Tonight, the nine-member city councils in both Hartford and Springfield will meet with some new faces in their midst.

In Hartford, the newcomers are Luis Cotto, Larry Deutsch and Matt Ritter (all pictured, right); in Springfield, the new arrival is Patrick Markey (pictured below).

Until recently, the only Springfield city councilors who made themselves publicly available by email were Councilors James Ferrera and Bruce Stebbins; now Councilor Kateri Walsh joins that group, having obtained both a Web site and an email address.

Hartford’s City Council members, on the other hand, get individual Web pages on the city’s site, with relatively extensive biographies and a photo.

The Springfield City Council calendar online will allegedly inform the public about upcoming meeting dates, agendas, and “vote results for past 2008 meetings.” (more…)

Late last week I published a rambling piece for the Valley Advocate‘s Public Humanist blog on the subject of independent bloggers and newspapers, and potential working relationships between the two. From the essay:

If traditional media is preying on a community wanting only its traffic and related ad revenue, and doesn’t seem invested in the community’s well-being, failing to publish material of meaning and value, it isn’t successful. Bloggers often have a reputation for being invested (sometimes overly so), and this may be the very thing of value they can offer to newsrooms in need of a dose of community merit.

Sometimes bloggers don’t necessarily want to get paid as much as reporters would. Many have day jobs. What would keep them engaged? Possibly: opportunities to interact with newsroom staff, systems for keeping them engaged in what they’re doing, reassurances that the work is being read and consumed, and maybe even ideas for how to improve. In other words, for those bloggers the challenge is not an economic model problem, but a human resources problem—persuading newsrooms (and those in charge of their budgets and job descriptions) that spending time fostering a volunteer or token-stipend-paid corps is worthwhile and deserves plenty of time and attention.

I asked [Mike] Dobbs [of the Reminder], who has expressed interest in hiring bloggers, how he would structure a working relationship with them. “I would have them working in an office where they could talk to the news staff,” he responded.

Dan Higgins, owner of Blue Moon Coffee Roasters in Springfield, is changing the nature of his business from a café setting on Sumner Avenue in Forest Park to a wholesale and Internet business. “I will continue to roast coffee,” he said in an email.

“I am currently redoing our Web site to allow for e-commerce. Of course, we will continue to offer our coffees and teas to our regular customers.” The site will allow customers to browse Blue Moon’s entire selection of products and place an order online. In an email sent to café regulars, Higgins said he hopes to have the site completed by the end of the month.

Customers will be able to pick up their coffee orders in East Forest Park at Cordero & Co. Salon, 1195 Sumner Avenue. Coffees ordered by noon Tuesday will be available for pick up Thursday morning. “If you have special needs, I will work with you to get your coffee to you,” Higgins said.

Responding to questions about the recent closure of his café, Higgins wrote, “We are not quite done with the move. Everything should be in the warehouse by the end of the weekend. Then we need to organize and get the roaster connected.” (more…)

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno (pictured) issued a statement late today regarding the ongoing investigation into a loss of millions in public funds the city had invested through Merrill Lynch. It reads:

I am very disturbed by the investment that appears to have cost the City $13 million. As I continue to review and navigate the shoals of fiscal policy, I request a swift and transparent review of this most critical issue by the Attorney General.

In order to conserve public resources and avoid duplicating efforts, the City will defer to the Attorney General’s ongoing efforts regarding matters surrounding the investment.

I am prepared to afford the Attorney General’s office any help I can and ask that they pursue the matter as a high priority.

While I understand the Attorney General may not disclose facts obtained during the course of pre-litigation, I call on the Attorney General to remain in regular communication with the City so that the public remains informed. The citizens and taxpayers of Springfield are entitled to no less.

Incidentally, Mayor Sarno was interviewed this morning in his first mayoral podcast on MassLive.com with senior producer Kristen Beam. Blogger Bill Dusty also noted updates to the city’s Web site this week.

On six Thursday evenings this winter, the New Haven Museum and Historical Society will host its inaugural New Urbanism Film Festival, exploring the social and environmental challenges facing American cities overall as well as cities specific to Connecticut.

Such themes in the films include sprawl, homogenization, abandoned spaces, community alienation, transportation, loss of independent commerce, and threats to historical resources.

Each film screening event is free of charge, and will include discussion, refreshments for purchase, and a visiting expert offering commentary and prompting dialogue. Pre-registering for the event is recommended, which can be done online.

The museum is located at 114 Whitney Avenue in New Haven. All Thursday screenings begin at 5:30 pm, starting January 17 and ending February 28. Below is the schedule of films that will be shown. (more…)

In Hartford and Springfield, the recent closure of three neighborhood coffee shops has brought into sharp relief the notion that people in cities need a “third place”—somewhere that isn’t work or home, but where one can go and relax and see other human beings, and have some meaningful purpose.

In Hartford, the treasured La Paloma Sabanera (pictured, left) closed its doors just prior to the new year; in Springfield, it was two Forest Park establishments: Blue Moon Coffee Roasters at about the same time, and earlier last fall, the short-lived but dashing 3hree Café (pictured).

All were held dear, to one degree or another, by the people who supported the businesses, not least because they could find good coffee or good company.

For many residents frequenting these cafés, the key to their support was the importance of community-building in an open, unscripted environment where the door seemed to be open to serendipity. Anyone could walk through those doors, and people could linger for hours. (more…)

Just before the holidays, Rebecca Townsend of Pioneer Valley Advocates for Commuter Rail sent along an update on progress working toward obtaining state funding in Massachusetts for a commuter line connecting New Haven and Springfield through Hartford.

Townsend mentioned that at a recent meeting with State Representative Joseph Wagner of Chicopee, who chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation, she learned that Wagner has not made up his mind on whether he supports the commuter rail line.

He asked good questions, Townsend wrote, including about the benefits of commuter rail. “We provided him with a sketch of some of the benefits,” she said. (more…)

Both Hartford and Springfield are hosting events today marking the inauguration of the cities’ mayors and city councils.

Springfield’s event, which took place at 10:00 am today at Symphony Hall downtown, signaled the start of Mayor Domenic Sarno‘s term under the auspices of state control. The text of his speech is below. Look for updates here later today on other coverage.

Hartford’s event, which takes place at 7:00 pm tonight at the Municipal Building downtown (pictured at left), will likewise include a speech by Mayor Eddie Perez.

Today’s Courant has an article by Daniel Goren reviewing the anticipated contents of the talk, including “pride in his administration’s recent accomplishments, hope for the future and anticipation of upcoming challenges.” (more…)

A grand reopening celebration took place Saturday, January 5 at the downtown Hartford Public Library at 550 Main Street, the culmination of a week of festivities, including a mayoral ribbon-cutting on December 31.

Protracted renovations for the building and parking garage, designed by Boston-based Fletcher, Harkness Cohen & Moneyhun and Hartford-based Sevigny Architects (and which are still getting some finishing touches), came to $42 million over a period of several years. According to Jeffrey Cohen and Daniel Jones in the Courant, the planning stages for redesign began in 1995, with the first phase done in 2002, also a year when the city’s library system won a national award for library service.

The Connecticut Library Association offers a concise history of the library, its location, and the extent of the renovations of the building. “A welcoming destination in the heart of our capital city,” it states, “the library provides cutting-edge technology, award-winning library and information services, and presents a regional stage for cultural arts and programming.” (more…)

On Friday, outgoing Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan denied downtown adult-themed store Amazing.net of its application for an entertainment license for the year.

The license for last year, which allowed the store to operate video viewing booths, was revoked for the remainder of the year in a decision (PDF) by Ryan after a November 16 hearing.

Below is the text of Ryan’s January 4 findings and decision, as sent via fax to Thomas Lesser, the lawyer for Amazing.net, on Friday. The document can also be viewed in its original format here (PDF). (more…)

Updated 1/5: Thursday’s Republican and Urban Compass incorrectly announced news that the hiring of Springfield City Councilor Rosemarie Mazza-Moriarty is being rescinded, for now, for the position of International Baccalaureate middle years program administrator at Van Sickle Middle School (pictured).

An article in the paper on January 3 by Mike Plaisance reported, with information from Assistant Schools Superintendent Ann Southworth (pictured), that the city’s Finance Control Board directed the position to be advertised again, at some point soon, for a duration of ten to 15 days. Mazza-Moriarty was said to be invited to reapply, along with all the other prior applicants who were initially turned down.

On Saturday, January 5, a brief article by Plaisance, without comment available from Southworth, includes comments from control board executive director Stephen Lisauskas saying that the control board has actually made no such decision yet.

City Councilor Bruce Stebbins (pictured) was quoted in Thursday’s article expressing frustration with the situation. From the piece:

Councilor Bruce W. Stebbins, who was one of the references Mazza Moriarty put on her application for the job, said the city looks bad by recommending someone for the job and then announcing a new search within weeks.

“It makes the city look like it can’t get its act together,” Stebbins said.

Does reposting this position genuinely send a message that seems to say Springfield is faltering? Is Springfield faltering? (more…)

Below is a transcript, provided by Springfield resident Sheila McElwaine, of a public comment session at the most recent Finance Control Board meeting, December 20, 2007, with photos of the speakers. Chair Christopher Gabrieli apologized at the beginning for keeping the public in Room 220 of City Hall waiting so long.

City Clerk Wayman Lee: Our first speaker is Lois Smith.

Lois Smith: Thank you and, Mr. Chairman Gabrieli and Mayor Ryan, control board members, and Mayor Ryan, you will be missed, believe me. I just wanted to say that the decision to extend or deny School Superintendent Burke’s contract is in your hands. The Springfield financial control board will decide what happens to 27,000 school children.

With continuing failure in the city’s schools, there appears to be only one way to correct the educational system. We must bring a new team of players into the school administration starting at the top. We absolutely must apply techniques that are successful in areas with demographics similar to Springfield. It will take a huge effort to break down a top heavy administration, teach and instill new techniques. At the moment, we have a catastrophe in our hands. (more…)

The work of developer Leslie Clement and her company, Ames Design, Inc., was recognized as a “bright spot” in last November’s issue of BUILDER magazine, spotlighting new, modernized, Craftsman-style homes (pictured) along Tiffany and Brentwood Streets in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood.

An article in the magazine featuring five different housing projects across the US, all witnessing a degree of success in a down market, was subtitled, “smart design moves can mean the difference between a stellar seller and a dud.” (more…)

Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez announced late yesterday that 95-101 Pearl Street, LLC—a partnership of Westside Property Management, Joe Capasso Mason Enterprises, Inc., and Sheldon Oak Central, Inc.—was selected among four applicants to develop a 12-story downtown property at that address.

In August 2006, according to an article by Jeffrey Cohen in today’s Courant, a proposal for luxury condos at the location fell through, “a victim of rising construction and remediation costs,” Cohen notes. “The building was found to have an unexpectedly large amount of asbestos, which will require about a $2 million cleanup. Even though the city dropped its asking price from $1.2 million to $400,000, the original deal collapsed.”

Other bidders, Cohen reports, were Martin Kenny (owner of Trumbull on the Park), David Nyberg (owner of 55 on the Park), and “a partnership involving the family of Sanford Cloud.”

All companies involved in the LLC partnership are Hartford-based; Westside has both commercial and residential management experience, including the prominent Bushnell Towers downtown (pictured, left and right).

According to yesterday’s release from the mayor’s office, the developer will transform the former office building (not pictured) into 18,000 square feet of retail and office space from the ground level up to the second floor, with 36 rental apartments on the upper floors. (more…)

Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan, who completes his term in office within a week, has announced a special hearing at City Hall tomorrow, 3:00 pm in Room 220.

The hearing will address the matter of an entertainment license application on behalf of Amazing.net, an adult-themed magazine and video store located at the city’s Apremont Triangle downtown, at 486 Bridge Street.

“In November, the City of Springfield revoked the 2007 entertainment license,” a release states, “for viewing booths previously granted to Amazing.net, in a legal decision that cited testimony of illegal sexual activity and sexual assaults taking place in those booths.”

The store is currently requesting an entertainment license for 2008, the release continues, and the Thursday hearing will address the request.

A bit of coverage of the Amazing.net odyssey over the past year can be found here.

On Monday, Springfield mayor-elect Domenic Sarno announced five staff members he has selected to start off his term beginning Monday, January 7. His inaugural event at Symphony Hall is the same day, at 10:00 am.

“It is after careful deliberation and much thought that I have reached out to these individuals and humbly asked them to join my team,” Sarno said in a release.

“Individually, they are bright and capable professionals who have demonstrated a commitment to and love for the City of Springfield. Collectively, their broad range of skills and expertise assure me that the mayor’s office will function as a strong and effective center of public service. I am confident in the abilities of these five fine individuals and honored that they have accepted the challenge. I look forward to working together with them on issues large and small.”

In an article yesterday in the Republican, Peter Goonan quoted Sarno’s chief of staff Denise Jordan saying that she and the staff are “committed to making sure that we are very user friendly and that the door at City Hall is open.” (more…)

Hartford rang in the new year with much-touted downtown First Night celebrations this week, while Springfield’s daytime municipal festivities were once again apparently diverted to Holyoke and Northampton.

Worcester also celebrated First Night this year with afternoon goings-on and early-evening fireworks, many of the events at the downtown DCU Center.

I came close to visiting downtown Worcester with my family after landing at Logan Airport just before sunset. Instead, we had to head home with an ill child after our lengthy journey, which began early that day with a 3:00 am, two-hour car ride to the Portland, Oregon airport. More on that below.

Managing to stay awake, I enjoyed watching Hartford’s downtown fireworks at midnight from the comfort of a second-floor window after I returned home, which the bare wintertime trees more or less allowed. I reminisced for a moment about my old neighborhood in Springfield, where regardless of the weather, there was probably someone shooting off illegal fireworks in the middle of the street. Dangerous, yes, and also exciting. (more…)