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Parkville A new start?

Boosters have spoken about a renaissance for the city of Hartford for decades.

It is a medium sized city of 125,000 in the center of Connecticut. The state's capital. Conveniently (or inconveniently in terms of regional economics) located between Boston and New York City.

On the surface, it has a lot going for it. I know many people who have moved to the region and almost immediately fallen in love with Hartford's turn of the 20th century architecture, its small scale, its impressive skyline. There is potential everywhere you look, but for a variety of reasons, full renaissance has eluded Hartford for generations.

Parkville

Urban renewal, redevelopment and new development have all come in bits and pieces. Fits and starts. It has never been easy. It is not unusual for a development project, even with full funding, to take ten years or more to move from idea to completion. Along the way there are political battles, turf wars, and hard bargaining - to use a polite term for it.

But Hartford never stops trying.

The latest focus of Hartford's hope is the Parkville neighborhood. For more than 50 years this part of the city has been mostly dormant. A tattered welcome mat for commuters making their way on the interstate from the more affluent suburbs to the west of the city.

Here, once busy factory buildings slowly decay, year by year, with trees and other vegetation growing sideways out of the walls and up from the rooflines. Only someone with great vision can see the potential.

At a certain point every derelict building becomes an opportunity for the right idea.

Once in awhile vision strikes everyone at the same time and that seems to be happening in Hartford's Parkville.

The city government, the state government, long-time developers who have been working the neighborhood for years, and new players like Stanley Black and Decker and Trinity College are all beginning to see Parkville as a blank canvas for innovation, job creation, and new housing. With so many eager to be part of the effort, there is a growing sense of steady but unstoppable momentum.

This bridge at one end of Parkville announces the confidence some residents have in the neighborhood's future as a destination.

Local news reports say renovation on one of the major standing former factory buildings could begin as soon as this year. If that happens, signs of progress will lead to greater confidence in the full project.

Those excited by the prospects see the creation of high tech manufacturing space and room for companies specializing in information technology advancements for the insurance industry - a major part of Hartford's economy since the 1800s.

The rise and decline of cities does not happen overnight and despite what critics demand the re-birth of cities does not happen overnight either.

Rejuvenation of once healthy urban centers happens mostly organically, when market forces come together in ways that make reinvestment a sensible alternative and a winning opportunity.

Redevelopment is a slowly sewn quilt, and with luck - and a push from leaders with vision - Parkville may be the next patch of fabric that makes Hartford's quilt whole.

More stories at ThisDecisiveMoment.com

© Dean Pagani 2022

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© Dean Pagani 2022

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