Home Care In Hartford, CT

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam and the Hartford Public Schools Board of Education are at odds over an AI-based platform recently launched by the city to collect resident input over the future of the city’s schools, as concerns over privacy and data collection lead to backlash.

Hartford Board of Education chairperson Shonta Browdy issued a statement Monday stating that Hartford Public Schools and the Board of Education were not involved with the decision to launch the survey on Remesh as announced by Arulampalam.

According to the statement, the decision to immediately launch the platform was hastily made and left little time to be reviewed and noted that the information submitted by parents and student is not covered under the district’s privacy policies.

The statement noted that Remesh’s terms of service are not the same at the district’s privacy policies and warned parents and guardians to “carefully review” the website’s terms before letting minors input their information. The data collection’s website terms state that it “is the exclusive owner of your comments, opinions, feedback, responses or other input that you provide” and may “freely use, share, publish and use the feedback in perpetuity, in any form or medium, throughout the world for any purpose whatsoever.”

Browdy said she was not informed that the Mayor’s Office was going to release the survey and had no input in creating the questions. She said she is concerned residents will think the survey is affiliated with the Board of Education.

“I put the statement out for clarity because there was confusion and questions coming my way thinking this is our survey,” Browdy said. “I got emails and questions even from our school staff about the survey. So I put the statement out letting people know this has nothing to do with the Board of Education. This came directly from the Mayor’s Office without our knowledge.”

A spokesperson for the city said the clause mentioned from Remesh’s terms and conditions is a common clause used by most commercial survey tools such as SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics and other common survey platforms used by city governments. The Mayor’s Office said that the feedback provided through Remesh will not be used for anything other than the engagement process without explicit permission from participants. While Remesh has features that use AI, they are not being used as part of this engagement process, according to the Mayor’s Office.

“For too long, the most important conversations about our children’s futures have happened in back rooms behind closed doors,” said Arulampalam. “My administration’s North Star has always been transparency and a commitment to ensuring every resident has a seat at the table. We cannot make the difficult decisions required to stabilize our schools without the people of Hartford leading the way.

“Since we first announced our intentions to tackle the long-standing challenges of our district, I have welcomed the Board of Education to join us at the table,” he added. “It is disturbing to sow mistrust and characterize a tool meant to facilitate public dialogue as anything other than that.”

Browdy said that she is concerned the mayor will use the survey to circumvent the Board of Education on funding for school renovation projects. In December, the mayor paused several planned renovation projects at S.A.N.D. Elementary School, María C. Colón Sánchez Elementary School, McDonough Middle School, Parkville Community School, Moylan Elementary School and Batchelder School.

Arulampalam said he made the decision due to what he called “low enrollment numbers” at the schools and instead wants to ensure the city uses the funds more carefully. The move was met with an outcry among school staff and teachers. So far, the city is seeking public input on how to best use the state-provided funds.

“What is going to happen is the mayor wants to close schools and he doesn’t want to renovate the schools we already received money for,” Browdy said. “So he creates a platform with scripted questions that will lead to what he wants to do. The questions will lead to his plan to close several schools in Hartford. He will come up with a report the he will parade around. But the only thing he can do with that report is submit it to us because the Board of Education runs the city’s schools.”

The Courant reached out to Hartford Superintendent of Schools Dr. Andraé Townsel but did not hear back in time for the story to be published.

Stephen Underwood can be reached at [email protected].

An 8-foot high construction fence is starting to encircle the former data processing center.

It’s near Hartford’s minor league ballpark, the first step toward a demolition that would make space for new development — including a potential, $90 million center for applied artificial intelligence.

But passersby won’t notice walls tumbling down right away.

Over the next two months or so, work will focus inside the 190,000-square-foot, bunker-like structure — vacant for nearly two decades and long the target of vandals and the object of thieves who stripped the concrete structure of anything of value.

“What people will be able to see probably won’t start until April or May,” William Diaz, a project manager for the city’s department of development services, said. “Everything has to go down to the studs before they start taking the building down.”

Diaz said metal structural beams, for instance, are sprayed with asbestos, which must be removed, and the lowest two underground floors are flooded.

Leveling the now, city-owned data center is expected to cost $9.4 million, a combination of state and city funds, including a $6 million brownfields clean-up grant. The demolition is expected to wrap up by June 1, according to the city’s latest predictions.

The redevelopment plans for the nearly 3-acre parcel include the AI center, a $30 million, 120-room boutique hotel and 200-space parking garage. The developer would be Stamford-based RMS Cos., which is leading the construction of apartments around Dunkin’ Park, just north of the heart of downtown.

It is likely that construction on the hotel and parking garage would begin first, followed by the AI center.

The city of Hartford hopes that a major portion of the funding for the AI center will come from the state’s Innovation Clusters program, designed to promote the expansion of next-generation technology in Connecticut. In turn, the technology is seen as driving future economic development and job growth.

In September, the state awarded $50.5 million to New Haven from the clusters program to build on its aspirations to become a major center for the life sciences industry and emerging quantum technology. The latter is seen as changing the capabilities of computers and research.

At the time of the award, Daniel O’Keefe, the state’s commissioner of economic and community development, said Hartford and Stamford — the remaining two of the three finalist cities seeking cluster funding were still very much in the running.

Since then, the state and the city have been in further discussions about its AI center proposal.

“We have been working very closely with them on the details of this very large project,” Jeff Auker, Hartford’s director of development services, said. “We submitted updates to them right before the holidays and they are under review right now.”

Auker said, the city hopes to “sit down with the state and hammer out the final details in the next days or weeks.”

Hartford’s AI aspirations could cost as much as $90 million over five years, likely first beginning with a temporary space and then a permanent location.

If Hartford is successful were securing cluster grant funding, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he is confident that the city would be able to line up the balance for AI Center not covered by the clusters grant. Online giant Google already has expressed interest in helping the applied AI center in Hartford outfit itself with crucial, rapidly-evolving technology.

City officials have said the AI center would be separate from what the corporations are spending on AI — estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But collaborations with them — especially in insurance and health care — are absolutely foreseen, they said.

The city also isn’t focusing on the incubator space for start-ups that could too easily relocate.

Hartford’s sweet spot is the area between the large companies and the start-ups. This is where new ideas — some developed at colleges and universities — are tested and worked on in a lab using digital tools that are commercially available.

But a key part of the vision also targets training to prepare a workforce for using AI, which many believe will be the most consequential technology in the future, its impact even deeper than the development of the internet.

Some, however, have expressed concerns that AI has the potential to replace jobs, especially ones that handle more routine tasks.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].

This week is a good week to leave your living room and head out to … a different living room? The term “living room” is used to describe at least three music or comedy happenings on local stages this week, and a homey atmosphere pervades numerous other events.

Tens of millions of YouTube viewers have grooved to Bobby Nsenga’s living room. In a series of popular videos he shows himself lounging around and drinking coffee while actively engaged in mixing complex R&B playlists for your listening enjoyment. Nsenga worked up a live variation of his curatorial workouts and is in Hartford this week on tour, far from his living room.

Sea Tea Comedy Theater is not a living room, but that concept surely comes up sometimes in the audience suggestions that fuel the improv sketch comedy performances there. As part of this month’s series of “Jamuary” comedy jams, there’s a “Living Room Jam” with Nate Gagnon, who’s a regular member of the Sea Tea Improv touring company as well as part of the KnucklePuck improv troupe.

“The Living Room” is what TheaterWorks Hartford has called the intimate music concert series it began in a rehearsal studio space in the same building where its main theater has located. The first TheaterWorks “Living Room” concert of 2026 is held at a different location, Bar Max on Haynes Street, about a block from the theater. The attraction is local jazz/soul vocalist Ysanne.

You can add the living room vibe to the play that’s beginning its run at Hartford Stage this week: A new production of the New York hit “The Cottage,” a mystery/romance/farce set in the English countryside that was a hit in New York not long ago. Guess where most of the action in “The Cottage” takes place? Well, the British call it a lounge or a front room or maybe a sitting room instead of what we know it as, but you get the idea.

Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra The Side Door Jazz Club, 85 Lyme St., Old Lyme

Trombonist/producer Delfeayo Marsalis of the ubiquitous jazzy Marsalis family (his brothers are Wynton, Branford and Jason) brings his fun-loving Uptown Jazz Orchestra to the The Side Door Jazz Club on Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. $65.04, $33.27 students. thesidedoorjazz.com.

Albert Lee Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St., Fairfield Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook

Legendary rock guitarist Albert Lee, who’s played with everyone from The Crickets to Eric Clapton, has a new solo album out and is appearing at two Connecticut venues this week: Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. at Fairfield Theatre Company, ($54-$56, $48-$51 in advance; fairfieldtheatre.org), then Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at The Kate in Old Saybrook ($44; thekate.org).

Ysanne Bar Max, 1 Haynes St., Hartford

The local jazz/soul vocalist, who is also a musical theater actor and an innovative yoga instructor, performs two shows as part of TheaterWorks Hartford’s “The Living Room” concert series, held this month at Bar Max on Jan. 15 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The 6:30 p.m. show is already sold out. $20. twhartford.org.

Neko Case Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford

Canadian indie singer/songwriter Neko Case, who’s also known as a member of New Pornographers and for her collaborations with everyone from k.d. lang and Laura Veirs to Aqua Teen Hunger Force, has released her first solo album in seven years, “Neon Grey Midnight Green.” Case also published her memoir “The Harder I Fight the More I Love You” last year. She’s at the Stamford Palace on Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. $77.65-$126.10. palacestamford.orge.

Bishop Allen Space Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden

The band Bishop Allen was four albums and a dozen EPs old when it disbanded over a decade ago. A reunion tour finds Bishop Allen plumbing its entire back catalogue. Another indie pop band from the same era, Mates of State (who lived in East Haven for a few years), is also on the bill. Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. $32.34. spaceballroom.com.

‘Jamuary’ Sea Tea Comedy Theater, 15 Asylum St., Hartford

For Sea Tea Improv, January is “Jamuary” with a series of improv sketch comedy jams at the company’s home theater space. There are two “Jamuary” events this week: a “Doodle Jam with Jambassadors DrewDraw” on Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. and a “Living Room Jam with Jambassador Nate Gagnon” on Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. Tickets are only $5. seateaimprov.com.

Bobby Nsenga Experience The Webster, 31 Webster St., Hartford

DJ/music curator Bobby Nsenga posts extremely popular videos of himself mixing R&B tunes on his couch, creating mood-shifting listening experiences enjoyed by millions. For the past couple of years, Nsenga has taken his sedentary show on the road. You can see him mix up close at The Webster on Jan. 15 at 8:30 p.m. $36.15-$41.15. thewebsterct.com.

Jiaoying Summers Funny Bone Comedy Club, 194 Buckland Hills Dr., Suite 1054, Manchester

Asian comedy sensation Jiaoying Summers, of “Tiger Mom” podcast and “Uber Karen” viral video fame, brings her “Lucky Pony 26” tour to the Funny Bone. There are four shows: Jan. 16 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. and Jan. 17 at 6:30 and 9 p.m. $36-$69. hartford.funnybone.com.

Railroad Earth Infinity Music Hall, 32 Front St., Hartford

The New Jersey ensemble Railroad Earth is known for its folky bluegrass jams but has also been involved in intriguing projects like setting rediscovered John Denver lyrics to music. Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. $47.42-$70.62. infinityhall.com.

R&B star Keyshia Cole is marking the 20th anniversary of her debut album “The Way It Is” with a tour, coming to the Oakdale on Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. “The Way It Is” contained the singles “I Should Have Cheated,” “Love,” “I Changed My Mind” and “(I Just Want It) To Be Over.” $48.75-$474.65. livenation.com.

‘English’ Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven

If you missed Arya Shahi’s intimate, emotional staging of Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer-winning play “English” when it was at TheaterWorks Hartford a few months ago — or are eager to see it again — the drama about a classroom of ESL students in Iran returns for a three-week run in New Haven thanks to the Long Wharf Theatre, which is a co-producer of the production. With nearly the same cast (the only exception is that Nina Ameri now plays Roya) and the same director and designers, “English” runs Jan. 16 through Feb. 1 at Southern Connecticut State University’s Kendall Drama Lab. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. There is no 2 p.m. performance on Jan. 17. $50, $15 college students, free for K-12 students. longwharf.org.

The popular comedian and “Stiff Socks” podcast co-host Michael Blaustein is at The Bushnell’s Belding Theater on his “Taste Me” tour. Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. $29-$109. bushnell.org.

The Remedies are the “house band” of UConn Health. The band has issued a challenge to student musicians at the school/hospital, and on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m., the members of one of those bands will received their battle-winning “master of musical medicine” degrees. There’s a $10 donation at the door with all proceeds going to Southpark Free Medical Clinic. blackeyedsallys.com.

Musical twins Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, who had their hits in the 1990s as the band Nelson, have spent much of their career paying tribute to their legendary rock ‘n’ roll dad Ricky Nelson, who turned his platform as an actor on his parents’ sitcom “Ozzie & Harriet” into an impressive singing career. Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. Free. mohegansun.com.

Town of West Hartford

WEST HARTFORD, CT — Christmas is over, and what to do with the tree is now the top priority rather than what will go under it.

West Hartford officials recently informed residents about what they can do to properly dispose of their natural Christmas trees this year.

According to the town, the annual Christmas tree collection program will begin on Monday, Jan. 5, and run through Friday, Jan. 16, 2026.

Crews will begin with the Monday trash collection area and continue into the Tuesday area, and so on.

They will make two complete sweeps through town during the two weeks.

Residents are encouraged to put their trees at the curb (not in the street) on any day during the first week of collection to ensure pick-up.

Crews may get ahead of schedule, weather permitting, and move into the next collection area.

During the final week of collection, trees must be at the curb by 6 a.m. of the designated trash day.

Drivers will not return for trees put out after a resident's trash day.

Trees are recycled into wood chips, so remove all decorations and lights. (No artificial trees. No bags.)

"Please help us during snowstorms by removing trees from the side of the road. Crews cannot dig out trees buried under snow," wrote the town.

Residents also have the option of bringing their trees to the town’s Recycling Center at 25 Brixton St., Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Note: There are no weekend hours January through March.) An annual permit is required for drop off.

For more information, call the West Hartford Department of Public Works at 561-8100.

The clock is ticking down to New Year's Eve on Wednesday.

If you're still looking for something to do in Connecticut to ring in the new year, there are plenty of celebrations you can check out!

First Night Hartford is once again ready to welcome the New Year's Eve crowds. Mike McGarry, one of the board members for the event, said he thinks this year will be the best in ten years with ice skating, carousel rides, food, activities, and of course, fireworks.

McGarry has been with First Night Hartford for three decades.

“We've had blizzards. We've had rainstorms. We've had below zero—this year's good weather. Snow will be, to some degree, melted. And I think we've got a perfect year for a perfect night for First Night,” McGarry said.

The snow will be a hindrance to another event, however.

Snowy conditions on top of the Holy Land in Waterbury are forcing the city and Post University to cancel the fireworks scheduled for New Year's Eve.

They wrote in part:

“The steep and difficult terrain has made it impossible to adequately clear snow and ice from the area required for safe fireworks setup and launch operations.”

Some celebrations in Connecticut have already sold out or are filling up quickly.

Tickets are going fast for the Mad Hatter’s New Year’s Eve Tea Party for kids at the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol.

“They get to have some tea and snacks surrounded by the ticking and chiming of the clocks. And when the clocks all strike noon, we do a countdown and noisemakers and all sorts of fun stuff. That's our midnight. So it's a lot of fun for the families who come,” Patti Philippon, American Clock & Watch Museum, said.

Back at First Night, you can find McGarry and other volunteers at the Pump House in Bushnell Park.

There will be music, games, and hot chocolate for sale.

“There's a lot of activities. So it's a real family-oriented night,” Bob Colangelo, First Night volunteer, said.

Check below if you want to find any other events near you:

Foxwoods Shows

Endless Midnight at Mohegan Sun

Other options from CTVISIT