It’s COVID. Trust me I get it. No place to go. Nothing to do. For months on end. No work. Your office has even closed its doors. We’ve all let ourselves go a bit. Gained some weight. Stopped coloring our hair. Grown beards. Maybe we even spent a few too many of those idle hours on our boat, escaping the office grind that wasn’t. But at some point, it’s time to put on our button pants and rake a comb through our hair. That point came for Mayor Rilling–seeking a fifth term–last Saturday.

Will There Be Cameras?

On Saturday, December 19, over 100 East Norwalk residents and their supporters stood on East Avenue in the bracing cold to protest a proposed distribution center at Norden Place that promises to wreack havoc not only on local residential streets but throughout East and South Norwalk, sending 18 wheelers careening down Strawberry Hill and Fitch Street to access East Avenue’s I95 Exit 16. No one is happy about this. The mayor knows it. And like Punxatawny Phil, he knows the time is ripe to pop his head out of his hiding place and tell us how much he’s done to make Norwalk a better place to live, laugh and love.

Do I support this LULU?

Am I running again?

And so the mayor spiffied himself up a bit to attend the event, organized by the East Norwalk Neighborhood Association. Maybe lost a few lbs. Got a haircut. Trimmed the beard. Put on a festive red scarf, trophy wife at his side. Et Voila! Time to stand up in solidarity with a neighborhood for a photo op. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021…..another election year, another LULU

LULU, for the uninitiated, means “Locally Unwanted Land Use.” Sometimes LULUs are straight up NIMBY reactions (another acronym for Not In My Back Yard). In Norwalk, they’re often examples of the City’s land use bodies–all appointed by Mayor Rilling–granting special favors to big developers with big bucks and big lawyers who also do Mayor Rilling special favors each election year.

Campaign 2013–Fix Our Sidewalks and Reform P&Z

In 2013, the former Norwalk Police Chief and wannabe mayor campaigned while standing on Woodward Avenue in South Norwalk, decrying the condition of the sidewalks. He promised to fix the sidewalks and reform Planning and Zoning. The Woodward sidewalks got a cheap coat of tar in 2019 when the old video from 2013 resurfaced.

The Woodward sidwalks were redone again this year, better this time. Maybe Grasso needed their contract fulfilled, and Deering already got the cheap paving job last year. We’ll never know how much we paid last year to cover up Harry’s failed campaign promise from 2013.

And what about reforming Planning & Zoning? Don’t hold your breath.

2015–POKO RISES

Harry made his second run for mayor in 2015, which dovetailed nicely with ground-breaking and photo ops at the development that was going to finally put downtown Norwalk back on the map, sixty years after the famous flood of fifty-five. Dubbed “Wall Street Place,” the project swallowed up an entire parking lot–whole and for free–and still stands shrouded in Tyvek five years later. Here’s what the Norwalk Hour had to say about POKO back then.

NORWALK — Thirteen months after breaking ground and the beginning of demolition on Phase One of Wall Street Place, state Sen. Bob Duff (D-25) and Mayor Harry Riling, were given a building site tour on Oct. 28 by representatives from POKO Partners.

With an anticipated completion date of December, 2016, the roughly $45 million undertaking on Wall Street — calls for 101 housing units, 16,000 square feet of retail space, 23 surface parking spaces and an automated parking garage with more than 200 spaces available to residents and the public in the area of the Isaac Street parking Lot.

Well, that didn’t happen.

2017: Are There No Prisons?

The summer of 2017 was the summer of Firetree. Part one of the Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing on Firetree’s first motion took place on May 4, 2017. The entirety of the ZBA’s consideration of the Firetree motions spanned multiple meetings over more than two months.

Once word got out on Quintard that improvements to Pivot House were not what they seemed and that a private prison operator with multi-million dollar federal contracts intended to open up shop at number seventeen, the neighbors organized a press event and barbecue during the summer of 2016. Mayor Rilling was there. So was Senator Bob Duff.

After Firetree submitted their application for a tenant fitup permit, denied by Aline Rochefort, the applicant filed two motions–an appeal of Rochefort’s denial and a request for a special exception–which teed up a series of ZBA meetings and continuances.

The first ZBA meeting was packed with Quintard neighbors and supporters, as well as local elected officials, including Harry and Lucia Rilling, looking gravely concerned.

https://1drv.ms/w/s!AuAvsaZcaOqOtz_gwC16lbEz3PVr?e=KdoQzN

In the Council Chamber, the Mayor and First Lady, outfitted in their Sunday best, tsked and shook their heads performatively as Tom Cody of Robinson & Cole claimed a prison for 19 and a halfway house for 8, sandwiched between two family homes with children on a quiet residential street, were just about the same thing.

Ultimately, both the appeal to overturn Zoning Inspector Aline Rochefort’s denial of Firetree’s application for a tenant fitup permit, and the subsequent motion for a Special Exception to operate a private prison for Federal offenders at a former halfway house operated by Pivot Ministires were rejected by the ZBA with near-unanimity. Subsequent to the ZBA decisions, two separate civil rights suits were filed against the City by Firetree. The City announced a settlement with Firetree this time last year, more than two years after the hearings began and five years after the Mayor first received a letter from Firetree stating their intention to open a Residential Reentry Center, or RRC, at 17 Quintard.

Mayoral “tsks” are notable in that they signal support to a rapt audience while not actually moving the needle. The Mayor noted then as he did last Saturday that, while he cannot tell a land use board how to vote, he can encourage residents to voice their opinions. Early and often.

Last Saturday a few hecklers called out, “you appointed these people.” Duly noted.

https://tinyurl.com/ybr3p74b

An OpEd I wrote in June of 2017 is linked above, back when Nancy Chapman allowed me to publish on her site. By October, despite two Federal Civil Rights lawsuits against the City, the Mayor had this to say to former Chapman Hyperlocal Media board member Bob Welsh during a campaign interview:

https://tinyurl.com/y83vgg77

Firetree

Welsh: “Several years ago Firetree sent a certified letter detailing their plans to you for a federal halfway house on Quintard Avenue. Some have said that by not taking immediate action immediately after receiving that, that the City missed an opportunity to stop the project before it began. Is that a fair criticism?“

Rilling: “No, not really. You don’t send a letter to the Mayor of a community and expect that if you don’t hear back from the Mayor that it’s okay to move forward. There’s a process you follow. You have to go through a permitting process. The proper way to do this would be to come into the Planning and Zoning Department, bring your plans, say, “Here’s what we wish to do,” and determine whether or not this is a conforming use, nonconforming use, an expansion of a use that might need a special permit. When I got that letter, I sent a copy to my Corporation Council and I sent a copy to my Planning and Zoning. I get letters all the time. It’s not up to the Mayor to write back and say, “Oh no, we can’t do this.” It’s my Planning Director. That’s why I have a Planning and Zoning Director, that’s why I have a Corporation Council, to look at this and wait for the Firetree or whomever to come in and say, “Okay, here’s what we want to do, here’s our plans. The letter was very vague. The letter just said they wanted to run a halfway house. “

Well, that was a lie. Nancy Chapman refused to make a correction in the story–not the least of her efforts to run cover for the Mayor who keeps a roof over her head (Chapman lives in “workforce” housing).

Below is text from the letter Harry Rilling received from Firetree,LTD via certified mail on September 5, 2014.

Re: Notification of Proposed Performance Location

Dear Mayor Rilling:

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Firetree, Ltd. has submitted an offer to provide Residential Re-entry Center services or “halfway house” services for federal offenders releasing to Fairfield County, Connecticut. This action is being taken in response to a request for proposals (RFP) issued by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The BOP encourages full and open competition in the procurement of these services; consequently, other offerors may also be responding to this RFP.

As part of the RRC contracting process, the BOP requires that all offerors notify and seek input from the local law enforcement authority and two levels of locally elected government officials. This letter will serve as documentation of partial satisfaction of this requirement.

Firetree, Ltd. is proposing to provide these services at 17 Quintard Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut

Prior to Election Day 2017, Rilling, via his emissary Laoise King, signaled willingness to purchase the 17 Quintard property from Firetree in order to settle the lawsuits and make the neighborhood whole again. By March of 2018, Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola put the final kibosh on that idea. The City paid $1.3 million, between legal fees and settlement costs, to close the Firetree chapter–that’s $300k more than what Firetree wanted for the property. In other words, we’re $1.3 million poorer and we don’t even have a house to show for it. That’s the Rilling way! Great Success!

https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Norwalk-reaches-625K-settlement-barring-halfway-14930033.php

2019: Save the Garden Cinema

The Mayor spent 2018 running cover for an unpopular reval (assessment appeals still clogging the courts) and pushing a costly “reorganization plan” so he could give Laoise King a raise for doing the job he was elected to do. By late 2018, the Mayor informally launched his campaign for a fourth term in the following ad, paid for by us.

You’ve got to appreciate the hutzpah. First the Council approved the Mayor’s million dollar makeover so he could bury Laoise’s raise in the details. Then the Mayor let new (now retired) Chief of Mobility, Transportation and Parking Kathy Hebert hire buddy Linda Kavanagh of MaxEx Publications to create this video promoting the City, but really promoting Norwalk’s favorite “power walking couple” Harry and Lucia Rilling.

There’s a smiling Harry and Lucia strolling down Washington Street hand in hand. Here’s a svelte Lucia at the yoga studio. There’s an amorous First Couple swooning over cigars.

In case you don’t get the picture, here’s the improved version, released a few days later.

POKO Resurrected from Hades

By mid July, Harry & Co. were engaged in a full court press to approve a new redeveloper for the failed POKO project. The star? John McClutchy, of GroupJHM.

At the July 23, 2019 Common Council meeting, Item VII on the agenda covered Committee Reports. Letter D was assigned to the Planning Committe, Chaired by John Kydes. Remember that name.

https://www.norwalkct.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/14989

Kydes, the Loyal Soldier

At that meeting, according to the agenda linked above, the Planning Committee was seeking Council approval for the new POKO plan, which included nearly $10 million in fees for John McClutchy, millions in LIHTCs for Citibank, and 15 years of tax credits with a project value of $15 million.

As Chair of the Planning Committee, Kydes has been a loyal capo to Mayor Rilling.

1. Kydes presided over the amendment to the Reed Putnam LDA that allowed the developer to forgo the promised hotel, leaving us with a 100% retail mall.

2. Kydes quashed public opposition to the Redevelopment Agency’s Wall West Plan (now the subject of a Milligan lawsuit).

3. Under Kydes, the Planning Committee supported a plan that would: lay waste to a local shrine to Independent Film (the only part that got the public’s attention by the way); reward a perennial democrat political donor (McClutchy), and shower Citibank with millions of taxpayer dollars like candy out of a pinata.

The kicker? No one is really sure Kydes is a democrat. Then again, no is is sure Harry is either.

Item III on the July 23 Council agenda was “Public Participation.” And participate they did, but not before the Mayor, unable to ignore the ground swell of opposition to the plan before the Council that included demolition of the Garden Cinema, announced that the vote had been tabled until September 10th. Because nobody wants to go into an election as the villain. And at heart, Harry is a magnificent coward.

In advance of the meeting, Marc Alan of Factory Underground and Frank Farricker of the Wall Street Theater collaborated on a petition to Save the Garden Cinema, and thousands of people signed to voice their support for Norwalk’s only theater dedicated to independent film.

2019 being an election year, the vote was not taken up on September 10th as Mayor Rilling promised on July 23rd. Instead the Mayor, the other mayor, Mario, Citibank and McClutchy went into closed door meetings for months, the details of their conversations heavily redacted because…..well, you know. Pending litigation.

The new and improved Wall Street Place plan was approved by the Council during a July 2020 Zoom meeting, with McClutchy and Citi still at the helm. The new plan calls for 151 rental units and a few square feet of un-leasable and unfinished “arts space” for temporary use (until the markets turn?) from McClutchy. The coup de grace? The new plan requires demolition of the Garden Cinema.

Kai Su, Kydes?

John Kydes recently announced formation of an “exploratory committee”–which may only mean he has to ask his wife permission–to consider a run for mayor in 2020. Within days, Mayor Rilling announced that he too had filed papers. Harry doesn’t have to ask Lucia’s permission to run. He has to ask her permission not to run.

When is a Bar not a Bar? When it’s a Record Store

On December 13th, Nicholas Ruiz, co-owner of the only LGBTQ+ bar in Fairfield County (with partner Casey Fitzpatrick), dropped a bomb on the Norwalk Community Facebook page. Ruiz said he was offering his design services to a Norwalk democrat interested in challenging Mayor Rilling in a primary. At this writing, it’s not clear what happened to spoil the Mayor’s romance with the Troupe couple. Unlike the Dry Dock, which got busted for offering a waiting take-out customer a beer, Troupe seems to have successfully gamed the system by reinventing itself as a record store (“Can I fix you a Slow Comfortable Screw while you browse?). For the record (no pun intended), I admire any local business that finds creative ways to survive the state’s draconian COVID measures.

Last year, Harry pandered for LBGT votes with the promise of a ridiculously costly rainbow crosswalk. The previous year, Troupe hosted Ned Lamont for a campaign event and shunned his opponent, whose platform, they claimed, was weak on LGBTQ+ issues. The truth? Economic downturns don’t discriminate.

What says the NRTC to all this brouhaha?