RPA's David Kooris participated in a panel discussion "Exploring Radical Regionalism in Connecticut" at Connecticut's Legislative Office Building in Hartford on March 30th, focusing remarks on how regional plans allow planners to think "aspirationally" about coming challenges and opportunities. Kooris joined fellow panelists Representative Brendan Sharkey, Representative Tom Reynolds, architect Patrick Pinnell, attorney and former East Hartford Mayor Robert DeCrescenzo, and West Hartford Mayor Scott Slifka in exploring the potential for regionalism to reduce costs and improve outcomes for government services as well as "radical regionalism" that can improve economic opportunities for Connecticut through major investments such as high-speed rail. The panel was sponsored by Central Connecticut State University and moderated by the Hartford Courant's Tom Condon and CCSU's Steve Kliger.
Kooris challenged the audience to define regions in ways that benefit Connecticut and to create partnership across state lines that support infrastructure investment. He pointed to last year's development of a "New England Rail Plan" as a good step toward true strategic investment at the megaregional level: "It's not until Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are jointly advocating for the double-tracking of the Hartford-Springfield line because it's in all of their best interests, that we'll really be successful."
David drew a parallel between high-speed rail plans for Connecticut which would link Hartford and Springfield (MA) to Boston and New York with the big investments of the 1920s and 30s which RPA played a role in championing:
We were organized in the 1920s to do planning, research and advocacy at the scale of the tri-state region. It was about thinking and doing at the scale at which both challenges and opportunities present themselves. Thinking at the tri-state metropolitan scale in the 1920s ... was about emerging conditions. What would be the impact of a new roadway network be on interconnectedness between the 3 states and the hundreds of municipalities? This thinking enabled investments like the Merritt Parkway, JFK Airport-- all those pieces of infrastructure enabled the generations of prosperity that we experienced. The question is how can thinking regionally, and acting regionally, unlock that same potential for Connecticut?"
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