Accent on Exports in Connecticut; State Supports Business Outreach Overseas

If Connecticut were a country, it would be the sixth-most productive in the world, according to the state’s annual report by the department of Economic and Community Development. A critical building block for economic productivity is exports, and a look at the data reveals some surprisingly positive statistics. The backdrop is offered by more than 700 global companies that have subsidiaries here, employing more than 100,000 people, the Organization for International Investment points out.  The state’s convenient access to a variety of transportation options all provides access; there were 4.6 million tons of cargo carried on Connecticut rails in 2015, for example, and 11.4 million tons of freight shipped through Connecticut ports in 2013.

The U.S. Commercial Service and the Connecticut District Export Council have teamed up to create a series of events throughout Connecticut marking the annual Connecticut Export Week. These events will take place during  April 24-28. Connecticut Export Week 2017 will educate businesses on initiating and or expanding their global market. Officials describe Connecticut  Export Week 2017 as the only free event of it’s kind in the nation.  A series of free events and webinars will be offered at locations around the state.  Topics include exporting to China, expanding to new markets, initial market research, how to develop and maintain an export network, and export logistics.

“The ease of global travel and freight movement by rail and highway makes Connecticut a prime location for domestic and international trade,” the report points out.  Leading exports include: Aerospace/Transportation Equipment, Non-Electrical Machinery, Computers and Electronics, Chemicals, Electrical Equipment, Fabricated Metals Production, and Primary Metal Manufacturing.

The top three trading partners for the state are Germany (10.8% of state exports), Canada (10.7%), France 12.7%, United Arab Emirates (10.4%) and Mexico (8.7%).

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) recently called on companies to apply for grants of up to $7,000 for a wide range of export-related activities. Funding is from the Small Business Administration (SBA), which awarded Connecticut a $244,000 grant to help increase state exports and the number of small businesses that export. The Department has provided more than 350 grant awards allowing Connecticut companies to participate in Medica, the leading international medical device trade show in Dusseldorf, Germany; Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial technology trade show in Hannover, Germany; and the international air shows in Farnborough, U.K. and Paris. Additionally, companies can request reimbursement for trade shows, trade missions and other export activities specific to their industry.

“These investments are helping Connecticut’s small businesses compete in the global economy,” said DECD commissioner Catherine Smith. “For example, grants have been provided to companies to help offset the costs of attending the Farnborough Air Show, one of the most important air shows in the world. Without these grants many of the suppliers and component manufacturers in Connecticut’s supply chain could not attend, missing a key opportunity to establish important contacts and build relationships with the leading aerospace contractors across the globe.”

Disparities Evident As Fairfield County Considers Its Community Wellbeing

Fairfield County’s sizeable immigrant population - twenty percent of Connecticut’s most populous county - grew 89 percent from 1990 to 2014. In some municipalities, foreign-born residents make up as much as a third of the population. That is among the findings in the Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016, which examined regional demographics, economic opportunity, education, health, quality of life, and happiness.  The report includes analysis of the communities, populations, and neighborhoods of Fairfield County, as well as opportunities available and issues facing the area.

Since 1980, the size of the population living in neighborhoods that are considered most affluent – defined as those with an average family income more than 2.5 times higher than the state level - has tripled within Fairfield County. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poor neighborhoods is 3.5 times its 1980 size. The number of people in middle-income neighborhoods has decreased by sixteen percent.

Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, a major funder of the report, partnered with DataHaven, area hospitals, and government agencies to help launch a more robust and comprehensive resource that could serve as a part of the hospitals’ and health departments’ Community Health Needs Assessments as well as a broader county-wide indicators program.

“Fairfield County’s Community Foundation is committed to addressing the most pressing issues facing Fairfield County, but to do that we first need to be able to identify and understand those issues,” stated Nancy M. von Euler, Vice President, Programs, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. “The data in the Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016 will help us to develop priorities for collective action to build a stronger, healthier Fairfield County where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their zip code.”

The report states that "Despite its overall affluence, Fairfield County is among the nation’s most unequal metropolitan areas. Inequities in well-being appear when evidence is stratified by income, age, race, gender, and zip code. These differences are often most apparent after considering data that were collected specifically for the age groups and neighborhoods that are most impacted."

Among the findings, between 2014 and 2025, adults ages 65 and over are Fairfield County’s only age group projected to grow significantly, with a thirty-seven percent increase. Disparities in the County were also evident:

• High and rising childcare costs are often prohibitively expensive for low and middle-income families. While Fairfield County has nearly enough spaces for all 3- to 4-year-olds to attend preschool, there are only enough regulated childcare slots for fifteen percent of the county’s children ages 0 to 2, and enough subsidized slots to cover only twenty-two percent of these youngest children in low-income households.

• The issue of dental care arose as an indicator of well-being, particularly among younger adults and families. The Index shows that for every 10,000 residents living in Fairfield County, 12 residents visit an emergency room to receive treatment for preventable dental conditions in any given year, whereas on the East Side of Bridgeport, 178 residents do.

• Fairfield County residents are healthy when compared to national benchmarks. However, many conditions and risk factors—such as asthma, food insecurity, exposure to community violence, and the early onset of diabetes—are disproportionately prevalent in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Sections of Bridgeport in particular fall very far behind the surrounding area in many of these measures.

• Disparities in access to reliable transportation persist between racial and income groups. A majority of Fairfield County workers, regardless of income, commute to another town for work. Many low-income (annual wages under $40,000) workers leave Bridgeport for work, while large shares of high-income workers commute to New York City.

“The process of developing this report allowed local partners and community members to identify links between the well-being of residents and the places where they live. Looking beyond typical measures like income levels or unemployment rates, the Community Wellbeing Index reveals a much more uneven distribution of opportunities in areas such as neighborhood walkability, economic development, public health, and education,” said Mark Abraham, Executive Director of DataHaven and a lead author of the report. “The impact that these barriers to opportunity have on overall well-being and happiness will serve as a call to action for many groups working to improve Fairfield County’s diverse neighborhoods and towns.”

The Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016 was based on a variety of federal and statewide data sources. Partners of DataHaven’s Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016 include Fairfield County’s Community Foundation; Bridgeport Hospital; Danbury Hospital; Greenwich Hospital; Norwalk Hospital; St. Vincent’s Medical Center; and Stamford Hospital.

Legislatures Consider Changes in Transportation Safety in CT, Nationwide

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is tracking legislation on a range of traffic safety subjects that have been introduced in the 50 states and the District of Columbia – and is providing updates on the organization’s website.  The site reflects 14 proposed bills in Connecticut, being considered in the General Assembly session that began last month.   Traffic safety topics being tracked nationwide include: Aggressive Driving, Automated Enforcement/Photo Monitoring, Child Passenger Protection, Distracted Driving, Driver’s Licensing, Impaired Driving, Motorcycle Safety, Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety, School Bus Safety, Seatbelts and Occupant Protection, Senior Drivers Issues, Slow-Medium speed vehicles, Speed Limits, and Teen Driver Issues.

Among the proposals being considered in Connecticut is one that would require three-point seat safety belts for school buses and require passengers of a school bus to wear seat safety belts.  A similar proposal would require three-point seat safety belts for school buses that are model year 2019 or newer.  NCSL reports that 20 state legislatures are considering a variety of school bus safety proposals. 

Three proposals would increase fines for distracted driving offenses, including texting or using a hand-held mobile telephone while driving, and one calls for additional funds to be appropriated to the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to “combat distracted driving.”  Connecticut is one of 14 states that have seen distracted driving bills suggested. 

Legislative proposals also include one that would mandate the use of helmets by motorcycle operators and passengers, and another that would regulate the operation of high-speed and low-speed electric bicycles in the state. Twenty-six states in addition to Connecticut have motorcycle safely proposals under consideration.

Members of the legislature’s Planning and Development Committee will consider proposals that call for modifications to urban street design guidelines, in order to “improve the safety, economic life and vibrancy of urban streets.”

Among the nation’s states, the largest number of legislative proposals relate to impaired driving, followed by motorcycle safety, pedestrian and bike safety, drivers licensing, drivers licensing, and school bus safety.

Forty-seven states have begun their 2017 legislative sessions.

Traffic Deaths at 4-Year High in Connecticut

The Connecticut Crash Data Repository (CTCDR) reports that the number of traffic deaths in Connecticut through December 22 in 2016 is the highest in the past four years. The CTCDR is a web tool designed to provide access to select crash information collected by state and local police. This data repository enables users to query, analyze and print/export the data for research and informational purposes. The CTCDR is comprised of crash data from two separate sources; the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT).

The latest data reports a total of 301 traffic deaths in the state this year, compared with 273 through the same date in 2015; 245 in 2014 and 278 in 2013, all through December 22. It is the second consecutive annual increase in the number of traffic fatalities.

The purpose of the CTCDR is to provide members of the traffic-safety community with timely, accurate, complete and uniform crash data. The CTCDR allows for complex queries of both datasets such as, by date, route, route class, collision type, injury severity, etc.

For further analysis, this data can be summarized by user-defined categories to help identify trends or patterns in the crash data. The site is maintained by the University of Connecticut.

CT Residents See Regionalism as Viable Option for Local Services; Highway Improvement A Transportation Priority

Connecticut residents believe that some services traditionally handled by individual municipalities  can be effectively delivered regionally.  A new statewide survey found that public health earns the most support for a regional approach and public safety the least.  More than 3 in 4 people (76%) say that public health services can be provided on a regional basis, followed by animal control (68 percent) and education (66 percent).  The survey found that 65 percent of state residents believe that library services can be delivered regionally, and 61 percent share that view regarding public safety services. The survey for InformCT, a public-private partnership that provides independent, non-partisan research, analysis, and public outreach, was administered by researchers from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. (CERC) and Smith & Company.  The analysis is based on the responses of survey of 510 state residents, with a margin of error of 5 percent. 

Survey respondents were asked about regionalization of services in surveys conducted in the first three quarters this year, and support was generally consistent – respondent’s views of regionalizing the various services did not vary more than four percentage points for any of the policy areas during that time.  Favorability of regionalization of public health services has increased each quarter, while regionalizing education has increased from Quarter 1.  While support for regional public safety services has also increased from Quarter 1, it received the least support among the services queried in each survey.  Only regionalizing libraries has seen a decline from the first quarter, and preferences for regionalizing animal control has held steady.

“Increasingly, towns will not be able to afford to sustain the level of services to which they have become accustomed, as budget pressures increase along with a reluctance to raise taxes. Residents showed concern, and a willingness to consider regionalism as a partial solution,” said Robert W. Santy, who serves as Board Chair of Inform CT and is President & CEO of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) Inc.

The  also found that the most important factor when choosing a town in which to live, is property taxes, followed by the quality of the school system.  Those factors earned 53 percent and 51 percent of respondents, respectively, who describe the factor as “very important” - the only aspects  described as very important factor by a majority. Other factors deemed very important include recent appreciation of home values (30 percent), proximity to transportation and employment (29 percent) and proximity to entertainment ad amenities (24 percent).

The survey  also asked about transportation in Connecticut, finding that 74 percent said they use their car almost every day.  Other modes of transportation were not nearly as popular.   More than 80 percent indicated that they had used a local bus (86%), long distance bus (91%), commuter rail (87%), Amtrak (92%), an airplane (92%) or a bicycle (82%) only once, or not at all, in the past month.  Regarding state spending to improve transportation, respondents ranked highway improvements as the highest priority by a wide margin, with commuter rail, local bus, and bicycle lanes/pedestrian walkways, ranked next highest.  Highway improvements was described as the highest priority by more respondents than the other six options combined.

Stamford-based Harman to be Acquired by Samsung

Even as Connecticut’s economic development leaders toil diligently to retain and attract industry-leading businesses to the Land of Steady Habits, market forces at times pull in different directions.  That is again in evidence as Samsung has announced it will buy Stamford-based Harman for $8 billion. The acquisition of will make Samsung a major player in automotive technology, and removes an independent corporate headquarters from the state’s roster. Earlier this year, Harman was one of four Connecticut-based companies to be named among the most innovative companies by Fast Company magazine.  Harman ranked seventh on the Fast Company ranking of the 10 most innovative companies in the automotive sector.

Upon closing, Harman will operate as a standalone Samsung subsidiary, and continue to be led by Dinesh Paliwal and Harman’s current management team, both companies indicated in a news release.  Harman has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $7.0 billion during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016.

“Samsung is pursuing a long-term growth strategy in automotive electronics, and plans to retain Harman’s work force, headquarters and facilities, as well as all of its consumer and professional audio brands.  Samsung believes the combination will increase career development and advancement opportunities for the employees of both companies,” the news release stated. 

“This compelling all-cash transaction will deliver significant and immediate value to our shareholders and provide new opportunities for our employees as part of a larger, more diversified company,” Harman Chairman, President and CEO Dinesh Paliwal said.

For Samsung, it is the biggest overseas acquisition ever by a South Korean firm, according to the news service Reuters. The Harman acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in mid-2017, reports indicate. The agreement has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

Harman's products, which provide infotainment, telematics, connected safety and security services, are used in more than 30 million vehicles made by automakers such as BMW, Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen, according to its website. Harman’s portfolio of audio brands includes AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson®and Revel®

Harman executives will be at the Fleet Europe Forum and Awards on November 16 in Barcelona, Spain to highlight Harman's premium products for the fleet industry , which caters to businesses, government agencies and other organizations that purchase or lease groups of vehicles to support their services.

Teen Safe Driver Week Observed in Connecticut; Car Crashes Are #1 Killer of Teens

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In 2014, 2,270 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed and 221,313 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes. That means that six teens ages 16–19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries.

Those stark statistics provide the backdrop for the observance of National Teen Safe Driver week, which runs through Saturday,in Connecticut and nationwide. The week-long observance, through October 22,  brings that message to communities across the state by reminding them safety must come first.  Connecticut adopted in 2008 more stringent teen driving laws to raise awareness and reduce crashes, injuries and deaths. The state has seen an 82-percent reduction in fatalities for 16 and 17 year-old drivers from a high of 11 in 2002 and to an average of two per year since the tougher laws began.

"As long as motor vehicle crashes remain one of the leading causes of death for American teenagers, everyone needs to do their part to ensure our youngest, and most inexperienced drivers have the knowledge to make responsible decisions when they get behind a wheel," said Governor Dannel P. Malloy. State Attorney General George Jepsen said, "National Teen Driver Safety Week is a great time to encourage conversations with new and soon-to-be drivers about the importance of safe driving habits. Parents, teachers, advocates and even peers all play a role in helping to make sure that teens make safe choices when operating motor vehicles."

Members of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Teen Advisory Board said the week is important for a variety of reasons, and encourages teens to play an active role in promoting safety behind the wheel.  The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16-19-year-olds than among any other age group, CDC data indicates. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash.

“One second represents when we make a driving decision, be it a good or bad one,” said Armani Nieves, a senior at Hall High School in West Hartford and member of the DMV Teen Advisory Board.  “It only takes one second to be a good or bad driver.”

Maggie Silbo, a junior at Mercy High School and a member of the teen advisory board, said teen drivers can lead by example in many ways.  “To be safe drivers, teens should follow the rules of the road, such as not talking or texting on the phone, obeying the posted speed limits and following the passenger restriction laws,” Silbo said.  Angela Zhu, a senior at Cheshire High School, said teenagers can play an active role as responsible passengers.“It's all about awareness,” said Zhu, also a member of the DMV Teen Advisory Board.  “All it takes is one small sentence.  If you really care about your friends, simply tell them to put down the phone.”

Compared with other age groups, teens have among the lowest rates of seat belt use. In 2015, only 61% of high school students reported they always wear seat belts when riding with someone else. Teens are also more likely than older drivers to underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize hazardous situations, and more likely than adults to make critical decision errors that lead to serious crashes, according to the CDC.

The DMV Teen Advisory Board also came up with the theme for this year’s DMV-Travelers Teen Safe Driving Video contest:  “One Split Second…”  The board designed the theme to engage teens to produce a video on how a split-second decision related to driving can make a difference in the lives of these youngest drivers.

“I believe it is crucial to promote the message of safe driving for teens, especially as there are even more distractions on the road today,” said Kojo Appiah, a senior at Xavier High School in Middletown and a member of the  DMV Teen Advisory Board.  “This video contest is an exciting activity that teens can do with your peers while learning the life lessons and responsibilities of being a safe driver.”

DMV Commissioner Michael Bzdyra said this week is a great time for parents to review the state’s teen driving laws (http://ct.gov/teendriving/laws) and create a safe driving agreement (http://1.usa.gov/1MA7miP) with their teens. “This is an important week because it’s a reminder to teens, parents and communities who can all be positive influences for safe driving in a variety of ways,” Commissioner Bzdyra said.   “This is a great time to discuss safe driving at home, in the classroom or anywhere else to promote good choices related to driving and help ensure teens follow the rules of the road.”

CT's Strength in Aerospace, Engineering on Display at Upcoming Conference in Hartford

The three-day conference at the Connecticut Convention Center at the end of this month begins with technical tours of Sikorsky and UTC Aerospace Systems to provide industry experts with a first-hand look at their industry-leading innovations. It is the opening of what organizers describe as a conference “unlike other aerospace and defense events,” focusing on the “practical application and implementation of technology, and technology in development in commercial, military and general aviation -essential for the aerospace technical community, government, and research personnel.”

The SAE 2016 Aerospace Systems and Technology Conference (ASTC) is to be held  September 27-30.  SAE International is a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.  The conference “combines the strength of the SAE Power Systems Conference (PSC), Aerospace Electronics and Avionics Systems Conference (AEAS) with tracks in unmanned systems and systems engineering. No other event provides the breadth and depth of technical presentations across these domains,” organizers stress.

Keynote speakers include Thomas W. Prete, Vice President of Engineering for Pratt & Whitney, Michael McQuade, Senior Vice President, Science and Technology, for United Technologies, Chris Van Buiten, Vice President of Sikorsky Innovations at Sikorsky Aircraft, and Peter Smith, Vice President, Engineering, at UTC Aerospace Systems.

The conference will offer an open technical forum for aerospace systems professionals, especially engineers working in a range of disciplines to gather valuable technical knowledge, insight, and information on emerging and applied technologies with respect to commercial, military, and unmanned aviation.

The technical sessions, developed by industry professionals to maximize relevance, are designed to allow industry members of all levels the opportunity to gather timely, relevant, and stimulating information to enhance skills and creativity

Overall, the event provides an invaluable opportunity for attendees to renew and develop important business relationships within the international aerospace industry and for engineering professionals to discover, collaborate, and engage with peers from around the globe.  Attendees will interact directly with the event organizers and technical leaders from Boeing, Airbus, GE, NASA, U.S. Air Force, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney/UTAS, Rolls-Royce, Sikorsky, and many others.

The conference concludes on Sept. 30 with a day-long Transformative Vertical Flight Workshop.

Panels at the Hartford conference will bring industry experts together to discuss critical issues regarding the integration and application of technologies relevant to the solving emerging issues in the engineering and maintenance communities. The goal of the panels is to enhance the technical understanding of items critical to those participating in the audience via problem solving discussions and exchange of ideas. Topics will include innovations in Integrated Propulsion Systems & Aircraft Systems, Intelligent Aircraft Systems and Aircraft Systems Integration.

Distracted Driving Attracts Police Attention in CT

Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded. That statistic underscores why Connecticut State Police and more than 50 local police departments across the state are participating in the “U Drive. U Text. U Pay” initiative, for the second time this year.  It is an effort to get the attention of motorists who choose to text, talk or otherwise distract themselves from the task of driving by using a hand-held mobile phone. The campaign began August 3 and runs through August 16, (a similar effort was conducted in April) with law enforcement agencies taking aim at distracted drivers—especially those on their phones. 

The state Department of Transportation observed a significant drop in hand-held mobile phone use at selected enforcement locations after a similar effort last year. The data demonstrated a decrease in distracted driving from 9.6 percent before April 2015 to 7.8 percent in August 2015, representing a 23 percent drop in phone use at the selected enforcement nationwide.

Under Connecticut’s cell phone and texting law, violations involve heavy fines, ranging from $150 for a first offense to $300 for a second violation and $500 for each subsequent violation.  In 2014, an estimated 3,179 people were killed (10 percent of all crash fatalities) and an additional 431,000 were injured (18 percent of all crash injuries) in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted.

“Crashes due to cell phone usage are preventable. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on steering wheel all of the time that you are driving. That incoming text and outgoing phone call can wait. Nothing is more important than arriving at your destination safely,” said Commissioner Dora B. Schriro of Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving. Ten percent of all drivers 15 to 19 years old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crashes. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted at the time of the crashes.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration points out that studies show that parents have a great influence on teen behavior. “While you may not think you have great influence, that’s it’s all about peer pressure, you’re still the greatest influence on your teen. Talk to your teen and set rules to keep your teens from driving while distracted. Know the facts and share it with them. Engage your teens in a dialogue about the problem.”  A national website, www.distraction.gov, has relevant information.

Connecticut remains the only state in the nation to receive special distracted driving prevention funds to create special patrols to identify, stop and cite drivers who choose to ignore distracted driving laws. Over $6.8 million dollars has been awarded to the state over the last three years to fund distracted driving prevention campaigns.

Hartford’s Innovation, Manufacturing History Highlighted in Exhibits at Smithsonian and State Capitol

On Wednesday, July 13, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History will make public a special portion of their collection with “Objects Out of Storage: Hartford, CT.”  The special exhibit, led by curator Susan Tolbert and historian Eric Hinz, will take place at noontime in the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation in the nation’s Capitol. Describing Hartford’s prominent manufacturing history, Hinz said “Hartford, CT, is a classic story in the history of American technology. If you have ever wondered why people refer to “Yankee ingenuity,” this is what they are talking about.”  He adds, “In the mid and late 1800s, the United States overtakes Great Britain as the world’s foremost economic superpower, largely on the strength of its prowess in inventing and manufacturing new technologies. Hartford is at the center of that revolution.”

Hartford, described as “one of the birthplaces of American mass production,” is well represented in the ongoing exhibit, Places of Invention, which “takes visitors on a journey through time and place to meet people who lived, worked, played, collaborated, adapted, took risks, solved problems, and sometimes failed—all in the pursuit of something new.”

The exhibit notes that by the 1850’s “Hartford became the center of production for a wide array of products—including firearms by Colt, Richard Gatling and John Browning; Weed sewing machines; Royal and Underwood typewriters; Columbia bicycles; and even Pope automobiles.”

The Lemelson Center is located at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Constitution Avenue between 12th and 14th Street NW, in Washington, DC. The Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation is located on the Museum's first floor in its Innovation Wing. In the exhibit, which debuted  last summer, Hartford is featured with Silicon Valley and just four other locations: Hollywood, home of Technicolor; the Medical Alley of Minnesota, where cardiac innovations of the 1950s flourished; the Bronx, N.Y., birthplace of hip-hop in the 1970s; and the current, clean-energy innovations of Ft. Collins, Colo.

Among the featured innovations on display is the bicycle, manufactured for the first time in the United States in Hartford.  As the Smithsonian historian explains, “sensing a commercial opportunity, Albert Pope began importing bicycles from England and hatched a plan to produce them domestically in 1877. Within a year, Pope rode the train from Boston to Hartford, then, ‘to the amazement of the city’s onlookers, rode his high-wheeler from the station down Capitol Avenue to the Weed Sewing Machine Company.’”

The history continues: “Pope approached factory superintendent George Fairfield with a proposal: would Weed agree to build a test run of 50 bicycles under contract? When Fairfield agreed, Pope (via the Weed Sewing Machine Company) became the first domestic manufacturer of bicycles in the United States. By 1895, Pope’s expanded Hartford operations included five factories set on 17 acres, employing 4,000 workers, making him Hartford’s largest employer.” Pope manufactured bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles.

That chapter in Hartford history has recently captured the imagination of a well-known Hartford artist, whose cut-paper recreations of that chapter of the city’s transportation and recreation breakthrough is now available for display, having just completed an exhibition at the Connecticut State Capitol.

Jeanne Manzelli, a resident of Windsor, has a BFA in Sculpture from the Massachusetts College of Art and her MED in Art Education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her experience includes a 20 year career in design, manufacture, appraisal and sale of jewelry, two decades as mural artist working closely with interior designers as an industry professional, and 14 years teaching basic and advanced drawing, sculpture and 3D design as well as color theory at Tunxis Community College.

Her latest endeavor is a departure, and a salute to an innovation from a century and a half ago. The intricate designs, accompanied by information panels highlighting the history, are now available to be displayed at public facilities, such as schools, libraries, and community centers.  Manzelli looks forward to sharing her work (and is seeking a sponsor to underwrite the exhibit), as well as stimulating a conversation about innovation in Hartford, then and now.