Urban warrior and Lake Forest area block watch leader Jeff Kohut has authored a guest column dissecting the implications of the proposed halfway house for the West End. See his column below:
Bigger Issue Being Missed in Halfway House Controversy
By Jeff KohutThe recently announced plans to create a 120-bed halfway house for prison parolees in a Bridgeport neighborhood at the West End-South End interface (at Norman Street and Railroad Avenue), adjacent to a large housing complex and neighborhood park/youth league playing fields, have shocked Bridgeport neighborhoods back into an appreciation of the reality of our bottommost position in the Fairfield County/Fourth Congressional District region food chain …
This proposed, large-scale (huge, by typical halfway house standards …) facility for early-release felons is also within an area that can, potentially, have a very significant (negative) effect on Downtown redevelopment efforts, as well as on the successful continuation of the expansion/revitalization of the University of Bridgeport (an institution critical to Bridgeport’s economic progress …). The proposed facility is also relatively close to Seaside Park and the Arena and Ball Park at Harbor Yard … Obviously, regional planners have been directed to overlook the prospect of the location of any high end tax base in Bridgeport … [But, of course, this fits into official state/regional/federal plans for Bridgeport as the “Housing Hub/Transportation Hub” (euphemistic references for “cheap labor/social services repository/labor force conduit) for the Fairfield County/Fourth District region … Bridgeport gets the expense and challenges of hosting the regional labor force, while Stamford/Gold Coast/suburbs enjoy the fruits of attracting high end employers/high end tax base without having to bear the burdens of maintaining a residential labor force … Interested persons might care to research the “One Coast, One Future” (euphemistic) reference regarding the state/federally endorsed regional development plan for the Fairfield County/Fourth Congressional District area …]
As has been stated in the Connecticut Post (Tim Loh, Sunday, 2/20/11, p1,p4 – “Halfway houses …”) Bridgeport already hosts over 80% of the region’s prison halfway houses, while only generating 40% of the inmates utilizing these facilities … Obviously, Bridgeport is incurring significant, uncompensated expense and economic harm from this unjust arrangement, and a stop must be put to this state/regional exploitation of this distressed city–of which unfair advantage is being taken by the state and regional suburbs … (The specific situation at hand is just one more example of the previously alluded-to political/economic hegemony at the root of the parasitic, exploitative relationship between Bridgeport and the Gold Coast/affluent suburbs of Fairfield County/Fourth District region …)
But perhaps a more important fact–with far-reaching implications–regarding the proposed Bridgeport 120-bed parolee halfway house, is that the property on which it is to be located is owned by the Chair of the Democratic State Central Committee/Chair of the Trumbull Democratic Town Committee, NANCY DINARDO, and her infamous brother, large-scale political campaign contributor, SAL DINARDO, of Remington Arms Complex arson fires fame (in arrears to the city for an estimated $40 million in property taxes) (see Connecticut Post, Tim Loh, 2/20/11, p1, p4 – “Proposed halfway house …”; Only in Bridgeport web magazine, Lennie Grimaldi, 1/31/11, “… Where to house former offenders …”). The implications of this situation speak volumes as to why Bridgeport can’t seem to attract high end tax base projects …
Indeed, the bigger story involved in this halfway-house saga most certainly is the aforementioned, likely direct involvement of one of the most powerful and influential persons in Connecticut state politics–Nancy DiNardo.
Nancy DiNardo is the person of whom the present Connecticut governor, and junior US senator sought anointment and blessings in pursuit of the offices to which they were recently elected … Ditto the other recently elected US congressional and Democratic state General Assembly candidates–not to mention the myriad of Connecticut mayors and other local officials indebted to the political indulgences of Ms. DiNardo …
Of all people, Nancy DiNardo knows Bridgeport’s political-economic plight … By all indications–from her silence on the Bridgeport juvenile jail, and proposed Bridgeport women’s jail, to her probable direct involvement in the proposed halfway house of current controversy–Nancy DiNardo is one of the powerful people pulling the strings in the Bridgeport development dance … Surely her infamous brother’s infamous endeavors benefit from her ruling position in the ruling state party …
It is incumbent upon the State Attorney’s Office, State Ethics Commission, Bridgeport Attorney’s Office, and Bridgeport Ethics Commission to investigate the influence of Nancy DiNardo and her brother Sal regarding all business dealings involving state and municipal entities in which state Democratic Party politics could be at play; that would include all Bridgeport municipal business involving Ms. DiNardo’s brother and her direct/indirect interests, as well as all business involving Bridgeport municipal boards and commissions involving Ms. DiNardo’s brother and her direct/indirect interests–including the present, proposed 120-bed halfway-house deal …
Certainly, the appearance of impropriety looms large over a potential compendium of Bridgeport business deals involving Democratic State Central Committee Chairperson DiNardo and her political-donor brother, Sal–including the halfway house–to the extent where she should resign from her state and local Democratic Party Chair positions, immediately …
Let Nancy DiNardo’s resignation from her Democratic Party chair positions be the beginning of Bridgeport’s political and economic rehabilitation … Pursuing an investigation into the aforementioned cases/areas of possible ethical and legal violations by this high-ranking Democratic Party operative (and complicit others) could be the beginning of real political reform in Bridgeport …
I am so tired of the name DiNardo. I am so tired of outside entities with deep pockets screwing Bridgeport up to a fare thee well. We have these damned zoning attorneys who come into or practice in Bridgeport coming before the Zoning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals (aka the board where anything passes) presenting projects they would not dare bring before the same type of boards in Fairfield or Trumbull.
Here is just one case: There was a project proposed for the upper North End where A MEDICAL FACILITY WAS TO GO. The attorney presented information showing that the North End association was in favor of this project and what was needed was a change of zone.
The Planning & Zoning commission passed the zone change. Now that the zone was changed the attorney and his client decided to build apartments for Sacred Heart students. Nothing could be done to stop this project. William Minor and the city attorney knew that if a zone change was made the developer could build anything on the site. Nothing was said to the board.
These same attorneys when there is a large crowd in opposition keep asking for and getting postponements so that eventually the crowds won’t show up.