Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • January 11, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Bronin must restore faith in city government I n his first public speech since being sworn into office, Mayor Luke Bronin said city and non-city residents must aid Hartford's revival by being actively involved in the community and spending more time and money in the Capital City. Bronin's plea, of course, is spot on as new city leadership alone, no matter how heralded or revered by voters, can't change the course of history without buy-in from residents, non- residents and the business community, all of which build the true fabric of a vibrant city. Pleas alone, however, won't engage greater civic participation or investment in Hart- ford. Bronin's main task will be to re-install trust and faith in city government, something that has been lacking for some time. Whether it was the corruption scandal that engulfed Eddie Perez or the incompetent management that clouded the Segarra administration, residents and businesses rightly have little faith in city government to get things right. It's hard to stir civic engagement or attract private investment under those conditions. Bronin ran on a platform of transparency and sound management. He's got two major tests waiting for him: the minor-league ballpark fiasco and the scandal-plagued Dillon Stadium development. Both issues require careful attention but the delays and cost overruns of Dunkin' Donuts Park require immediate attention since it's causing Hartford national embar- rassment. Last week, Joe McEacharn, president of the Eastern League, where the Hartford Yard Goats will play this season, publicly admonished the city and stadium developers, saying he was lied to about the stadium's progress and completion date. It now seems unlikely the stadium will be ready by opening day April 7. As city leaders, developer Centerplan Cos., the team and league search for a solution, they must take a long-term view of the project. Taking short- cuts to build a half-baked stadium ready for opening day will create long-term problems and prove more costly to taxpayers. Playing extra road games or at an alterna- tive home stadium to begin the season, while admittedly embarrassing to the league, city and team, won't be the end of the world. This stadium needs to be built the right way to preserve its long-term structural and financial integrity. The childish finger-pointing going on is also unhelpful. There's plenty of blame to go around for the construction delays and cost overruns, but continuing to retreat from responsibility won't solve the problems. It will also give project naysayers, and the general public, more ammo to badmouth the stadium, further undercutting support for the team before it even takes the field. Bronin must bring all parties together to develop solutions that will help make this project a success, while also protecting the interest of taxpayers. If Bronin succeeds, and the stadium eventually brings the economic development boost it promised, it will go a long way in restoring trust in the city's ability to handle its business. If the project falters, developers and investors will continue to re-think putting their capital at risk in a city that can't seem to get its act together. If Bronin was expecting a honeymoon period, he chose the wrong job. Instead, he must play the role of relation- ship counselor and mediator, and restore the public's relationship with city hall. n OTHER VOICES Access to banking key to Hartford's north-end revival By Rex Fowler N o TV crews or journalists were there last summer when a local credit union opened a new branch on North Main Street in Hartford's northeast neighborhood. But make no mistake, this was one of 2015's biggest wins for the Capital City, and one that has more poten- tial to turn the tide for financially-strapped, north-end residents than any ballpark, hotel, or casino that may garner headlines on the front pages or generate buzz on social media. The Hartford Municipal Employee's Federal Credit Union (and you thought Yard Goats was a tough name to swallow) moved in to a vacant building that had previously served as a branch for one of America's largest banks. Not that long ago there were four bank branches in the three densely populated north-end neighbor- hoods that now con- stitute the newly designated "Promise Zone" (the neighbor- hoods are Northeast, Clay Arsenal, and Upper Albany). In recent years three of the four branches have quietly closed their doors, leav - ing the 24,000 residents in the Promise Zone in what's now called a "banking desert" (not coincidentally three check-cashing stores have opened in the Promise Zone during roughly the same timeframe). And in the north end, where more than a third of residents don't have their own vehicles and a significant percentage don't have the technological capacity to engage in online banking, access to a local financial insti- tution still matters. The national Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) estimates that 21 percent of Hartford households have no accounts with any bank or credit union (statewide, only about 5 percent of residents are unbanked). In addition, CFED's analysis indicated that another 24 per- cent of Hartford households are "underbanked," meaning they have an account, but continue to rely on alternative financial services like check- cashing services, payday loans (illegal in Con- necticut, but readily available online), rent-to- own contracts, and pawn shops. What's the cost of these services? Over the course of a typical north-end resident's working life, the fees for using a check-cashing service can add up to one whole year's worth of wages. Rent-to-own agree- ments charge interest at rates of 98 percent and higher. And online payday loans are available at rates in excess of 1,000 percent. So with 45 percent of our households either unbanked or underbanked, how does Hartford compare to other cities in New England? Hart- ford Community Loan Fund looked at CFED data for New England's 30 largest cities. No city had a higher proportion of unbanked and underbanked households than Hartford (the closest in Connecticut was Bridgeport at 37 percent). In fact, of all U.S. cities over 100,000 residents, HCLF analysis found only a handful of municipalities whose residents were more disconnected from banks and credit unions — and the more affordable credit products gener- ally offered by these institutions — than Hart- ford (for large cities, hard-hit Detroit topped the list at 49 percent). To make matters worse, the past three years have seen the doors permanently closed at Hartford's two largest providers of financial literacy and credit counseling services, Co-Opportunity and HART — two organizations that frequently made con- nections between banks or credit unions and the city's low-wealth residents. So it's no surprise that not only are a significant number of our residents unbanked or under- banked, but about the same percentage city- wide (45 percent) report credit scores below the 620 cutoff needed for access to just and affordable credit products (in the Promise Zone it's 55 percent with scores below 620; in Hartford's down- town, however, only 7 percent). Research has shown that commu- nities that develop and nurture a strong financial services infrastructure are more likely to devel- op financially stable and empowered households. What would such an infra- structure look like? Healthy and acces- sible banks and credit unions, robust and effec- tive financial education and empowerment ser- vices, including homeownership counseling, and lower-cost providers of alternative prod- ucts such as those offered by mission-oriented lenders like community development financial institutions. And to be effective, the services must be culturally relevant to the residents in the community. Like several innovative and progressive mayors in other U.S. cities have already done, Hartford's new Mayor Luke Bro- nin should consider creating an Office of Financial Empowerment, which would bring together leaders from local banks, credit unions, and insurance companies, along with not-for-profits like the Village for Families and Children and Capital Commu- nity College, two organizations now trying to fill the void in financial education and capacity-building for Hartford residents. The objective should be to strategically focus our collective efforts on building the financial well-being of Hartford households, especially those in the city's most economi- cally stressed neighborhoods. That would be a real homerun for Hartford. n Rex Fowler is a resident of Hartford's north- east neighborhood and executive director of Hartford Community Loan Fund, a com- munity development financial institution. The Fund is the recent recipient of a $2 mil- lion award from the U.S. Dept. of Treasury, the majority of which it has committed to lend in the North Hartford Promise Zone. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL Should the state provide financial support to Hartford's baseball stadium? ● Yes ● No To vote, go online to HartfordBusiness.com. Last week's poll results: Will a Hard Rock café/hotel draw suburbanites to downtown Hartford? 46.6% Yes 53.4% No Rex Fowler ▶ ▶ New city leadership alone, no matter how heralded or revered by voters, can't change the course of history without buy-in from residents, non-residents and the business community, all of which build the true fabric of a vibrant city. ▶ ▶ In recent years three of the four branches have quietly closed their doors, leaving the 24,000 residents in the Promise Zone in what's now called a 'banking desert.'

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