Danielson, Connecticut and Quebec Square
google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/eNmJ6
UCONN – Historical Aerial Photographs
http://
And again, if you’d like to play with the maps:
Danielson, Connecticut and Quebec Square
google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/eNmJ6
UCONN – Historical Aerial Photographs
http://
A “surface subway” Bus rapid transit (BRT) bus. Utilizing elevated platforms, of course. Axial straight-shot routes, and these big boys supplemented by feeder buslines or streetcars.
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Originally published at Global Site Plans
Most of New England is made up of counties that predate the Declaration of Independence. However, these counties exist largely as geographical regions, with few reminders of their former county governments besides old courthouses, maps, and online administrative forms. The neighboring state of Rhode Island abandoned their county governance over 100 years earlier than Connecticut. Vermont and Massachusetts maintain a weak county government similar to what Connecticut once had, but theirs, too, is growing weaker.
At its height, Connecticut’s county government was responsible for liquor licenses, and services such as roads, jails, and courts. At the time county level government was abolished in Connecticut, it had little power, and was considered an ineffective “patronage” system of appointed commissioners. Many services that define county governance in other states were delegated to the state or towns.
In 1959, a Democrat-controlled legislature voted to end county government, and serving no other purpose but to manage county jails, the last elected position of county governance, the sheriff, was finally discarded in 2000. It’s a popular opinion that county governance is unnecessary because Connecticut is a small state.
It is often said that “Connecticut is split up into 169 little fiefdoms,” meaning that local governance is the responsibility of the separate 169 cities and towns. Each town provides its own services through taxation. If a small town is unable to operate an expensive service like a high school, it coordinates with surrounding towns for that service to be provided. To keep local tax rates as reasonable as possible, periphery services such as ambulances, animal control and tree maintenance are managed by multiple towns. This coordination is facilitated by Planning Regions, or “Regional Councils of Government,” commonly referred to in Connecticut as COGs.
In Connecticut, COGs have developed as a way to help towns and municipalities looking for ways to reduce their operating costs. Regionalism is now a focus of state government and in an effort to perform more efficiently, the number of COGS has been reduced from 15 to 9 within the past few years. Interestingly, this is nearly the same number as counties, with similar geographic boundaries. In lieu of cost pinches, decreased town-level civic participation, and other considerations, I often wonder if regionalism could further be applied to school boards. In many states, school boards are the dominion of county government.
Occasionally, proposals to re-enact county government come forward, and given the fact that the COGs perform many of the functions of county governments elsewhere–and receive more responsibility every year–it might be worthwhile to ponder their need in Connecticut and what they should look like.
What does county government look like where you live? Does your county government have a large decision making role?
Credits: Images and Data linked to sources.
A man of the people, Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana would travel the state, and eventually the entire country. He spoke with an energy and populism that was supported by policy designed to help the working class. He had a unique charismatic presence that made him an effective orator.
Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana, warms up for a radio speech from his Washington, DC office on March 7, 1935.
He would gesticulate wildly, with emotion to emphasize his points. He was poetic, and his speeches flowed well, telling a story. He would literally yell at a large audience, carrying his voice before the regularity of teleprompters, sound amplification, and sound bite television coverage. His spontaneity and energy would build many supporters. His effectiveness in selling the need for roads in rural Louisiana–which at the time the need was hotly debated–still, today, makes him the patron saint of road building in the state.
His “antics” would eventually, to put it mildly, earn him less praise. His speeches, though effective, would be labeled as buffoonery in the national media. Because of his popularity as a speaker, he would endure many partisan smears and attacks on his character. Eventually, Governor Long went to Washington, bringing his popularity with him. He had large support, and was a strong contender for the presidency. His speeches continued to make him popular, and there was fear that, if elected President, he would bring about a wave of social policies at the national level.
Combined with corruption allegations and charges of running a dictatorship back home in Louisiana, Huey Long would never get the chance. He was assassinated at age 42, with his last words being “God, don’t let me die. I have so much left to do.”
a great article: Huey Long: A Man of the People
Wars have been waged, and revolutions fought, over the right to self expression and personal freedom.
It is among the United States’ founding principles that every idea is protected and free from government oversight. It is insincere to those principles to gather information of what you are not intended to know. For that reason, eavesdropping on conversations that are of no hostility to anyone is a betrayal of one of our most sacred liberties. While searching correspondence for ill intent seems like a worthy cause; it comes with a price. The act has larger consequences that become morally frayed and disregarded with every application and subsequent “determination”. It is controlling and subjugating, as well as a gross violation of individual privacy. At the very least, it prohibits (and perhaps, oftentimes, criminalizes) certain subjects of discussion and potentially oversteps the domain of what government can and should be able to do.
It is against the spirit of free speech that private conversations of non-threatening affairs be screened, let alone categorized alongside brutal subjects such as terrorism. Are the contents of my discussions that great a risk to national security? Is the observation of private, emotionally focused exchange worth the effort and resources required to obtain it? It can be called into question: what other genres are monitored and to what end? It separates the individual into a category to be reviewed, and marks discussion of a particular subject matter as an offence, while no one has been offended. It is to look down on someone to even think that they need “protection” from themselves. It reeks of condescending “benevolence,” and the mature adult should never be treated as if a child. Protection from my own exchanges was never asked for, and custodial supervision restricts the subjects that I can freely engage in when communicating over the internet.
No doubt, monitoring at that level requires a great deal of technology at great cost. Time and energy should be put to worthier, higher aims. The administration of such an approach shows a failure of attention to the real concern, a personally satisfying well being. That issue stays largely ignored by observation of this type, which sees labeling and interference as appropriate methods of “correction”. Rather, education and support should be more readily available, if solicited, and be given in the upmost confidence at the highest of quality. The best approach the government can take is to not involve itself with the personal matters of its citizenry, but to avail itself, only if it is so desired. That prescription produces faith from the illumination of concern, and is far more manageable than tackling a problem after it has developed. Eavesdropping is not a proactive approach, and merely tries to correct false perception.
People find peace in privacy and strength with certainty, when their ability to communicate goes unimpeded. It would be of outrageous censorship to neglect the transmission of thoughts and feelings for fear of intrusion, as well as violate of the sanctity of personal discussion. Open dialogue and fellowship are therapeutic by nature, and should be free from unwarranted invasion. Friends provide a communication network with which to share what is on the mind, and they will be the ones who will monitor and intervene if needed. It is their input that provides solace at a time when it is truly need. They offer much in the way of emotional comfort when faced with burdens beyond our control. By editing our thoughts to those who care about us, for fear of reprisal; there is the potential for our most serious of concerns to go unrecognized, possibly causing further harm, and eroding the notion of the inviolability of trusted discourse.
The flu pandemic of 1918 is called the Spanish Flu because the Spanish media were the ones reporting it. Coverage of the flu was censored elsewhere, and the Spanish Flu was likely to have started in the United States.
It had a high mortality rate and its victims were usually between the ages of 20 and 40. It also spread quickly, infecting 1/5 of the world’s population. People died from it died very quickly.
The battlefield conditions of WW1 were ideal for the spread of this flu.
The close proximity of soldiers along with the confining nature of trench warfare allowed the spread of the Spanish Flu among beleaguered soldiers. A side effect of war is disease, and the “mass movements of men in armies and aboard ships probably aided in its rapid diffusion.”
The prevailing scientific theory the time of the cholera outbreak in London was that cholera was transmitted by foul odor (miasma theory). The concept of ‘bacteria’ wasn’t understood—many people thought if they couldn’t “see” illness causing bacteria, it wasn’t really there. People trusted the advice of “medical quacks,” instead of common sense cures to tackle the dehydration.
Faraday testing the waters of the Thames, 1855 Punch Magazine, volume 29 Westminster City Archives
It was felt that cholera was a socioeconomic disease, associated with those of lower morality and the “poor, stinking masses.” As cities grew in population, the pre-industrial waste infrastructure was unable to handle the excess excrement. Cities lacked the modern resources we take for granted, such as recycling and safe sewage removal. Leaky cesspools were the standard method of waste disposal, and these compromised fresh water sources.
The Great Stink ushered in new sanitation laws. In part because the Parliament could no longer tolerate the smell of the Thames River, a new sewer system was constructed which is still in use today. Public spending increases, which brings new parks into cities to provide fresh air. By 1875, the Public Health Act would require all houses to have their own sanitation and water.
The collection of data from pre-school to career is an affront to personal privacy. I also find the ‘standards’-based test consortiums responsible for stunting learning in schools, and driving costs in new books, materials and programs to mitigate their damage.
Our state needs it’s share of returns from the federal government for the purposes of public education, but not with this program as the mandate. It is the Constitutional privilege of the state to set it’s own education standards, and it should abandon the top down effort offered by trade organizations to make policy, in favor of crafting it’s own rigorous standards and curriculum, absent their presence. And the government should return it’s share to the state for that purpose.
I would support an alternative to Common Core which returns the classics to the classroom.
I favor a delay in implementation, and an accessible time period for public comment.
Instead, the implement and spin to get parents to accept Common Core, post facto.
