Getting involved in Greenwich

For the most up-to-the-minute news in Greenwich you can’t beat listening to police and fire calls.  Up until last year, or maybe 2008, you could hear the calls on a $100 scanner.  Then GPD & GFD went digital, requiring a digital scanner, around $500.  But now, for free, you can hear the main police and fire calls online at ScanGreenwich.com .  Load it in a window on our PC and it plays in the background.  It even works great on my iPhone and plays in the background while doing emails.  You can also stream it through a WiFi radio if you have one.

It comes in handy if you see a lot of police activity in your neighborhood and want to know what’s going on.

Tom Allesi, who runs the site, asks for donations to keep it running.

Enjoy.

My father used these pencils, I remember them being around when I was in school so I used his, and preferred them because they were unique.   When I was later working as an accountant, and able to order my own pencils, I found these at the supply store we used and myself and everyone in my office used them.  That was in the 90′s.  They were discontinued in 1998, reportedly because the Eberhard Faber machine that crimped the erasers broke.

If you used the eraser a lot, you could pull it out and get more eraser because of the sleeve that held it tight, even after you pulled more out.

This was the only wood pencil made that had an adjustable eraser.  But that’s not why these pencils are now fetching $30 a piece on Ebay, it’s because of the soft lead that was prized for drawing and writing, and is the subject of endless odes in writers blogs.  (And now my blog)

Yes, half the pressure and twice the speed.  It was the Pentium processor of it’s day!

Well, this would be just an interesting history story, maybe not so interesting, if I didn’t have some news to report: The Blackwing is back !

If you spent some time on pencil blogs (I need a life), you would learn that the Palomino blue graphite HB(#2) pencils, made by California Ceder Products and sold at Pencils.com, were considered the closest match to the Blackwing 602 for writing and drawing.  Hearing that people were buying there pencils because pencil bloggers were recommending them, they bought the rights to make the Blackwing 602 from Eberhard Faber and about a month ago they released the Palomino Blackwing

Retails for $19. 95/dozen (click here to find it).  They could have copied it exactly, and included 602 and the “half the pressure, twice the speed” mark, but they wanted to distinguish it.  Also, it’s not just a Palomino blue with different paint and eraser.  It’s a pencil the company’s owner researched, made prototypes, sent the prototypes to loyal fans of the original, took comments, adjusted and released finally, two months ago, as the new Blackwing.  You can read the history of this new release here in Woodchuck’s blog, at pencils.com if you like.

I had two boxes of the original Blackwings that I gave away, admitedly before I realize they were fetching $300/box on Ebay, to a friend at work who also liked pencils.  I never used them, and it was more fun to give them away.  So yes, I bought some of these new Blackwings and I give them a thumbs up.  My friend says the lead in the originals is slightly softer, and I trust her on that.  I don’t notice the difference.  Worth noting is the eraser is white, not red, so it works better.  This is discussed on the above-linked blog.  Red erasers make a mess on paper.

I guess I’d put this down as an inexpensive holiday gift suggestion for someone who is old enough to remember these pencils.  Even it they didn’t use them regularly, if you’re over 40, you’ll probably remember seeing them from time to time and having a box will bring a smile and thoughts of a time before anyone knew that ridiculous smile symbol.

One of the fun things I get to do with this blog is tell you about anything I think you should know.  There’s a new Sherlock Holmes mystery running on PBS, it’s called Sherlock, and it’s set in 2010.  Sounds ridiculous, but this is different.  A truly great mystery with a sort of Sherlock Holmes on steroids character, you’ll love it.  Only three episodes running now, but I’m betting it will be back.

Check it out.  Click it for a link to the series’ page.

I reviewed Jane Condon’s one-woman show back in May, you can read that review, very favorable, here. The show was running in a small theater in New York City at the time, but it’s coming to the Avon Theater in Stamford and you should jump on the opportunity to go see it locally.

As is usually the case, Jane is doing a benefit.  This time for the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation.  It’s Monday, November 15th @ 6:30 and only $50 & $75.  Don’t miss it.

Get your tickets here. http://jbrf.org/janie.html

The RTM passed the spending restraint resolution on Monday and on Tuesday people were lining up to get their expensive capital projects funded.  It’s going to be interesting to see if the RTM actually says no to something.  The high school auditorium is a good place to start.  Tens of millions of dollars for an auditorium is ridiculous, it’s been fine since 1973, why is it no longer acceptable? 

The endless 3% tax increases are, arguably, good because they seem to be lower than neighboring towns but they are unsustainable.  This translates to a 10 or 12% increase every three years and on and on and on it goes. 

I don’t believe most people in town want the auditorium.  I believe most people who show up to the meetings want it, but there’s that silent majority who doens’t have time to go to meetings.  Hopefully, the RTM has spoken for the silent majority with their sense-of-the-meeting resolution but we’ll need to see.  If the RTM really wants to make a statement, pick a few items and say “we’re not approving these in May.”  Hopefully, the auditorium will be one of them.  That would send a real message.

My prediction, the auditorium will be built, the mill rate will go up another 3.5% this year, and next year and the year after that.

The headline (see it here) was “State gets $121 million for New Haven to Springfield line.”  But read the article, the total tab for the high-speed train from New Haven to Springfield is $880 million.  Those trains will alleviate traffic on I-91, which runs the length of the New Haven-Springfield trip.  I-91, the road they’ve already spent millions to improve and widen over the years.  Just drive up it, everywhere you see sound barriers is a spot they’ve improved the road.  

They say this will take up to 4,000 cars/day off the road.  Sounds like a big number, it’s not.  To put it in perspective, the CT Transportation Strategy Board’s Toll Study (2009) estimated that if they put a toll on I-95 at the CT/NY border, 14,000 cars/day would “divert” through Byram and Port Chester’s local streets.  $880 million to take 4,000 cars/day off the road.  And of course we know that it won’t take nearly that many and the estimate is likely over-optimistic.

I-95 Traffic

Here in lower Fairfield County, the piggy bank that supports the entire State of Connecticut, aside from the silly ramp extensions in Stamford, we haven’t seen any improvements to our traffic infrastructure since I-95 was built in 1958.  Traffic in lower Fairfield is much, much worse than in northern Connecticut.

But we can’t really build something as sexy as a high-speed rail in Fairfield, so another $120 million will go to build it where no one really needs it.  $880 million.

Rest assured you’ll be seeing the toll proposal on the table again soon so Hartford can pay for the Connecticut-committed portion of this high-speed folly.

Back in around 2002-3 when Greenwich was changing the beach access rules because of the court case we lost, one RTM member (me) was fighting to ensure that Byram Beach didn’t sell passes at the gate because I feared it would be very inviting to non-residents who could park in downtown Byram or just take the bus – there’s a bus stop right at the Byram Park entrance.  Our Byram delegation signed a letter to the editor that was printed explaining this concern and thanks to Dick Bergstresser and Peter Crumbine, the same rules (buy your passes at Town Hall) were implemented for Byram as were for Tod’s Point.  

The letter to the editor prompted a nasty response from a Port Chester Councilman who blathered on about how snobby we are in Greenwich, how we have no right to keep others out, and even how our beaches were sub-par.  He invited Greenwich residents to visit Rye Town Beach, where everyone is welcome for the same low price (then $5).  

Rye Town Beach

Well, fast forward to 2010.  I don’t think this was reported in the Greenwich papers, but Port Chester/Rye now charges different (higher) prices for non-residents.  Here’s a favorite quote from the April 18, 2010 article in the Rye Patch, (full article here):

More than 150 area residents came to voice their concerns to the Commission, essentially saying: “We want our park and beach back.”

Their emphasis was on the “our,” that “our” constituting the estimated 60,000 residents of Rye City, Port Chester, Rye Brook and Rye Neck who make up the constituency that pays the taxes that support the park.

Sound familiar ?  And by the way, it’s now $20 to park at their beach on weekends.  They actually call it “the Greenwich model.”  Also, they took away parking on the big lawn in Rye Town Park, eliminating parking for 250 cars.  

A subject for another blog post is how we should not have been surprised that when Port Chester/Rye raised their prices, Greenwich beaches pricing became more attractive.

At least we no longer have to face obnoxious criticism of our beach access policies from Port Chester politicians.

Another “blocking” fire truck was hit and severely damaged on I-95 this week.  Read the article here.  This one was Stamford’s, and it cost $360,000 new a few years ago.  Greenwich similarly lost a fire truck a few years ago, I remember because I was on RTM at the time and had to vote to fund the repairs.  I’m pretty sure I wrote a letter to the editor about it too.  Here’s the deal: when there’s an accident on I-95 the responding fire department brings an extra large truck and parks it up-highway from the accident to protect the ambulance, police and other responding firemen from being hit by a driver who isn’t paying attention plowing into the accident scene.  This time, it was a tractor-trailer. 

At the time of the Greenwich fire track crash, one of our state legislators, I believe it was Sen. Nickerson (forgive me if it was someone else) asked the state to buy Greenwich a large truck, it didn’t have to be a fire truck, that we could use as a “blocking” vehicle.  The state never agreed to buy us this vehicle.  I figure you could buy a suitable used garbage truck or dump truck, driveable but not necessarily with all equipment working, for less than $10,000.  Maybe even load it with sandbags or  something to make it a really effective “blocker.”  This would seem a no-brainer unless you’re talking about Connecticut, where we have no problem wasting money.  Not to mention the detriment to public safety caused by a fire truck being taken out of service.

Come on ladies and gentlmen representing us in Hartford, fix this issue right now.