from a press release:

Super Green Drinks

Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Fat Cat, 9-11 Wall Street
Norwalk, CT
_____________________________________________________________________

Back in 2004, the first Green Drinks held in Connecticut happened at Papaya Thai’s tiki bar in South Norwalk. Green Drinks have since spread all over the state to include many other cities and towns.

But not since Fairfield County Green Drinks has there been a big Green Drinks, so it’s time to invite all the Green Drinks organizers to celebrate together again.

Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford, Bridgeport, Ridgefield and Westchester Green Drinks have joined forces inviting all Green Drinks fans to attend Super Green Drinks on June 2nd at Fat Cat Pie and Fat Cat Joe.

Author Stefanie Iris Weiss will sign copies of her new book Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable (Ten Speed Press/Crown Publishing).

Fat Cat Joe will provide an alcohol-free environment for young people and those who choose an alcohol-free life style. It’s a coffee shop. Fat Cat Pie next door will serve drinks as always.

On this occasion we are joined by the Try Norwalk Naturally green business association, which will set up displays and booths.

For more information please contact us.
http://www.greendrinks.org
Click USA, then click Connecticut, then Norwalk.

Sure it’s easy to string a couple of headlines;
Pair steals man’s pants at gunpoint on Stamford’s South End
Man beaten, robbed and thrown over a fence in downtown Stamford
and extrapolate that crime as one commenter here likes to say “is out of control.” But the reality is that crime incidents do not constitute an assessment on the trend without looking at the long range and the recent history. For that the uniform FBI statistics say what they’ve said all along, Norwalk and Stamford are low crime areas to live. But all is not equal. Connecticut magazine once again did a rate the towns survey and behold the town of Fairfield beat out Greenwich as the most desirable place to live. And how did Fairfield ran? From the Stamford Advocate:

Municipalities were rated in five categories, with 1 as the best score and 17 being the worst. Fairfield rated a 1 in education, 2 for crime and economy, 15 for cost and 4 for leisure.

After Greenwich, West Hartford is ranked third in the survey, Stamford took fourth, Milford was fifth and Danbury came in sixth. Norwalk was ranked ninth, while Bridgeport tied with Meriden for sixteenth — last place.

What’s interesting about the Norwalk ranking is that so many people decry Stamford as a town they don’t want Norwalk to become. Get we demand better? Is it really satisfying to rank 9th out of 16th these days? Fairfield has a 85.2% election voter turn out rate. is Norwalk really content with its less than 45% turnout? According to the Advocate, Greenwich ranked second after Fairfield,then West Hartford , Stamford cam in fourth fourth, Milford cam in fifth and even Danbury came in ahead of Norwalk at sixth. Danbury?

It wasn’t so in 2006, when the last time the rankings came out. Stamford, for all it’s big city and higher crime incidences ranks lower in crime than Norwalk in a magazine reader survey. Interpret as you wish, but �here’s Norwalk’s score in context then:

*tie

FAIRFIELD — With an excavator and bulldozer�behind him as backdrop, Vice President Joe Biden on Monday said federal recovery funds are doing more than�helping cover the cost of reconstructing portions of the Merritt Parkway. Joined by Sen. Christopher Dodd and Fourth District Rep. Jim Himes in a park-and-ride lot at exit 46 of the parkway, Biden said the funds are also rebuilding the country’s economy and its future.

About 300 people attended the mid-afternoon event, which also drew about a dozen anti-Dodd protesters.

Beside repairing infrastructure, Biden said, “We’re reinvesting in getting people off their knees, back to work, but also toward something — a more resilient,�a transformative economy.”

�

Vice President Joe Biden, who said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is about staying competitive in the 21st century.

Biden said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also has saved the jobs of 2,500 educators in Connecticut who would have been laid off in September. The recovery act, said Biden, is more than about jobs, “it’s about staying competitive in the 21st century, so we can lead the world in the 21st century, as we did in the 20th.”

Overall, Biden said, the U.S. Department of Transportation has made available $48.1 billion for transportation projects nationwide.

Himes said the most important thing we must focus on is getting America back to work.

“There’s no better social program in the United States of America,” said Himes, “than a good-paying job.”

Dodd said the American dream lives on in Connecticut because we still know how to build things, and have a skilled and competent workforce.

He said funds from the federal recovery act have saved 41,000 jobs in Connecticut, and the state, he said, is poised to receive another $1.6 billion in direct aid, and an additional $1.3 billion in Medicaid assistance, “thanks to Congress and the Obama administration.” These funds, he said, are going to make Connecticut’s roads safer, more environmentally friendly, easier to drive on and less congested. “We’re going to rebuild this economy by rebuilding our infrastructure in this nation.”

From left, Craig Miller, O&G construction company superintendent, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Jim Himes on Monday at a park-and-ride lot in Fairfield supporting use of federal recovery funds to reconstruct portions of the Merritt Parkway.

Digressing to the Obama administration’s goal of providing health insurance to nearly everyone in the country, Dodd said, “It’s a shame in America that too many of our people are uninsured and, by the way, we’re going to get that public (insurance plan) option for Americans. They deserve it.”

Craig Miller, the project superintendent for O&G Construction Co. in Torrington — the contractor for the “Safety Improvements of the Merritt Parkway Federal Stimulus Project” — said the project employs operating engineers, laborers, carpenters, masons and Teamsters, with 60 to 70 workers on the job day and night. Including sub-contractors, Miller estimated 100 people will be employed in the course of the project.

Dodd has been receiving low poll numbers and may face a Democratic primary next year. He also recently had surgery for prostate cancer.

Gesturing toward Dodd, Biden said, “This is my single best friend in the United States Congress, and one of my closest friends, period.” The best news of the day, he said, is that Dodd got a call on Friday saying “he is cancer free.”

Some of the protesters carried signs opposing Dodd’s reelection. They were restricted to a location overlooking the park-and-ride lot that was at a�distance where�their vocal protests could barely be heard.

The southbound lanes of Interstate 95 between exits 24 and 17 (Fairfield to Westport) are being milled and�resurfaced overnight until Thursday, Oct. 22. Work is occuring Monday through Thursday from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Norwalk’s various institutions will be hit by bonding that Rell is proposing to stop. So does Stamford. Bond issuances are solely at the discretion of the Governor.

Norwalk:

Darien

• Grant-in-aid to the Darien Arts Center for�infrastructure renewal projects
  • $50k

Westport

• Grant-in-aid to the town of Westport for new construction at the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts
  • $1,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the Westport Historical Society for retirement of outstanding debt
  • $600k
• Grant-in-aid to the Saugatuck Senior Cooperative inWestport for roof replacement
  • $250k

Greenwich

• Grant-in-aid to the town of Greenwich for renovation of existing, or construction of new, exhibition areas, teaching spaces and the science gallery at the Bruce Museum
  • $750,000

Bridgeport

• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport, for purchase and installation of a public safety video surveillance system
  • $300k
• Grant-in-aid to the Barnum Museum Foundation, Inc. for renovations at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport
  • $1.250,000
• Grant-in-aid to Bridgeport for the design and construction of the Congress Street Bridge
  • $10,000,000
• Grants-in-aid to municipalities and organizations that are exempt from taxation under Section
• 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, for cultural and entertainment-related economic development projects, including projects at museums, provided (A) $ 1,000,000 shall be made available for the Bridgeport Downtown Cabaret
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport, for revitalization of the Hollow Neighborhood
  • $500,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport, for improvements to the Palace Theater
  • $250,000
• Grant-in-aid to the Connecticut Zoological Society for the planning and development of the Andes Adventure Exhibit at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport
  • $800,000
• Grant-in-aid to Bridgeport for a feasibility study for the Congress Street Plaza urban renewal area in Bridgeport
  • $250k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for planning and implementation of the Upper Reservoir Avenue Corridor Revitalization Initiative Project
  • $250k
• Grant-in-aid to the Fairfield County Housing Partnership for land acquisition, design, development and construction of an independent living facility in Bridgeport
  • $750k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for the Madison Avenue Gateway Revitalization streetscape project
  • $2,500,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for the Black Rock Gateway project
  • $1,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for purchase of a water taxi, construction of docks and construction of the Pleasure Beach retractable pedestrian bridge
  • $3,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for the design and construction of the Congress Street Bridge
  • $5,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the Bridgeport Port Authority for improvements to the Derecktor Shipyard, including remediation, dredging, bulkheading and construction of Phase 2 of the Derecktor Shipyard Economic
  • $1,750,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for improvements to Bluefish Stadium
  • 400,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for repair and improvements on State Road 59 between the North Avenue and Capitol Avenue intersections, including median and sidewalk renovations
  • $1,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport for the Black Rock Gateway project
  • $1,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the City of Bridgeport for the remediation of the waterfront including any predevelopment costs
  • $10,000,000
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Bridgeport, for day care, a community room and a playground at West End School
  • $350k
• Grant-in-aid to Action for Bridgeport Community, Inc. for acquisition and renovation of property for an early learning center
  • $1,200,000
• Feasibility study for establishment of an education center in the city of Bridgeport
  • $250k

Fairfield

• Grant-in-aid to the Fairfield Theatre Company, for purchase and installation of a sprinkler system
  • $100k
• Grant-in-aid to the town of Fairfield for repair and improvements on State Road 59 between the North Avenue and Capitol Avenue intersections, including median and sidewalk renovations
  • $850,000

Stamford

• Grant-in-aid to the city of Stamford, for radio systems to improve police and fire department communications
  • $500k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Stamford, for park restoration and infrastructure improvements
  • $500k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Stamford, for the Holly Pond Tidal Restoration project
  • $750k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Stamford, for�improvements to the playgrounds and athletic fields at Springdale School
  • $100k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Stamford, for purchase by the Stamford Health Department of a mobile medical unit for the uninsured and elderly
  • $250k
• Grant-in-aid to the Stamford Hospital Foundation for�purchase of a digital mobile mammography unit
  • $500k
• Grant-in-aid to the city of Stamford, for architectural, engineering and other site preparation services and costs for the Hunt Center for Pre-K Education in Stamford
  • $500k
• Grant-in-aid to the Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut in Stamford for expansion
  • $500k

One of the striking things about this list is how much state aide goes to Bridgeport versus the rest of Fairfield County. Then again, look at the overall bonding list and see the distribution overall. WTNH is reporting that these bonding projects were approved as far back as 2007.

The odd thing is that much of these bonds whether you agree that the state should incur debt or not, go to rebuilding or building something. In short, the types of jobs that spur the economic activity in the state of Connecticut. SOme of which I bet has to do with matching funds from federal grants. Yet here is Rell halting the funding for projects that would put many people to work. It’ll be interesting to see what the spin in all this is beyond the legislature, when the cities who are most affected now have to cough up money for projects.

A hat tip to SecondhandRose for pointing out the WTNH story that led to the list.

CDOT has announced a milling and resurfacing project starting tonight will cause delays on I-95 in Fairfield and Westport. Work is being performed northbound from exits 17 to 19, and southbound from exits 24 to 17. The work schedule is 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Sunday evenings, and 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday evenings. The project is scheduled to continue until Wednesday, Sept. 23.

I admit, I’m obsessed with Whole Foods. Normally I avoid grocery stores because they figure in a lifestyle that engages in cooking, which is not something I do. Some people can take random ingredients and create something edible. I generally end up with something that catches fire. Thus my obsession with Whole Foods would seem a bit odd. Unless you’ve been to a Whole Foods, and that you might start to understand why I travel to the one in White Plains.

Whole Foods hires real chefs to create their prepared foods. So you can go to the food trough, and find grilled wild alaskan salmon with some green stuff on it and it tastes good. Real good. The problem with most healthy prepared food as it is sold by “health” stores is that it tastes like cardboard. Sticking curry on tofu and passing it off as chicken is not my idea of a dish I’d be interested in. Real chicken in curry, now that’s more like it.

But onto the news article, apparently a Norwalk developer is building out a Whole Foods plaza in Fairfield.

A Norwalk developer’s plan to build a 108,000-square-foot retail complex on Kings Highway East, anchored by a Whole Foods store, met little resistance at its first public hearing Thursday night.

But a controversial part of Summit Development’s plan — blasting a 45-foot-high rock cliff that would cut deeply into woods that shield its 10.5-acre property from Vermont Avenue neighbors — was not included in the Inland Wetlands Commission’s review.

The venue for that battle is the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, which also must vote on Summit’s proposed development.
“We’re hopeful those issues will be resolved between the applicant and neighbors prior to, or at, that meeting,” said Mark Barnhart, director of the town’s Department of Community & Economic Development.

Barnhart said Summit’s development would provide $200,000 in annual tax revenue to the town, create 100 permanent jobs and dozens of temporary construction jobs and give residents more shopping options.

But Summit won’t get to build its development if it can’t get the project through the Inland Wetlands Commission and TPZ.
William Fitzpatrick, Summit’s lawyer, said the 10.5-acre property, once the site of Handy & Harman’s precious metals processing factory, does not have wetlands.

But the Inland Wetlands Commission gets to vote on the project because Summit wants to discharge storm water from that property to an adjacent property that has wetlands and that is heavily contaminated by industrial pollutants.
Annette Jacobson, administrator of the town’s Conservation Department, wants to make sure the discharged storm water is clean.

Steve Strange, the only member of the public to speak Thursday, wants to make sure the adjacent property isn’t rendered undevelopable.

Summit’s consultants said the storm water would be detained and cleaned before it left the property. They said less water would flow off the property in heavy rains because of detention chambers.

Handy & Harman sold the 10.5-acre property to Summit for $8 million in 2003 on condition Handy & Harman knock down its factory and clean that parcel of industrial pollutants.

Handy & Harman spent $20 million to clean the 10.5-acre property, Fitzpatrick said.
Adam Henry, a geologist hired by Summit, said the cleanup is largely complete. He said groundwater was still contaminated but not at levels high enough to warrant remediation.

The groundwater, which is mostly underneath bedrock, will eventually clean itself because contaminated soil above it has been removed. The DEP is requiring periodic testing of the groundwater to ensure that happens, Henry said.

So Whole Foods is stymied in Darien and Fairfield. Too bad they can’t see the potential in a site here in Norwalk.

source: Connecticut Post Blasting could blow up Whole Foods project, By ANDREW BROPHY, December 7, 2007

In the end there wasn’t the mad crowd of political flunkies who staged what would have been a spectacular tribute to Lucille Lortell in a remash of the West Side Story. The theatrics, for once appropriate, weren’t there, and instead a small troupe of political flunkies arrived at the White Barn property to add another milestone to a long series of events that started in 1999.

Despite the save cranbury web site, the saga of the Lortell foundation’s decision to interpret Lortell’s last will as a flexible document to keep the white barn theater going, but not at the physical white barn theater property is a murky one, though not unusual. Foundations it seems, have become a vehicle for leveraging many things, and not necessarily what the benefactor wanted. The NY Times recently reported;

Banks can reduce gifts and increase the foundation’s assets, thus increasing their fees. At the same time, banks and lawyers stand to gain personal influence and prestige by selecting new charities.

“Donors who’ve given us money for years die, their money ends up in a foundation controlled by their lawyer or their bank, and we don’t get any more grants,” said Juliana Eades, president of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.

Which is maybe how the Lucill Lortell foudnation eneded up giving $2 million to the Westport Playhouse, a theater unconnected to the Lucille Lortell during her lifetime, instead of using those funds to preserve Lortell’s actual White Barn Theater. From Westportnow.com

Westport Country Playhouse officials announced Monday they have received a $2 million capital grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation to name in perpetuity the building adjacent to the theater as “The Lucille Lortel White Barn Center.”

In addition, the Lucille Lortel Foundation has pledged a $500,000 operating grant over 10 years to create The White Barn Theatre Program at the Playhouse.

The original White Barn Theatre, founded by Lortel in 1947 to present experimental works, is now a museum located on Newtown Turnpike in Westport. Its final production there was in the summer of 2002.

…

The Lucille Lortel Foundation grant brings the Playhouse’s five-year Campaign for a New Era to within $200,000 of its $30.6 million goal for Playhouse renovation and expansion, artistic and educational programming and an endowment. The campaign is scheduled to end on December 31, 2005.

Today though, the focus was on the future of the property, not the recent lost opportunities. The milestone at hand was a new agenda item for Tuesday’s Common Council meeting. After years of building an open space fund, the Council was going to vote on appropriating $250k from the fund to match the $450k the state DEP had promised in a grant.

Common Council President Mike Coffey, and his entourage of 4 children, led the many rounds of thanking the hard work of all present to get to this point. He described the process of freeing the money from the Open Open Space funding, and added that $30k would be given to the Harte Peninulsa acqusition.

The theme of thanking stressed the high level of cooperation amongst people on both sides of the political aisle and was mentioned by virtually all the speakers.

Gail Wall spoke on how the Save Cranbury Association was formed 4 years ago to save the property. Joanne Jackson spoke about the amazing results that can be achieved with cooperation of politicians of different parties and across town borders, mentioning Westport’s Partrick wetlands. Marny Smith, president of the Norwalk Land Trust, spoke about the process of getting the $450k grant released due to the acreage changes and need for a new appraisal.

Mayoral candidate Walter Briggs explained how he instituted funding for open space out of the planning commission budget approved by the council. In recent years, the previous Mayor, Alex Knopp, removed that funding. Briggs mentioned that with the Moccia administration took over the Democratic led council was able to restore that funding. “Finally,” Briggs said, “We have many things to do [with the funds].”

Marny Smith added, “It is now spelled out that we have a process for funding and applying those funds and its being practiced.”

Council member Gwen Briggs added that “this council has been very generous with open space.”

Maribeth Becker displayed the plans for the Friends School and explained how the school became involved in acquiring the property.

Council member Fred Bondi talked a bit about all the open space projects that the council was moving forward with, saying, “Three projects in 2 years is really great.”

Kelly Straniti reiterated how it took so many people coming together to get to the point that the property preservations was at. “Four years ago, before I was elected t the council, I jumped in and wanted to do something to preserve this land. And now I have an impact as a council person, and will be voting for the funding next week.”

Doug Hempstead spoke last, but not least, (well, less than Gail Wall actually), “This is Americana at its best. Nothing good comes easy.” He was alluding to the difficulties in getting to the Friend’s School project. “This has pulled everyone together for a common cause. It should put Norwalk on the map for a lot people to see how a community can come together and get a school like the Friends School that is so ecologically fitting here.”

With all the remarks and speeches out of the way, the walking tour began, and concluded with none of the kids having fallen into the pond, only Doug Hempstead forging across the brook and none of the hiking party getting trapped by rusting relics of illegal dumping.

source:, NY Times, Donors Gone, Trusts Veer From Their Wishes, By STEPHANIE STROM, September 29, 2007

For about $200,000 Fairfield DPW workers and an outside construction firm managed to assemble the political will and funds to restore a Revolutionary war era tavern. From the Connecticut Post:

The town is nearly finished restoring a historic structure where George Washington slept in October 1789 during his tour of colonies invaded and torched by the British.The original Sun Tavern on Town Green didn’t survive the British invasion of Fairfield in 1779, but Samuel Penfield, a prominent Revolutionary War-era resident, rebuilt the tavern in 1784.

Washington, inaugurated as the country’s first president in April 1789, stayed overnight in Sun Tavern from Oct. 16 to 17 of that year, according to the Fairfield Historical Society.

“There is pretty sound evidence to support George Washington having stayed here when he came to Fairfield,” said David Parker, a local architect who’s done a lot of research on Sun Tavern. “In that way, this building ties us to the history of the United States.”

Sun Tavern, one of six town-owned historic structures managed by the Fairfield Historical Society, needed a lot of work, Parker said.

Goals of the restoration were to make the tavern structurally sound and return it to the way it looked in the early 19th century, Parker said.

The restoration was done by town Department of Public Works employees and Domus Constructors of Norwalk and is expected to cost nearly $200,000 by the time it’s finished, according to Michael Jehle, executive director of the Fairfield Historical Society, and Chief Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller.

It’s always nice to see how other towns manage to get things done. The restored tavern is part of a six building complex that will also have a new building to house its museum and library.

source: Connecticut Post, Fairfield tavern returns to Washington era,  ANDREW BROPHY abrophy@ctpost.com, August 5, 2007