

Following Up: June 2011 Archives

Open letter to the Elizabeth Park tree vandals

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Hey Damaris, Elija...

You too Sonia, Amber, Ashley and Joshua...

You guys lucked out. Turns out the damage you did to the 100-year-old tree at Hartford's Elizabeth Park during the Rose Weekend Festival isn't fatal.

Not that it's all good news. The tree will likely lose two major limbs. Tree experts said the damage will be disfiguring thanks to you guys stripping it of so much of its bark and carving so many names into it: Iris, Erika, Robert..Was there a whole classroom full of you guys out there Sunday? Or just one really prolific whittler? Maddie, Kerry...

There was lots of love scratched into that tree: Scott loves Cindy. David loves Marissa. Krista loves Jeff. There just wasn't a lot of love, or respect, for the tree or your surroundings. Why is that, I wonder?

Lots of people I've talked to are giving you guys the benefit of the doubt and suggesting that maybe you guys didn't realize the damage you were causing. And to be fair, when I stopped by the park with the state Department of Environmental Protection's urban forestry coordinator, Chris Donnelly, there were plenty of names and initials carved into other trees as well.

Luckily, those trees weren't permanently harmed by clueless visitors using them as a canvas. But as I'm hoping you've heard, that wasn't the case with the tree you guys vandalized. Yeah, for the record, it's vandalism.

On the ride over to the park, Donnelly and I talked about respect for nature - and how clearly not everyone has it. Last year, he said, someone took a chainsaw to 15 trees in Bridgeport. Angry residents offered rewards for information leading to the arrest of whomever was responsible. There's no bounty on your heads. But Elizabeth Park volunteers and people who visited the site of the vandalized tree were pretty upset.

There's been a lot of debate over just what kind of tree it was that you damaged. After careful consideration, Donnelly said it's an arborvitae, or northern white cedar to the rest of us.

Turns out arborvitae means "tree of life." Donnelly said it got that name because the Native Americans along the St. Lawrence River brewed tea from its leaves to nurse French sailors back to health. He said the French didn't realize they were suffering from scurvy or that the tea was full of vitamin C; they just knew that the Indians and their tree was healing them.

"I suppose now the tables are turned a bit, and we can help this tree and trees in general," Donnelly said.

He apologized for the corny connection. Except I don't think it's corny. I think it's a nice, much-needed reminder to all of us to respect our surroundings, including the trees in our parks. Got that, Tessy, Chloe and Jessica...

A little more (confusion) about the state's minority set-aside program

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I need to apologize for calling the state's minority set-aside program "flawed" in my Sunday column.

That was way too generous. The program providing contracts to businesses owned by minorities and women is nothing short of broken.

Take for instance the black hole I've entered in trying to get updated information about which state agencies meet their set-aside goals. Round and round a Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities spokesperson and I went with no real answer -- yet. In 2003, CHRO reported that 43 of 81 state agencies did not meet their set-aside goals that year.

What's happened in the seven years since has proven harder to figure out, partly because the CHRO department in charge of collecting this data was eliminated shortly after that 2003 report. And partly because trying to determine who might have collected the data in the interim has turned into a bit of a mystery.

Readers chime in about state's broken minority set-side program


Sunday's column on the state's flawed program for providing contracts to businesses owned by minorities and women touched a nerve.

The emails and calls started coming in shortly after the column was posted online. And they haven't stopped since. Most are from business owners who say the program has long been broken. "In simple and clear language it is a scam. I was certified by the State of CT as an SBE, and my company is one of a few companies listed in the state web  site engaging in selling food.  Naturally I was very excited about the possibilities.  I found out very quickly that the hurdles and the obstacles that the state has set up ensures that an SBE could never succeed."

Others are from folks who say it is an unnecessary and unfair program to business owners who don't qualify. "In these modern times, explain again why minorities;  women, African Americans, native Americans, Hispanics, combined, constituting a majority of the population, are entitled to preferences over minority white European males? (women alone are over 50% of the population) Is it not just another example of the "tyranny of the majority". One preference for another? Substituting a legal prejudice today in place of a past racial prejudice of yesterday?"

Among the most interesting feedback comes from Fred McKinney, president and chief executive officer of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council.

"It is my belief as an economist and a minority business advocate that building minority businesses is the single most important policy today, exceeding health care, the budget, crime, the failed drug war, and taxes."

He continues: "We cannot rebuild our cities without having vibrant growing minority businesses, and the state of CT is the largest buyer of goods and services in the state.  For them not to assist in this is a dereliction of duty of the highest order. "


Those are some strong words, and I plan to follow up with him to talk more about the program.