Concern

Doug, research has shown that new developments LOWER the prices in the surrounding area.

That’s because all the people who move into them, don’t go bidding up the housing nearby.

The SoNo development will be FINE.

If you’re concerned about the vacancies on Washington, I’ll give you a hint: It’s not because of high rents, it’s because of (1) Harry’s regulatory pay-for-play scheme, and (2) landlords speculating on Harry’s next big development deal.

Banning new construction won’t solve these problems, it’ll just make the housing crisis WORSE.

We need to clean up the permitting regime so that businesses can actually open, and we need a “use-it-or-lose-it” tax on landlords: double the property tax every 6 months that a property stays vacant.

Lastly, there are a LOT of under- and mis-utilized lots in SoNo. There’s no reason why an events-planning company should be occupying an historical building called the SoNo Brewhouse; that should be a freaking brewery instead (DUH!), and the event planners would be better off in the lovely SoNo 50 tower. Carpet and kitchen showrooms should be relocated to Connecticut Ave with the other furniture stores and big boxes, so that more interesting businesses can move in – what ever happened to my axe-throwing social club?! More bakeries and a Trader Joe’s please. And we should do something about all that ugly industrial waterfront along Water St. Another museum would be nice! Let’s host more street festivals and farmers’ markets – no offense to the Lockwood park, but it’s insane to put our flea market that far away from our highest-foot-traffic area.

It’s not rocket science. A lot of these problems are pretty obvious if you just take a walk around the neighborhood, and maybe sit and talk with someone who lives here over a beer. But overdevelopment ISN’T among them.

I am concerned. Thank you Mr. Peoples.

Kudos to you Doug. This has become a city where common sense has taken a back seat. Our mayor only shows up to ribbon cuttings and fund raisers for his campaigns to make sure he will get another two years added to his bank account. He has surrounded himself with admins to do his job and is held accountable by no one. He allows the state to push its agenda in our town to the point where raw sewage is over flowing into the sound at alarming rates yet our council wants to talk about banning leaf blowers! Yes, leaf blowers. Instead of adding thousands of apartments on an annual basis how about a youth center for children, a sub station for police, another fire station to cover the cranbury side of town? Oh yeah, these would be common sense items. We would have to run this by our chief of staff, chief of that staff, #1 super in the state of CT! We have more chiefs of staffs in city hall than the pentagon has in Washington DC. Finally, I am concerned that Norwalk doesnt utilize a fine mentor and teacher like yourself Dougie Peoples, who has a great history of working with kids in Norwalk! You have always been giving of yourself in teaching martial arts and supporting the children. Maybe city hall can take notice and ease your concern and become aware of the fine people and principles that built this town like Doug Peoples before he leaves too!

I am concerned to somebody mentioned the industrial waterfront that I would actually like to keep functioning unless it could be moved out to Manrissa the industrial waterfront is absolutely vital for maintaining a awesome waterfront in Norwalk and it’s only a small area of the city and a very strategically well located one. I also agree that the next housing development is probably not great for the residents and I would like to see additional work done on two and three family houses being pursued over a gigantic tenant buildings that don’t do anything for us. I have a tremendous amount of interaction with the people in the harbor shores area I haven’t met anybody not one in the apartments that used to be washing village. As far as the other large-scale projects that have happened in the last few years that pay for play scheme should be Gannim style imprisonment offense. The schools do need to figure out their budget and they need to be smart about it they need to do more planning on Capital and less planning on break fix it’s been a death spiral since I’ve been in town. Sono also needs other things other than housing that lean towards the industrial and business areas yes the party place should definitely be a brewery no argument there that was a solid argument. However we don’t have a single functioning automotive shop in Sono for regular vehicles we should have at least two we have one horribly useless gas station that is incredibly overpriced. We have no legal body shops. So the support service industry which I just touched on automotive which is very relatable to everybody. We are being told every day that we need a good walk score to the train station yet you can’t get your car fixed anywhere near the train station. We have a total of two tiny grocery stores C-Town being the biggest CS grocery being the best run. And both of them are significantly more expensive due to how they’re treated by local legislation on vendors

Dougie, I think you graduated with my sister Donna in 1971

Peoples for the People ’24