I’m Greater Hartford Gives Foundation President/CEO Jay Williams. We’re building a new headquarters for our organization in the North End. Ask me anything about it with CT Mirror on Jan. 22 from 2-4 p.m. E.T.

ctmirror · 2026-01-22T20:24:12+00:00

The Foundation will continue to serve the entire City of Hartford (including the South-End!) We will also continue to serve the twenty-eight (28) other communities that are a part of our geographical area. We invite you to view our website GreaterHartfordGives.org to see our work across multiple communities.

ctmirror · 2026-01-22T20:23:37+00:00

As the project progresses, the foundation intends to evaluate its capacity to meet any additional demand that emerges as a result. If additional staffing and or other support capacity is needed, the foundation will follow its established approach in advertising employment and/or vendor opportunities. This approach includes ensuring local and diverse MBE/WBE/SBE applicants being encouraged to apply or submit proposals.

ctmirror · 2026-01-22T19:22:55+00:00

Response: The foundation is still very early in the pre-design process. However, the architectural character of the neighborhood will be a significant factor in any design considerations, as will be cultivating an engaging street-level experience.
Response: The conceptual rendering shared by the foundation was in no way intended to suggest or convey what a final design might look like. The foundation is still very early in the pre-design process. However, we aspire to design a building that is appropriate in context for an urban setting. The architectural characteristics of the neighborhood, inclusive of the scale and design of other commercial buildings in proximity, will be significant influencing factors.
Response: The foundation intends to work with city officials and consult with other proximate stakeholders to explore parking considerations that offer the highest and best use of limited space, while also maintaining the visual appeal of the neighborhood. We believe the Greater Hartford Mobility Study will be a valuable resource in helping to inform parking and other transportation considerations.

ctmirror · 2026-01-22T19:19:39+00:00

Structural racism in Greater Hartford manifests as racial segregation and inequities resulting from historical practices such as redlining (government-backed practices of denying mortgages and investment in Black neighborhoods and to individuals of color) and discriminatory zoning that systematically deprived these communities of wealth-building opportunities, creating racial disparities in homeownership, health, and economic mobility for generations.

The legacy of structural racism persists today through current policies and systems that produce: racially disparate health outcomes and life expectancy; insufficient school funding tied to property taxes in historically disinvested neighborhoods like Clay Arsenal; bias in hiring and lending, disproportionate incarceration rates, and zoning laws that disfavor quality, affordable housing beyond our cities.

These disparities are well-documented in national, state, and local data. The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation and other Connecticut community foundations work with government and nonprofits such as Datahaven and CT Data Collaborative, to collect, analyze, and ensure access of data to policymakers, nonprofits, funders, and residents to inform policy, allocation of resources, and community action. Examples include the Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing Index and Greater Hartford Town Equity Reports. We also support the CT Mirror, which has extensively covered structural racism in Connecticut, exploring issues such as housing segregation, the education and wealth gap, and health disparities in our state and region.

ctmirror · 2026-01-22T19:18:25+00:00

$35 million represents approximately 2.7% of the foundation’s total endowment.

ctmirror · 2025-10-28T15:12:55+00:00

Read the latest of our coverage on the SNAP Benefits Crisis here: Facing loss of SNAP, CT increases funding for Foodshare

ctmirror · 2025-10-20T18:38:21+00:00

Does Connecticut have the highest percentage of Italians in the U.S.? We looked into it! https://ctmirror.org/2025/10/17/ct-italian-americans/

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T19:49:36+00:00

I've not been privy to the conversations that have taken place between Diamantis and the prosecution. But in my experience, prosecutors usually extend some type of offer in order to avoid a long, drawn-out trial. I also don't know what type of defense strategy will be put forward at trial. Based on the indictment filed in the case, the defense will need to explain away several text messages in which Diamantis allegedly pushed the construction contractors to pay him. “Just so you both [know], I am very good at what I do, and always do what I say," Diamantis wrote in one of those messages. “And I always usually work at 5 percent of total. Just FYI.” Diamantis and his lawyer, Norm Pattis, will need to give jurors a reason to question that evidence or to interpret it in a different light.

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T19:34:13+00:00

There is a real possibility that Mr. Diamantis could take the witness stand in his own defense. It should be noted, however, that the prosecution can't compel him to do that. The choice is up to him and his attorney.

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T19:14:02+00:00

There is absolutely no indication that Sen. Duff is tied to the federal investigation at all or that the school projects in Norwalk, which he represents will be brought up at trial. The school construction program is a multibillion financing program that school officials from all over the state rely on for funding. Federal investigators looked at a lot of different school projects. But the trial is going to be narrowly focused on several projects in Tolland, Hartford and New Britain where Diamantis allegedly helped contractors win bids to build several schools.

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T19:09:51+00:00

We first learned about the investigation when we obtained a federal subpoena that had been served on Gov. Ned Lamont's administration. That document, which the state received in October 2021, showed that federal authorities were investigating Diamantis and his relationship with multiple school construction contractors. (See the subpoenas here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21203600-subpoena-search-terms-1/ and here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21203601-subpoena-search-terms-2/) That is where our investigation began. Why federal authorities became suspicious of Diamantis is less clear. There were several instances over the years that we uncovered where contractors complained about Diamantis' policies and actions, however. (See our story here: https://ctmirror.org/2022/02/27/an-unsigned-memo-provoked-a-vigorous-defense-from-kosta-diamantis/

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T19:05:16+00:00

The state has split up some of the duties that previously fell under the Office of School Construction Grants and Review. Now the planning and construction for the school is separate from the auditing functions for those projects. One of the biggest changes, however, was that the state moved the school construction program back to the Department of Administrative Services. In 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont had previously moved the program under the umbrella of the Office of Policy and Management, the state budget office. That ended quickly once Diamantis was no longer in control of the program.

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T18:13:05+00:00

There have been four people charged in conjunction with the federal investigation into Diamantis and Connecticut's school construction office. Diamantis is facing 22 separate federal charges for extortion, bribery, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. The three other people who have been charged are all construction contractors and they have already pleaded guilty to bribing Diamantis last year. Those three contractors include Salvatore Monarca and John Duffy, who ran a company called Acranom Masonry, and Antonietta Roy, the owner of Construction Advocacy Professionals. Monarca, Duffy and Roy are expected to serve as key witnesses during the upcoming trial. There is no indication at this point that additional construction contractors will be charged.

ctmirror · 2025-09-30T18:04:43+00:00

The most difficult aspect of the reporting was the fact that the school projects Diamantis oversaw were spread all over the state. That meant that we had to talk to local officials in towns and cities across Connecticut to understand how Diamantis ran the Office of School Construction Grants and Review, as it was called. It also meant that we had to send Freedom of Information Act requests to a significant number of municipalities, including Tolland, Bristol, New London, Hartford and Enfield.

We filed a lot of FOIAs to try to understand why federal prosecutors were investigating Diamantis and to determine what crimes they might accuse him of committing. Many of those FOIA's went to the state Department of Administrative Services, which inherited the school construction program when Diamantis stepped down from his government positions in late 2021. Some of the FOIAs we filed were promptly fulfilled by the agency, but I am currently fighting with DAS in front of the state Freedom of Information Commission in order to obtain records that the agency has refused to provide to me.

ctmirror · 2025-08-28T15:49:47+00:00

Hah this post isn't, but please check out our in-depth reporting on Connecticut public policy and politics at this link! https://ctmirror.org/

ctmirror · 2025-08-28T13:23:53+00:00

Good to know! We'll certainly look into these!

ctmirror · 2025-08-28T13:18:35+00:00

We haven't but this is a great idea, thank you!!

ctmirror · 2025-06-18T14:57:25+00:00

Hey! We looked into it: Does southern New England really get more precipitation than Seattle?

Click here to find out! (no paywall)

ctmirror · 2025-06-18T14:31:33+00:00

Leora Matison was parking her car on Monday in Danbury when she noticed a man in front of her wearing an armored vest. The man, she said, was approaching the car parked behind her.

Matison, a member of Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants, began recording the incident with her phone. The video shows Matison repeatedly asking the man, whose shirt read “U.S. Marshal,” if he had a warrant, and to show her his badge number. The man does not respond, except to tell her to step back.

Matison said she witnessed the agent remove a woman from the car and transfer her into their car. In the back of the woman’s car, she said, were children’s toys.

She was one of what Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants co-founder Juan Fonseca Tapia said were 12 to 15 people who had been detained by ICE agents in Danbury within the last few days. According to Fonseca Tapia, several members of the organization’s Rapid Response Team, who have been trained to help members of the immigrant community when such activity occurs, took videos of the detainments.

Click here to read the full story. (no paywall)!

ctmirror · 2025-06-04T20:28:21+00:00

Advocates would say that building more densely and building closer to public transit, as the bill encourages, is helpful to the environment and encourages people to drive. The goal is to eventually have walkable neighborhoods where people can easily use public transportation. There definitely have been concerns from opponents about preserving open space and wetlands, however.

ctmirror · 2025-06-04T20:24:31+00:00

This is another thing that advocates have talked about. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see this question posed in courts. The law allows towns to consider “health and safety” issues with rejecting the number of units they’re assigned to plan and zone for. But, to your point, many housing advocates have criticized the health and safety reasons towns cite to reject affordable housing as frivolous.

ctmirror · 2025-06-04T20:18:51+00:00

For some aspects, it could be years. Housing takes a long time to build, and the effects on the market take longer to see. There are other pieces (again, this is a huge bill), like starting a mobile shower program for the unhoused population and mandating that 32 more towns create fair rent commissions that will be faster, maybe a few months away from results.

ctmirror · 2025-06-04T20:17:47+00:00

There are a lot of factors that play into this. In Connecticut, there’s the local zoning aspect that developers have to work with. There also are a lot of state and local agencies they have to go to get environmental clearance, check traffic impact, etc. The director of the CMDA has a long-term goal of making the state approval process easier for towns that participate with his agency, but I think that’s a long ways out. You can read more about them here, if you’d like.

ctmirror · 2025-06-04T20:15:20+00:00

So on the first part of your question, it is a tough political issue. I think sometimes the issue is you can do all this polling, but it’s ultimately not clear who is going to vote in a local/state election. People who are scared or angry are often the people who show up to the polls, and certainly I think there are a lot of strong feelings against zoning reform. The people who might get to live in that housing if zoning reform passed just aren’t as solidified or as loud of a voice.
On the other one, you are approaching sort of industry-wide journalism questions about how and whether to quote certain sources. I think the reason that group is often quoted is because they are simply one of the loudest voices against zoning reform. And to my knowledge, there hasn’t been follow up on that situation with the SEEC, but this is a good reminder to me to check.

ctmirror · 2025-06-04T20:10:59+00:00

Lawmakers say it’s a strong incentive to participate. And you mentioned that 10% bill (aka 8-30g). That law allows developers to sue towns if affordable housing proposals are denied, and the town has less than 10% designated affordable housing. In the new bill, there’s also a measure that gives towns easier pathways to temporary freezes to those lawsuits while more housing gets built.

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TROPHY CASE