The death and life of Hartford's commercial districts

Norman Garrick of the University of Connecticut about the demise of Hartford's commercial districts and what steps could be taken to bring them back to life. 

The commercial streets and avenues of Hartford have fallen victims to some familiar woes — street widening, building demolition, parking facilities and the failure to enforce existing codes. The grand streets and avenues of Hartford, which once were stages for city life, have been reduced to a shell of themselves — largely highways for getting people in and out of the city. Some, like the once magnificent Washington Street, are now lined with parking lots and garages.

Cities of all types flourish when there is diversity in size and types of businesses. The lower rents and the small and varied building footprints of healthy city neighborhoods are the lifeblood of small operations. Unwittingly, Hartford has done a poor job nurturing its neighborhoods, neglecting an important foundation of the city's economic health. The city often seems to favors suburban-style developments, complete with drive-in facilities that erode the character of the neighborhoods.

This neglect comes out of a misunderstanding of the basic structure of the city and of the importance of having healthy commercial districts. Bringing back the life of the neighborhood commercial districts will require re-envisioning the grand streets and avenues primarily as places to be — walkable, lively and attractive. It makes no sense to continue to treat them primarily as corridors of movement that funnel people and money away.

One way to bring them back would be to restore streetcar service, he says:

Our research at UConn suggests that the decline of Hartford's commercial centers started with the removal of the streetcars. But now some cities around the country are reversing that trend — showing that streetcars can be a cost-effective catalyst for the restoration of neighborhood life. Look to Providence, which is well on the way to re-introducing streetcars — not simply as a transportation project, but as a way of spurring economic development and street life.