[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by Joe42

I think the long term dream/vision for the trail is to get it connected to the Arrigoni bridge. I think some of the earlier versions of the presentation also floated the idea of taking the trail North along the river to the ferry in Glastonbury, which would be lovely if they can make it happen someday.
!

Do you mean the East Coast Greenway? That currently runs through East Hartford, which has its own network of trails, including ones Goodwin College have built (and I think those are signed "Connecticut Greenway" but I'm not sure who called them that, Goodwin or the state). Goodwin has gotten down to the Rt 3/Putnam Bridge and they are hoping to connect to the blocked off walkway over Rt 3. They are sort of connected to the East Coast Greenway at the Charter Oak Bridge, with a short road section.

There are trails along the river in Glastonbury and there are probably ways to get to the ferry, but you'd be crossing private land, some of which has hunting.

I may have stumbled across a Courant insert from the early 1990s showing the plans for trails in the Hartford area. Would be interesting to see how much has actually been done.

[JayCT]

An interesting new book on the downfall of former Connecticut headquartered General Electric is coming out shortly. Here is an interview with the authors of that book and they talk about GE’s adversarial relation with former Governor Dan Malloy.

I was surprised to read that GE executives were upset that the Governor participated in a celebration at Pratt & Whitney when they won a contract over GE. That seems incredibly petty. After all Pratt is a Connecticut company too and they are one of our state’s largest employers. That selection meant thousands of jobs in our state. Was the Governor supposed to ignore that?

The authors also discuss former GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s criticism of Connecticut state finances and the under financing of state pension obligations while GE itself was underfunding it’s insurance obligations. A lot of Immelt’s bad actions have been made public since he left the company including the waste of money.

It was pretty clear that Connecticut was not in the running for the new headquarters, likely because of Immelt’s disliking of the state but it’s kind of ironic that the bulk of the jobs in the Fairfield headquarters are now based in Norwalk and that the lavish new headquarters building in Boston has been canceled. That, along with GE being removed from the important Dow Jones Industrial Average says a lot. It’s really kind of sad to be honest. Jay

https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/art...n-ges-downfall

[108thSt]

JayCT, you mentioned in another thread that CT state finances are now in a surplus of 2 Billion dollars, but I recently saw a chart showing that CT has 240B worth of unfunded pension obligations - how do those two things reconcile?

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by 108thSt

JayCT, you mentioned in another thread that CT state finances are now in a surplus of 2 Billion dollars, but I recently saw a chart showing that CT has 240B worth of unfunded pension obligations - how do those two things reconcile?

You have to understand what exactly that pension debt is. That is the amount IF every single person eligible for a pension requires their full benefit. That is never the case. No state fully funds their pension obligations.

The question really is what percentage of those eligible retirees taking benefits is reasonable. Up until 1971 our state saved nothing for pensions. They simply paid retirement obligations directly. Since then our state planned for minimal funding. That caught up with us about a decade ago when it was clear the funds available were inadequate to meet the likely obligations we would face.

To his credit former Governor Dan Malloy fought hard to improve the pension situation and developed a plan for the next 20 years to meet the obligations. Governor Lamont has refined that plan. That plan has been pretty much been accepted as a reasonable solution to the funding problem and that’s reflected in our current favorable credit ratings. Jay

https://www.ai-cio.com/news/connecti...state-pension/

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...risis/2259579/

[Nancy739]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Every so often I come across something about our state that I find interesting but don’t think it’s worthy of its own thread so I thought I would start a thread for posting miscellaneous items. I’d like to start with this item. They are coming out with a Greenwich version of the game Monopoly. Anyone interested in it?

https://westfaironline.com/127028/pa...n-of-monopoly/

That is just a little bit nauseating. I'm sure the very rich will buy it for their children to help them out with their self-esteem

[JayCT]

So according to a local realtor’s social media post, Bradley Cooper has not bought a mansion on Sasco Hill in Southport. It doesn’t seem that he denying he rented a place though. Jay

https://westfaironline.com/127553/re...field-mansion/

[Lalalally]

Mayor Boughton’s response to John Oliver’s rant about Danbury last week
(For background The HBO comedian went on a rant about Danbury when he was several minutes into a segment on jury selection during an Aug. 16 episode of the HBO comedy show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

“If you are going to forget a town in Connecticut, why not forget Danbury because — and this is true — [expletive] Danbury. From its charming railway museum, to its historic hearthstone castle, Danbury Connecticut can eat my whole a—,” Oliver said during the segment.)

Mayor Mark’s video response is contained in this link (as is the original John Oliver clip FFWD to ~6.15 warning foul language included ).. pretty funny/good sense of humor :
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.new...l-15507849.php

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by Lalalally

Mayor Boughton’s response to John Oliver’s rant about Danbury last week
(For background The HBO comedian went on a rant about Danbury when he was several minutes into a segment on jury selection during an Aug. 16 episode of the HBO comedy show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

“If you are going to forget a town in Connecticut, why not forget Danbury because — and this is true — [expletive] Danbury. From its charming railway museum, to its historic hearthstone castle, Danbury Connecticut can eat my whole a—,” Oliver said during the segment.)

Mayor Mark’s video response is contained in this link .. pretty funny/good sense of humor :
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.new...l-15507849.php

I was just going to post this but you beat me to it.

"Big Poppa" Boughton is funny himself.

[Lalalally]

Originally Posted by CTartist

I was just going to post this but you beat me to it.

"Big Poppa" Boughton is funny himself.

Yes!

[JayCT]

HBO’s John Oliver has been having a tongue in cheek battle with the City of Danbury for the past month. It began when Oliver commented on the jury selection discrepancy of several Connecticut towns and for some reason randomly called out the city. This culminated with Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton saying he was ready to name the Danbury sewage treatment plant for Oliver. Now Oliver has offered to donate $55,000 to Danbury area charities if the plant is named for him. Strange stuff. Jay

https://www.newstimes.com/local/arti...s-15526995.php