This and other Stamford area blogs recently covered at the prestigious Stamford Times:

http://www.thestamfordtimes.com/story/76105

I’m starting to think that the worst creation of all time is not Jimmy Fallon, but the Topix comment section on the Advocate’s website.

The Advocate has some articles today about the light rail study and Harbor Point and the latest in their 5000-part series on the Mill River Park plan. Most of the comments are just pleasant back-and-forth discussions of the pros and cons of each idea, however, each article’s comments also contain at least one blathering rant against all things progress and/or all things Malloy.

Stamford studies return of trolleys

This article is about the $141,000 study on the feasibility of building a light rail system in Stamford. It mentions the benefits as well as problems, and it presents the thoughts of supports and opponents within the city government. On to the comments section:

“You have to do something around here. Stamford is growing and there is no infrastructure to support it. 95 and the Merritt are already overtaxed and clearly cannot have capacity added to them. Any little thing that can get even a few cars of the road will help. Light rail could help, and expanding Metro-North and Shoreline East needs to be part of the equation.” Can’t really argue with this; 95 and the Merritt are clogged and can’t be expanded. Sounds like a reasonable person…then comes this wingnut:

“Stamford is a small to medium sized town/city and can not handle a trolley NOW THAT THE CITY REMOVED ALL RAILS a few years ago - trolley and freight train alike. Three years ago the mayor could not wait to remove the rails, and now HE WANTS THEM BACK AGAIN! Stamford has LOST its population with the outsourcing of jobs and closing down of companies that made Stamford great.” I had no idea the Mayor and city government forced Xerox out, closed Yale and Towne and made Pitney Bowes move its manufacturing out of the city.

“That $175M upgrading of the waster treatment plant is an example, It STILL SMELLS ON MAGEE AVENUE afterwards and WE were told the smells would no longer be there after the upgrading. In the case of Stamford and all the major upgrades wanted to bring in MONEY only, we are a small town and to do what is being voted on blindly would require eliminating the total areas around and in the downtown to re-design Stamford from the ground up.” What the hell does this have to do with anything? Sounds like just another Malloy-hater.

“IF we got the trolley, Who would clean the tracks and roads, WE have NO Public Works as it used to be - road clearing, maintaining sidewalks, repairing the roads and curbing; all that has been privatized to certain companies that do shoddie jobs to say the least - potholes return in three months, curbs disintergrat, etc. No to the trolley as the to put it in would constrick the regular vehicle traffic as the roads can not be widened and made safe for the users. Safety comes of Money!!!” Ignoring the horrendous grammar and spelling, this is just inane. The reason the city struggles with maintenance is that people demand more and more and more, yet they scream for blood if anyone even hints at a .00000000000001% tax increase. I don’t like seeing my taxes go up, but you can’t have it both ways, people.

A future that could mirror the past

Just a nice article about people’s memories of the trolley as it was back in the day (you know, before the Landmark plaza took a literal and figurative crap on Main Street). The only notable comment is this one:

“When I was growing up, Stamford was a great place to live. The trolly was gone , but the tracks were still in place,on West Main Street anyway.Things were in a slower mode. People walked alot and stopped to talk to one another. You hardly see that any more.In my opinion, Stamford was better then than it is now.” Another person who longs for “the good old days.” I guess they conveniently forgot about that little period called the 1980s where downtown was desolate except for the crackheads and hookers.

Harbor Point takes shape

Another article about Harbor Point. No real news, no interesting comments.

Mill River restoration stays afloat

Must be a slow news cycle, because it’s time for your daily dose of Mill River Park news! Nothing new here, but the same ranter from the light rail article, Wally from Stamford, goes off again about how HORRIBLE this whole thing is. The odd thing is, the side bar to his comments says he’s in Redding. His comments:

“I grew up near Woodside Park, now Scalzi, and know what happened in 1995 through the mid-60’s with this river.” Yes…? What happened??

“The River itself has not been dredged since atleast the early 70’s and has been left to rot and turn into a junkyard in general.” THIS IS WHY THEY WANT TO DEMOLISH THE DAMN DAM. Do these people not get it? I think they don’t want to get it, because then they’d have nothing to scream about.

“It is about time Stamford realizes WE ARE NOT “NEW YORK CITY” with so much park land to play with; we are a small town that needs to retain its own image - which by the way has drawn all these New Yorkers into Stamford itself - for the next generation to enjoy.” ENOUGH with the “We are not a mini-New York” crap. Stamford is a city, and pretty much the only nice one in Connecticut. If you want to live in a small city, then move to Waterbury or Meriden. Enjoy the nightlife there.

“If the Zoning Board goes along with this project, then we Know Why the Trump Parc was allowed to be built where it is. IT is all about IMAGE, but who’s - the cities or the city governments???” Here’s a thought: Maybe Trump Parc is being built there because there’s no overwhelming reason why it shouldn’t be.

This is from a different person:
“The town growth is long out of control, which is one of the many reasons I have recently moved out of state.” Growth is out of control? So they should’ve stopped at Hoyt Street and left the rest of the city as farmland? What century is this??

“How quickly Trump got his building up, while other areas seemed more suitable, South End, etc.,” Yes, attack Trump again. That’s original. By the way, the South End IS being redeveloped.

“Notice driving down West Broad St from the hospital or down High Ridge Rd from Lord & Taylors’s, what does one see……….It’s a travesty.” What’s a travesty about West Broad Street? It’s kind of run down, but there are some new developments over there. And what’s wrong with High Ridge Road? Nobody loves strip malls, but would anyone live along a major four-lane road if it were residential??

“But unfortunately, the voices of the minority (Real Stamfordites go unheard.” No, they are heard…right here on the Topix pages. I need a drink.

Stamford has enough criminals within its city limits than to have to worry about Greenwich’s hooligans…

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_9969840

“Four Greenwich teenagers were arrested last night after officers found flat-screen televisions in two different cars, both allegedly robbed from Sportsplex, a fitness club on Brownhouse Road, city police said.”

Can’t their teenagers stick to vandilising Greenwhich?

Don’t panic - I’m not talking about the nightlife, I’m talking about land. I can’t believe there are so many dead spots - empty lots, holes in the ground - all over downtown. It’s astounding that in a popular, vibrant city like ours there is so much land lying fallow; no disrespect to Bridgeport, but you’d expect this in a depressed city like our blighted neighbor to the north. I guess the tax write-offs are more valuable to the owners than any fruitful income the land might produce.

Here’s a rundown of the top “dead spots” in Downtown Stamford:

City Place

I’d be pissed if I had bought a luxury condo at the corner of Washington Boulevard and North Street, gone away to the south of France for three years expecting to return to my new digs, and come back to THIS:

Well, the upside is that you’ve got valet parking…

…and grocery delivery:

Broad Street, down the block from 122 Pizza Bistro

This corner has been empty for a loooong time, and Blog Stamford found an apparently dead proposal for it. It’s odd that this lot has sat for so long considering it has a huge parking lot already in place, plus great exposure on Broad Street. Maybe the McDonald’s crowd scares off any potential developers.

Broad Street, on the corner of Broad and Greyrock

How can Stamford have matching empty lots on one of its busiest downtown thoroughfares? Maybe that traffic cop knows the reason. Or maybe the “coming soon to this location” sign can tell me.

OH MY GOD, THEY TURNED HIM INTO A ROBOT! AND THEY STOLE THE “COMING SOON” SIGN!!!!

(Editor’s note: The coming soon sign used to have a rendering of a nice mixed-use building in, what else, gray and red brick.)

The west side of Washington Blvd., between Main Street and Park Place

This is the big grassy lot across from Trump Parc and the new Aria restaurant. I believe they razed some houses and small buildings here, but nothing has gone up in their place. I also read somewhere that this is intended to become part of the Mill River Park eventually.

Here’s a shot of the back side of Whittaker Place, a strange little street with one house on it that runs through the empty area and ends right next to the Mill River Styx.

Another shot from the other side of the empty lot. Looks like business is booming for Robert S. Weiss & Company.

Greyrock & Main Street, next to the AT&T building

The good news: this tiny parcel of land next to the mall sits quietly awaiting its rebirth as THE LUXE!

The bad news: it’s on the same block as…

THE HOLE

I’m not a fan of using eminent domain outside of transportation or other clearly public purposes, but is there some solution to this problem? Can the city and/or state create some sort of incentive package to get the owners to either develop this site or sell it?

It pisses me off that most of the owners of these sites are sitting on them and collecting their tax write-offs while they wait for their neighbors to improve their real estate values.

Honorable Mention

The west side of Bedford Street

I know we’ve griped about this at length, but the empty stretch of stores on Bedford Street is disheartening, embarrassing and just awful. I applaud the owner for wanting to attract high-end retail, especially in the shadow of the mall, but it’s been at least two years since the food market closed and at least a year since Temple closed. Get something in there, for cryin’ out loud!

The east side of Atlantic Street, south of Broad

I hate how the mall not only set local and mom-n-pop businesses back 20 years, but also how the whole Landmark monolith killed Main Street and Atlantic Street. And our veterans would be disgusted if they saw how trashed Veterans’ Park is.

It’s not the biggest picture, but Atlantic used to look like this:
It’s a typical 1950’s downtown, with Billy & Susie going to the local department store with Mom to buy school supplies. Then along came the big, ugly, brown turd that is the Stamford Town Center and Landmark Square, and now the block looks like this:

Of course the Palace is amazing, and there are some great restaurants (mmm…Galangal) and other spots, but overall, this stretch of Atlantic doesn’t even come close to Bedford and Summer.

Well, that’s my list of the lowlights of Downtown Stamford. Did I miss any? Any disputes with my gripes?

Living and loving the C-T-Dub,
JR