The Hour has a cornucopia of political stories today, ranging from council member Nick Kydes announcing he’s going to run for re-election to the horse race analysis of the mayoral race, Moccia $20k and counting, Briggs $0 and he hasn’t officially announced yet. The horse race is the more interesting of the topics since Patrick Linsey reports that in 2005, 8 of Norwalk’s 15 Common Council seats were decided by less than 200 votes. District A being the most hotly contested where 20 votes separated the 4 candidates. That’s why neither party knows what to do in A, since party’s think along the lines of winning a majority of council seats so that they can pat themselves on the back, and candidates are the ones who think along the lines of what might actually be the issue that will get their neighbors out to vote for them.

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Longtime Blackrock arts promoter Joseph Celli has been producing the IPA concerts for 10 years. The free concerts have always feature an eclectic range of music from around the world, and bands have even appeared in Norwalk as part of a summer lunchtime concert in 2003. This year, the festival calendar features:

Sunday, July 8 - Mikata: Salsa & Latin Jazz
The Black Rock Art Center presents the powerful percussion group Mikata - Feel your pulse quicken as Mikata ignites the stage in a joyful celebration of Africa, the Caribbean Islands and Brazil. “Elegant traditional African music” - Vogue Magazine. “A kinetic sampling of African music” - New York Times.

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The Courant leads with a story about repurposing landfills throughout the state. Mentioned within the article are the plans for Oyster Shell Park, which snakes along the Norwalk River, underneath and south of I-95. According to the Courant:

The city of Norwalk, meanwhile, plans to spend upward of $1 million over the next several years to build Oyster Shell Park, located on a landfill that closed more than three decades ago.

But because the landfill has been closed for so long, most people see it as abandoned land, said Susan Sweitzer, senior project manager for development at the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency. “There are very few people in this community who actually remember dumping their garbage there,” she said.

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