i'm just asking...........

i'm wondering why king eddie (and almost everyone else) is concentrating on park street so much and LEAVING ALL THE OTHER HARTFORD AREAS IN DIRE STRAIGHTS. how about concentrating on let's say the WEST end or the NORTH end. they too are vibrant but can be more so. i found out what the mill rate is in hartford and was shocked off of my chair. i thought west hartford was bad. NOPE, hartford is almost TWICE that of west hartford. it's 70 something, the HIGHEST in the state i believe. what's up with that king eddie (who by the way wants to raise it). what are the businesses going to do? what are the homeowners going to do? hartford must have change in order for it to thrive.

don't get me wrong. i'm HAPPY for park street (i just drove down on friday so i've seen the brick walks and the new street lights and the new curbs and the like). i'd just be happier if king eddie SPREAD THE WEALTH

Park Street Life: Hartford's Hispanic Thoroughfare Has Retail Vibrancy Downtown Longs For

By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN The Hartford Courant
It's been well known for years that Park Street has the retail vibrancy missing from downtown Hartford since the heyday of the department stores in the 1950s.

But what's surprising is how much more vibrant it is.

A recent, first-ever study of the Park Street retail corridor by the city showed a storefront vacancy rate in the single digits, compared with 43 percent for retail spaces downtown. Both have approximately the same amount of total space — about 500,000 square feet.

So why the difference?

The 2-mile-plus Park Street retail corridor — running from Main Street to Prospect Avenue — has an enviable mix of restaurants, clothing boutiques, bodegas, jewelry shops and grocery stores, partly the result of planning and support by the local merchants association.

"Mostly, it just happens," said Marisol Monserrate, small business coordinator for the Spanish American Merchants Association. "It's just the way the street is. There is a lot of energy on Park Street. People see empty properties, get interested and get right on it."

Some of the success has to do with the smaller retail spaces and far lower rents on Park Street. Most of the storefronts have apartments above them, with well-populated neighborhoods close by, providing crucial, ready-made foot traffic of the sort that downtown still lacks.

Then there are the shoppers like Edith Rivera, who live nowhere near Park Street.

Once a month, Rivera drives 45 minutes from New London to visit La Plaza del Mercado grocery store and a Spanish bakery on the section of the street that runs through Frog Hollow.................