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There’s a “For Lease” sign outside the old Post Road West building, near Wright Street.
But, Frank Rosen notes, the building is in disrepair. Paint is peeling; shingles are askew. It will take a lot more than a new tenant to bring back some of the beauty to this once-handsome mansion-turned-office.
Demolition by neglect?
(Photo/Frank Rosen)
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There was a school bus accident yesterday, on Easton Road near Bayberry Lane. In the photo below, a small car was wedged under the far side of the bus.
Sandy Rothenberg says: “I have traveled this intersection for the past 35 years. It has become increasingly dangerous. The sight lines are very limited, and cars fly around the curve on Easton Road towards Westport. A very small sign indicates ‘slow curve.’ I hope this brings needed attention and improvements to this road.”
(Photo/Sandy Rothenberg)
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Sundance has opened on Main Street — by appointment only, anyway.
A sign on the former Anny Taylor store instructs shoppers to scan a QR code, for a link to an email.
No word yet on when the physical doors will open.
(Photo/Amy Schneider)
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Don’t miss Itzhak Perlman in Westport!
Tickets are still available for the Westport Library’s “Booked for the Evening” event this Thursday (May 13, 7 p.m.).
This year’s livestreamed “Booked” fundraiser will include videos, live musical tributes, and a conversation with Perlman that is just for this audience. No recording will be made of the program.
Click here for tickets, and more information.
Itzhak Perlman
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Speaking of the Library: One of the “star attractions” of the transformed space is Verso Studios. The state-of-the-art audio and broadcast studios can help anyone become a music, podcast, video or audiobook star.
Yesterday, the library launched a new Verso Studios website. Click here to watch and listen to a wide variety of recordings, podcasts and videos — and to find out how to use the studios yourself.
Part of the Westport Library’s Verso Studios.
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In March, “06880” reported on a proposal by Abilis to turn 136 Riverside Avenue into a home for special needs affordable housing.
The Planning & Zoning Commission has granted a permit for a second floor addition, interior and exterior renovations, and site work for apartments for 4 special needs people, and another unit for an income-eligible staff member.
More approvals are needed. But this is good news for special needs individuals and their families. And it’s 5 more important affordable housing units for our town.
136 Riverside Avenue.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci and former 2nd Selectman/Board of Finance chair Avi Kaner shared a stage last night.
The New York Board of Rabbis honored both men with Humanitarian Awards , for their work during the pandemic.
Dr. Fauci’s contributions are well known. Kaner’s may be less famous. But the co-owner of Morton Williams Supermarkets was cited for the work his family-owned business did during the pandemic.
Morton Williams stores never closed. Employees kept working; senior executives ensured that the supply chain continued.
The company became a lifeline to New York. They worked with the CDC to adjust trucking regulations so that truckers would be comfortable making deliveries. They were among the first in the nation to set aside special hours for seniors and immunocompromised customers; they lobbied aggressively for mask use, and ensured that supermarket workers were included in phase 1B of the state’s vaccinations.
Click below for a clip of the introduction:
Click below for Kaner’s speech:
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Thomas Quealy spotted this on North Compo Road.
“Time to update our signs,” he says.
(Photo/Thomas Quealy)
He’s right. The Westport Arts Center moved over a year ago from Riverside Avenue to Newtown Turnpike.
In fact, it no longer exists. It’s now called MoCA Westport.
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Staples High School Class of 2019 graduate Anthony Salgado met Pierce Slutzky years ago, at Camp Laurel. Anthony says:
“Pierce was an amazing kid who was taken from us at age 17. He was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 14, and tirelessly fought medulloblastoma for 3 years.
“Pierce did not complain. He continued in high school, achieving an A average and making National Honor Society and Foreign Language Society.
“It is my honor to ask people to join in a CT Challenge bike ride to keep Pierce’s fight alive forever. I want to help those who are currently diagnosed, and those who may be diagnosed in the future.” Click here for the link.
Pierce Slutzky
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Today’s “Westport … Naturally” shot comes from Roseann Spengler. She spotted this cute couple by the Saugatuck River:
(Photo/Roseann Spengler)
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And finally … Lloyd Price died last week in New Rochelle, from complications of diabetes. He was 88.
He had “Personality.” He had many other hits, including “Stagger Lee” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” He’s a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. He led quite a life inside and outside of music. Click here for a full obituary.
All of those New Orlean’s jump blues records produced by Dave Bartholomew were recorded in a small backroom called J & M studios owned by Cosimo Matassa, located on the corner of Rampart and Dumaine (as memorialized in a Professor Long Hair song recorded there). I visited New Orleans in 1996 expecting such an important site would be preserved, but alas, it was replaced by a laundromat.
That old post road west building must have been gorgeous before the owner let it go into disgraceful disrepair.
It would seem this was intentional.
I’m surprised that the town is not able to instruct owners of these ok’d buildings to keep them from looking abandoned.
“Demolition by neglect”
If I were to make an educated guess I imagine that is and has always been the landlords intention.
A bit like red barn, it appears like intentional neglect.
No doubt both these locations have big plans . More housing perhaps through loopholes.
Maybe it’s time to give zoning and historic more clout when it comes to trying to avoid “demolition by neglect”
That way landlords will need to take care of buildings they own.
It will be very interesting to watch as these 2 places fall down what the respective landlords apply to put in their place.
1 guess ! It will be something they would not have been let do but for the complete dereliction of them.