Dear [Police] Commissioners,
As one of the two city councilmembers who represent the Main Street neighborhood on Federal Hill, I ask the Police Commission to endorse the concept of locating a Police sub-station on Main Street.
Police sub-stations have been used with much success in many cities in Connecticut and across the country. Although not typically staffed 24 hours a day, the presence of a sub-station sends a message to residents and merchants: your elected officials will do everything we can to make your streets safe. It also sends a message to individuals who might be thinking about committing a crime: not in this neighborhood!
Police sub-stations can also provide local businesses with an opportunity to form partnerships with the Police Department. In Bristol, a property management company and the Bristol Hospital have both offered to donate space on or near Main Street for a sub-station. As an urban planner by training I believe that the Funck Building on the corner of Main Street and Prospect is preferable to the apartment building at 12 Summer Street. Although only a couple hundred feet from the Summer Street site, the Funck Building is more accessible, more visible, and more compatible with the surrounding uses. It is commercial space now, whereas the Summer Street building is an apartment building and putting the sub-station there would reduce the amount of moderate income housing in the neighborhood.
Police sub-stations are a cost-effective way to suppress crime and to show a town's commitment to neighborhood preservation. I strongly encourage you to endorse this concept.Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Craig Minor
*******
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
4 comments:
Minor - It's FUNK building! Guess this is what happens when you don't get a script ahead of time?
Bill
This is something that we had to deal with years ago when BCO sought to put apartments for single people who needed some supervision into that building. At the time, we called it in the paper the "Funk building" because that was its most common designation, though Funck was also used. If memory serves, the building itself says "Funck" on it but, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the furniture company that was in there was using "Funk" for most of its history.
Anyway, though I'm fuzzy on the details, we ended up deciding at the paper that it should be "Funk."
But it's not irrational that someone would use Funck.
I know my biggest worry was simply that a typo would go through and the building would be called, well, you can guess.
Funk works for me! :)
FUNK is on the building. More importantly what we need is not a substation but to stop wasting our tax dollars paying police to hassle the working clas with check points to try to capture the easy money for a seatblt violation or DUI which is non-existent, yes non-existant. Our DUI levels are so low one drink and your drunk. Come on lets be realistic. How about personal responsibility. I'm not afraid that someone on their way home from work or what ever will drink to much and plow into me or someone else, the chances are very remote. Now walking our streets downtown especially at night, you want to talk about statistics of getting hurt or killed? Let's put the police on work that's truly important. And NO I'm not a drinker or a DUI recipient. I don't drink and don't think our society has drinking problems to match the political hoopla. I do believe it's easy to get cash from the poor working folks and the government can do nothing about the real criminals or doesn't want to.
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