The next installment of the W/S application for the proposed Lifestyle Center near I-691 will take place Wednesday, at 7 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers.

The way it is going with these gas prices, people won’t have any money to do anything but buy food, clothes and heating oil and gasoline for their cars. I hope many of you are beginning to give driving those big SUV’s and gas guzzlers a second thought.

So if you are, or even if you are not, here is a website that will help you find the cheapest gas around.

www.gasbuddy.com

Hopefully, many of you will attend this Planning and Zoning meeting. The more faces they see, the better.

I am still trying to work on the West Main Street Ball and Socket proposal but I think my son has a girlfriend because he seems “preoccupied.”

 I know he will erase this when he sees it because he will be “embarassed. But C’est Dommage!!

See you at the meeting!!

I received some information that there is yet another petition  floating around  in town; this time against the residential part of the W/S Development project.

 Speaking of the W/S Development, the Canton First Selectwoman, (or should I say former) first Selectwoman lost her bid for a fourth term to a Republican (the first time in over 20 years that a Republican was elected to the top spot).

 NOT BRIDGEPORT, AGAIN DEMS GOT 57 percent of votes, REPUBLICANS 17 percent.  I remember the last GOP mayor Bpt had many many years ago, got shot at, so I guess that put a damper on any thought of running again!!!

Now I know this information was highlighted on other media, and many anti W/S people in this town seem to believe in part that the Lifestyle Center in Canton may have had something to do with it.

Well, I tried to reseach that claim, and to be honest, it may have had something to do with it in part, but according to a Hartford Courant article, the Republican who took Mary Tomolonius’ spot claimed the reason he won was there was a lack of accountablility in town for starters. Hmm, sounds like ANOTHER town I know. He claimed people need to be better informed. Exactly. I agree. And it starts with the local paper and works its way up.

Now Mary Tomolonius, will retain a seat on the Board of Selectmen in Canton, as the only Democrat mind you. But it was interesting to read why she said she lost.

Apparently many people vote by absentee ballot in Canton. They had about the same turnout rate as Cheshire, roughly 39 to 40 percent. Tomolonius claims that a petitioning candidate whose name WAS on the ballot, withdrew at the last minute, apparently last Sunday, and the ballots had to be all reprinted at the last minute. I guess many people felt the petitioning candidate might have had an impact on that towns municipal election. I guess not.

The Petitioning Candidate whose name WAS ON THE BALLOT, got FIVE VOTES!!!. My name was NOT on the ballot OK with 107 and now I am hearing unofficially, that some people did not color in the oval but wrote my name, giving me over 50 more votes.

I cannot verify this at this time, but I will keep you posted. As I stated in my last post, I honestly did not hand out that many flyers, less that 200 and look what happened CHESHIRE TOWN GOVERNMENT!!!

I had people that took it upon themselves to make signs and put them up. Again, I thank them. This was a grassroots effort that was very successful, taking into consideration that I entered the race in late October.

Speaking of supporters, my husband was in a local coffee shop the other day when a gentleman came up to him and told him that he had voted for me. My husband knew who the person was off hand, but not his name.

I went to a local resident and asked if she knew who the man was.  I found out his name,which I will not repeat here. This man and his elderly mother, who is nearly 90 years old, attended a few of the public hearings regarding the senior tax freeze. I remember watching a re broadcast of one of those public hearings on TV and seeing them come into the meeting. It really had an impact on me because of their situation which is tragic.

I took the time Sunday, to visit with these people and thank them for their support. I went to their house with a few other people. They were glad to see us and asked us to come over any time. You see, they don’t get too many visitors. In fact, they don’t have too much of anything, including their home that the mother and father built entirely from scratch in another part of town I will not name to keep them anonymous and private.

If anyone benefitted from the Senior Tax freeze it was this woman and her son who takes care of her. I was so amazed to see this woman, her face is bright and smooth and you could tell she was happy to see people come to her modest home that she and her son had to move into after the home they hand built from the foundation up had to be sold away to pay taxes.

I know there are many people in town in the same boat. It is pathetic. This woman and her husband, who passed away when he was in his early 50’s, took it upon themselves to custom make their own home. No contractors, just themselves. In fact, the son told us that his mother was pregnant and walked on the beams of the house to fit in the copper pipes for the water. They did EVERYTHING BY HAND, it was their pride and now it is GONE!!

These are people who ARE Cheshire, want to stay in Cheshire, but may have to give up everything they have because of the rising taxes.

They sit at the table each month and have to decide what bills they can pay and what has to be left to bill collectors. SAD. In a town as this SAD!!  And then we have to hear about the wants, I want this pool to show off, I want the astro turf, to show off, ‘when are we gonna get it? oh don’t worry we are going to talk about it.’

Yes, one of my supporters heard that conversation election night. SELFISH!! ME, MYSELF AND I.

Frivolous expenses that are NOT NECESSARY. Just a luxury. They can’t stop their nonsense in this town.

I know one person on the town council who I would like to see go over to these peoples home and speak with them–Ms. Esty. The man thinks very highly of you Ms. Esty. Hopefully, you will contact myself or my husband and make an effort to see what has happened to this family. You know what, these people may have to MOVE OUT and God knows where they will go.

As I was leaving and getting in my car, I looked towards the house and saw the old woman standing by the door looking out at us. As I drove down the street, she was still there—looking.

I wasn’t going to address this issue, especially on a weekend.

 Everyone has issues. I have mine. My husband and I are not perfect parents. We love our children and provide for them and try to do our best. But there are people who want to take advantage. There are people who love to see unhappiness.

I want everyone to know in the Town Government including 500 Highland Avenue, that I handed out less than 200 campaign flyers, LESS than 200, and got 107 votes!! WRITE IN, NOT ON THE BALLOT!! We are winning, slowly but surely.  Their evil, racist ,evil town government and their evil  cold cold heart enforcers will go down.

People want a change. They are fed up. Most people this election, focused on Planning and Zoning. MOST PEOPLE DO NOT WANT THIS LIFESTYLE CENTER!! GET IT!! That is why the P and Z is now 6 Republicans and 3 Democrats. But don’t worry Cheshire residents, the powers that be will force this down your throat like the pool. Remember that?  Two times the voters said NO to this pool. But they waited to have a stand alone referendum, and it passed by a small margin. This is what will happen with this Lifestyle Center.

The town can’t handle the traffic now. And a lot of it is because of the perception of this town. TICKET TICKET TICKET!!! That is why they drive so slow. Follow people from Southington or Hamden to Cheshire. When they get to the line SLOW SLOW SLOW. Ok, I am not advocating speeding, I am not. But if people feel they cannot at least drive 40 to 45 in this town up and down Rt 10, and all they see is COP COP COP on the side of the road, what do you think is going to happen. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP. And if you try to go down a side street, guess who will be there!! YEP.

All of the supporters will say I got an axe, yeah big time. Yeah. I am sick of them and their attitude in plain English. ARROGANT!!. 

Recently, I was in a local eating establishment and I gave my name for the pickup order I had placed, when this person came up to me and said they had seen my signs for the write-in on the town council. I thanked them. The person started talking about the traffic and the proposed Lifestyle Center.

NOTE: This person is related to a prominent attorney in town. She said that Cheshire would be better off with the shopping right off the highway because at least then, people could get in and out of Cheshire fast and not have to drive into town. NICE!!

She went on to tell me there is a restaurant in the area of upper Rt. 10 that is a good restaurant but its business is not good because people do not want to drive that far into town.

 OK. That is her opinion, but let’s face it, this town has had a lot of businesses close over the past several years. In fact in a post I did a few months ago, I listed most of them that I could remember and there were quite a few.

Off the top of my head again there has been: Burger King; Wendys; KEN TACO HUT; Damons; Downeys; Movie Gallery; MotoPhoto(that moved to Hamden); Buck a Book; La Femme; Cheshire Vacuum; Club Farenheit where Cugino’s is now located; Cheshire Video and Disc; Peters I Restaurant; Cheshire IGA North and South; Cheshire Waterbeds; There was a small catering place there also in that plaza across from St. Bridget’s; The liquor store in that plaza also; Cheshire Gourmet where Mr. B’s Pizza is now; Frankies Restaurant;  Friendly’s, the Movie Theater;the Seafarer Restaurant where Damon’s was located that also closed. I know there have been more but I can’t remember.

Of course there are businesses that have been around for many years, to balance it out like Rossini’s; Pop’s; Ye Old Body Shop; Victorian House’; the Waverly, to name a few, but these are the exceptions.

After I had spoken to this woman and was about to leave, a man came up to me and said that I should “go back to New York where I came from.” I asked him where he was from: he said he was a lifelong Cheshire resident. I told him I was not from New York AT ALL. I was from Bridgeport. He said he knew I was not from here by the way I acted: like maybe I acted like I had  a pulse, I don’t know.

Why is the pool failing and the businesses closing? Re-read the above statement by this gentleman. CASE CLOSED!!

Now that the election is winding down, I thought I would expand on my last post about how Lafayette Plaza Mall contributed, I believe, to the decline of downtown Bridgeport.

Now if any of you know Bridgeport or know people from Bridgeport,  (like me), you know Bridgeport will always put up a fight. They will never say die.

There has been a strong effort towards revitalizing the downtown. These projects are heavy duty and I sincerely hope it will be successful. 

Bridgeport still, and probably will for many many years, have an image problem. It just seems that the minute something bad happens in Bridgeport, it is all over the news pronto.

This is sort of the idea (of course on a smaller scale), of what I would like to see in the West Main Street area. I mean, we are not going to have skyscrapers, but the idea of taking old run down buildings and re-using them in the core of our communities, seems to be making a comeback. 

I know Bridgeport is trying this and hopefully it will be successful. It if is, we may be seeing a decline in reverse. The uplifting of our cities as a place of opportunities as it was once a long time ago. We have many problems that still need to be addressed in our urban areas and Bridgeport is no exception, but let us bring back a “real” community with real streets, real street lights a real feel. Not some landscaped sterile environment that believe it or not, is mimicking what they are trying to replace–the old style downtowns!!!

I don’t see too many of the news media playing Bridgeports attempt at revitalization because God forbid, they have to say something positive about the city!

I am running a link to bport,(I guess now this is the way we are supposed to talk about Bridgeport, “Like I live in Bport man” OK whatever. 

http://www.bportliving.com/

I am still tired from the election wind down as I am sure everyone else is: I have been getting good comments from people. I went to McDonald’s today, so you know I have been stressed, to get a coffee ( I swear that is all I got), and the manager, whose name escapes me at the moment, because that is how many times I go to McDonalds!!, asked me how I did. She said people were coming in and asking her about me and my signs.

So I did get visibility. I just wish I had started earlier, but I had reservations about doing this. Now I wish I had started earlier. Cheshire may not be ready for me yet, as the Herald, who incidentally did not even mention my results, ( so I took yet another ad out to thank all my supporters), but I think Cheshire may have paused a bit. So it was good and real. I will take time this weekend to visit with some of the people I know voted for me. I appreciate it. I had to put up with a lot of garbage, especially at the end of the race. But I will deal with it. I am always ready to fight!! Just like Bridgeport!!

This is the latest, I don’t know if it is the final, tally of my votes as recorded by the Cheshire Town Clerk’s office as of 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7—107 votes!

Of course, I can never know most of the people who voted for me–but from the bottom of my heart–thank you. I want to thank my husband, Derf, who stood out in the cold rain Tuesday with my sign in front of Epiphany Church, Chapman School, Highland School, Norton School.

I went by Chapman on Tuesday around 8 a.m. and he was already soaked to the skin, even with an umbrella. I also want to thank my daughter Cindy who stood in front of Norton School and pitched my name to the people. It must have worked because Norton and Epiphany garnered the most tallies.

I also am grateful to Lou Murray who supported me-Tim White-Steve Carroll-I am sorry Steve you did not make it-but there is a reason-please stay involved with politics. I also want to thank John White–I want to thank Mrs. Carson, Phil Coppetto,  there are so many people-I want to also thank my public relations coordinator Bryan Kleist.

And a special special thanks to my friend always, Bob Behrer, who is such a nice man and a man who loves to share–THANKS BOB!!!

I will always love Bob because he had the courage to almost come on my Undergroundtownhall TV show a few years ago, but had to cancel out at the last minute because of a conflict. That is also why I will always love Bill Kunde and Gerry Brittingham, who incidentally did finally win a seat on the Board of Education. I am happy for all the winners and congratulate everyone win or lose, who stood out in the rain, the cold, etc. P.S. Special thanks to the person who found my cell phone on the ground in Norton School. Thank you for bringing it to the campaign headquarters. Tim Slocum, whom I also want to thank, had the phone. 

It doesn’t matter what you think of someone, what matters is the committment and the time it took to undertake an endeavor such as this. The campaigning was hard and long. I did not have a lot of money, I ended up making most of my signs, but I tried as hard as I could and I apparently reached many people. Thank you again for taking the time out to write my name in. Remember, my name was not on the ballot.

I did call the Waterbury Republican this afternoon and told them the vote tally-107 not 58!!! Can the papers wait for the final tallies instead of jumping the gun? Or at least put in a disclaimer that this is not official. I think the Meriden paper had that wording. The Waterbury paper said they would print the correct total in Thursday’s paper after they checked with the Town Clerk’s office–that is fair.

My husband contacted the Herald, who had reported I had 77 votes, but they said it was too late–oh brother, whatever. I will be taking out an ad in the Herald to thank people.

I think this whole campaign for me was an eye opener and an ice breaker. I got to see the people involved in the process as real people. Of course, I did have that little “episode” but that is all over and there are no hard feelings. I really do not believe in stepping on anyone’s toes if I can. I understand the emotions of politics. People will be people.

My son said he thought as people got older, they acted “better.” Well, I told him the only real difference between adults and children is that adults can walk, talk, feed themselves and are toilet trained.

Now as most of you know, the big surprise or as I like to think of it as a “message” to the powers that be in this town is the turnaround on the Planning and Zoning. We now will have 6 Republicans and 3 Democrats.

I sincerely believe this is many, not all, many voters voice of discontent with this proposed Lifestyle Center in the North End of town. Last night in the cold, I was speaking to a “candidate” and we were talking about downtown Bridgeport and Lafayette Plaza. Now if any of you remember this mall, it opened in the downtown area of Bridgeport, in 1967, when Bridgeport still had a thriving downtown business district.

I recently read an article on the web, I hope I can find it again so I can post it, that this mall, even though it was nice, had a devastating effect on Bridgeport. I sort of relate Lafayette Plaza to a vacuum cleaner. All it did was suck the life out of the downtown area of Bridgeport that was really our identity. Many people of different ages and different generations could relate to the Downtown. We would all go down there on Thursday night when all the local stores would stay open to 9 p.m.. The CR&L Bus line would drop you off at Main and John Streets, and you would shop to your hearts’ content.

Unfortunately, when Lafayette Plaza opened, the change came quickly. A once vibrant, and I mean vibrant downtown turned into a ghost town. Then, for Bridgeport, that is really when all the problems started. As the stores started to close or move into the mall, the “up to no good” people started to hang around the downtown area. Crime increase- and eventually this activity spilled into the Lafayette Plaza. People became afraid to go downtown.

Then someone had a bright idea–build a mall in the suburbs–Trumbull.  Hence, a few years after Lafayette Plaza opened in downtown Bridgeport, up came Trumbull Shopping Park and down went Bridgeport. “Isn’t it Nice.” (That used to be Trumbull Mall’s slogan–Trumbull Shopping Park–isn’t it nice?

So there you have it. First hand. What do you think will happen to the rest of Cheshire when this lifestyle center opens? Now, Lafayette Plaza did not have the same stores as downtown, and still the area suffered. A once vibrant place to go and have a good time, disintegrated into a vast wasteland of boarded up vacant businesses, that had been a part of our lives and our community for many many years. Childhood memories faded away as the streets and sidewalks of our downtown became vacant. The Arcade, a small group of stores enclosed under a small roof, became a relic. This was our identity. We remembered these places as children. I could talk to my Mom about downtown, and we would laugh because she remembered going to the same stores.

 Not anymore.

It is heartbreaking. It breaks my heart to see it now. I mean, Bridgeport is trying with Harbor Yard stadium and the Arena at Harbor Yard. But that part of Bridgeport is gone. It makes me sick to my stomach. And the real casualty of all this, believe it or not–Pleasure Beach. This beach is the ONLY natural beachfront in Connecticut, and it rots away!! Beyond belief. And I really feel, the building of Lafayette Plaza started this decline.

I am asking the powers that be in this town, including Plan and Zoning and the Town Council to please look into the West Main Street renovation. Look into the Ball and Socket Factory as a smaller version of the Lifestyle Center. I have nothing against this project or W/S Development. I just think it is too big of a project for Cheshire and will suck the life out if it. I saw it happen once, I hope I don’t have to see it happen again. Because my friends, Bridgeport, if it does ever recover, will take many many years.

Don’t make the same mistake Cheshire.