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The What

The What: We’re Back!

The What is your look around southwest Connecticut for the week of September 3.

The What: We’re Back!
Bye summer, hello fall. (Photo by Kelly Prinz)

Tuesday, Sept. 3

We hope you all had an amazing summer. We really appreciated the chance to take some time these last few weeks, but we’re SO excited to be back!

It’s been a busy few weeks and we wanted to share both some personal news and updates for Coastal Connecticut Times, so let’s dive right in.

Highlights 

This section will give a brief overview of the key items in the newsletter.

  • We’re growing our family—Baby Prinz coming December 2024!
  • We’ve revamped our website to focus more on topic-based reporting instead of breaking it down by municipality, as well as the format of this newsletter.  
  • We’re shifting our focus slightly to enhance our coverage of the major cities and towns—now including Bridgeport!—in our region and to better target our main audience.

Spotlight

This section will feature our main reporting each week.

I (Kelly) don’t usually love making what happens behind the scenes the focus, but it felt fitting this week. After finding out I was pregnant—which we are SO excited about!—I needed to take some time for myself for a bit and adjust to this amazing change.

This time also gave me a chance to think about CCT and news in general. It led me to ask what do I really need and want to know about my community especially as I get set to grow my family here? What are things that are important to my everyday life? How am I consuming information—what do I like, what do I not like, what’s missing?

As a part of this, I—along with some of our readers—have noticed there’s not a lot for residents who are in similar positions of navigating big moments such as: 

  • buying a house or renting for the first time
  • moving to a new city
  • becoming a parent 
  • navigating the school/childcare systems

I also know our audience members are busy and are balancing a lot, so I wanted to make sure we were serving your needs effectively. There are way more details laid out on our Vision and Mission page on our website, but basically this means:  

  • We want to make understanding your local community easy. We know many of you have young families or demanding careers so we know you’re not tuning into every meeting or following every action your local leaders take. So we’re here to do that for you, in this easy-to-read, simplified weekly newsletter.
  • We’re shifting our focus more to the cities and towns where most of our audience is—Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield, and we’re now starting to add in Bridgeport. Since we launched, we’ve had many requests to expand our coverage there, so we’re listening to you.
  • We can’t cover every single thing happening, so we’re choosing to focus on the issues that matter most. We think that includes actions—or inactions—around education (and childcare), housing, health, transportation, and the environment.
Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk
We tried to soak in every last bit of summer before a busy fall. (Photo by Kelly Prinz)

This Week at a Glance

This section aims to highlight the most important meetings and news taking place each week.

  • In Stamford, the Board of Representatives will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 8 p.m., after a tumultuous few weeks for the legislative body. Representative Anabel Figueroa, also a state representative (yes, she’s both), lost her state primary to fellow board member Jonathan Jacobson after she made anti-semitic comments. CT Public reported that during an interview in July, Figueroa said, “We cannot permit a person who is of Jewish origin to represent our community. It’s impossible.” According to CT Mirror, Figueroa has since lost her job at Norwalk Hospital, was expelled from the Stamford Democratic City Committee, and initially resigned from the Board—although the Stamford Advocate reported she has since rescinded that resignation. On August 30, the leadership of the Board of Representatives released a statement saying they were looking “to engage a dedicated outside attorney to advise and represent us in the matter concerning Ms. Figueroa,” but there’s no agenda item currently tied to addressing this issue.
  • In Norwalk, the Ordinance Committee of the Common Council will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. to discuss the proposed Complete Streets ordinance. We explored what Complete Streets are and how Norwalk plans to implement them earlier this year.
  • In Fairfield, the Board of Finance will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. to vote on a resolution to increase the amount of money appropriated to replace a major sewer line in the town—the East Trunk Replacement Project—to $30.75 million. This project is part of a multi-year program to “improve Fairfield’s sewer system,” which First Selectman Bill Gerber outlined last week. 
  • In Bridgeport, the City Council will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. to vote on an agreement with Park City Compost Initiative Inc., which will allow the nonprofit to use part of 774 East Main Street for food scraps composting. Park City Compost operates a composting operation in Bridgeport, but has outgrown its current space. According to a proposed resolution, the operation will “invigorate an unused portion of a city-owned parcel,” and this agreement will allow the city to continue its commitment to “supporting new and sustainable energy and environmental ventures.”
  • In Greenwich, the Planning & Zoning Commission will meet on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m. to review an application from Greenwich American Inc. to construct 198 new residential townhouse units (and make a contribution of $50,000 for each unit sold to the Greenwich Affordable Housing Trust Fund) on a 154 acre parcel at 1 American Lane.
  • In Westport, the Representative Town Meeting will meet on September 3 at 7:30 p.m.  to officially establish the Affordable Housing Committee by confirming five members to serve on it. 

Plan Your Week

This section will include a list of meetings, events, and programming happening around southwest Connecticut each week.

Bridgeport

Stamford

Norwalk

  • Tuesday, September 3: Ordinance Committee of the Common Council at 6 p.m.
  • Wednesday, September 4: Planning and Zoning Commission at 6 p.m. | Land Use & Building Management Committee of the Common Council at 7 p.m. | Fair Rent Commission at 7:30 p.m. 
  • Thursday, September 5: Reapportionment Advisory Committee at 6 p.m. | Shellfish Commission at 7:15 p.m. 

Fairfield

Greenwich

Darien

Westport

Stay in touch!

As we continue to grow and evolve, please join us! You can do that by:

Please note: All of these agendas and information here are current as of Sunday night. Meeting times and agendas may get adjusted throughout the week.

Have a great week,

Kelly Prinz

Founder, Reporter at Coastal Connecticut Times

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