1 Do suburbs have neighborhoods?

Who are we: The Community We Serve  Community Foundation for Greater Hartford  Founded in 1925  Serving 29 towns  About 800K people 2 Hartford is here

Hartford at the center, but declining population + increasing poverty 3 Data via: CT State Data Center

Population growth in the suburbs 4 Data via: CT State Data Center

Why do we care: concentrated poverty, rising poverty in suburbs 5

What is a neighborhood?  No single definition –Focus on what the neighborhood contains, not the boundaries  Two general types of definitions –State: ‘mutually exclusive and exhaustive’ –Vernacular: locally driven and understood 6

Hartford has neighborhoods 7 hartfordinfo.org Asylum Hill Barry Square Behind the Rocks Blue Hills Clay-Arsenal Downtown Frog Hollow Northeast North Meadows Parkville Sheldon/Charter Oak South End South Green South Meadows Southwest Upper Albany West End

Three towns in the urban periphery: do they have neighborhoods? EnfieldEast HartfordWest HartfordCT Total estimated population 44,654 51,252 63,268 3,574,097 Total population, Income in the past 12 months below poverty level7%15%6%7% Population 25 years and over, Less than high school diploma11%17%7%11% Births, Weight under 2500 grams6%12%7%8% Foreclosures, Rate (per 10,000) Crime, Rate (per 100,000) 2,139 3,426 2,412 2,

Does the census see neighborhoods? East HartfordEnfieldWest Hartford East Hartford CDPHazardville CDPWest Hartford CDP Sherwood Manor CDP Southwood Acres CDP Thompsonville CDP 9 Town of Enfield contains four census-designated places 2,736 1,306 2,840 With much lower population density overall (people / square mile)

Do towns see neighborhoods?  Planning and zoning  Services  Revitalization / redevelopment 10 West Hartford East Hartford Via town websites West Hartford

Do public services see neighborhoods? 11 Police Fire

Do realtors see neighborhoods? 12 Sometimes?

Do communities see neighborhoods? TownTypeNameTotal Assets EnfieldCommunity & Neighborhood Development The Enfield Community Development Corporation Inc.0 West HartfordNeighborhood / block associationsNorth Point Estates Inc0 West HartfordNeighborhood / block associationsWestmont Residents Association Inc.0 West HartfordNeighborhood centers The Joyce D and Andrew J Mandell Greater Hartford Jewish Community20,535,608 West HartfordCommunity & Neighborhood DevelopmentCitizens Network of the Capital Region Inc0 West HartfordCommunity & Neighborhood DevelopmentHome Design District of West Hartford Ltd0 West HartfordCommunity & Neighborhood DevelopmentTaiwanese Association of Connecticut0 13 nccsdataweb.urban.org, enfieldcdc.org

Do residents see neighborhoods? 14

Why do we want neighborhoods? “Purely local, customary practices…achieve a level of precision and clarity—often with impressive economy—perfectly suited to the needs of knowledgeable locals. State naming practices are, by contrast, constructed to guide an official ‘stranger’ in unambiguously identifying persons and places, not just in a single locality, but in many localities using standardized administrative techniques.” - James C. Scott, “The Trouble with the View from Above” 15