Presidential visit
President Andrzej Duda’s visit means long hours of security strategy meetings
New Britain prepares for
Sunday’s visit of Polish President Andrzej Sebastian Duda and his wife, Agata Kornhauser-Duda. They will attend Mass at a local church, then the president will speak at 3 p.m. at Walnut Hill Park.
Judging by all the preparations under way all week, the excitement in New Britain about Polish President Andrzej Duda’s visit Sunday ranks somewhere between wildly big and flat-out enormous.
“It’s the first the Polish president ever came here. It never happened before,” said shopkeeper Krystyna Obara at Quo Vadis, a gift store in the Little Poland section that has stocked up on Polish flags, shirts, caps and more for the expected influx of visitors.
“This is making history,” public works employee Walter Rivera said as he put up temporary security fencing at Walnut Hill Park, where Duda will speak.
For city police, Duda’s trip means long hours of security strategy meetings with state troopers as well as the Secret Service and Polish national protection agents. More than 5,000 people have already registered online to attend Duda’s afternoon speech at Walnut Hill Park, and New Britain police are gearing up for even more.
“The Little Poland Festival got 35,000 this year, so we’re preparing for a lot of people. There’s certainly going to be a large police presence,” Chief Christopher Chute said Thursday.
For everyone going, organizers and police recommend doing a little extra planning and leaving plenty of extra time.
Where to see President Duda
Duda and his his wife, Agata KornhauserDuda, will be the guests of honor at Walnut Hill Park, where he is expected to speak to a crowd on the topic of relations between Poland and the United States. It is the main public appearance of his trip and the only one where he’s expected to speak.
Organizers, including Darek Barcikowski, Poland’s honorary consul in Connecticut, caution that registration is required to attend. Anyone interested can sign up online at www.presidentdudact.com.
That crowd could be big. About 10% of the state’s 3 million residents have some Polish heritage, and organizers expect people to
come from many other states. Mayor Erin Stewart, local leaders and most of the state officeholders from the region plan to attend.
“To have the leader of a major foreign power in our city is a real honor,” state Rep. Rick Lopes said.
Duda is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. at the bandshell at the park at 184 W. Main St., but organizers recommend arriving at least a half-hour early. Large bags, backpacks, big signs, lawn furniture, weapons and sharp objects won’t be permitted, and organizers said attendees must be pre-registered and have a photo ID with them.
The park’s roads will be closed to traffic, and parking will be available at the city garages on Bank Street and Columbus Boulevard. The parking garage at the Hospital of Central Connecticut won’t be available, police noted.
On-street parking will be available unless signs say otherwise, but police Capt. William Steck cautioned that police will have roving patrols to ensure violators’ vehicles are towed away quickly.
Police anticipate some rolling closures of local roads near the park, but said they’ll work to reduce inconvenience.
Duda and his wife also are scheduled to attend a 1 p.m. Mass at Holy Cross Church at Farmington Avenue and Biruta Street. The church’s capacity is about 1,000 people.
“The parish has done a phenomenal job and is bringing in priests from other parishes, too,” Barcikowski said. “Everyone is welcome.”
Organizers note that parking will be more limited, access to the church will become impossible after the crowd reaches capacity, and Duda isn’t scheduled to speak.
What can I do in Little Poland on Sunday?
It’s shaping up as a big day for eating Polish cuisine and shopping for Polish foods, beers, gifts, glassware, clothing, souvenirs and more.
Broad Street, the heart of Little Poland, is home to more than 100 small businesses, with an estimated 70% of them run by PolishAmericans.
Most professional offices and service businesses will be closed, but restaurants, bakeries and retail shops are sticking to their regular Sunday hours — some closing at midafternoon, others open through the evening. Staropolska, Roly Poly, Polmart and Quo Vadis are among those that will keep their doors open.
“When I go to Poland and forget to bring a souvenir for someone, I can just get one — a real one — right here,” said attorney Adrian Baron, head of the Polonia Business Association. “You can buy magazines from Poland, candies from Poland, meats, cheese, anything. I asked my mother why she brings bread back from Poland because you can get it right here at one of the bakeries.”
What else is in Little Poland?
There aren’t formal museums or cultural centers, but visitors who’ve been to cities like Gdansk, Warsaw or Krakow agree that Broad Street closely resembles an authentic Polish business district.
Most stores, hair salons, real estate offices and even banks have signs in Polish as well as English, and merchants have added playful touches here and there. On a side street just outside Baron’s Broad Street office is a sign with the silhouette of an old lady walking with a cane; it advises motorists: “Drive like your babcia lives here.” It translates to “Drive like your grandmother lives here.”
The double yellow line in the center of Broad Street is standard yellow, but the lines designating parking spaces along the sides are in the traditional Polish colors of red and white. Local artists have painted a few of the traffic control boxes with fanciful Polish cartoon characters or similar scenes.
“Around Broad Street, 90% of the people are Polish. This is where Polish immigrants came first; many of them stayed,” Polmart owner Andrew Mazur said. “This is a magic place.”
Don Stacom can be reached at dstacom@courant.com.