Connecticut Post scribe Tim Loh did a nice job researching and writing his Sunday profile of Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa. To Mario’s credit he didn’t run and hide. Mario’s involved in politics because he likes the power. I loved his stiletto comeback for retired Superior Court Judge Carmen Lopez who poked Mario’s lack of inclusiveness in Loh’s profile. Who do you think made her a judge, Mario proclaimed. Anyhoo, Bridgeport developer Sal DiNardo has followed Mario’s lead in granting an interview to the Connecticut Post.
DiNardo is a work in progress for a Post profile. Scribes Michael Mayko and Keila Torres have been working on it for several weeks. Sal isn’t comfortable talking to the media. He’s not the most polished presenter. As I like to say about Sal, you cannot shine a sneaker. But Sal sat down with the Post last week so it should make for funky theater when the story runs within a few weeks.
DiNardo and the city recently came to terms, after three years of teeth gnashing and public posturing, on a remediation plan for the crap hole that is the former Remington site on Barnum Avenue. Sal also owns the property that was recently torpedoed by the zoning commission for a proposed halfway house for men in the West End. DiNardo also cleaned up a portion of the dirty Bridgeport Brass site, with a tax break from the city, that is home to United Rentals and is generating tax revenue.
Who is Sal DiNardo? What’s his juice? What’s his business? How much does he pay in taxes? Does he get special treatment? This is the stuff the Post profile will examine. Sal dines frequently at Mario’s Madison Avenue restaurant. Can you imagine Mario giving Sal media training?
“Mario, I don’t like talking to freaking reporters!”
“Salvatore, u donna worry … u meeta them here and I serva them a Mickey.”
(Hey Mario, how about some of that for me!)
Hey Keila. Can you mention to Sal if he’d pay his back taxes, Bridgeport would have no problem balancing the budget! Pay yours taxes, Sal!!!
Me-ci Mi-ci Ball-ci, Now that’s one spicy meatball.
CT Post: So tell us Sal, how much back taxes do you owe the City?
Sal: You and the f – – king city can go f – -k yourself.
CT Post: Can we quote you on that, Sal?
Mario: Sal, eat your meatball it’s getting cold.
CT Post: So Sal, how’s the farm doing in Fairfield?
JimFox is close personal friend of Sal. LOL
Heard from Elaine on WICC this morning that PAL is hosting an Easter party–Finch-o-rama on Saturday. Come and meet the mayor and PAL will waive their $1 admission fee and give you a free chocolate Easter bunny. The Marellas run PAL. Judy is a city employee and prez of the Dem women’s group. Nephew Rich is a city employee, councilman and recently disciplined (then rescinded) for sexual harassment on the job. Mike has been working with Martha S. (who is also on the Pal board) to replace Curwen. Can’t keep up here? Conflict of interest? Ya think? Who’s paying for the chocolate bunnies, AFSCME?
Fixer, you seemed surprised. This is Bridgeport after all, where sexual harassment and conflicts of interest are an everyday occurrence. I am happy that Curwen chose his council seat over a city job. He recognized the set up. Maybe Curwen should come on over to the Foster or Gomes team.
Hey Lennie,
What happened to the first amendment to the Constitution? I called a friend to read Jimfox’s reply and you removed it, what happened to freedom of speech? You & Ray can sanitize Ernie Newton’s diatribes but you delete someone’s who is intelligent? That is just how Sal talks and anyone who knows him knows his vulgarity. Lennie delete this, WTF is acceptable & everyone knows what it stands for. Jimfox left out some letters but everyone knew what they stood for. You shouldn’t think you need to sanitize it to protect our delicate sensibilities. F••K Youse.
Anti, I’ve not deleted Jim’s representation of a Sal soundbite, just toned down Jim’s comment a bit. Yes, Sal-speak is legendary, but it is holy week.
LG, you’re right. May God bless the beasts & the children.
Your editing policies are damaging your creditability. You have fully disclosed you have received checks from Sal in the past and maybe you still are. Giving him special treatment is not right. Holy Week is, indeed, a time of reflection of the Lord’s message to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I don’t believe that message provides for selectivity on your part and Ray’s. I’m not the only one who thinks this way.
No yahooy, I’m not receiving checks from Sal. If it makes you feel any better I receive lots of complaints about your posts from readers who think you receive special treatment.
OK. Fine. I’ll send you a check as soon as I find the right spelling for schmuck. With the people you hang out with, I’m not surprised you receive complaints about me.
Lennie, let me get this straight. You are getting grief because you edited a profanity laced post earlier this morning. I for one applaud the editing of that post, I read the original and the edited version and it says the same thing minus the F words.
Patrick Coyne is now a free man. Someone posted a $150,000 cash bond for him. WHO WOULD HELP THIS SCUM??? I heard he has been working for Pinto. Sad!!! SMH
Ya know Lennie, even back in the day, if I tried that
“Salvatore, u donna worry … u meeta them here and I serva them a Mickey.”
I would’a caught holy hell for being “a rat bassid Irisher.”
Or something like that.
Mayko doesn’t need it, but I’m sure Torres will be getting an edjamakashun.
I speak well English good. Mario’s Italian is certainly a lot better than mine.
The spotlight is focused on Sal DiNardo today, it seems. Since it is still Holy Week it might seem natural to work with imagery suggested yesterday. Assume that Mario, the acknowledged leader, though unelected by most people, has others who are power seekers circulating in different orbits, kind of like the Cardinals of the Catholic Church. They have talents, property, revenues, and in medieval times they even had large extended families, who were people of influence as well.
Put all that power in a room and most of us will require sunglasses to shield our eyes from the brilliance projected. People in power sometimes are bedazzled or just forget rules or regulations include them. Ultimately they believe even if one becomes snarled in a legal matter, legal counsel and friends in important places help smooth things over, get recissions of consequences, etc. That’s real life, right? And so in real life we also find abuses of power, money and sexual behavior are so common and connected as to remain unmentioned.
Last night PBS showed how an Alaskan village was abused by a Catholic priest and a “deacon” companion for years, such that 80% of the young boys and many of the girls in the village fell prey for a generation to their carnal appetites as long-term predators ripped innocence from a community. The power of the position, the pursuit of a predator’s personal agenda, a culture that provided unwavering respect to the man with a collar, and no effective check, balance or monitoring created many victims who survive but are unhealed decades later.
A similar abusive situation closer to home is Philadelphia that had a sensational Grand Jury report five or six years ago. It seemed to cause Church leaders to pursue a positive response. However in 2011 a second jury found little had changed and arrest warrants for Monsignor Lynn were served. He was the priest in charge of assigning priests as well as handling clergy sexual abuse complaints for 20 years or more. Others have been charged and arrested. Lynn’s trial is on now. Seems a number of credibly accused priests were not identified or reported and abuse continued.
Here in the Bridgeport Diocese the usual power elite exercises judgment. A sexual suit was settled recently. More expense. No Diocesan financial reporting since 2008, and even those reports never shared the financial expenses and total cost of dealing with the scandal.
Church financial abuses by ordained men made the papers several years ago but only one priest suffered legal consequences though the Church lost at least three priests in its handling of the events. A once-public Diocesan Review Board is no longer identified, as it once was, on the Diocesan site and no reports are ever made by this local body as to its work, community outcomes or the problems it faces.
So what happens when power abuse has a history of creating a cover for or seeming to sustain ranking individuals in sexual abuses or financial abuses? Many average members give up and depart the scene if they can. Voters do that by not voting or paying no attention to what is going on around them until it really hurts. (The Pew Research group have indicated if former US Catholics were looked at as a religious group by themselves, they would constitute the third largest religious community in the country, after Catholics and Baptists.)
Candidates, what is hurting folks in Bridgeport (who are registered voters) most at this time? How do you raise it strategically? How do you deliver the message? How does targeting that message assure folks will get out to vote? The candidate who drills in on this issue will go a long way to paving the road to the Mayor’s Office this fall.
Mr. Walker, the people in Bpt would vote for Ganim if he were on the ballot. They vote for a party not the candidate. This is extremely unfortunate and will not change until some other entity butters their bread.
Make history and clean the scum.
Gomes 9-13-11
Charlie (Should I assume you are “Charlie C., the Candidate?”),
Then I need to share with you I am not Mr. Walker though I do walk, and talk, and lots of other things.
As to your advice about Bridgeport voters, you are telling us about a minimalist gathering since elections generally have totals closer to 25% of the electorate rather than 50% or 75%. I would call that a minimalist showing. I can’t call it a minority showing in a City with such diversity it turns upside down otherwise current notions of what minority and majority means when describing voters or people in general.
But you gave us a real hint as to what brings voters out. Party, as in Democratic party, is the first part of your wisdom, because of the number of those registered in relation to any other parties identified. To further quote you, “Some other entity butters their bread.” Now a definitive and precise translation of that statement is unavailable although a general notion of quid pro quo seems to appear.
That takes me back to the mood of the electorate. If they have “bread” they may want “butter” or its offer may get someone to vote. But if they feel they are being denied bread, maybe they are hungry for something else … like schools that seem to educate most of the kids well, like regularly seeing police on the street or in cars and sensing there is safety in most places, like local economic development that do not force you always to leave the community to shop, like civic behavior by neighbors that obeys traffic and parking signs and keeps refuse off the streets. Like competence and integrity in all elected officials so you can trust the best job possible is being done!
There are more expectations. If they are met, great. If the expense in terms of dollars is too dear, or someone is not handling the cash register well, there may be other reasons to come to the polls and cast your ballot.
So I am not as sure as you seem to state that individuals who some would describe as “damaged goods” (when it comes to competence and integrity) would get as good a vote this year or any year in the future because the Ganim past brilliance is already half a generation removed and our community is constantly changing. Keep your eye out for the subtle things that really mean something to voters and see if they rise above the level of party this year or fall below it.
I wish your optimistic view was one of probable reality, however the largest turnout in the past 20 years was for a non-binding referendum. This referendum came about not from political innovation but from businessmen. No I am not Charlie C, but your acquaintance Charlie B can tell you who I am.
Happy Passover and Happy Easter to all!
myemail.constantcontact.com/Thank-you-.html?soid=1105007951422&aid=9ynXloqJXkM
ONLY IN BRIDGEPORT
From the CT POST
BRIDGEPORT — Nearly two years ago, the city was awarded a $1.9 million federal grant to establish a water taxi service to Pleasure Beach, a favorite summertime destination for city residents, to replace the bridge destroyed by a fire on Father’s Day 1996.
Yet, city officials are still waiting for permits for work on docks and have yet to decide whether to purchase or lease the water taxis, valued at roughly $300,000 each.
Access by water taxi will be available “depending on how far things go,” said Ted Grabarz, the city’s sustainability director, but even then only supervised tours may be permitted, owing to the lack of bathrooms and other facilities.
“It would probably be irresponsible to open it to the public this summer,” said Adam Wood, chief of staff for Mayor Bill Finch. “We have to make sure when people go out there that they are going to be safe.”
The city applies for a $2 million grant and then apparently does nothing. Now that they are being asked they say they will do something, maybe this year, maybe next, maybe never.
Ya think maybe they were irresponsible with the money?
Maybe they had to plug the empty space in some wallets.
Sometimes I wonder if the FEDS left town.
The feds have been busy in Providence. “They just don’t stop havin’ the mafia in Providence …”
newsblog.projo.com/2011/04/trial-of-north-providence-lawy.html
The city ought to purchase the water taxis outright. Putting a contract out for bid would require interested parties to make an appearance at the royal pasta house, kissing of the royal ring and the royal ass and eating pasta with The Secret Sauce until they vomit. Then the matter will have to be “discussed” by the rocket scientists and neurosurgeons who also serve as DTC district leaders.
Grin,
I seem to recall the city built a nice concession stand including bathrooms at Pleasure Beach. Oh wait, they may have burned it to the ground when they torched the bridge.
One of Joe Pesci’s lines from “Casino” could describe the current occupants of Bridgeport City Hall:
“These guys could fuck up a cup of coffee.”
When Bill Finch was a state senator he championed a bill for Bridgeport bringing in $1.5Million to build a terminal to barge 80 containers to Bridgeport thus getting 80 tractor-trailers off I95 between Newark, NJ and Bridgeport. This also would have created about 200 jobs and brought in desperately needed positive tax dollars.
When Bill Finch became mayor he turned his back on this money (that he championed) because the people who got him into office wanted that waterfront property for residential development.
This smacks of the 40+ years of political cronyism that has plagued Bridgeport. Now he wants to use a $1.9Million grant that will bring in NO monies to Bridgeport for a water taxi to a deserted island that needs serious rehabilitation. These city managers and mayor here in Bridgeport are in La-La Land. WAKE UP BRIDGEPORT!!!
We have invested in Bill Finch, the City Council, the BOE, et al., to represent our best interests. Nurtured their political careers. What kind of return have we seen on that investment? Nothing, nada, niente, zippo, the big doughnut.
It is high time these clowns were cashed out. Vote for Mary-Jane Foster, vote for John Gomes. Hell, vote for Bill ‘n’ Opus and the Meadow Party ticket. A penguin and a retarded house cat with a speech impediment ought to be capable of running the city much more effectively than the self-interested “mariocrats” we’ve been lumbered with.
BOB had four people covering the four-hour meeting of B & A reviewing the Public Facilities budget. Interesting numbers and wide variety of activities in this department.
From this meeting and several others I get a sense Bridgeport will see an unveiling of projects in the next 6 months such that Christmas will seem an underwhelming holiday. Authorizations and concepts have been flying for several years and lots of grants, bonding, notes, etc. are in place to pay for water taxis, sidewalks, repaving, demolition, parks and field improvements, street façade work and lots more that people can see. How people will evaluate the costs in time and money relative to what is achieved remains unknown.
However, it would seem necessary for those who disparage the current regime for a variety of reasons, to figure out which sets of facts or feelings will have the most traction to confront an administration with a mayor looking like Santa Claus this summer with photo ops galore. What are the issues that will resonate with long-term Democrats enough for them to bolt from the incumbent in a September primary and vote for a challenger?
Beacon, what the hell does disparage the regime mean? Pointing to an administration that has done squat for the citizens of Bridgeport and backing it up with facts is not disparaging anyone, it’s showing the ineptitude of the administration. Let’s look at some of your examples.
1. Water taxi: It now looks like that will not come about this year per Adam Wood. A water taxi to an island that has not been maintained for 20 years. A water taxi to an island that will need full-time security (Police) when open to the general public. Where is the money going to come from?
2. Parks & Field improvements: Are you referring to the new park Finch is going to build on vacant land on Knowlton Street? This will still be vacant land and who is going to go there? The scenery will be great, a large vacant run-down factory on the other side of the water.
3. Street façade work: is that a fancy name for street paving? I think so. We are going to spend $150,000 in each of 10 districts for a total of $1.5 million out of $4 million budgeted for street paving. Where is the other $2.5 million going to go?
You use the word disparage like the poor administration is being unjustly being picked on. Really???
tc,
Thanks for giving specific meaning to the word “disparage.” I used it to indicate “negative approval.” Free country, free speech, and multiple opinions. Thanks for identifying the dollar costs and lengths of time necessary to deliver on promises or plans. That’s what I meant about people evaluating the crush of oncoming activity.
And you know as well as I do that reviewing what the current administration is doing is very necessary yet difficult because of the control of process, information and communication. Soldier on, mon ami.
Politics is THE prime example of an old saying, “You can fool some of the people all the time …”