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HARTFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY
 Reprint
(see also Announcement)
Housing Chief's Vision Realized Dutch Point Project Will Be Torn Down Stan Simpson, Hartford Courant
March 8 2003
John Wardlaw can retire now.
Two decades ago, the executive director of the Hartford Housing Authority proposed what was then considered a radical plan: the demolition of the city's
five large, federally funded public housing projects. Now, with a recent $20 million federal grant approved to raze infamous Dutch Point, only Nelton Court
will remain.
Wardlaw, 65, has plans to eliminate that eyesore, too.
The housing chief told me a couple of years back that he'd be disappointed to retire with the fate of Dutch Point unresolved. This week, the man who has
served for 27 years advocating for the "reinvention of public housing" was so giddy about the grant money - and possibly the prospects of retiring - he was quoting MLK.
"Free at last ... free at last," Wardlaw said with a laugh. "I'm the happiest man you could find anywhere. This is a big deal. From a personal perspective,
nothing was more important to me than to accomplish this. ... I've been saying this for a long time, but the way public housing is in urban America today is
something in the like of concentration camps for people, and an incubator of social ills. It has a direct impact on the social fabric of any city."
The future flattening of Dutch Point is a culmination of Wardlaw's career, although he still plays coy when questions are raised about retirement.
"Where do I go from here?" Wardlaw says. "I don't know. But I do feel very satisfied that I and my staff, working in cooperation with the city and the
politicos in Washington and the state, have accomplished the very thing that I've dedicated my life in the city for."
A wrecking ball can't come soon enough to Dutch Point, a half-century-old, crime-invested dump that was proving to be a major headache for police, downtown development planners and new housing advocates. It's four blocks away from the Adriaen's Landing site, near the highly anticipated Coltsville development and a block away from the stalled Capewell housing proposal site.
The question was never if Dutch Point should be imploded, but when, and who would pay for it. The total cost of the demolition and reconstruction project is $52.6 million, which includes federal, state and private dollars, plus city resources. The 186 barracks-style units would be replaced with 200 apartments
and owner-occupied duplexes and row houses spread over a larger expanse.
"This gives considerable momentum behind the mayor's overall vision for increasing home ownership and increasing the quality of the housing stock in the
city of Hartford," says Matthew Hennessy, the chief of staff for Mayor Eddie Perez. "It strikes right at a very critical point that he's always made, which
is that development dollars that strengthen the fabric of the community are the best-spent dollars because that means you have more people who have a stake in the community."
What was impressive about this federal grant is that it took a true collaborative effort to make it happen. The neighborhood folks were involved.
Perez traveled to Washington to lobby housing officials. Members of the state's congressional delegation did their part, and a regional development agency
ponied up some money, too.
Time was of the essence, and Hartford came up big in securing money from the Hope VI program that President Bush is trying to eliminate.
"You can't overstate how valuable this is to the people who live in the neighborhood," says Matt Fleury, a spokesman for the Capital City Economic
Development Authority. "And it's really heartening to see the range of development interests in this neighborhood."
In one pop, this federal money addressed problems with crime, housing, poverty and confidence in the capital city.
John Wardlaw's career may be coming to a close. But a window of opportunity opened in a big way for downtown.
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