[netdragon]

Well, even though Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA are connected, they think like two separate competing metro regions instead of one metro region that should work cohesively. The only thing they share is an airport. This is unacceptable.

Hartford and Springfield need to think about alliances when it comes to merging transportation systems, shared visions, shared development planning, and strategic partnerships. Although there has been some attempts, nothing has ever panned out. They are getting their butts kicked, in the meantime, by larger metro areas (e.g. Atlanta) are attracting development, people and businesses that Hartford and Springfield are too small to attract unless they work together. I think a 15 year plan should be developed to reach this goal. My proposed plan is as follows:

1. The first step towards combining Springfield and Hartford into one metro would be to take existing planning groups, and economic development organizations that don't think of Hartford-Springfield, and create powerful umbrella organizations from the leaders of these groups to think of the region as a whole. There should also be a shared "smart growth" and "liveable communities" initiative.

2. The next would be to push for commuter rail to connect the two "regions" into one, under one authority, and then work out agreements where bus passes in either city will work in the other, and to build transfer stations for regional bus transit between the two cities. I believe the rail is already in the works since they are planning a commuter rail line from Springfield through Hartford, to New Haven. I haven't heard of any discussion about linking up bus systems. For the rail to truly work as a mass-transit backbone, I believe Hartford and Springfield will also need to be linked up by bus. The commuter lanes for Hartford should also probably be connected all the way up into Springfield. The separator lanes aren't needed all the way up, though, since they really just take up space.

3. A shared park system, and greenbelt. The first could be a fully connected park and bikepath along the CT river by extending Riverfront Recapture up to springfield.

4. Increase density and redevelop along the I-91 corridor between Springfield and Hartford to create a contiguous stretch of urbanized "livable communities", which would give a single-metro feel. This could include some "livable community" redevelopment efforts for the riverfront portions of Enfield, Windsor and Longmeadow, along with creating a planned downtown for East Windsor near I-91. These livable communities would fill in underdeveloped areas and be comprised of townhomes, mixed shopping/residential, and mid-rise condos built to the tune of enhancing pedestrian traffic and and creating a sense of identity for the communities. Someday, hopefully someone could ride a bike from Hartford to Springfield along connected riverfront parkways that line shopping districts in each town, as if it's one continuous community.

5. I think another step would be to build a couple divided expressway connectors between the outer suburbs on the east and west, so that there are other express routes for cars and busses besides right down I-91. This would better link the two regions. One route could be from the Eastern edge of East Longmeadow to the Buckland area. The other could be between Westfield and Bradley International. They could utilize existing rail lines as not to require too much right-of-way purchasing. Greenways along these routes and limited access can prevent them from disrupting the low-density character of the outer suburbs, and also be another part of a shared park system.

Another step would be to push the federal census bureau to add Springfield MSA to Hartford's CMSA (Hartford, New Britian, Middletown). I'm not sure what this would entail.

If something isn't done, Hartford-Springfield will always be a single metro area, with a huge wall across the center, and will lose out on the opportunities bigger metro areas have.

What do people think? Any ideas?

[TheMeltyMan]

I like the idea and i've got family in Hartford, Windsor and Springfield. The entire area does seem like a giant cohesive unit, but one could also say the same thing about much of Connecticut. The fact that they're in different states plays a part and I always thought Windsor was Hartford's suburb. Springfield seems to have oriented its growth to the north through Holyoke up towards Northhampton.

[Evergrey]

I drove through that region on I-91 a couple summers ago and it seemed like one big megalopolis to me... seize on these existing assets and create a bi-nodal urban juggernaut!

[bryson662001]

Somehow I don't see how it would make a big difference. In many ways they already are one metro but making it official would not suddenly bring a big influx of people or business that wasn't going to come anyway IMO. Instead of two small and not so healthy metros you would have a single bigger but still not so healthy metro. What's the point?

Besides, even though they are so close together they are very different from each other. Springfield is so focussed on Boston and education and Hartford is the insurance center and Conneticut's capital. It is almost as if the two cities don't share the same languige.

[netdragon]

What is Springfield doing on the education front? Hartford created Capital Community College out of the old G Fox building. I don't think Hartford is against education, but eduction can only be part of a comprehensive regional plan.

Commuter rail: http://www.ct.gov/dotinfo/cwp/view.asp?a=2181&Q=295562

The commuter rail looks like the only tangible thing so far, so I think it's a good starting point, and planning should center around the commuter rail as the beginning of a multi-modal communication network for the region. It looks like that's already a work in progress for CT based on what I see in the final report (http://www.ct.gov/dotinfo/cwp/view.asp?a=2181&q=295670&dotinfoNav=|). Is section 5.3 (http://www.ct.gov/dotinfo/lib/dotinfo/nhr/docs/final/NHHS_Rail_-_Final_-_Ch5B.pdf) discussing fare sharing between both the CT and Springfield bus systems or only within the same state? I have difficulty figuring that out. Shared passes between bus systems is important to create a cohesive metro, and this sort of thing is occuring in other metro areas - such as between Marietta's Cobb County and Atlanta in metro Atlanta. I'm glad that the study included some suggestions for the Springfield stations.

As they are ironing out he details, it may be a good opportunity to try to plan a joined riverfront park between Springfield and Hartford and link it up with the rail plan so the two can be executed in parallel.

I've seen this around for a while The Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership (http://www.hartfordspringfield.com/), but haven't seen anything tangible coming out of it. It seems to be all about marketing slogans, and the bottom has fallen out on infrastructure planning element.

[TheMeltyMan]

What is Springfield doing on the education front? Hartford created Capital Community College out of the old G Fox building. I don't think Hartford is against education, but eduction can only be part of a comprehensive regional plan.

Springfield itself doesn't have much in the way of education but certainly UMass, Hampshire, Holyoke, etc in and around the Northampton area are oriented around Springfield. Springfield is within 30 minutes from a lot of universities and the only other relatively close cities are Albany and Worcester.

[bryson662001]

Springfield itself doesn't have much in the way of education but certainly UMass, Hampshire, Holyoke, etc in and around the Northampton area are oriented around Springfield. Springfield is within 30 minutes from a lot of universities and the only other relatively close cities are Albany and Worcester.

That was my point. The only "new business" the Springfield area seems to attract in students. Hartfords's focus is elsewhere because it is the state capital......which means nothing to Springfield since their capital is Boston.

The two cities just don't have much in common IMO.....in spite of their being so close to each other.

[netdragon]

They both have in common that they are older cities in the same general area, both on the Connecticut river. How many people commute from Springfield to CT each day and vice-versa? I'm sure it's a lot, and if you look at http://www.ct.gov/dotinfo/lib/dotinfo/nhr/docs/final/NHHS_Rail_-_Final_-_Ch2.pdf and notice that the traffic Northbound through Enfield on I-91 about equals that Southbound, it gives the indication that these are mostly morning and evening commutes that balance out, equalling 50,000 both ways (almost as much as through Wethersfield). These two cities also share an airport. They also share suburbs in a sense, since Enfield and Suffield can be considered suburbs of either city. More ways to travel between the two parts of the metro will mean more options for workers, a larger job market, and therefore a more attractive metro area. The roads should probably be beefed up between towns like Tolland and East Longmeadow and between Suffield and Agawam to try to encourage people on the outer edges of Springfield MSA and Hartford MSA to make more trips across state lines for shopping and working.

Is the biggest barrier is being in separate states? If so, that's a good reason to have an organization that works towards making sure they are working together, so that when they go to request funds from their respective state governments, it's for shared projects and shared visions of growth. Beyond that, I don't think it really matters. It's all about what the money is being spent on. Now, sure, if Springfield is interested in beefing up it's local universities, but Hartford on the
other hand is only interested in beefing up transportation, then there's a conflict. However, I don't think that's the case considering what CT is putting into school campuses in the Hartford region and I see plans across Google for transportation improvements in the Springfield area.

I think what's more likely, and I agree with you on this -- is that MA money is mostly going to Boston, and Springfield is just an afterthought since it's not the capital or largest metro area centered in the state. The solution may be for CT to agree to commit to matching some of MA state money when it comes to joint transportation improvement projects. This seem to already be happening with the commuter line from Springfield to New Haven. It'll be CT trains, and MA is pitching in only about 15% of the cost in order to have a station in Springfield. Another thing to keep in mind is that if the commuter line gets built, it will create a denser track of urbanized area between Springfield and Hartford, as commuter tracks usually cause developments to sprout up around them.

People may wonder how a city with 30,000 more people than Hartford can be "incorporated" into the Hartford metro region, but Hartford MSA is almost twice the population of Springfield MSA, and Hartford itself is denser in both population and commerce and is surrounded by more inner suburb cities, and by more outer suburbs.

[bryson662001]

OK, I am convinced.....and hey.....good luck with that.

[ctman987]

As a Hartford resident im going to chime in on some discussion finally relating to my city...

Hartford and Springfield are two distinct cities that have shared somewhat different histories and evolved in different manners. The fact that Hartford is the state capital of Connecticut which is state that is not home to a huge city like Boston or Philadelphia does wonders for Hartford. Springfield on the other hand is the third largest city in Mass and it is the farthest away from Boston in the heart of the Pioneer Valley. Many Boston and Worcester area residents look at the Pioneer valley as almost a different state.

Because of Springfield’s size (in relationship to other Mass cities) and because of its location it is hard to get funding to help Springfield. Mass is centered on making the best of Boston and then the best of Worcester. Springfield usually gets the short stick because it is usually thought about after Worcester and Boston are taken care of.

This being said I think there is a lot of potential for Hartford and Springfield to take advantage of by becoming one metro area but I also think it will be a very long and hard uphill process.

The fact that these two cites are in separate states is a big problem. I know that Connecticut became supportive of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail line long before the state of Mass. Connecticut officals saw how cities like New Haven and Stamford had benefited from being on the Metro North line from Manhattan and they wanted to expand this success to the capital city which is in the midst of major change. Getting Mass and Connecticut to work together is one of the first things that needs to be done.

On the same lines these two cities in some instances compete for business as seperate places. For example Connecticut Mutual and MassMutual used to be two separate companies until MassMutal bought Connecticut Mutual. MassMutual was a Springfield company but the new company kept a huge presence in Hartford until recently when they finally moved all of their operations to downtown Springfield and to Enfield, CT. Obviously this dealt a small blow to Hartford because these cities are thought of as two different cities. Recently St. Paul Travelers announced it will be adding 500 jobs to downtown Hartford, a major suburban law firm announced it would be relocating to downtown Hartford, Sovereign Bank announced they would be relocating their regional headquarters to downtown Hartford, GlobeOp announced they would be opening a Hartford office with 150 employees and AETNA announced it would be moving 2000-3000 employees to Hartford. I am sure if any of these decisions had been made in Springfield it would have been seen as loss to Hartford, when really these companies could have opened up offices in Phoenix or Houston.

Urbanizing the area between Hartford and Springfield would do wonders for the cities but the area between Hartford and Springfield is a very suburbanized and built up area with lots of sprawl and it also is comprised of the poorer Hartford suburbs. For example Hartford's wealthiest suburbs are located in the Farmington Valley with a few additional wealthy suburbs located to the south and east of the city. It is going to be very hard to get towns in between which compete with each city separately for jobs themselves to work together. Windsor, CT for example has experienced major growth in the its business center around the Day Hill Road area/ Windsor Corporate Center. The Hartford, ING, Northeast Utilities, ALSTOM Power Inc and AETNA (to name a few) all have some sort of presence in Windsor.

Lastly another distinction between these cities is that because of Hartford’s importance in Connecticut it is receiving much more in the way of state aid towards development projects which has helped to fuel a massive wave of new development projects city wide. Downtown Hartford is home to the new CT Convention Center & Marriott Hartford Hotel Downtown, a new science center is under construction, a new 36 story residential tower recently opened, a community college opened up in the former G Fox Building and old buildings are being renovated into residential or office space. Over on Asylum Hill the CT Culinary Institute relocated to the neighborhood from the suburbs. Park Street received a huge facelift and is filled with shops, restaurants, and apartments catering to the Hispanic community. The University of Hartford Performing Arts Center is finally under construction and old projects are being torn down and replaced with townhouse style units or single family homes. Springfield is receiving investment in projects like the recently revamped MassMutual Center but nothing as extensive as the projects in Hartford is happening because a jump start from the state is very difficult because Springfield is the third largest city in the state and the farthest away from Boston.

[netdragon]

I agree on a lot of that, however what do you think it would take to make the two cities cooperate? What political/economic measures do you think could help encourage the towns along the future Springfield/New-Haven line to build up along the line? For instance, do you think promises of huge redevelopment funds to South Windsor, Enfield, East Windsor, Suffield, Windsor Locks, and Windsor to re-develop their riverfronts would be accepted?

Also, and I separated this because it's a very different question, do you think that metro Hartford is eventually going to swallow up Springfield anyway?

[palemonk]

2. The next would be to push for commuter rail to connect the two "regions" into one, under one authority, and then work out agreements where bus passes in either city will work in the other, and to build transfer stations for regional bus transit between the two cities. I believe the rail is already in the works since they are planning a commuter rail line from Springfield through Hartford, to New Haven. I haven't heard of any discussion about linking up bus systems. For the rail to truly work as a mass-transit backbone, I believe Hartford and Springfield will also need to be linked up by bus. The commuter lanes for Hartford should also probably be connected all the way up into Springfield. The separator lanes aren't needed all the way up, though, since they really just take up space.

Isn't there a planned Metro North connection between Hartford and Springfield?

[netdragon]

Isn't there a planned Metro North connection between Hartford and Springfield?

Yes. Unfortunately, there are no plans yet on how to tie that in with new urban development between the two cities.