In the early months of JG1, Joe Ganim, assisted by then-Governor Lowell Weicker, removed a mountainous pile of illegal demolition debris in the East End that was a scourge on the neighborhood. It was called Mount Trashmore. On Friday Ganim was joined by city officials and neighborhood political leaders across the street from the hulking O&G rock crushing site at 1225 Seaview Avenue they assert violates zoning regulations.
“This is like Mount Trashmore II,” Ganim declared, flanked by City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer, former State Senator Ernie Newton and District Leader Ralph Ford. The company wants to relocate the rock crushing debris site to the West End where it faces opposition from many neighborhood residents.
Steve Krauchick of Doing It Local provides video coverage.
Does O&G still have an office in the Annex?
First, thank you Mayor Ganim for taking a interest in the O&G trash pile but this is just a start, Mayor. City Attorney Chris Meyer said, “we’re going to do what we can,” what in hell does that mean, what we can? Joe, do what is right and make O&G obey the law and remove that dangerous pile and not move it to the South End.
It’s all total bullshit. If O&G did not mention moving this pile of rock then we would never have heard from Ganim or the local politicians like Ford and Newton. Where in hell have you two been all these years? This location if I am not mistaken was owned by D’Addario construction and was used as a concrete manufacturing plant.
I will bet if O&G decides not to move, the pile will still be there in five years.
We should throw them out and build a park. We don’t need the tax revenue.
The park will need a water slide. Maybe we can get the owner of the Vibes to buy one. Oh that’s right, he owes us $750,000.
Let’s not get things confused here. Mayor Ganim and the City Attorney are only talking about one issue concerning O&G and that is the relocation of the one site, but there is a bigger issue as reported in the Post and on OIB and that is:
O&G Industries, one of the state’s largest construction companies, is asking the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals for permission to build a new cement and asphalt recycling plant at 92 Howard Avenue, along Cedar Creek. A public hearing is scheduled for May 10 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Zoning officials said O&G intends to relocate its existing recycling operation from 1225 Seaview Avenue, near the Interstate 95 ramps.
m.ctpost.com/local/article/O-G-relocation-plan-stirs-opposition-7249498.php
*** I’ve got to agree with Andy on this one, as political B/S and as too little too late! ***
Here’s the difference: last time around, Mayor Ganim had a law license and strong financial help. This time around he has no license and poor financial position. When dealing with a legal issue, never underestimate the loss of your leader’s license.
LE, yes, financial help, but what kind of financial help? Financial help for Mayor Ganim’s political future, financial donations to City Council members to support O&G, always follow the money. Think about this, where are the public statements from the two council members from the East End and the two council members from the South End talking AGAINST O&G’s plan?
Therein lies the problem, the fact the two council persons from the 139th are nowhere in this story or outraged by this mess. What are they waiting for, some white person to tell them they should be outraged and appalled by these circumstances? Mayor Ganim, please do the residents of the 139th a favor and tell the two council people to care, because obviously they aren’t going to care on their own.
Donald Day, yes they are probably waiting for a white man to tell them. Is that what you wanted to read, you racist asshole? You and Mackey spend all your time stirring the pot, you are both useless as tits on a bull.
Andy, too bad you can’t talk to former Deputy Chief Earl Pettway who is no longer with us or former Captain George Bryant who is now residing in South Carolina about this topic, but Andy, here is a little something Pettway left with his wife that was in the Conn. Post.
m.ctpost.com/printpromotion/article/Firefighter-s-writings-offer-insight-on-racism-4950652.php
Bridgeport’s first African American deputy fire chief papers he wrote that shed new light on his decades of city service as well as his struggles with discrimination.
m.ctpost.com/local/article/Firefighter-s-writings-offer-insight-on-racism-4950235.php
Two of the best guys I knew on the fire department. George and I worked together.
I spoke to Earl Pettway once every six weeks or so. We discussed many, many things. Earl was a great man. Period.
Andy, seeing as Earl was a great man, what do you have to say about what he wrote and I guess you were not aware of the issues that troubled this great man?
EARL AND I DISCUSSED WHAT WAS IN THAT ARTICLE ALONG WITH MANY OTHER THINGS. THE CONVERSATIONS WE HAD WERE PRIVATE AND NOT FOR THIS OR ANY OTHER BLOG.
And where were Ernie and Ralph all the years this operation was producing particle pollution in the East End? Waiting for permission to say something?
Now that Joe is mayor and he realizes he can’t do anything about crime, he will fight environmental injustices. Joe will become The Green Mayor. OMG. He has already morphed into Bill Finch!
What does being white have to do with this? Please explain.
I’m sorry, but who said something about being white?
Donald Day.
Black politicians seem to wait for a white person to tell them what to do, when to care and how to act rather than just doing what’s right, what’s moral and what’s just. Now see if you were black there would be no need for me to explain to you the mindset of black apathy. This will be my last time answering to individuals who hide behind the cloak of anonymity and inscrutability.
Donald Day just endorsed the mindset of black apathy. He’s made his point.
LE, you don’t seem to understand America history. From the first blacks to set foot in America what Donald Day said is right. Once all blacks got the legal right to vote in 1968, white politicians would tell black politicians to let them take up the issues of blacks, especially white liberal in the 1970s and 1980s. And one more thing, why are you scared to use your own name?
I am not afraid and you and Day are full of crap.
Andy, what in hell are you talking about, “I am not afraid and you and Day are full of crap.”
Your words to LE. “And one more thing, why are you scared to use your own name?”
Andy, you’ve been a blithering idiot since I’ve known you and it appears as if nothing has changed with your bigoted ass. You don’t like me, so in hell what? You aren’t my friend and I’m not yours, I’m not coming to your house and you’re not coming to mine. You need to read the Pettway papers because he’s talking publicly about what Ron and I have been saying publicly for 30 years. My bet is he was talking about your bigoted ass when he alluded to racism and discrimination in the BFD. YOU DO READ, DON’T YOU?
In 1978, his second year with the fire department, Pettway wrote he noticed derogatory cartoons being posted in the firehouse on his days off. At first he simply removed them, but then became vocal and said he wanted to talk to the person who was posting the cartoons. The cartoons then stopped.
He also recounts returning from a call to find a hangman’s noose hanging from the stairway. He asked one firefighter on duty who hung it up, but the man claimed not to know.
“I took it down and told him to tell the owner to come and see me if he wanted it back!” Pettway wrote. “No one ever came back to claim it.”
Where were you Andy when all this was going on and what did you do to stop this crap? Don’t answer because it’s rhetorical, we know you did nothing to stop this racist bullshit, in fact a lot of us believed you were the main instigator for this crap.
Don, remember, a lot of what Pettway wrote about happened four years before we got on the job.
Day, you know you are full of shit. You are a tough guy with a keyboard. I was on the squad and Earl was in 6-8’s when that happened. What did you want done? What I did was make sure every firefighter especially the minorities were taught what they needed to know to survive.
You can call me the instigator of the racism on the FD but you and I know that’s baloney. You say things like this because you can’t make me back down from your racist lies. BTW stupid, I was a firefighter then, what did you expect me to do?
Andy, 10% of the time firefighters are working hard in conditions where they could get hurt but the other 90% was training house work and social time, well it was during that social time white firefighters would do what Chief Pettway was talking about but there was no leadership from whites to say stop this shit because we are a family, no one did that. So blacks were on their own with no support and no one to talk to or to interact with until more blacks came into the dept. During my term as the Firebird Society there were two white firefighters who wanted to join and I had to tell them no because of how it would affect their career and their family by being a member of the Firebird Society because white firefighters would have nothing to do with them. The more a white firefighter talked about black and Hispanics they became the informal leader and they would be someone on Squad 5. Most white firefighters didn’t like what was being said but they knew they couldn’t do anything.
What you talk about are things the house Captain, Lieutenant and the chiefs take care of. There is nothing a firefighter from another house could do except letting their displeasure be known. Like you said, you and Day were not even on the job when it happened. You two idiots can find nothing that’s the truth so you make shit up, what a shame.
Andy, no matter what you say, you know and we know you were the facilitator of racism and discrimination on the BFD. YOU can tell from your posts 35 years later you still carry a lot of animosity about those days. That’s very troubling, 35 tears later after a Federal Judge told you, you and your ilk were wrong you’re still mad.
You say there wasn’t anything you could do, the fact is you could have said what was happening was wrong, immoral and unjust. Instead you chose the coward’s way, kept your mouth shut and not said anything. There were guys like Phil DeFalco, Lenny Inacale, Pinky and several others who publicly said what was happening to blacks was wrong, but nothing from you. It’s been insinuated on OIB by numerous people that maybe you are senile, well?
Even if I said something you would not say anything. Tell me how these three expressed themselves and you know about it four years after the fact? Day, just like most all of your charges, you are full of baloney. I must be senile, dealing with you.
Don, Andy worked hard to be the unofficial leader especially at fire headquarters, he could have spoken out as a man, as a Lieutenant and the unofficial leader could have said something in roll call and what he would say would get to every firehouse in the City. Not Andy Fardy. Don you mention Pinky, it was my first day at Wood Ave. firehouse and I was on the phone trying to get the bus schedule and this guy walks in the room and asked me where did I live? Now I don’t know this guy but I told him and he got on me for not saying anything about where I lived, don’t you know Pinky said he didn’t live that far from me and I could ride to work with him every day? Here is a white guy I didn’t know but he offered me a ride. Don, you know how we all feel about Pinky.
Mackey, you and that other jerk just can’t get your facts straight so you make up shit to fit what you want to say.
First off I was a firefighter and not an officer at the time of the incident. How nice Pinky gave you a ride home as a rookie. Ask him now if he would give you a ride after all the lies and trouble you caused while on the job.
Andy, leaders lead, if a man sees somethings or hears something racial or sexual that’s out of line like white guys saying jokes about blacks or talking about them like dogs in the workplace then a man should up and lead. If they feel it’s not their place then they should tell their officer but most of the times the officers didn’t care. The point about Pinky is, think about that, something as simple as giving a co-worker a ride home became so important, that’s how bad things were in every firehouse, white guys wouldn’t have anything to do with blacks so when someone tells you they’ll get you a ride, that become a real big thing because we needed to know who was a friend and you Andy were no friend to any black firefighter. Andy, it was guys like you who made the Firebird Society form and to look out for our own. We didn’t need any officer or chief because we would look out for our own and recruit our own and train our own to pass entry and promotional exams and at the same time help the community by giving out and installing free smoke detectors and giving out college scholarships.
Ron, it was a free ride given by Judge Daly that got the Firebirds going. You did such a good job you had to retire. It’s funny how you talk about me now but wrote on this blog how as a rookie I taught you how to survive in a fire atmosphere and how I spent extra time showing you how to use a Scott air pack. I did not farm that job off to a firefighter, which I could have but did not.
That’s right Ron, blame me for all the trials and tribulations that went on in that era. Your nasty confrontational attitude did not help. Maybe you were used to whites cowing to your loud voice and burly demeanor and when that did not happen in the firehouse you got upset. You even accused me of racism because I made you and another rookie put up the American flag in the morning and take it down at night and don’t give me that BS about the air force. You wanted to make trouble and it did not work. You were informed the rookies were always detailed to flag duty. Ron, you can make up whatever you want.
Andy, I’m a proud veteran and I have no problem in putting up the American flag, I was not that person you are talking about. Andy, I have posted on OIB when I was a rookie you took the time to train me and I never had a working problem with you or any other officer. I’m not blaming you for all the issues but you had your part and it was a giant one. I enjoy talking to other white firefighters about race because a lot of them never had a dialog about race with someone black, now they might have gone to school with them and played with them playing sports but not talking in a honest way about race. As time passed on the dept more and more the guys got to know each other better but there was always that core of whites who never wanted anything to do with blacks. When I got elected to the fire union executive board I won because of whites voting for me, as I’m sure you remember I was one of the few black and Hispanic members who were always at union meetings from the beginning of my career. Andy, you talk about a free ride from Judge Daly but what about your free ride as a Provisional Lieutenant where you were just given the position, you didn’t take a test or anything and in fact you had 70 other white males who were just given the position of Provisional Lieutenant, no merit, no test plus you got the pay and benefits.
I’m done with you Mackey, you are a sad bitter man. You spent your life hating whites but never did anything to improve yourself. You really want to tell me you never applied to take the fire exam because you were afraid of the white firefighters? Bullshit, but that’s what your group said.
False Alarm. ACF displays normal human emotions. Besides, this is a political blog and not a place for you to judge him.
Andy, wow, you need to take a break. You have the wrong black man, now I know it’s said we all look alike but Andy, I’m not a sad bitter man and one who spent my life hating whites. And then you said, you really want to tell you I never applied to take the fire exam because I was afraid of the white firefighters. Wow, me afraid of white firefighters, Andy I was a 19-year-old teenager who joined the U.S. Air Force and was trained as a firefighter in North Carolina where blacks couldn’t go to white schools at that time. Andy, I don’t hate whites and those who know me and who talk to me know I don’t hate whites, in fact I talk about ways we all can work things out together.