In which we discuss:
- We’re not the only ones to make bad decisions — Connecticut’s urban planners have made their fair share of poor choices, with impacts lasting for decades.
- Exploring NYC: what to do, what not do do, and why it’s good to be a flaneur.
- If selecting a travel destination leaves you feeling lost, Johnna has some tips for you.
Summary
In this episode, Kerri and Johnna ramble on about several questionable urban (and not-so-urban) planning decisions in Connecticut, share thoughts and tips about visiting NYC, and break down how to pick a vacation destination when you have no idea where to go.
Special Moments
Go to the official I-84 Hartford Project site to see what stage of undoing bad decisions we are currently in. Unimpressed by the Circle of Death (Pulaski Circle?) and therefore, all roundabouts? See what a true roundabout should look like. Check out what Riverfront Recapture has done to improve Hartford’s riverfront. Learn more about the history of I-95 and Hodges Square in New London. If you want to visit the Old Town Mill, the address is 8 Mill Street, New London CT, 06320.
If this was your first time hearing about the fight over Washington Square Park, go read up! 6 ½ Avenue in Manhattan is a semi-secret pedestrian-only street. If you share Johnna’s love for pocket parks, Untapped Cities is a good place to discover new ones. The New York Transit Museum, even though it’s in a borough, managed to make its way into the conversation. (If you’re stuck in Manhattan, the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex & Store is another option.) We also mention the Merchant’s House Museum, the High Line, the High Bridge, Caffe Reggio, Big Gay Ice Cream, La Lanterna di Vittorio, Fishs Eddy, Chloe’s Fruit, NYC Street Fairs, and the benefits of taking the subway and the bus.
Note: This podcast contains occasional, relatively lightweight curse-words. Use the earbuds at work or around the kiddos.
Music: “Below the Waves” by Keshco
Going/Steady 
As always love to listen to you two. Fun, fun, fun. I always plan our trips beginning with a 3 ring binder that holds any and all info that interests us concerning our trip. Everything from city buses, trains, cabs, restaurants, antique stores, art shows, with pockets for maps of the cities, and anything else. I always include a blank section or two for anything that may pop up. It is so easy to plan now-a-days. On our last trip to Montpelier Vt. we had commuter bus schedules to go to Burlington, Barre and St. Albans. Lovely ride. Cars are nice but we like other modes of transportation. Now I am planning our trip to Brattleboro Vt. We will be staying in a suite at the Art Deco Latchis Hotel (Check it out if you don’t know it) for three days and then on the train to Burlington.
Thanks for the memories of NYC. My old stomping grounds was Tompkins Square Park so many years ago. When an apartment could be had for $50.00 a month, bath tub in the kitchen, NYC had a real gritty soul, and the poor could afford to live.
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Yeah, it’s so great to hear these people discussing everyday experiences of everyday places and making it all seem extraordinary.
I came across Beatrice Cumin’s paintings of New London from the 1930s, one with a scene from Front St looking toward State and conveying a kind of celebratory public space moment. The Front/State street area has good bones. Johnna says what appears to be an incipient revival has been in a holding pattern for years so who knows? The thing that really hurts the quality of this space is the 1960s-era office building and parking deck eyesore on the north side of State St. Instead of enclosing the space around the monument with a curving row of appropriately scaled buildings like those on Front St the space leaks out around these anonymous structures. CT people are always recommending visits to Mystic but New London could be the star of the eastern coast, another Portsmouth NH.
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Sorry, Beatrice Cuming. The artwork is “Saturday Night, New London, 1938.”
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