Improve Public Safety
Public safety is a priority and not a place to cut corners. Republican leaders have been deferring too many items requested by our police and fire chiefs. This ‘kick the can’ budgeting left our fire department without any operable ladder trucks for a period of time this September. That is unacceptable. We believe our first responders should have the tools they need to protect our town.
Traffic calming measures have not kept pace with the surge of cars on our roads. The current First Selectman pulled police from traffic duty on Greenwich Avenue without a plan in place to ensure pedestrian safety. Our residents have been asking for more sidewalks, bike paths, and safe crossings for years and these issues need to be addressed.
Invest in our Schools
Public education is the foundation of our town and our country. Maintaining the quality of our schools is intrinsic to maintaining the quality of life in our town and for bolstering our property values. While the education our students receive is excellent, the condition of the buildings in which they learn is not. Our schools’ physical plants are in crisis; that should be our focus. Becoming embroiled in national culture wars is a distraction we cannot afford when our children’s physical safety and education is at stake. Our students, their families, teachers and administrators need advocates who prioritize intentional investment in our school infrastructure that will create safe and enriching environments.
We support and will continue to advocate for:
- ADA compliance in all of our schools
- Building the new Central Middle School without delay
- Renovating Old Greenwich School without delay
- Completing the Western Middle School fields remediation
- Renovations at Riverside and Julian Curtiss Schools
Keep our taxes low and improve fiscal responsibility
Short sighted fiscal management has deprived our residents of town services that they expect–like schools and sidewalks that are ADA-compliant, playable athletic fields, and first responders with the equipment they need to keep us safe.
Delaying necessary projects year after year ends up costing more, as labor and material costs increase annually. Refusing to fund maintenance means that residents end up paying more when buildings, elevators, ferries or fire trucks inevitably need to be replaced sooner.
At the same time, our First Selectman has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on legal fees in pursuit of politically motivated lawsuits and investigations that do not improve life for Greenwich residents.
We don’t need to raise taxes to correct these problems and fix infrastructure. We need smarter fiscal planning. We need experienced investment professionals who know how to strategically plan with a 5-year, 10-year or 20 year horizon, and not just focusing on how to fix the latest ceiling collapse.
Creating Affordable Housing while preserving local control
Greenwich needs more housing for our seniors, our graduates, and our workforce, like our teachers and first responders. Renting in Greenwich is so expensive because there are not enough homes to meet demand from middle-income earners or seniors on fixed income.
Further, until 10% of our total housing meets the definition of affordable, Greenwich will continue to be subject to a burdensome state law called 8-30g. This statute allows developers to bypass local zoning requirements and build as large as they want. Although this law was passed 34 years ago, Greenwich has made little progress in adding needed housing. In the last 21 years, Greenwich has only increased its affordable housing stock by 1.3%. At this rate, we will not meet the 10% threshold until the year 2093! In the last state legislative session, our three Democratic state representatives spoke out, worked behind the scenes, and voted against two onerous state bills that would have required towns such as Greenwich to add a lot more density than our town residents would like or our infrastructure could handle. We do not want to lose the historic feel of our town.
Our Democratic candidates for town offices will work with local housing agencies to make sure that Greenwich is affordable to our workforce and our seniors. Greenwich needs leaders with vision who will shepherd development of moderately priced housing; doing it in a way that preserves our local autonomy — on our own terms.
Climate Action and the threat to our neighborhoods
With 100-year floods occurring every 1-30 years now, Greenwich cannot ignore the threats posed to our neighborhoods by climate change. We are a coastal town, and it is not enough to tell residents to elevate their homes. We need to adopt a climate action plan that incorporates conservation and resiliency into every aspect of local government. An abundance of infrastructure money is available at the state and federal level for towns to adopt climate mitigation and adaptation projects, but it takes leadership to take advantage of these opportunities.
Our Democratic slate has the vision and commitment to take advantage of the many available opportunities to keep our neighborhoods safe from flooding, while doing our part to address the climate crisis.
Improving our quality of life
Greenwich is a great place to live, with a beautiful shoreline and an abundance of parks and playgrounds. But years of shortsighted leadership are taking their toll. Many of our athletic fields are in poor shape. Parking is a challenge on Greenwich Avenue. Our woods are falling prey to development in the absence of an open space plan. Magical thinking will not make these problems go away. Our Democratic slate brings a vision of how we want our town to look twenty years from now.