Lots of other issues in the papers today, but my rant quota has been filled for the day. use the thread to chat about whatever else is on a concern.
Norwalk: Other Stuff Cornucopia Open Thread
by turfgrrl
January 24th, 2008 · 8 Comments
Tags: In the News
8 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: Other Stuff Cornucopia Open Thread”
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Tell Congress to Support Community Gardens
Take Action!Please contact your Member of Congress and urge them to support a final version of the Farm Bill that includes a program for community gardens in our nation’s public schools.
This year’s Farm Bill, H.R. 2419,The Food and Energy Security Act of 2007, contains an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) that would authorize $10 million to establish a pilot program for community gardens in many public schools throughout the country.
The amendment would establish a grant program for public schools to develop gardens that students would plant, cultivate, and harvest. The program’s focus would be to teach participating students the importance of agriculture, sound environmental farming practices, and proper nutrition. Schools would use produce from the garden to supplement the school’s food program, distribute to participating student’s families, or donate to a local food bank.
Allowing children to experience nature from a young age will instill in them sound environmental principles, and it will impress upon them the importance of proper land stewardship. Unfortunately, in many school districts, a lack of monetary resources deprives students of these opportunities. This amendment would give schools the resources they need to help students experience their natural environment.
H.R. 2419, passed both the House and Senate late last year. Currently, the measure is headed to conference committee, where the House and Senate will decide on the final version of the bill to send to the President for approval. Please urge your legislator to report a bill that keeps this important amendment intact. -
I’m sure with our track record with the farmers market and the It’s not called the farms and recreation committee, but the Common Council Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee last night revealed plans for an organic community garden at Fodor Farm and an idea to revive the city’s faltering farmer’s market.
The city hopes to find out in the next few weeks whether it will receive a $100,000 state grant to develop the garden, Parks and Recreation Director Michael Mocciae announced last night.
I’m sure without addressing the crime the mere fact our parks are now closed becuase of gangs ect maybe if we want something bad enough we will talk about the crime and the lack of quality of life we need to restore before we can offer a life outside of four walls most residents now call home.
Be nice to have things like this its another to have them based on what we have now a lack of safety in our city.
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faltering farmer’s market. I would say Dick’s thoughts on one farmer who came here to Norwalk would seal the deal that would make him never come back.How we forget the past but bank on a future its sad.
I’m sure I have that farmers name and how he donates most of his earnings to St Vincents Hospital for their breast cancer research and patients, how he gave to the local food banks and gave us much as he could to low income in the South Norwalk area and we allowed the city to simply trash him show him the door and had but one farmer left at the aquarium. Thats was a fine moment for Norwalk wasn’t it?
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Governor M. Jodi Rell, today presented the state’s first ever “Urban Green & Community Garden” grants to help purchase approximately 5.19 acres of open space for seven projects in six urban communities in Connecticut. The communities receiving grants – which totaled $389,437 – include: Bridgeport, Enfield, Hamden, Hartford, New London and Putnam.
The awarding of grants to “Urban Green & Community Gardens” was part of two open space ceremonies held today – a morning ceremony in Southbury and an afternoon ceremony in Enfield. A total of $9.9 million in grants was awarded for 41 projects in 39 towns aimed at preserving and protecting 1,714 acres.
this was just in the news this week anyone know how Norwalk did on our application?
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A local lesson for the Norwalkers worried about crime, especially the ones on this blog who think crime will only get worse as we add more residents to our streets and parks:
From NY Times today, Metro section, Page 8;
CRIMES IN WHITE PLAINS DECLINE TO RECORD LOWS:
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: January 25, 2008WHITE PLAINS — Serious crimes in this rapidly gentrifying city dropped to the lowest levels in more than four decades in 2007, according to statistics released on Thursday by officials here, and no murder has been recorded in White Plains since May 2006.
All told, 1,162 serious crimes were reported in White Plains in 2007, about 40 percent fewer than the 1,925 murders, rapes, robberies, larcenies, car thefts and assaults reported in 1965, the first year that the city began compiling crime statistics.
“We were able to achieve this reduction while we’ve been in the midst of an unprecedented renaissance downtown,” Mayor Joseph M. Delfino said in an interview. “We have more residents and more influx of people today than ever before, but we also have less crime.”
In 2000, White Plains began to redevelop its downtown, inviting developers to fill shuttered storefronts and vacant lots with the condominiums, office towers and retail stores that now dot its landscape. In the seven years since, the city has added more than 4,000 residents, with its population nearing 60,000 last year, according to census figures.
During those same seven years, the daytime population of workers and shoppers has more than quadrupled, with an estimated 250,000 people circulating in the streets on any given day, according to the mayor’s office. Meanwhile, the White Plains Police Department has added 10 officers since 2000, for a total of 215, the mayor said.
As the city has grown, its serious-crime rate has declined, falling by almost 50 percent since 2000, according to the statistics collected by the city’s Department of Public Safety.
One of the most precipitous declines was in the number of reported auto thefts: there were 34 last year, the lowest on record and just one-third of the number of auto thefts registered in 2000.
Robberies also reached a 42-year low last year, rapes reached a 12-year low and the number of assaults was one-quarter of what it was in 1965, according to the reporting statistics.
The city’s public safety commissioner, Frank G. Straub, who came on the job in 2002, credits the reduction in crime to programs like Compstat — a system that quickly tracks crimes and shifts resources to trouble spots — and to a prison re-entry initiative that connects inmates about to be released from the county jail with mental health and substance abuse counselors, housing advocates and job placement programs.
Last year, 84 inmates participated in the re-entry program and of those, seven committed other crimes and were arrested after their release, Commissioner Straub said.
Through its community policing program, officers also have worked closely with the victims of domestic violence, and since 2003, there have been no homicides between intimate partners, he said.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all here, but a lot of different pieces that have come together to help us achieve this reduction,” the commissioner said. “I guess, in the end, it’s about smarter policing, or about addressing the issues before they become an issue.”
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NNHT group to organize
Our core group will have regular citizens like myself as well as those who have expertise in matters pertaining to teens. We will be looking for translators that will attend the community meetings to help those who don’t speak english better understand what the meetings are about.
We will also be reaching out to residents of Norwalk to join various committees within NNHT to help us schedule events, meetings, fundraising, outreach programs etc.
With the support of the community this can and will be a huge success that will continue for many years to come. This is intended for all Norwalk citizens because we are all responsible for our children’s future.
The organizational meeting is Feb. 6th and from there future meeting will be posted in the local newspapers.
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#6-Thank you for bringing this to others attention.
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Norwalk South Norwalk train station
During the first six months of 1992, he said, criminal activity in and around the station included seven assaults, three car thefts, 14 burglaries from cars, three reports of shots fired and five narcotics arrests.
The use of private security guards and increased police patrols since the killing last summer have not eased the perception of the station as a dangerous place.
Some commuters said they had considered using other stations, including ones in nearby East Norwalk, Rowayton or Westport, but that a lack of parking or a need to make the Danbury connection have left them little choice
then
Since the South Norwalk Community Police Center opened near the eastbound track on April 26, at least one man has rushed in, money in hand, asking to buy a train ticket to Bridgeport. “I told him that I was a police officer and didn’t sell train tickets,” recalled Officer Joseph Kubik, who was at the entrance desk at the time, “and that he’d have to buy a ticket on the train, since he didn’t have time to go over to the ticket office on the westbound side
The substations, along with increased foot patrols, are manifestations of the community policing concept, which has become increasingly popular in Connecticut. Cities that have received grants for new police centers include New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, Norwalk, New London, New Britain and Norwich.
In Norwalk, the grant for the first year totals $805,000, including $350,000 to cover the cost of building the center at the train station and $400,000 to pay for 10 additional officers, who will replace the police veterans assigned to the new substation. The allocation during the second year will be slightly more than half that total, mainly because no construction will be involved.
that was them what about the here and now?
Where do we sit now with the train station and its security? Do we have a camera at the station at all? That in itself would be a big help if we are having any problems at the station.
