Hartford is dead - what are we?

A report last week from the financial website 24/7 Wall St. naming America’s Ten Dead Cities did not add any sense of relief to Connecticut’s economic woes, as it declared Hartford officially deceased. The classification comes due to a steady exodus of big businesses and concurrent population decline. Call it another stick in the eye for the Nutmeg State and its embattled capital city, which has been struggling with an identity crisis since the 1960s.

For those who can’t bear to read the story, written by Douglas A. McIntyre, the dead cities, from one to 10 (first to 10th deadest?) are Buffalo, N.Y.; Flint, Mich.; Hartford; Cleveland, Ohio; New Orleans, La.; Detroit, Mich.; Albany, N.Y.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Allentown, Pa.; and Galveston, Texas.

Some of the choices may seem obvious, as anyone familiar with Billy Joel or Michael Moore can attest, and this certainly isn’t the first time someone has claimed Hartford is dead. But it’s still a bit unsettling to witness the path of destruction, which places Connecticut square in the middle of the mess.

When you look at the state as a whole, the problems seem to multiply. A 2007 report from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning has placed six Connecticut cities on a list of the country’s 150 forgotten cities, including Bridgeport, Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, New London and Waterbury. The report doesn’t bother to mention smaller communities like Torrington and Winsted, which are also facing high levels of unemployment and underemployment, along with many of the woes of bigger municipalities.

Winsted, which doesn’t qualify as a city by today’s standards, was once considered an important enough community to be in the running to be the state capital. Now, the community is struggling to consolidate its schools to save enough money to keep them open, while buildings fall apart and roads crumble. Old mill buildings sit abandoned throughout town, reminding us of the false promises of developers who have proposed rehabilitation projects. When surrounding cities are being listed as forgotten or dead, one has to wonder if we, too, are among the living dead.

Maybe the news is even worse. Maybe the whole state is dead. With so little economic leadership in recent years and politicians lulling us into slumber, is it possible that we’ve all died in our sleep? And if you die in your sleep, do you ever really know you’re dead?

Maybe we’re all in a Michael Jackson video. OK, snap out of it.

A new governor, attorney general, comptroller and junior senator might be able to wake us up and get some money flowing, but local politicians need to come up with creative solutions to municipal problems and find a way to put their feet down when unreasonable state mandates get in the way.

No matter who wins in this year’s elections, the state’s new leadership team will have to get to work immediately to resuscitate the state’s dying communities and perhaps even bring a few back from the dead — because having people constantly telling you you’re dead is no way to live.