DUCK SEASON

What the Ordinance Committee Does During a Pandemic

The Ordinance Committee of the Norwalk Common Council will meet Tuesday, November 17 at 7:00pm via Zoom to vote on amending a city ordinance on explosives.

Chapter 38 of the City Code on explosives may need an update. The Rifle & Skeet Range Commission, for instance, doesn’t seem to exist. Article 4 is left blank on purpose–in case the need arises to deprive lawful gun owners of their right to carry their firearms. Though we think of the permit as “concealed carry,” in truth anyone with a permit may open carry as well. In practice, almost no one does. Why remove the element of surprise?

https://ecode360.com/27049256

During the last meeting of the Ordinance Committee on October 20th, several councilpersons expressed concerns over the vagueness of the language, the constitutionality of the proposed changes to Chapter 38, and possible safety concerns created when lawful gun owners are forced to leave weapons inside their cars because they’re no longer permitted to carry them, despite having passed rigorous state requirements to obtain open carry permits.

I have a pistol permit. I’m legally licensed, not necessarily saying that I want to carry a firearm into City Hall, nor would I, but there are times where I’m transporting… as a legally armed citizen, the concern is if I’m going between these events and going back to my point about out-of-towners, I’d almost rather them have control of their firearm as opposed to having it unsupervised in a vehicle because, you know, we made a parking lot inaccessible to them.

Council President Nick Sacchinelli

Open Season on 2A

The antecedent to this conversation about expanding the places lawful gun owners can no longer carry their weapons was the Mayor’s moratorium on duck hunting at Vet’s Park and Calf Pasture Beach enacted last year. Unlike an ordinance, a moratorium doesn’t need to be enshrined in the City code.

The temporary moratorium was granted last May, after Duff’s attempt at legislating his way to a ban failed. Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik wrote to the State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for help, possibly at the urging of Duff. And Deep Commissioner Katie Dykes approved the temporary moratorium. The moratorium banned waterfowl hunting in places historically known in Norwalk for waterfowl hunting, and the motive behind the ban seems to have been not any real threat of physical harm to people but more likely political expediency and appeasement of the woke. At the time, State Rep. Lucy Dathan (D-142) claimed the ban was necessary to avoid “frightening people” and mass hysteria in the era of mass shootings. In other words, the push for the ban was an appeal to the emotions of voters, not to their reason.

Carpe Diem!

In his letter to Commissioner Dykes, Chief Kulhawik wrote that he believed it “to be a safety issue to allow hunting in such close proximity to beach goers and children.” Kulhawik was appointed chief in 2012. At no time prior to the spring of 2019 did Chief Kulhawik express concerns about the safety of “beach goers and children” at CPB related to waterfowl hunting. Waterfowl hunting season begins in mid-September, after the children have returned to school and the beaches are relatively quiet. Tom Keegan (R District D) asked Chief Kulhawik at the October 20 Ordinance Committee meeting whether or not the NPD was receiving a lot of complaints, and Kulhawik replied that they did not and that most hunters are following the rules.

If Kulhawik’s statements on October 20th accurately reflect his opinion today about the relative safety of hunting at CPB, and given the fact that Kulhawik never stepped forward to express his concerns the entire seven years he served as Norwalk Police Chief prior to 2019, then what motivated him to write the letter last May to Commissioner Dykes asking for the moratorium?

There is no evidence Mayor Rilling ever considered hunting at Calf Pasture a safety issue during his seventeen year tenure as Chief of the NPD. Google “Harry Rilling” and “hunting” and the best you come up with is the October 2016 death of an infant under his daughter’s care at a Hunters Lane home co-owned by the Mayor and Christine Rilling Limone.

https://wordpress.com/post/angrytaxpayernorwalk.com/1066

So why in May of 2019 did Chief Kulhawik feel compelled to address the issue with state DEEP and push for a moratorium? More important, why now does the Chief seem a little tepid about enshrining the ban into the code and expanding the ban to include all city property?

For starters, in May of 2019, the Chief and Bob Duff were in year seven of a seemingly harmonious relationship filled with glad handing and photo ops. Duff had sought and received the NPD’s endorsement four times. All that changed last summer with the General Assembly’s passage of the Police Accountability bill. Whatever amity existed between the two men prior to last summer may have cooled with the change of seasons and Duff’s belated retelling of having narrowly dodged racist law enforcement saliva at the station house in July.

The Police Chief has the best poker face in public sector Norwalk. And that’s no mean feat. Forty-four city employees just took early retirement. Some, maybe many, were unhappy in their work. Most managed to keep their angst about an allegedly toxic work environment to themselves, though one new retiree confessed there were “a lot of chiefs” at City Hall.

This Chief took early retirement. Her replacement could make as much as $175,000/year.

Whether Chief Kulhawik believes a continued ban on waterfowl hunting at Calf Pasture and other public parks is necessary to the public welfare is a mystery. We know there aren’t many complaints, and those they do get are mostly related to people who aren’t comfortable with the noise, who don’t understand, who are afraid–not from people who have been physically threatened, and not from anyone who’s had a close call at any of these places.

Ordinance Commission Chair Lisa Shanahan, however, seems to think expanding the ban to include forbidding legally owned firearms on all City owned property is simply a matter of “closing the loop.” Said Shanahan, “well, if we’re going to address the hunting part, we ought to also consider whether or not we really think that we ought to be allowing people to bring guns on our city properties, leased premises or parks.’” This despite the Chief’s contention that literally no one is complaining about persons with legally permitted weapons on city property.

Given Ms. Shanahan’s vigorous defense of her McClutchy vote last summer (“I spent 20 hours preparing…and read the entire LDA…..”), we should expect her to engage in more of the same appeals to objective, non-conflicted outsiders like fellow District E Councilperson Tom Livingston, and Corporation Council Mario Coppola, who never met a lawsuit he wasn’t willing to get behind or in front of. In other words, Ms. Shanahan has indicated that her due dilligence leans heavily on the advice of connected insiders, not necessarily on the opinions of her consituents, and certainly not on the opinions expressed on these pages.

Ms. Shanahan may not know this, but it bears repeating that any new regulation carries the potential for legal challenges, as Attorney Brian Candela noted.

 A person with a pistol permit is generally allowed to carry such weapon into a building or premises unless the owner prohibits such conduct. Could somebody file a lawsuit? Yes.

Brian Candela

Legal challenges are always predicated upon regulations. The more regulations we have, the likelier we are to find ourselves in court.

In Other Words, We Might Get Sued.

And the Connecticut Citizens Defense League may be the ones to do it. Last week the CCDL issued an alert on Reddit. According to sources, that subreddit thread has since been taken down or at least hidden from the timeline. Portions of the thread can be found here.

Norwalk Attacks Second Amendment & Legal Gun Owners from norwalk

CCDL President Holly Sullivan said in a statement, “there is no evidence that banning firearms on town property reduces any crimes nor has any impact on public safety. Law abiding gun owners are already conscientious members of our communities. They are not ‘random people,’ but individuals that have been approved to carry a firearm in public places by the Norwalk Chief of Police after having completed a series of steps required by Norwalk and the state of Connecticut. This ban only inhibits upstanding citizens from exercising their means of self defense. We encourage our members to speak up and question the true need for such an ordinance.”

This ban only inhibits upstanding citizens from exercising their means of self defense.

Holly Sullivan, President CCDL

What To Do?

Make no mistake. It’s a bad idea to expand language of Chapter 38 of the code to forever prohibit waterfowl hunting on the City’s public parks, and to further prohibit lawful gun owners with open carry permits from carrying their firearms whenever they are on any city property. When Ms. Shanahan expressed that her understanding of the enforcement piece of this would not result in any criminal charges, she was quickly corrected by Chief Kulhawik. Though the intent of the police may not be to press charges, violation of the ordinance would be a crime, according to the Chief.

“There would be a criminal penalty. We could make an arrest, it would violate the permit statute….But again, depending on the circumstances, our first step would not necessarily be to arrest the individual. …I wouldn’t expect that someone, you know, who simply made an error and was cooperative would be arrested for it.” Unless it was someone we didn’t like.

Clearly, this is another solution in search of a problem. Chapter 38 may need to be refined and expanded. The Family Courthouse is at City Hall, so the prohibition of firearms there is understandable. But the current draft is so broad, according to Council President Sacchinelli, that the City may be teeing itself up for needless arrests and lawsuits.

A Final Word About Jeffrey Toobin

Kadeem “Politician” Roberts is new to the Council, so he should be forgiven a minor indiscretion during this Zoom meeting. As Jeffrey Toobin recently demonstrated, multi-tasking during a work meeting–even a vitural one–can be a “bad look.” Kadeem, take note!

Fast forward to 34:46 for the real fun!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82873798981?pwd=aXh5Y2dCb3JtSVNuellRUU54dTYzQT09#success

Follow the link above to participate in Tuesday’s Ordinance Committee meeting. Write to the Common Council (commoncouncil3@norwalkct.org) and Ordinance Chair Lisa Shanahan (lshanahan@norwalkct.org) to share your opinion or ask questions.

WHEN THEY GO LOW

Election Day is upon us.  We’ve been told by pundits and politicians alike that this is the election of a lifetime–a battle for the soul of the nation. Don’t believe me?  Take a look at a Joe Biden campaign bus.  “Biden: Battle for the SOUL of the NATION.  Text WIN to 30330.”

Notice LIE is in all caps!

                                                     

We know the headliners, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, because they’ve been around forever: a career real estate mogul turned reality TV star in one corner and a career politician with a 47 year track record of keeping his head down in the other.  How we wound up with two white male septuagenarians vying for the top spot during a cultural and political moment dominated by conversations about race says more about our political system than it does either of these men.  The truth is most of us can’t be bothered to participate in our democracies when it counts—at the local level where the important decisions are made about who will run for what of office; and how high our property taxes need to be to pay for schools and services.  For the most part, the two parties aren’t that concerned about our apathy.  Iowa, New Hampshire, Super Duper Tuesday.  The process isn’t about who you think would be best for our nation.  It’s about who the party operatives and their big donors want.  The players make the rules.  And the players aren’t us.  They’re career politicians like Biden and Bob Duff; party operatives like Donna Brazile and Ed Camacho; and the people with all the money, power and influence, which is everyone from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to the NEA to Big Pharma. In Connecticut the players also include “preferred” developers like John McClutchy, who’s been supporting the state’s biggest democratic PAC, the Democratic State Central Committee, for years in return for fees and tax credits. 

“If you don’t vote for me, well…..you know the thing.”

Think I’ve got this all wrong–that the two-party system works on behalf of us, and that the democrat presidential nominees in 2016 and 2020 both reflected the choice of the people?  Ask Bernie Sanders, whose nomination was stolen twice by the DNC.  Or ask Libertarian Presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen, who couldn’t even share a debate stage with Trump and Biden.   

Thanks to Trump, the Disruptor in Chief, the preferred campaign strategy of state and local democrats in Connecticut for three years running has been to demonize all republican candidates with the same broad cudgel—guilt by association.  Local voters who have real issues on the line like schools and property taxes will vote against their own interests given the right motivation, which is sometimes as simple as a lawn sign.  No one wants to be that neighbor who fails to signal they’re on the side of Peace, Justice and the America Way, as reimagined by Nikole Hannah-Jones.  More ink has been spilled in Rowayton this year debating the placement of a Black Lives Matter sign on the community fence than time and effort spent actually moving the needle for poor minorities in Norwalk through education and housing reform. We shriek with joy over breathtaking taxpayer funding for a new high school no one asked for. But we are mute when the schools we do need for the most under-represented residents of Norwalk in District B get shelved until next year or maybe never. We stand with Black Lives Matter. But we don’t stand for people of color locally by supporting school choice or housing opportunities that don’t require Bob Duff using our money to bribe developers.

Defaced, stolen, replaced and protected by CCTV. South Norwalk never had as much attention as this one sign.

I’ve heard poll standers in Norwalk lie about republican opponents, exploit fear and use intimidation to keep the party in power in power.  “Keep Trump out of Norwalk,” said Mike Mushak, the mayor’s favorite spaniel this time last year at Columbus School polling place.  Mayor Rilling’s opponent, Lisa Brinton, ran as an Unaffiliated candidate endorsed by the local Republican Party in Norwalk.  Ms. Brinton is as closely related to Trump as Rilling to FDR.   Another poll greeter at Columbus, current Democratic Town Committee Chair Eloisa Melendez, warned voters, “Lisa’s a Republican!”  Never mind that Melendez’s dire warning about the popular Ms. Brinton was a LIE.  If the lie works in Norwalk, use it early and use it often.  Most of the Fairfield County Democrat delegation is in on the game too, right down to Wilton candidates promising Line A voters if elected they will protect their local control over schools and neighborhoods.  Pay no attention to school regionalization bills and pending Hartford legislation to take over local zoning.  Will Haskell and Stephanie Thomas are on the up-and-up.  No “forced” regionalization.  But regionalization isn’t a dirty word either.  Depends on what your definition of “is” is. 

Former Councilperson Melendez, now depositing checks from John McClutchy for the DSCC

Staining political opponents with the Scarlett R—for Republican or Racist—has been exploited to take down just about anyone for just about any reason.  Norwalk Republican Registrar Karen Doyle Lyons lost her job not for failing to increase republican party registrations (which was her actual job) but for the heresy of posting on social media, “no more Black History Month because many of us know more then (sic) many Blacks.”  I found this statement offensive mostly because of the grammar.  Given what I know of KDL, this clumsy bit of nonsense was par for the course.  She has never been known for her diplomacy.  But if the RTC had wanted to oust KDL, they had better occasions than this to do so. 

The KDL incident is illustrative of how the two party system cheats voters.  A sizable faction of the RTC had wanted Doyle Lyons gone for years.  They had tried and failed to give the registrar job to someone else.  Former mayoral candidate Kelly Straniti, who openly condemned Doyle Lyons for the incident, and Bob Duff might seem like strange bedfellows, but are they really?  When Duff schemed behind the back of the Norwalk Board of Education to prioritize a “brand new” Norwalk High School over South Norwalk elementary schools already in the queue, where was Kelly Straniti to demand justice for the poor minorities of South Norwalk?  Straniti and most other local republicans were silent. 

Doyle Lyons apparently didn’t learn the lessons of former Board of Education chair Mike Barbis last fall—if you write anything with the word “Black” be very, very, careful how you use it and who sees it. The word “black” in a sentence to modify people may only be used thus: Black Lives Matter.  Black Flag is okay so long as you’re talking about a former punk band.  Otherwise, avoid the word at all costs if you want to keep your job. 

KDL counting signatures in happier times

Apparently, this rule does not apply if you’re Joe Biden.  In May Biden, speaking about African American voters, said, “if you have a problem figuring out if you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t Black.”  During the democratic primary debates, Kamala Harris said, “I’m not saying Joe Biden is a racist.”  You don’t have to be Freud to understand what she meant.  And what she meant was, “I’m saying Joe Biden is a racist.”  Harris went on to become Biden’s running mate.  Lesson?  Sometimes calling someone a racist is a shrewd political maneuver, especially if you can’t call them the other “R” word—Republican—because you’re on the same team.  But if you are a republican, are endorsed by republicans or are friends with someone endorsed by republicans, expect to be called a racist no matter what you say or do.  Asking questions—like how are we to pay to cover the costs of new ELL enrollment—is racist.  Duff said so. 

In Connecticut the anti-Trump race-baiting strategy seems to have worked—until now.  Political newcomer Ellie Kousidis, an unaffiliated voter who registered as a republican to seek the party’s nomination, may have a real shot at upsetting the perennial incumbent for the State Senate’s 25th District seat currently held by Duff.  Duff, who’s been using the same campaign photo since Junior Prom, has had a lock on that seat for nearly two decades by merely doing a few things quasi-okay: traffic & weather updates, free ice cream cones, being a democrat.  He’s parlayed his Mr. Nice Guy image into the second most powerful seat in the state senate.  And he didn’t get there by standing up for us.  He got there by doing favors for others.  A friend of mine calls Duff “the safe boyfriend.”  He’ll have your daughter home by nine.  No roofie in her Red Bull and vodka.  No hand up her shirt. 

Nothing like exploiting children and dogs for votes!

After all Duff is playing a long game with our children. Shortchange the school operations budget year after year; but float a shiny new high school no one asked for, wrap it in a bow, say its from you, and stick the taxpayers with the $250 million bill.  He’s small enough to lurk in the shadows in his Hamburglar trench coat, scribbling P-Tech regional high school plans on the inside of a matchbook with the SDE in late October and unveiling his “Brand New Norwalk High School” plan a few weeks later, leaving the BOE mostly in the dark, and aborted plans for new elementary schools in South Norwalk stillborn on the operating table. 

Duff wrote the textbook on How To Be A Career Democrat Without Really Trying.  Like Biden, he was tough on crime until he wasn’t.  Like Biden, Duff has sucked at the teat of the taxpayer for decades, and nursed on the support of public sector unions for years.  Duff was more than happy to seek and receive the endorsement of the Norwalk Police Department year after year, and to pose giddily with Norwalk’s Finest until the political moment demanded something different, and the political opportunity of a massive statewide shutdown provided cover for another hastily scribbled “duffer”—an idea not popular enough to get off the ground during regular session with a public hearing, but viscerally satisfying to those who believe police misconduct in Minneapolis demands atonement by police in Connecticut.  And while lying is nothing new for Duff, lying about the police is a new low. Duff met with Norwalk police in July, after he’d shoved through his Police Accountability bill. Apparently, Bob was expecting a ticker tape parade and group masking photos. What he got was a well-deserved cold shoulder. When you’ve been in the game as long as Bob, you learn to make lemons out of lemonade. So Bob created a story, wildly exaggerated to the point of total fabrication, and waited until people started paying attention to the election. He was spat “at” by an officer, he claimed. He was bullied and intimidated with no video evidence to back up either claim. But the coup de grace was Bob’s assertion that if the NPD can treat a privileged self-important white man this way, there’s no telling what they do our underserved population. In other words, Bob wasn’t shunned for betraying his long time supporters on the NPD. He was mistreated because of “systemic racism,” the rallying cry of a new generation of woke white suburban liberals whom Duff desperately needs if he’s to remain in Hartford long enough to vie for Himes’s or Murphy’s or Blumenthal’s seat down the road. Wake those voters up to the perils of another Duff term–loss of local control of schools and land use, threats to single family zoning in places like Rowayton and Darien, and a never ending assault on their wallets to cover for his profligate spending on government labor and contracts–and Duff is doomed. This could be the year to make that happen. But voters who can’t stomach another four years of Trump will have to split their ballots to hand Bob the defeat he’s earned.

If you’re one of those voters who can’t see past your own party line candidates, consider that we’re all the same at the end of the day. We’re all friends and neighbors. And we all belong to the same party–the party of insiders, academics and elites who are really in charge. The name of your party, Gentle Voter, is IBD. It stands for “I’ve Been Duped.” And you’re a card-carrying member.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID

What can you say about a girl who died?

Erich Segal, LOVE STORY
Miss Moneypenny

Blogging has been around for years. I’m a newbie. I’ve been a teacher, a mother of three, and a non-profit volunteer, organizer and activist for over three decades. Lately, I’ve been called a provocateur, online troll, and all around horrible person. One former neighbor used the following to describe me yesterday: A R R O G A N C E. Not sure why she left breathing room between letters. The waters of social media, from Facebook to Nextdoor, the online dog finding tool, are often turbid and cruel. I do not envy the moderators of any platform with “civility” in its rules of engagement, though I wish more pages included a few lines about self-awareness. We could all use more self-awareness and less self-involvement, myself included.

Despite the harsh criticism and personal attacks, some deserved, I mostly see myself as a writer, political commentator and satirist with a penchant for the FOIA and absurdly juvenile YouTube videos. But today I’m just a grieving #mother of bulldogs. You see on Friday, October 9th, I euthanized my nearly 14 year old bulldog, Moneypenny.

SOME LOSSES HARDER THAN OTHERS

Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Bette Davis, “All About Eve”

If you came here looking for the usual exposes on local politicians or long form analyses of our COVID response, you’re going to be disappointed. Things are going to get messy. This is where I indulge in our nation’s most popular contemporary artform–the personal essay, with all the feels.

Life is a roller coaster ride where no one gets off alive. We may leave in a wooden box or in a metal tin. But our fate is sealed the moment we are born. Each day we inch one day closer to death. How’s that for morose? And yet the human capacity for hope is bottomless. We live. We love. We have children as if we were created for this role– because as a matter of evolutionary hard wiring and as a commandment from God we were.

The drive to love other creatures is immeasurable, especially in the time of COVID, as the four-leggeds are flying off the shelves of the shelters, and the biggest internet sensation of the year is an aging miniature schnauzer named Pluto (Pluto is a girl but she’s non-gender conforming so it’s all good). Parents, if you’re feeling underwhelmed by your local government school curriculum, tune into Pluto. You will learn something.

Pluto Delivers a Lecture on the Norse Gods Tyr and Fenrir, in honor of Tuesday.

What Are the Limits of Grief for a Dog?

‘”Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, to give these mourning duties to your father; But you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound in filial obligation for some term to do obsequious sorrow; but to persever in obstinate condolment is a course of impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief; It shows a will incorrect to heaven, a heart unfortified, a mind impatient, an understanding simple and unschooled.”

Claudius, Hamlet, Act I, scene ii

Do we mourn dead dogs more than we do people?

Claudius isn’t wrong here when he chides Hamlet for wallowing over the untimely death of his father, King Hamlet. But Claudius isn’t exactly the hero of the play either, so perhaps we shouldn’t be taking advice from the villain on the proper limits of grief, whether for a father murdered or a dog who died of old age. Since I took my beloved Moneypenny to VCA late Friday night for vomiting (but really for euthanasia), I’ve wondered why this loss has been so profound, so deeply sad. I’ve wondered why I feel so much emptiness, and why the tears seem to flow abudantly and without invitation, a process that’s been building inside me for more than a year as I tried to condition myself to her eventual death through continual internal monologues about attachment, suffering and death. My father died on Christmas Day, 2016, at the age of 100. I cried like a baby. I dreamed, and still dream that he is alive. But when my father died, I did not feel this ponderous weight in my chest, nor the chasm of grief quite like I do now for Moneypenny. And it’s not that I loved her more than him. So why is the emotional upheaval worse for some of us when we lose a pet than when we lose a parent?

Most animal owners see their pets through from infancy to death. The interval between the two is short compared to the life of a parent or child, god willing. And so the highs and lows are compressed into a shorter interval as well, and so too the grief is compressed and concentrated, especially because we live with our pets and spend more time with our pets than we do with most humans, including our aging parents and grown children.

From Cinderella to Miss Moneypenny

Before she was Miss Moneypenny, she was Cinderella

Moneypenny was born in Florida on February 7, 2007, my mother’s birthday, when my daughter was a senior at Staples High School. My daughter used to tease me that Moneypenny was a replacement child for her. The breeder named her Cinderalla, and I chose Cinderalla out of the litter for her cow-eyed beauty. She was not my first dog nor my first bulldog puppy. I grew up with dogs. From Rex to Susu to Molly to Sparky to Toby to Moneypenny to Pippa and Soula, my life’s journey can be traced through the lives of my dogs.

Rex was a vicious cur who bit the mailman and the boy next door with equal vigor, then would spend two weeks tied up outside under quarantine. I loved Rex despite his temperamental shortcomings. Today we’d blame Rex’s problems on upbringing. Back then he was pretty normal as dogs went–roamed the neighborhood loose, chased cars, and tried to have his way with the spaniels in heat down the road. In the spring of 1969, those tumultuous times, my brother visited my mother at work at D.C. General Hospital. They quarreled over his future. He stomped out of her office and walked the fourteen miles back, happy to see Rex when he walked in the door of our Oxon Hill home. Rex barfed in his lap. Dogs are natural empaths. But sometimes they just don’t give a shit.

My mother brought home Susu from work in a shoebox one day some years later, having vowed not to have a second dog. We knew nothing about crate training in 1972. Susu slept in my bedroom and mewled all night long. Susu was a purebred minature poodle. Despite my mother’s medical training, we were also behind the eight ball on spaying. Our dear friend, Dr. Machado, an OBGYN, one days announed upon examinging Susu, “I’m an obsetrician. This dog is pregnant!” Some weeks later, when my father called for her and Susu failed to appear, he went on a desperate and tearful search for her in the neighborhood. And I stayed home, where I heard soft whimpers coming from the basement. I found Susu and her three puppies wrapped in the plastic protector that hermetically sealed all our upholstered furniture in the 70s. And though my mother, who had trained briefly in obstetrics, identified all the puppies as boys, Dr. Machado’s expert opinion prevailed. “These are girls,” he said with a great deal of professional authority. We gave the puppies to friends and family, where they lived more or less happily or met untimely ends under the tires of cars.

From Molly to Sparky

Molly was adopted from the Dallas SPCA, a newlywed present to myself to fill the lonely hours when my banker husband was at work or traveling. She was an 8 year old poodle mix who once ate a bowlful of Hershey’s kisses with the wrappers, and two years later, a bowl full of my father’s hot peppers. There was no mad rush to the vet to have her stomach pumped on either occasion, and she sailed through with no visible sign of gastric distress, not so much as a fart. Eight years after her adoption, Molly vanished one day and returned one week later, only to vanish again, this time for good, the following week. She was 16 and we assumed she left to find a place to lay down her weary head and die. A few months after Molly’s vanishing, my two pre-schoolers and my husband convinced me to take a trip to the Bridgeport dog pound to just take a look. No commitment.

There’s no such thing as going to look at dogs at the pound and coming home empty-handed. While the children may not have seen the Sword of Damacles over their heads, my husband and I knew each warm-hearted furry creature in those cages was marked for death. We came home with Sparky, a terrier mix who vomited in the minivan on the way home, spent an occasional night on the prowl howling at the moon, and turned out to have a $500 case of demotic mange. So much for dog pound bargains. Sparky too predated the era of the invisible fence. If I got unlucky, Sparky would get loose while I was out for my daily walk and follow me, winding in and out of traffic on Sturges Hwy on the border between Westport and Fairfield. Cars would blow their horns, and I’d shrug like I didn’t know the dog, which usually worked unless the car belonged to my next door neighbor, whom Sparky once had cowering in her car in her own driveway.

In the spring of 2001, I decided Sparky needed a companion. This is like deciding your wife is lonely and you should take on another. My neighbor Tracy, also a mom of three, was expecting her fourth baby. And I knew a fourth was not in the cards for me–not with my current husband in any case. So I cultivated an appetite for a puppy to fill the void left by the growing children who no longer wanted to hold my hand in public, at first setting my teeth for a standard poodle.

How did I wind up with a bulldog? I’m not quite sure, but part of my journey involved reading “user” reviews of various dog breeds. And while poodles were beloved by their owners, bulldog owners had a completely different vocabulary for their pets. Bulldogs were natural born clowns and eternal toddlers. Some of the bereaved owners said they’d never own another bulldog. The sorrow was that great. I didn’t heed those warnings and brought home Toby from the airport a few weeks before Easter. He arrived at the cargo bay of Delta Airlines. When I asked the gentleman working the desk at Delta Cargo if he had a puppy, he said, “does he have a head as big as mine?” Toby was brought out in a small crate where someone kind who knew the heart of a bulldog had placed part of a ham sandwich. Toby was a good natured puppy. He was easy to train, and he looked up to Sparky, who truth be told probably could have done without a playmate.

Toby took it hard when Sparky’s spark began to fade. And I learned something important about how to care for aging pets at the end of life. We were away when Sparky’s health took a turn for the worse. He spent the last five days of his life barely moving, waiting for us to come home and give him the graceful exit he deserved. My son at college said his goodbyes by phone while I choked back tears, and the next morning my husband and I took Sparky to Dr. Charles Noonan, Animal Doctor of Weston, our beloved vet, for his final visit. I’ll never forgive myself for prolonging Sparky’s suffering. And after that experience, I made up my mind that I would never again allow a dog to suffer while I figured out my own issues around the yin and yang of holding on and letting go. That doesn’t mean these end of life decisions are easier for me today than they were in 2007. I’ve taken three dogs for euthanasia in 14 years: Sparky in 2007, Toby in October of 2011 and Moneypenny last Friday. There is no Google answer or Reddit thread to help you through these decision. Unlike men with colds, dogs can’t tell you when they don’t feel good. Incessantly.

Most pet owners I know who’ve had to come to terms with end of life issues experience a range of emotions and weeks if not months of indecision, close calls, seemingly miraculous recoveries and feelings of guilt and dread. We cry in anticipation of the inevitable, as if crying in advance innoculates us against crying after it’s over. And then we cry when we’ve made up our minds. And we continue to cry after it’s over. There is no end to the crying. Yes, we do a lot of crying when it comes to our dogs. I wonder if we mourn their losses more profoundly and deeply than we might the death of a relative because of the space our pets occupy in our lives and the role we play in their care from infancy to old age. The two bulldogs I have left, Pippa and Soula, I saw into this world. Moneypenny was their mother. And I must come to terms with the fact that I will probably see them both out of this world as well.

Pictured left to right, Moneypenny, Soula and Pippa
Lady in Red

The End: Part One

“Enough of Duff”

by Irina Comer

It’s not as though we haven’t said

The state is really in the red.

For greater taxes we have pled,

But all the companies have fled.

So what if hedge fund exits max,

Or from the state Aetna retracts?

I know we gave GE the ax,

But do not fear, we have new tax!

You cannot pay the newest tax?

Your paycheck is already maxed?

Relax, I say, go on, relax!

Do not bother me with facts.

We should not tax a higher rate?

Do you not love your growing state?

I don’t see why you can’t relate.

The union greed does not abate!

Why do you think we need to toll?

They do not win at any poll,

But we are really on a roll,

And this tax won’t spare a soul!

It even taxes those who leave

To other states to seek reprieve.

There is no time to go bereave;

We still have money left to cleave!

Wait – you think tax cuts help begin

To put us on a path to win?

I can’t abide them, now or then;

Reducing tax would be a sin!

How else do you think we pay

To bus your kids so far away

That we could close great schools and say

How everyone’s the same – hooray!

So try my taxes in your car.

Or try my taxes in a bar.

Perhaps if it’s not too bizarre,

You’ll even pay them from afar.

If paying tax is not for you,

Then join me in accusing Blue

Of doing things to me and you

That they of course would never do.

Oh no – is that a cam’ra there

That followed me ‘round everywhere?

If I’d known before I said “spit”,

I’d not now be so deep in it!

If you are a fed-up Norwalk resident, I would urge you to reply:

Enough, I say, enough’s enough!

We simply cannot have more Duff!

Irina Comer

Former Norwalk

An Open Letter to Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Alexandra Estrella: Social Media and the First Amendent

Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Alexandra Estrella

Dear Dr. Estrella,

Welcome to Norwalk.  I write today as a citizen of Norwalk who follows local issues–as many of my fellow-citizens do–on social media, specifically Facebook.  In 2018, I was permanently banned from the Facebook page Norwalk Parents for Education, founded by BOE member Barbara Meyer-Mitchell.  I was subsequently banned from Norwalk Community, also founded and currently administrated by Ms. Meyer-Mitchell.  Both pages have over 3000 members.  Substantive conversations about our city and our schools take place on these social media platforms. 

The Queen of Control for Norwalk Social Media: Barbara Meyer-Mitchell. Coming soon in a PM on your device!

In addition, I have been blocked on Facebook by Mayor Harry Rilling, despite the fact that the mayor continues to discuss city issues and policies using his private Facebook account, and by Ms. Meyer-Mitchell.  Meyer-Mitchell’s role as admin on Norwalk Community is a violation of the BOE Code of Conduct. 

Serial Social Media Blockers Duff & Rilling

You may be aware of several landmark cases involving censorship on social media, specifically the Loundon County case, Davison V Randall, which was recently upheld by the US 4th Circuit on appeal by Phyllis Randall.  https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/172002.P.pdf. 

In addition to the Loudon County case, please see Knight V Trump (https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3892179/2017-07-11-Knight-Institute-Trump-Twitter.pdf); and Packingham V North Carolina (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-1194_08l1.pdf).Packingham was decided by the Supreme Court in 2017 in a precedent setting case regarding the application of First Amendment protected free speech to social media. 

Writing for the Supreme Court in their unanimous decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote:

“A fundamental principle of the First Amendment is that all persons have access to places where they can speak and listen, and then, after reflection, speak and listen once more. By prohibiting sex offenders from using those websites, North Carolina with one broad stroke bars access to what for many are the principal sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge.”

The Supreme Court found that denying access to anyone, even registered sex offenders, from the “modern public square” of social media is First Amendment violatory. 

SCOTUS, June 2017. Newly sworn Justice Gorsusch did not vote in the Packingham case.

Given case law on First Amendment violations involving banning or restricting citizen access to public officials on social media and the Board’s own code of conduct prohibiting administration of social media pages, I ask that you intervene on my behalf to protect those First Amendment freedoms that we all hold dear. Violating the free speech of even one citizen is a bad look for the City of Norwalk, especially when such bans have been implemented in order to suppress criticism and control open dialogue in order to protect political office holders.

Respectfully,

Donna Smirniotopoulos

Norwalk CT

WILL ESTRELLA SUPPORT THE FIRST AMENDMENT?

STAY TUNED!

The Woke White Left Signals That Black Lives Matter. But Do They Really Mean It?

Click to access 0817998721_167.pdf

Thomas Sowell on the changing meaning of “racial discrimination” in our time.

Norwalk, Connecticut. Diversity is our signal strength, says the 2018 POCD. At workshop after workshop, participants noted that Norwalk’s diversity was foremost among the City’s assets, right up there with its islands, maritime character and physical beauty. And while the former is a source of pride for residents, diversity is not necessarily part of everyone’s lived experience. We like to trumpet our diversity from a safe distance, say Rowayton or Silvermine.

Since the Connecticut General Assembly signed into law the 2013 Trust Act, in defiance of President Barack Obama’s aggressive deportation policies, the cities of Fairfield County, Norwalk and Stamford, have welcomed thousands of South American immigrants, many with young children, enriching the character of these cities but also shifting the demographics, especially in the public schools. Last fall, former Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski projected that the Norwalk Public Schools would soon be a minority majority school district in a majority white city. While enrollment among Latinos has risen, white and black enrollment seems to have declined.

Meanwhile residential homeowners whose property taxes fund the school budget tend to fall into three categories: their children have aged out of the public schools and they’re struggling to keep up with property taxes; they are rich and their children attend private schools; or their children attend the Norwalk public schools, in consequence of which they are strong proponents of more spending as a means of mirroring the quality of adademic instruction available in the leafy suburbs like Westport, Darien and New Canaan. In other words, they’re proud of our diversity, but they would like to be spared the educational consequences attached to it–a school district with a lot more on its plate than math and reading due to the high percentage of high needs students as defined by Free/Reduced lunch eligibility, SPED and ELL. Because they are both woke and white, they do not look to Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff for the funding needed to attain educational excellence and serve the needs of a mostly under-priveleged student population. No matter how egregiously Duff and the Mayor misstep and mislead, the woke white parents club, as typified on the Facebook page Norwalk Parents for Education, lean heavily on the evils of Donald Trump when career democrat politicians are in the crosshairs of frustrated taxpayers who bristle at the profligate spending. It’s worth noting that while the Westport Public Schools are better than ours academically, average teacher pay is higher in Norwalk. Why? Teachers vote and those contracts are important for union endorsements. Same with Police and Fire, but that’s a conversation for another day.

New Enrollment In Late 2019 Projected to Add $5.5 Million In Additional Spending For the Norwalk Public Schools in 2020-21

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/angrytaxpayernorwalk.com/429

Meanwhile Bob Duff adds NOTHING to the Education Cost Sharing reimbursements for Norwalk, BUT he does get Mayor Harry Rilling to override the Planning Commission‘s Capital Budget, adding in $50 million in bonding for Bob Duff High that the Commissioners removed.

VIRTUE SIGNALING FOR

PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW MATH

The most egregious spending approvals happened during the COVID-19 Shutdown and have continued through the summer. COVID-19 was a gift from God to Harry Rilling, allowing him (and according to Nora King, right-hand-man Laoise King) nearly unfettered control over City government, policy and spending. While Norwalk City Hall remains closed except to collect your tax dollars, the mayor and Common Council approved breathtaking spending plans, most recently a plan to reignite POKO at a cost of nearly $150 million to taxpayers. The burn rate in Norwalk is already over ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY, despite a city-wide shutdown that’s allowed many city staffers to “work from home” or work part-time for full-time pay. DPW staff, for example, are still working half time, allegedly to prevent the spread of COVID (despite infrequent mask use on job sites and a state R0 well below 1.0.) No layoffs or furloughs. And negative feedback from NPS parents (especially parents of elementary children) suggests school staff are earning full pay for even less than half time work in the virtual classroom while stamping their feet at the notion of a return to the actual classroom in the fall.

But….BLACK LIVES MATTER

Though Senator Bob Duff warned would-be lockdown protestors in May that they would need to sign Death Cards to attend Hartford demonstrations, the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests provided exactly the “cure” for COVID lockdown measures that Duff needed to burnish his reputation as a say-everything-but-do-nothing career politician. Pretending that Black Lives Matter gives cover for an otherwise self-serving career of scheming behind our backs to do favors for cronies like John McClutchy, the Darling of the DSCC.

Likewise openly signaling support for BLM to likely November voters is part of the DTC Plan of Action: demonize local Repubicans by tying them to Trump. Make a stink when they don’t denounce Trump (but death cards are okay). Call anyone who checks your math a racist. And when asked about pay-to-play, pretend you don’t know the DSCC was investigated for using state contractor money to fund local campaigns in 2014. When in doubt, put up a sign.

The Duff plan is less about providing positive solutions for generationally poor minority communities than it is about promulgating a false narrative on race in order to shore up the base, some of whom may be unhappy about their tax bills, the condition of the ball fields or the belated reopening of the beach to city residents. Instead of supporting local businesses and helping to create high-paying jobs, enabling Norwalk residents to buy their own homes, Duff and Rilling prefer high priced, high rent “affordable” housing projects for Norwalk’s workforce and poorer residents. These units cost upwards of half a million per unit to construct (over $600k for Washington Village replacement Soundview Landing, and over $700k estimated for McClutchy’s Wall Street Place project). At these prices, we could afford to buy the disadvantaged real homes with yards and swingsets. Average home price in Norwalk is around $400k. And we’ve been sitting on a lot of excess inventory since 2008. But creating a plan to support home ownership for the working class requires things career democrat politicians shun–rejecting government intervention in favor of the free market and, worse, promoting homeownership, which would have the disastrous effect of creating more stakeholders in the spending conversation than either Duff or Rilling care to deal with.

Over Ten Years in the Making!
“God Bless America and the Democratic State Central Committee for this Ten Million Dollars”

The Myth of Affordable Housing

When bureacrats and politicos talk about “affordable housing,” they’re talking about state mandated, deed restricted affordable housing. State regulations lay out several tiers for affordability based on AMI (area mean income). The tiers range from 80% to 40% of AMI. The key to keeping your affordable “workforce” housing unit is to stay within the state threshold for income. Work too hard, get a better job, earn more money, and you may be in jeopardy of losing your apartment. How can developers and banks afford to rent to you for less than market rate? That’s where taxpayers come in. We subsidize all the giveaways–the developer fees, the LIHTCs for Citibank, the 15 years of tax abatements and the free parking lot. It doesn’t pay to support a plan for more home ownership. Homeowners have different expectations of their elected leaders, and fiscal responsibility is one of their expectations.

The McClutchy Cluster F**K for Wall Street was originally slated to provide 101 100% hundred percent affordable apartments. Citizens and business owners alike balked,. In order to support local businesses, residents needed some disposable income. Savvy locals ran the Doom of the Garden Cinemas story up the flagpole to buy time and to make the case for an arts enclave on Wall Street. And McClutchy “caved” (but not really). Now the project is only 70% affordable, achieved through the magic of adding 50 market rate units not previously included on top of a two story garage that will occupy the current footprint of the Garden Cinemas, closed since January due to the catastrophic impact of NO PARKING for moviegoers since POKO was given the free parking lot for the construction of the Tyvek Temple years ago.

If you’re still following, you’re way ahead of most people, who checked out on POKO years ago. The learning curve is simply too steep. Untangling the Gordian Public Financing Knot required to complete the project requires the willing suspension of disbelief and years of monastic study. The most any of our more dedicated councilpersons could muster was 20 hours of LDA reading and copious “listening” to stakeholders like the completely non-conflicted Vice Chair of the Arts Commission, Peter Smyth, husband of Council President Barbara Smyth.

Party-loyal Common Councilmembers (of which there are 14 out of 15) don’t have the patience to follow the thread that ties McClutchy and Citibank to $150 million in taxpayer monies–a thread that includes McClutchy’s multi-year, $200,0000 commitment to the Democratic State Central Committee, Eloisa Melendez Treasurer (yes, that Eloisa, also the newly crowned Chair of the DTC, successor to Ed “Macho Svengali” Camacho).

Eloisa in Happier Times. Now dating Norwalk Hour Reporter Justin Papp. Or So They Say.

Blinders on, these Democratic Councilperons believe the recycled POKO Project will provide affordable housing for Norwalk teachers and city workers (many of whom earn 150% of AMI) while adding an “arts district” in the form of unleaseable, unfished, temporary space to host “poetry slams” because, hey, we’re having a 1980s throwback revival here in Norwalk.

Diversity. Yes. Emotion. Yes. Spirit. Yes. $150 MILLION IN TAX DOLLARS. YES. YES. YES.

Single Family Zoning & School Funding

While some anxiously await shovels in the ground on Wall Street, there’s been a flurry of debate among the school community on how and when to fully reopen the NPS, including some unexpected criticism from former Planning Commissioner Nora King direted towards City Hall, Mayor Rilling, Laoise “the Kingpin” King and Puppet BOE Chair Sarah LeMieux. Distance learning has been disastrous, especially for K-5, with teacher availability a thorny issue. Younger students who need more instructional time from their teachers aren’t getting it. Parents working from home are expected to cover the gap. Many kids are behind as a result. And the ad hoc task force of 150 seems more focused on addressing the trauma of a six-month summer vacation than catching up on student learning. And while this may be a bit of an over-simplification, the size of the task force and multiple subcommittees do not bode well for efficient dispatch of a straightforward plan to reopen schools.

The New Face of White Supremacy:

the Woke White Liberal

White Moral Supremacists Protesting White Supremacy

I’m Robin DiAngelo–I’m white.

White Person Robin DeAngelo

Attend a seminar by cultural trainer Robin DiAngelo, who is white, and you may hear the following:

“All correct information that I was ever given was provided by a white person,” said a white person.

“[I had] white friend groups, white peers, white mentors,” said a white person.

“I never had a teacher of a different race,” said a white person.

“It’s been very easy for me to not think about race,” said a white person.

The fact that I cannot say any of the above about myself–because none of these statements applies to me–potentially puts me in the dreaded “unwoke” category of whiteness. Whiteness is what White Fragility ‘author’ DiAngelo calls the former state of grace that must be acknowledged, confronted and destroyed by white people in order to achieve racial progress. Only white people can do this. Accusing White People of White Supremacy is the New White Supremacy. Woke whites–usually young, affluent, educated and attractive–afraid of falling out of the spotlight in the time of COVID-19 and BLM protests, have found a way to be admitted to the inner circle–performative wokeness.

The rest of us who grew up with black teachers, black peers, black friends and black mentors; who were hazed because we had strange names, strange food, strange language, strange parents and strange hair; and who now deny systemic racism exists because we lived through the 60s and we remember what that was like are labled “racists” by the New White Moral Supremacists. No longer content to be merely younger, prettier and richer than the elusive white creatures of my youth–the willowy blonde girls with their silky hair and country club lifestyles–today’s White Supremacists have added another advantage: moral superiority. In fact, the new White Supremacists are so good at moral superiority that they give free instructions to black people in addressing systemic racism, as below.

Confronting White Fragility by telling a black cop she is part of the problem. Bravo!

BLACK LIVES MATTER IN ROWAYTON

Nowhere is this petty mean-girl drama playing out more visibly than on social media, in particular Nextdoor and the FB pages Norwalk Parents for Education and Norwalk Community. Nextdoor has had no fewer than four threads dedicated to a Black Lives Matter sign on the community fence in Rowayton, bought and paid for by Rowayton residents out of the maid’s petty cash envelope. The first sign was vandalized and replaced with alacrity. Folks, these are not the homemade handwritten cardboard signs that grace homes (nearly all white-owned and waterfront) in South Norwalk. These signs cost $$$. The newly replaced sign was soon stolen as well. Said one councilperson, this was an act of racism, and NO, it’s not inconsistent with BLM to send my kids to private schools.

A former New York Giant took up the mantle, with an “I Care” call and response. And woe be unto you if you did not signal to your white woke Rowayton neighbors where you stood on the BLM sign. They were collectively a bit fuzzier on some of the finer points like demands to abolish the police and claims of Palestinian genocide directed at Israel. None of these queasy details were up for discussion. You were either in or you were out. In my case out meant a multi-day suspension from Nextdoor for telling pretty young white girls that their halos were crooked.

One noble resident suggested taking up a collection to replace the sign. Still another opined that they could raise funds for closed-circuit TV, because after all money is no object. The excess funds raised (these people do not fool around–they made $5000 over their goal) were given to the Carver Center, where white people send their money when they don’t have time to do their research.

Meanwhile the 6th Taxing District Commissioners at first declared Black Lives Matter to be a statement of Moral Truth–a ruling which did not apply to All Lives Matter. For the record, while I do believe that all lives have moral value, I take issue with All Lives Matter as a response to Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter is the bridesmaid who tries to show up the bride, the party guest who pees on the birthday cake. It’s a rude and attention-seeking reaction. However, it’s hard to argue that one of these slogans is more apolitical and universal than the other. If a faith-based group, say Catholics, posted a Human Life Matters banner on the Rowayton community fence, there would be backlash.

Recently the 6th TD Commissioners reversed their decision and removed the sign, prompting one Rowaytonite (an actress/model/producer in her 30s with a Greenwich/Westport/Saugatuck Shores/Telluride pedigree–did I say blonde?) to lament the decision with yet another sincere flood of emotions, fueld by the finest bone broth in the land. White Supremacy is real, she opined. America is a racist country, she insisted. She even claimed that Firetree, Inc. are good people–not charlatans scamming millions in private prison contracts out of the Federal BOP–who only want to help minorities acclimate to society, and that white supremacists like moi were wrong to keep them out (never mind that none of the abutters of 17 Quintard are white).

There is only one way to handle such silliness. Make the ultimate wager. East Norwalk is on the cusp of a Transit Oriented Development plan that could ruin the nautical character of the area, congesting the streets with cars with nowhere to park and nowhere to drive, and blocking the sun with multi-story buildings constructed in defiance of local zoning and made possible through the magic of cheap amenities. South Norwalk has already been swallowed up by TOD. And Wall Street is well on its way down the path of too many too tall ugly buildings and not enough places to park. Why shouldn’t the good people of Rowayton surrender their single-family zoning as a gesture of solidarity with the black community and support the construction of an affordable or better yet subsidized housing project in the style of Roodner Court right in their quaint little village? The truly virtuous could donate their property to indiginous and historically oppressed people for good measure, and withdraw their kids from private prep schools to boot. How did that suggestion go over, you ask? That post came down. Some readers contacted me privately with a show of support but did not dare openly confront the hypcrisy in their midst. No one dares defy the New Woke White Supremacists.