Open Thread

Guilty as charged, Aunt Bertha. But honest to goodness, it is sometimes not humanly possible to contain one’s anger over the stupidity of those “in charge”. I guess, in realty, it is WE who are in charge, and thus, who is stupid now?
I vow to try to not be so venomous when I post.
And while I have never lay claim to being a responsible adult, I will try behave more maturely and politely in the future.

Seems Sono has some issues after reading the article sunday be nice to have some input from the residents and not just the merchants.It does sound like our system of running a city is getting tired.

Maybe its time we listen to some merchants as well we seem not to listen to the ground floor and hear too much from our city officials in high office on most subjects concerning the city.

Jay Lask, senior vice president
of acquisitions for Madison
Marquette. When he tried to
populate the area with restaurants,
Lask said he met stiff
resistance from the Planning
and Zoning department.
In SoNo, and the rest of
Norwalk, each business must
provide adequate parking for
its customers, but unlike other
parts of the city, most businesses
don’t come with parking lots.
Property owners can get
around this with a one-time fee
of roughly $20,000 per required
space, used to fund future parking
lots in the area. This “fee in
lieu of parking” mostly affects
new bars and restaurants
because they generally draw
more traffic than retail stores.
While the rule’s main purpose
is to keep SoNo safe from
an excess of motorists,Michael
Greene, Norwalk’s Planning
and Zoning director, said it’s
also the only measure that
keeps restaurants from dominating
retail stores.
“If the city said, ‘We don’t
care about retail in SoNo,’ we
could get rid of all those empty
spots tomorrow,” Greene said.
Fred Brown, chairman of
Desmond Virgulak Brown
Commercial Realty, said the
regulations create a chilling
effect, even on retail. One of his
properties, for example, was
mostly a storage area, so people
who wanted to open a larger
store there would also get
caught up in the fee system.
“It has affected so many
deals down there,” Brown said.
The end result is a lack of “critical
mass,” where a business
district gets so dense that it
attracts other store owners to
what seems like a thriving district.
“I don’t know why the city
does not relax the regulations
and let the uses come in willynilly,
so then it becomes a
vibrant area,” Brown said.
Greene said his department
does not react to the market on
a daily basis, and he warned
against rewriting regulations
just to fill a handful of vacancies.
“If fee in lieu of parking was
removed today, virtually all
the retail in South Norwalk
would disappear and all of
Washington Street would
be restaurants,” he said. He
would rather wait until the
appropriate tenant comes
along, no matter how long
it takes.
Thomas Rich, president
of the F.D. Rich Companies,
said he is only considering
a bar or restaurant for one
of his vacant stores. If
there is any fee owed to the
city, Rich said his company
is willing to pay.
“We’d have to comply
with whatever the regulations
are,” Rich said.
Planning and Zoning
seems willing to cooperate,
too. The commission is
looking into extending the
grandfather period from
one year to two on changing
a restaurant to retail and
back without paying the fee
in lieu of parking. Greene said
this would encourage property
owners to experiment more
with retail.
Getting around
The most consistent gripe
for SoNo business owners is
parking. On the most basic
level, it isn’t free. Meter parking
on the area’s main streets
costs 75 cents an hour, and its
main lot costs $1 per hour during
the day, a $2 flat fee until
6:30 p.m. and $5 after 10:30 p.m.
That’s not a high price compared
to a meal at Strada 18 or
a necklace from Pellegrini
Jewelers, but Jeff Esau, owner
of Jeff ’s Cuisine, said fast food
no longer seems as economical
when feeding a meter is
required.
“The major thing is the parking,
because people don’t want
to pay $5 to park and get a $3
slice of pizza,” Esau said.
Kathryn Hebert, the city’s
administrative services manager,
said business owners can
validate parking through her
office, and there are new programs
on the way. The city is
taking a cursory look at valet
parking, she said, and come
May, visitors will get to purchase
prepaid parking meter
cards.
“It’s like EZ-Pass,” Hebert
said, referring to the New York
area’s highway toll payment
program. “It just deducts whatever
the rate is.”
Although city officials say
visitors shouldn’t rely so much
on driving immediately to their
destination, some business
owners said walking poses a
connectivity problem, where
the train station, the retail
district and The Maritime
Aquarium function as separate
parts rather than one thriving
area.
The solution, Chiaramonte
said, is a trolley to bring people
around SoNo.
Richard Erlanger, who
recently closed Saga on
Washington Street, was a longtime
champion of the idea. “I
still think that that would be a
critical piece,” he said.
Erlanger and Louis
Schulman, administrator of
the Norwalk Transit District,
experimented with the idea
more than a decade ago, but it
was scrapped after a few
months. Signs for each stop
weren’t well-designed, and the
bus itself — a small shuttle borrowed
from the district — wasn’t
actually a trolley, Erlanger
said.
Overall, the shuttle wasn’t
marketed properly, he said. It
should have been like a ferry —
$2 for an all-day pass, instead of
the free ride that he thinks
repelled potential customers.
“People looked at the word
free and they were afraid to get
on,” Erlanger said.
Schulman isn’t keen on the
idea anymore. He would rather
focus on a proposed bus hub,
known as the “Pulse Point.”
The transit district is also considering
improvements to the
South Norwalk train station
and how to develop a path to
the rest of SoNo.
There’s still hope for transportation
around the area. The
parking authority plans to roll
out a shuttle between the train
station and the garage near
The Maritime Aquarium in the
fall. If that goes well, service
could expand to the rest of
SoNo.
“We don’t have room for a
trolley, but it would be a shuttle
bus,” Hebert said. “We’re looking
at different wraps around
the shuttle that make it look
like a trolley.
In the Community
There are only a few blackowned
businesses in SoNo,
despite being nestled within a
neighborhood that
is mostly populated
by black people.
Lover Thomas,
who owned Love’s
Barber Shop on
South Main Street,
said news of higher
rents forced his
early retirement
after 19 years of
business.
“I really think
that it’s the big shot
squeezing the little
man out, that’s all,”
Thomas said,
though he added
that if he hadn’t
been planning on
closing the shop
already, he may have
tried to stick
around.
Still, business
owners and leaders
in the black community
say high rents
are probably the main reason
black and minority business
owners don’t set up shop in
SoNo.
“The reality is, think about
it demographically,” said state
Rep. Bruce Morris, D-140. “The
income of the minority population
… is less than the nonminority
income.”
Still, Morris and Joseph
Mann, president of Norwalk
Economic Opportunity Now,
said a little help would come in
handy.
“There are a lot of talented
people who could go into business
themselves,” Mann said,
“and they just need a little
guidance, and they just need a
little help with their direction,
and I think we could have some
entrepreneurs pop up here.”
NEON once offered such a
program several years ago, but
the funding dried up and it was
never replaced. The group
doesn’t currently offer anything
else, but Mann said a
“skeletal plan” is in the works
for this calendar year.
Esau said more support
from the black community
would also be helpful. He’s been
criticized for offering a more
expensive version of Southernstyle
food that can be made at
home, but he noted that he
employs people from the community
and tries to inspire others
to follow his path.
“We can’t expect someone to
come in on a white horse and
drop off a bag of money,” Esau
said. “We need support from
our own people.”
He also said perseverance is
key. “If you don’t have that, I
don’t care if you’re a minority
or what, you’re not going to
make it,” he said.
Mayor Richard A. Moccia
said the issue extends far
beyond Norwalk, and cautioned
against pigeonholing
any particular part of the city.
There aren’t any city programs
in place to help minority business
owners get started, he
said.
“The state has programs,
and I think that’s where it has
to lie,” Moccia said. “As far as
bringing new businesses in, we
encourage everyone to come to
the city to try and establish
new business.”
Coalition
of the Willing
Up until last year, there was
a South Norwalk Business
Association. Functioning
entirely on the volunteer time
of the district’s merchants, it
represented SoNo’s business
interests to city officials and
organized special events for the
area.
Among those events was the
annual Norwalk Harbor
Splash! Festival, which celebrated
SoNo with food, games
and a parade. The association
canceled the 2007 festival,
claiming it needed the
resources to put together a
business improvement district,
which has been talked about
for years.
Nick Pacella, president of
the South Norwalk Business
Association, has since stepped
down due to personal reasons,
and no other business owners
picked up the slack.
“It’s sort of in the ether at
this point,” Pacella said of the
association.

Mayor Richard A. Moccia
said the issue extends far
beyond Norwalk, and cautioned
against pigeonholing
any particular part of the city.
There aren’t any city programs
in place to help minority business
owners get started, he
said.
“The state has programs,
and I think that’s where it has
to lie,” Moccia said. “As far as
bringing new businesses in, we
encourage everyone to come to
the city to try and establish
new business.”

Maybe we should think city programs we have enough to connect the city lets take some time to find some money to fill the vacancies in the city you want to connect to. Relying on the state is not a very good plan I would think . One more thing for an election issue next time. Wonder wwhy it wasn’t an issue before?

From the sounds of it Up until last year, there was
a South Norwalk Business
Association. Functioning
entirely on the volunteer time
of the district’s merchants, it
represented SoNo’s business
interests to city officials and
organized special events for the
area.
Among those events was the
annual Norwalk Harbor
Splash! Festival, which celebrated
SoNo with food, games
and a parade. The association
canceled the 2007 festival,
claiming it needed the
resources to put together a
business improvement district,
which has been talked about
for years.

Goes back to can’t take care of what you have why bother building anything else.

So if its as bad as your all saying where is our mayor? what has he suggested?

Dickless Moccia won’t do anything else to resolve the issue of “Sue ‘em” Soo vs. the Friends because he no gots the stugots (look it up in your Sopranos dictionary).

This administration could give a rat’s ass about anything relating to history in Norwalk.

I read that the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion is getting another 500 grand from the state. What a joke. The board doesn’t even try to raise money on thier own. Duff needs his head examined to push for the money. He knows about the funds that were misappropriated from the state not long ago and now he wants the tax payers to give more money to that private club house. But then again he sits right up there with the rest of the crooked politicians.

That kind if money would help to take down the old police station and help the city farm that property out to a developer. We pay for the cleanup and someone else comes along and uses it for something that will line the pockets of others deserving.

You only have to hold an office in Norwalk to be motivated to receive some sort of palm warming. It may not be cash or a reltive working the system but its usually something now a days its just having your name in the papers that does nicely for some. granted we have hard working employess and dept heads yet we have plenty who have put out to pasture because they knew too much or didn’t want the same thing as the powerful ones.

Never made any sense the smarter wiser honest and thoughtful ones are the ones looking in and wondering why they were never called back when they gave their time and never took a cent,

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Look at the new Web Design a far better way of reading the News

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/norwalkadvocate

its about time now lest work on weekend news and we will be better off as a city.