The first order of business Monday night at the City Council meeting will be an update of committee assignments by Council President Aidee Nieves following the resignation of Marcus Brown, now a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives.
The 20-member legislative body is down two district representatives, the West Side 132nd District that Brown had represented and East End 139th District from which Wanda Simmons resigned last September. Former East End council member Eneida Martinez’s return has received pushback from some of her former colleagues leaving the seat vacant for nearly five months without an acceptable compromise candidate emerging.
Council agenda Monday, 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 45 Lyon Terrace,.
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Comments to City Council of Bridgeport (February 6, 2023)
Fellow residents and taxpayers I appreciate the fact that you are present and listening tonight. I know you are aware that it is Black History Month in Bridgeport and across the United States. And the presentation of facts that are current as well as facts from the past, that we call history, may be rendered in stories but perhaps the stories or theories that are used politically and critically are not genuine history? In three short years Critical Race Theory, as a topic not in widespread evidence previously, has become a cultural label of infamy by folks on the right.
These are people who still are stating a concern that the 2020 election was “rigged”, maintain that President 45 actually won that election perpetuating “The Big Lie”, with over 130 US House Republicans, themselves winners in 2020 and/or 2022 maintaining this falsehood by repetition without evidence. Such persistence of “white supremacy” in 2023 does not serve 330 Million diverse citizens of the United States well.
How are we doing according to the NYTimes with an article in a recent Real Estate section. I am happy to see the City get some good press for its positives, but unhappy to see the school system ignored except for a report that 40% of the school population qualifies for nutritious in-school meals. That is untrue as you well know with a much higher percentage qualifying and 100% actually receiving foods through their schools. Perhaps they might rather compare the funds spent per child, the revenues providing salaries and benefits for instruction, and the results attained comparatively within CT. Would that, as news, say more about the struggle that you understand and the gaps you attempt to fund to gain greater attention to your annual budget struggle?
Finally, the rapid potential appreciation of a Black Rock residence was reported as changing hands one year at $350-400,000 and put on the market less than two years later for $1,350,000. Not the norm for redevelopment projects in the City nor was the Mayor identified as owner and resident. How was that missed?
Mayor Ganim and family have local fame as real estate investors with long term knowledge and experience. Why has the City administration failed to be FAIR when it comes to appointments to Fair Rent and Fair Housing boards? For years absent a response to such ignorance of responsibility?
And how has the “affordable housing report” (due every five years and overdue now) been considered incomplete when presented to the City Council three weeks ago failing specific data and goals showing real attention to the matter? And why has the public not been offered an opportunity to question such matters in a public setting, where responses can be made by those responsible, recorded for history, and responded to pro-actively by taxpayers, especially those who reside here? Time will tell.