If I’m a mayoral candidate one of the things I’d be screaming about is paving Main Street downtown. What a mess!
An OIB reader took me to task in an email after reading my take on the shuttered downtown theaters. Don’t waste your time about the theaters, he argued, Main Street needs a priority paving. State Street as well.
Those Main Street potholes are so big the City Council could have a meeting in there. Hey, there’s an idea. Then throw on a bunch of cold patch. What’s the deal with the paving delay? The Water Pollution Control Authority must dig up Main Street downtown at some point to separate storm and sewer lines. Why does Bridgeport suffer from so many floods when it rains? Because storm and sewer lines are not separated. What a stink! The city’s in the Stone Age when it comes to that.
There’s a short-term solution until Main Street is dug up for storm and sewer line separation. It’s called a mill and fill repaving–two inches down and a new two inches so the street doesn’t look like a Beirut bombing. And how about striping the crosswalks?
And oh yeah, urges the OIB reader, how about synchronizing downtown traffic signals so you can go from one end to another without stopping every 100 feet and cursing.
The excuse this administration uses for not paving Main St is pure and utter bullshit. There are no plans to separate the sewer system downtown. Why is that? Because there is no money and the WPCA is a rudderless ship.
This administration is out of touch and just does not give a shit. We will spend money on recycling bins, rain barrels, painting new equipment puke green, hire political friends, but paving downtown? No way.
You can easily tell how the administration feels about downtown. After the tornado we took all the debris and temporarily piled it downtown. After all the snow we created Mount Carroll downtown by storing all the removed snow downtown.
I have a question. What other city or town would have stored this stuff downtown so the first thing you see when entering Bpt are these ugly piles?
Somebody please tell CC there are other places to store storm debris than downtown.
So paving downtown so you don’t have to take your car in for repairs after driving on Main St would make sense. When is the last time this administration and the common council did anything that made sense?
Note to the mayor and the common council: With all these training sessions we have paid to send you on, haven’t you learned anything? You are trying to develop downtown, pave the f’n road
Bridgeport fiscal position leaves little wiggle room for needed road repairs because salaries & benefits are written in stone and come before maintenance. Unions are responsible for that.
Are they putting their members’ interests ahead of Bridgeport’s interests and in the process leaving Bridgeport’s Mayor in the lurch?
Local Eyes thinks YES.
Hey, it’s Local Eyes, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Your posting indicates I’ve made a favorable impression on you. Copying is a genuine form of flattery. Thanks, Jimfox!
Fortunately for me, Jimfox has tiny credibility in this world and even less on this blog. LG’s good graces keep you here; nothing else.
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I Love it–Ignore this moron 🙁
This clown brings nothing to the table but stupidity. Jimfox maybe Ernest “T” brought him in to make Newton look smarter. I think we should all follow your example.
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These are all valid points that need to be addressed in the future. My main question is when the hell are they going to bring out street sweepers? Roadway crews spewed TONS of sand onto already filthy city streets during the past snowstorms. These look like the streets of Japan after the tsunami. Maybe some state or federal monies are available to assist us in this cleanup.
Anti: Sitting up at the transfer station are four brand new, newly painted green Mad Vacs. They are doing nothing. Down at city yard (public facilities) are a slew of street sweepers doing nothing.
The administration of Public facilities are sitting at city hall doing nothing. We know potholes are no longer being filled. Where or what are the workers being told to do? I see them riding around in big empty dump trucks and that’s it.
The workers are there, the machines are there and the fuel is there. Where is the management? Monies has been allocated by the Feds to offset snow removal costs, I believe up to 75% reimbursement.
This is part and parcel part of the total mismanagement shown by this administration.
Don’t blame the workers or the unions for the PF mess. Blame the director whose office is in City Hall Annex next to his new wife. Maybe if he spent more time actually running PF he would see what a mess our streets are. When he leaves for the day, he takes his city-issued take-home SUV right up onto route 8 and goes home to Newtown. Do you think he gives two shits about Bpt? My guess is a resounding NO. We know John Gomes will get rid of CC as one of his first priorities. Will MJ?
A Tale of Two Cities and Mayoral Candidates!
Mary-Jane Foster with ballpark and arena. Been There Done That!
Bill Finch with tornado-ridden and rodent-driven entrance to downtown at Congress and Main. Been There Done This!!!
Maybe the BRBC should go see how Beirut has made a bombshell comeback.
We do spend more time on our regional neighbor, Trumbull, than others towns. Perhaps it is because Paul T. lives there. Perhaps it’s because of the Magnet School holdup. Perhaps it’s because the fulcrum that Bridgeport can exert on WPCA negotiations as they creep forward regarding sewage treatment. Over 80% of Trumbull homes and businesses have moved from septic to sewer lines that exit at treatment plants in Bridgeport. The current agreement covers less time each day and planning and execution of waste treatment gets increasingly complicated and expensive each day. Pressure is on. Talk about a choke hold. Think maybe the futurists at our WPCA might hold a “public” meeting in Bridgeport to explain their planning perspective, including the capital funding sources and timeline for the conversion of our unitary system, whether it is downtown or in the neighborhoods??? And what may happen to our rates going forward? Might be a useful exercise for this Board on a night when their agenda might otherwise cause them to cancel a meeting. How about it?
Fairfield First Selectperson Flatto is leaving his executive position for a State job immediately. Did not wait for an election. Going to a finance job with the State reportedly. Makes me wonder how many people are going to want the top executive position in any governmental position with the daunting financial slog we will go through as revelations about public debt, higher interest costs, un- or underfunded public obligations to public employees, etc. hit the news. Remember, “the buck stops there” and the issue is going to increasingly be about bucks. Higher taxes everywhere and tough choices on what programs are effective and necessary as well as which of those are efficiently run. Maybe four-year terms to get the bad news out to the public and turn the machine around should be a personal goal. That would be heroic and sacrificing. Only history will record how important the next four years will be by the results proposed by candidates and those subsequently achieved.
Notice the OIB questions to legislators on what their past service has brought to a community in comparison to those who have put time, money and concepts at risk in the private sector and executed those into results. Experience counts for the necessary candidate for Bridgeport Mayor.
Here’s an idea … why doesn’t the city invest in buying a bunch of Mega Millions tickets for the $304 million jackpot tomorrow? This way, when the city wins they can jump-start Steel Point!
Dumb idea LF, this city would use the cash to buy off more church votes and give out jobs to friends of Finch.
LFG is obviously not a local. He knows nothing about the accounting methods of this administration.
Just a reminder, tonight at 6PM there will be a meet the candidate meeting at Vazzy’s on Huntington Turnpike. There will be finger food, coffee and soda.
You can meet Mary-Jane and ask any questions you want answered. Mary-Jane will also give an overview of what she plans for the city. It’s worth your time to show.
Does anyone really expect the current mayor of Bridgeport to actually do something about this? Get a life! I saw Finch in Black Rock on Saturday, attending the fire that left 13 people homeless. He was concerned about one of the affected businesses, not the people put up at the Black Rock Inn by the Red Cross. The landlord, a carpetbagging weasel who lives out of town, has been slow to return security deposits to his former tenants. His excuse? “I don’t have the cash on hand to write checks.” That’s a load of bullshit, a particularly smelly load of bullshit. Under state law a landlord has to keep the security deposit funds in a separate account. The money is there, he just doesn’t want to pay it out. After all, it’s not his fault the building caught fire, so fuck ’em. Has the mayor or either of Black Rock’s aldermen done anything to address the needs of their constituents, or was this turned into a photo op?
It is high time for the voters of Bridgeport to elect candidates who believe in public service. So far the City Council, the mayor’s office and the Board of Education have been used for personal gain. All along I have been thinking it is the people of the city of Bridgeport who mattered.
The elected offices in Bridgeport have been used as stepping stones for personal gain by self-interested careerists for too goddamned long. Serving on the City Council and/or the BOE looks good on a professional résumé. These parliamentary bodies exist to serve ALL of the people(s), not just some of them.
Bridgeport Kid: How right you are. It seems like our politicians changed their thinking about 20 years ago when Bucci was in office. The council and our state reps all forgot why they were elected. Their elected positions are used as stepping stones for their city and state jobs. Call your council person today for a neighborhood problem and you will get lip service if you are lucky but you will still have the problem.
Their change in attitude shows in Bridgeport’s lack of influence in Hartford. Twenty years ago the director of OPM for the state was from Bridgeport as was the comptroller and his assistant. We had a leading senator from Bridgeport and Bridgeport reaped the benefits. Today our influence in Hartford is almost zero.
What may work to the benefit of the people of the city of Bridgeport is that Governor Malloy is from Fairfield County. Why was he as mayor of Stamford able to make that city into an economic success story? The development is there for all to see, from a seat on a southbound Metro North train or in an automobile on I-95. Why is it Bridgeport has been unable to elect anyone to the City Council, the mayor’s office or the state legislature who actually gives a damn? Unions representing municipal employees have had to make concessions to City Hall so an ancient budget deficit could be marginally reduced. In the meantime, the city’s streets are a mess, there are blighted properties everywhere and too many people have been hired to perform jobs they are not qualified to do.
I haven’t been to a City Council meeting in a few years. Have the decorators installed lace curtains yet?
The Bridgeport Kid // Mar 24, 2011 at 5:21 pm
To your posting
Bridgeport Kid,
Leadership in the practices and policies that define the stature of a city begins at the top. There was this kind of leadership in Stamford and there has not been this kind of leadership in Bridgeport for so long it has hurt the City deeply and certainly prevented from happening what we see in Stamford.
Gov. Malloy made a great statement when he said that Connecticut today was at the “crossroad of crisis or opportunity.” Bridgeport as a City is at the same crossroad. It is only by our collective effort that we can galvanize voters to remove Finch from office along with and all that he represents and replace him with a Mayor who actually does give a damn and city council members who also give a damn … about their city and her residents and taxpayers … not about their City job.
A lot of work ahead if this is what you really want for Bridgeport.
The Bridgeport Kid // Mar 24, 2011 at 3:35 pm
To your posting
Bridgeport Kid,
“So far the City Council, the mayor’s office and the Board of Education have been used for personal gain. All along I have been thinking it is the people of the city of Bridgeport who mattered.”
… and all along it is the people of the City of Bridgeport who DO matter …
You’ve got it right, personal gain, personal power, personal self-indulgence and personal greed have been brought to the public-service arena and made the standard by which to operate … all this encouraged by this Mayor at 999.
The Bridgeport Kid rides again!!!
Can Joe Celli be far behind???
Saw Joe “Snake oil, anyone?” Celli a while back, disembarking from the Coastal Link #2 bus in Black Rock. Right in front of Matty’s Corner. Imagine that, a man of his pseudo stature riding a city bus with the common rabble. It boggled the mind.
Too bad I didn’t have my digital camera on hand. I would’ve snapped a few pics for posterity.
Bridgeport’s elected officials do not serve the communities they are elected to represent. Period. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
I was dating a woman from the Island last summer. Took the Port Jefferson Ferry a few times. Leaving Bridgeport is always an adventure, heading out to the open waters of Long Island Sound. Coming back the first recognizable thing on the northern horizon is the candy-striped smokestack of the power station. As the ferry nears the harbor the urban decay becomes visible. As the boat enters the channel the passengers are treated to Derecktor Shipyards, a couple of empty marinas, a weed-choked field and a wall emblazoned with the words “Steel Pointe Harbor.” The paint is chipped and peeling. Welcome to Bridgeport, have a nice day …
“I was dating a woman from the Island last summer …”
That would explain your disappearance.
What TBK is trying to say is: Take the Long Island Ferry where its roads repairs itself.
I just came back from a meet & greet meeting with Mary-Jane Foster. This event was well attended by people from the 138th district, many of whom never attended a meeting like this in the past. Many good questions were asked and many good answers were given by MJF. All in all a great evening.
Thanks for the info, tc. I’m looking forward to the meet ‘n’ greet at Viale’s. Bridgeport is in serious need of an independent-minded mayor who thinks outside the box marked “DTC, do not open ’til December 25th.”
It was a lovely evening. I had the veal. Foster was her normal & charming self & it was delightful to watch her speak. Thank you for holding this at Vazzy’s, it’s one of the few places left in BPT where you can still get good Viking food.
We requested street maps from the WPCA some time ago to look at this current situation. Most all show combo lines, combined storm and sewage. I am told 80% of the city is combo. Not good. Flooding is big issue. Also, someone who works with boats and so sees exactly what is going on told me when a certain rain level is reached, all the sewage just runs straight into the ocean untreated. And Bridgeport seeks sewage from other towns like Monroe?
I don’t see Monroe donating sewage to Bridgeport any time soon. Bob Scinto is facing a stretch in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. That put his high-end old folks’ home project in Monroe, which needed a sewer line, on hold. Indefinitely. Monroe doesn’t have a sewer system so Scinto and his associate Paul Timpanelli over at the Bridgeport Regional Business Counsel tried to sell a bill of goods to the town of Trumbull. They wanted Monroe to tap into Trumbull’s sewage system which is tapped into Bridgeport’s sewage system, which operates over capacity most of the time.