Downtown is New Britain's new neighborhood

Downtown New Britain is no longer a "downtown," if that word means anything. But if it's no longer the city's commercial or business center, then what is it?

A little political history

Former Mayor Bill McNamara was a big booster of downtown so much so that it eventually became a political liability for him. When Don DeFronzo was running in 1989 for mayor he argued that city neighborhoods had been neglected at the expense of downtown.

McNamara had to focus on downtown. When he became mayor in the 1970s downtown was a dismal landscape of empty factory buildings, incomplete highways and a growing number of vacant storefronts. It was at its absolute worse.

But DeFronzo’s election wasn’t really about neighborhoods vs. downtown. It was about the thing the drives most elections in New Britain and that’s the fight for power among city Democrats. Nonetheless, the neighborhood theme probably helped DeFronzo. In 1989, as today, there was much anxiety about the city’s housing price decline.

1987 and 2007 real estate trends

In 1987 stock prices plunged, economic growth had slowed, and by 1989 residential property values were in steep decline. People were becoming anxious. (I can write from personal experience. I bought three-family that I lived at and owned jointly with some friends for $150,000 in 1987, probably the height of that housing bubble. By 1989 the price had declined below the mortgage amount to about $115,000 we estimated).

Fast forward to the present day, 2007. Housing prices have long zoomed past the 1980s highs but the country is skirting a recession, housing prices have stalled or are in decline and local foreclosures are probably on the rise. The city is going through a revaluation, which almost always shifts the tax burden to residential housing.

New Britain residents (and just about everywhere else) will be anxious, once again, about real estate prices, mortgage interest rates and taxes. But one issue unlikely to return is the idea that downtown is distinct from any other neighborhood.

Downtown New Britain is a neighborhood in a way it wasn't 20 years ago.

Downtown's most telling business

Have you noticed C-Town? C-Town may be the most important downtown business. It’s an urban grocery store. It serves, primarily, people living south of Main Street, down Glen Street and Arch. C-Town would not have opened this store – a pedestrian oriented store -- unless market studies had convinced it that there is a sufficient number of people living in that area to support it. That is very telling.

Grocery stores make urban areas livable, improve property values, and draw in other businesses. Urban neighborhoods are appealing because they allow people to easily walk to stores, entertainment and public transit. Downtown New Britain has all those things and there are signs of more to come.

The Rao Building redevelopment, which is also injecting new retail life into the adjacent Andrews building, is helping drive home the message that downtown New Britain is also a place to live.

The bus hub looks like a dangerous hangout

Downtown housing is likely to be occupied by single adults or couples who want to be in walking distance to essential services and stores. I also believe that, more and more, people will be interested in living without a car. (I just paid about $25 for 8 gallons of gas at the Sunoco near West Farms. What happens when gas hits $4 a gallon?)

Can you live without a car in downtown New Britain? It’s a question worth looking at because it could be a strong selling point for developing downtown. (Living without a car is not a radical idea. Many people choose to live without cars in metropolitan areas because of the cost of mass transit, including cab use, is less than the cost of car ownership and insurance. And then there are new services emerging, such as Zipcar and Flexcar, that leave cars parked on city streets for use by members on an hourly or daily rate.)

But state transportation officials don’t do enough to market mass transit as an alternative. The best I can say about Connecticut’s mass transit is that it exists to fill the need of people who truly depend on it but is not interested in encouraging people to use it as alternative to driving.

One thing New Britain should try to get the state to do is improve the downtown bus hub. The bus pick-up location at West Main and Main Streets is dismal and unattractive. It actually looks dangerous. It needs an extreme makeover to encourage new riders. One thing I would love to see are electronic signs forecasting bus arrival times.

Hartford's downtown disappeared as well

If people can be convinced that mass transit is an alternative to cars – or at least a strong supplement – it might encourage more downtown development and gentrification.

Downtown will be affordable. Single family home prices remain out of reach of many young adults. CCSU grads, in particular, may welcome the chance to buy an efficiency or one bedroom condo in downtown New Britain. Young adults will also bring some energy into the downtown neighborhood.

New Britain’s downtown will never be a commercial center again. Just look at Hartford's ongoing effort to create a new downtown. While the state spends millions to create a convention center, the most exciting development is happening in West Hartford. Hartford’s new downtown is West Hartford center.

But I can easily see New Britain’s downtown turning into a very attractive neighborhood catering to young people, singles, empty nesters and couples without children. Downtown New Britain isn't so much the place to be (the old city slogan), as it is a place to live. It has the potential to become an interesting and lively neighborhood.

The man who would have invented the Internet

There is a report in The Herald about CCSU students painting a mural of Elihu Burritt. I was surprised. Burritt is such an obscure figure today, and the students deserve credit for reminding others of his importance.

If there was ever a person born ahead of his time, it was Burritt.

Burritt was born in 1810 and taught himself some 30 languages. He was a genius who believed very strongly in the ability communicate -- the universal translator before Star Trek. He authored books, started newspapers, but what I especially admired was his Ocean Penny Postage campaign.

In 1865, when Burritt began his campaign for cheap postage, it cost 25 cents to mail a letter to Europe. That was a big sum of money. He believed that communication fostered understanding and ultimately peace.

If Burritt were around today, he would have understood immediately the implications of the Internet and would have, I have no doubt, been a big blogger.