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Showing posts from May, 2019

Enfield Set for Biggest Housing and Population Growth in Decades

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Open space and existing homes — the balance Enfield must navigate as new housing proposals emerge. Enfield is quietly on the verge of its largest housing expansion in decades. Over the past several years, the town has approved or is reviewing projects that together could add nearly 1,400 units — most of them smaller, rental apartments. If built, these developments would bring about 2,300 to 2,600 new residents to town. The town needs this new housing. Enfield's population is flat. It's getting older. Young people are declining. Our job market growth is flat. (see appendix)  Young People Are Key Without young people, Enfield will face a long and persistent decline and soaring taxes. We're surrounded by communities that help underpin our commercial sector that are seeing similar demographic shifts. Enfield Has 5,000 Fewer Residents Than in 1970 In 1970, our population was 46,200. The U.S. includes prisoners in the local population, but our prison population at that time was n...

The three phases of climate change conversion

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Bushnell Park, Hartford, May, 2019 Unless you live on the shore, climate change in Connecticut isn't all that noticeable. Spring still seems like a spring. A little wetter, perhaps, but people don't associate an increase in precipitation with a changing climate. The most noticeable impact may winter's polar vortex. Polar air that is otherwise blocked off by the jet stream breaks free and plunges south. But our single digit cold is nothing like what the people in the Midwest experience. Most people don't consider these low temperatures far outside the usual. But awareness that something is changing is arriving, slowly still. The average person who truly understands what's happening goes through a life-altering climate change conversion that comes in three phases. First, they may be aware of the issue, recognize it's something of problem, and generally agree on the need to end use of fossil fuels. They may even know what the Keeling Curve is. But ...

Pix: Hats in Hartford

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Hartford CT, May, 2019. Random street photo. 

Hartford, Connecticut, scene, May 4, 2019

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