Identity Crisis

At last week’s Economic Summit, Cicero Booker mentioned something about a certain city status or ranking that he felt Waterbury should have because it would be beneficial to Waterbury. It wasn’t clear to me what he was talking about (partly because he wasn’t sure of the acronym), but the gist was that this status is reserved for city’s with a population of 500,000 or more; Booker suggested we petition to gain this status, even though our population is under 110,000.

On numerous occasions, I’ve heard and read descriptions of Providence, RI as a role model for what Waterbury’s development could be. Providence’s population is 60% larger than Waterbury’s. Providence is the capital city of Rhode Island, as well as the state’s largest city. It does not seem comparable to me.

Brass City Records used to have (maybe still has?) a sign in their window calling themselves a college music store in a grammar school town (or something similar to that... I can’t remember the exact quote). It captured some of the essence of Waterbury—there’s plenty to do if you’re under 12, and almost nothing to do if you’re 20.

Two years ago, one of the city’s bus drivers was quoted in the newspaper, describing Waterbury as a “country city.” I thought it was an excellent description.

Waterbury is a small city composed largely of residential neighborhoods designed very much like suburbs. One of the great things about Waterbury is that it has all of the classic features of a town, but is large enough that you don’t ever have to leave town or own a car to get what you need (with some exceptions).

I think the best way for Waterbury to succeed is to build on our assets, rather than attempting to be something we’re not. We don’t have a population of 500,000, so we shouldn’t waste time wishing we were. If we’re looking for success models, let’s look at cities our own size, not ones that are significantly larger.

Waterbury’s brass industry was established and flourished early on because of our assets: numerous streams running down steep hills, creating power to run the mills; and a convenient location at the intersection of the main road running east-west across the state and the road running along the Naugatuck River to the Housatonic River in Derby, which provided access to shipping routes.

Our assets today: that same convenient transportation convergence (greatly modernized, of course); our pleasant town-like residential neighborhood qualities; and the incredible diversity of our population.

Let’s focus on our assets and build from the ground up.

A Walk in the Snow

I took a break from work this afternoon and went for a walk into downtown with my camera.

One of the great things about Waterbury is that the buses still run even when the weather and roads are a mess. One of the bad things is that most bus stops don't have any form of shelter.

The Waterbury Arts Magnet School main entrance, as viewed from the parking garage. In times past, the main entrance would have been located facing the street, but now, in the 21st century, there's a prevailing mentality of everyone being able to park as close to the front door as possible (no wonder so many people are overweight... nobody wants to walk more than two minutes at a time!). Okay, in fairness, it makes sense for the WAMS students to have a semi-private entrance.

Walnut Street. Not only can you see how messy the roads were today, but you can also see wobbly tire tracks from cars sliding up and down the hill. The car in the foreground smacked into the curb on the wrong side of the road a few seconds after I took the photo. Luckily for me, they got maybe 70 feet past me before impact. Over the course of my walk, I saw several cars slide into curbs as they tried to negotiate a turn in the road, even though they were all traveling at a snail's pace.

Wood Street. Most people went outside to shovel at least three times over the course of the day.

The Soldiers' Monument in front of the Green, with the Mattatuck Museum and YMCA in the background.

Poor Ben Franklin looks like he's freezing.

Christopher Columbus wears his snowy mantle a little better:

I can't do a photo album of Waterbury without the clock tower.

The eateries on Grand Street were all closed (except for Subway)....

...while the eateries on East Main Street, from the Golden Wok to City Hall Cafe, were pretty much all open. I'm just guessing, but I think the East Main Street restaurants (not including City Hall) rely on downtown residents for their business, while Grand Street seems to be favored more by office workers (I could be entirely wrong about this).

Looking towards St. Mary's Hospital and downtown from Walnut Street. Normally you can see much further into the distance. It seems like there is always a pedestrian crossing at this location, between the Walnut Street Market and High Street.

I saw a lot of family groups out for a walk. Mostly fathers and sons, so maybe it's a guy thing.

Exchange Place, full of pedestrians and cars.

Another shot of the Green:

To those of you who now live in warmer climates: aren't you glad you moved? 

To those of us still living here: I hope you love the snow as much as I do!

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.

Economic "Feel-Good" Summit

I went to last night's economic summit expecting to hear a discussion of the many issues that concern Waterbury's business people and residents. Since the summit was created in response to the chaos and communication problems that ensued over the health clinic move to Bank Street, I assumed this was going to be an opportunity for everyone to get together and communicate. Instead, we were subjected to more than an hour of long-winded speeches telling us things we already know about what WDC does, what Main Street does, and what the City does for economic development. We were also had to listen to Rowland give his rah-rah speech, broken up into three or four segments, but otherwise nearly identical to the same speeches he's been giving on Ed Flynn's radio program.

Last night's summit was a fantastic gathering of many of Waterbury's best: people who work and live in the city and do what they can to make this city great, and they had to sit idle for more than an hour of pointless speeches. I almost left out of boredom. When the audience was finally able to speak, I think many of us had given up on being able to have our voices heard. There were still many people who did get up to share their thoughts, but it seemed almost pointless to me. I did not feel that the panelists were there to listen; they were there to convince us that they know what's best for the city. The paper reported that Jim Smith thought the summit was a success--that just shows he is completely out of touch with what's going on in this city.

Over the course of that hour plus, we were presented with only one piece of new information. The mayor has decided to create a task force to get things done. He did his best to present this in a positive light, but it really doesn't hold up well.

The mayor gave no indication as to who will sit on the task force. For the city's sake, I hope the committee members are all city residents or business owners, and that they represent the full range of people in this city. If the task force looks like the panel at last night's meeting (a long row of aging white men in pricey suits), it will receive very little respect.

This new economic committee will be charged with "getting things done" and telling WDC, the Chamber, Main Street and other groups what to do. I can't help wondering if the mayor doesn't understand that Main Street is a volunteer, grassroots organization. I can't imagine the Downtown Merchants taking kindly to being told what to do either. WDC already has a board of directors telling it what to do--why do they need a second group to direct them?

I suppose it boils down to the subtle message that the city's current economic developers have failed (I'm not saying I agree with this). Instead of replacing presumably incompetent staff with people who can get the job done right, the mayor is going to appoint a committee to run the city. Who is the task force accountable to? What do they base their decisions on?

I'm sure it's safe to assume that Rowland will be on the task force. I hope he starts doing research before making actions. Every time I've heard him speak in the past two weeks, he has talked about his vision of UConn students living in downtown apartments. The first time I heard him talk about this, he first said that he made UConn a success by moving it downtown (and here I thought the school's teachers and administrators made it a success....), and that he had envisioned converting the upper floors of the YMCA to college apartments. In subsequent versions of this talk, he has taken out the details and merely said that he thinks having UConn students rent apartments downtown would be a great tool for revitalization. I can only assume he's thinking of a fantasy land in which college students are wealthy and well-behaved tenants. Based on my interactions with UConn-Waterbury students, I'd say the vast majority are living with their parents because they can't afford to live on their own. They are already working as much as they can to pay their tuition. If any of them did get apartments, they would rent the cheapest apartments and have as many roommates as they could fit. College students living on their own also have a tendency to trash their apartments.

I suppose Rowland's college dream would work if a building were converted to dormitories, funded through UConn, with full university supervision and regulation. But it would require UConn to find new funds for branch campus housing.

After listening to all the speeches last night, I'd say the officials in charge are still at the dream stage--if you built it, they will come mentality. If we create market rate housing, all of a sudden the downtown will be full of residents with disposable incomes. Where are all of these new residents going to come from? If they are coming from within the city, all we're doing is emptying out apartments elsewhere. The only way we'll be able to entice people from outside Waterbury to move downtown is with a serious marketing strategy. Before buying a house, I tried to find a good apartment downtown, but there was no way to search for one, other than walking the streets, looking for signs in windows. The apartment owners need to work together, possibly with a realtor, to market downtown living, as a destination, not just an amenity.

There were several other issues brought up, like parking. I have yet to experience any problems parking downtown, and I've been doing it for eleven years. I have never been unable to find a parking space, and, when I park in the ramparage, it adds maybe five minutes to my overall travel time. There was a man last night who said parking in the ramparage added 30 minutes to his visits downtown--I have no idea what he's talking about. It takes me ten minutes to walk anywhere downtown. Walking from Willow Street to City Hall Cafe might take 25 minutes at most. I wish I had thought to say that last night, but my mind wasn't quick enough.

Waterbury's Early Catholic Buildings

The first Catholic mass in Waterbury is believed to have been held in the home of Cornelius Donnelly, celebrated by Rev. James T. McDermott, before 1837. From 1837 to 1847, Waterbury’s Catholic priest was Rev. James Smyth, first pastor of St. Mary’s parish in New Haven, and one of only two priests in the entire state. Cornelius Donnelly’s employer threatened to fire him if he housed Father Smyth. Waterbury’s early Catholics instead gathered for mass in the home of Michael Neville on East Main Street.

In 1845, Dr. Jesse Porter agreed to allow the Catholics to meet in Washington Hall, a building he owned downtown (at the corner of Exchange Place and West Main Street, where Bank of America is now). Two years later, in 1847, Waterbury’s Catholics purchased an empty lot on the corner of East Main and Dublin Streets. The former Episcopal church (St. John’s) was purchased with the intention of relocating it to the East Main Street lot. However, when the building had been moved as far as the current location of St. Patrick’s Hall on East Main Street, the contractor found himself unable to transport the building up the slight hill of East Main. The lot where St. Patrick’s Hall is today was quickly purchased and became the home of the first Catholic church in Waterbury.

Waterbury’s first resident Catholic pastor, Rev. Michael O’Neile, arrived in October of 1847. He placed the new church under the patronage of St. Peter.

There was a fire in the church during services on December 29, 1854, but it did not destroy the building. The pastor, members of the congregation, and Waterbury firemen swiftly brought the fire under control. Services continued to be held in the building until 1859. Construction of the city’s first Immaculate Conception church began in 1857. Anderson’s History of the Town and City of Waterbury speculates that this may have been the first Immaculate Conception church in the entire country.

St. Patrick’s Chapel had previously been the Methodist Episcopal Church, located on the corner of East Main Street and Phoenix Avenue. The building had been sold to the neighboring Immaculate Conception parish in 1876, at which point it became St. Patrick’s Chapel. The building was sold to Irving G. Platt in 1887, who tore it down and replaced it with the commercial and residential building still standing at that corner.

St. Peter’s church, on East Main Street, had been used as a public school after the construction of Immaculate Conception and was torn down in 1888, to be replaced by St. Patrick’s Hall (see earlier post).

East Main Street

Okay, so this really is a shameless post of self-promotion, but my art career won't go anywhere if I don't market my paintings. Here is a slightly-blurry photo of my newly finished oil painting (18x24 inches). Feel free to make an offer (waterburygirl at gmail.com).



And here are a couple of detail shots:

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.

Nomenclature Clarification

For several years, the building to the east of the Palace Theater on East Main Street has been referred to as the "Rectory Building." I haven't really paid close attention to this name, but every time I heard it, I thought something didn't sound right. In the past week, I heard and seen it called the Rectory Building at least twice, most recently in today's newspaper, and I've finally realized why this naming bothers me: the building is not, and never has been, a rectory. In fact, calling it a rectory does a disservice to the building's rich history. A rectory is the home of the rector, or priest. The building on East Main Street, as far as I know, never served that function.

The building on East Main Street (as seen above in an illustration from Anderson's History of Waterbury, published 1896) is correctly referred to as St. Patrick's Hall. It was built on one of the first property lots to be owned by Waterbury's Roman Catholics, who purchased the site from entrepreneur Elizur Prichard in 1847. Waterbury's first Roman Catholic church (St. Patrick's Chapel--darn typos! the name was St. Peter's, not St. Patrick's--my thanks to Joseph P. Nolan for catching the mistake) stood on the lot from 1847 until 1866. The Chapel was replaced by Waterbury's first Immaculate Conception Church, built on the opposite side of the street (where UConn is today). The old St. Patrick's (St. Peter's!) chapel became a public school, until it was replaced in 1889 with St. Patrick's Hall.

St. Patrick's Hall, Waterbury's best and possibly only [Correction, 2/4/08--there is at least one other, on Bank Street, across from the parking garage] example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, was built under the leadership of Rev. John A. Mulcahy, an Irish-born priest who came to Waterbury in 1886. The Hall contained the parish's Sunday School, as well as a library and reading room, meeting rooms for Catholic and social organizations, a gymnasium and a large hall for lectures and entertainment. It signaled the emergence of Roman Catholics as respected members of the community--forty years earlier, the parish had struggled to overcome anti-Catholic prejudices in Waterbury.

St. Patrick's Hall is both an architectural gem and an important monument to Waterbury's Catholic history, but it is not a Rectory.

Hilarious!

As most people know, the Chamber of Commerce has now hired former-governor and ex-con John Rowland at a salary of $95k/year--money that will have to be taken away from something else, since the job was created just for Rowland. Rowland's job will be to market and sell Waterbury to prospective businesses, to try to convince those businesses to move to Waterbury.

An article by Steve Gambini in today's paper describes a 2005 situation assessment of the city by Baltimore consultants McDearman Associates. The report, according to Gambini, states that most potential new businesses will disqualify a move to Waterbury in part because of the city's poor image--one of Waterbury's greatest weaknesses was cited as "political corruption."

In other words, someone who is known throughout the state for being a corrupt politician is getting paid $95k (in a job that looks a lot like a kickback to outside observers) to convince potential new businesses that there's no political corruption in Waterbury.

I'm torn between laughing at the absurdity or crying over the blow to the city's image. I had been so proud of the work I had done to help get Ken Burns to promote a positive image of Waterbury to the nation, and now we're right back where we were four years ago. I had actually dared to hope that Waterbury's political corruption was in the past, but Jarjura and the Chamber of Commerce have brought it back to life. Image is everything, and our image is corrupt.

A Bad Day for Waterbury

Last night the Board of Aldermen was scheduled to vote on the proposed health clinic move to Bank Street. The majority of Aldermen were ready to vote yes. Seventy-five downtown merchants had declared they were in favor of the move. Numerous people were planning to speak in favor of it at the Alderman meeting. At the last minute, Mayor Jarjura decided that the health department would withdraw its proposal, even though the new lease would save the city approximately $200,000 a year. As far anyone can tell, the only opposition came from a small number of people who want downtown to be expensive and exclusive. I absolutely can understand that there might soon be a good development plan put into action, but the situation was not handled at all well. There was a very clear message sent that poor people will no longer be welcome in downtown, and that all decisions will be made only by a select few. The downtown business owners were effectively told that their opinion doesn’t matter, and that they should continue to be patient (and watch their businesses go under!) while the city’s developers try to get something accomplished.

The deserved outrage accompanying the mayor’s actions in that matter has been completely overshadowed by Jarjura’s other executive decision of the day: to create a special new job for former-governor John Rowland as economic developer for the city. This is all anyone has talked about today.

So far, it’s not clear which organization Rowland will for. The articles I’ve read say that Jarjura originally wanted Rowland to take the top post at WDC (which explains, I suppose, why the job application deadline was extended a month). Rowland declined, not wanting to get stuck in an admin job. So now a special job will be creating, presumably letting Rowland work as he chooses, at either WDC or the Chamber of Commerce.

In one article, it was stated that the Chamber isn’t a public organization, but if they’re creating a position for him because the Mayor asked them to, doesn’t that make them a branch of city government?

Rowland’s supporters are blind to public opinion. The majority of people in the state of Connecticut do not like or trust Rowland. I’m a firm believer in letting everyone have a second chance, but this is hurting Waterbury. Remember when Lamont’s aide said that Waterbury was where the forces of slime meet the forces of evil? Waterbury has been called the most corrupt city in Connecticut many times today. Pretty soon this will be a national story. The entire country will once again be laughing at Waterbury. How is Rowland going to promote development in Waterbury if his role as economic developer tarnishes the city’s image?

Rowland might very well have all the right qualifications for the job, but so far he’s doing a lot more harm than good.

Sundays Downtown

The city’s buses now run on Sundays, which is a great boon for the thousands of Waterbury residents who either can’t afford a car or are unable to drive. It is also a boon for downtown. Downtown Waterbury used to be deserted on Sundays. Even on a beautiful summer day, there were no pedestrians and virtually no cars. Downtown was a ghost town. Now that the buses run on Sundays, there are pedestrians and, for some reason, a fair amount of traffic. It’s not as busy as it is during the week, probably because the few stores are all closed, but it no longer looks like the city center has been abandoned.

As I wrote earlier, there are some people who think that having 125 poor people visit a health clinic on Bank Street every day will harm efforts to improve downtown. The reality is that those 125 people will make Bank Street look busier and more successful, just as the people waiting for buses downtown on Sundays make East Main Street and the Green look lively.

Holyland U.S.A.

Early in October, I went for a long walk through Waterbury, eventually climbing up Abrigador Hill to Holyland, where I followed a barely-visible footpath along the western slope. I was surprised to see how overgrown Holyland has become. It looked completely different only a couple of years ago. The cross, visible from the highway, is going to be replaced soon with a new cross, so maybe there are plans and funding to fix up other parts of Holyland. It's a shame that it's effectively abandoned and closed to the public. It would make a great park, perfect for an afternoon hike and picnic.


The main entrance, with the remnants of a miniature city on the hillside.





The woodlands are a real contrast to the surrounding city. I've been told that there are dozens of cats that roam Holyland first thing in the morning, but all I saw was a black squirrel.


Most of where I walked was overgrown with this thorny plant. It seemed appropriate....










[UPDATE, April 5, 2008--The word is that the cross will be coming down soon, to be replaced with a new cross this summer. This will be the third cross to stand on the site. In February, Ned Lamont offered to match whatever funds are raised for the project, up to $25k (a nice gesture, considering what his aide said about Waterbury during the last campaign). Still no news on the future of the rest of Holyland.]

Being Poor Doesn't Make You a Bad Person

The latest furor in Waterbury is over the proposed move by the city Health Department to Bank Street. The merchants on Bank Street are happy about the move, but the heads of Main Street Waterbury, the Chamber of Commerce, and Webster Bank are horrified by the proposal. As it has been explained to me, having a street-level clinic for poor people on Bank Street will prevent any new retail from moving in. Having poor people right next door to Circa is, I've been told, a terrible thing.

I've tried to look at this situation impartially. I understand that there is a plan to bring upscale businesses to Bank Street. I know that business owners prefer to avoid ghettos (but Bank Street, even with a clinic, is very extremely removed from being a ghetto!). Business owners also prefer streets without empty storefronts, and I think the boarded up and vacant windows will continue to be far more noticeable than a clinic.

I think the farmer's market on the Green this past summer is an excellent example of how the Health Department clinic on Bank Street won't be a bad thing. The farmer's market was frequented by upscale office workers and by people using food stamps. And they all got along fine. The wealthier folks showed no sign of being scared off by the poor people.

The argument against the clinic claims that this will prevent new businesses from moving in. But there haven't been any new businesses moving in, and there are no new businesses on the horizon.

Another facet of the argument is that there is a plan for smart growth. This is the only argument that makes sense to me. It makes sense to have medical services grouped together near the hospital. It makes sense for Bank Street to have more arts-related organizations and businesses. But the people who are fighting the clinic move could be using that same energy and resources to do more to promote the smart growth. Why, for example, doesn't Main Street move into one of the vacant storefronts?

Bank Street would be a perfect location for an artists' co-op gallery or association. There are dozens of artists in Waterbury, and dozens more in surrounding towns, who would participate. It's something that's fairly simple to get started--the only tricky part is getting funding for rent and utilities (ideally, there would also be funding for a director, but these sorts of organizations can run successfully as co-ops). Artists would be able to show and sell their work from the storefront, and make additional money offering art classes in the same location. Some of the artists might even want to rent upper floors as gallery spaces.

Artists are often among the first groups to revitalize urban areas, so why isn't anything being done to lure them to our downtown?

I recently visited Hot Springs, Arkansas, the 4th largest art town in the country. Hot Springs, like Waterbury, saw its major industry go belly up in the 1970s. The outskirts of the town are all hideous strip malls, but the town center is beautiful. There is a centrally located visitor's center, just a small building with an information desk, maps, brochures & menus, and public restrooms. The shops are a mixture, with a large number of galleries (including an artists' co-op), a few restaurants, some dollar stores, a "gentlemen's" club (featuring strip karaoke!), antique stores and book stores. Some of the businesses are very upscale. Most are not. But the key element is that there are no vacant store fronts.

There are too many people with power who want to gentrify Waterbury. I once overheard a lunchtime conversation in which was discussed a plan to tear down buildings at the intersection of North Main and East/West Farms. The plan is to claim that the road needs to be widened, but the true goal, as I overheard, is to get rid of the undesirable "element" that live and shop in that location. I've been there numerous times. Bertie's West Indian restaurant is there. More important, a poor community is there. The women I overheard want to destroy the community because it is poor. Wouldn't it be better to help build up the community so that it can thrive?

There is a discrimination problem in Waterbury, but it has nothing to do with race or religion. It is entirely about poverty. The signal being put out over the Health Department clinic makes it clear that if you are poor, certain people want you to stay out of sight.

Rumor Mall

Someone I know, who lives in Litchfield County, recently asked me "if it's true that the Waterbury mall is going to be closed because there have been too many thefts." The person who asked me this is normally a highly intelligent person, but I guess she didn't stop to think about this one. It reminded me of when the mall opened ten years ago--there was a rumor going around the suburbs that "if you go to the Waterbury mall, someone will hide under your car, slash your ankle, and steal your purse." I don't know if there ever actually was an ankle slashing incident. The logistics seem a little too complicated to succeed, even if some idiot did try it. Even more unlikely is a scenario in which undercar ankle slashing is a regular occurrence. But, for whatever reason, people in the suburbs were eager to believe the rumor. After all, cities are dangerous, crime-ridden places, not at all like the suburbs, where nothing bad ever happens, right?

As for the mall closing because of "too many" thefts... even though this was the first time I'd heard this rumor, I flatly denied the possibility. I wish I had thought to ask what kind of thefts. I assumed she meant people stealing from the stores, but maybe the rumor is pickpockets and purse-snatchers. Actually, considering how rumors work, I'm sure the type of theft varies depending on who is telling the "story". In either case, the rumor still doesn't make sense.

The mall is always packed full of shoppers, which suggests that the many stores are all doing good business. If an individual store doesn't have enough sales to sustain itself, then that individual store will close. Not the whole mall. If an individual store is having trouble with thieves, then the store will improve its security system. If all of the stores are having trouble with thieves, the odds are that it's a specific group of people causing the problem, and it won't take long for the mall to identify them and ban them from the mall (not to mention having them arrested). The same applies to pickpockets and purse snatchers.

Maybe the mall-closing rumor got started because Shaw's closed (which had nothing to do with Waterbury or the mall--Shaw's had to close several of its stores) and because the mall couldn't afford to open early to accommodate people who were there to walk and not shop. But since the mall is always packed during regular hours, and because there don't seem to be any vacant store fronts, I can't see why anyone would believe that the entire mall is going to close. Remember the old mall? It stayed open long after it "died", and when the last store moved to the new mall, it was torn down and replaced by a Wal-Mart.

It's very easy for suburbanites to believe the worst of a city, even if crime happens in their towns. I would expect theft to be more likely in a town like Southbury or Cheshire, where residents assume that it's safe to leave doors unlocked and purses in unlocked cars. Waterbury is stuck with a bad reputation, even though it's one of the safest cities in Connecticut. People who don't worry about going to New Haven at night are afraid to come into Waterbury, even though there are often random shootings in New Haven and none in Waterbury. As recently reported, Waterbury's crime rate is the lowest since 1980. Makes me wonder how the mall can be suddenly suffering from "too many" thefts.

Eat Your Art Out

This year's Eat Your Art Out is scheduled for Thursday, April 3, 5:30 to 8:30 at the Armory on Field Street. It's a great event, with food samplings from dozens of restaurants. Proceeds help fund Main Street Waterbury.

Full details about the event are on the official website, www.eatyourartout.org. If you are interested in helping out with or participating in the event, please fill out the comment form on their website. Tickets for Eat Your Art Out are being sold through the Palace Theater box office starting Monday, January 14. Buy early and often!

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).

Holiday Windows 2007

Here are some photos of downtown Holiday Decorations, December 2007.

Cafe Europa:




The Connecticut Store (at Howland-Hughes)




Zia's Cucina:




Santa at Zia's:

Property Assessment

The new year has started, and I'm already wondering how much income tax I'll owe in April. Meanwhile, today's paper informed me that the new assessment for my house is available at www.totalvaluation.com.

(On a side note, I have to say I greatly prefer the old assessor's website--www.waterburyrealestate.org/propertymax/rover30.asp--it has more information, and the information is much easier to understand.)

I've been a little stressed out about the increase in property taxes this year. There's nothing like being told you're taxes might double. As it turns out, if Waterbury's mill rate stays at 55.4, the taxes on my townhouse have increased from $1098 to $1939. Spread out over a year, that's not a significant amount of money, but it's still going to wreak havok on my mortgage payments. For reasons that I don't understand, when I bought my house in June, I was starting with insufficient escrow. My payment amount was increased to compensate; now it's going to increase again. It's a little disheartening, even if the amount isn't all that large. As is the case for many Waterbury residents, I'm living on a budget, and any increase in expenses causes stress.

I'm sure there will be a lot of grumbling throughout Waterbury over the next few months!

UPDATE, March 31, 2008: The mayor's budget for the next fiscal year has the mill rate at 39. I can't imagine the Board of Aldermen will be opposed to that.

UPDATE, June 3, 2008: The budget has been approved, and the city's mill rate is set at 39.92 mills. To figure out your property tax, take the assessed value, multiply by 39.92, then divide by 1000.

Snowy Sidewalks

During my holiday travels, I was talking to my brother, who grew up in Iowa, about what it's like trying to get anywhere in Waterbury during the winter. I was telling him that, while there's snow on the ground, you pretty much have to drive a car if you don't want to struggle with snow and ice. At best, only half the sidewalks are shoveled, which means that pedestrians have to choose between possibly spraining an ankle or slipping and falling on ice, or risk getting hit by a car while walking in the side of the road. I can't even imagine what it must be like for someone pushing a baby stroller. Anyone in a wheelchair is either stuck at home or stuck in the roadway.

My brother was shocked by this situation. He had trouble comprehending that there could be unshoveled sidewalks. It turns out that Iowa not only requires property owners to shovel their sidewalks, they also have a state law (Code of Iowa, Sec. 364.12 [2c]) which allows/requires each city to shovel any sidewalk that isn't cleared soon enough. The city then bills the property owner for the job.

This sounds absolutely wonderful to me. I'd love to see it happen here. There's something about having clear walkways that's so civilized.

Of course, since Waterbury has difficulty just getting the streets properly cleared, expecting the city to also take care of sidewalks, even if they do get reimbursed for it, is probably asking too much.

One Week

That's how long the Waterbury pound keeps dogs before putting them down. They take the dog in, have it inspected by a vet, and if it's disease-free, they place an ad in the paper (not under "Pets" however...) and a week later, if the dog hasn't been claimed or adopted, they kill it (humanely, of course, but it amounts to the same thing).

One week does not seem like anywhere near enough time. One month would be better. I don't know how many dogs the pound can hold, but they are currently advertising five dogs (including the poor puppy I found last week--I'm working hard at finding somewhere for him to go) for adoption/claim. Five dogs that are going to be put to sleep at Christmas if nobody rescues them.

The Republican-American runs a pet photo section once a week, printing photos that people send in of their cats and dogs. Wouldn't it be a better use of that section to run photos of the dogs on death row at the pound?