In a blog post early this week, Springfield resident Michaelann Bewsee reported that the City Council’s Civil Rights and Race Relations Committee had a meeting planned for 4:30 pm today to revisit the topic of how to implement ward representation in the next municipal election in 2009.

Recently, City Councilor Jose Tosado requested that the city solicitor, Ed Pikula, compose a legal opinion on how to handle the School Committee election in particular, and to what extent new ward representation will affect it. The opinion, Bewsee said, would be discussed at today’s meeting, with Pikula there to present it. Continue reading…

In an inaugural, 16-minute Urban Compass video (below), exclusive footage features staff of Springfield’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, alongside four members of the zoning ordinance revision citizen advisory committee, discussing the nuances of the result of two years’ work leading to the proposed changes to the city’s zoning ordinance.

Last night, at a public meeting at the city’s Basketball Hall of Fame, the draft revision was unveiled, and a 45-day public comment period began. Officials hope to present a final document to the mayor and city council toward the end of the summer. For more about the details in the document, which can be accessed here, read my post drawing out a few highlights.

At a press briefing late yesterday afternoon, four staff members of Springfield’s Office of Planning and Economic Development were available, along with four members of the city’s 13-member citizen advisory committee that has worked for two years on a zoning ordinance update.

City staff had prepared large signs on easels to illustrate the timeline leading to the zoning amendments, bullet points showing the six major categories of changes involved, a list of all the committee members, and reasons why the zoning changes are so desperately needed. But at the start of the briefing, I was the only media member present in a room of several chairs awaiting occupants.

The city’s Chief Development Officer David Panagore, who is comfortable before a crowd, and likes to use humor to break tension, cracked a joke about how troubling it can be to see so many more people offering a presentation than there are people to hear it. He continued the joke by suggesting I simply ask what I don’t already know about the zoning changes rather than have them go on with a presentation. I demurred, actually having hoped to be at the back of a crowded room, with local media thrilled to learn the latest details about how Springfield is on track to make long-lasting and meaningful improvements to its urban fabric.

Topics like zoning simply don’t tend to attract as much attention as, say, the latest shooting. All the same, this was a chance to learn in a quiet, small setting some details about this major project just before its public unveiling later today at 5:30 pm at the Hall of Fame. It is likely that reporters or editors are choosing to wait until the public meeting to try to cover details, what with slimmed-down staff numbers these days. Continue reading…

Finance Control Board Chairman Christopher Gabrieli and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno (pictured, from left, with City Council President Bud Williams at far right) released the names today of the four candidates for schools superintendent, selected by search consultant James Huge.

The candidates are Matthew Malone of Boston, currently superintendent of Swampscott Public Schools; Ret. Air Force General Joseph Redden of Marietta, Georgia, currently the program manager of Leadership Development for the Stupski Foundation in Mill Valley, California; Alan Ingram of Oklahoma, currently the chief accountability officer for the Oklahoma City Public Schools; and Basan Nembirkow of South Deerfield, currently superintendent of Brockton Public Schools (although he announced plans to retire soon). Continue reading…

Springfield’s Office of Planning and Economic Development will host a public unveiling of its zoning ordinance revision project on Tuesday, May 6, 5:30 pm at the Basketball Hall of Fame in the South End. The ordinance has not been revised in well over 30 years.

Two years ago, the process was initiated at an April 25, 2006 public meeting at the same location, led by Chris Kluchman (pictured) of Lexingon-based Eaton Planning. A PowerPoint slide show presented at that time is still available (PPT) on the city’s Web site.

In the ensuing period of time, a Citizen Advisory Committee has been holding regular meetings to hash out aspects of the zoning ordinance revision. The committee is composed of neighborhood council representatives, members of the business community, and members of the city’s Planning Board.

Following the public unveiling of the long-awaited results of this work, the city will open the plans to public comment for 45 days.

Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray is in Springfield today making several appearances. The first was a 10:00 am keynote address at the Basketball Hall of Fame’s MVP Program, followed by a visit to an 11:00 am press conference in City Hall’s Room 220 announcing this year’s enormous outdoor downtown pancake breakfast (pictured), slated this year for Saturday, May 17, brought to you by Spirit of Springfield and the Springfield Business Improvement District. Each year there is an honorary chairman; perhaps Murray is the pick this time around?

After that, Murray is scheduled to appear at the grade six through 12 Springfield Renaissance School at 1:00 pm, receiving a tour and meeting with students. At 2:30 pm, he is expected at a ribbon-cutting at 860 Boston Road, where a new WIC Center is opening at the existing Caring Health Center.

This evening, at 6:30 pm, Murray plans to head north to address the Hampshire County Bar Association at the Garden House at Look Park, in Northampton’s Florence section.

Jim Polito (pictured), a former investigative reporter for Springfield’s WGGB abc40, was fired under controversial circumstances late last year, following Business West publisher John Gormally’s purchase of the station. A taste of the controversy can be sampled not just in Mo Turner’s report in the Valley Advocate, but also the nearly 150 comments following the article. In the time since the firing, Gormally launched a Fox News affiliate and brought back Kathy Tobin as news anchor at abc40, a change from her news director position.

After spending a while attending to health issues and union matters, having meal excursions with Pioneer Valley bloggers Bill Dusty and Tom Devine (pictured with Polito’s old sign), and getting knee surgery, Polito has taken up a 5:00 to 9:00 am news show gig at Worcester radio station WTAG AM 580. He has his own blog now as well, where he promises not to carry on too much, and prefers criticism to praise:

I apologize in advance if some of the entries turn into an exercise in self indulgence. Please, feel free to let me know when you like something, or more importantly, if you don’t like it or disagree. I have learned that criticism is better than praise in both one’s personal and professional life.

Polito had a great appearance on Springfield’s Rock 102 in January, where he dished on his firing, but the audio archive was removed from the station’s Web site the very same day it was posted, most likely for legal reasons. Dusty later reported that at the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade this year, a group of Springfield police, including Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, led a cheer to bring back Polito in front of an abc40 crew including anchor Dave Madsen. No dice, but Worcester is fortunate to have him. Thanks to Bill Randell for the tip.

A few months ago I sat down with Evan Plotkin (pictured) of Samuel D. Plotkin and Associates, Inc., based at 41 Taylor Street in downtown Springfield, to discuss some of his ideas about what the city needs to become revitalized.

In Plotkin’s view, the arts are an essential component to bringing life back into the central business district. For about five months, he maintained a blog on MassLive.com called Metro Musings where he shared some of his thinking.

Plotkin, who lives in Somers, Connecticut, has been working on a project to secure a location for some of his plans to take root. In the last several months he launched a Web site, Creative Capital Springfield, to help foster some of those ideas, along with his colleagues Ann Black and Linda McInerney.

The site mentions the former Paramount Theater, known also as the Hippodrome, as a potential location for both a performing arts venue as well as living space for artists upstairs. Plotkin said the location is one of many possibilities in Springfield, but he sees much potential in the surrounding neighborhood and the city in general.

In this first portion of our interview, we discussed some of the history and role of his real estate company in Springfield, some aspects of the conditions downtown, and an example of challenges faced by real estate professionals looking to attract workers to the central business district.

Evan Plotkin: The automobile, basically the first gas engine, was built in this building [on Taylor Street]. They called it the horseless carriage in 1895. The ironic thing is the car is what really [caused] the decline of the city. My grandfather, who started here in the 1920s, talked about this in speeches he gave in the 1940s—the decentralization of urban cities—and he started to see what was going on in the suburbs, that development was going outside because we had automobiles.

Heather Brandon: Was he excited or worried about that?
He was worried about it. [Shows framed maps] These are the real estate maps my grandfather made of the downtown central cities. I have one of Springfield. He coined the term “100 percent location.” He used to stand on street corners with a number counter, and count how many people walked by at 12 noon.

Did you grow up here?
For the most part. I was born in Chicago, and lived there for five years before I moved here. My father came here and joined my grandfather, who made the real estate atlases, and whose building is right over there. In fact, from my office, I can see where my grandfather started. So that was like, 1961, and my father sort of came to work for my grandfather, helping him to lease his office buildings, and manage his properties, and eventually Plotkin Associates Company formed from that. He started to develop relationships with a lot of doctors, quite frankly, and the idea was born of building medical office buildings. Continue reading…

Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez will present a $552 million budget for fiscal year 2008-2009 at a public meeting tonight, Tuesday April 29, starting at 6:00 pm, in the auditorium of Bulkeley High School, 300 Wethersfield Avenue. The public is invited to attend and share comments. The meeting will also be broadcast live on the city’s government access cable channel 21, as well as online at hartford.gov.

Last week, Mayor Perez released a budget message to highlight areas he believes are significant for the coming year, including public safety, education, school construction and what he called neighborhood economic development. He proposes hiring 50 more firefighters and 30 more police officers. Perez also suggests a ten percent property tax increase in the coming year, in contrast to the current fiscal year when there was no increase.

In a blog post today, Kyle Bergquist said this tax increase issue is only going to worsen in coming years while municipalities see revenue stagnate while expenses swell. He points to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial highlighting the widespread challenge of falling home prices and and mounting expenses. Continue reading…

Hartford City Council Majority Leader rJo Winch (pictured, from her newsletter, alongside City Council colleague Pedro Segarra) announced today a forthcoming election on Wednesday, June 4, for the city’s first nine-member Youth Advisory Council.

Candidates must be Hartford residents enrolled in school and will serve two-year terms. There is no minimum age requirement, but candidates 18 years of age or older must be registered voters. Winch anticipates the HYAC will constitute youth from elementary through college age.

In her March newsletter (PDF), Winch said the HYAC “will concentrate on youth issues and present them to the full council from the youth perspective. …Part of the group’s responsibilities will include working with the city’s Youth Commission to identify which youth issues are of most [importance] by way of prioritizing our focus, and present these key issues to [the] council.” Continue reading…

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, author Jane Jacobs wrote about four “indispensable conditions” for what she termed exuberant diversity. These boil down to variety of function, fairly short street blocks, a mix of old and new buildings close together, and a dense concentration of people, including residents, not just daytime workers.

On this last point—the residents of neighborhoods—Charles Buki, of neighborhood planning firm CZB in Virginia, wrote a blog post today for Planetizen. In the piece, he asserted that city planners and officials too often ignore the seemingly mundane contributions of neighborhoods to the stability and growth of cities. The small, boring details of daily life, he wrote, are what city leaders ought to be surveying. From the post:

They—and not interest rates and securitization schemes—constitute the mortar that holds in place appraisals, realtor perspectives, underwriting guidelines, and the sensibility of home equity loans. They—more so than zoning and design guidelines—are what should be the basis for how a city planning department actualizes housing and economic development strategies in a cohesive way.

Continue reading…

A report was released today summarizing conditions and needs in the city by transition teams appointed by Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, on the topics of public safety, health and human services, education, economic development, and finance.

In a letter introducing the report, which was assembled by transition team co-chairs Nicholas Fyntrilakis, MassMutual’s Director of Community Responsibility, and Denise Jordan, mayoral Chief of Staff, Sarno described the teams as having gone through an “exhaustive process,” meeting with a “broad cross-section of our community including city and state officials, business representatives, educators, young adults, senior citizens, residents with disabilities, community leaders, [and] clergy. … Committee members poured [sic] over government documents and past practices in determining their recommendations to me. The inclusive nature of the process has reaped a report with far-reaching impact.”

Mayor Sarno also noted that the teams’ recommendations bring to light “the essential need for interconnectedness at every level of government. … [T]he City must cultivate an interwoven network of best practices extending from our public education system to blueprints for economic development; healthy communities and financial acuity.” Continue reading…

MEETING OF THE HARTFORD COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL
APRIL 14, 2008

Communications

1. MAYOR PEREZ, with accompanying resolution de Authorization to apply for and receive Funding from Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for use at the North End Senior Center.

Passed

2. MAYOR PEREZ, with accompanying resolution de Authorization to accept and receive funding to provide emergency food and shelter services at McKinney Shelter through the Federal Emergency Management Agency Grant.

Passed

Continue reading…

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno issued a statement late Monday touting his first 100 days in office. The statement was rather extensive and listed a number of categories and specific accomplishments, some of which were mentioned in media reports, including an article in the Republican and a report from CBS3.

While there are plenty of new developments in Springfield in the last few months, including the hiring of a police commissioner (Commissioner William Fitchet’s swearing-in takes place Friday morning), an expedited search underway for a new schools superintendent (current superintendent Joseph Burke took himself out of the running yesterday), and other gradual steps toward revitalization, it is generally too early to gauge just what sort of administration Mayor Sarno is generating in the city, and how his leadership will shape things to come.

What is notable is how heavily Sarno touts the activity since January, including his urge to be labeled “the people’s mayor.” Continue reading…

This week I attended my first meeting as a community gardener with the Knox Parks Foundation. As a newcomer, and a first-time community gardener, I have a lot to learn, but I’m grateful to have my 15-by-17-foot plot, where I plan to grow a few vegetables this year. (Pictured: workers preparing a community garden plot in Springfield on Lebanon Street, in Old Hill, fall 2006.)

At the meeting, I met Charmaine Craig, who runs the community gardening program at Knox, as well as the two co-garden coordinators, and 15 or 20 varied fellow gardeners. My kids, who patiently sat through the meeting reading some children’s books conveniently available on a shelf in the meeting room, also picked up a bunch of free seeds for vegetables they’ll plant themselves. Discussion centered on two items: what to do when garden plots are neglected, and whether to grant one of the gardener’s request for a double plot. Continue reading…

An innovative combination of art, design, and concepts behind the sustainable living movement is captured in a traveling art exhibit on display now through June 10 called, “Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art,” at the Joseloff Gallery at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. The exhibit features the work of 13 artists and groups (two pictured here), and attempts to address questions about what sustainable living means and why it matters. Download a catalog of the exhibit here (PDF). From the exhibit description:

These artists create portable, human-scaled works that emphasize the ways environmental concerns are linked to other social relationships. Some adopt proven principles of “green” design; others propose small-scale alternative modes of living. Still others highlight the problems and contradictions in the very nature of sustainability.

Continue reading…

The Springfield Finance Control Board met on Thursday, March 27 and among other items to address, approved William Fitchet as Police Commissioner. Following is a transcript of the meeting, courtesy resident Sheila McElwaine.

Springfield Finance Control Board meeting
Thursday, March 27, 2008

Present: Chairman Christopher Gabrieli, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Robert Nunes, James Morton, City Council President Bud Williams, City Clerk Wayman Lee

Approval of Project: 311

Executive Director Steve Lisauskas: Item three on the agenda: approval of a project 311. As you may recall from the last control board meeting, we conducted a presentation that described the 311 system, the improvements it could provide to customer service as well as its ability to serve as a significant accountability mechanism for the city.

It would allow a determination of service turn-around time, benchmark services and the responsiveness of city departments to those services and allow the city to implement improvements by improving quality of work, the quantity of work and the efficiency of work conducted. It would also allow the city in future to tie into work order systems which, when you look at the first work order system implemented in the Department of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management did with no additional resources, it increased the amount of work being conducted by over 25 percent, just by having the work order system in place. Continue reading…

Spring cleaning time has arrived, and in Hartford and Springfield there are ample volunteer opportunities to pitch in throughout the upcoming weeks alongside residents, businesses and school groups.

In Hartford, Cleanup 2008 will be held on four consecutive Saturdays starting April 19. On Saturday, April 26, a special effort will focus on the city’s enormous Keney Park (see below).

In Springfield, a second annual citywide Keep Springfield Beautiful cleanup is planned for the morning of Saturday, May 3. Continue reading…

MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL
April 7, 2008

Reports of committees1. From City Council Planning and Economic Development Committee: Springfield Parking Authority (report only)

The City Council Planning and Economic Development Committee met on April 7, 2008 and Chairman William Foley gave a verbal and written report regarding the Springfield Parking Authority (SPA) stating that the SPA had met with all business and office owners in the downtown area to begin informing the businesses and the public of the changes to on-street and off-street parking with the goal to revive the downtown area.

Council received the verbal and written report. Continue reading…

The no-frills airline Skybus, which operates flights to selected locations from Chicopee’s Westover Metropolitan Airport, serving both Springfield and Hartford, has announced it will cease operations as of today. An announcement on its Web site, which currently offers no further information, provided a brief explanation:

Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.

The airline announced early this year that it was adding a second flight between Chicopee and Columbus, beginning in March. Then, last month, it announced it was adding flights between Chicopee and two Florida locations. Flights between Chicopee and Greensboro had already been added in January. A full description of the latest flight destinations is, at the moment, still available at the airport’s Web site.

Foreshadowing what was to come, a blurb in the March 31 Business West, regarding adding the Florida flights, said, “Skybus officials noted that it will have to adjust its schedule to help deal with the unprecedented increase in the cost of fuel. The adjustments will include some flight reductions as Skybus focuses on improving customer service and meeting demand on its most profitable routes.” Continue reading…

Springfield is preparing to auction off around 30 properties at a City Hall event on the evening of Monday, April 14. Registration begins at 5:00 pm, and the auction is scheduled to start an hour later.

A week prior to the auction, on Sunday, April 6, the city is planning open houses and site tours from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. It’s a great opportunity to get inside buildings you may have wondered about in the past.

A number of properties with promise are planned for inclusion on the auction block, such as four residential condominium units, some single-family homes, a Taylor Street commercial building (PDF, also pictured at right), a spacious two-family colonial, and several residential-zoned land parcels.

One unit, in Museum Park apartments at 70 Chestnut Street (pictured), is directly across from the city’s quadrangle green at the Springfield Museums, including the soon-to-be-constructed Springfield Museum of Firsts (top middle in aerial photo), as well as the downtown central library.

Quincy-based Daniel J. Flynn & Co. is once again handling the ballroom-style auction, the second of its kind this calendar year. The auctioneer is also hosting the open house at the various properties. “Folks shouldn’t miss this one,” auctioneer Dan Flynn said in a prepared statement from the city. “At the last city auction, people were pleasantly surprised at how low some of the winning bids were.”

Tina-Marie Quagliato, Senior Program Manager in the city’s Office of Housing, noted that Flynn & Co.’s representation at the open house locations will give prospective buyers a good opportunity to have any questions answered, either regarding the locations themselves or the auction process. Continue reading…

On a recent late-winter day, I entered the glass door of 3hree Café on Springfield’s Belmont Avenue in Forest Park, where the proud new owner, Cathie Albrecht, was busily on the phone arranging an appointment. She had just recently purchased the storefront and was preparing it for her soft opening this week.

Papers were spread out on one of the café’s square wooden tables, along with a food catalog, keys, a cell phone, a land line phone, and a bag from the Holyoke Mall Albrecht had recently received from a friend in town.

Inside the bag was a gift from someone Albrecht credits for helping her relocate to the café. It was a small ceramic work of art she planned to set out prominently on the counter—a colorfully-glazed, decorative head and shoulders adorned with the word, “Chef.” Continue reading…

Two major events are happening back-to-back in Springfield this week, including the city’s free conference for developers on Thursday, April 3, followed by its not-free Green City Forum on Friday, April 4.

With both events happening one day after the other, I wondered if they would be billed together in any way—they don’t appear to be—or if some attendees might try to attend both. It’s an opportunity to drum up a little extra attention for the city in the downtown area, connecting the riverfront and the downtown, especially in the wake of the NCAA men’s Division II basketball tournament last week at the MassMutual Center.

Registrants for the developers’ conference are being granted a free day-pass to the Basketball Hall of Fame, where the conference is also taking place. But there’s no mention on the Web site of the next day’s forum at CityStage just a few blocks away, which apparently is intended to draw a different kind of audience. The two events may as well be happening in separate cities. Continue reading…

MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL
MARCH 31, 2008

Hearings

Special Permits

1. 351 East Columbus Avenue

Used Car Sales as an Accessory Use. Owner: William M. McCarthy. Petitioner: William M. McCarthy, dba East Columbus Auto Sales

Hearing held and the Special Permit was granted by the following roll call vote; Yes, Nine (9) Councilors Rooke, Mazza-Moriarty, Tosado, Ferrera, Stebbins, Walsh, Markey, Foley, Williams; No, None (0). Continue reading…

The Springfield Historical Commission may discuss at its April 3 meeting this week plans for an 1872 brick duplex home at 25-27 Elliott Street, which suffered damage from a devastating fire on a very cold January 4. City officials told the Republican the fire was caused by an electrical wiring problem in the basement. Until it was sold recently, the building was a possible candidate for demolition; the SHC previously expected to hear this week a detailed plan for rehabilitation costs that would ostensibly justify demolition.

In comments on his local history blog, city resident and historical commissioner Ralph Slate wrote that about a month ago, then-owner, Wellesley-based Marjorie Fallon petitioned the SHC asking to demolish the property, claiming that $760,000 in insurance payments would not cover the cost of repair, and that the building is now a public safety hazard. The Springfield Preservation Trust and the Classical High Condominium Association both formally opposed a possible demolition of the property at a March SHC meeting.

The SHC then requested the detailed breakdown of those costs, Slate wrote, and apparently before that could be delivered, the owner sold the building for $5,000 to someone who claimed to want to rehabilitate it. Continue reading…

I spent the morning at Hartford City Hall (pictured) today for a public meeting, and then zipped north for an afternoon at Springfield City Hall for another public meeting.

The morning event featured Nancy Stoner of the National Resources Defense Council, presenting on green infrastructure best practices in various cities around the US. Mary Rickel Pelletier, the director of the Park River Watershed Revitalization Initiative, seemed pleased to have successfully pulled together a number of interesting people from different professional fields in the audience.

City Councilman Larry Deutsch was there (pictured, with Pelletier) and asked pressing questions about how the city can manage to foster an environment where we maintain pleasant urban parks rather than unkempt, blighted vacant lots. He lamented the tendency to create an abundance of surface parking in the city. What policy approaches can alleviate that, he wondered.

Stoner’s primary answer to that challenge is to charge fees for degrees of imperviousness rather than charging for access to water and sewer use. If a land owner wants to demolish and pave and create another parking lot, there will be an incentive to do otherwise, or at least use a permeable paving method that will help absorb water. She said land owners can be encouraged to retrofit their spaces to capture rain water on site. Continue reading…

Chatham Police Chief Mark Pawlina (pictured, right), until last week a candidate for the position of police commissioner in Springfield, told reporter Tim Wood for an article in the Cape Cod Chronicle that he withdrew from the process of applying for the job on the morning after the public interviews last week, a move that may not have any relevance at this stage of the selection process.

He did so, Pawlina said, before he knew that Acting Police Commissioner William Fitchet (pictured, left) had already been selected by the search committee as the candidate to recommend formally at tomorrow’s Finance Control Board meeting—the lone “finalist.”

Pawlina said he decided to withdraw on Thursday evening, the night of the three interviews, apparently after realizing for the first time that Fitchet had been publicly endorsed by Mayor Domenic Sarno. (How was this kept a secret until that point?) From the piece:

“It was pretty clear to me that it was pretty much a done deal,” Pawlina said. “That’s fine. I respect their desire to have an inside candidate, someone from the city.” However, that’s not how the situation was presented to him when he was approached to apply for the job. He said he was told the department needed a “change agent,” someone willing to come in and remake the police force. That was what attracted him to the job, he said. But as he got deeper into the process, he realized that was not the case. “The water was so muddy, it really wasn’t a good thing,” he said.

Outgoing former Mayor Charles Ryan also recommended Fitchet for the permanent job at a press conference last November, and then issued a very solid plea for the same at a November 29 control board meeting. Afterwards, reflecting on the vote to execute a broad search instead, control board chairman Chris Gabrieli offered comments indicating priorities. The idea of a “change agent” was not mentioned.

Officials emphasized the need for continuity, commitment, stability and reassurance in the wake of a tremendous amount of change in the city as it is, including the rather premature and abrupt departure of former Commissioner Ed Flynn—who was change agent enough with his priority-setting, let alone having cut short his contract.

Gabrieli said, “I personally feel a lot of weight should be put on the likelihood of continuity in a candidate. [W]e can look to general integrity, general character and vision. You’re not just judging whether Deputy Chief Fitchet’s a good man, or whether he’s been a good public servant, or whether it’s his turn. You’re judging whether he’s the best person to do the job.”

Has Fitchet been selected to “remake” Springfield’s police force as a “change agent”? If so, perhaps the public ought to know.

Jody Williams Visit: Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams (pictured) will speak on Friday, April 4, at Springfield’s Symphony Hall, at a free event starting at 7:00 pm. The tenth woman to win the Peace Prize in all of its 110-year history, Williams, reputed to be a very inspiring speaker, was recognized for her role as the founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She continues to work for justice on the international stage, currently as a spokesperson for ICBL. Most recently, she served as UN High Commissioner on a mission to Darfur.

Rally for a Library Branch: Asylum Hill and West End residents in Hartford are invited to come to a community meeting tonight, March 26, at Immanuel Congregational Church (pictured), 10 Woodland Street, starting at 6:30 pm, to discuss the potential for establishing a site for a new library branch. The current branch serving the two neighborhoods, known as the Mark Twain Branch Library, at 256 Farmington Avenue, “has long outgrown its current location,” according to meeting sponsors Asylum Hill Problem Solving and Revitalization Association, Farmington Avenue Alliance, and West End Civic Association. “The City has acquired two of three necessary parcels for a beautiful location on Farmington Avenue for the Mark Twain Branch Library,” a meeting notice asserts. “But the City must act within days to commit to buy the third parcel needed for the branch development, or it will be sold for another use. Come make sure your voice is heard!” Continue reading…

The Legislative Affairs Commission of the Hartford City Council, chaired by Councilman Matt Ritter (pictured, right), is holding a meeting tonight at City Hall, in the function room, starting at 6:00 pm, to consider the pros and cons of two resolutions that would establish a process for a revision of the city charter, which was last revised in 2001.

One resolution, introduced by Mayor Eddie Perez on January 28, and co-sponsored by Council President Calixto Torres, Majority Leader rJo Winch, and Deputy Majority Leader James Boucher, calls for the formation of a charter revision task force.

As mayoral chief of staff Matt Hennessey told the Courant’s Daniel Goren, the task force would “gauge what areas the public wants reviewed before politicians form the commission.”

The other, introduced by Councilman Kenneth Kennedy (pictured, left) on February 25, calls for the standard establishment of an eleven-member charter revision commission by April 1, appointed by the City Council, under state regulations (sections 7-187 through 7-194 of the General Statutes of Connecticut). Continue reading…

A presentation this week at Hartford City Hall will take a close look at ways the city can make good use of its abundant rain water, and the flow of its water downhill to the river.

On Thursday, March 27 from 9:00 to 10:00 am in City Council chambers, Nancy Stoner of the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in Washington, DC, will speak about her experiences working with the Environmental Protection Agency on the evolution of policy and strategy to prevent water pollution and also maximize potential benefits of the Clean Water Act. She will offer current examples of “green infrastructure” projects and updates on recent shifts in federal policy. The EPA also offers a handbook on developing watershed plans.

The event is called, “Green infrastructure solutions for urban stormwater run-off pollution: How urban rainwater run-off can revitalize city landscapes and urban rivers.”

Stoner’s presence is sponsored by the city’s Park River Watershed Revitalization Initiative, which is an ad hoc group of citizen activists, engineers, design professionals, government and non-profit advisors, a project under the umbrella of the Simsbury-based, non-profit Farmington River Watershed Association. Continue reading…