Hello, bloggie peeps! So nice to write to you again. I was pulled away on very short notice for work just before my birthday last month (sniff, sniff) and had to spend over three weeks living and working out of a hotel in downtown Manhattan. Across from the WTC site. No, it doesn't get more depressing than that.

Being in New York for several weeks made me appreciate Hartford even more. As I told Julie, I could never live in NYC. It's too tall.

I still feel like I'm getting re-acquainted with Hartford since returning about 10 days ago. I've missed out on a bunch of downtown things, including the appearance of the Knox Parks flowering planters (yay!), the completion of one side of the sidewalk on Asylum between Main and Trumbull, the opening of a Moe's in my building (workers, rejoice), the opening of a new wine bar on Main Street, the commencement of Monday night movies at City Steam (organized by a fellow old Sage Allen building resident), the Black-Eyed & Blues Fest, violence that closed down The Mansion, budget votes, the opening of the CT Science Center... I'm sure there's more that I don't even know I missed. Feel free to fill me in on anything and everything that happened between May 28 and June 19.  

And I should have some good house-hunting in Hartford news in the next few days. Keep your fingers crossed that the inspection goes well!

        

photo: Julie Beman


Forster Heights Playground in Hartford.

'nuff said.

        

Many thrilling things happened this past weekend, one of which was "Out of this World," the Connecticut Science Center's Pre-Opening Celebration which was held on Saturday, May 30.


liveinhartford and realhartford were recognized as members of the working media (Yay New Media!) and participated as chroniclers of the event.

The party was billed as "a night of atmospheric energy" where attendees were encouraged to dress "Geek Chic, Scientifically Stylish and Futuristically Fashionable."

Perfect! As a geek, everything I wear is Geek Chic. But in case my teal dress and 4" bronze heels weren't geeky enough just 'cause I was, y'know, wearing them, I glued some sparkles to myself. They were noticed.

However...


...my Geek was not as Chic as CD Lady.

So.

If you know me at all, you know I have a crush on science. It's reasonable to assume, then, that I would be thrilled about a Science Center in Hartford.

I am.

Even a little tiny one would have been cool.

But the scale of this place blew me away!


This is the escalator from the entryway to the main floor.


Those little things are people.


That's a party down there.

In addition to the scale of the Science Center, I was impressed with the elevators. Like super impressed. I love mechanical things.


This is the elevator structure. Everything is exposed, and the cars are clear at the back. They go up very quickly.



While I was speeding up to the sixth floor, the Connecticut River came into view and took my breath away.

Once I was on the sixth floor I checked out the terrace.


I looked up and saw my friend the moon embraced by the arms of the Science Center.

What's a Science Center without a moon, anyway?




From another terrace I saw Hartford from an unexpected perspective.

Wow, huh?

The Science Center sported an impressive array of things you could drop balls into so that bells would ring and things would make clicking noises and spin. I love that stuff.


This is the blue one.


This is the green one.

Most of the exhibits at the Science Center are interactive.



This exhibit connects old toys with new wires. You activate the exhibit with buttons outside the display.



This display shows how wrists work.



This man is playing a game of Mind Ball. Basically you put on the headband and try to calm your brain waves. Is it cheating if you have a glass of red wine while playing?



I was most fascinated by the plastic fork-and-cup palm tree. When I pressed a button it started to move and whisper, just like the wind was blowing through it.



This is where I learned that Kerri is not a horse. Either that or she's a really small horse. She generated .01 horsepower.



I read this sign as a metaphor.



This shirt's only sayin' it 'cause it's true.



The Connecticut Science Center will be open to the public on June 12. General admission is $16 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $13 for ages 3-17. Admission is free for those two and under. You can also become a member or purchase a season pass.

There will be something for everyone.

        

        

FENG ASIAN BISTRO 93 Asylum Street

The good: The food. The decor. The presentation of the food. I love places that make the food look too pretty to eat, and Feng is one of those places, particularly at dinner. Even what seems like a simple dish will be served in an unusual way--for instance, one entrée comes with the salmon wrapped around itself in a roll. Pretty and delicious. Feng does take-out and also has a late-night menu.

The food: I usually start my meal with the edamame. Feng makes it with black sea salt, which for some reason tastes a lot better than the usual stuff. If you have a group of three or four people, try the classic dim sum platter. Also, keep your ears open when your server describes the specials. A few months ago they had a special "salad" that was one of the best things I've ever tasted. Thinly sliced avocado pieces arranged in a circle around what I think was described as a sashimi relish (diced up pieces of several types of fish), with some sort of delicious balsamic-based sauce on the side. It was so good I went back for the same thing the next day. I was told it will may be a regular fixture on the menu this summer--I really hope so! As for their usual menu items, the best special roll, hands down, is the Autumn of Connecticut (pictured above). Feng's lunch maki special and Japanese lunch boxes are very good deals for lunch. Two rolls and soup or salad for $9 for the lunch maki, and a lunch box including your choice of various teriyaki or tempura options, rice, salad, California roll, and shumai, plus soup, for $9-12.

The bad: The special rolls are pricey. If you're budget conscious, stick to the regular rolls, which are much more reasonable. The drink menu, while full of delicious-sounding concoctions, is also not cheap. (That presentation stuff I love so much does not come without its costs.) The service can sometimes be less-than-attentive. I've personally only had one bad experience with service, but I have a few friends who have had repeated bad experiences. I'm not sure if maybe those experiences were back when Feng first opened or if they were limited to a particular server or what, but I honestly haven't had those kinds of problems there. Feng, like many downtown restaurants, can get pretty crowded at lunch, so plan ahead.

        

...how much Dunkin' could our little downtown area possibly need?

I work in State House Square. A week ago, this sight greeted me during my morning commute (all 5 minutes of it).



That's right, folks, yet another DD is going in downtown. Because apparently the four Dunkin' Donuts within a one-block radius of my building just isn't enough to satiate the appetites of the good people who commute into our fair city.

I'm not exaggerating. Here's the DD to the south of my building, on Central Row. This picture is taken from one of the entrances to State House Square.



Not very far away, is it?

And here's the DD to the west of my building. Not taken from the entrance, but trust me--it's less than a block away, on Asylum just across Main.



I didn't have time during my brief work break to take pictures, but there's also a DD at Constitution Plaza (one block to the east) and on Main Street towards Albany (one block to the north).

Then there's the DD on Trumbull across from the Civic Center--excuse me, the XL Center. And on Main Street just past City Hall. And in Union Station. And the shiny new DD just a few blocks down Main. And if you go just a bit farther out, there's a DD at the intersection of Broad and Capitol.

No, I don't have a problem with Dunkin' Donuts. For about three years (also known as my time as a law student), I was pretty much addicted to those XL Great Ones. Black. Yum. Given a choice between chain coffee stores, I'll still pick Dunkin' over Starbucks pretty much any day. But I'd rather give my caffeine fix money to Jojo's. Or La Paloma. Or J. Piel's, which was the independent little coffee, muffin, and cookie place in my building.

Plus, having a DD in my building means people will drive into Hartford, park in the building, take the elevators up to their offices, eat in the cafeteria, get their afternoon coffees at the DD in the building, then take the elevators down to the lot again and drive home. All without ever leaving the building and experiencing even a few minutes of Hartford. So today, for instance, people would have missed the beautiful day that gave me this picture.



Sometimes, having to walk across a street for coffee isn't a bad thing.

        

Now that the warmer weather is here, your Live in Hartford authors feel like dancing.

Join us at the Wadsworth Atheneum's First Thursday Event, Phoenix Art After Hours, on Thursday May 7 from 5 - 8 p.m.

The event will feature Samba Brasil, voted "Best Latin Band" by Hartford Advocate readers.

A dance instructor will be on hand to get us moving.

I'm wearing a dress.

A little bird told me that we're trying to procure a birthday cake for the event, as there are at least five six people we know who have birthdays in May. I present them to you in date order:

• Jayashree
• Susan
• Breck
• Julie
• Joe
• EmGee
  

Photo Credit: Oops. Forgot to note it. It was from a happy-looking family's blog.
They also made cutie gravestone cupcakes for Halloween.


If you're having a birthday in May, let us know in the comments section. We want to celebrate you too!

If you can't make it, we wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY anyway!

For those unfamiliar with Art After Hours:

Phoenix Art After Hours provides a stimulating setting for mingling with friends after work. Sip a cocktail, enjoy music and other live performances, attend a gallery talk, and even see a classic movie or art film. The Wadsworth Atheneum is open until 8 p.m. the first Thursday each month.

It's super laid-back. I dig that.

Technical Details:

• Park at the Front Street Garage, off Prospect Street and behind the museum.
• $5 / Free for Phoenix Employees, Museum Members, and Corporate/Institutional Members.

See you there!

        

As some of you know, I'm a big fan of Knox Parks Foundation. The non-profit's most visible contribution to the community is probably those lovely flower pots that go out all around the city in the spring, beautifying streets and street corners. Love them. Knox also organizes regular volunteer events that clean up neglected areas and plant trees and flowers. The group even cleans up graffiti!

But perhaps the most important role that Knox plays in our community is through the work of its Green Crew Americorps program, which each year trains a group of young people, providing them with landscaping and gardening skills. In the process, the Green Crew helps keep Hartford beautiful by sprucing up property owned by other non-profits, maintaining community gardens, and working on other green spaces throughout the city. It's a win-win situation.  

Knox usually holds an annual gala to raise money to support the Green Crew and its Americorps program, but this year the non-profit went online and is holding a virtual auction to raise money. Why spend your money on eBay when you can spend it locally? Cityscapes 2009 is going on right now, and there are some great items up for auction, including vacation homes, spring yard cleaning by the Green Crew, art, tickets to events, and a gym membership.

I know times are tough all around, but hey, if you were planning to spend money on building a vegetable garden, why not put in a bid to get it done by Knox instead, and help out a great non-profit along the way? (Just don't bid against me, I'm trying to win that garden as a wedding present for a friend.) Bidding ends tomorrow at 8pm. Don't miss out!

        

We know the budget hearing is tonight (6pm, Bulkeley HS auditorium), but why not start the conversation online? This is a post by guest blogger Mat Jasinski, Hartford resident, attorney and (in his words) "one of the city's few – but proud! – registered Republicans." Disclaimer: Mat and I went to law school together, worked together for a year, and I think very highly of him. So treat him well, loyal readers.

The mayor has proposed a 13% tax increase (more or less depending on whether you own a business or a home) in a city already notorious for a punishing tax rate. At this point, my concern isn't with any specific budget provision but rather the simple fact that the City would hurt itself and, in the long run, decrease tax revenue, by hiking the mill rate. The budget hearing is tonight, and work will probably keep me from attending. So, I decided to e-mail some thoughts to my friend and city councilman, Matt Ritter. I should note that issue (1) – namely, property tax relief for homeowners – is beyond the Council's immediate control and would require a change in state law, but the Council and Hartford delegation could easily obtain the necessary legislation.

(1) Homeowners are under-taxed relative to businesses. Although it's nice to have the tax relief in the short term, the long-term consequence of imposing such punishing taxes on businesses is that they will leave (many have already), reduce the grand list, and drive up taxes on everyone. I'd love to know what the mill rate would be if residential real property were assessed at 70% of FMV. My experience is that folks considering buying a home in Hartford are convinced that its taxes are double the suburbs b/c of the mill rate, not realizing that, dollar-for-dollar, residential property taxes are less than in West Hartford. We should commit to normalizing our assessment so that the same effective mill rate applies across the board. Our taxes may then be higher than the suburbs but not nearly as high as home shoppers already fear.

 

(2) Everyone is over-taxed (i.e., the budget is too big). I recognize that the mayor has proposed a 0% budget increase but, in the face of drastically reduced revenue, that's not good enough. Raising taxes will make the problem worse. As Mike McGarry noted in the Hartford News, punishing tax rates not only discourage businesses from locating here, but they also discourage residents from paying up. Each time Val [Mat's wife] and I have moved (from Oxford St. to Temple St. to Beacon St.), we've practically had to beg the tax collector's office to give us a bill for our car taxes. Despite updating our addresses with the DMV, the registrars of voters, etc., we didn't get our bills and only were reminded when doing our taxes. Honestly, how many folks make the effort to pay their car taxes? Do we know what the rate of collection is? And, moreover, with such high taxes, the likelihood is that there are many cars in Hartford that aren't properly registered here. The lesson is that revenue will not increase on a 1 to 1 ratio with a tax increase. Concomitantly, revenue will not decrease on a 1-to-1 ratio with a tax cut.

 

(3) The State has Hartford fatigue. We're in this mess because the city has had no incentive to trim the fat in previous years. Doing so would likely have resulted merely in comparably lower state aid, leaving Hartford taxpayers with the same burden. In the words of Rahm Emanuel, we shouldn't let this crisis go to waste. Now is the time to get costs under control. Reduced state aid gives the City leverage with its unions, counterparties and residents. Pointing the finger at the state accomplishes absolutely nothing; we're simply not going to get it from them. If we don't cut now, we'll be in an even worse position in the future. We cannot grow the grand list with our current tax structure. Period.

 

(4) This is somewhat redundant, but it's worth emphasizing that the best way for the City to stimulate jobs is not to spend money but rather to cut taxes. The costs of using the City as a jobs program far outweigh the benefits. Doing so keeps taxes high, which discourages private-sector jobs and the private-sector revenue necessary to support public-sector jobs/services.

 

Simply put, the vicious cycle has continued for decades – at least since Mayor Perry's ill-conceived commuter tax proposal. By now it should be abundantly clear that more of the same isn't the answer. Although our citizens demand services, we can't afford to provide them. Raising taxes decreases revenue in the long run, only making the situation worse. This will be a painful budget, but the pain should come from reduced spending, not increased taxes.

        

I can't speak for EmGee, but personally I'm not above, hmm...what shall I call them..."workplace inappropriate" thoughts.

But most of the time I'm pretty much a Pollyanna and have been known to blush a deep scarlet at the most mildly suggestive phrase.

This is all to say that usually I miss the double entendre or the sly reference. My brain just doesn't go there first.

So that's the set-up. Here's the story:

Yesterday Kerri and I took a walk around the Southwest neighborhood, which is the "south-est" and "west-est" neighborhood in Hartford. I recently referred to it as boring, but I've revised my opinion after visiting the Forster Heights Playground.

New playscapes are being installed at the playground, and it's a pretty nifty-looking place.



The spray pool is going to be amazing. It has rotating water cannons.


It also has a contraption that looks like it'll spin based on how the water is moving through it. And when the bucket is full, the water will be dumped on whoever happens to be standing below. Cool.


Kerri and I watched some kids playing on the playscapes, and climbed on some stuff ourselves.



And then we turned around a saw...a huge red tongue?

Wait! That's not all.

Was it a huge red tongue that is also a slide?

Yup. My brain went there.

This is disturbing. This is just wrong.

Here's a picture of Kerri, uh, "modeling" the slide.


Now, I've been informed by a close friend that a tongue is in the eye of the beholder. I get that. But when two grown women with individual brains and unique approaches to the world turn around and scream, "OMG, is that slide a tongue?!" at the same time, I think there isn't that much room for misinterpretation.

Seriously. That slide is disturbing. Not just 'cause it's a tongue. How about the accompanying pictogram that illustrates how to use it?



Mmmm...yeah. Even Pollyanna goes to a special place with that one.

So there's a red tongue-slide in Forster Heights Park. And it's not only disturbing, but dangerous. We watched a kid slide down it and he almost fell off. There are no railings, no sides, nothing.

You're just supposed to wrap your legs around it and go down.