For 18 years, Westport has celebrated Martin Luther King Day in a special way.
Through speakers, panels, videos and arts performances, we’ve learned a lot.
But Sunday’s event was extra-special.
Dr. Clarence Jones — Dr. King’s speechwriter, personal attorney and confidant — offered a behind-the-scenes view of his friend’s public and personal lives.
Hundreds of people of all ages — from Westport and beyond — packed the Westport Library.
They were enlightened, inspired, mesmerized and energized by the 93-year-old Dr. Jones’ passion, stories and insights. He made the past come alive; he tied it to today, and pointed toward tomorrow.
Attendees called it “profoundly moving,” “wonderfully emotional,” and “a day I’m proud to say I’m a Westporter.”
Dr. Clarence Jones greets attendees after his talk. (Photo/Matthew Slossberg)
For nearly 2 decades, several organizations have worked together to make Martin Luther King Day meaningful.
In much of the nation, it’s a day off from work or school. In Westport, it’s an educational tool — and a reminder that while our history is imperfect, and much work remains to be done, every individual has the power to take a stand, and make a change.
Dr. Jones was joined by 2 other noted speakers: Senator Richard Blumenthal, and New York Congressman Ritchie Torres. Westport resident and NBC News anchor Craig Melvin led the discussion.
From left: Congressman Ritchie Torres, Craig Melvin, Dr. Clarence Jones. (Photo/Caitlin Jacob)
But the afternoon belonged to Dr. Jones. And none of it would have happened without a true “team.”
Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy and Council initiated our town’s annual Martin Luther King Day celebration.
This year’s event was a partnership between the Westport Library, TEAM Westport, and the Westport Country Playhouse.
To all who envisioned a townwide Dr. King celebration nearly 2 decades ago, and to all who made this year’s event particularly impactful: Thank you.
You are truly our Unsung Heroes of the Week.
(Do you know an Unsung Hero? Email 06880blog@gmail.com. To help support this hyper-local blog, click here. Thank you! To see Dr. Jones’ full presentation, click below.)
What do you want — or not want — in the Compo Beach playground renovation project?
All Westporters are invited to an open house this Saturday (January 20, noon to 1:30 p.m., Bedford Middle School cafeteria).
Play by Design, an offshoot of the original playground design company, is leading this project. Lisa Deshano will present the preliminary designs. A Q-and-A session and comments from key committee members follows.
The renovation is the centennial project of the Westport Rotary Club, which constructed the original playground in 1986 and subsequent renovation in 2006. Both were done in conjunction with the Westport Young Woman’s League.
The Compo Beach playground is quiet in winter. Soon — with community input — it will be hopping again. (Photo/Dave Dellinger)
Clarence Hayes saw this morning’s “06880” post by Scott Smith — about clear-cutting trees before building new, large homes — and immediately thought of Newtown Turnpike.
He sent this photo, calling it “a perfect picture to illustrate mindless cutting for the convenience of a developer.”
(Photo/Clarence Hayes)
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Each year, Milford‘s Foran High School wrestling team chooses a charity to support. This year they selected Rach’s Hope — the non-profit that honors the memory of the 2015 Staples High School graduate who died just before her senior year at Cornell University after a rare reaction to common medication.
Rach’s Hope provides nutritious food, lodging, transportation and encouragement to family members when a child is in intensive care
The Foran wrestlers helped at the annual Walk for Rach’s Hope at Compo Beach in October. They sold t-shirts with the tagline “We Choose Hope,” which they designed.
Last week, they dedicated their home opening match to Rach’s Hope. The gym was filled with supporters.
Team captains eloquently shared the story and mission of Rach’s Hope — and then presented Rachel’s parents, Alan and Lisa, with a $5,000 check.
“The love and support in the gym from spectators and the team were palpable,” says Lisa.
“The wrestlers wore Rach’s Hope singlets with pride. It was an extraordinary event.
“What an incredibly warm group of high school students. They are not only dedicated and empathic to both their sport and our cause, but the effort they put into raising funds for Rach’s Hope was over the top.”
Next up for Rach’s Hope: the 5th annual PJ Gala (FTC in Fairfield). Click here for tickets. Click here to learn more about Rach’s Hope.
The Foran High School wrestling team. The backs of their shirts say, “We Choose Hope.”
COQODAQ — a new fried chicken “concept” — opened recently in the heart of New York’s Flatiron district. Mayor Eric Adams cut the ribbon, and Busta Rhymes delivered a surprise performance.
The “06880” connection: Staples High School graduate and returned-to-Westport resident Jacqueline Broder Hensel is a partner in Gracious Hospitality Management, which developed COQODAQ.
turned the space that once housed Rocco DiSpirito’s reality-TV restaurant into a glittering room dedicated to the veneration of this humble bird: A series of luminescent golden arches form a nave under which two banks of booths scallop out, and the walls are covered in a dermis of subtly textured golden panels.
“We wanted to create a cathedral of fried chicken,” (award-winning restaurateur Simon) Kim says.
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Westport Writers’ Workshop picked the perfect spot for their 3rd annual Pitch & Publish Conference (March 16): the Westport Library.
The event is aimed at anyone seeking a literary agent, hoping to be educated about the industry at large, or looking to meet and be inspired by authors, agents and editors. T
Keynote speaker Leigh Stein is a fiction writer, poet and memoirist.
The conference begins Friday, March 15 with a welcome party at WWW (25 Sylvan Lane), followed by Saturday’s panels, one-on-one pitches, and a wrap party.
New this year: Each agent will read 5 pages of a writer’s work (in addition to their query letter); a mini “practice your pitch” session, and a catered lunch.
The after-party is at Basso.
Individual tickets for the conference only are $350 each (walk-ins accepted); tickets for the conference plus 2 one-on-one pitches with literary agents are $600 each before February 9, $675 each thereafter. Click here to register, and for more information.
Longtime Westport resident Nancy Wilder died peacefully on January 6. She was 95.
A 1949 Mt. Holyoke College graduate, she remained active throughout her life keeping alumnae connected with each other, and the school.
Nancy was married to Milo Wilder for over 50 years. They had 2 sons, Sandy and Scott (“Hoover”). Scott died in 2008, after becoming a quadriplegic in 1974. They joyfully cared for him all those years until Milo’s death 2000. She then selflessly cared for him alone for the rest of his life. Sandy now lives in the St. Louis area. Nancy lived in Westport for the last 67 years.
Nancy is survived by her grandchildren and step-grandchildren: Duncan Wilder, Holly Wilder, Katharine Burgdorff Tyler, Lauren Burgdorff Frederick, and Douglas James Burgdorff.
Nancy was very active in her boys’ education, serving on many PTA boards and traveling often to watch their sports events from childhood through college. She was primarily a stay-at-home mom, although she did bookkeping for her husband’s company for many years.
Nancy adored her many golden retrievers and cats, was an active boater with her husband, and played tennis weekly with many good friends for much of her adult life. She loved watching tennis, golf, the New York Yankees and University of Connecticut women’s basketball.
Her (and her family’s) favorite place is Southwest Harbor, Maine. She went there every summer of her life. She met her husband-to-be there, and has ancestors in the region dating to the 1600s. She felt especially grateful that she got to spend all of July and August there last summer. Her favorite activity was visiting with family on the deck, looking out at Norwood Cove, the Causeway Club, and the mountains of Acadia National Park.
Nancy loved to do jigsaw puzzles, read, and visit with family She had a special knack for helping people feel deeply valued and appreciated independent of their age, like a cheerleader of the soul.
She had many friends she kept in touch with. After Scott’s death, many of his friends adopted her as their “second mom.”
A celebration of Nancy’s life will be held March 2 (2 p.m., Saugatuck Congregational Church).
As winter weather finally sets in this week, Pam Docters captured this “Westport … Naturally” image.
It shows the Saugatuck River downtown, looking toward Gorham Island. For the first time in a while: brrrrrr. (With apologies to our friends in Buffalo, where it actually is cold.)
And finally … it’s a short hop from COCODAQ (story above) to “06880.” Welcome to Westport (or at least, our hyper-local blog), Busta Rhymes!
(To honor Busta Rhymes’ first appearance in our “06880” pages, please click here. You can donate in honor of anyone else on earth there too. Thank you!)
Scott Smith is an alert “06880” reader, a longtime Westporter and an ardent environmentalist. He writes:
As the owner of a modest Westport home that will surely be torn down once I’m gone, I’ve long read with interest stories about the fate of similar properties around town.
It’s sad to see photos showing strips of yellow police tape and a demolition notice in front of the excavator doing its business – erasing a house that surely held generations of good memories.
Sadder still is to read of all the mature trees cut down and old growth obliterated, often with clear-cut efficiency, to make way for the new McMansion to come.
New construction, on Ferry Lane East.
That’s progress, I guess. Trees are a renewable resource, and I’m sure a new family will be making happy memories in their shiny new home, with its upsized square footage and tax roll valuation. Good for them – and for helping keep our Grand List mill rate enviably low.
But here’s what strikes me about these spanking new trophy homes: After spending 2 or 3 million dollars on the house itself, why are these new homeowners content with a cheapo landscape design that typically consists of a puny row of boxwood shrubs along a Belgian-brick pathway to the door, and a yard of wall-to-wall sod?
These cookie-cutter plots are not just aesthetic wastelands. They are also effectively sterile environments that do nothing to help preserve and perpetuate native plants and wildlife.
So, while I don’t wish to add to the town-wide rules about how to renovate a private property for future use, I suggest the town be more proactive in encouraging developers and new homeowners to have a landscaping plan that emphasizes planting more native shrubs, trees and perennial flowers, rather than a lawn of monoculture grass and a few foreign ornamentals.
A more thoughtful, sustainable approach to landscaping would protect threatened populations of local birds and pollinators, and more of the native plants and animals we like to see. It could also reduce the ruinous amount of toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers needed to keep these mow-and-blow yards manicured, but which poison the ground and pollute our waterways.
Fortunately, there are many resources to help enhance both property values and our shared natural habitat.
Westport’s Pollinator Pathways, a collaborative effort by Wakeman Town Farm, Earthplace, the Westport Garden Club and others, encourages public and private properties to restore or create pesticide-free plant habitats for pollinating insects and wildlife to rest, eat and breed.
Grown close enough together (native bees have a range of about 800 yards) and near larger parks and preserves, pollinator pathways aim to “defragment” the urban/suburban environment so it can support sustainable populations of wildlife.
Aspetuck Land Trust has its own Green Corridor initiative, which invites area gardeners to plant native, switch to organic or zero-emissions lawn care services, and stop using pesticides.
That seems to me a worthwhile goal that all homeowners, new and old, should rally behind.
The passions generated by the besieged community gardeners at Long Lots testify to a strong desire to preserve and protect our existing greenscape.
So too do the efforts of those who spread daffodils throughout the town. Those fetching blossoms each spring — even if native pollinators or even deer want nothing to do with them — are a further sign that Westporters value a collective effort to both beautify and enhance our natural landscape.
Let’s urge the area’s developers and landscapers to join in creating a more sustainable, biodiverse community, starting with the clean slate that comes with each new Westport home.
(“06880” welcomes opinion pieces — along with everything else we post. To support our hyperlocal work, please click here. Thank you!)
After all the wind and rain of the past 10 days, it took just a bit of snow to topple a large tree on Compo Road South, near the entrance to Baron’s South and Park Lane.
The road — a major route off the Post Road — is closed while crews remove the tree and restore power.
Tree down on Compo Road South. (Photo/Alex Sherman)
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King famously said: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
If you missed Sunday’s Martin Luther King Day celebration at the Westport Library, you should run, walk or crawl to this link:
Dr. Clarence Jones — King’s 93-year-old speechwriter, personal attorney and friend — delivered an emotional and inspirational master class in history, justice, and the power of one individual to change the world.
Many of those who were there Sunday will want to watch the video too.
And for all of us, Dr. Jones’ words will resonate for years to come.
The Westport Country Playhouse hosts a special show, with songs from every Taylor Swift era.
Spoiler alert: The hottest entertainer on the planet won’t be there. But “powerhouse voices” will sing Swift’s songs.
The February 2 event (7 p.m.) is a benefit for the WCP’s Woodward Internship program. Tickets are $55, $65 and $75. Click here to purchase, and for more information.
She won’t appear at the Playhouse on February 2. But “powerhouse voices” singing her songs will be there.
This one is our neighbor: Westporter Joe Tacopina.
The New York Times reported yesterday:
Joseph Tacopina, the trial lawyer on Donald J. Trump’s legal team with the most successes defending high-profile clients, will no longer represent the former president in his criminal trial in Manhattan, according to a notice sent to the court on Monday.
Mr. Tacopina also withdrew on Monday from another case in which he was still legally representing Mr. Trump: an appeal of the verdict in a lawsuit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll. Mr. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation last year and was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll $5 million.
It was not clear why Mr. Tacopina decided to withdraw, and he declined to comment.
Click here for the full story. (Hat tip: Bill Dedman)
Attorney Joseph Tacopina sat at former President Trump’s left hand, at an arraignment in April. (Photo/Curtis Means for EPA)
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Judy Michaelis of Coldwell Banker sends this real estate report:
“Across the board, 2023 was flat compared with 2022.
“Days on market, 68, is same as the last 2 years.
“The median sales price – $2,000,000 — is the same as last year.
“The list to sales price is just over 1% of asking price, same as last year.
“The only thing that has changed is that our sales are down 24%, and that is because we had a lack of inventory.”
This 6-bedroom, 6 1/2-bathroom, 6,585-square foot house, on 4 acres at 69 Beachside Avenue, is listed for $7,950,000.
Their rooms have an outdoor theme (skiing, camping, water activities, biking, outer space). A fun rainbow goes the entire length of the office; it’s an “all are welcome here” shoutout for everyone to see.
To show off their new space, Village Pediatrics hosts an open house this Thursday (January 18, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., 323 Riverside Avenue). Providers will be there to meet “new patients, and expecting patients.”
They’ll answer questions about their practice, which includes daily walk-in sick visits for acute issues, weekend availability for sick and well visits, late hours on Thursday evenings, Saturday check-ups, 24/7 on-call provider for emergencies, extended time at well visits, in-house lactation consults, ADHD and anxiety medication management, Accutane — and ear piercing.
Questions? Email office@villagepedi.com. Click below for a tour of their newly renovated space.
But the Westport Young Woman’s League Galentine’s Bingo is January 31 (7 p.m., Christ & Holy Trinity Church).
Tickets are $30, and include bingo (with prizes from local vendors), and light refreshments. Click here to purchase, and for more information. The event is BYOB.
Proceeds help fun WYWL’s Grants Program. Last year, the organization donated $90,000 to charities and nonprofits.
From time to time, I hear longtime residents lament: “What a shame the Westport News went out of business.”
It didn’t.
Our “hometown newspaper” still publishes a print edition, every Friday.
It’s hard to find. I don’t think it’s sold anywhere in town. It gets delivered (often 4 days late) by mail, to some (but definitely not all) Westporters.
Westport News, complete with ad sticker on page 1.
It’s online too. It’s been rebranded as “CT Insider,” though it still says “Westport News” there as well.
Yet many older readers think the paper is defunct. And most new ones have never heard of it.
They don’t know that, beginning in 1986, I wrote a weekly column for the Westport News called “Woog’s World.”
And they — including many old-timers — don’t know that until last Friday, I kept writing it.
My second-to-last “Woog’s World.”
Once a week, for 36 years, I offered my thoughts on Westport. For the past 10 or so years, I wasn’t sure anyone read them.
Feedback was non-existent. More common was: “I miss ‘Woog’s World,'”
My final newspaper column ran this past Friday.
The timing is right. “06880” is demanding more and more of my time. I know my audience, and I know their eyeballs are here.
For those who had no idea I wrote a regular newspaper column — and those who either remember the old Westport News, or never heard of its heyday and are curious to know more — I’m posting that final “Woog’s World” below.
I’ve had a great run. From those first days as a Staples High School sophomore covering the baseball team, to today’s farewell “Woog’s World,” I’ve had the honor of reporting, recording and ruminating on more than 50 years of Westport life.
I’ve been the “Up at Staples” columnist, a two-year gig I inherited from a senior when Vietnam, drugs, student power and more rocked our town. I wrote about Staples soccer, football, basketball, wrestling and baseball too, for the sports pages. I’d type it all up, drop my “copy” in a box outside the Brooks Corner office, then head off to school.
As a Staples High School senior, I praised Players’ production of “The Time of Your Life” — and slammed the choice of the play.
As sports editor from 1976-79 – my first real job after college – I wrote, edited, laid out and filled up to six pages, twice a week, about everything from the Wreckers and Little League to Olympic and professional hopefuls.
It’s hard to imagine now, but for much of the second half of the 20th century, the WestportNews was how Westporters got their news. From its downtown office, the News covered everything and anything that happened in town.
Reporters had specific beats. One handled Town Hall; another, education. Jeanne Davis was the flamboyant arts editor. Still, the most popular feature was the all-inclusive Police Reports. No matter who you were, if you got nabbed you could not keep your name out of the paper.
The perfect story presented itself when the furniture store across the street burned to the ground. It was right in front of us – and a Tuesday afternoon, perfect for our Wednesday edition deadline.
A Congressional race, Gorham Island, and school bus schedules were front-page news in 1978.
I kept writing after becoming a full-time freelancer. In 1986, editor Lise Connell offered me this “Woog’s World” space. Every Friday since – for 36 years, which is about 1,800 columns – I’ve contributed 800 words about whatever went on in Westport that week. Or had gone on in the past. Or was coming ‘round the bend.
Subjects ranged widely. I wrote about a Staples student who won both the Siemens Westinghouse and Intel science contests in the same year; teenagers who overdosed on angel dust, and a high school alcoholic.
I wrote about controversies, like the Compo Beach playground that was built only after a court injunction. (Spoiler alert: Now one of the most popular spots in Westport, it will soon be renovated as a townwide project.) I covered the Y’s long, torturous move from downtown; the closing, opening, remodeling and other ups and downs of our schools, and the everlasting debate about the future of Baron’s South. (If I wrote for another 36 years, until 2060, I’d still be reporting on that topic.)
Every Christmas, I offered a poem. Every January, I imagined headlines for the coming year. Once, decades ago, I came out as gay in my “Woog’s World” column.
A few headlines, out of 1,800.
Lise Connell – a demanding, decisive and thoroughly wonderful boss – was one of several memorable editors. Larry Fellows had been a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. Woody Klein was previously the editor of IBM’s “Think” magazine. The Westport News – the flagship of what became the Brooks Community Newspapers – punched far above its weight.
Those days are well known to anyone who lived in Westport between about 1965 and 2000. If you were a Westporter, you read the Westport News.
But the world of journalism has changed seismically since then. The Brooks family sold their chain of papers to Hearst Media. Print circulation declined, while online options surged. Readers could access the Westport News – and sister publications – any time, from anywhere. Stories were posted any time too. A new century ushered in a new era.
I’ve aged a bit, from the early days.
Through all the changes, I’ve enjoyed chronicling all things Westport. No, that’s not right; I’ve loved it. I appreciate beyond measure the chance to share my thoughts and insights, week after week (year after year) (decad after decade), about what is happening (and has happened, and may one day happen) in this historic, ever-changing, passionate, quarrelsome, weird and wonderful community.
I’ve been privileged, for 36 years, to have had my say. I’ll continue to say it on the “pages” of my “06880” blog (www.06880.org).
And now – 55 years after my byline first appeared in the WestportNews – I’ll sign off the way I was taught, my first day on the job as a high school sophomore.
For decades – in a throwback to the days of telegraph transmission — “-30-“ meant the end of a story. The writer had done his job; now it went to the editor and (how’s this for a memory?) typesetter.
“Woog’s World” is done. I give hearty, loving thanks to decades’ worth of colleagues, friends, and most importantly, readers. It’s been a true honor, and a great privilege. -30-.
Lou Weinberg is chair of the Westport Community Gardens, and director of the Long Lots Preserve. He is concerned about a perception that gardeners oppose renovation of Long Lots Elementary School. He writes:
Members of the Westport Community Gardens and the volunteers involved with the Long Lots Preserve support the construction of a new/improved Long Lots Elementary School.
If the development of a new/improved Long Lots Elementary School truly requires the use of the existing gardens space during construction, then our request is to rebuild the gardens, post-construction, in their current location.
Members of the Long Lots Community Gardens and friends, at an open house last fall.
This is our position. At no point in this process has the request for consideration and regard for the gardens and preserve delayed the process of constructing a new/improved school. Not by a second.
To imply otherwise is false. Furthermore, the current efforts by some community members to vilify the gardeners and blame them for delays in the process is misguided. The gardeners are not the problem. The gardeners are not the enemy.
If anybody tries to convince you that the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve are responsible for getting in the way of a beautiful new school for the town of Westport, they are misstating facts. We all want the school.
The process is supposed to get us there. I very much hope the new 8-24 application will include the school, fields, and restoration of the community gardens and preserve. Let’s get this done together!
Michael Friedman’s pop-up photography gallery — featuring intimate images he took more than 50 years ago, of the Rolling Stones, Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and more — was slated to close over the holidays.
But the Staples High school graduate is staying on for a while, at 31 Church Lane.
He’s open weekends from noon to 5, and other times “by chance.”
If you’d prefer more certainty than that ’60s-type vibe, call or text 203-247-6869.
It’s worth the, um, trip.’
Michael Friedman in his pop-up gallery. His photo shows Levon Helm, legendary drummer for The Band.
‘The third — and final — session in Sustainable Westport’s Residential Energy Learning Series is “Everything Solar.”
Set for January 23 (6:30 p.m., Westport Library), it features Westport architect John Rountree and Aegis Solar consultant Nathan Hernandez.
They’ll offer ideas on how to transition your home or business to solar energy, including how solar panels work, how to choose a solar installation company, key design and installation considerations, the expected ROI from going solar, and financing options (with federal and state incentives).
Westporter Jim Wolf, who recently installed solar, will also speak.
Panelists will answer audience questions too. Click here to register.
John Rountree — who will speak on January 23 — added solar panels to his house, and a nearby garage.
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