Graphic designer Brian Cook has created a Hartford Museum Passport that he hopes will get into the hands of many middle school-aged kids in Hartford. He tells us what this grassroots, community-funded project is all about. Update: the Museum Passport project was funded! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/886104268/hartford-museum-passport

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Pops and Karen O’Maxfield from Hartford’s own vintage baseball league join us to speak about their free (and baseball glove-free) weekly games in Colt Park.

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(Hartford) AIDS Awareness Day

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS will be converging on the state capitol for a rally and to meet with their legislators on Wednesday, May 11th at 10 AM for the 11th Annual AIDS Awareness Day sponsored by the CT AIDS Resource Coalition (CARC). A number of public officials are expected to attend the rally including Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Deputy Secretary of OPM, Mark Ojakian. Speakers will include Shawn M. Lang and Leif Mitchell, co-chairs of the AIDS LIFE Campaign, Connecticut’s statewide AIDS policy group, as well as people living with HIV/AIDS, and poet-activist-educator Fredrick Douglass Knowles who will inspire the crowd with his very personal experience with HIV and his energetic style with the spoken word. Participants will be wearing provocative red T-shirts asking “HIV+? Get tested!” in order to raise awareness about the epidemic in our state and to spark discussion on the importance of getting tested for HIV in order to know your own HIV status. “If you haven’t been tested for HIV, then you don’t know your status and you could unknowingly be infecting others with HIV,” said John P. Merz, Executive Director of CARC. Nationally, someone is infected with HIV every 9 ½ minutes, and it is estimated that 25% of all those living with HIV don’t know it. The CT Department of Public Health 2006 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report estimates that there are nearly 19,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the state; yet only 10,574 people with HIV/AIDS have been reported and are in the state’s HIV/AIDS registry. Advocates are rallying to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in our state and urging legislators to hold the line on AIDS funding. “Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has doubled, yet funding has never kept pace.” said Shawn M Lang, Director of Public Policy for CARC. Lang went on to say, “We are painfully aware of the realities of the budget and believe we can live with the cuts to AIDS lines. We are here to thank the Governor and legislators who voted for the negotiated budget.”

Fore more info, please visit: http://www.ctaidscoalition.org/

(Hartford) On April 15th, 2010, about 400 workers at 4 Ct nursing homes began their strike against Spectrum Healthcare for unfair labor practices….1 year later, their struggle continues.

(Hartford) On Friday March 25th, a ceremony honoring the 146 workers who needlessly perished in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in NYC will take place  at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, First Floor Atrium. at 4:30 p.m..There will be speakers and a performance by the Colchester Community Theatre.

For more info on the tragedy, check out: http://homefront.homestead.com/Triangle.html

photo courtesy of Steve Thornton

St. Patrick’s Day 2011 and I find myself home.  It’s nice outside, so with all the buzz surrounding yesterday’s grand opening of the Market at Hartford 21 I decide to get on my bike and take a quick ride downtown for a late lunch.  Let me preface these observations by saying I am vegetarian, organic-conscious, cheap, but Hartford-centric and hopeful about downtown.  Here are my first impressions.

First some media observations: much has been said about The Market at Hartford 21 as the “first” grocery store in downtown.  Some media outlets have acknowledged the small deli and convenience market across the street from The Market, Al’s Market, which carries some staple food and household items as well.  None that I have seen have acknowledged Rose Gourmet on Pratt Street, which has been providing deli, snacks and a fair amount of everyday items like cleaning supplies, canned goods, and even some pet supplies for probably 7 or more years now.

My first reaction is to the location of the market, which is on the one-way section of Asylum Street west of Trumbull Street.  I know that this was largely out of The Market’s control because they were compelled to fit into the predetermined space once slated for Bliss Market.  However, why did Hartford 21 choose this spot in the first place?  I would think the visibility of Trumbull Street, both during workdays and during events at the XL Center would be more appropriate.  It would have likely opened additional parking options for market-goers, which is perhaps the reason Hartford 21 wanted it on Asylum, right next to the entrance for its own garage.

Some positive first impressions: aesthetically the market inside is very cool.  Though it’s a bit dark lighting-wise and I couldn’t tell why, the design is open and accessible.  It’s easy to see what sections are what.  The coffee bar area is appropriately off to the far right and has its own cash register.  The seating for eating in is in front of the store and out of the way.  One of the most positive aspects of The Market is its localness.  The owners are local, not a huge corporate chain, and many locals have been hired to work there.  Even as I was wandering around, a couple folks were filling out applications.  Local painter extraordinaire, Tao Labossiere, created a fantastic vintage looking collage of old food and product labels on the partial wall near the eating area.  Hopefully, they will provide local produce from the many farms in our area.

Now, some of my complaints are probably due to my arrival time, around 2:30pm and the store was no doubt recovering from the lunch time rush.  One slice of the white bean pizza was left.  The pizza maker tells a customer that a new white bean pizza is in the oven.  The one other vegetarian pizza option is Margherita and is all gone.  The pizza slices are a bit small for the $3.50 price tag, and I will probably stick with other downtown pizza makers like the Asylum Cafe or Pietro’s where the portions are much bigger.

Additional notable critical observations: few organic options and a lot of mainstream brands, but some standouts – Amy’s soups and frozen items, Green and Black’s chocolate, Newman’s Own, and Bunny Love.  Produce section is compact, but seemed fresh.  Again, though, a notable lack of organics.  I was in the mood for ready-made sushi, but there was no vegetarian sushi available (again, probably because of my timing), but they did have some brown rice sushi, which is a good sign.

For prepared meals, as a vegetarian, I was a little disappointed.  Nine dollars for a salad seems a bit steep and why not just do it by weight? For nine dollars I’ll just go to a sit-down restaurant.  I passed on the salad.  For my lunch, I settled on the noodle bar which has two price-conscious options – 16 oz ($5) and 32 oz ($8).  Lots of choices of ingredients, again picked pretty clean by the lunch rush.  The noodles were hearty and delicious, as was the broth.  The noodle bar has a nice variety of sauces as well.  It was a bit heavy on the meat – three different kinds of meat, but only broccoli, snap peas, and sprouts as main veggies, and scallions, lime and ginger for flavor.  The odd thing about the sizes, though, is that I was given the same amount of noodles when I ordered the 32 oz. as the previous customer who ordered the 16 oz., which seemed odd.

One huge pet peeve of mine is that The Market had many items without prices on them!  I was reminded by a friend that the whole store was put together in five weeks, so I guess I should cut them some slack.  But, as price is always a concern at upscale stores for downscale people like me, I don’t want to feel like they’re hiding something from the customers.   Nobody wants to be unpleasantly surprised at the checkout counter.  Speaking of which, there are only three checkouts outside of the coffee one, and not a lot of space for lines.  Not sure if this is intentional.  Certainly one positive of this arrangement would be that people might linger more and browse as they wait for the lines to thin.

Overall, the vibe of The Market is positive.  I think many people, including myself, want it to succeed.  I will be heading back to do more a grocery list test.  A final note of optimism?  As I was walking through the store, I passed by New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.  Could it be that the mighty New Haven is a bit jealous?