West Hartford Center Has Lost Businesses, But There Have Been A...

[Kevin Walsh]

What To Do, I would be grateful if you would identify the referendum(s) that were "mostly ignored by the Mayor and Council."

[What to do]

Kevin Walsh wrote:

What To Do, I would be grateful if you would identify the referendum(s) that were "mostly ignored by the Mayor and Council."

The budget referendums of the past 2 years. Much of what was done this year should have been done previously but our elected chose mostly to ignore the voters and continue to tax and spend like most Democrats tend to do.

[yuk]

Unhappy customer wrote:

Hope this isn't too far off-topic: I drove 15 miles to buy 3 boxes of nice, expensive, blank invitations at Bennett's. Used one box - the cards were perforated at the fold so they split in half when you opened them - so I returned the other 2 boxes, 1 week later. I was informed by a non-smiling, non-sympathetic clerk that I could get store credit only, even though it had only been a week, I had not opened them, and I had a receipt that showed I spent over $100 that day. I don't care if someone asks me if I need help, I care about respect & gratitude for my business, which I don't think I got. I wouldn't be going back, except I have to spend the store credit slip.

......sounds like Goodman

[Ricky]

Looks like two more stores (Mimi and Kzen) are leaving the Center for other towns. Soon more retailers will leave for better deals or go bankrupt trying to survive. Even the Post Office is on the chopping block. It is sad because West Hartford Center was such a vibrant area a short time ago.

[MrLogical]

Ricky wrote:

Looks like two more stores (Mimi and Kzen) are leaving the Center for other towns. Soon more retailers will leave for better deals or go bankrupt trying to survive. Even the Post Office is on the chopping block. It is sad because West Hartford Center was such a vibrant area a short time ago.

On the decline as many move to towns with lower taxes...such as Farmington and Avon - even Simsbury.

[Nope]

MrLogical wrote:

<quoted text>
On the decline as many move to towns with lower taxes...such as Farmington and Avon - even Simsbury.

Give me a break. Which stores have moved to those towns?

[rwe]

sleepless in wh wrote:

Notes from a lifelong resident:
1. Customer service at Bennett's has always been notoriously bad. I stopped shopping there years ago.
2. The Counter, Elbow Room, Cheesecake Factory - all doing consistently good business
3. Barnes & Noble at BBS - for a chain, this place is remarkably well-stocked with more than just the bestselling schlock; booksellers very helpful & SMART. They will validate parking if you spend over a certain amount
4. Chocolate = good all-purpose, always-welcome gift, not too expensive, so no surprise chocolate stores do well in bad economy
5. If paying a couple of bucks to park means the typical Walmart shopper will stay out of WHCenter, all well and good
6. Reigning Cats & Dogs, A Hair Place, Plimpton's, bead store, Whole Foods, Bruegger's, many more - all great places staffed by helpful, smart people
7. People from other towns chose to come here to shop and eat, even in this economy. It's tough all over. WH still has more going for it than most other towns/cities.

Exactly- take Bristol for instance. Yeah, nice downtown development. We're losing a major retailer. We've got empty stores all over.

[rwe]

RANDY CHAMBERS wrote:

DIE YUPPIE SCUM ! long live the blue collar man !

lol

[MrLogical]

Nope wrote:

<quoted text>
Give me a break. Which stores have moved to those towns?

The people are moving out, not the stores. People first, then the stores.

[Ready to move]

MrLogical wrote:

<quoted text>
The people are moving out, not the stores. People first, then the stores.

Sad but oh so true, our Mayor and Council have destroyed the warmth and pleasantry's of our once vibrant center and Town as a whole. Steel light poles with cameras, streets soon to be strewn with leafs all fall and a school budget that just caters to every whim for any family that can move here. We have classified just about every student into one category or another just so that we can study why they are the way they are. Some gifted and some not, some black some white some green, and yes some are dissabled, that's just the reality of life.
Enough of this cry me a river attitude that these school boards present every budget cycle.

[christiane]

Ready to move wrote:

<quoted text>Sad but oh so true, our Mayor and Council have destroyed the warmth and pleasantry's of our once vibrant center and Town as a whole. Steel light poles with cameras, streets soon to be strewn with leafs all fall and a school budget that just caters to every whim for any family that can move here. We have classified just about every student into one category or another just so that we can study why they are the way they are. Some gifted and some not, some black some white some green, and yes some are dissabled, that's just the reality of life.
Enough of this cry me a river attitude that these school boards present every budget cycle.

let's try this for a change...let's focus on the POSITIVE...so, for the next dozen or so posts, let's be positive...

[MrLogical]

christiane wrote:

<quoted text>
let's try this for a change...let's focus on the POSITIVE...so, for the next dozen or so posts, let's be positive...

Did you say positive...?

West Hartford...?

Positive...?

ROTFLMAO!!

[christiane]

MrLogical wrote:

<quoted text>
Did you say positive...?
West Hartford...?
Positive...?
ROTFLMAO!!

did i stutter?...something positive...what do you like about west hartford?

[Ready to move]

christiane wrote:

<quoted text>
did i stutter?...something positive...what do you like about west hartford?

Please rephrase your question, what do you like about West Hartford that we have added (at the expense of something else) over say the past 5 years. I'll await the long list.
I agree that a posiitive approach is needed but all the recent changes and wastefull spending turn many of us into voicing the negative in order to stop the nonsense.

[MrLogical]

christiane wrote:

<quoted text>
did i stutter?...something positive...what do you like about west hartford?

Positive?
You're talking about West Hartford?

[Two Good Hands]

Would all those who are Ready To Move please do so already?

Seems like on every issue having to do with our town or our state, when certain elements don't get their way, they posture like children, hands on hips, declaring how either they will move or all the businesses will move or all the rich people will move. So move already! What's stopping you!

Or else contribute to the discussion of what is needed to make things better.

Or else shaddup.

[christiane]

Two Good Hands wrote:

Would all those who are Ready To Move please do so already?
Seems like on every issue having to do with our town or our state, when certain elements don't get their way, they posture like children, hands on hips, declaring how either they will move or all the businesses will move or all the rich people will move. So move already! What's stopping you!
Or else contribute to the discussion of what is needed to make things better.
Or else shaddup.

perfectly said! i am the chef/owner of a restaurant here in town...have been here 14 years and have no plans whatsoever to move...this town is a gift.

[moving asap]

christiane wrote:

<quoted text>
perfectly said! i am the chef/owner of a restaurant here in town...have been here 14 years and have no plans whatsoever to move...this town is a gift.

Still waiting for all those posts expressing all the positives that West Hartford has to offer that hasn't already been here for decades.
14 years, your a newcomer and as a chef/owner you should be quite happy that we have become an eat out society that just has to get away from home and family. Granted we have wonderfull new restaurants throughout town and Blueback. So what else is new & positive?

[christiane]

moving asap wrote:

<quoted text>Still waiting for all those posts expressing all the positives that West Hartford has to offer that hasn't already been here for decades.
14 years, your a newcomer and as a chef/owner you should be quite happy that we have become an eat out society that just has to get away from home and family. Granted we have wonderfull new restaurants throughout town and Blueback. So what else is new & positive?

14 years is a "newcomer"? normally, eating out is a pleasurable event...most people don't go out "to get away from home and family".....i am not quite sure where your thoughts lie

[Two Good Hands]

I'll give you a pretty damn big positive.

When I first moved to Hartford, almost 25 years ago, what I heard and what I observed first-hand about West Hartford was that it was a lily-white, nose-in-the-air town where what little there was that passed for life was in the Center. Friends of mine who are people of color would describe experiences of being "shadowed" by salespeople in WH Center stores and of being stopped by police for "driving while black."

Now, while it may be that Blue Back gets most of the attention, both Elmwood and Park Road have become interesting places to go, with a lively presence of their own. And demographically (much of) West Hartford is now diverse and a community where (generally) people are made to feel welcome.