Marty's Corner

I read in today's paper that Marty's Corner store in Naugatuck is closing, hopefully to be reopened eventually by new owners.

When I was a kid, we lived in Naugatuck for a couple years, and Marty's Corner was one of my favorite hang-outs. This would be 1984 and '85. I can't remember how I found the store, but I was drawn there by the video games. I put endless quarters into the Ms. Pac-Man machine and spent the rest of my allowance on candy and comic books.

Photo by Paul Singley, Republican-American

I always felt slightly intimidated when I entered the store--I remember dark wood, a long counter with stools, old men pausing in conversation to glare sternly at me, and shelves stocked with cigars. I had to muster the courage to walk past the formidable front of the store to get to the two (or three?) video game machines in the back. It was a little strange, I suppose--the store had entertainment for kids, but they didn't really encourage kids to hang out there.

I remember Marty's Corner with fondness. When we moved to Watertown, I was never able to find as good a place to hang out. Which I guess is what kids, even pre-teens and teens, need.

Google vs. Reality

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Google's search engine had changed and no longer seemed quite as good as it used to be. Today, while looking up the business hours for Banfield Pet Hospital, I was surprised to see some major problems with Google Maps.


How does Google control its map-making? More specifically, who the heck decided that the Home Depot/PetSmart/Sports Authority shopping complex is really the Pathmark Shopping Center?

The last time I checked, what Google claims is the West Dover Street Playground is at best described as a parking lot, while the Rolling Mill Playground (where are they getting these names?) is an empty lot next to the First Light power generator.


Moving north up the map, I learned that Google thinks Rose Hill, or perhaps the land just below it, is called Center Square, which is actually what the Green used to be called. Then again, Google Maps seems undecided about what to call the Green, since it has it labeled twice (once with a cute little pine tree).

And then there's Naugatuck Valley Community College. Granted, it has been through numerous name changes, but I'm pretty sure it's been called Naugatuck Valley since before Google existed. And what's the Westwood Shopping Center? Isn't that really the former Scovill headquarters?

 Finally, here's Google Maps' opinion of the actual location of Naugatuck Valley Community Technical College (which also no longer exists, "Technical" was dropped from the name a few years ago).

Taking Requests!

The holiday season is fast approaching, and I promised myself that I would do a few holiday-themed paintings this year which would also be available as greeting cards.

With that said, do you have any suggestions of your favorite Waterbury winter scenes (or memories--how did the city celebrate holidays back in the 1950s?) that you would like to see as a greeting card? I have several that I am already planning to do, but I think it would be interesting to see what you, my fellow Waterbury fans, would like to see.

If you are not familiar with my art, you can see some examples at my online gallery or at Goldsmith's on Bank Street.

[Pseudo-legal, tongue-in-cheek disclaimer: making a suggestion does not obligate you to purchase a painting or greeting cards; making a suggestion I appear to follow up on, assuming I actually have time to this, does not entitle you to any share of the proceeds, especially since there is very little chance that there will be a profit, but maybe I can give you a personally signed copy.]

Get in the holiday spirit, think of some favorite Waterbury holiday scenes or memories, and post a comment sharing your thoughts!

Stumped

On the train ride home tonight, I was chatting with a Dominican guy coming up from Long Island to visit friends in the Waterbury area. He asked me what there is to do during the day.

First question: any historic sites? No problem there, I told him to start at the Mattatuck Museum, knowing they can direct him to all the best old history stuff, and then told him to swing by the Timex Museum as well.

Second question: are there any zoos or aquariums or biking or anything like that? Ummm..... well, there's a river, and it's got a few birds and maybe some fish.... and there's some nice parks, but they're small and you kind of have to make your own fun....

Sportstalk

There was a great column by Howard Fielding in yesterday's paper, addressing Sports as a second language for most Americans. Like Mr. Fielding, I am not at all fluent in Sports and am relieved that March Madness is finally over, so that my ability to understand what everyone is saying returns.

The most useful part of the column was "I had no idea who he was talking about, so I could answer only in monosyllabic grunts and mumbles. (Fortunately, we're both guys and he took that as real communication.)" Despite being a girl, I put this to use later in the day, when my neighbor (a guy) once again engaged me in a Basketball conversation. Granted, I've never been able to do much more than grunt, nod and mumble during these conversations, but this time I felt confident that these were acceptable responses. I even managed to toss in a "you can't win them all" -- an entire five-word phrase that was appropriate to the conversation!

It reminded me of a momentous occasion when I was in kindergarten and was told to sit with the first graders. They were all talking about a movie they had watched on television the night before (I believe it was King Kong). Since I wasn't allowed to watch television, I had no idea what they were talking about. Since I wanted to impress the oh-so-cool first graders, I pretended that I had watched the movie. This almost backfired when one of them asked me which part I liked best, but I repeated a description that one of them had already shared, and they were all pleased with my response.

This is essentially how I survive March Madness. I have to give a lot of credit to Facebook updates--if I read those before I leave the house, I can do a much better job of pretending to understand my neighbor's Sportstalk. All I have to do is add key words and phrases to my grunting, nodding and mumbling, and everyone is pleased with my response!

Signs of the Season

Just as Easter is heralded by the appearance of cream eggs, the change of the seasons has its own herald. Winter is officially over and it's nearly summer. How do I know? The ice cream truck is making the rounds of the neighborhood, filling the air with its melodious music!

Snowdrop

This afternoon I was picking up the litter that blew into my yard from the corner store next door, and was thrilled to find the first flower of spring!




Okay, not spring really, but when the snowdrops appear, spring is not too far away.

Albanian Demographics

There was a very good article by Jonathan Shugarts in Sunday's Republican American, but there was one little detail in the article that raised a red flag in the back of my mind. Fourteen hours later, that little red flag moved to the front of my mind.

In his article ("Search for killer extends to Albania"), he writes that "Waterbury has about 14,000 Albanians." I know there are a lot of Albanians in Waterbury, but 14,000 seems a little too many. This is the sort of arithmetic problem that I don't normally pay close attention to, but I know that number just can't be right. Just after midnight, it suddenly started bothering me.

Waterbury's total population is supposed to be around 107,000. If there are 14,000 Albanians, they represent 13% of the population. For comparison, the US Census estimates that in 2000 there were 19,400 African-Americans, 23,354 Hispanics, 24,476 Italians, and 12,514 Irish in Waterbury.

Being the research geek that I am, I naturally did some research on the topic. According to the census, there were 2,174 Albanians living in Waterbury nine years ago. That's just slightly more than two percent of the population. I can't believe that there's been an influx of 12,000 Albanians in the past nine years--that's a huge number of people.

So how many Albanians are there now in Waterbury, and where did Shugarts get his data? The way the article is written, it seems like the number is coming from Police Chief O'Leary as justification for spending $5,000 to send some of our police officers to Albania.

The Impact

I've been working from home for about a month, starting when the Wall Street collapse began. This past week, I was back to riding the train to NYC again, and was shocked to see a very noticeable decrease in the number of suited passengers. Stamford is normally the busiest stop, with swarms of men and women in high-end business attire getting on and off the train. Now there's hardly anyone. Normally the morning train is standing-room only, with five or six people standing in every doorway. Now there's plenty of empty seats.

The news reports I've read have all been focused on the bail-out and on how the banks are currently spending money. There have been plenty of incendiary reports about bankers being given raises and bonuses, and exposés of corporate partying. What I wasn't aware of until this week are the huge numbers of layoffs. So far approximately 110,000 people connected to Wall Street have lost their jobs, with more layoffs anticipated. No wonder the train wasn't crowded. No wonder Stamford looks like a ghost town.

I have also read a Forbes report on towns most likely to suffer during this economic whatever-you-want-to-call-it. They cite the small town (25,500 people) of Zanesville, Ohio, which has an unemployment rate of 8.9% (Waterbury's is 8.6%, according to city-data.com), a poverty rate of 16.2% (35% of Waterbury households earn less than $25,000 per year), and an education statistic of 18% with an associates degree or higher (compared to 23% in Waterbury).

Zanesville's mayor is optimistic about his town's future, pointing out that they have plans for more than $250 million in school and downtown development construction over the next two years (sound familiar?). The article, not surprisingly for Forbes, does not spell out exactly what dangers Zanesville and other vulnerable towns face, nor does it in any way suggest what actions might be prudent for vulnerable towns. I would like to know those details, especially since it sounds like Waterbury could also be considered vulnerable. We've already seen fallout from the mortgage fiasco--foreclosures on homeowners who couldn't make payments when their subprime mortgages adjusted to higher rates, and numerous properties purchased by real estate speculators who drove the prices up without adding value and have now abandoned the properties, leaving pockets of blight throughout the city.

In that regard, maybe Waterbury has already seen the worst of the mortgage fall-out (just don't expect to get a good price if you're selling a house right now). Unemployment could very well increase. We're seeing a steady decline in the number of big stores, not just in Waterbury. We've lost two grocery stores, and it looks like they won't be replaced. The national chains are steadily going under: Steve & Barry's declared bankruptcy and closed their Waterbury store; Linens N Things declared bankruptcy and is closing its Waterbury store. When the plaza with Linens N Things first opened, there was a craft supply store on the other side of Stop & Shop which closed almost immediately and has yet to be replaced. I doubt that Linens N Things will be replaced. Waterbury is turning into a town of half-empty plazas.

On the bright side, the prices of gasoline and heating oil have decreased significantly. But that's probably not much consolation for anyone who's lost their job because their employer went bankrupt or lost their house because the bank increased their mortgage interest rates so much that they couldn't make their payments.

InvisiCross

There was a lot of hoopla over the installation of a new cross at Waterbury's Holy Land this June. This is the third cross at that site. The previous cross was an enormous beacon, lit from inside at night, that dominated the skyline. If you were driving along the highway, you couldn't miss it. Thousands of people who never got off the highway refer to Waterbury as "that town with the cross."

The new cross is comparatively small, delicate and graceful. It is also very nearly invisible at certain times of day. When the light hits it just right, you have to know it's there in order to see it. Rather than being lit from within, it's illuminated by spotlights, which is certainly more tasteful than the giant glowing cross we've all been accustomed to.




The reported cost of the new cross is $250,000. That seems like a huge amount of money for something so simple. I can't help thinking about all the many quality-of-life improvements that could have been made with a quarter million dollars. A new cross seems frivolous. But maybe this is the first step in a process to at least partially restore Holy Land.

Best Places--the kid's point of view

The recent ranking of Waterbury as one of the best places to raise a family got me thinking about the kid's view. Parents look for low crime rates, affordability, good schools. Kids, I think, just want to have plenty of fun things to do.

I lived in a lot of different places when I was growing up. The place I liked the least was Watertown. We lived in a lovely suburban neighborhood, where everyone had a large house and a large yard. And that was it. There was no where to go, nothing to do. In the winter, we sometimes went sledding over at Taft, but only if there was enough snow. Going downtown wasn't a lot of fun, since it was pretty much just a dangerous highway (there was one time when my friend and I were walking somewhere along Route 63, no sidewalk, and my dog got run over; the driver never slowed down or stopped, even though he had to have seen two young girls running across the street after the dog he just hit; the dog, miraculously, was fine).

I spent a fair amount of time in Waterbury and always had a good time. It was relatively easy to walk or bicycle to wherever I wanted to go, and there were places I wanted to go!

Thinking back, here are the things that I think make for a good place to be raised: parks and playgrounds; skating rinks; sledding hills; swimming pools; ample sidewalks; ice cream trucks; malls (I hate to admit to that one, but it's true); trees to climb; history and science museums; libraries with good children's departments; festivals and fairs; plenty of trees to keep the streets shaded during the hot summer months; and just enough adult supervision to keep the bullies in check and to help you when you fall out of the tree you were climbing.

Panoramio

Google Maps has a new photographic feature through Panoramio.com -- anyone can upload photographs of buildings, parks, streetscapes, etc., and those images will show up whenever anyone views a Google map of the location. It's very cool. I just spend half an hour adding some of my Waterbury photos.

Users can search through the map, or they can search for keywords.

To access the Google map, go to maps.google.com, search for a location, and click the "Explore the Area" link to the left.

One thing to be aware of: photographs are pinpointed to the location from which they were taken. So, for example, some photographs of the Union Station clock tower are located over by the library.

No News

I have an online subscription to the Republican-American. For the past two days, when I try to access the paper, I get a message telling me that my account does not have enough credits. The last time this happened, I believed the message and followed a link to re-subscribe... and still was told that my account did not have enough credits. Eventually the paper's tech folks fixed whatever was wrong (but they never refunded the extra money I wound up paying).

This time I know better than to re-subscribe. There's nothing I can do but wait. It's thrown off my morning schedule, since that's when I usually read the paper.

If anything interesting is going on in Waterbury, I have no way of knowing about it.... unless, of course, someone tells me!

Lunar Eclipse

If only I had a better lens... but how often do I take photos of the moon?

These shots are roughly 15 minutes apart (except I seem to have left one out), taken between 8:45pm and 9:59pm tonight.

Collection Agency

I just had a lovely chat with someone who works at Northstar Technologies, a collection agency based in Oklahoma. They're looking for Tatianna Tatenchenko (that's my phonetic spelling of the last name, which they couldn't pronounce; I suppose it could be Tatianna Tanchenko). I didn't ask which creditor she had bilked this time, but he said they took the account in October. I explained that Tatianna also goes by the name Tabitha Hollister and that she's been using my phone number on her credit card and bank account applications for many years now. The nice man at the collection agency was concerned about the frustration I must be feeling, but I assured him that this is now really very amusing. I'm fascinated by the way she lives her life.

The man at Northstar promised me that they would never call me again, which got me thinking. First, while I'm grateful that they believe my word, how do they know I'm not Tabitha/Tatianna? After all, if I were running the sort of scam she runs, I certainly would never identify myself to a collection agency. Second, what happens if I'm ever so delinquent with a bill that it gets sent to this collection agency? Have I just been exempted from the phone calls for all of eternity? Hopefully, I will never be that delinquent.

Sin City

Just a quick thought while I procrastinate--I don't know why anyone would be upset that a new Waterbury nightclub will be called Sin City. I have never heard this name used to describe Waterbury. Most people associate the name with Vegas. If you want to be upset about a city moniker, pick on "Dirty Water" (Waterbury's actual nickname).

Tabitha Again

The woman who has been using my phone number for her credit scams is still at it. Wachovia called me today with an important message for Tabitha. Her name nowadays is Tabitha Hollister. It really amazes me that she's been able to keep this going for five years (at least). She applies for credit using other peoples' phone numbers and a PO Boxes in nearby towns. Collection agencies have tried hunting her down, apparently without success. She's changed her name only a few times, but sticks with similar-sounding names.

I guess what amazes me now is the length of time she's able to use the name Tabitha Hollister with my phone number. Given the pervasiveness of computers, I would think that creditors share information, but I guess they don't.

When I recently purchased a washing machine at Sears, I was able to see the names and addresses their computer associates with my phone number. There were two other people from years gone by, but neither was Ms. Tabby.

Tabitha Mary Allister

If that is your name, or if you know who she is, please let me know. I'd like her to stop using my phone number for her financial scams. I'm also curious to know more about who she is.

I've had the same number for maybe 5 years. It's one of the "real" Waterbury numbers (755), and I certainly don't want to go to the trouble of changing it. Ever since I've had it, I have periodically received phone calls from irate creditors looking for Tabitha. Sometimes they are looking for someone named Tatiana. I assume it's the same woman. Today was the first time I had the presence of mind to write down the name. I've tried finding out more about her from her creditors, but the most I've ever gotten out of them is the fact that she gave one of them a P.O. box in Oxford for her address.

I tried looking up Tabitha Allister on a variety of search engines, but without luck. Nothing in the phone book, either. Maybe someday she'll get arrested, and I'll learn the full details about her then.

Some Perspective

I pulled the first images off maps.google.com and the others off someone else's blog.

Police Academy

Every so often, late in the day (most recently around 7:30 p.m.), as I'm sitting in my apartment, I'll hear the distinctive sound of a group of men (and a lone caller) chanting while jogging through town. The first moment is usually surreal, since the sounds of a military base are so very foreign to this city. I think they must follow a lot of different routes, because months will go by before I hear them near my home. This is why it takes me a moment to remember that there's a police academy in Waterbury. Or, to be more correct, there's a "Recruit Training Facility" run by the Waterbury Police Department. It was started almost two years ago and trains new recruits for Waterbury and other cities in the state. I read about it in the newspaper back when it first opened, which is a lucky thing, otherwise I'd be completely mystified (I can just imagine the stories made up about the joggers by people who don't know we have a police academy!). The funny thing is, there's almost no information about its existence online. A google search pulled up no information; I had to go to the Waterbury police website (which really needs a new webmaster...) and click through a few pages before I found the information.