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Mayor-elect Smyth Announces December Community Listening Sessions

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NORWALK, Conn. — Mayor-elect Barbara Smyth is inviting residents to participate in two community listening sessions this month as her transition team begins gathering public input on priorities for the new administration.

The sessions will be held Dec. 10 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Community Room at Norwalk City Hall, and Dec. 18 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the South Norwalk Branch Library.

“Throughout this campaign, I had the pleasure of talking to neighbors about things they love and things they want to see improve in the future,” Smyth said in a statement. “During the campaign, I promised I would continue to listen and gather feedback from you, the people of Norwalk, to shape our policies as we move forward. This is the first of many opportunities to do just that.”

The sessions are open to the public and will focus on several issues raised by residents during the campaign, including housing and affordability, education and school budgeting, transportation and infrastructure, economic development, neighborhood quality of life, environmental and coastal resilience, and human services.

Attendees can engage at any table and move throughout the room to discuss the topics most important to them. Each table will include at least one member of Smyth’s transition team to help facilitate the discussions and take notes.

“As mayor, it is important for me to engage with the public, listening to them, and addressing their needs,” Smyth said. “I’m looking forward to putting together priorities and policies that are for the people and by the people, addressing their concerns.”

Smyth said her administration will prioritize strengthening schools, improving infrastructure, expanding the tax base, and keeping the city affordable and welcoming.

“We all want Norwalk to keep moving forward,” she said. “We can do that as one community — with opportunity, inclusion, and progress for everyone.”

Listening Session Dates

  • Wednesday, Dec. 10, 6 p.m. — Norwalk City Hall Community Room
  • Thursday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m. — South Norwalk Branch Library

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Comments

10 responses to “Mayor-elect Smyth Announces December Community Listening Sessions”

  1. Becca Stoll

    I appreciate mayor-elect Smyth’s interest and initiative to hear from the public, and to offer this at 2 locations that are both easy to access without a car. However, the fact that both sessions are in the same time slot means anyone who works or has obligations then won’t have a way to participate. I hope that can be kept in mind for future planning.

  2. David Muccigrosso

    I object to the use of these sorts of sessions. This is the 21st century, and they are 20th century social technology.

    @Barbara, if you’re reading this, just “Build More Of Washington Street”. That’s the only thing that really matters. Everything else is just noise [from angry NIMBYs who you’ll never keep happy].

  3. Audrey Cozzarin

    Meeting one another in person is a dynamic that works even in the 21st century. I look forward to meeting you, David, at one of these sessions!

  4. Iliana Zuniga

    I appreciate the mayor-elect’s effort to hold these community listening sessions. However, I’d like to raise a friendly concern about the format—dividing participants strictly by tables and topics. In my experience, our community’s issues like education, budget, and housing are all interconnected. A more flexible format that allows for cross-topic discussions might lead to a richer, more holistic dialogue, since many of us care about multiple issues at once. I hope the organizers might consider this perspective.

  5. Susan Schwartz

    Iliana, I disagree. I think this format allows for more robust discussion – hopefully with the ability to talk about potential solutions rather than list grievances. In my experience having a microphone in the middle of the room does not allow for dialog but rather serves as a place for folks to get up one after another and list off the things they are upset about or don’t like. This seems like a much much better way to actually engage with residents and talk through the things that are concerning to them. Of course topics are interrelated and I am sure that will come up in the table discussions, but also, dividing it up into topics will allow people to get into deeper discussions. Without breakouts, there are too many topics to cover – for instance people who are very concerned with say blight enforcement may not get to talk about their concerns fully if others there want to focus on education funding. I think this is a smart, welcoming, and inclusive way to invite dialog with the community. Just my two cents.

    1. Iliana Zuniga

      I respect your point of view. I did not say I suggested a town hall format with people giving public comment. My point is that by restricting one topic per table, we loose the ability to discuss the interconnectivity of these issues and hear the opinions of others

  6. John O’Neill

    IF Barbara doesn’t know what the issues are by now she never should have been elected Mayor. This is pure theater.
    For goodness sakes, she’s been on the Common Council for years. Although she only taught in Norwalk for 12 years, I would imagine
    she should know what is working/not working in schools.
    While on the surface this sounds nice, once you pull the curtain back this is a joke.

    1. David Muccigrosso

      I heartily agree, John. It’s almost like the entire apparatus of public comment was really just pointless in the first place.

    2. Peter Marino

      Fair point, but then I think to myself….. Perhaps, just maybe, this isn’t theater at all, but a reset after years of being shut out for 12 years by the last mayor.

      1. David Muccigrosso

        If you’re buying that, I have a bridge to sell you over the Norwalk River.

        Peter, we probably come from different sides of the development divide, but I think we both agree that this town runs on machine politics.

        The machine doesn’t care what you or I think. It cares what insiders think. This event is not about the PUBLIC’s opinion — if they cared about public will, they’d be doing everything in their power to maximize turnout for every single election, just so they could get the best snapshot of public opinion.

        They don’t do that. Because this event is about giving people a chance to become insiders. They show up, say their piece, maybe get heard, and most walk away unsatisfied, but the big point is that a handful will get sucked into the machine’s vortex. They then spend YEARS doing “activism” for whatever thing they care about; but because what can be done within the machine is so *carefully* circumscribed, they will only be able to achieve very little. Every bike path, every tree protected, every education program — it will feel like a herculean effort to them, and they will be proud of having gotten just a small speck done in the face of the ENORMOUS procedural hurdles that the machine put in their path.

        They will be so busy jumping hurdles, they will never ask whether we should rightly HAVE those hurdles in the first place.

        A few, particularly talented ones, will take the same journey Barbara has. They will become so adept at jumping the hurdles, slapping backs and shaking hands, that they find themselves at the top of the machine. Like a captain steering a cruise ship, they will end up having SOME control over it, but they will never be able to destroy or remake the machine, because they are creatures of it — they never set out to do that in the first place, and now that they’re thoroughly ensconced in it, they cannot see past all of its internal “logics” that they have spent the last several decades learning as if they were Holy Scripture.

        This isn’t a listening session. It’s a recruitment event.

        That’s why no one ever seems to actually LISTEN. And it’s why the machine always does its own thing — it operates on its own logic.

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