We haven’t had one of these in awhile, so feel free to either go out and enjoy the day, another great weekend day, or comment on anything going on.
Sunday Open Thread
by turfgrrl
July 15th, 2007 · 60 Comments
Tags: In the News
60 Responses so far ↓ “Sunday Open Thread”
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
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The fix is in. Alex Knopp wants Ken Slapin’s State Central seat. Now we have an explanation for all the calls about Slapin. Character assassination behind the scenes by the Minnesotan Machiavellis.
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Thanks Turfgrrl! Mea culpa on the “Ethics Chief” thread.
Right after church, we’re heading to the Colombian Festival in Veterans Park. It will be fun. If you’re staring out on this day, uninspired; come on down. Should be a good group. I’ve even seen advertisements at the Colombian Embassy website!
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The Columbian(today) and Haitian Festivals(next Sunday) are great cultural events and people should stop by and check them out. The food is always great and the music as well. You get to see how others celebrate their heritage.
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I just swung by the Colombian festival for five minutes to pick up a tee-shirt for my boy. He needed one, trust me.
The food looks great. Besides a variety of tasty arepas, there is one impressive display. It is a large, wrought-iron, cylindrical frame over an open fire. The frame has hooks that are suspending hung slabs of beef. The aroma is to die for. Also, close to the stage is a vendor with a huge vat of cold fruit salad, served in Styrofoam cups. It’s amazing that I got back home without a test-lunch.
(Yeah.. 4 posts, 24 hours. Same topic. Genug, already. Go!)
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Love it, Junkie… so Norwalk does have some amazing things to offer, eh? Thanks for the upbeat post.
This Greenpeace thang, though… do you suppose his puter crashed? This is rather disconcerting.
Listen, Greenpeace… if you’re out there, at least bang on the pipes so we know you’re alive and well.
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Watchdog-you should wander over to the Columbian festival, maybe he’s there! There are lots of people over there.
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And on your way back from the Columbian Festival, “swing” by the Green for a free Bg Band concert — 3:30 today (Sunday).
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12. Authorize the Director of Recreation and Parks to issue final payment in the amount of $6,100.00 to Diana Harrington, Development Advisor for the potential development and private funding for an amphitheatre in Veteran’s Park to be used as part of a new revised Master Plan of Veteran’s Park.
Where did this come from? Like the Mini Golf, it just appeared out of no where.
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for an amphitheatre in Veteran’s Park to be used as part of a new revised Master Plan of Veteran’s Park.
Did we don’t have an OLD MASTER PLAN TO REVISE? How can we revise the new one?
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Sorry
We don’t have an OLD MASTER PLAN TO REVISE? How can we revise the new one?
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With the traffic and illegal parking, I pity the poor bastards who live in the 2 mile area around Vets Park.
For them it’s “Just another day in paradise.”
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are we a sanctuary city? maybe ICE should drop by the festival
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The festival was great, but they need more police so that people are not parking on the streets. Too bad they didn’t listen cause each and every one them got tickets. Maybe next time they’ll listen. The cops were telling everyone to park at the garage but no one seemed to care. The Ampitheater has been discussed and pulled apart at least a hundred times. It would be a good idea so those stages are digging up the park. The festivals are great and well attended and the ampitheater would only be a plus.
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The festivals are great and well attended and the ampitheater would only be a plus.
Only if you did not live in East Norwalk.
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Veterans park has become a blight on the complete shore area of East Norwalk. I heard that there were many complaints from Shorefront Park, and as far out into the harbor as Harbor View. I think that today finally broke the camels back. The sound could be heard as far away as the East Avenue and Strawberry Hill areas. Not only is it a commercial bus parking lot, but it has become the main cause noise pollution, and traffic nightmare. This is a great addition to the quality of life in East Norwalk, if you don’t live here. Is no one in this city using their brains anymore. You can give out 1000 tickets, what difference does it make the blocked streets and traffic congestion is still there. Everything is a great idea, unless it is in your face, the it is a bad idea. Some sanity has to come to that park before it is too late. Then the problem will be solved the hard way. There were a lot of really mad voters in East Norwalk today.
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All well and good for those who read Colombian papers etc. but had I known about the festival, I would have attended and encouraged others.
Another festival that is not well advertised to the general public. Too bad. -
It’s totally uncalled for to suggest Immigration visit the festival today.
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I expect that the attendance today exceeded anyone’s expectations. I think it was many more than last year. (But that’s from the guy who didn’t notice that the rowing club emblems were painted over two years ago…) It reminded me of the Colombian Independence festivals in Flushing Park twenty years ago. Now, those have become big!
The police were great — a lot of patience and calm explanations. When we found that garbage containers were missing, we saw that it was the police who dragged over the containers. That’s a long shift. Yup, to make things flow easier and to reduce the neighborhood’s frustration, more would have helped. So would have busses from remote lots.
The gate keepers were also great — same cheerful attitude at the end of the day as at the beginning.
Anon 16, I’m sorry that you missed it. It was one friendly group. I shared many smiles and laughs. I love Columbian food and found that at the festival lived up to expectations. That beef was good. I keep re-reading the impressive Recs & Parks Event brochure on the City web page. For now, it’s all I’ve got.
Yes, the music was loud. Like the Oyster Festival and just a few others. I, also, live in East Norwalk and hear them well. But you should have seen the old couples dancing tenderly, the youth shaking their stuff, the work-weary faces singing along with the lyrics, or had your back slapped like I did when I said, “I know that one!â€
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Wow!
One issue - two perspectives. In the general scheme of things, Vet Park Junkie drinks the sweeter wine. Still, Judith Levy has a point that city officials should approach in a fairminded manner. One solution previously suggested by a tenured council member was the implementation of a point system for parks. This would help to ensure that the same neighborhoods are not overloaded with events and corresponding traffic and should perhaps be taken into consideration once again.
I would also like give a virtual pat on the back to VP Junkie for being such an all-around good sport as well as an enthusiastic supporter of Norwalk’s rich multicultural community. What a guy!
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I am trying to get a handle on the sanity of this city.
They station an officer on Calf Pasture Beach Road, who hands out noise violation tickets to motorcyclists. NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE MAKING NOISE, BUT BECAUSE HE BELIEVES that by just looking at the motorcycle he can judge that they are loud, and give them a $225 ticket. If that is the case then looking at the speedometer in a Corvette and see that it goes to 180 is Prima facie evidence that it will speed and should be given a ticket for speeding even if it is parked. OR using the it’s “not a stock exhaust system” theory, would mean that every vehicle in the country over 20 years old should be ticketed as none of them still has the stock OEM exhaust system. So we spend the money to station an officer, pay him to go to court, and end up getting $10 for the ticket, and loosing $500 in overtime pay, for court appearances.
THEN THE Parks & Recreation Department gives a permit out for a Festival in Veterans Park and includes NO NOISE LEVEL LIMITATIONS. This is next to insanity. The sound was so loud that it was heard for miles. This was 3-4 times louder than anything ever heard coming from that park, it got to the point of painful and injurious to the health of infants and senior citizens. I would take a guess that at least 3000-4000 residents were negatively affected by the sound levels.
So we give a ticket for someone who looks like they MIGHT have a loud exhaust system, even when they are parked, and given a ticket, but when residents called the police department about the speaker and music being so loud that some mothers had to rub the back of their infants because the windows and walls were shaking, THEY WERE TOLD THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO, AS PARKS & RECREATION GAVE THE PERMIT WITH NO LIMIT TO NOISE LEVEL.
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Looks like we will have to start monitoring the sound systems of all those who choose to use Vets Park for their events. I just want to know why, after 30 years of the Oyster festival and other events at Vets, is it now a problem? Having lived in East Norwalk most of my life, I have heard extra loud music blaring from this park each and every time there is this kind of event and now there are so many complaints that people are calling the police to stop it? By the way, does anyone realize that with an ampitheater there will be less noise. An ampitheater keeps the music more closely monitored and will prevent the sound from vibrating off windows and buildings in the surrounding areas. Anyone who has been to Levitt Pavilion can attest to that fact. The way the sound stages are now the music comes out from all sides and there is no containment.
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.anon wrote in post 21
“I just want to know why, after 30 years of the Oyster festival and other events at Vets, is it now a problem? ”
Evidently you are not a resident of East Norwalk as you so blithely say there were no problems for 30 years. Also could it be that maybe past administrations had the common sense to think about the people who lived in East Norwalk, and how this would effect their quality of life. How can anyone be so mindless to issue a permit with NO LIMITS on the sound. I would like to see if the park was rented and several air raid sirens were allowed to run for 10 hours at full blast, if that would be considered OK?
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#22- I was actually agreeing with you in an offhanded way. The music was way too loud and needs to be toned down. I could hear it from East Ave. Since when do we have a no limit noise level acceptance at these events. I do still believe that an ampitheater would be agood idea to not only contain the sounds but as a means of keeping the park from being torn up every time a sound stage is needed. A well designed ampitheater would make a world of difference and yes, I do live in East Norwalk and have for close to 40 years.
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LEVITT PAVILLION? I was there a few years ago when the cops came and shut down a band within 30 minutes. Don’t know about an amphitheatre lowering the sound…
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Maybe they couldn’t hear the police calls since the station is only a few hundred yards away. I’m sure it wasn’t heard up on the post road or on Compo Rd or even very far down Riverside ave. I can probably say that with all the ones I have been to, thats the first I have heard that there was a problem with noise. All I’m trying to say is thatlooking at a project is not a bad thing. If it doesn’t do the job and it doesn’t give peace of mind to the taxpayers then questions can be raised and modifications to the plans can also be made.
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Latino salsa is not LOUD music. The music wasn’t heard on North Main St in SoNo and barely heard on Van Zandt.
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Not loud, my ass. I live off Gregory Blvd. south of Vets’ Park and could hear it quite clearly. Depends on which way the wind is blowing.
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The music was pretty loud; we could hear it clearly at Sprite Island out in the Sound (2 1/2 times farther away than is Gregory Blvd). I would say it was about as loud as the Main Stage acts at the Oyster Festival (which we can also hear clearly out there). The difference is that the Oyster Festival hits that peak for about 1 1/2 hours per day, while this festival was at that loudness basically all day long. Didn’t really bother me at that distance, but I imagine people in the immediate neighborhood must have gotten pretty tired of it after the first 6 hours!
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Yesterday the administration made about 3000 enemy’s. They may have had 15,000 happy Columbian folks at that park, but 85% of them were not from Norwalk, and 80% of those that were Norwalk residents, will vote Democratic anyway.
I would say that Parks & Recreation is doing more to damage Moccia’s image than any of the Democrats can ever hope to.
Keep up the good work.
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Music travels over water farther, something to do with waves, refraction and other engineering details that I understand only enough to position my speakers in a quasi surround sound way. I suspect that the organizers of the festival did not hire a sound engineer to mitigate the bleed over. That should be something that is required during the permit process.
I doubt that 15,000 people were there. Maybe a cumulative body count over the day, but around 4ish when I ambled over, I’d say 1000 would be on the high side. Interestingly there was plenty of car traffic, all Norwalk stickered from last year (the big orange stickers) driving in and out of the park. Traffic backed up on the bridge when a delivery Sears truck decided to ignore the height limit and got stuck under the rail bridge. That required 4 police cars. I overheard that the truck was uninsured and the driver had no license.
While the newspapers quaintly referred to the local merchant tables, with few exceptions the tables were either related to real estate, refinancing etc, or about phone cards with discounted rates. There were some however, that were selling things, and a few empty. So timing might have something to do with it.
The long lines for the food, grilled steak scared me off. I have little patience for waiting in line for food, as tempting as grilling beef smelled.
I was disappointed in the number of beverage containers littering the ground. A trash bin every 10 feet should be another requirement. I can’t say that I found the music great and lively. Most of the band playing when I was there was acoustic. It was great to see families of multi generations there, something you don’t often see around here these days. Little kids were kicking inflatable soccer/beach balls and otherwise being kids. Overall it looked to be a good event.
