Maybe he just doesn’t want to overplay good news. Listen to his comments on WHYN here, as well as Mayor Domenic Sarno’s related comments here.

The Republican has an initial report up, by Peter Goonan, following today’s press conference in City Hall. From the article:

Violent crime—murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault—was down 10 percent in 2008, compared to 2007, he said. That includes a 30 percent decline in murder, a 23 percent decline in robbery, and a 7 percent decline in aggravated assault. Rape was the sole major category showing an increase. Rapes increased from 111 in 2007 to 156 in 2008.

Fitchet and Hampden County District Attorney William A. Bennett said rape referrals to the district attorney’s office are being newly counted in the police crime statistics, a key component in the spike.

Fitchet is changing the city’s three-division policing arrangement to a nine-sector plan as of Sunday, February 1. The previous commissioner, Ed Flynn, instituted the three-sector plan, which Fitchet today said he saw as not neighborhood-oriented enough. He hopes the new arrangement will enable a renewed, closer cooperation between the police department and the local beat management teams.

Last month, Springfield city solicitor Ed Pikula released an official opinion on the matter of whether the city might reasonably seize a property by eminent domain for use as a public library. Pikula gave a green light to proceed with a taking through a careful step-by-step process. As with the first time he did this, about a year ago when circumstances were different, his opinion makes for interesting analytical reading based on facts as he sees them.

Mayor Domenic Sarno requested this legal opinion in the wake of the revelation of a confidential document between the current owner of the building, the Urban League of Springfield, Inc., and the state attorney general’s office.

“The Agreement between the Urban League and the Attorney General,” Pikula wrote, “would limit the fair market value of the Urban League’s interest in the property. If the taking of the Urban League property was carried out in compliance with all required procedural steps, the current owner would not have grounds to invalidate the taking or cause unreasonable delay.”

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Making my way back home from Bloomfield to Hartford this week, I looked up at the sky with great satisfaction. The daily migration of crows to Hartford has found a new home away from my neighborhood in Frog Hollow.

Over the past decade, the size of this crow roost in Hartford has swelled and returned every year without fail to the western parts of the city. An observer stuck in traffic along I-84 to I-91 can see the crows making their way to Hartford from the suburbs at dusk between 4:00 and 6:00 pm during the winter months.

Over the past several years, the crows have managed to find a home in the trees of my neighborhood in December and January. But after a few days of intense work last week, I managed to scare the growing number of crows off.

Since last week, there have not been any crows stopping or roosting in the tree. Our cars, lawns, and porches are safe from crow droppings in the Frog Hollow neighborhood. We can sleep through the early morning without the cawing and cackling of thousands of crows.

Unfortunately, the Hartford crow roost, one of the largest urban crow roosts in the state, might be related to a bigger and more pernicious issue: urban sprawl.

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At a press conference this morning in Hartford City Hall, Mayor Eddie Perez and Police Chief Daryl Roberts were joined by City Councilman Matt Ritter and the MetroHartford Alliance’s Julio Concepcion, of Hartford Crime Stoppers, to announce the release of 2008 crime statistics in the city.

Overall, “part one” crime is down by 9.6 percent, the officials said. (Click on the graph below to see a larger version.) This includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. Officials said the total for this category—8,041 crimes—is the lowest statistic in recorded history for Hartford. Some of the specific crime category drops since 2007 are double-digit, such as burglary (15.7 percent) and auto theft (18.1 percent). There were drops as well in statistics for rape (5.4 percent), robbery (3.5 percent) and larceny (9.4 percent).

Chief Roberts acknowledged that aggravated assaults are up by 12.8 percent, the only category of part one crime to increase since the previous year. There were 794 such assaults in Hartford in 2008, compared to 704 in 2007.

Roberts added that on the other hand, the city’s arrest rate has increased for this category of crime, by 2.6 percent overall to a total of 2029 arrests, and by 20.6 percent for aggravated assaults, to 427 arrests for such crimes in 2008 compared to 354 arrests the previous year. “We are trying to bring swift justice to those who are arrested,” Roberts said, noting the city’s police force is “working very hard.”

“Perpetrators almost always know each other,” Roberts said, “and they are using gun violence to resolve their differences.” Assaults and homicides are not typically random acts of violence, he explained, but rather the result of escalated arguments. Roberts added that 24 homicides in 2008, which is 75 percent of homicides for the year, involved a gun.

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