SOLUTIONS FOR CONNECTICUT’S CITIES
The Cities Project is collaborative journalism and reporting on how to revitalize Connecticut cities from The Connecticut Mirror, Connecticut Public Radio, Hearst Connecticut Media, The Hartford Courant, the Republican-American (of Waterbury), the Hartford Business Journal, and Purple States.
New Haven was stumbling and struggling in the 1980s and early 1990s. Downtown was moribund, litter-strewn and dangerous — a Yale student (among others) was killed on the street in 1991. Yale alumni started checking in from around the country, telling school officials that the negative image of the city was discouraging applications. The university…
Read full story →Omar Downer worked his way up from per diem to four overnight shifts as a hospital phlebotomist. He loves what he does. For Stacie Tavaras, phlebotomy was a stepping stone to steady full-time work as a nurse. Their stories reveal the need to create better pathways from training to full-time employment and careers in the…
Read full story →Stacie Tavaras had a CNA and an LPN but couldn’t get a nursing job. The demand for Omar Downer’s electronics skills had dried up. Six years ago, they enrolled at ConnCAT. Part one of their story explores how Intensive, hands-on training creates opportunity for jobs with a future. Part two reveals where they are now…
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NEW HAVEN — Since 2012, ConnCAT has provided free vocational training in medical billing and coding, phlebotomy and culinary arts fields that have job openings, aided by the relationships the organization has built with employers. On the medical end, that is Yale New Haven Hospital, the second largest workplace in the city, which will need…
Read full story →New Haven — Acuity Brands, with its wraparound view of the city from its 15th-floor home at the Century Tower Building, an engineering staff that is pulling in local talent, and its workers’ appreciation of the lifestyle amenities downtown, is a marketing dream for the city. “We love it here,” said Frank Pelliccio, senior design…
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This welcome to Bridgeport sign sits at the bottom of the northbound I-95 exit on East Main Street near Steelpointe in Bridgeport. Credit: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media To the world outside its borders, Bridgeport doesn’t have a sterling reputation. On those rare occasions when it’s referenced in popular culture, it’s in a…
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Dan Pflug doesn’t visit Bridgeport much, but when he passes over the city on Interstate 95, its abandoned buildings strike him as a missed opportunity. The Easton resident said adding amenities, such as more housing — and maybe even bike trails that people could use to commute to the train station — could help. “I…
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A number of Connecticut municipalities use tax breaks or incentives to stimulate growth. But for some, particularly cities like Hartford and New Haven with high tax rates, they can be the literal lifeblood of much of the economic development that occurs within their borders. Even towns with lower property-tax rates like Windsor resort to tax-fixing…
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A recent and notable tax-break deal the city of Hartford hatched in recent years was with one of its most prominent downtown landlords: Shelbourne Global. Shelbourne is a New York realty investor/developer/landlord that has purchased more than $200 million in Hartford real estate over the last few years, including some of downtown’s most prized Class…
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New Britain — The decades after World War II were unkind to many Connecticut cities, New Britain among them. The Hardware City lost jobs, was carved up by highways and saw residents depart for the suburbs. Its once bustling downtown began to look desolate, almost like an archeological site. Not anymore. Downtown New Britain is steadily…
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