The Old Hartford Is What We Know

Earlier today, I saw a giant blimp rise above a row of trees with "DirecTV" emblazoned on its side. You don't tend to see those around here, except for one week in the summer: when the GHO returns.

Of course, it's not called the GHO (Greater Hartford Open, the former name of the PGA golf tournament), anymore. It's the Travelers Championship, which at least is the name of a prominent Hartford insurance company. Formerly, it had been the Buick Championship (which is the kind of car that many people of a certain demographic drive around here, but Buick has no real connection with Hartford, other than a former tournament sponsor).

Still, I prefer to call it the GHO, as many others do - perhaps because it's reminiscent of a more prosperous time, certainly a time when the area economy was healthier. A time when the Whalers, an NHL franchise, called Hartford home. The 70s, 80s, and into the 90s, when Hartford, despite its lack of quality urban residences downtown, was doing pretty well. There was even a mall thriving downtown.

I think similarly about the Civic Center, which is not the Civic Center anymore - it's the XL Center. But the Civic Center was once the site of professional hockey, Boston Celtics home games, and rock concerts. The XL Center obviously still features sporting events, such as UConn basketball, and concerts, but the old red-outlined basketball court with the “C’s” in the middle of the court is what I prefer to remember. When the Civic Center exit sign was renamed to identify the XL Center, it did indeed look funny, like there was an "extra-large" exit.

Maybe this level of nostalgia happens because Hartford is a city, despite all of its best efforts and intentions, that remains stuck in the past. Listen to people, some of whom are not that old, refer to the city and its landmarks. City Steam Brewery is in the "old" Brown-Thompson building. Capital Community College is in the "old" G. Fox building next door. The cherished, onion-domed Colt building, a former factory that once mass produced firearms, still gets a lot of attention for its history. The Old State House seems to get mentioned as much the new capitol building.

It might be this way in other places. I know that the "old" Boston Garden, which has gone through a serious of name changes, such as the Fleet Center, thanks to sponsors, is still known as the Boston Garden, even though it's technically the TD Banknorth Garden (soon to be just TD Garden). But Boston, for instance, is not relegated so much to its past, probably because there are plenty of things happening there now.

Hartford is not as fortunate. The new Science Center is completed, but the jury's out about how much of an impact it will have on downtown. The Adrien's Landing development is barely moving. What Hartford needs is a collective effort - privately and publicly funded - to reinvigorate downtown. What would also help is direct access to the Connecticut River waterfront, which is cut off by Interstate 91. The highway, like Interstate 93 in Boston, needs to be buried, in order to revive the area.

Developers have tried - and are trying - to breathe life to the city. Hartford 21, the luxury apartment tower, is one example. New restaurants, including some promising ones like Bin 228, have opened. But it will take more - much more - to get people to think of Hartford as a city of the future, or even of the present, than the way many currently think when Hartford is mentioned - a city of the past.