More Than $30 Million Coming to Stamford, Norwalk Neighborhoods After Decades of Underinvestment
Norwalk's Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Stamford's West Side neighborhood, and Stamford's East Side neighborhood are slated to receive federal funding to help improve these areas.
Residents in the West Side and East Side of Stamford, and around Martin Luther King Boulevard in Norwalk have dealt with traffic and congestion problems, unsafe roads for pedestrians and bicyclists, air quality issues, and neglected infrastructure for decades.
These areas are some of the most diverse in both cities and have some of the most economically disadvantaged residents. In Norwalk, the three neighborhoods around the boulevard have three of the top five poverty rates in the city—10.3% poverty rate in Woodward, 7.8% in South Norwalk, and 7.5% in Springwood, according to data from the Norwalk ACTS’ Neighborhoods at a Glance dashboard.
Stamford’s West Side neighborhood has a 14% poverty rate and 39% of its residents are classified as low-income, while the East Side has a 12% poverty rate and 26% of its residents are classified as low-income, according to city profiles from CT Data Haven,
However, thanks in part to federal funding, local officials said that improvements are now coming to these areas.
Earlier this year, Norwalk received a $14 million federal RAISE grant to make MLK Boulevard and a few surrounding streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. This grant will fund protected bike lanes, improve sidewalks, and roadway redesigns to reduce speed and make the area safer for all users.
This grant follows a $3 million investment from the state to enhance the MLK corridor through facade improvements, public art, street trees, and more.
“This is an exciting project,” Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said at a press conference announcing the grant earlier this month. “We’re going to be bringing a Complete Streets project to Martin Luther King Boulevard along with some of the surrounding streets. We’re going to make this street worthy of that name, and we’re really excited to do that.”
Meanwhile, in Stamford, the city received a $17 million Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve connectivity and pedestrian safety on the West Side. This grant will fund part of the Mill River Greenway project, an off-road pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists, stretching between Tresser Boulevard and Richmond Hill. This helps connect the West Side to the city’s downtown in a safer, more accessible way for residents.
“This historic $17 million Reconnecting Communities grant will completely transform and enhance connectivity on the West Side of Stamford and establish a connected, walkable greenway from Mill River Park to the Stamford Transportation Center,” Mayor Caroline Simmons said in a statement.
In addition, the city received a $2.1 million RAISE grant to support the redesign and engineering of 1.1 miles of West Main Street from Greenwich Avenue to Havemeyer Lane.
“This funding will support the planning needed to advance the West Main Street Corridor project, which will improve the corridor with complete streets technology, with a focus on greater mobility access, pedestrian safety, and added bike lanes,” Simmons said in a statement.
And the East Side neighborhood is next on the city’s list, with funding approved for an East Side neighborhood study that will explore ways to make the area less congested and easier to navigate for residents.
“We’ve had a lot of separate concerns from the community especially related to transportation—a lack of sidewalk connectivity, lack of different transportation facilities, safety concerns so we wanted to take a more comprehensive look at this,” Luke Buttenwieser, a transportation planner in the city of Stamford, told the Board of Finance in September.
In addition, in 2022, Congressman Jim Himes earmarked $3 million for the city to help “design and construct a new satellite of the Ferguson Library system on the East Side of the city.”
“Currently there is no public library on the East Side, making it difficult for residents to access library services,” Bridget Fox, the mayor’s chief of staff, told the Board of Finance in October. ”A quick snapshot of the demographics of the East Side—diverse, economically distressed. The minority population in the census tracts ranges from 58% to 66% and a significant number of children live in that neighborhood.”
While the Board of Finance asked for more information before advancing the project, city officials and board members said they were supportive of bringing a library to the neighborhood.
Explore each of these investments and what they’ll bring to local communities.
