A New Year

Today, in the very early morning hours, swarms of teenagers were huddled on street corners and in unused doorways, looking chilled (they never wear enough warm clothing), and with blank expressions on their faces. While I didn’t see any yellow buses, I can conclude only one thing—the new year of purgatory, I mean, school has begun.

It seems cruel to make teenagers get up at dawn. From what I remember of being a teen, they need anywhere between eight and ten hours of sleep a night, and they are very unlikely to go to sleep before 11 p.m. Maybe this bit has changed, but at my school, we weren’t allowed to drink coffee until senior year. Something about all that caffeine being bad for our growing bodies.

My memories of public school are mostly bad. Endless hours trapped in soulless cinder-block chambers, trying to pay attention as the teacher droned on and on through a lesson delivered countless times before, sapping the teacher’s ability to make it sound fresh, new and interesting. School architectural design had a big influence on my education experiences. I loved going to Salem School in Naugatuck. I was there for only half a year (we moved to town half way through 5th Grade), and I was dazzled by the beautiful woodwork and high ceilings. I was incredibly grateful that I didn’t have to attend Naugatuck High School—the first time I saw it, I thought it was some sort of industrial prison. I did put in the requisite two years at Swift Middle School in Watertown. Those were miserable years. I was having a hard time being the new kid again, I was dealing with all the emotional turmoil of those years, and I had to spend my days navigating the dark, low-ceilinged, soulless cinderblock maze of hallways. That’s what I remember most about Swift—soulless cinderblock and endless hallways where I still sometimes took a wrong turn after the first year. Meanwhile, I remember Salem with fondness.

I thought I was the most engaged student in any of my classes. Learning wasn’t cool, so all the kids made a big effort to show that they weren’t being uncool. The funny thing is, as adults, most of us spend a fair amount of time trying to learn things, whether it’s how to operate your DVR or preparing to pass a test to get a new job or promotion. Maybe the most important thing to teach in the public schools is how to learn.

Transportation Center

It's been some months since I last heard anything about plans for a consolidated transportation center at the train station. In fact, I think it's been two years since any noticeable progress has been made. Lately, I've started taking the train from Waterbury on a regular basis, so I am more aware than ever of the need for the transportation hub. I love taking the train, it's a million times better than driving to work, but our "station" needs some upgrades.

I don't like parking at the railway (I can't call it a station, since all we have right now is a platform). The parking lot is full of shattered glass from car windows that were broken into. There is a very large sign that originally claimed that This Lot Is Monitored, only someone has used spray paint to change it to Not Monitored. Because I never seem to be able to get out of the house early enough to park in the Ramparage on Field Street, I've been leaving my car at the railway lot. No damage to it so far, thank goodness. Maybe all the broken glass is old. There's no sign that the city ever cleans the parking lot.

If the buses ran late at night, I'd get up earlier in the morning to walk the half hour downhill to the train. It's great exercise. Walking home after dark while carrying my purse and computer is less great. But the Waterbury buses stop running at 6pm, so I have to take my car. If the buses ran until, say, midnight and had the proposed transportation hub as their starting/ending point, that would be fantastic.

Because our beautiful brick train station was sold to the Republican American, all we have now is a platform with minimal amenities--trash and recycling containers, benches and shelter from the rain. If you need to buy a ticket, you can purchase only a one-way, higher price ticket on the train. Other train stations have ticket machines selling the full ticket options for less right on the platforms.

The amenity I most long for is a coffee shop at the railway. Someplace to quickly grab a coffee and a portable breakfast (egg & cheese sandwich, for example). Diner food to go, located right next to where you get on the train. (Please, no Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts! The mini-diner at the Bridgeport station is perfect, albeit expensive--$2 for a small coffee, another $2.75 for the egg & cheese sandwich; I can get the same thing at Penn Station for half the price.)

Returning at the end of the day, there are always taxi drivers on the train platform asking if anyone needs a taxi. There's really no other way for them to go about this, since there is no taxi stand at Waterbury. I suppose it's a system that works, but it means that anyone can stand around claiming to offer taxi rides. Not the safest situation. I'd be a little scared to walk off into the dark with some guy claiming to be a taxi driver. Fortunately, there are always plenty of people around. There's a regular little traffic jam on Meadow Street when the train pulls in. Within ten minutes, the regular commuters are long gone, the joyful reunions are over, the bags are loaded into cars, and all that's left are the small number of people sitting by the sidewalk wondering when their family or friends are going to pick them up.

Heavenly Invader

Now that I have a yard to tend, I've suddenly noticed a new tree that is shooting up everywhere in Connecticut: the "tree of heaven" (Ailanthus altissima). It is similar in appearance to the staghorn sumac, which is native to the northeast, so this may be why I didn't notice it until just now. The other day I thought back to when I was growing up. The trees in our yard were mostly pine, maple, chestnut. Twenty years ago, maybe even ten years ago, maple trees were the most prolific Connecticut tree (going by my memory). Now where I live is surrounded by the tree of heaven.




The most noticeable thing about this tree is that it grows like a weed. It can release up to 325,000 seeds per year. If you cut it down to a stump, the stump will sprout numerous shoots. If you pull it out with the roots, any tiny little root fragment left in the ground will start growing a new tree. It ought to be called the hydra tree.




I've been somewhat casually trying to remove the saplings growing along my property line. There's a slender stump that has maybe half a dozen new shoots growing on it every other month. The good news is that they are easily broken in half. But they will keep coming back for all of eternity. They grow fast, too, and can get as tall as 80 feet (or more) in a relatively short span of time.



Full-grown, it does make for a nice shade tree. But it really is a destructive weed of a tree. The roots can damage sewers and foundations. It produces a type of toxin that prevents other types of plants from growing, and it can quickly crowd out any other type of tree. The maple tree has met its match.

In researching the tree of heaven, I learned a couple of interesting things about it. First, it is native to central China (known in Mandarin as chouchun). It was brought to Philadelphia in 1784 by a gardener, and by 1840 was available through nurseries. Now it is somewhat universally regarded as a pest, although it is the title "character" of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Grasshopper

For the past couple of months, whenever I've worked in my front yard, I've seen this one grasshopper. I'm assuming that it's the same grasshopper each time. When I first saw him, he was a miniscule little speck of bright pastel green. He's been noticeably larger each time I've seen him. Now he's huge.



I think he came to my yard from Suffield. I bought a lot of plants from farms up there, and it was after that I first saw my grasshopper. There aren't a lot of opportunities for grasshoppers to flourish in the heart of the city, although this one seems to be doing fine, maybe because he doesn't have any competition.

More Art

My latest (and sixth) painting of Waterbury:



Next up: Shakespeare in Library Park. Might be a while before it's done, though. Have to focus on "real" work for a while.

Coming Soon...

This Sunday, August 10th, at 12:30 p.m., the Immaculate Conception church will hold a special mass by Archbishop Mansell, who will read the decree making the church a basilica. The new sign is ready, but is being kept under a blue tarp until Sunday. When the sun shines just right, you can see the wording through the tarp.




The Immaculate will be the only basilica in Connecticut. Along with the recent rededication of Ste. Anne's as a Shrine for Mothers, this new century seems to be a good one for Waterbury's Catholic community. A hundred and fifty years ago, Catholics were a disliked minority in Waterbury. Now Waterbury is very much a Catholic town!

Chili Festival

It took me a week, but I finally found the results of the chili competition last week at the Waterville Fire House. The Republican-American once again did a terrible job covering a Waterbury event--they announced the top prize winner, but didn't identify which number it was, nor did they identify any of the other chili makers (the chilis were numbered and anonymous; I tried to stick around long enough for the results, but once the dunking was over, I got bored and left). The event's co-host, the Waterbury Neighborhood Council, hasn't posted the results on their website, and they haven't replied to my email asking for the information. I googled for the event this morning, and found the results on the Waterbury Fire Fighters Association website--Go Fire Fighters!!!



Chili #1 -- Crossroads Cantina -- top place winner (and just like the chili I make at home!)
Chili #2 -- Fire Fighter Dave Lanese -- 3rd place winner -- I liked this one, but it had chicken instead of beef, which I wasn't sure I liked
Chili #3 -- Uncle Willie's BBQ
Chili #5 -- no show
Chili #6 -- T. Pic's
Chili #7 -- Legendary Dean's Tavern (located on Rubber Avenue in Naugatuck) -- 2nd place winner (I remember that I liked this one, but now I can't remember anything else about it)
Chili #8 -- That's A Wrap (located in the East Gate Plaza)

The dunk booth was a major attraction, with the dunkees including the mayor, several aldermen and others. The most popular person to dunk (reflecting how unpopular he is--a lot of folks were absolutely delighted at the prospect of giving him a dunking), was John Rowland. Here is the crowd gathering to watch:



... and here he is getting dunked, one of many times.





There were plenty of other activities, including live music in the park across the street, discount prices from an ice cream truck, hot dogs, hamburgers, fire equipment displays, fire rescue displays, a fire safety trailer, air brush tattooing, slides, balloons and raffles.

Brewfest 2008

I'm starting to get blog hits (and real-life questions!) for this, so here's the info:

This year's Brass City Brew Fest will be held Saturday, September 13, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. in Library Park. Full information is available at www.brasscitybrewfest.com.

Don't wait until the day of the event to buy your tickets--if you get there late without a ticket, you might not be able to get in.

Tickets are available online or at the following locations:
Main Street Waterbury
WDC
Café Europa
John Bale Book Company
Boru's
Drescher's
Brass Horse
The Turf
Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors (in Naugatuck--a great store, and organizer of many great events!)

There will be a "classic car cruise" before the event and, for those of you who want to burn off the calories, a 5k race the next day.

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.

North Square Murals

If you pay attention, you'll notice murals all over Waterbury. The North Square area seems to have the largest concentration, varying in subject and age, but mostly connected to the PRIDE Cultural Center and New Opportunities.











(Gabe's United Tyre is next door to PRIDE, and the mural on the tire shop is really a continuation of the PRIDE murals.)

This pair of murals (above and below) surround the parking lot at the corner of North Elm and Cherry Streets, near the New Opportunities building.

Many of the North Square murals are fairly old, remnants of efforts to revitalize a neighborhood that was devastated first by riots in the late '60s and then by poverty and neglect throughout the 1970s. There are pocket neighborhoods throughout the city that have yet to recover from the loss of the factory jobs that helped build those neighborhoods.

This last bit of outdoor art is in the same neighborhood (Cherry Street), but it's more recent and much more light-hearted--since it was created for Bender Plumbing Supply (in the former Benrus watch case factory), there is a toilet, tub and bathroom sink scattered about the undersea design.

ParkCard

I've been hearing rumors that there is a special card for the parking meters downtown. If you look at the meters, you can see a slot on the side for the card. I've haven't seen one of the cards yet, but maybe I'll take the time to get one soon.

The advantage of using the card is that you don't need quarters, dimes or nickels, and you can use the card to secure the maximum time available on the meter, but then get a refund if you don't use all the time. The downside is that the card costs $5, but if you park at meters often enough, the convenience and the money you save by refunding the unused minutes probably balances out the initial card cost.

ParkCards can be purchased and reloaded with minutes at the Waterbury Police Parking Division office, 210 Bank Street (at the corner of Grand Street), Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Their phone number is 574-6721. (A word of caution: I've heard that you buy the card at the Bank Street office, but that you have to take the card to the Police Department on East Main Street to load it, so allow some extra time for getting the card. Or wait for me to try it out and blog about it!)

Bird Watching

After writing about the bird lover on Ashley Street, I heard a knock-knock-knock sound in my backyard and snapped this shot of a downy woodpecker.

Conflicting Reports

I wasn't able to go to last weekend's performance in Library Park by the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra. The Republican-American ran a very short article about it the next day. As described in the newspaper, only 150 people attended and the highlight of the performance happened when the police had to force a man to leave because he was getting in the way of the filming of the performance. Based on the newspaper coverage, I was left thinking that this was an event that was worth missing.

Then I talked to a couple of people who attended the performance from start to finish. They estimated a crowd of at least 500 people, and in their minds the highlight was an adorable little girl who was brought onstage to conduct one piece. In the newspaper report, the incident with the man who was in the way sounded dramatic and scary. According to the people I talked to, the incident wasn't newsworthy: the man in question is mildly retarded and was simply enjoying the music, unable to understand that he was in the way. Because it was a hot day, the crowd was spread throughout Library Park's shady areas. The best guess is that the reporter stopped by for five minutes, didn't look around the park to see how many people were really there, and make a big deal out of something that was barely memorable.

Over the past ten years, I think I've heard nearly every downtown organization complain about the newspaper's coverage of their events. The consensus seems to be that the Rep-Am prefers to publish bad news only about downtown. This is a large part of the reason that downtown has a bad image. If the article about the WSO performance had been written by the folks I talked to, everyone who read it would have wished they had been there to enjoy a great afternoon of music. Instead, I'll bet most people who read the published article felt glad they weren't there.

Bird Lover

Here's a good example of why I like living in Waterbury:

This morning I decided to walk to downtown. I needed to pick up one of my paintings from Goldsmith's, and I wanted to get a few things from the Farmer's Market on the Green. From where I live, it's about a twenty minute walk, and I really need to get at least twenty minutes of exercise every day, so it's a good thing to do. I also wanted to get a few photos for some upcoming blog posts, so my walk meandered a bit.

I stopped on Ashley Street to take a photograph and started talking to a guy who was washing his truck in his driveway. He wanted to know if I was taking photos of birds. Then he told me that about his mom, Carmen Narvaez. She plays music (Puerto Rican, I assumed, from what I heard and from knowing that they're Puerto Rican) to attract birds to their house. From what her son told me, this works really well. They get every type of bird in Waterbury, including a mystery bird that's yellow with brown wings (maybe a goldfinch???). Mrs. Narvaez is even taking care of a bird that was attacked and injured by a squirrel.

This is my Waterbury. I can go for a walk, stroll down a side street I've never been on before, meet people from different countries and cultures, learn something new, and have interesting conversations with total strangers. It's the sort of thing that would never happen in the suburbs.

Meadow Street, Pine Street

Here's another one of my paintings, completed only yesterday. This is actually the second painting I started, back in 2006. I abandoned it for a while, because I didn't have the necessary skills yet. Then I discovered Copal oil, and my skill leaped forward rapidly. Copal is fantastic for working in thin layers. I'm still not at my full skill level yet, but I can see myself improving with every painting, and the last three paintings all have small areas that are the equal of highly regarded artworks done at the height of the artists' careers. I'm getting there. I just have to keep at it.




This next painting was completed a couple months ago. I need to retake the photograph, after I get the painting back from being framed at Goldsmith's on Bank Street. Photographing paintings is tricky. You need bright, indirect light so the image won't be grainy, the colors will be accurate, and there won't be any glare from the glossy paint surface. Today I discovered that my front porch on a bright sunny day has ideal lighting for photographing paintings.



Both paintings are available for purchase. $360 for Pine Street, $450 for Meadow Street. My painting of East Main Street is currently on view at John Bale Books, with a negotiable price.

Evenings Downtown

There are a gradually increasing number of things to do after work in downtown Waterbury. Here's a short list, just off the top of my head:

Mondays: live jazz at Vintage on Bank Street
Tuesdays: "Terrific Tuesdays" at the First Congregational Church on West Main Street--live music and bbq dinner
Wednesdays: Open Mic Night at Boru's
First Thursday every month: live music and refreshments at the Mattatuck Museum
Third Thursday every month: Young Professionals Networking happy hour (http://www.xyng.org/)

Plus, of course, special events like Shakesperience Productions summer performances in Library Park and whatever is showing at the Palace Theater. And the regular, every-day things like great restaurants.

Farmers' Market

The Farmers Market on the Green started again today. Like last year, it's held every Thursday, 11am-3pm, until late October. Payment options are cash, WIC and EBT/food stamps. Below are some photos from this afternoon.

Hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes:

The hydroponic lettuce, always my favorite:

Tony's Seafood on ice:

The lobsters were very tempting.... if only I weren't sticking to a tight budget!

Some decorative flowers:

The Italian Ice truck:

Bantam Bread Company, mostly sold out by 2pm:

A diverse variety of oils, with some bread for sampling:

Ornaments carved from the trunks of old Christmas trees:

Air Pollutants

Summer's here, and we're getting those miserable days where it's hot and humid and the air quality is poor, making it hard to breathe. I sometimes wonder what people did before air conditioning, but now I'm starting to think that maybe the air quality didn't get this bad before the twentieth century.

There's a website called AirNow that tracks the air quality across the country and gives advice on how to help reduce unhealthy air quality (like what we have right now, what I guess used to be called hazy, hot and humid, but is now all about ozone levels being too high).

The basics from the site certainly suggest that hot summer days weren't this bad over a century ago:

Bad Ozone. In the Earth's lower atmosphere, near ground level, ozone is formed when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical plants, and other sources react chemically in the presence of sunlight. Ozone at ground level is a harmful air pollutant.

Days when ozone is expected to be high:
• Conserve electricity and set your air conditioner at a higher temperature.
• Choose a cleaner commute—share a ride to work or use public transportation. Bicycle or walk to errands when possible.
• Refuel cars and trucks after dusk.
• Combine errands and reduce trips.
• Limit engine idling.
• Use household, workshop,and garden chemicals in ways that keep evaporation to a minimum, or try to delay using them when poor air quality is forecast.

What You Can Do On A Daily Basis
• Choose a cleaner commute — car pool, use public transportation, bike or walk when possible.
• Combine errands to reduce "cold starts" of your car and avoid extended idling.
• Be sure your tires are properly inflated.
• Keep car, boat and other engines properly tuned, and avoid engines that smoke.
• Follow gasoline refueling instructions for efficient vapor recovery. Be careful not to spill fuel and always tighten your gas cap securely.
• Use environmentally safe paints and cleaning products whenever possible.
• Some products that you use at your home or office are made with smog-forming chemicals that can evaporate into the air when you use them. Follow manufacturers' recommendations for use and properly seal cleaners, paints, and other chemicals to prevent evaporation into the air.
• Conserve electricity. Consider setting your thermostat a little higher in the summer and lower in winter. Participate in local energy conservation programs. Look for the ENERGY STAR label when buying home or office equipment.
• Consider using gas logs instead of wood. If you use a wood-burning stove or fireplace insert, make sure it meets EPA design specifications. Burn only dry, seasoned wood.


There's also a website where you can see the UV forecast, so you can do a better job of guessing at how much sunblock you'll need for the day.

The Other Side

Proof that Waterbury really is a "country" city: there are still cows in town, on Farmwood Road in Buck's Hill. It was a hot day when I took this photo, so you can see some of the cows are cooling off in Great Brook Reservoir.

Chili Tasting

The First Annual "Five Alarm Chili Tasting" is scheduled for July 27th, 12-4pm at the Waterville Fire House.