City policy wonk Jeff Kohut, 2011 petitioning candidate for mayor, says any thought of a regional sewer deal with the suburbs should be flushed down the toilet.
With history as our rationale and guide, Bridgeport should not be interested in entering into regional pacts with any of our neighbors at this juncture–especially Trumbull.
It is obvious, from the ugly situation that erupted between Bridgeport and Trumbull over the location of Fairchild Wheeler Multi-magnet School in what was then Trumbull, we are seen through prejudiced, exploitative, parasitic, disdainful eyes by our “neighbor” to the north. They were only willing to “cooperate” with Bridgeport on a “regional” school if they could keep us out of Trumbull and force Bridgeport to foot the “regional” bill. It took a state-brokered land cession/swap and redrawing of their maps(!) before the school could move forward.One way or another, they were determined to force Bridgeport to foot the “regional” costs, and more importantly, keep Bridgeport school children from attending any schools within Trumbull’s border’s en masse. I think we know the main reasons for this–$/greed and racism/elitism.
But returning to the subject at hand–Trumbull’s parasitic use of Bridgeport’s infrastructure/sewer system: Indeed, the beginning of the end for Bridgeport’s socioeconomic viability was ushered in with the original Trumbull sewer pact inked in 1960 to allow the development of the Trumbull Shopping Park (now Westfield Trumbull Mall). This was truly the point at which Bridgeport’s fortunes took an irrevocable turn for the worse, the point at which we gave Trumbull the means to execute the planned theft of our tax base and our middle class. This is the point at which our downtown, industrial core, and then-healthy neighborhoods began their slow, agonizing death. The companion, state/federally mandated and financed Route 25-8 Corridor dealt the coup de grace to our neighborhoods and tax base as this latter project (25-8) literally sucked the life out of Bridgeport.
This was all done through state and federal lobbying by suburban interests, with the conspiratorial blessing of our own city leadership (e.g., the DTC/RTC, Tedesco Administration, the latter of which had invested in land in Trumbull and Shelton along the 25-8 corridor and most of whom later became Trumbull/suburban residents). The end of county government in Connecticut, concurrent with, and part and parcel of the aforementioned conspiratorial development scheme, resonated perfectly with the sewer deal and 25-8 plans. (And it was all done by way of the greed, racism and elitism that was associated with the rise of the suburbs and slow death of the urban centers that began in earnest in the mid-1950s.)
Once Bridgeport was on the ropes, we were there for the taking by the parasitic Gold Coast/suburbs; there would be no turning things around for Bridgeport.
Fast forward to August 30, 2015, and we find the sewer deal and 25-8 plans of 1960 are the gifts that keep on giving. Bridgeport is down to its last pint of blood and the bloodletting continues, with old, recent, and potential development/tax base still trickling out of the city, up Route 25-8 into Trumbull, Shelton and beyond. And still, our politicians conspire with the suburbs on regional projects designed to further exploit Bridgeport and keep us down, hence all the talk of a “regional” sanitary waste system.
And now we have a slick, arrogant, antagonistic, Republican First Selectman, Tim “the crybaby” Herbst, playing on the fears of Bridgeport WPCA ratepayers and the Trumbull white-flight populace, playing one side against the other in order to coerce a deal out of the Bridgeport Mayoral candidates in the midst of a very heated, very critical mayoral election. (Perhaps he is providing cover for a deal in the works with candidate Bill Finch, whom he pretends to hate, but whose family is based in Trumbull.)
Bridgeport, if it is ever to regain its economic health, must end the sewage treatment pact with Trumbull and flush any notion of regional “cooperation” in this regard down our municipal policy toilet. Trumbull’s 20% of our sewer usage would be better allotted to expanded Bridgeport development.
Indeed, because connection to our sewer system allowed the creation of the Trumbull tax base, Trumbull Shopping Park, The Trumbull Industrial Park, et al., (all built from a core of Bridgeport-based businesses), we should sue Trumbull for lost taxes and make any new sewer deal (which should not be regional) contingent upon a user rate reflecting Bridgeport’s hosting of the opportunity costs (occupation of very valuable waterfront land), pollution-control costs, and infrastructure-obtrusiveness costs (quality of life) incurred by Bridgeport, as well as a share of the taxes collected by Trumbull that wouldn’t be possible without the use of Bridgeport’s infrastructure. Thus, we should charge double our WPCA rate as well as 33% or so of their tax revenue. And that would still be a bargain for that parasitic municipality.
Trumbull et al. have been waging a successful economic war on Bridgeport for 50-plus years; it would be criminal for our current leadership to ignore that fact and continue our disastrous relationship with this hostile municipality into the future, much less allow them to gain complete control of this economic development “ace in the hole” through any further cooperation per a “regional” system. If they won’t pay, per the above type of arrangement, then they should be cut off from our sewer system. If Fairfield, or Stratford, or Shelton want to do business with them, then they should, be all means, do so. (But I think those towns are too smart for that.)
Indeed, if Bridgeport is ever to regain its economic health, it will need all of its sanitary waste capacity for the rebuilding of its once-prodigious tax base, and must inform its economic enemy, the municipality of Trumbull, it must disconnect from our sewage system within a reasonable length of time (e.g.,3-5 years). (Would the US give Iran plutonium?!)
It is time to take back our city from the Gold Coast/suburbs and their Bridgeport lackeys in Bridgeport municipal government. Only Joe Ganim has demonstrated he is willing to play hardball with the Gold Coast/suburbs. (And Trumbull should send Timmy back to GOP nursery school for some political toilet training.)
It is time for the people of the city of Bridgeport to take back control of OUR town. For the past 25 years Bridgeport’s fate has been in the hands of men who have used positions of political power to enrich themselves and their friends. Who hasn’t benefited from this? The people of the city of Bridgeport. The Democratic Town Committee under Mario Testa has pimped off the city, creating no-show jobs on the city payroll, cutting deals that are beneficial to surrounding communities; handed out no-strings-attached multi-decade tax abatements to well-heeled developers from Stamford and Greenwich and Westchester County; neglected the school system to the point it is the worst in the state (building new schools is not going to fix the underfunded school system and will not help Tax Bill’s rapidly fading political fortunes); raised taxes; allowed police staffing levels to fall so precipitously public safety is affected; and left infrastructure to deteriorate and crumble, among other crowning achievements.
Yet the “old guard” is still hanging in there, fielding two candidates for mayor. One is a convicted felon; the other is a self-important and petty man, spiteful, greedy, arrogant, pompous and completely devoid of humanity and lacking even a particle of compassion for his fellow man. Both of these clowns are supported by two different factions of the Democratic Town Committee, an organization highly skilled at falsifying absentee ballots and bringing the dead back to life to vote for the “chosen one.”
There are five other choices on the general ballot, each worth considering. The two candidates with the strongest credentials for reform are Mary-Jane Foster and Rick Torres. Neither is a patsy or a shill for the corrupt political machine that is the Democratic Town Committee. Both are college-educated. Foster, a licensed attorney, is vice president of public relations at the University of Bridgeport. She and her husband Jack McGregor were the prime movers behind the Arena and the ballpark and brought the baseball team to Bridgeport.
Torres, owner of Harborview Market in Black Rock, was born and raised in Bridgeport, a local boy who made good. As a City Councilman Torres succeeded in convincing his colleagues to vote down a 35-year tax abatement Mayor Finch wanted to give to a Stamford-based developer in exchange for a $4000 campaign “contribution.” He has written resolutions to limit the “boot and tow” tax collection program when other City Council members have only paid lip service. (The program should be abandoned altogether: it does not collect back taxes and is intended to penalize the working poor.)
Where others merely talk of high taxes, Foster and Torres have offered plans to REDUCE them, practical, no-nonsense plans that will nurture the local economy, create long-term jobs that pay real living wages and will go a long way toward burnishing a municipal image that has been tarnished by public corruption, political patronage and cronyism.
We agree if Trumbull wants to continue using the Bridgeport facilities, then they need to pay a fair amount to help support the entire system, not just the section they use.
As Herbst remarked in yesterday’s CT Post, building a new plant in Trumbull is too expensive. Maybe Monroe and Trumbull jointly fund and operate a plant. Failing that, then they pay a premium to use Bridgeport. That’s normal business practice.
Also agree Herbst is a distasteful person and he floated this now, in this fashion, to throw a log on the fire and burn Finch out. Either to negotiate a better deal with Bridgeport or because he hates Finch. Doesn’t really matter.
However, please tell me how “Only Joe Ganim has demonstrated he is willing to play hardball with the Gold Coast/suburbs.”
Don’t recall any examples from when he was Mayor and haven’t noticed anything specific in his current quest regarding battling the Gold Coast.
None of the past mayors played hardball, they played politics and that’s all. Trumbull would love a regional authority, think of the industry they could attract and let’s not forget Monroe, the town that voted down Rt25 in favor of bumper to bumper traffic, they will want in also. There is also the problem for these two towns, where is the wastewater going to travel? Guess what, they will want to come through Bridgeport.