Welcome to Coastal Connecticut Times!
We're so glad you found us.
Coastal Connecticut Times is a regional news site that aims to go beyond the headlines and dive into complicated stories that affect your daily life, and also wants to help keep you informed.
We've heard from so many people who said that they don't know when important conversations are taking, when crucial votes are happening, when big decisions are being made. We've also heard from people who said they don't understand why things are happening.
Our goal is to create a new, better, kind of news site that provides answers to those questions.
Here's how we plan to do that.
We have a weekly newsletter called “The What,” which aims to provide you with information about important things happening across the area (Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, and Fairfield). Each week we'll have a run down on the "what"—meetings, hearings, programs, initiatives, events— while also working on original reporting to help understand the "why."
We'll do independent, in-depth original reporting that dives deep into topics, such as the environment, development, transportation, and local government spending. The goal of Coastal Connecticut Times is to help you understand the “what and why” taking place in your community so you’re better informed, more engaged, and connected to the place we all call home.
Some of our reporting so far includes:
- The Mental Health Crisis in Southwest Connecticut—how our region has been impacted, what local providers are doing to address it, and how you can get involved.
- Exploring the Long Island Sound—a series that aims to explore one of our region's most valuable and important assets and examine its impact on the region and our relationship to it. Our first story focused on the water quality in the Sound and how it's monitored.
- How local communities are spending their federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
- Articles that look at local infrastructure including I-95, the biggest and busiest highway that both runs through and connects our region, as well as local biking and walking lanes and sidewalks.
Why are we doing this work?
We know the incredible opportunities and features this area has—a beautiful coastline, unique downtowns, a variety of housing, public transportation to New York, incredible people, and delicious local restaurants. But we also know our area faces some challenges, many of which we've experienced ourselves—issues with flooding, traffic congestion, high cost of living, environmental concerns, income inequality, and educational disparities.
The two main reasons we started Coastal Connecticut Times are: to highlight these challenges—and solutions that can help make our area even better, and to provide useful, free, accessible information for all residents to help them learn more about their community and feel connected to it.
How can I get involved?
One of the most important goals at CCT is community engagement. We believe in making the community a partner in our work, so there's a few ways you can get involved.
You can sign up for our free weekly newsletter “The What” to become a part of our community.
You can fill out our intro survey to help us get to know you better.
You can becoming a paying supporter or sponsor to help us really grow Coastal Connecticut Times.
Most importantly, if you like what we're doing, please share our site and social media channels with your family, friends, and colleagues to get the word out about us!