With its low self-esteem and high urban blight, Hartford is the ultimate underdog city. Sad City Hartford documents the joys, sorrows and eccentricities of New England's Rising Star.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

FREE TV!



Over the last few months, televisions have joined mattresses as staples of the Hartford sidewalk scene. With the price of flat screen tv's dropping, old tube television, as antiquated as much of the City's methods of doing business, now adorn sidewalks across the city. The phenomenom seems to know no racial or neighborhood boundaries. Televisions can be found scattered across the South End, West End and North End.

Why don't they pick up the televisions? Well, that job has been contracted out to a private company. Twice a week the company goes around Hartford and picks up televisions. But, they will only pick up televisions that have been reported and logged into the City's illustrious 311 system. So if a television is reported outside of 48 Bond and by some miracle the contractor arrives in a timely manner, they will pick up the reported television at 48 Bond, but if there are 10 more on the block, they will simply ignore them and leave them on the sidewalk.

Quite a system huh?

3 comments:

  1. Kinda like how the HPD works .... if a loud party is called in as a noise nuisance (by enough people), HPD will respond. But if a patrol car happens across such a party and no one has called it in, they just keep driving by ... As one officer told me, "It's all about ComStats."

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  2. yeah - and why the f- do people take the tv's apart - smash that -s-hiz up and make a mess - there be poison in those things and peoples be worried about lead paint - how bout lead in them TVs - Hartford is a dumping ground nobody got respect - make them babies sick - make em crazy in school and keep building new ones they tear up -

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  3. In response to the first comment... there are people who drive around and steal valuable inner metals from TVs left on the curbs, then sell them. In response to this article... the problem is the city doesn't have the funds to appropriately respond to the amount of materials on the curbside, but taxpayers can't afford to spend more, so... it's a vicious cycle.

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