Walk into any Hartford bar or restaurant this summer and you’re likely to see sparser crowds than usual.
It’s not because taps have run dry or food has gone bad. Hartford simply sees fewer patrons during June, July and August, partly due to summer vacation season but also because there are fewer events happening in the Capital City to draw people downtown.
The summer doldrums are a fact of life for many businesses, but Hartford bars and restaurants tend to feel the brunt of that pain, which is one reason the New Britain Rock Cats’ move to downtown Hartford is an appealing concept.
Adding 72 minor league baseball games that draw 4,000-plus fans to the center city during the dog days of summer could be another key component to rebuilding Hartford’s vibrancy. While the controversial deal has built a lot of strong criticism and opposition — some of it deservedly so — Hartford residents, businesses and other key stakeholders should give the deal a chance.
Mayor Pedro Segarra and his top economic development czar Thomas Deller have made several mistakes rolling out this project including calling it a “done deal” before any public input was had, and then originally sacking taxpayers with the full cost of building a new $60 million stadium. The 18-months of secret deal negotiations with team owner Joshua Solomon didn’t help build public trust either.
But Segarra and Deller deserve credit for thinking outside the box and bringing to the table an entertainment venue that could jumpstart development in the barren northern section of downtown Hartford.
We haven’t given the Rock Cats’ proposed Capital City move a stamp of approval, but we aren’t writing it off yet either. The city has issued a request for proposals that seeks a private partner to design and build the baseball stadium and surrounding mixed-use development in downtown north. Responses to the RFP are due Aug. 1, and interested developers must offer a financing plan detailing equity, debt, public participation, return on investment, and the potential use of tax-increment financing or government grants.
If Segarra can muster up private investment to finance a large percentage of the project, it could be a worthy venture. It is, however, a tall task seeing as how much of the redevelopment currently underway in Hartford is dependent on government subsidies and tax breaks.
But we should all hope some solid plans and private dollars are brought to the table because downtown businesses would benefit from a new entertainment venue that draws summer crowds to Hartford.
A bureaucrat that gets it
State employees often get a bad rap from the public, but one administrator who seems to have a clear understanding of how to run an agency is Department of Transportation Commissioner James Redeker.
As HBJ Managing Editor Brad Kane reports this week, Redeker is trying to transform DOT so it broadens its focus and resources beyond bridge and road repairs. That doesn’t mean he’s demanding more money to hire new state workers. To the contrary, Redeker said he expects DOT’s workforce, which is down 40 percent since the 1990s, to stay stagnant at best.
Instead, Redeker said he will seek to add different areas of expertise while subtracting others, so the agency is properly staffed to deal with growing infrastructure needs like public transit. Although the change may sound simple, DOT has been haunted by inefficiencies in its organizational structure for some time, preventing it from carrying out long-term visions that aim to modernize Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure, which is crucial to the state’s economic vitality.
Redeker’s efforts to modernize DOT could pay future dividends to the business community. Let’s hope he succeeds.
