The impact of West Farms Mall on New Britain

Photo: The furs sign on West Main Street is a longtime favorite. It's so retro. It also reminds me of something ...

It was the day after Thanksgiving, a workday for Herald reporters, and there was only one story to cover: the unofficial first day of holiday shopping. Reporters fanned out to their respective towns and ask shoppers about their purchases, this year’s hot items and shopping strategies.

My assignment was to interview shoppers in downtown New Britain.

By the late 1980s, when I went on this mission, downtown shopping was more memory than reality. D&L still had its department store downtown and there remained numerous shops, but the era of downtown shopping in New Britain, Hartford, and many other state cities was fading fast.

New Britain retailers couldn’t compete with West Farms Mall, which opened in 1974, and the other regional shopping plazas in Berlin and Plainville.

At 13 square miles, New Britain lacks development land. The migration of retail to large shopping plazas and malls meant the end of New Britain's retail base well before West Farms opened. But that doesn't make it fair.

New Britain residents still shop. They have money to spend. But today they shop in Farmington, Berlin, Plainville and those towns see property tax gains based on these regional shifts in retail development.

The state has never come up with a way to address this tax inequity, which is one reason why Connecticut's central cities decline while their neighbors prosper. A regional approach to property taxes, perhaps a county form of government, might address this inequity but Connecticut's towns have long resisted the idea. Suburban political leaders have no reason to consider upsetting a system that benefits their communities.

Connecticut's towns are the modern equivalent medieval castles, which want the benefits that come from serving as regional retail centers, but none of the obligations that ought to come with it.

When I was in downtown that day after Thanksgiving, in what seems long ago now, I did find a few shoppers to add to our story. And after work, I went to the Mall to join the crowds.