West hartford Politics, 1

Lawn signs

When folks in West Hartford want to express their political views, they put them on their lawns -- with lawn signs!

There are several big issues in West Hartford, plus the upcoming elections. Here's a sample of signs with a little commentary

Blue Back Square

Last year the Town Council voted to accept a proposal by a developer to build a new shopping center with a movie theater and parking on 22 acres of vacant land just off the center of town, behind the Public Library. part of the deal involved ceding to the developer the Education Building -- a public building -- and issuing bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements. The project is enormously controversial and has sprouted not just signs but websites and accusations that the big mall, West Farms, is paying for the opposition to forestall competition. Supports say the development will bring new tax income and business; opponents object to the giveaway of town property and the potential for town obligations if the development fails, as well as to poor design and increased traffic problems. The dueling web sites are Blue Back Square, the pro-project site maintained by the developer, and Save the Center, the opposition. If you really have lots of time to waste, you can read the Blue Back Square Documents produced by the Town.

The vote on October 12 approved Blue Back Square 60% to 40%.

Town Budget

Last spring when the Town Council passed a budget that called for a tax raise (taxes in most US suburbs are collected on the value of private property), a group of residents collected enough signatures on a petition to demand a referendum on the budget. few voters realized the referendum was happening, the anti-budget folks voting in droves, and the budget was defeated by a ratio of 4 to 1. A new budget was presented, cut by about $1,000,000, but the anti-budget folks weren't satisfied, and a new petition was circulated and a second (and last, under the Town charter) scheduled. The vote was held on September 28, 2004, and the budget passed (yeah!) by about 3 to 2. The sign at the top of the page was produced by town teachers to support the budget; here are two others, pro and anti:

Lawn signs are a great tradition of free political expression, but no surprise some people think the best way to express their political views isn't by more, opposing speech, but by vandalism. Somebody ripped or knifed our neighbors' pro-budget sign (left). This was a really big problem during the Iraq war in the winter and early spring of 2003, when our anti-war signs were repeatedly stolen; our first anti-Blue Back sign suffered the same fate -- but Edie found it, or another, discarded in the street just down from our house, and she saved it to resume its place on our lawn. (That's it pictured above.)

Save the Elm

West Hartford used to have a great second-run theater called the Elm. Located in the Elmwood section of town, it anchored the neighborhood and offered an all-too-rare alternative to the big box first-run theaters round about. But when the owners decided to give up the business, the Town decided not to try to preserve this great recreational resource, but instead accepted a bid (again to increase the tax base) from Walgreens to put in a big new drugstore. Never mind that there is already a big old CVS drugstore -- open 24/7, no less -- right across the street. Unfortunately, this struggle seems to be a lost cause, but you can still visit the Save the Elm for the Arts web site, a monument to a sad demise.

Then, there's the folks who just feel the urge to express their patriotism --

We'll be putting up a separate page, West Hartford Politics, 2. The Candidates for various public offices, soon!

-- October 9, 2004