HARTFORD ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF SUNDAY’S DOMINGO! HARTFORD OPEN STREETS

Published on June 24, 2022

HARTFORD, CONN (June 24, 2022) – Today, the City of Hartford, in partnership with Hartford Healthcare, announced details for the first DominGO! Hartford day, which will take place this Sunday, June 26th from 9:00am–3:00pm, stretching from Farmington Avenue and South Whitney Street all the way down to Bushnell Park at Jewell Street and Trumbull Street. DominGO! Hartford is the City’s inaugural open-streets program.

On Sunday, DominGO! Hartford will transform two miles of streets into car-free public spaces, connecting our communities and creating new places for fun, healthy activity for all ages and abilities. Community members will be able to enjoy biking, walking, running, and exercising, as well as visiting local businesses, eating at neighborhood restaurants, and enjoying activity hubs located along the route.

“Thanks to the hard work of our team and our partners, we’re thrilled to officially kick off DominGO! Hartford, our first-ever open-streets initiative,” said Mayor Bronin. “This Sunday, residents of Greater Hartford will get a chance to experience one of the city’s avenues in a whole new way. It’s a great chance to be outside, on foot, bike or scooter, and to enjoy music and arts programming, visit some of our great restaurants and shops, or just meet some new friends and neighbors. We’re grateful to all of our neighborhood organizations and community partners, and we’re excited to bring people back together for so many great events this summer.”

“DominGO! Hartford aligns perfectly with our mission to improve the health of the communities we serve,” said Bimal Patel, president of Hartford Hospital. “We are proud to partner with the city for this great event that will help revitalize our neighborhoods, support locally owned businesses and make critical health screenings and testing available to all.”

Each DominGO! Hartford route will include three activity hubs along the route, where guests will find water, first aid, and restrooms. Activity hubs will also feature family-friendly games for attendees to enjoy, such as jump rope, basketball, soccer, and live musical entertainment, as well as dance classes and fitness competitions provided by Hartford HealthCare. Active City, a non-profit focused on youth sports and recreation, will also have a presence at each activity hub, offering basketball in the West End, double Dutch in Asylum Hill, and soccer in Bushnell Park. Active City is partnering with The Weekend Basketball Club and Hartford Athletic to bring these activities to life.

“Active City in partnership with Hartford Soccer Club, Hoopwave, and CT Dubble Dutch will be offering fun youth sports activities for everyone to try out and get active,” says Brian Gallagher, Founder and Executive Director of Active City.

Activity hubs will also include additional entertainment throughout the day. Musical acts will include Sonia Sol and Friends, Nikita, Ed Fast and Congabop, Carlos Hernandez Chavez, Sinan Bakir, Nelson Bello and Friends, The West End Wizbangers, and Hartford Proud. Dance troupe Spectrum in Motion will perform and teach dance classes in Bushnell Park, and Janine McMahon of Asylum Hill will provide two-gen Zumba dance and bounce fitness classes at Trinity Episcopal Church.

“DominGO! is a wonderful opportunity for people to come together and enjoy Hartford, but it’s also a way for us to think about how to make our streets safer for people of all ages and abilities. Pedestrian fatalities have more than doubled in Connecticut in the past decade, and older adults make up a disproportionate number of these deaths. It’s more important than ever for communities to think about their built environments and reimagine public spaces as safe, fun, places for people of all ages.” says Anna Doroghazi, Associate State Director of Advocacy and Outreach at AARP Connecticut.

Cigna is also a sponsor of DominGO! as part of its focus on building healthier communities.

While DominGO! Hartford’s primary goal is to encourage attendees to be active and experience the city’s communities in a new way, the program also aims to support local musicians, artists, non-profit organizations, and small businesses. Businesses along each route are encouraged to spill out of their brick and mortar storefronts and interact with people as they travel up and down the route. Non-profit organizations participating include BiCi Co., Gateway to Life, Our Piece of the Pie, Watch for Me CT, the Women’s League of Voters, the Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association, and the West End Civic Association.

DominGO! Hartford will continue on July 24th on Park Street and August 28th on Main Street. To learn more, visit www.domingohartford.com.

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