Yankee Ingenuity Alive & Well In Hartford

New Englanders are renowned for their Yankee ingenuity, and the spirit of the settlers remains alive and well in Hartford today. While in Hartford's early days we had Samul Colt, Albert Pope, Howard Baldwin, and Eli Whitney, today we have a jeans company,  artist designed bicycles, a burlesque dance troupe, and a brewery figuring out that watermelon makes a good ale, while none of these up and comers have quite "won the west" yet, they could be well on their way.

Today and in the yesteryear, there has never been a lack of good ole' Yankee ingenuity in Hartford.

North End Farmers Market

A while back we took a look at some vintage Hartford Farmers Markets put on by Hartford Food Systems. Wednesday, June 27 marks the opening celebration of the 2012 North End Farmers Market. The market will be open from 10AM-1PM on 80 Coventry Street. In addition to great farm fresh food, the market will also featurea musical performance by the Congo Square Ramblers, a cooking demonstration from "Cooking Matters," face painting for children, and an appearance by Mayor, Pedro Segarra.

This market also doubles the amount of SNAP or foodstamp benefits that individuals receive, creating an incentive for low income individuals to shop at the Farmers' market. Great idea, great food, and some free entertainment. In modern day parlance this is known as a "win-win."

Who is Sapo?

To us, Sapo sounds like some sort of Eastern Europe Bloc spy outfit, but in Northern Hartford, Sapo is running amok with paint. One of the more prevalent taggers in the North End, Sapo doesn't really contribute much besides getting the name out there. 

Sapo's most visibile work is along Windsor Street, the site of the above and below pics. 

Feral Cats of Hartford

Living in Hartford takes a certain type of folk. You have to be a bit resourceful, a bit of a survivor and willing to laugh at the insanity that envelopes every day. Either that or you risk becoming delusional and thinking you either live in a war zone or a paradise, neither or which would accurately describe the bumbling urban environment we reside in.

A Hockey Train Rolls Towards Hartford

It's Friday. Sit back and enjoy this train roll slowly through the North End of Hartford. About halfway through the video you can glimpse downtown.

Meanwhile on your lunch break (and only on your lunch break!) check out some of these links to hear Howard Baldwin visit John Dankosky on Where We Live and read articles discussing NHL relocation.


A must read Baldwin interview from Hockey Prospectus

Sports Illustrated on where the Phoenix Coyotes will end up.

Will a new Seattle arena lure the NHL to the Northwest?

Contenders for NHL relocation from Slam Sports


Puck Daddy looks at challenges facing Seattle and Quebec City


The Barrie Examiner looks at NHL relocation prospects

Hartford Business: Del Norte Grocer

When we were going into the Pan De Oro chip factory a couple weeks ago, we noticed what appeared to be a Mexican Grocer at the end of the industrial park Pan De Oro is located in. Being in an industrial park, we first guessed it was a restaurant supply type store, selling products in bulk. After all, an industrial park next to train tracks didn't seem like the place where one would find a small grocer.

Inside The Pan De Oro Factory

Visiting the Pan De Oro chip factory on Main Street was something that had been on the Sad City agenda for quite a while but for whatever reason took a a while to get around to. When we finally visited last week, it was a what took so long moment. We made our way to the factory thinking we'd grab a bag of tortillas, chomp some down and write about the chips.

The factory is located in an industrial area of North Main Street. We weren't even sure if we were walking in the right door. When we first saw Rick Stevens he asked if he could help us. "We are looking for some chips."

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that not only were we in the right place, but when buying chips out of the factory they cost only $1 a bag. Can't beat that deal. Rick then asked how we found out about Pan De Oro. When we replied Twitter, he asked "great, did I follow you back, i always try to do that?"

 "Ummm, not sure, the account is Sad City Hartford."

"Oh ok! Would you like a tour of the factory?"

A tour of the factory? Yes, I think we would enjoy that very much.

After The Storm: The North End

Sad City continues our look at damage after the crazy winter fall storm that hit Saturday. With full trees lying across road, the North End was the worst hit area we saw. The amount of damage is amazing considering that these pictures were taken Tuesday afternoon; a day and a half after the storm subsided. We saw workers working on almost every area of major damage we saw in the North End.

Sad City's Guide To Cruising Hartford

If there is one thing we probably know better than just about anyone, it's cruising around Hartford. Our love of driving around and checking out the city extends to years before Sad City started and has been the source of countless posts on this blog. While we can navigate even the remotest city streets with ease, some aren't as well versed in the streets of Hartford. For those who are looking to get out and explore Hartford we present this handy guide to cruising Hartford. For best results cruise Hartford during a warm sunny day.

The Albany Ave Substation

The Hartford Courant's Jenna Carlesso wrote an an interesting article about the opening of a new police substation in downtown while the substation on Albany Ave remains closed. It is interesting to note that while the North End clearly needs the extra police presence more than downtown, it is also important that workers and business owners feel safe while coming into town for the few remaining jobs downtown.

We've visited the closed substation on Albany. It's a place to see oddly positioned security cameras, redundant signs, a basketball court wrapped in a yellow fence, and some locals hanging out and shooting the breeze.

Odd Security Camera Positioning

This security camera mounted on the now closed Albany Ave police substation does not appear to be positioned correctly to make optimal use of its surveillance abilities.

Hartford Pay Phone #32

This very urban pay phone marks the thirty-second phone tracked down in our long running Hartford Pay Phone mapping contest. Located in the North End at the corner of Guilford and Bethel, this pay phone could no doubt tell a good deal of stories.

Observers will note many Hartford urban area trademarks are present in this photo. The multi-family brick building in the background is common to the area and many, presumably built around the same time, can be found throughout the city in various stages of repair. The bodega is painted a blue color that looks like it was just slapped on to cover up whatever the previous color was. Finally there is the mysterious metal strip across the number pad that seems to exist only on urban phones and for which nobody seems to know the purpose of.

A North End Mattress Colony

One of the Hartford phenomenons that occurs in the summer and that Sad City documents is the rise of various mattress colonies on Hartford's sidewalks. While the mattresses can be found throughout the city, occasionally we find a colony that can't be passed up and needs to be posted. This is one such colony.

Hartford Pay Phone #30

Occasionally we return to last summers and a classic Sad City project, the charting of Hartford's remaining pay phones. This project came about when we realized that Hartford had been home to the first pay phone in the United States. While it would have been easy to write an essay lamenting the rise and fall of both Hartford and the pay phone over the last century, we thought that to be a little too obvious and instead decided to go about tracking down all over Hartford's still working pay phones.

The Hartford Food Guy: Scott's Jamaican Bakery

The Hartford Food Guy returns to review Scott's Jamaican Bakery. A Sad City favorite, Scott's was named as one of our favorite places to have lunch in  (Ed. Note A reader pointed out Scott's wasn't on the guide. They are correct. It was actually Golden Krust, another great place for patties we mentioned) Sad City's Guide to Lunch in Hartford. While the HFG visited the location on North Main Street, we usually frequent the Albany Ave location.

This past Saturday Mrs. HFG and I took a drive up North Main Street to Scott’s Jamaican Bakery, which is a pillar of both the North End as well as Hartford’s small business community. So much so that Scott’s operates three locations (North Main Street, Albany Avenue and Blue Hills Avenue), as well as a wholesale and production operation on Windsor Street. Scott’s has been around for over 30 years and pretty much anyone you talk to with strong roots in the West Indian community, or in the North End, Windsor, or Bloomfield will tell you that the Scott family is highly respected and its support and opinion is regularly sought on a wide range of political, business, and community issues.

Hartford Houses Of Worship: North End

The North End is an area of Hartford that gets a bad rap, and in many respects that reputation is deserved.  While it is a very poor area with a fair share of crime some out of town readers and Sad City residents might be surprised to learn that we do on occasion walk the streets of the Hartford neighborhood and to date we have yet to be shot but we will keep you posted if that changes.  While exploring the North End and stuffing our faces with Jamaican beef patties, we took some more pictures of Hartford houses of worship.  The above house is located on the corner of Albany and Woodland across the street from an abandoned lot we profiled last summer.

Sad City Visits Anti-Violence Rally in North End (Again)

Reverend Brown held an anti-violence rally in the North End yesterday in response to recent shooting in the area. Earlier in the summer we attended a similar rally held my Reverend Brown on Mather Street. This rally had a similar theme and we recognized a lot of the people attending from the previous rally. Without the summer sun beating down the Reverend wasn't sweating as profusely as last time but he still delivered a fiery oratory expressing his outrage with violence in Hartford. Video after the jump.

Hartford Pay Phone Contest: Pay Phone #20

Pay phone #20 is located on Capen St just feet from where a Smoker's Depot was held and an employee was shot up earlier this week. The store behind #20 could not possibly be more interesting. While billed as a variety store, the promise of hot dogs, sausages, soda billiards and video games make it sounds more like a teenage arcade heaven.

Sad City Visits Keney Park Family Day

After visiting the Asian Festival on Saturday, Sad City went to Keney Park to check out the Family Day celebration. Family Day featured vendors, food, and music performers on a huge soundstage. The stars of the day though were the high school age kids who participated in some sort of dance/music competition (we missed it) earlier and then performed some impromptu drumming in the park. For those of us that couldn't master the recorder in the third grade, this was most impressive. Vids after the jump.

Hartford Pay Phone Contest: Pay Phone #3

We have Pay Phone #3 in the Sad City Pay Phone contest. Phone #3 was found in the North End at the corner of Garden and Westland and may be the best find yet. Phone #3 is especially convenient as it offers a nice table to rest at between your phone calls. It is also convenient that this is phone #3 because if one looks closely, one can see that this phones street name is "S3NZ".

Don't forget to email me your entries!