{"id":473,"date":"2025-06-01T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/?p=473"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:31:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:31:36","slug":"j-stan-mccauley-says-the-north-end-was-the-victim-of-political-apathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/2025\/06\/01\/j-stan-mccauley-says-the-north-end-was-the-victim-of-political-apathy\/","title":{"rendered":"J. Stan McCauley Says Hartford\u2019s North End Victimized by Political Apathy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

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

In 2023, Gov. Ned Lamont stood on the lawn of a house in Hartford\u2019s North End as he com\u00admit\u00adted $85 in state funds to help res\u00adi\u00addents liv\u00ading with flood\u00ading from com\u00adbined sewage over\u00adflows and flood\u00ading. He admit\u00adted that the North End had \u201cbeen dis\u00adpro\u00adpor\u00adtion\u00adate\u00adly impact\u00aded by sewer over\u00adflows for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignored for too long, res\u00adi\u00addents of the North End were and were vic\u00adtims of \u2018polit\u00adi\u00adcal apa\u00adthy,\u2019 argued J. Stan McCauley, pres\u00adi\u00addent of the Greater Hartford African American Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an inter\u00adview, McCauley said those in power were too slow to respond to res\u00adi\u00addents\u2019 suf\u00adfer\u00ading and com\u00adplaints about dam\u00adage to build\u00adings and fears for their health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCauley said offi\u00adcials felt a lack of urgency to help those who can\u00adnot make as big of an impact with their votes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCauley, a semi-retired tele\u00advi\u00adsion pro\u00adduc\u00ader, said the alliance \u201ctook on the issue of sewage\u2014you know, raw sewage back\u00ading up into people\u2019s hous\u00ades and base\u00adments.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greater Hartford African American alliance sup\u00adport res\u00adi\u00addents in cham\u00adpi\u00adoning solu\u00adtions for sewage over\u00adflows. He said the alliance\u2019s inter\u00adest began when activist Bridgitte Prince, who her\u00adself lost belong\u00adings in flood\u00ading, spoke at one of their meet\u00adings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCauley said the ques\u00adtion of dis\u00adcrim\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion around this prob\u00adlem is an inter\u00adest\u00ading nee\u00addle to thread. The sew\u00ader\u00adage sys\u00adtem all over Hartford is a cen\u00adtu\u00adry and a half old, not just in the North End. But he argued less effort to cor\u00adrect it was hap\u00adpen\u00ading in the North End due to the com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty being large\u00adly peo\u00adple of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCauley said that although cli\u00admate change has brought more intense storms that cause flood\u00ading, the rea\u00adson for the major prob\u00adlems in the North End is not in itself cli\u00admate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not a flood\u00ading issue,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is sewage over\u00adflow.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In big storms, the sewage pipes do fill up and some\u00adtimes back up. But he said the over\u00adflows are not caused exclu\u00adsive\u00adly by the storms. He added that street flood\u00ading in storms is a sep\u00ada\u00adrate mat\u00adter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur fight from the greater Hartford African American Alliance was hold\u00ading the Metropolitan District Commission, the MDC, account\u00adable in find\u00ading a way to mit\u00adi\u00adgate and stop sewage from com\u00ading into people\u2019s homes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he believes that back\u00adflow pre\u00adven\u00adters installed in some build\u00adings \u201cwere defec\u00adtive and do not work. I am sen\u00adsi\u00adtive and under\u00adstand the MDC\u2019s point of view, but at the same time, the prob\u00adlem must be fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the state\u2019s com\u00admit\u00adted $85 mil\u00adlion, part of the MDC\u2019s $170 mil\u00adlion pro\u00adgram to improve the sew\u00ader\u00adage sys\u00adtem, is going to cor\u00adrect\u00ading prob\u00adlems with the lat\u00ader\u00adals from the street to pri\u00advate homes, and in a grant pro\u00adgram to pre\u00advent back\u00adups into hous\u00ades. The grants cov\u00adered $9 mil\u00adlion to res\u00adi\u00addents and has been paused, the state comptroller\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCauley said more fund\u00ading is need\u00aded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Lamont announced the fund\u00ading to help the North End back in 2023, he said wealth\u00adi\u00ader towns in Connecticut would have refused to accept such flood\u00ading for so long. The gov\u00ader\u00adnor told CT News Junkie\u2019s Hugh McQuaid<\/a>, \u201cIf there was sewage bub\u00adbling up in a base\u00adment of Guilford or Greenwich, they\u2019d be get\u00adting that fixed overnight. Well, we\u2019re going to be get\u00adting it fixed right here on Granby Street and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCauley said that dis\u00adpar\u00adi\u00adty comes down to finances and how money affects pol\u00adi\u00adtics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe peo\u00adple in Greenwich are very active\u00adly involved, and there\u2019s a lot of money, and money trans\u00adlates to polit\u00adi\u00adcal power,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople in Hartford are poor for the most part and don\u2019t have polit\u00adi\u00adcal power that is reflect\u00aded in how they vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, \u201cThe prob\u00adlem has to be fixed, peri\u00adod. They must fix the prob\u00adlem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP IMAGE: J. Stan McCauley with pro\u00adduc\u00adtion equip\u00adment. Photo from his LinkedIn pro\u00adfile page<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Noa ClimorUConn Journalism In 2023, Gov. Ned Lamont stood on the lawn of a house in Hartford\u2019s North End as he com\u00admit\u00adted $85 in state funds to help res\u00adi\u00addents liv\u00ading with flood\u00ading from com\u00adbined sewage over\u00adflows and flood\u00ading. He admit\u00adted that the North End had \u201cbeen dis\u00adpro\u00adpor\u00adtion\u00adate\u00adly impact\u00aded by sewer over\u00adflows for a long time.\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1108,"featured_media":1103,"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-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-from-the-north-end","tag-north-end"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/files\/2025\/06\/jstanmccauley.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","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=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}