Health, Safety & the Environment

By 2012, Greenwich should have a new park and athletic field on a 9.7 acre waterfront site just off Sound Shore Drive in Cos Cob.  The site of the new park previously was the home of a coal-fired plant that provided electrical power for the New Haven rail line, which runs just north of the former power plant site, since 1907.  The power plant continued to provide power to Metro North trains until it ceased operations in the 1980’s.  The site was known s Studswell Point in the 17th century.  In the 1800’s, some of  America’s finest impressionist painters, such as Childe Hassam,  escaped the bustle and noise of New York City to stay at the historic Bush-Holley house in Cos Cob, a short distance from Studswell Point.  It is likely that some of those painters brought the site of the future park to life on their canvases.  The first step of the site cleanup was to remove highly toxic PCBs.  Thereafter, the power plant was demolished and removed from the property in or about 1999-2000 at a cost of six million dollars.  Greenwich bought the property in 1989 for $1.  The future park and athletic field still remains contaminated with fly ash, a residue of the coal used to power the former plant. Rather than remove the fly ash, the State Department of Environmental Protection has approved a plan for the site to be capped with a geo-textile fabric.  On top of the cap, another four feet of soil will be added for additional protection.  The new park and athletic field will be a boon to Greenwich.  In exchange for an abandoned, contaminated waste site, the Town will obtain a beautiful shoreline property that everyone will love visiting.

The Old Santa Fe Inn in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is one of the newest hotels in historic Santa Fe and most reasonably priced.  Only three blocks from the historic Santa Fe Plaza, the inn harkens back to an earlier time,  but at the same time provides every modern amenity to guests.  I highly recommend the inn the next time you plan a trip to the Southwest. 

According to this morning’s Greenwich Time, Greenwich Academy apologized to the Greenwich P&Z for cutting down about 100 trees near its tennis courts last October, an act which First Selectman Peter Tesei described as “flouting” the town’s regulations.  Worse, neighbors of the school in the complained that the trees had been an effective barrier and prevented headlights from vehicles from shining on Patterson Avenue residents. What could Greenwich Academy have been thinking?  Trees are one of Greenwich’s valuable resources. The Greenwich Tree Conservatory, which was established by concerned Greenwich citizens in 2007, was chartered to educate citizens and businesses on the value and benefit of trees and importance of stewardship.  The seed for the conservancy was planted in 2006 at a program at the Bruce Museum entitled, “Clear Cut: Coming a Neighborhood Near You?”, which was sponsored in partnership with the  Connecticut League of Conservation Voters Education Fund (“CTCLV Ed Fund“) I would urge someone from GA to join the Board of the conservancy to demonstrate GA’s commitment to tree stewardship in the future.   Trees are routinely cut down by developers, even on town property, if it will improve the view from their multi-million dollar edifices. Although these developers routinely apologize and cry “Oops”, we hear little about the levying of fines for destruction of trees on town property.  In any event, what’s a $1,500 fine when cutting down the tree may create better water views that will increase the value of a property by tens of thousands of dollars?  We all need to suppport the efforts of Bruce Spaman, Greenwich’s Tree Warden.  Fines for the destruction of trees on town property such carry gravity-based fines.  In other words, the economic benefit to the  offender should be considered in coming up with an appropriate fine.

According to Colin Gustafson’s and Frank MacEachern’s recent reports in the Greenwich Time, Greenwich state legislators are proposing a bill that would prohibit building cell towers within 750 feet of a school or day care because of a perceived health risk from electromagnetic radiation.  However, some Cos Cob residents believe that the cell towers should not be permitted within 5,000 feet of any schools, day cares and elderly homes due to health concerns.  Reportedly, the cell tower bill has been proposed by Rep. Fred Camillo, R-151^stDistrict, and supported by fellow Reps. Livvy Floren, R-149^thDistrict, Lile Gibbons, R-250^thDistrict, and Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-136^thDistrict.  There is no good evidence that attending school near a cell tower, such as the one proposed, creates a health risk.  During the 1980’s, some plaintiff lawyers ballyhooed electromagnetic field (“EMF”) litigation as the “new asbestos.”  A series of well-funded EMF trials were litigated against various electric utility companies around the United States in the 1990’s.  After the presentation of the scientifc evidence, judges and juries uniformly rejected plaintiff health claims.  The Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) website contains a great deal of reliable scientific information concerning health effects from radiation exposure from cell towers, cell phones, microwave ovens and hair dryers.  According to the CDC, the risk is extremely low.  The low frequency radiation that those fields emit may have a biological effect, but do not cause adverse health effects, according to the website of the World Health Organization (“WHO”), which has devoted years of study on EMFs.  So what is a biological effect?  WHO’s literature explains that “biological effects” may include “listening to music, reading a book, eating an apple or playing tennis,” none of which cause health effects.  WHO’s conclusion is that there is no health risk to the EMF radiation to which the public is exposed.  Thus, contrary to popular hysteria, there is no evidence that proximity to EMFs can “fry” a person’s brain or cause cancer.  If our legislators are going to propose EMF safety precautions, they should base their proposals on strong science rather than fear.  The “dose” or exposure from cell tower EMFs can be measured and quantified.  Once that  “exposure” is known, it is then  necessary to look to the scientific literature to evaluate the likelihood of a health risk from that exposure.  If EMF radiation posed a health risk to everyone living near a cell tower, it is a no-brainer that all cell towers should  be dismantled–not just those near schools and day cares and homes for the elderly. The cell tower issue has alway been about diminution of property value and aesthetics; it is not about our health! 

There is no shortage of bad ideas emerging from Connecticut’s legislature in Hartford that, if passed, would have a detrimental affect on our environment in our wonderful state.  According to a report by the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters (“CTLCV”), these short-sighted and ill-conceived legislative proposals put forth would:

(1)  Sell off state land without following rules requiring public disclosure and public comment;

(2)  Rob clean energy and energy efficiency accounts in order to pay the costs of borrowing money to plug our current $1.3 billion budget gap;

(3)  Allow a takeover of the Department of Environmental Protection by the Department of Community & Economic Development; and

 (4)  Form a commission to expedite the environmental permitting process–without designating a single environmental specialist seat on the commission.

CTLCV prepares a legislative “score card” (think “grammar school report card”) that rates our legislators’ environmental voting records.  If you want to follow what our ingenious legislative representatives are doing, log on to the score card.  If you care deeply about environmental issues in Connecticut and how these issues work their way through the legislative process, consider formally joining the CTLCV and becoming one of the “good guys”!  We need environmental watchdogs and CTLCV fills that role well.  (Full disclosure: I am a CTLCV Education Fund (the 501(c)(3) affiliate of CTLCV) Board Member.

Ignore the media hype, relax and enjoy Valentine’s Day.  We all have enough things to worry about these days than to have  to start worrying about whether we have bought the right Valentine’s Day card, the right chocolates, or the right bottle of wine to celebrate the occasion.  Just like last year, the wine pundits are offering their advice about the best wine to drink for a romantic celebration of  Valentine’s Day.  One wine writer, in an article aptly titled “Vino For Valentines!“  urges that we run out a buy a bubbly wine for the occasion. However, he cautions that the bubbly had better not be Budweiser. What nonsense!  If you and your significant other are enjoying the view of Long Island Sound at sunset on Valentine’s Day on Todd’s Point in Greenwich (or some equally beautiful coastal redoubt), listening to music in your (hopefully well-heated) car, a Budweiser might be just the quaff to make the moment memorable.  Of course, pouring champagne into wine flutes in the front seat of the car might make for a more elegant celebration. But the bottom line that it is the spirit of the occasion  that  makes the day special, not what you buy at  the store.  Another wine writer goes one step further. In an article titled “Drink Pink: Ten reasons to reach for rosé (and red) bubbles this Valentine’s Day“, Wine Enthusiast author Kelly Magyarics provides 10 reasons why your Valentine’s Day wine should not only be bubbly, but rosé!   The rose-colored bubbles go with the red roses, is one good reason, among the ten reasons she offers. Another of Kelly’s top ten reasons is that rosé wine is sexy.  A colleague of hers (Jill Zimorski, Beverage Director for José Andrés’ Think Food Group in Washington, DC)  offers,  “It’s like a sports bra versus a lacy push-up; they both achieve the same purpose, but one is definitely sexier than the other”.  According to Jill, the rosé makes for a fuller more voluptuous wine.  Lacy push-up bras and bubby rosé on Valentine’s Day?  I have heard lots of wildly creative ways of describing  wine’s bouquet.  But this is the first lingerie analogy I have found!  What should we expect for next year–”Victoria’s Secret Push-up Pinot Noir”?  Pass me a Bud!

Before over-indulging at the dining room table over the Christmas and New Year holidays, I should have taken stock of Eric Asimov’s New York Times column, “An Italian Lesson for the Over stuffed”, which appeared on November 23, 2009.  “Bloated? Overstuffed? More than a little uncomfortable?,” he inquires. After all of the nibbles and noshes, the hors d’oeuvres, the sides and the turkey, the rolls, the stuffing and all of a second helpings, it this time, according to Mr. Asimov, to take gastric refuge in one of the elixirs intended to remedy digestive excesses.  Italian digestives, or digestivos, are known collectively as Amari. The Amari are not just any after dinner concoction. The proprietory formulas for Amari generally includes various herbs, roots, flowers and spices, which are macerated in alcohol, sometimes blended with a sweet syrup, and tempered in barrels or bottles.  Although there are dozens of Amari on the market in  Italy, in the United States well known brands include Fernet-Branca, Averna and Campari.  With an alcohol content that can range from 20 to 40%, Amari may be just the necessary tonic to address over eating over the holidays.  I confess to not knowing much about Amari but something tells me I should get up-to-speed before the next holiday meal. Both my tastebuds and stomach will welcome the effort.

It used to be that a wine store attracted business by having a friendly and knowledgeable sales staff, an attractive store in which to shop, and a good selection of reasonably priced wine. Some of the larger wine establishments have morphed into something more. In addition to a comprehensive internet search engine, replete with wine glossary and monthly wine club subscriptions, Astor Wines & Spirits  in Manhattan has branched out to provide additional services including formal wine tastings, cooking classes, and even a “Hands-On Pizza Workshop & Walking Tour of Little Italy“, which you can join in on for a mere $175 per person. The workshop and walking tour advertisement promises that soon after participating in the event your friends will begin calling you “pizzaiolo” …..Italiano for pizza chef)!  Astor even boasts several attractive rooms on its premises which can be rented to conduct classes or private events.  Smaller wine retailers are attracting customers by offering informal wine tastings and discounts on wine tasted.  From a marketing perspective, the brick and mortar wine businesses do not want to lose business to internet wine merchants with little nor no overhead, who can offer wines at a steep discount.  Our shop, these merchants seem to be saying, should become a community or neighborhood resource, which an internet site cannot become, no matter how successful.  Buy a book, learn to cook, taste some wine and…..just maybe…..while you are here, buy a bottle of wine!