A series of entries designed to capture the ongoing adventures of NINA! See how we came to be where we are today, and follow along as we enter the new century of social media!
Page: 15A sampling – but it has caught my eye that almost every Blockwatch Protected sign is in sorry shape. Although not necessarily as important as parking signs or speed limits, these signs will likely become our priority.
Also, it’s really hard to believe that anyone in their right mind thinks that 30 miles per hour can be done on Ashley Street, let alone is appropriate to the street’s circumstances! Contrast this sign with the “Slow Children at Play” sign farther down the street at Sigourney Square Park.
The “buses only” sign is part of a 1970s crime prevention program funded by the Department of Justice. This program has been cited – and not just by me! – as the beginnings of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. Cars are prohibited from circling the park, which during the 1970s was seen as a way to prevent drug dealing and prostitution. Other spots in the neighborhood included in this program were the closed street at Sargeant and Sigourney; the closed street at Willard and Collins; the pinched intersection at Huntington and Collins; and the one-way direction on Huntington from Asylum to Collins.
A confession: surveying streetlights and street signs constituted the first and second times I’ve ever been on Woodland Drive in my 27 years of living in Hartford.
Woodland Street is the spine of the hospital district, and it is very bright, with or without the streetlights.
52 lights, 4 out.
I’m starting to feel the press of time, as in Eastern Daylight Savings Time, so I decided to take a walk on Sigourney Street on a Sunday night. One miscalculation, though: by going a bit earlier than normal, I discovered that the timers may run differently on either side of Sigourney. Am I sure that they weren’t just out? No, but at least one light popped on while I took a picture of it.
By the time I got to Hawthorn Street, however, there was no question that almost all of the decorative streetlights were out.
Yet another factor to include in our assessment of crime and quality of life data because, really, the lights should come on at the same time throughout the neighborhood, let alone on the same street!
Somehow I managed to forget that as I walk home, I turn off of Garden onto Cogswell and Broad.
These streets are part of the section of Asylum Hill between Asylum and Farmington – it isn’t Sigourney Square, and it isn’t Nook Farm, it is literally in between. Walking it this evening, though, I again found a collectively cohesive section of the neighborhood.
Also, it’s already taking longer to get dark out. Blast the rotation of the planet!
36 lights, 2 out, plus the broken light that created a dramatic spotlight for the sidewalk.
Another short walk, this time around the “hospital adjacent” district.
We’re starting to move into our new website dedicated to Asylum Hill history, and as a part of gathering some additional content I was out at 847 Asylum and then over at Asylum Hill Congregational Church. The big quest for today: finding the church’s cornerstone, which I did, lying on my belly, peeking behind some shrubbery.
The shots of 847 are an effort to get a visual sense of 847 in its historic milieu on Asylum Avenue. They include a photo of the “seldom seen” western side of the house.
The cornerstone, as well as some additional artsy exteriors will be featured on the page dedicated to the church on our new website.
Always speeds things up when all but one of the lights are on one side of the street.
Tonight it was South Marshall, Marshall, Laurel, and Case Streets. So far, this has been the most active section of the neighborhood I’ve been through, probably because it includes the densest commercial district on Farmington Avenue. Between the retail and the apartment buildings, this was a very well lit part of Asylum Hill.
52 lights, 4 out.
