Upper Albany Main Street is pleased to accept a grant of $75,000.00 representing Travelers’ support for the Upper Albany Main Street Micro Business Incubator (MBI) Program.  Travelers also extended their best wishes for a successful year as our  MBI program continues to provide the business community with vital workforce development training and technical assistance. Thank you Travelers for contributing to our very worthy cause!

Written by: Justin Coleman, MBA
25 years, 324 days, represent the time that it took for me to take my first step into the beautiful and thriving atmosphere of London, England. While being impressed with the architecture, food, and economy of London, there was still a feeling that I had seen similar sights here in the United States. There were housing structures which looked like a mixture of houses between Boston & Philadelphia. Buckingham Palace only offered me just as much access as an unscheduled visit to the White House. The availability of fish n’ chips in London, which we all know very well here in good ole Connecticut are just a couple of examples of similarities in cuisine.  I really can appreciate their extensive public transportation system after viewing the accuracy and reliability of the different subways and buses which instantly reminded me that this is not the USA.

The overall purpose of the trip pertained to the class offered by University of Hartford called “International Finance.” We were lectured by professors  at the Regent’s University London, where we stayed for the duration of the trip. Living on their campus also brought back memories of my undergraduate days. After each morning session, we were able to visit many of the thriving companies, which also happened to have some University of Hartford alumni as employees. AIG, Lloyds of London, and Ogilvy & Mather were very accommodating during our visits and we were able to compare the structure of their separate operations to companies that we would see here in Hartford, CT.

Personally, I would love to return to London and continue sight-seeing the United Kingdom overall. There was so much to see but due to the time constraint I could not view it all. However, this is the risk that is taken when one decides to pop in to a thriving, foreign country such as the United Kingdom.

Dr. Richard A. Fichman, a native of Hartford, was recently awarded the 2014 “Community Involvement Champion” sponsored by the Metro Hartford Alliance and the Hartford Business Journal.  Fichman is active in various community organizations within the Hartford neighborhood.  This include serving as Chairman on the Board of Directors for Upper Albany Main Street, and as Chairman of Upper Albany Development, Inc. Fichman expressed his vision for the rejuvenation of Albany Avenue as he commented:

 “We get an enormous amount of traffic that goes through there from the suburbs everyday .. If we clean it up – the state is putting in a streetscape improvement project there, and we have a facade program to clean up some of the buildings and attract merchants – there’s no reason merchants can’t do extremely well there.”

Last year, Fichman was also selected as the “Connecticut Business Person of the Year” by the CT Main Street Society, and he recently won an award from the Tunxis Community College for a documentary he created on the Hartford neighborhood.  He has established a scholarship program that benefit an Upper Albany student who wishes to attend the University of Hartford.  He said:

“The beauty is they can actually walk to school… [We want to help] a kid who wouldn’t have gotten to go to college [without financial help assistance].”

Marilyn Risi, executive director of Upper Albany Main Street, and one of three judges on the panel, asserted that Dr. Fichman has been actively participating in community initiatives since he opened his Albany Avenue office in 2012, and he is a great representative of the work done by Upper Albany Main Street.  She also said:

“His (Fichman’s) business became a pivot point between West End and Blue Hills, he takes all kinds of insurance, including HUSKY insurance, and has been well received by the community.”

Dr. Richard Fichman is a pioneer of Lasik eye surgery, and he is focused on revitalizing the Upper Albany community of Hartford.