http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hr/hc-perez0626.artjun26.story

City Debuts Homes Program

Neighborhood Is First In Line

By MARK PAZNIOKAS
Courant Staff Writer

June 26 2003

Public policy and politics rubbed shoulders Wednesday on a leafy street corner in Hartford's Northeast neighborhood as Mayor Eddie A. Perez targeted the oft-overlooked neighborhood for a home-ownership initiative.

Standing at the corner of Melrose and Rosemont streets, Perez made the case for focusing attention on a residential rectangle bordered by Main Street on the east, Earle Street on the south, Barbour Street on the west and the city line on the north.

"This area has many strengths that we plan to build on," Perez said.

Most prominently, he referred to the neighborhood's "bookends": 100 new homes on the site of the old Stowe Village public housing project and a 28-home subdivision developed by St. Monica Episcopal Church. Another 28 homes are planned.

In between are blocks of single-family homes, some tired and others well-kept. By designating the area as Hartford's first Rising Star Block, Perez hopes to stabilize and improve the area with public and private investment.

The election-year political dividends to Perez were evident in the crowd, which included some of the Democratic old guard with whom the mayor has had a cool relationship: Abraham Giles, Ella Cromwell, Trude Mero and Helen Nixon.

Perez emphasized that the choice of the Northeast neighborhood, one of the city's poorest, as the first Rising Star Block was his.

Another beneficiary is his council ally, Elizabeth Horton Sheff of the Green Party. She announced the initiative with the mayor. The neighborhood is part of Horton Sheff's political base.

Perez intends to name three other Rising Star Blocks, all of which will be assigned a "home-ownership coordinator" to help the neighborhood select and plan beautification projects.

The designations also bring low-interest loans to be administered through a new nonprofit corporation, the Neighborhoods of Hartford Inc. It will be funded through corporate and philanthropic grants that have yet to be announced, but an adviser said informal commitments have been obtained.