How to save Hartford- part 2
In my last post-
https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/1hvfku5/how_would_you_save_hartford/
I made the claim that the only viable way to save Hartford is to significantly ramp up police monitoring and surveillance technology, crack down on homeless and drug addicts, and make the streets safe for the working class again.
As a recap, the goal is to make Hartford economically prosperous, and improve resident satisfaction. Hartford has suffered for decades due to low foot traffic and undesirability from professionals due to crime, leading to concerns of businesses leaving for better job pools, ultimately resulting in an inescapable death spiral for our city.
The main counter-proposals I heard were as follows-
- The highway system through the city needs to be removed, to allow for new development projects, especially along the riverfront. I'm seeing estimates for such projects in the several billion dollar range-
Build a train system between Hartford, East Hartford, and West Hartford (again, expensive, and also- we already have ample bus routes in central CT, they're just uncomfortable because of the number of homeless on the busses).
Build accelerated transit between Hartford and major hubs like NYC and Boston. This would cost billions of dollars, like option 1, and also require confiscation of land from nimbys throughout Connecticut, which is not possible legally.
Such development have struggled nationwide for predominantly legal issues, the likes of which we couldn't overcome. California high speed rail line, which has quadrupled in expense before ever even really getting off the ground, is a perfect example of this-
-Hartford's economic position-
All of these proposals ignore the economic realities of Hartford.
The city barely holds onto a balanced budget as it is. This is a city that was flirting with bankruptcy less than a decade ago.
The broader state of CT is doing better, after benefiting from pandemic windfalls, but in turn still faces a nationally disproportionate pension debt of $29 billion. It can help with smaller projects, but certainly not with multi-billion dollar ones just for Hartford.
-What to do now-
So I have established why it is not economically or legally possible to accomplish any of these pie in the sky solutions for saving Hartford.
With these realities established, we are left with 2 options-
The aforementioned, substantive police enforcement in the city. Surveillance cameras, drones, facial recognition tech, keeping criminals behind bars and not on the streets, keeping the streets clean and homeless/drug addicts at rehab centers rather than rotting on the sidewalk to assault the working class.
Sitting back and watching our city die.
I wrote up this big wall of text because I want to understand- why people will willingly ignore reality, and push back on enforced policing, when it's, objectively, the only way to save our home?
The actual residents of Hartford, who are victims of this violence, are begging for better enforcement. It's the only rational option. And yet people who do not live or work in the city will tell people who do that they must get harassed, assaulted, and murdered in the streets for the sakes of their own self-righteousness. Proposing objectively impossible solutions to a serious problem is a horrible thing to do.