{"id":321,"date":"2025-06-01T18:44:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T22:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/?p=321"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:28:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:28:57","slug":"bridgitte-prince-says-north-end-has-waited-too-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/2025\/06\/01\/bridgitte-prince-says-north-end-has-waited-too-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridgitte Prince Says North End Has Waited Too Long"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

By Noa Climor
UConn Journalism<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bridgitte Prince expe\u00adri\u00adenced first\u00adhand the dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00ading effects of flood\u00ading in Hartford\u2019s North End, and she used that expe\u00adri\u00adence along\u00adside her pas\u00adsion for help\u00ading her com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty to fight for her neigh\u00adbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince is a U.S. Army vet\u00ader\u00adan who lost her belong\u00adings when her father\u2019s house was flood\u00aded in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI lost all my mil\u00adi\u00adtary mem\u00ado\u00adra\u00adbil\u00adia, unforms, medals, memen\u00adtos, arti\u00adfacts from dif\u00adfer\u00adent countries\u2014everything. I lost a great deal,\u201d Prince said in a phone inter\u00adview this spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since, she has watched many other res\u00adi\u00addents of sev\u00ader\u00adal North End neigh\u00adbor\u00adhoods suf\u00adfer. \u201cThere are still com\u00adplaints about sewage over\u00adflows,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She recalled that in 2023, when Gov. Ned Lamont announced a pro\u00adgram to cor\u00adrect flood\u00ading that includ\u00aded about $9 mil\u00adlion in grants to pay for home\u00adown\u00aders\u2019 dam\u00adages, \u201che made a com\u00adment about how this wouldn\u2019t hap\u00adpen in Greenwich or Guilford, and for me that is a clear admis\u00adsion of bias and dis\u00adcrim\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince said she believes that although the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), the non-prof\u00adit agency that man\u00adages the sew\u00ader\u00adage sys\u00adtem, has embarked on cor\u00adrect\u00ading prob\u00adlems in the sys\u00adtem, most of the North End\u2019s prob\u00adlems have not been addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2023, she tes\u00adti\u00adfied at the nom\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion hear\u00adings of DEEP com\u00admis\u00adsion\u00ader Katie Dykes, when she crit\u00adi\u00adcized the time\u00adline in legal agree\u00adments that pri\u00ador\u00adi\u00adtized fix\u00ading CSOs in Wethersfield Cove before those in the North End.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClimate change can\u00adnot allow the MDC to tell DEEP and the EPA that they will get around to address\u00ading the sewage and waste\u00adwater prob\u00adlems in 2040,\u201d she tes\u00adti\u00adfied, refer\u00adring to some of the dead\u00adlines for fix\u00ading North End infra\u00adstruc\u00adture. \u201cThe infra\u00adstruc\u00adture funds are here. The fix is now!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lack of respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty,\u201d she said in this spring\u2019s inter\u00adview. The work to cor\u00adrect the North End prob\u00adlems \u201chas only hap\u00adpened because of our advo\u00adca\u00adcy. It still would have been minori\u00adties deal\u00ading with the sewage over\u00adflows if it wasn\u2019t for our advo\u00adca\u00adcy and activism. It is being addressed, but not fully resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MDC, through spokesman Nick Salemi, declined to com\u00adment on Prince\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince said that the state moved more quick\u00adly and spent more money to help sub\u00adur\u00adban res\u00adi\u00addents whose con\u00adcrete foun\u00adda\u00adtions were found to con\u00adtain a min\u00ader\u00adal that made them crack and fall apart. The Crumbling Foundations pro\u00adgram<\/a> has spent close to $200 mil\u00adlion so far replac\u00ading dam\u00adaged foun\u00adda\u00adtions in cen\u00adtral Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go as far as to say I still think it\u2019s dis\u00adcrim\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion,\u201d Prince said, \u201cbecause when you com\u00adpare it to vic\u00adtims of the Crumbling Foundations, there\u2019s a dif\u00adfer\u00adence.\u201d Applicants for grants to fix sewage back\u00adups were required to prove their iden\u00adti\u00adties and proof of res\u00adi\u00adden\u00adcy, along with doc\u00adu\u00adments show\u00ading claims and repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to sewage over\u00adflows and address\u00ading the dis\u00adpar\u00adi\u00adties and com\u00adpen\u00adsat\u00ading peo\u00adple in the North End, who are pre\u00addom\u00adi\u00adnate\u00adly Black, mind you, they want them to pro\u00advide so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cNo human should be going down to their base\u00adment and have to deal with some\u00adone else\u2019s waste.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Noa ClimorUConn Journalism Bridgitte Prince expe\u00adri\u00adenced first\u00adhand the dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00ading effects of flood\u00ading in Hartford\u2019s North End, and she used that expe\u00adri\u00adence along\u00adside her pas\u00adsion for help\u00ading her com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty to fight for her neigh\u00adbors. Prince is a U.S. Army vet\u00ader\u00adan who lost her belong\u00adings when her father\u2019s house was flood\u00aded in 1988. \u201cI lost all\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-from-the-north-end","tag-north-end"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}