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Livable & Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative: Part One of Three

By Kerri Provost

June 28, 2011

Aside from specifying which blighted properties would be cracked down on, explaining what the “demonstration areas” were, and describing how the City would be accountable throughout this initiative, little new information was shared during the recent Livable & Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative (LSNI) meetings. It was not new, anyway, to those who have been involved in One City, One Plan.

The purpose of the LSNI, according to the One City, One Plan, is “to improve Hartford’s neighborhoods by ‘ensuring resources are used efficiently, the carrying capacity of infrastructure is not exceeded, diversity is treasured, citizens are engaged and involved, and the local economy is vibrant.”

As COO David Panagore put it, this is a way “to make sure that we get something done.”

In his overview of the LSNI’s purpose, he explained that this would be focused not on the projects that take five or ten years to complete, like Coltsville, but on smaller works.

In all of this, Panagore said that while the LSNI would not be solving the issue of poverty, he wanted to “make sure we’re making a dent in it.”

To a small crowd, most of whom were City employees, Panagore said “we want to find a way to work with what we have,” and that this was not about reinventing the wheel, but about being accountable regarding the One City, One Plan.