People of Faith CT

In his column today on state emergency funding to keep Hartford libraries open, Stan Simpson quotes Senator Eric Coleman's assessment of how suburban legislators view Hartford:

"I don't think either the mayor or the city council are aware of the resistance from my legislative colleagues from around the state, who say Hartford gets too much money," Sen. Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield, said Tuesday. He and state Rep. Kenneth Green, D-Hartford, were instrumental in getting both House Speaker James Amann and Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams to commit to the funding. "My colleagues view sending money to Hartford as sending money into a black hole."

It's not exactly the most endearing rep for a chronically cash-strapped city. But it is an indictment when the capital of the richest state in the union can't keep its libraries open, particularly when that city has one of the biggest literacy problems in the country.

How is poverty ever going to be eradicated when state legislators begin with this bias against Hartford? This smells like structural racism.