Have you visited downtown Hartford recently? The business center of the city still looks largely the same as it did decades ago, but when one looks closer, it becomes evident that much has changed.
Effects of the Pandemic
The effects that the coronavirus pandemic have had on
the downtown area can be seen in the empty storefronts and closed restaurants that you can't help but notice. The hustle and bustle of weekday business activity has been replaced by the slowed-down pace of life that downtown used to have only on Sundays.
There's still some vehicular traffic on the cavernous section of Main Street from the Traveler's headquarters up to Capital Community College, in the former G. Fox department store building. The makeup of the traffic is different from pre-pandemic days, however. There are far fewer commercial vehicles engaged in commerce there these days, and the overall pace of things seems to be much slower.
The large fleet of CT Transit buses still regularly rolls in and out of downtown Hartford, but the crowds of workers waiting for commuter buses are absent. The pedestrian traffic is lighter than it used to be, and there is less of a sense of urgency in the air.
While at a crosswalk in the heart of the downtown business section, at the intersection of Main and Pearl Streets today, a somewhat-disheveled-looking woman walked by me and asked if I had a dollar. Being a longtime city resident, my financial-defenses instantly spring into action when strangers ask me for money on the street.
While it's often recommended to avoid giving panhandlers cash, I tend to be compassionate, yet wary. After I gave her a dollar, she thanked me, then went on to ask the other people at the corner if they could also give her money.
A few minutes later, I was waiting at a crosswalk across the street, and the woman who asked me for a dollar was approaching cars stopped at the busy intersection's red traffic light. Because it was a warm day, the windows were open on many of the vehicles, and the woman was actually leaning-in the windows of some of them, and appeared to be receiving donations.
Longtime Connections
For most of my adult life, I've had various connections to Hartford's downtown section. Through the years, I cooked and prepped at classic eateries such as the Marble Pillar, Frank's, the Brownstone, Mad Murphy's and Civic Cafe on Trumbull.
As a bass player and guitarist in the Rock Velours punk band, I helped to assault the ears of the weekend bar patrons at Song Hays restaurant on Asylum Street for several years. On numerous occasions, I've attended live music shows by local and national acts at different downtown venues, and have dined at many of the restaurants located there.
My paintings have also been exhibited at a few downtown venues, including an art gallery that was housed in The Richardson/G. Fox shopping center. These downtown connections are not mentioned to toot my own horn. Rather, they are examples of a vital business district providing the public with attractions and events that make them want to visit and/or live there.
Whether the city will be able to return to such pre-pandemic levels of activity certainly remains to be seen.
Sorely-Missed Delis
Before the pandemic began, I looked forward to visiting Max Bibo's deli across from the XL Center, and Church and Main Deli at the corner of Church and Main Streets. Each of these delis consistently offered top-rate deli foods, and had lots of regular customers.
On more than one occasion, my primary reason for visiting downtown Hartford was to pick-up lunch to-go from Max Bibo's or Church and Main Deli. Max Bibo's menu offered an assortment of cleverly named deli sandwiches, with their Reubens and cold roast beef with lettuce, onions and mayo being personal favorites.
Downtown sections need accessible eateries where anyone can order a fresh deli sandwich, salads, tasty pizza slices or a hot entree. At Church and Main Deli Cafe, all of those options were available.
The upscale Dish restaurant is yet another economic casualty of the pandemic. Housed in the center of the business district, on Main Street, Dish was a popular spot for power lunches and romantic dinners.
Now, these popular restaurants are but culinary memories, and their respective locations are sadly vacant.
Keep on Rolling
Across Main Street, Sorella's Italian restaurant is still open for business, as are Brown Thompson and Company, Vaughan's, Peppercorn's, Max Downtown and Black-Eyed Sally's.
There don't seem to be as many deliveries being made downtown recently. It's been quite a while since I've seen seafood, meat or vegetable trucks delivering to the restaurants there. The beer delivery trucks, and the Coke and Pepsi tractor trailer delivery trucks must be delivering to other businesses these days.
Pedestrian traffic is but a fraction of what is was pre-pandemic, but at least there are people downtown. One can't help but notice the huge reduction of men and women wearing office attire making their break-time runs to Dunkin' Donuts, or the cigarette smokers grabbing a few puffs in front of their places of employment.
When I stopped at the old Main Street Market location at the corner of Asylum and Main, a group of young men were sharing a joint, and on Pearl Street, a man was passed-out in the doorway of a vacant, high-rise office building.
Brave New World?
With a large percentage of downtown Hartford's workers now working at home due to the pandemic, there's an abundance of high-rise buildings there that still need to regularly be cleaned and maintained. The thousands of people who worked at those buildings provided much of the financial lifeblood that the downtown restaurants and small businesses need to survive.
What about nightlife in downtown Hartford? In the small state of Connecticut, Hartford's downtown section has long been the site of countless, entertainment-related activities and events. The number of downtown nightspots, particularly live music venues, was already increasingly diminished prior to the pandemic.
There are plenty of expensive apartments available for rent throughout the downtown area, but lower and mid-range-priced apartments are hard to come by. A couple of places downtown still advertise their single room rentals, but those rentals fill up quickly.
With yet another variant of the virus starting to rear its ugly head now, news reports are already mentioning an increase in cases in some places. While some people will still head to Hartford's downtown section for entertainment, there are many more, I think, who will stay away until the coronavirus situation is more firmly resolved.
Rays of Light
Last week, I saw news stories related to new downtown Hartford business openings on both FOX-61 and WVIT-30 news. Local news media has been reporting that a new sneaker shop opened on Pratt Street in early March, and a new bake shop, and a new sports bar and restaurant will be coming to Pratt Street later in the year.
