Open House Today At Greater Hartford Welcome Center

Can it be that bad if there's money for this billboard?

For those of us who don't wait for the last minute and simply order gifts off the internet, here's an idea that triples as a gift, support for the arts in our fine city, and a tax deduction! That's really a trifecta not found in many places. Today the Greater Hartford Arts Council will host a day-long festive  holiday party to celebrate the Greater Hartford Welcome Center and the Let*s GO Arts! Holiday Promotion. During the open house morning visitors can dine on cookies and other snacks while afternoon visitors can enjoy some free wine and cheese. Seriously, how does anyone turn down free wine and cheese? We plan to be all over the havarati and brie so be sure to get there before we devour it all.

Austin is Weird, Hartford is an Underdog

(EDITOR'S NOTE: We're pleased to introduce "Travels in Other Sad Cities, new series on Sad City Hartford. Hakaan and Jumper have been on the road a lot lately so they are documenting their comings and goings. Don't worry...it will all still tie back to the homeland. Our first city will be the rather happy city of Austin, Texas.)

One of the coolest places to visit in the U.S. is Austin. While the majority of Texas can be a godawful place that's almost as bad as Arizona, within Austin city limits is pretty great. The country's best music, great food, a crazy bar scene that really only has one rule, it's hard to argue that Austin isn't one of the Top 5 cities in America.

One of the things that Hartford could stand to learn about from Austin is that Austin embraces who they are. Austin has an incredible amount of authenticity. They embrace their roots. They embrace the massive college that was dropped in the middle of town. They embrace their weirdness. Hell, their slogan is, "Keep Austin Weird." Austin is comfortable just being itself. One of my biggest issues with Hartford's efforts to brand itself is that it is trying too hard.

Extra Winter Coats? Do some good

Time to dig deep into the closet and drag out those old Raiders and LA Kings starter jackets and donate them to a good cause. Agave is downtown on 100 Allyn Street. Reward yourself with a nice margarita after your good deed. Check out this causes Facebook page here. Check out Sad City's Facebook page here and our Twitter page here.

Mattress Colonies: A Solution Coming?

Discarded mattresses are quite a scourge on our fine city and Sad City has been covering the mattress problem for well over a year. In fact the fifth ever Sad City post was about mattresses on the sidewalks. Well in yet another stunning coincidence of City action following Sad City observations, Mayor Segarra released a statement yesterday stating Hartford collects 18,000 mattresses a year and further discussing the mattress problem in Hartford. The Mayor's statement courtesy of the City:

Beer One-Upsmanship

Oh, you like the dark notes and the woody aroma, eh?

The craft beer movement of the last decade has been nothing short of great for American beer. It wasn't so long ago that for American beer the selection was basically; Bud, Miller, or Coors. Today walk into any package store and there are dozens of different American brewers whipping out all sorts of different types of beers. Our local brewer, Hooker, is whipping up a Watermelon Ale and a Nor'Easter winter brew to go along with their regular selections. The American brewing revolution has been awesome.

Revisiting The King of Recycle

A while back Jumper met up with the King of Recycle and followed along with him as he went through the West End recycling. A truly remarkable Hartford character. We thought it was worth a second look.

More Good Deeds: Pope Park Park

Pope Park Highway #4 not only has the oddest name of any street in Hartford, it continues to supply surprises. We first checked in on this bizzarre little road back in March when we found it in disgraceful condition from people dumping garbage there. Pretty disgusting stuff. A month later we noticed Pope Park Highway had been cleaned up and featured some before and after pics on our Spring Cleaning post. A few weeks ago we drove down Pope Park Highway and noticed some gravel had been put down and it looked like some grading was being done. "That's nice" we thought as we made a mental note to return and take some pictures. We finally returned yesterday and boy were we surprised.

A Good Deed? The End of Literal Street Signs

A while back we found a leaning McLean street sign and thought that Hartford might be embracing using literal street signs. Recently we discovered that this experiment is over as the McLean sign is now perfectly upright. Another Sad City good deed or the end of a great experiment?

Changing Hartford One Good Deed At A Time

The Half Door is one of the best places in Hartford. It did have the drawback of having what was officially known as Hartford's Most Awkward Bathroom. Not anymore. In what we suspect was a reaction to the diligence and crack reporting by Sad City, we can confirm that the men's room at the Half Door now has dividers.

Most industry analysts are calling this a brilliant move. One analyst who specializes in tracking trends in Hartford bathrooms says that they expect this move to "reduce bathroom awkwardness by 97%" while increasing the Half Door's bottom line as male patrons will be encouraged to indulge in an extra pint or two. "Our research shows that people go to the Half Door to drink beer and eat food, and this move will embolden customers to do more of the former."