Although the article mentions how Hartford splintered into different municipalities (including West Hartford) in the 1800's, the article mentions the real issue with so many municipalities is in the rural areas of Connecticut, where offices are going vacant because no one is filling low salary positions. . . Which doesn't characterize West Hartford. . .So I guess I would start that arguing from the premise that West Hartford needs to be absorbed because it can't govern itself?

Furthermore, areas that have worked, such as the New Jersey towns mentioned, were of similar size and demographics, and merging was a true merging. I think the extreme argument is that combining Hartford and West Hartford would be akin to gerrymandering, with Hartford's population and priorities overpowering West Hartford's, it would be placing Hartford in charge of West Hartford.

Which, if West Hartford was unable to govern itself, would probably be a reason for West Hartford to be absorbed. But West Hartford and its residents have the resources and the right to prioritize their community. Building Blue Back Square, revitalizing the Prospect Park Plaza area are things West Hartford can handle, and should. Where would these projects rank on a priority list if a part of Hartford? If West Hartford can afford and has the resources to deal with it, why waste Hartford's time and energy on something it doesn't have time for?

Just looked them up and added. How's the sloppy waffle right next to it?

Doogies, but not for the hot dog - get the cheese steak.

Oh I'm not justifying the rule. Just noting that I'm fairly sure they take record of your purchase

Except that guy is a history prof, I believe, and generally has a point which is fairly easy to grasp. I'm not at all clear what this... assemblage is meant to convey.

We don’t have affordable housing because the state government can’t afford to remediate the shit ton of old industrial buildings littering Bridgeport, New Haven etc, which is (part of) what’s needed to entice actual development and new housing in our cities.

Agree it would make sense in the case of some towns, not make sense in others, and be politically infeasible in many cases

The ability to enforce. We really need to make both alcohol and marijuana schedule 2 or 3 substances.

Yeah, I live in the south currently under county government and it's a shit show. The money in the south end of the county ends up in the north end primarily. The south end is where all the tourists are. The north end is farms. In the south end we don't even have all our residential roads paved, no streetlights (unless a homeowner pays for it), no sidewalks, our services are atrocious and incredibly underfunded. People here complain any time someone brings up incorporation, they don't want "big government". But then in the same breath complain about how we have no drainage and can't get massive flooding issues fixed. I have zero desire to live in a county run area ever again.

Agreed, but it doesn’t have to be either/or, ban both.

Ok, and what views make you a centrist?

As long as we have the COGs this won’t happen. Right now municipalities get to have their cake and eat it too. Zero incentive to merge when they can get their services paid for by the state/other larger munis while giving up no authority.

If you’re not familiar with your council of government, look into it. We have regional services, just not regional government.

We dont like change. We say we are progressive but the minute you want to optimize ways of government, the people that have been sucking on the sweet taste of tax payer funded careers will fight it with everything they got.

The county system would save us so much money. Imagine having an organized EMS management system for firefighters, police, health, education and management. Instead towns need to allocate these resources, share them, and when you call 911 for an ambulance, it may be coming from two towns over.

Even property taxes, car taxes, and water districts can be optimized with a county system lol

I’m not saying it isn’t? Guess the tone of the statement is lost. It’s simple when the side that advocated for mailing in the ballots during a pandemic had the most mailed in ballots.

TIL

Both sides are trash that can’t admit anything wrong about their parties.

Opiates are actually at a lesser schedule than weed. "Heroin" was actually a registered trade name.

Meth is also less illegal.

There's a part of southbury called Russian village......

I mean, that would be a fun way to play it out.

Every few years city politicians bring this up. They have ruined and drained their tax base and pushed the middle class to the suburbs. They want to expand and spread their mismanagement far and wide. Luckily anyone with a brain can see how this will end up. Our towns routinely share equipment and services as they see fit. This idea will luckily never happen.

I personally would LOVE to hear the arguments why people don’t want to merge Hartford and West Hartford. Let’s do it

Our local governance can't solve affordable housing.

Potable water isn't much different, the calculation is still based on a profit motive. In general most areas of CT are too wealthy to lose potable water, nothing to do with governance really.

That's what my group generally discusses.

The bigger issue, though, is you would absolutely never see WeHa agree to merge with Hartford. There's just too much for them to lose.

> Can't happen without a method for county taxation which would require an amendment to the state constitution.

Why? To pick just one example, East Haven, West Haven, and New Haven could merge into a single city without county-level government.

Yup. That’s weird.