The traffic signals frequently get out of sync, which means that cars will rush in turn right into the Trident without stopping at their red.

This poor unit!  It struggles mightily, but it hasn’t failed completely yet.

Some random shots, plus the seldom seen basement.

Work is underway on the staircases, cleaning and restoring them.  Photos are of the main staircase in the owner’s unit and the rear staircase to the apartments and basement.

It looks like they have finished the porch at 122 Huntington Street.  They preserved and replaced the spindles along the porch, the brackets, and some of the decorative woodwork below the soffits, but unfortunately they also replaced the modern stock spindles on the upper deck, rather than restore historic spindles there.  To be fair, it had been modern stock before they got started, but they could have added more value to the property had they gone with the historic stock.  Also, they seem to have removed entirely the decorative woodwork from above the front stairs, which then subtracts value from the property.

So, it could be worse, but that is an old refrain in Hartford’s historic neighborhoods as too many residences are bought, sold, and traded by people who aren’t invested in Hartford.  And what really sticks here is that, even after they started work without a permit, even after the City issued a stop work order, the Planning Division gave them an administrative approval on their permit application.  That means they never even had to go through the Historic Preservation Commission, which would have had something to say about this work.  This is on the City, however, not the property owner.

Walking home, down Cogswell – an additional car piled into the box as I got across Asylum Avenue.

There is something inherently suspicious about a group of people standing in a circle in an unused parking lot ….

 The lot is owned by Trinity Health New England, i.e., Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, and it is sometimes used as a satellite parking lot for hospital staff.  There have been rumors afoot that the City of Hartford has been eying this lot, which actually stretches most of the way westward to Sigourney Street, as a potential site for housing development.  Could be that this is a preliminary planning meeting … ?

 I do love the poor guy standing way off to the side, on his cell phone.