Gotta love oversized checks.
Friday, October 3, 2014
Fairway Firefighter Food Face-off Follow-up!
After Belltown Fire Department wowed the judges at the Fairway Firefighter Food Face-off, they chose the Stamford Fire Safety Foundation to be the beneficiaries of a Shopping Night, where 10% of all purchases went directly to the Foundation. Well, Fairway shoppers clearly wanted to help, because the Foundation received a whopping $3,186!!
Gotta love oversized checks.
Gotta love oversized checks.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Would you like a pierogi with your baguette?
It's an international free-for-all here in Stamford! First up is the Ukrainian festival at St. Basil's College on Glenbrook Road. It takes place on Sunday, September 14, at 11 AM. The festival will feature music, dancing, food, crafts for sale, and more! For more information, check out the festival's Facebook page: Connecticut Ukrainian Day Festival.
Parlez vous Franglais? is a new social/dating event with an interesting premise: Guests have several 12-minute conversations - six minutes in English, and six minutes in French. I've heard that a bawdy Frenchman showed up for the first gathering and started teaching the other participants all the choicest dirty French words! The next one will take place on September 23 or 24 at Bar Rosso, so keep checking their website to confirm and to RSVP.
My French is worse than Clark Griswold's, but if someone starts up an English/German Oktoberfest event, I'm there!
Parlez vous Franglais? is a new social/dating event with an interesting premise: Guests have several 12-minute conversations - six minutes in English, and six minutes in French. I've heard that a bawdy Frenchman showed up for the first gathering and started teaching the other participants all the choicest dirty French words! The next one will take place on September 23 or 24 at Bar Rosso, so keep checking their website to confirm and to RSVP.
My French is worse than Clark Griswold's, but if someone starts up an English/German Oktoberfest event, I'm there!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Baseball in Hartford - a $60 million mistake?
I love baseball. I've attended games from Buffalo to Nashville. Heck, I'd love to see a minor-league team here in Stamford. However, there are so many things wrong with the current proposal for a minor-league ballpark in Hartford that I don't know where to begin, but I'll try.
If ballparks were money-makers, private businesses like teams or real estate developers would be all over them. I'm guessing that stadiums are, in fact, not money-makers, since so many teams stick their local city/county/state with the bill for the construction and upkeep of the stadium. Pretty sweet deal - for the teams.
Why should any municipality build a facility for a private business to begin with? How about a building for Stop & Shop? Why not a building for my blogging empire? Perhaps it's because Mayor Segarra has stars in his eyes over the prospect of being known as the mayor who brought baseball to Hartford - but this is a poor use of public funds.
To take it a step further, not only would this be a publicly-owned building built for a private tenant, but it's a single-use tenant! This isn't an arena or a concert hall or a convention center. It's a baseball stadium, and baseball stadiums are good for one thing: baseball games (and maybe the occasional outdoor concert or wrestling show).
To take it another step, this would be a city-owned building with a private single-use tenant - and said tenant would only use the building about 70 times a year! So that's $60 million of public money to construct a building that will be empty 290 days a year. How is that a sound investment? Can you imagine a city spending $60 million to build a giant warehouse that's only used for the two months before Christmas?
Regarding that investment, I'd love to hear from Mayor Segarra how much the stadium will cost the city after interest, and how long it's estimated to take the city to pay back the loan and turn a profit on the stadium, assuming that's even in the projections. And will there be an ironclad commitment from the Rock Cats to stay in the stadium for a certain number of years, so the city isn't stuck with an empty stadium and a huge debt?
Speaking of projections, you've probably heard the overly optimistic projections for this project: that 10% of game attendees will stay in Hartford hotels; that the team will draw more than 7000 fans per game (they currently draw 3500 per game); that the stadium will directly and indirectly create more than 600 jobs (with no explanation of how exactly this number would happen).
There are so many ways this can go bad. Let's take a quick and unscientific look at some of the ways:
- Mayor Segarra can drive down to Bridgeport for a prime example of what's wrong with this plan. Bridgeport built a stadium and an arena in a neglected part of the city that's separated from the downtown by a major highway (just like in Hartford), but this hasn't sparked the kind of economic development the city predicted.
- An arena falls into disrepair and then obsolescence, e.g.: Nassau Coliseum.
- A stadium is demolished before the city's loans to build it are even paid off, e.g.: Seattle Kingdome.
- A team decides to move out of a fairly new stadium because they can make more money from luxury boxes in a newer, publicly-funded one, e.g.: Atlanta Braves.
- A team cries poverty to get the city to build it a new stadium, then is revealed to have millions more than it claimed. That was the Miami Marlins, who, once they got their shiny new stadium, sold off all of their good players. (Sidenote: any elected official who believes a cry of poverty from someone who owns a freaking baseball team needs his or her head checked.)
- A team holds its home city or county hostage for a new stadium by threatening to move: countless examples.
In a recent appearance on WNPR's Where We Live, Mayor Segarra cited the success of Dayton, Ohio's minor-league ballpark as an example of what Hartford is trying to do. He talked about how the Dayton Flyers have sold out the stadium for fifteen straight seasons. That's all well and good, but let's be honest: we don't live in prime minor-league baseball country. We have an abundance of sports teams and other big-time activities that occupy our time. The Bluefish draw decently, but I don't think anyone would say that they've been a runaway success.
Mayor Segarra and Shawn Wooden, President of the Hartford City Council, also talked a lot about the stadium as being just one part of a multi-faceted development for the Downtown North area of Hartford. The stadium is intended to be the catalyst that sparks interest from developers who'll fill in the rest of Downtown North with ancillary development - retail, housing, etc. This isn't a bad idea, but it's not a simple matter of "if you build it, development will come." Sure, that might happen, but do you really want your city to spend $60 million (plus interest) on a risky proposition like that? If it were that easy to spur development, then cities would go nuts with building "catalyst" projects. Governments can and do build things that encourage development - things like colleges, transportation systems, etc. - but this is a whole other matter, and the resulting development usually follows indirectly. Without a firm commitment from a developer to build the ballpark as part of a larger development (the hypothetical one that Mayor Segarra and company believe will materialize around the ballpark), then the ballpark could end up as a lonely outpost surrounded by everyone's favorite urban sight: surface parking. In other words, without a fully-realized, fully-(privately)-funded, multi-faceted development plan, this ballpark is a huge risk - and cities should not be in the real-estate speculation business. What if the city builds the ballpark and then the real estate market tanks again?
Now, if ballpark-as-anchor is the plan, then the city should sell (or lease) the land for the stadium to a developer who will handle the construction of the stadium. A city building a stadium to raise tax dollars on the property around it is like a struggling movie theater deciding to make its own movies. In other words, stick to the business you know. Cities shouldn't be in the business of running ballparks, arenas, and the like.
They also talked about the need for private financing for the project, but wouldn't answer host John Dankosky's questions about how that would even work. Wouldn't an investor want to be a part-owner? Since then, the mayor has bowed to political and public pressure and agreed to make it a public-private venture. Here are two articles about the developers' proposals:
Plans For Hartford Stadium, New Municipal Offices Revealed
Hartford Gets Four Proposals For Stadium, Development
As awesome as a brewery and ballpark sound, I'm still not sure how these public-private partnerships would work. Would the developer build the ballpark with the city's money, then the city would own it? Would the developer and the city co-own and co-manage the ballpark? It's all very murky, which is not a good sign for the taxpayers.
Overall, here's the thing to remember: if stadiums were money-makers, private companies would own and run them. Since they're clearly not, we, the public keep getting stuck with the bill. And that stinks.
If ballparks were money-makers, private businesses like teams or real estate developers would be all over them. I'm guessing that stadiums are, in fact, not money-makers, since so many teams stick their local city/county/state with the bill for the construction and upkeep of the stadium. Pretty sweet deal - for the teams.
Why should any municipality build a facility for a private business to begin with? How about a building for Stop & Shop? Why not a building for my blogging empire? Perhaps it's because Mayor Segarra has stars in his eyes over the prospect of being known as the mayor who brought baseball to Hartford - but this is a poor use of public funds.
To take it a step further, not only would this be a publicly-owned building built for a private tenant, but it's a single-use tenant! This isn't an arena or a concert hall or a convention center. It's a baseball stadium, and baseball stadiums are good for one thing: baseball games (and maybe the occasional outdoor concert or wrestling show).
To take it another step, this would be a city-owned building with a private single-use tenant - and said tenant would only use the building about 70 times a year! So that's $60 million of public money to construct a building that will be empty 290 days a year. How is that a sound investment? Can you imagine a city spending $60 million to build a giant warehouse that's only used for the two months before Christmas?
Regarding that investment, I'd love to hear from Mayor Segarra how much the stadium will cost the city after interest, and how long it's estimated to take the city to pay back the loan and turn a profit on the stadium, assuming that's even in the projections. And will there be an ironclad commitment from the Rock Cats to stay in the stadium for a certain number of years, so the city isn't stuck with an empty stadium and a huge debt?
Speaking of projections, you've probably heard the overly optimistic projections for this project: that 10% of game attendees will stay in Hartford hotels; that the team will draw more than 7000 fans per game (they currently draw 3500 per game); that the stadium will directly and indirectly create more than 600 jobs (with no explanation of how exactly this number would happen).
There are so many ways this can go bad. Let's take a quick and unscientific look at some of the ways:
- Mayor Segarra can drive down to Bridgeport for a prime example of what's wrong with this plan. Bridgeport built a stadium and an arena in a neglected part of the city that's separated from the downtown by a major highway (just like in Hartford), but this hasn't sparked the kind of economic development the city predicted.
- An arena falls into disrepair and then obsolescence, e.g.: Nassau Coliseum.
- A stadium is demolished before the city's loans to build it are even paid off, e.g.: Seattle Kingdome.
- A team decides to move out of a fairly new stadium because they can make more money from luxury boxes in a newer, publicly-funded one, e.g.: Atlanta Braves.
- A team cries poverty to get the city to build it a new stadium, then is revealed to have millions more than it claimed. That was the Miami Marlins, who, once they got their shiny new stadium, sold off all of their good players. (Sidenote: any elected official who believes a cry of poverty from someone who owns a freaking baseball team needs his or her head checked.)
- A team holds its home city or county hostage for a new stadium by threatening to move: countless examples.
In a recent appearance on WNPR's Where We Live, Mayor Segarra cited the success of Dayton, Ohio's minor-league ballpark as an example of what Hartford is trying to do. He talked about how the Dayton Flyers have sold out the stadium for fifteen straight seasons. That's all well and good, but let's be honest: we don't live in prime minor-league baseball country. We have an abundance of sports teams and other big-time activities that occupy our time. The Bluefish draw decently, but I don't think anyone would say that they've been a runaway success.
Mayor Segarra and Shawn Wooden, President of the Hartford City Council, also talked a lot about the stadium as being just one part of a multi-faceted development for the Downtown North area of Hartford. The stadium is intended to be the catalyst that sparks interest from developers who'll fill in the rest of Downtown North with ancillary development - retail, housing, etc. This isn't a bad idea, but it's not a simple matter of "if you build it, development will come." Sure, that might happen, but do you really want your city to spend $60 million (plus interest) on a risky proposition like that? If it were that easy to spur development, then cities would go nuts with building "catalyst" projects. Governments can and do build things that encourage development - things like colleges, transportation systems, etc. - but this is a whole other matter, and the resulting development usually follows indirectly. Without a firm commitment from a developer to build the ballpark as part of a larger development (the hypothetical one that Mayor Segarra and company believe will materialize around the ballpark), then the ballpark could end up as a lonely outpost surrounded by everyone's favorite urban sight: surface parking. In other words, without a fully-realized, fully-(privately)-funded, multi-faceted development plan, this ballpark is a huge risk - and cities should not be in the real-estate speculation business. What if the city builds the ballpark and then the real estate market tanks again?
Now, if ballpark-as-anchor is the plan, then the city should sell (or lease) the land for the stadium to a developer who will handle the construction of the stadium. A city building a stadium to raise tax dollars on the property around it is like a struggling movie theater deciding to make its own movies. In other words, stick to the business you know. Cities shouldn't be in the business of running ballparks, arenas, and the like.
They also talked about the need for private financing for the project, but wouldn't answer host John Dankosky's questions about how that would even work. Wouldn't an investor want to be a part-owner? Since then, the mayor has bowed to political and public pressure and agreed to make it a public-private venture. Here are two articles about the developers' proposals:
Plans For Hartford Stadium, New Municipal Offices Revealed
Hartford Gets Four Proposals For Stadium, Development
As awesome as a brewery and ballpark sound, I'm still not sure how these public-private partnerships would work. Would the developer build the ballpark with the city's money, then the city would own it? Would the developer and the city co-own and co-manage the ballpark? It's all very murky, which is not a good sign for the taxpayers.
Overall, here's the thing to remember: if stadiums were money-makers, private companies would own and run them. Since they're clearly not, we, the public keep getting stuck with the bill. And that stinks.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Fairway shopping night for the Stamford Fire Safety Foundation!
I couldn't make it to this year's Fairway Firefighter Food Face-off, but I'm excited to share the news about the winning team's shopping night! Belltown Fire Department has chosen the
Stamford Fire Safety Foundation Fund, a public charity that
raises funds to provide free smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, fire
prevention education materials, and to support public life safety
initiatives to all of the Fire Departments
within Stamford. 25% of all sales from registered customers at the Stamford Fairway (699 Canal Street) on Wednesday, August 6, from 4 to 10 PM will go to the Foundation! Heck, 25% of my cheese purchases alone could probably fund their operations for a year. :)
Friday, July 25, 2014
Coming up at the Avon: Lost Boys, Lost Town, Wizard of Oz, and vote for the next Cult Classic!
Not only is the Avon showing The Lost Boys next Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.; not only are they showing Lost Town, a documentary about Trochenbrod, the only all-Jewish town that ever endured outside of Palestine (with a post-film Q&A); and not only are they celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz; but now they want you - YES, YOU! - to pick the Cult Classic to be shown on October 21!
Here's the link where you can vote for the digitally restored movie you most want to see - https://epoll.me/vote/ACQPcspHz9U/we-want-our-audience-to-decide-which-digitally-restored-film-would-you-like-to-see-for-our-october-21st-cult-classics-screening
I cast a write-in vote for The Gingerdead Man, a movie about a murderous gingerbread cookie featuring a star turn from Gary Busey. I'm pretty sure it swept the Oscars that year.
Here's the link where you can vote for the digitally restored movie you most want to see - https://epoll.me/vote/ACQPcspHz9U/we-want-our-audience-to-decide-which-digitally-restored-film-would-you-like-to-see-for-our-october-21st-cult-classics-screening
I cast a write-in vote for The Gingerdead Man, a movie about a murderous gingerbread cookie featuring a star turn from Gary Busey. I'm pretty sure it swept the Oscars that year.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Updates; Frozen at the Avon; firefighters face off at Fairway; more good stuff!
I'm sure all of my loyal readers have noticed that my posts have been few and far between lately. While I've been asleep at the wheel (at the keyboard?), so much cool stuff has happened in Stamford - new restaurants, new food trucks, new buildings, a beer garden right next to my office! In my defense, I have two young sons (4 years old and 8 months old), and it takes a lot of time and energy to train half of the Yankees' future infield.
I also don't have a smartphone, which makes it hard to post to Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Tinder, MySpace, and all the other social media sites the kids these days are using. The rate plans are finally getting cheaper, so yes, I'll get a smartphone soon.
Plus, I can't keep up with the great new crop of Stamford blogs, especially OmNomCT and Hey Stamford! I do have a few new posts in the works, so keep checking back, but make sure you update your bookmarks to streetsofstamford.blogspot.com. Streetsofstamford.com won't work anymore.
Anyway, on to the fun stuff!
- Head to the Avon Saturday for a Frozen Sing-Along! I know, I know - you've finally gotten "Let It Go" out of your head for the second time (after the Blu-ray release) - but not only will you get to see it on the big screen with subtitles for the songs, you'll get to see it in the historic, beautiful Avon Theatre! And their popcorn is the best in town - real butter, too!
- After rescuing Anna and Elsa, warm up at Fairway's third annual Firefighter Food Face-off! Teams from Cos Cob, Noroton Heights, Westport, and Belltown fire departments will cook up a storm on Saturday from 12-3, and a panel of judges will pick the winner! The winning team will receive a $500 Fairway gift card and a shopping night to benefit a charity of their choice. There will be music, games, giveaways, and more!
- Back to movies...Mill River Playground plays host all summer long to Animation Celebration, free showings of some great animated kids' movies! Despicable Me 2! Everything is awesome with The Lego Movie! Epic! Rio! Plus it's an awesome playground!
Keep checking my site for some more cool things to come!
I also don't have a smartphone, which makes it hard to post to Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Tinder, MySpace, and all the other social media sites the kids these days are using. The rate plans are finally getting cheaper, so yes, I'll get a smartphone soon.
Plus, I can't keep up with the great new crop of Stamford blogs, especially OmNomCT and Hey Stamford! I do have a few new posts in the works, so keep checking back, but make sure you update your bookmarks to streetsofstamford.blogspot.com. Streetsofstamford.com won't work anymore.
Anyway, on to the fun stuff!
- Head to the Avon Saturday for a Frozen Sing-Along! I know, I know - you've finally gotten "Let It Go" out of your head for the second time (after the Blu-ray release) - but not only will you get to see it on the big screen with subtitles for the songs, you'll get to see it in the historic, beautiful Avon Theatre! And their popcorn is the best in town - real butter, too!
- After rescuing Anna and Elsa, warm up at Fairway's third annual Firefighter Food Face-off! Teams from Cos Cob, Noroton Heights, Westport, and Belltown fire departments will cook up a storm on Saturday from 12-3, and a panel of judges will pick the winner! The winning team will receive a $500 Fairway gift card and a shopping night to benefit a charity of their choice. There will be music, games, giveaways, and more!
- Back to movies...Mill River Playground plays host all summer long to Animation Celebration, free showings of some great animated kids' movies! Despicable Me 2! Everything is awesome with The Lego Movie! Epic! Rio! Plus it's an awesome playground!
Keep checking my site for some more cool things to come!
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Play with your food at Fairway!
The folks at Fairway have another fun family food event, brought to you by the letter F! Bill Wurtzel, author of “Funny Food 365 Fun, Healthy, Silly, Creative Breakfast," will be in the Stamford store on Saturday from 1-3 to teach families how to create funny food art.
The ingredients will include waffles, strawberries, raisins, pita, bananas and much more. Bonus: Mr. Wurtzel is a triple threat - he'll also sing a special funny food song! Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Register at customer service or online at www.fairwaymarket.com.
The ingredients will include waffles, strawberries, raisins, pita, bananas and much more. Bonus: Mr. Wurtzel is a triple threat - he'll also sing a special funny food song! Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Register at customer service or online at www.fairwaymarket.com.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
The South End is dead
Death, taxes, banks, and CVSs. You can always count on those four
things in Stamford, and the South End is not immune to the
CVS scourge. Coming soon, right across from Fairway:
My main issue with this isn't that it's yet another CVS in Stamford (the 1449th, by my count), or even that it's a generic, boring CVS that looks like every other CVS. My biggest issue is that it's a one-story standalone building with a huge parking lot in a part of town that should have much higher density in its buildings.
The city and BLT essentially have a blank slate down there, but instead
of creating new and interesting buildings and neighborhoods, we get this. I can't believe the city planners approved this bland suburban box in such an urban setting. Why couldn't this CVS be incorporated into an apartment building like the Walgreen's on East Main Street? Ugh.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
The (new) Old House comes to East Main Street!
What's the one thing that could bring me out of winter hibernation? Food! Especially good food! And The Old House's new location will definitely have good food!
The Old House on Selleck Street serves up awesome Peruvian and Guatemalan food, but it's kind of hidden in an industrial part of town. This new second location on East Main Street (near Casa Villa's second location) will put it right on a main road with plenty of eyes (and stomachs) passing by every day.
The most well-known Peruvian dishes are ceviche and lomo saltado, but my favorite meals from The Old House are the tallarin de pollo (stir-fried chicken, veggies, and spaghetti) and the chaufa de pollo (same thing but with rice instead of spaghetti). They're savory and delicious without being greasy. I've only had a few Guatemalan things from The Old House, and I liked the pupusas (corn cakes topped with combinations of cheese and meats).
The new restaurant is slated to open in April, but I'll post a follow-up when it's up and running.
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