Joe G is a very skilled, poised speaker. None better. But again, when one looks at the “big picture,” one sees a city without the presence of a major corporation; a city with most of its populace living on the edge of poverty and trying to sustain their lives without the benefit of available, living wage jobs even as the (Fairfield County) cost of living continues to surge in the face of the administration’s vain efforts to gentrify the areas with the most intense, concentrated poverty… It was only a few weeks ago when a major effort was needed to stave off eviction of hundreds of public housing residents. If a random sample of residents were allowed to expound on the state of the city, they certainly wouldn’t be singing in harmony with the mayor…
Just the fact that our downtown can’t sustain a reputable hotel (or even a McDonald’s!) is very telling… And when we host those taxpayer-supported entertainment events held for political grandstanding at the taxpayer funded/supported facilities built for political grandstanding, and our entire, depleted police force is deployed to those events, the city populace is all at great risk for being in a deadly situation where police are needed, but not available, as was the case last weekend… What should we think of that?!…
But recycling a previous post is probably the most efficient way for this OIB blogger to respond to that re-election speech:
…The truth of the matter is that Joe G running on his “accomplishments” is a gift to any serious candidate hoping to unseat him. After occupying both Bridgeport City Halls for 20 years, he has only TAXPAYER-FINANCED/ TAXPAYER-SUPPORTED projects to show for his “efforts” — and they are failed projects at that! What happened to the ballpark and Bluefish? And how has the arena turned things around for downtown?! How many millions did taxpayers pay for those failed albatrosses to rise from the ashes of the once vaunted Jenkins Valves and Lionel Train factories?! And how much — annually, for how many years — have taxpayers shelled out to keep any operations on that site from outright death (the ballpark did die, so another $12 million in our tax dollars was shelled out to finance another highly-subsidized, contraindicated, political-vanity operation…)?! And how much $ have taxpayers realized from the neighborhood-displacing centerpiece of Bridgeport redevelopment at Steal Point? There are quite a few million in red ink outstanding in regard to the latter…
But a lot of tax-negative, workforce housing for Stamford has been built in Bridgeport under G1 and G2 — and even though that has allowed a burgeoning, voting-age Bridgeport population to expand in the state’s largest city, we haven’t seen our political clout increase in Hartford. How is that?! Where is our 125th GA seat?! Why haven’t we sought to relocate that back to our growing population when all indications are that it should be relocated back here?! Where is Joe G on this essential aspect of his advocacy for our city?!
But grocery stores have been built — and have closed(!), as have restaurants(!) — making way for yet more workforce housing for Stamford and dorm space for the neighborhood-devouring SHU monster…
So; if we add up all of the net, tax-INCOME value of all of the development during the Ganim years, we have a huge well of red ink — one that serves as an eerie companion to the huge Blue hole in our police force….
Any serious mayoral candidate should be able to use Joe’s REAL RECORD as a $1 million campaign donation — and any serious mayoral candidate will have a plan of development and tax-base expansion that can be used as a matching $1 million donation to that.
So far, none of the candidates in the race are showing that they are serious or that they have a clue, even while Joe G is busy pulling rabbit after rabbit (the same one, of course!) out of his hat. (And Joe G still has time to run a successful real estate enterprise while he runs the city and runs for mayor… How is that?!)
If odds were being offered by the legal gaming industry on the 2023 Bridgeport mayor’s race, at this point in time, I would be putting $ on Joe G to win — with absolutely lopsided odds, I would think… The rest of the pack had better get a clue before the primary… The clock is ticking fast…
The Mayor did give brief mention to the new arrivals to Bridgeport from NYC . These are the millionaire refugees — untold story — who bring their own jobs and money to the East End.
Unmentioned were the unspent C.A.R.E.S. funds that must be returned if the debt ceiling law gets passed and enacted.
Counting on funds no longer available will cause budget shortfalls.
Joe G is a very skilled, poised speaker. None better. But again, when one looks at the “big picture,” one sees a city without the presence of a major corporation; a city with most of its populace living on the edge of poverty and trying to sustain their lives without the benefit of available, living wage jobs even as the (Fairfield County) cost of living continues to surge in the face of the administration’s vain efforts to gentrify the areas with the most intense, concentrated poverty… It was only a few weeks ago when a major effort was needed to stave off eviction of hundreds of public housing residents. If a random sample of residents were allowed to expound on the state of the city, they certainly wouldn’t be singing in harmony with the mayor…
Just the fact that our downtown can’t sustain a reputable hotel (or even a McDonald’s!) is very telling… And when we host those taxpayer-supported entertainment events held for political grandstanding at the taxpayer funded/supported facilities built for political grandstanding, and our entire, depleted police force is deployed to those events, the city populace is all at great risk for being in a deadly situation where police are needed, but not available, as was the case last weekend… What should we think of that?!…
But recycling a previous post is probably the most efficient way for this OIB blogger to respond to that re-election speech:
…The truth of the matter is that Joe G running on his “accomplishments” is a gift to any serious candidate hoping to unseat him. After occupying both Bridgeport City Halls for 20 years, he has only TAXPAYER-FINANCED/ TAXPAYER-SUPPORTED projects to show for his “efforts” — and they are failed projects at that! What happened to the ballpark and Bluefish? And how has the arena turned things around for downtown?! How many millions did taxpayers pay for those failed albatrosses to rise from the ashes of the once vaunted Jenkins Valves and Lionel Train factories?! And how much — annually, for how many years — have taxpayers shelled out to keep any operations on that site from outright death (the ballpark did die, so another $12 million in our tax dollars was shelled out to finance another highly-subsidized, contraindicated, political-vanity operation…)?! And how much $ have taxpayers realized from the neighborhood-displacing centerpiece of Bridgeport redevelopment at Steal Point? There are quite a few million in red ink outstanding in regard to the latter…
But a lot of tax-negative, workforce housing for Stamford has been built in Bridgeport under G1 and G2 — and even though that has allowed a burgeoning, voting-age Bridgeport population to expand in the state’s largest city, we haven’t seen our political clout increase in Hartford. How is that?! Where is our 125th GA seat?! Why haven’t we sought to relocate that back to our growing population when all indications are that it should be relocated back here?! Where is Joe G on this essential aspect of his advocacy for our city?!
But grocery stores have been built — and have closed(!), as have restaurants(!) — making way for yet more workforce housing for Stamford and dorm space for the neighborhood-devouring SHU monster…
So; if we add up all of the net, tax-INCOME value of all of the development during the Ganim years, we have a huge well of red ink — one that serves as an eerie companion to the huge Blue hole in our police force….
Any serious mayoral candidate should be able to use Joe’s REAL RECORD as a $1 million campaign donation — and any serious mayoral candidate will have a plan of development and tax-base expansion that can be used as a matching $1 million donation to that.
So far, none of the candidates in the race are showing that they are serious or that they have a clue, even while Joe G is busy pulling rabbit after rabbit (the same one, of course!) out of his hat. (And Joe G still has time to run a successful real estate enterprise while he runs the city and runs for mayor… How is that?!)
If odds were being offered by the legal gaming industry on the 2023 Bridgeport mayor’s race, at this point in time, I would be putting $ on Joe G to win — with absolutely lopsided odds, I would think… The rest of the pack had better get a clue before the primary… The clock is ticking fast…
The Mayor did give brief mention to the new arrivals to Bridgeport from NYC . These are the millionaire refugees — untold story — who bring their own jobs and money to the East End.
Unmentioned were the unspent C.A.R.E.S. funds that must be returned if the debt ceiling law gets passed and enacted.
Counting on funds no longer available will cause budget shortfalls.
Here’s the real dirt:
A.I. — artificial intelligence — could do for Bridgeport what the shovel did for ditchdiggers!