Hartford CT

I've never seen this full render(!!!!!) but it's what Hartford was SUPPOSED to look like if all the 80's projects actually got built. Holy moly.

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The placement of Interstate 84 and 91 really squeezed downtown Hartford into a much smaller footprint and also severed it from the river. Poor interstate planning also boxed in downtown Providence, so many mistakes made in the guise of urban renewal over 60 years ago. The rendering is impressive and props to the artist!
 
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Portlander said:
The placement of Interstate 84 and 91 really squeezed downtown Hartford into a much smaller footprint and also severed it from the river. Poor interstate planning also boxed in downtown Providence, so many mistakes made in the guise of urban renewal over 60 years ago. The rendering is impressive and props to the artist!
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Whats really unfortunate is a lot of these highways (country wide) are stuck where they are unless a few are demolished, but as far as moving them providence was lucky it had room to move the highway onto, but most cities you would have to demolish other existing neighborhoods all over again in order to move them and thats not an acceptable solution.

Its nice seeing some just get demolished outright like in syracuse and hopefully milwaukee and detroit, but in so many other cities the best they can really hope for is a cap. One thing that would have helped at least was if all downtown highways had been put in trenches so they could be covered in the future. Some cities have highways that go from elevated to embankments to trenches and its just a mess and theres not many options. That one change could have lessened the impact of probably hundreds of miles of highway across the country that would be eligible to be capped in the future.

Id love to see some cities that have ring highways demolish the parts that go through downtown and just keep the ring roads like many european cities manage to be just fine with, but I’m not sure if were close to any US cities pulling the trigger on something like that yet. A city like atlanta could definitely get away with demolishing the part of 75 that goes through downtown and instead at one end it could feed into 85 and at the other end into 20. There would still be highways passing by both ends of downtown, but the massive scar right through downtown would be gone. Unfortunately something like that is not even considered and the only idea theyve had is to cap 75 through downtown. Hopefully the next step in our thinking will be what we can take away vs just cover.
 
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On a somewhat related matter, I just realized that Hartford only has 122k people. That means that Cambridge and Lowell are only a few thousand people away from surpassing CT's capital. For some reason, that blows my mind.
 
MrDee12345 said:
On a somewhat related matter, I just realized that Hartford only has 122k people. That means that Cambridge and Lowell are only a few thousand people away from surpassing CT's capital. For some reason, that blows my mind.
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Dorchester, which has more people than Cambridge or Lowell, also has more people than Hartford but is 3 times smaller in land area.
 
Scott said:
Dorchester, which has more people than Cambridge or Lowell, also has more people than Hartford but is 3 times smaller in land area.
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I guess that doesn't blow my mind as much because Dorchester is part of Boston, a much bigger city.

I think I'm more shocked because for my whole life, Hartford has been losing population. Lowell and Cambridge went through a similar loss of population, but they've gained people over the last 20 or 30 years. It's just sad that that city can't seem to get its shit together.
 
MrDee12345 said:
I guess that doesn't blow my mind as much because Dorchester is part of Boston, a much bigger city.

I think I'm more shocked because for my whole life, Hartford has been losing population. Lowell and Cambridge went through a similar loss of population, but they've gained people over the last 20 or 30 years. It's just sad that that city can't seem to get its shit together.
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If it weren't CT's capital, Hartford would be full on Waterbury. Very little going for it structurally.
 
KCasiglio said:
If it weren't CT's capital, Hartford would be full on Waterbury. Very little going for it structurally.
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It's really sad. My mother lived there til she was 13. When my grandmother was alive and we'd take her around to see the old neighborhood, she'd get angry to see how far the city has fallen.
 
MrDee12345 said:
It's really sad. My mother lived there til she was 13. When my grandmother was alive and we'd take her around to see the old neighborhood, she'd get angry to see how far the city has fallen.
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The city (and state)'s leadership hasn't done it any favors, but it really is facing a lot of headwinds. Its geographic reason to exist (last point to which you could run a big ship up the CT river) is irrelevant. Its former core industries have no more reason to locate there. If you are a business looking at CT why would you pick Hartford over New Haven, Stamford...or even Bridgeport (a city that really has a ton going for it if it can ever shake off the scum stain of Ganim)
 
CT, in general, is stuck in the shadow of NYC to the south and Boston to the north.
 
RandomWalk said:
CT, in general, is stuck in the shadow of NYC to the south and Boston to the north.
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Kinda, but it also benefits from the location as well. CT cities are a bit Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Cities like Stamford and Norwalk are thriving. Bridgeport and New Haven are up and coming and Hartford and Waterbury are just plain depressing.
 
The Hartford area itself is insanely wealthy in contrast to a few sq miles of the city. The difference in walking two blocks between Hartford and West Hartford is rather amazing. However, I like the city, it has good bones, and I really like the area
 
Scott said:
The Hartford area itself is insanely wealthy in contrast to a few sq miles of the city. The difference in walking two blocks between Hartford and West Hartford is rather amazing. However, I like the city, it has good bones, and I really like the area
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Not to mention the insanely wealthy Fairfield County — the wealthiest per capita county in New England. Greenwich alone has its own financial ecosystem centered around some of the world’s largest hedge funds.
 
It's kinda weird, really, but I'd kinda chalk all that up to CT's multipolarity and small size - unlike most states which either have single big cities with major "gravity wells", CT has a lot of smaller gravity wells that are actually quite densely packed together. (Other multipolar states tend to be much bigger). Those smaller cities diffuse what maybe would have been more concentrated population, business and development activity across the Metro North cities - I'm curious what would have been if CT actually has a Jersey City or Camden Equivalent, as its individual bedroom communities don't get much of a chance to develop their own identities in the distant shadow of NYC. Arguably, places like Springfield or New London have more of an distincy identity being just that much further out.
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(NJ suffers from the same, but it's much more clearly aligned to Philly and NYC than CT is.)
 
Portlander said:
The placement of Interstate 84 and 91 really squeezed downtown Hartford into a much smaller footprint and also severed it from the river. Poor interstate planning also boxed in downtown Providence, so many mistakes made in the guise of urban renewal over 60 years ago. The rendering is impressive and props to the artist!
Click to expand...
The relocation of Interstate 195 in downtown Providence, completed around 2011, freed up approximately 26 to 35 acres of land for development, creating what is known as the 195 District. This includes over 20 acres of developable land for residential, commercial, and life science projects, along with new public parkland.

195 District: Providence’s Innovation District

www.195district.com www.195district.com
 
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