Op-Ed: Deceit on Weed Street

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I didn’t expect to be back so soon, but if the horrors persist, so, I guess, must we. If you missed the first installment, you’ll find it here. 

Last weekend, Arnold Karp and his team posted billboards at the corner of Weed and Elm Streets that claim to give passersby some choice in what gets built there. Protected by the same free speech laws that protect this Op-Ed, the signs also bully the site’s intervenor neighbors and make a crucially deceptive argument in support of the enormous condo building Karp has recently said he wants to construct there. First of all, please understand that the Town of New Canaan did not post these billboards, nor are they asking for you to vote on this project. That’s not how this works. 

Let’s talk about what’s actually going on.

Op-Ed: Was it Ever About Affordable Housing at Weed & Elm?

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Last week it emerged that, after his four-year crusade for affordable housing at Weed and Elm streets, developer Arnold Karp has cooked up an alternative set of plans to build a 62-condo building that will contain precisely zero affordable units. Three neighbors currently serve as holdouts, refusing to greenlight this version of the project. If these neighbors capitulate, the 62-unit, market-rate building will move forward. If they don’t, the 30% affordable, 102-unit rental structure whose grimly generic renderings we first laid eyes on in 2022 will be built. 

To add to the intimidation tactic of Karp’s op-ed, bulldozers and land-clearing machinery have been active on the lot all week. I think we’ve all known for some time that this wouldn’t end without an eye-gougingly inappropriate building doing its best to blot out the sun at Weed and Elm streets.

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Who Knew: I Knew André Was an Idiot, and Soon, You Will Too

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. A man, diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, made a hilarious, profound rocketship of a movie about it, and I’m inviting you to come watch it with me at the New Canaan Playhouse on April 18th. André is an Idiot is the best movie about death I’ve ever seen. Not just me; pretty much anyone who sees it. It won the Audience Award at Sundance.

Who Knew: Wonder No More

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. I never write bad reviews. If a restaurant isn’t for me, I say so privately and move on; taking public shots at a small local business seems cruel when umpteen other forces stand ready to shutter an eatery any given day. Today, though, I’m making an exception, because what has quietly arrived in Stamford, dressed in the language of convenience and community, is not a small local business. It just plays one on a screen near you.

Who Knew: The Most Important Meal of the Year

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. Fairfield County is home to rolling lawns, sprawling mansions, and this brutal truth: right now, 34,000 children in our county are food insecure. Statewide, one in six kids doesn’t know where their next meal will come from. 

In October, when we learned that SNAP wouldn’t be funded during the government shutdown, the human reality of nutrition assistance bloomed in vivid color: a lot of people need help paying for food, and many of these people are our neighbors. To allow people to go hungry is horrifying, and there’s no credible political or religious doctrine that justifies it. Period.