By Fran Wilson, Staff Writer 

The title is apt. Unabashedly, the sixth installment of the movie franchise, Fast and Furious 6, is a guaranteed to be an exquisitely sophisticated, high-octane experience in theaters this Memorial Day Weekend.

An ethnically diverse cast with energy and swag delivers a film that is bound to draw a global audience and push Furious 6 to the top of box office hits this year.

The latest installment offers laughs, car chases, spectacular stunts and a well-crafted storyline designed to delight fans.

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning, all-star cast on a franchise build on speed races. The last time they were in Rio. This year they are in the United Kingdom. Reuniting for their most high-stakes adventure yet, fan favorites Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Elsa Pataky are joined by badass series newcomers Luke Evans and Gina Carano.

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete.

Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.

The narratives punctuated by spectacular action scenes with dared-devil stunts takes into consideration that the audience, which started out with the franchise, is more mature and seeks out intelligent action films for their money and time at the theater. It also pulls young viewers with its cast, although noticeably absent in the multi-ethnic cast was a black character. But thrilling to see was the brutal fight scene between Michelle Rodriguez and Gina Carano, who bravely entered the domain largely reserved for men.

Back in 2009, when the franchise started, no one would have predicted Fast & Furious would turn into a franchise. But after five movies the franchise has earned $1.6 billion at the global box office, according to Forbes.

This year, Furious Six is bound to deliver a scintillating joy ride at the theaters this weekend.

Featured Photo: Mario Marrerro, 2013 HPS Teacher of the Year, (seated center) Photo Courtesy of Hartford Public School.

By Glenn Mollette, Op-Ed Contributor

Every American must have the opportunity to pursue college or vocational training. We are living in an era during which even previously trained persons need to sharpen their skills or retool for the future.

Too many people are completing their education facing a massive dilemma of debt. Their next dilemma is trying to break into the job market saddled with backbreaking debt.

We must make education within reach of all American citizens. The following will help make college possible for all:

Colleges and all institutions of higher education must work as all businesses to guard against escalating costs.

The government should provide low interest college or vocational loans to students who must borrow money for their education.

Graduates should be given a three-year grace period before the payback begins.

The government should forgive up to 20% of the loan if paid back in 10 years.

Colleges should be encouraged to develop three year college programs which could cut as much as 25% of the cost of education. Everyone who has attended a four-year college knows they had four or five courses along the way they did not need for their degree program. This would also save tremendously on housing, food and fuel costs.

Colleges are throwing extra courses at their students and keeping them longer to make more money. This means the students borrow more and end up financially crippled. Schools like all businesses must be financially competitive and non-traditional in their programs in order to survive this new era. The number of struggling colleges is growing.

Already I hear someone screaming, “How are we going to compete with the Chinese, Japan and other foreign countries if we are cutting classes from education?” Most college programs have required approximately 30, four-hour classes or 40, three-hour classes. Everyone’s degree program will vary as they add additional courses. I like education as well as the next person. Hurrah for anyone who has the luxury of spending the time obtaining a 150-hour degree! This means a much greater expense, but if you can afford it, then so what? School can be fun and with that many additional classes you are surely learning a lot! My beef is that most American families cannot afford the luxury of a four-year degree being crammed into five, six or more years. We must keep the general college experience to four years to complete. If the college can help students complete the degree in three or three and a half years it saves students, the families and even the government a lot of money.

College trustees, administrators and faculty you are being served notice. Start doing your part to be part of America’s solution and not a central part of our problem. The people in America do not need another dilemma.

Glenn Mollette is the author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion. He can be reached at gmollette@aol.com. Illustration courtesy of occupyforaccountability.org.

The Hartford Guardian values diversity of thought and therefore fosters and advance conversations about issues relevant to Greater Hartford residents. We  present opinions from all perspectives, including opinions NOT shared by our editorial staff.

HARTFORD — Fifth-graders from the Greater Hartford area displayed thier writing skills essays about important event or invention in Connecticut and won

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill on Monday announced the winners of  the 18^th Annual Essay Contest and for the first time added a new feature to the contest for PowerPoint presentations on the same topic as the essay.

This year, students were asked to discuss an important event or invention from Connecticut that has significantly affected the history of our state.  They were asked to answer the question “How is the impact of this event or invention still felt today?” The contest winners were honored at a ceremony in the Old Judiciary Room of the State Capitol on May 17.

More than 400 fifth graders from 38 different schools across Connecticut submitted essays and PowerPoint presentations this year.

A set of five winning essays and PowerPoint presentations was selected from each of Connecticut’s five congressional districts. Each set consisted of a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winner, along with two students who received honorable mention. Every student honored in the contest received a gift certificate from Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Greater Hartford winners for the 2013 Secretary of the State’s Essay Contest are listed below:

Congressional District 1

1st Place, Fatima Rodriguez, Charter Oak International Academy, West Hartford

2nd Place, Zan Huang, Mary Louise Aiken Elementary School, West Hartford

3rd Place, Sara Wills, Philip R. Smith Elementary School, South Windsor

Honorable Mention, Katherine Miner, Highland Park School, Manchester

Honorable Mention, Jankris Bondoc, Charter Oak International Academy, West Hartf

By Maya Rhodan -NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) — — Whites had an average wealth of $632,000 in 2010 while Blacks had about $98,000 and Hispanics had $110,000, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.

“Such great wealth disparities help explain why many middle-income Blacks and Hispanics haven’t seen much improvement in their relative economic status and, in fact, are at greater risk of sliding backwards,” the report says.

Blacks start out at a disadvantage.

Whites begin with about 3.5-4 times more wealth than their Black and Hispanic counterparts in their “wealth-building years,” defined as 32 to 40 years old. By age 60, the wealth of whites increases to seven times the amount of wealth Blacks are able to accrue over the same amount of time.

Levels of homeownership and retirement savings are shown to contribute to the differences in wealth among races. In 2010, less than half of Black families owned homes, while more than three quarters of white families did.

Algernon Austin, director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute, says that Blacks were more likely to have loss their homes during the recession because they couldn’t keep up with ballooning mortgage payments.

“What we’ve seen recently is a dramatic loss of wealth for African Americans because there has been a dramatic loss of homeownership,” Austin explains. “Blacks were more likely to be given high-priced sub prime loans and were hit much harder by unemployment. Both factors—more loans, losing a job– makes it more difficult to keep up with mortgage payments.”

The recession has had a dire impact on the wealth of all Americans, with Hispanic families reporting their wealth declined by 40 percent between 2007-2010, according to the report. Blacks experienced a 31 percent decline while whites’ wealth declined by 11 percent.

Austin calls the loss of wealth experienced by the Black community a “symptom of high levels of unemployment and low wages, but particularly unemployment.”

Today, 27 percent of Blacks live in poverty. In March 2013, Blacks experienced an unemployment rate of 13.3 percent, compared to the national rate of 7.6 percent.

“Homeownership is a really important factor in terms of wealth, but so is unemployment,” Austin says. “If you’re going through frequent spells of unemployment, you’re either going to be losing wealth or going into debt.”

He adds, “The issue of jobs and income are important to address. The higher your income, the easier it is for you to build wealth. The government needs to enact policies that allow for Blacks to get greater income and get better job opportunities.”

Blacks represent about 11 percent of the total workforce, but 14 percent of the poverty-wage workforce, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to the Urban Institute findings, Black families saw the most dramatic decrease in their retirement assets, experiencing a 35 percent decline in retirement savings between 2007-2010.

“This finding is consistent with research that suggests lower income families are more likely to withdraw money from retirement savings after a job loss or other adverse event,” according to the Urban Institute report. “The high rates of unemployment and other financial needs that took hold with the Great Recession appear to have led to larger declines in retirement savings for Black families.”

While the Great Recession can account for much of the loss of wealth, there are other contributing factors to African Americans’ low-wealth, including policies designed to help Americans accrue wealth and policies aimed at low-income families, a large proportion of whom are African-American.

“There’s lots that the federal government does that if it was targeted to lower income Americans it could impact the wealth gap, “ Austin adds. “However, unfortunately, it’s a difficult battle because current policies benefit people who have significant political power and influence.”

In 2009, the federal government spent about $384 billion on policies that help families buy homes, start businesses, put their children through college, and retire.

Many of these policies, however, are administered through the tax code and “subsidize wealth building for the wealthiest among us, rewarding them for the size of their homes and investment portfolios,” according to a 2010 report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development titled “Upside Down: The $400 Billion Federal Asset-Building Budget.”

“The federal asset building budget provides a variety of things—opportunities for families to buy homes, start businesses, and prepare for retirement,” says Jermie Greer, the director of government affairs for CFED. “Yet, this $400 billion budget is skewed to benefit the very wealthy.”

According to the report, a middle-class family making $50,000 annually receives less than $500 in benefits from federal asset building policies, while families that make $100,000 receive $2,000 in benefits.

Tax payers who make in excess of $1 million, however, can see more than $92,000 in asset building support through mortgage and property tax deductions and investment tax breaks. Over half of the nearly $400 billion in benefits, according to the report, goes to the top five percent of tax payers.

“Conversation around tax reform so often focuses on the relationship between revenues for deficit reduction, but missed the mark on what is the social policy we want to address through the tax code,” Greer says.

“They can take some of the tax benefits that go to the very wealthy and bring them back down to people that are trying to build wealth and scratch their way out of poverty,” Greer adds.

Most lower- and middle-income families use homeownership to build wealth. In fact, homeownership accounts for the largest proportion of wealth among lower and middle-income households.

Yet, homeowners with lower incomes often don’t receive enough of a deduction to make a difference. According to the CFED report, nearly 80 percent of the value of mortgage and property tax deductions went to the top 20 percent of taxpayers.

“Social policy is really focused on income and the income people earn,” Greer says. “While people need jobs and it’s important that people are able to earn income, but that’s not the only piece of puzzle when you think about wealth.”

“We need to think not only about income, but providing benefits and incentives that help people build wealth through starting businesses, buying homes, being protected from predatory lenders.”

For low-income families in particular, federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, help ensure families have basic necessities, but don’t assist in helping to develop economically stable households.

“Many safety net programs even discourage saving: Families can become ineligible if they have a few thousand dollars in savings,” he Urban Institute report says.

Individuals who receive benefits from assistance programs can only have savings that equal up to $2,000 before risking losing their benefits. States currently have the flexibility to wave these limits, which keep people from accumulating money that can help them start a business or build wealth that can lead them out of poverty.

Thirty-six states currently waive limits to the SNAP and Temporary Assistance to Needed Families programs.

There are also programs, such as the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP), which helps low- to moderate-income families purchase homes, that can help low-income families build wealth through homeownership, but the programs received less funding than low-income rental programs in 2010.

Austin says that through implementing more policies that benefit a wider range of people from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, we could begin to see the wealth gap “start shrinking instead of watching it grow.”

“It’s possible to prevent [the wealth gap] from growing larger and even shrinking it, but none of the policies that will ensure that will happen by themselves,” Austin says. “With all of these things, they aren’t likely to happen overnight.”

This article was originally published in the May 13, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

By Brendan T. Campbell, David S. Shapiro and Chief James C. Rovella

Firearm violence is more than a city problem where it glares brightly under the television lights. It is a regional problem no different than drunken driving, burglaries, and outbreaks of communicable diseases. Yes, it is both a public safety and public health problem because guns also get into the city from many different places. People come into the city from many different suburbs to work. We have formed the Capital Region Gun Buyback Coalition to broaden the message that gun violence is everyone’s concern, and we can all do something about it

A small cooperative effort driven by the Hartford Police and Hartford’s three trauma centers for the last four years is now expanding. The Stop & Shop Corporation, the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, Connecticut Transit, Lamar and Hope Street Ministries are among the new partners understanding the need for a regional solution to what is often perceived as only a city problem. And this is more than just a reaction to the shootings at Sandy Hook, which has brought renewed interest in understanding and preventing gun injuries and deaths. Gun violence has been a problem in American cities for decades and is now getting the benefit of increased attention to its devastating effects across cultural, economic and social boundaries.

Opponents will say that gun buy-back programs have not been proven to lower the incidence of firearm violence, but we believe that buybacks can work in cooperation with other law enforcement efforts that make it harder for criminals to obtain firearms. Buybacks take in unwanted firearms, they promote publicity around them to raise awareness about violence and they bring together community members to work together to address a complicated problem. With summer starting and the potential for random acts of violence to increase, a buyback gives that extra push to remove guns that all too often turn hot summer streets deadly.

To show how this can augment existing programs, let’s look at some established accomplishments. The Hartford Shooting Task Force was created to address increased gun violence in the city. Its one-year report last August showed: a 42 percent reduction in murders with a handgun or shotgun, a 30 percent reduction in gun assaults, 51 fewer gunshot victims than last year at the same time, 76 firearms seized and a homicide clearance rate of 67 percent. (The annual average is 20 percent and has been flat for 40 years.)  Moreover, the guns collected at recent buybacks in Hartford have been nearly identical to the guns confiscated from criminals by the Hartford Shooting Task Force.  Removing these unwanted guns from the community prevents them from being obtained by criminals.

Irresponsible individuals and accessible firearms are a dangerous combination and can result in a shooting, a suicide, and in those worst of cases, a mass shooting. Gun violence, when compared to disease, can be easily prevented with effective, common-sense measures. Suicide accounts for about half of all firearm deaths in our state. Firearms are the method used by more than half of older teen suicide victims, and suicide attempts with a gun are more likely than other means to be successful. Lethal means restriction is a tool physicians employ with patients contemplating suicide. Public health research has clearly established that unsafe storage of guns and ammunition is associated with an increased risk of suicide and unintentional gun injuries.

Gun violence is a community problem. Hartford is our community; it includes teachers, elected officials, parents, police officers, churches, parole officers, businesses, state and local officials, and everyone in between who calls Connecticut’s capital home. But this community needs to invest in the idea that meaningful change can happen through community engagement and responsible gun ownership. The Capital Region Gun Buyback Coalition is a strong forward step in that direction. On Saturday it will hold the first of three buybacks for planned for 2013.

Last December, two weeks before Sandy Hook, the smaller collaborative collected 181 unwanted working firearms, a 53-percent increase over the year before. This included 148 working handguns from Hartford and the surrounding suburbs. In the aftermath of the Newtown shootings and the renewed interest in gun violence prevention, additional buyback programs have been held in New Haven, Bridgeport and New London. New Haven even collected 21 assault rifles.

In the Capital Region, we embrace the idea that a gun buy-back program should be a part of the multifaceted public health and law enforcement approach to preventing firearm violence. Simply put: Removing unwanted guns from the community can only make Connecticut a safer place. A gun removed cannot be used.

Brendan T. Campbell, MD, MPH is a pediatric surgeon and the Medical Director of the Trauma Program at Connecticut Children’s; David S. Shapiro is a trauma surgeon and Associate Director of Surgical Critical Care at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center; and James C. Rovella is Hartford’s Police Chief. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Connecticut residents can drop off unwanted firearms at the Community Renewal Team’s office, 555 Windsor St., Hartford, in exchange for gift cards of $25 to $75.

La Opinión,

A record 69 percent of Latino high school graduates in the class of 2012 enrolled in college, two percentage points higher than the rate (67 percent) of their white counterparts, according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center analysis from the Census Bureau. The high school drop-out rate among Latino youths also has dropped from 28 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2011. Yet Latinos continue to lag other youth in completion of four-year college degrees.

One possible cause for the increase in Latino college enrollment could be the 2008 recession which led Latino teens to enroll in college because of the bleak job market. Since 2007, unemployment among Latinos ages 16-24 has gone up 7 percent, compared to 5 percent among white youth.

Read more

By Ann-Marie Adams, Op-Ed

HARTFORD – School reform is like baking a cake. You need all the ingredients to make it work, many experts say. So if state and city officials wonder why closing the achievement gap is moving slowly, perhaps they should revisit numerous reports that gave them a solid blueprint for progress.

In Connecticut, where Gov. Dannel Malloy has taken a leadership role in transforming urban education, diversity is the missing ingredient that has likely resulted in the tepid result unveiled at Hartford Public School’s 2013 State of the Schools symposium at the Bushnell Theater earlier this month. This news comes after the excitement of an educational reform bill passed in the General Assembly last year. However, teacher diversity has been marginalized in discussions about ed reform and submerged in contentious debates over testing, privatization, or charter vs public schools.

At the school district’s symposium, we were reminded of what works. The very first panel with Janice Brown of the much touted success story, the Kalamazoo Promise, made it clear: children do what they see. And if they don’t see images of themselves in the classroom, it is difficult to imagine beyond that.

Other experts have confirmed this idea. According to a 2004 study by the National Education Association, increasing the racial and ethnic diversity in the teaching workforce is directly linked to closing the academic achievement gap. Teacher diversity is about having culturally responsive teachers who understand students and adapt to different learning styles.

The NEA’s report also states that although teacher quality has been noted as an imperative for successful reform, the notion of diversity “is often marginalized rather than accepted as central to the quality of education.”

In Hartford, one of the state’s turnaround districts that received money and flexibility to make substantial changes, officials said the teaching force is almost 25 percent.That figure is questionable. Too many parents in the Hartford school district are seeing schools with nearly an all-white teaching staff “clueless” about their children’s needs and who lack cultural competency to interact with their parents.

Many parents have been encountering this problem before the early 2000 when Hartford started, in earnest, to close the achievement gap. Former Hartford Public School Superintendent Anthony Amato, hired to lead what some dubbed the most dismal school district in Connecticut, said on April 17, 1999: “We will never be last again!”

In 2000, Hartford schools surpassed New Haven’s school district on the Connecticut Mastery Test scores. Since then, Hartford has been inching its way upward on standardized tests, a unit used by administrators, politicians and parents to measure academic improvement.

Three school superintendents later, Hartford Public School is still inching along toward closing the achievement gap. But this time, the progress is highly scrutinized. There are more stakeholders—business partners, foundations, and savvy school reformers—who want accountability and quick results. This time, its even more of an imperative that the state, last in job creation, prepares a workforce for the future and to make every student college ready. The nation’s standing in the world also depends on this singular fact, and many politicians conceded that much.

“We didn’t get into this problem in a short time,” said Malloy during his remark at the symposium. “It took a long time to get into this situation. It’s going to take time to get out of it. Change is hard.”

Yes, we know change is hard and it takes time—especially in the state with the tag line: “land of steady habits.”

But like the governor concluded himself: that line made popular by Mark Twain in the gilded age, a period when the city was the richest in the country, doesn’t work anymore. Hartford is now the second poorest city of its size. And Connecticut has “lost its edge” as a leader in education. So clearly, we can’t keep going in that direction.

And if we don’t hold everyone accountable for real results then, as many recognized, “we’re simply using words to describe what makes us feel best.”

Therefore, we should hold districts accountable for marginalizing the issue of diversity. We know this is the missing ingredient. The human resource is abundant in Connecticut with many unemployed teachers of color. School officials should stop making excuses as to why they cannot add that missing ingredient and hire more teachers of color.

We already know that diversity works.

Dr. Ann-Marie Adams is completing a manuscript about race, reform and education in Connecticut. 

Alfred Dicioco, Alhambra Source

Thick smog encased the crowded streets, jeepney drivers’ horns buzzed in an endless cacophony, and plastic bags scattered all over the streets of Quezon City. So why did I still feel a positive vibe?

Returning to the Philippines for the first time since I left seven years ago at the age of 15, I anticipated feeling like a stranger in my own country. After all, I should be more Americanized by now with my fancy accent and love for Trojan football. Instead, I was surprised at how comfortable I was to be back. Speaking in my native Filipino flowed in a way that English does not. And being reacquainted with family and friends, I felt more at home than I had in years being with people who shared similar experiences and values: they understood why I go to mass on Sunday, follow a curfew even now that I have graduated from college, or still have the need to inform my parents of my whereabouts. I even saw opportunities for myself to work and raise a family.

When I came back to Los Angeles, I felt my eagerness to adapt to American society around me change. For years, I had struggled to fit in — to know the popular cultural references that people grew up with, understand the dating culture, and learn what “success” truly means in this society. After my visit to the Philippines, I started to feel that mastering these things was not enough: even if I could complain about the traffic like a typical Angeleno or declare In-N-Out as the best burger I’ve ever tasted, I could only feel completely at home living in the Philippines.

Knowing that I felt drawn to my homeland does not mean the decision to move back is an easy one. My parents live in Alhambra and I have tons of college loans. I also feel an expectation that if I move back, I have to do it rich. And part of me is terrified to leave what has become my home in Los Angeles. I have met here some of the smartest and most compassionate people from different backgrounds, which has made me more open minded to their experiences regardless of my culture and beliefs.

So for more than a year I have endured this affliction of feeling pulled between two places.

I am not the only one to learn that immigration is not always a simple one-way journey. If I decide to move back to my homeland, I would be joining a large number of educated Asians and Asian Americans returning to their home countries from the United States. Of the 4 to 7 million Americans who currently live abroad, approximately 1 million are of Asian background, according to Edward Park, Professor and Director of the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University.

This group of returning immigrants is growing. Two of the countries where the trend is most pronounced are India and China. In India, almost 100,000 people of Indian descent moved back to the country in 2010 compared to 35,000 in 2006, according to the Migration Information Source. And according to an article about returning Chinese professional migrants from the United States published in the database Project Muse, 632,000 scholars and student migrants who studied abroad including in the United States chose to return to mainland China in 2010 compared to only 108,300 in 2009.

Other places where the trend is increasing are South Korea and Japan. “Samsung, a huge Korean tech company, wanted to innovate. But they realized that they just don’t have the talent in Korea,” Park said. “So, they began recruiting Korean-Americans.”

In my adopted hometown of Alhambra, I had a harder time finding like-minded people. Standing in front of the library and boba shops, I talked to immigrants from Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Each one said he or she had left and was not looking back. At a community forum, one Mexican woman even told me she had already bought a cemetery plot for herself here.

One difference I noticed between the people I interviewed and myself was that most of them either left their home country at a very young age, married and had children here, or had a negative experience in their native country. “I would like to stay here in a country that has stable politics,” Mei Lam, who moved to Alhambra from Hong Kong, told me. “And my future children, they can also enjoy the democracy instead of having to fight hard for freedom of speech.”

Sonny Sehmi, a native of England who owns the Indian-British fusion restaurant Hot Red Bus on Main Street with his American wife, said he sees a future for himself and his family in this city. “I live here, I married, I opened a business in Alhambra, about to become a father,” Sehmi said. “Home is where your heart is and my heart’s definitely here.”

The more time I spend in the United States, the further I feel from my homeland: the penetrating warmth of the humid tropical weather, the holler of vendors selling taho and fishballs, and the company of people who made me feel welcome even after being away for years. But I also feel a growing urgency to act fast. Growing up in a third-world society, I am scared I might settle for a comfortable and risk-free life instead of living in a place where I can possibly make a bigger impact. It is every person’s right to decide what is best for themselves and their families, but it saddens me every time I hear stories of my own friends and family getting separated from their spouses to work abroad, spending Noche Buena away from their children, or even watching their father’s wake through a computer screen. Unlike millions of Filipinos who remain abroad because of their legal status, not being able to afford to go back home, or having nobody left to go back to, I have the privilege of being able to return. I realized that my last visit to my homeland was not simply fueled by nostalgia for the memories of my life growing up in the Philippines. More than anything else, I think I saw a glimpse of an entirely new future for myself. I just didn’t expect it to be in a familiar place.

Alfred Dicioco emigrated to the US from his native Philippines when he was 15. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Theater and says one day he hopes to move back to the Philippines and host a morning news show. Illustration by Jee-Shaun Wang.

By Christopher R. Stone, Op-Ed

Connecticut’s flagship University is blessed with a top-notch faculty, cutting edge research facilities, stand-out sports, dedicated administrative staff, and an intelligent, enthusiastic student population; but it needs sustained, reliable public utilities to sustain itself.   It needs water.

That’s why the plan to have the Metropolitan District (MDC) provide much needed water to the University of Connecticut in Storrs is a win-win. Despite UConn’s effective conservation efforts in recent years, its water supply cannot meet either its present or future needs.

Fortunately, the MDC has both quality and quantity of water to offer.  Serving the communities of the Greater Hartford region – 400,000 people in 11 towns – with abundant, clean and reliable drinking water, the MDC is perfectly-suited to respond to the diminishing supply and dire need of the University and the Town of Mansfield.

Water is surely a scarce and precious resource across the country.  But in this region, geography, technology and foresight has placed the MDC in an enviable position. The numbers tell the story.

Total water consumption by MDC customers has gone from approximately 66 million gallons per day in 1988 to just under 49 million gallons per day now. Water-efficient washing machines use only 10 gallons of water per load as opposed to the 40 gallons used by older models.  Shower heads have decreased flows.  Toilets use less water.  Industrial facilities are using recycled water for manufacturing purposes.

The bottom line – the MDC has more than 12 million gallons of drinking water per day within its existing reservoir system available to meet the current and future needs of its existing customer base and other areas of the State where water supply is scarce. Why not step up to help?

As the owner, and arguably trustee, of the state’s largest reservoir system, the MDC was obliged to respond to the request to submit a proposal to share a small portion of this valuable natural resource while preserving the treasured Farmington River. The MDC option to respond to our state’s flagship university balances this commitment with the desire to stabilize water rates by expanding the customer base.  Unfortunately, the common sense facts have not detracted our critics from casting doubts on an otherwise solid plan.

The MDC has developed two alternative plans to bring up to 5 million gallons per day of water to Storrs and Mansfield from the terminus of the distribution system in East Hartford.  With either plan, there will be absolutely no detrimental effect on the Farmington River (West or East Branch) or the Farmington River Watershed Basin.

Also eclipsed in the unnecessary acrimony is the fact that this is not the first time the MDC has sought to expand its client base by selling excess capacity.  Just over a decade ago, there was an MDC proposal to sell water to Portland.  Initially, vocal critics stepped forward.  Ultimately, however, cooler heads prevailed, the critics withdrew their opposition, and Portland became an MDC customer.

Some individuals have suggested that rather than share its designated drinking water resources with a state institution and fellow municipality in need, the MDC should simply dump any excess drinking water into the Farmington River. Practically, dumping five million gallons of water a day into a river with flows of between 400 and 1200 million gallons of water per day is inconsequential.  From a public policy standpoint, why lose perfectly good drinking water when there are communities in need?