Smoke shops threatened to join nail salons as Westport’s most ubiquitous businesses.
But a Planning & Zoning Commission vote last night snuffed out more openings.
After lengthy debate on the proliferation of the stores — which sell vaping and related products, and often include bright lighting — the board voted 5-2 on a text amendment to prohibit all future shops with more than 20% of the inventory or square footage devoted to smoking merchandise.
Danielle Dobin, Michael Cammeyer, Neil Cohn, Paul Lebowitz and Jon Olefson were in favor of the regulation. Patrizia Zucaro and John Bolton were against it.
In addition, stores selling smoking- and vaping-related products below the 20% threshold must now secure a special permit via a special hearing. The regulation will prohibit “candy stores” from skirting the smoking rules.
The P&Z also voted to ban all neon-like signs and displays (including LED lights) that project outside stores.
The P&Z meeting was chair Danielle Dobin’s last. Earlier this month, she was elected to the Board of Finance.
Current members — and attorney Eric Bernheim, who represented a client on a non-smoking matter — praised her for her service.
This morning, she told “06880” that she was proud to have accomplished the smoking-shop text amendment before leaving the P&Z.
Savvy Smoker on Post Road East drew criticism last night, for its products, its exterior signage, and its bright interior displays.
Six million American children experience the death of a parent or sibling by the time they turn 18 — 1 in 12 kids. Yet many people struggle with what to say when someone dies, making kids (and adults) feel different and alone.
November is Children’s Grief Awareness Month. Doing its part, Westport-based non-profit Experience Camps offers concrete language tweaks everyone can use, to create a more grief-sensitive society.
They’re “flipping the script” — literally. Click here to read some comments we often say (“You need to be strong”); then click the comment to flip it to something more meaningful (“You may feel like you need to be strong, but you don’t have to be with me”).
Experience Camps helps children cope with the death of a parent or sibling, with an extensive and innovative series of summer camps and year-round programs.
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Two Staples High School teams have reached the semifinals of state tournaments.
Both games are today. And both promise to be great matches.
The 2-time defending state champion girls soccer squad — ranked #3 in the CIAC “LL” (extra large schools) division — faces #2 St. Joseph at 6:30 p.m. tonight, at Fairfield Warde High.
It will be the third meeting of the year between the longtime rivals. In the regular season, they battled to a 1-1 draw. The Cadets eked out a 1-0 victory in the FCIAC (league) final.
Two hours earlier — 4:30 p.m., at Amity Regional in Woodbridge — the #2-ranked Wrecker field hockey team takes on #3 Glastonbury.
The timing is tight. But with a little luck, fans can catch at least part of each game.
And with all their talent (and a little luck), both Staples teams will be victorious.
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Amazon Fresh — the highly anticipated, high-tech grocery store that was supposed to replace Barnes & Noble near Little Barn, then turned into a half-finished, unopened “zombie store” — may soon sprout back to life.
Bisnow reports that Amazon is moving forward with expansion plans.
Stores will be redesigned, and add coffee and donuts. It’s a pivot away from what Bloomberg calls its “tech-heavy strategy” of the past.
Amazon will redesign stores and add offerings like coffee and donuts, with an emphasis on these items instead of the tech-heavy strategy it employed in the past, according to Bloomberg.
“We will have a good pipeline for next year,” Amazon Fresh worldwide vice president Claire Peters said. “What we won’t do is open stores aimlessly.”
Click here for the full story. (Hat tip: Don Spiegelman)
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Was politics on or off the table last night at Tarantino?
We’re not sure. But there definitely was a ton of experience last night, at the Saugatuck restaurant.
Five current or former members of the Board of Selectmen/women got together, along with a former Board of Finance member. Can you name all these once and present town officials?
Sitting (from left): Former 3rd selectman Charlie Haberstroh, Karen Hess, current 2nd Selectwoman Andrea Moore, former Board of Finance member Ed Iannone, former 2nd selectman Avi Kaner. Standing: Former 1st Selectman Jim Marpe, current 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker.
The VFW is well known for its “Jazz at the Post” Thursday night series.
But there’s more jazz at Joseph J. Clinton Post 399 on Riverside Avenue this Wednesday (November 15 (7 p.m.).
The US Air Force Rhythm in Blue Jazz Ensemble — featuring Westport trumpeter Michael Mossman — comes to town for a concert. It’s part of their extended Veterans Day tour in the tri-state area.
They’ll also host students from Westport and Bridgeport, for pre-concert workshops.
It’s all free — courtesy of the United States Air Force.
Yesterday’s Roundup included the great news that Clemson University’s men soccer teams won their 2nd ACC championship in 4 years, with a penalty kick win over the University of North Carolina.
The Tigers boast 2 Westport connections: Head coach Mike Noonan (a star on Staples’ 1978 state championship team), and reserve keeper Paddy Donovan (Staples ’22).
Somehow, a photo of the 2 was not published. It’s a great one (below). Go Tigers!
Coach Mike Noonan and goalkeeper Paddy Donovan.
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Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green pushes the bounds of theatrical experience with live score/narrated documentaries like “The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller” with Yo La Tengo, “A Thousand Thoughts” with the Kronos Quartet, and “The Weather Underground,” chronicling the rise and fall of the radical political organization.
On December 8 (6:30 p.m.), the Lundberg Family Foundation Master Film Series welcomes Green’s latest Sundance and South by Southwest-selected documentary, “32 Sounds.”
The film is “a meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us (through a) wholly unique, sensory rich experience.”
Each member of the audience receives headphones for an immersive “binaural audio experience” (spatial sound technology that gives listeners a clear sense of space).
Green will take part in a post-screening Q&A with the audience. The event is free. bit requires registration (click here).
“The One Note Man” — an award-winning Christmas love story about a lonely bassoonist, produced by Westporter Rita Marcocci — will be shown at the Westport Library on December 10 (2 p.m.).
A talkback follows with the film’s actor star Jason Watkins; Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck, writer/director George Siougas, and executive producer — and Westporter — Rita Marcocci.
Matt Murray describes today’s “Westport … Naturally” image, of Compo Road South near Bradley Street:
“Every year since I’ve lived near the beach. I go by this street as it changes colors. Some years it’s very red. Some, like this year, it’s this shade of orange.”
And finally … on this day in 1900, composer Aaron Copland was born. The “Dean of American Composers” died 90 years later, leaving behind a rich legacy of music evoking the vast American landscape, and pioneer spirit.
(Joy, grief; music, sports, film — it’s all here, like every “Roundup” every day. If you appreciate this feature, or any other on your hyper-local blog, please click here to support us. Thank you!)
The request by owners to demolish the 112-year-old, 8,500-square foot home at 114 Beachside Avenue is remarkable enough.
As first reported by Westport Journal, the Tudor mansion includes 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 2 half-baths, a wooden deck, and a brick patio and terrace.
Alert “06880” reader — and longtime Westporter — Don Willmott writes:
“The owners in the 1970s were family friends. I have fond memories of running around that gorgeous house, the biggest one I had ever been in. The sweeping lawn, which sloped gently down to the Sound, was stunning.”
114 Beachside Avenue
But that’s not all.
As Don notes, the home was later owned by Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas. Her “diva-like antics there were memorialized by her disgruntled butler in the nutty 1990 tell-all book, ‘That Girl and Phil.'”
“it’s sad to see it go,” Don says. “I hope someone salvages the beautiful woodwork before the bulldozer arrives.”
As large as Phil and Marlo’s mansion was, it’s dwarfed by new construction closer to Long Island Sound. Take a look:
Phil Donohue and Marlo Thomas’s “old” 8,500-square foot house is at the top (north) of this photo.(Photo courtesy of Don Willmott)
The newer and spectacularly larger house is at the bottom of the property. Clearly, the 1911 home has to go.
But that’s not the only multi-million-dollar shoreline home that will soon be torn down.
In fact, demolition of 34 Owenoke Park has already begun.
That 4,600-square foot, 5-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath house was built in — are you sitting down? — 2016.
The owners are demolishing it — along with the property they own next door — to build a new one.
There are some interesting items on next Monday’s Planning & Zoning Commission meeting (April 3, 7 p.m., Zoom). They include:
A request by the 1st Selectwoman, on behalf of Westport PAL, to remove the Doubleday clubhouse at PJ Romano Field (behind Saugatuck Elementary School), and replace it with a new, larger structure.
An application to convert the existing 120-bed skilled nursing facility at 1 Burr Road (next to from Kings Highway Elementary School) into a 68-bed memory care facility.
A pre-application meeting (no public comment) on a proposed 8,000-square foot commercial recreational facility, behind the electrical sub-station behind Coffee An’ and The Grapevine.
Also on the agenda: an expected pro forma request to release the site bond for 1076 Post Road East. That’s the supposed site of an Amazon Fresh grocery store, replacing the former Barnes & Noble.
Exterior work has been completed, along with parking lot and sidewalk improvements. So — according to law — the bond must be returned.
Even if, as seems increasingly likely, Amazon Fresh will never move in.
(Click here for the Zoom link to Monday’s Planning & Zoning Commission meeting.)
Carl Addison Swanson — a Staples High School graduate and Vietnam veteran — writes:
The 2017 Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act recognizes the over 3 million Americans who served in our military from November 1955 to March 1975.
[Signed into law by President Trump on March 28, 2017], the date is particularly significant. It marks the date we finally left Vietnam for good (March 29 1975).
Forty-four Westporters served in Vietnam. Five did not come home, as noted on the plaque in Veterans Green across from Town Hall.
Westport’s Vietnam memorial, in Veterans Green.
Over 58,000 Americans lost their lives in Vietnam in combat. Over 300,000 have died in the decades following, due to exposure to Agent Orange.
Today is a day to remember those who made it home, those who didn’t, and a reminder that although our country was deeply divided during Vietnam, most of our wounds healed. Eventually. Maybe? Some day?
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US Attorney for the District of Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery was joined by leading law enforcement representatives at last night’s “United Against Hate: Identifying, Reporting and Preventing Hate Crimes” session.
The Westport Library hosted the interactive program, in collaboration with the US Attorney’s Office, Westport PRIDE, Westport and Norwalk chiefs of police, and the Connecticut State Police’s Hate Crimes Unit.
Vanessa Roberts Avery, US Attorney for Connecticut, at last night’s Westport Library event. (Photo/Dan Woog)
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Only 3 days remain in The Great Westport Pizza Contest.
There are 8 categories (Best Slice, Personal, Meat, Gluten-free, Veggie, Plain, Delivered and Flat Bread Pizza), and 14 participating restaurants (Cuatro Hermanos, Gallo Express, Golden Pizza, Joe’s, Julian’s Kitchen, La Plage, Old Mill Grocery & Deli, Outpost Pizza, Pizza Lyfe, Rizzuto’s, Romanacci, The Spotted Horse, Tutti’s and Via Sforza).
Anyone can vote online. Every voter is entered in a drawing, to win a free pizza from one of the 8 winning restaurants.
Winning restaurants receive plaques from the sponsoring Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce. For more information and to vote, click here.
Enjoying pizzas at Old Mill Grocery & Deli — one of the participants in the Great Pizza Contest — are (from left) 2nd Selectwoman Andrea Moore, Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce director Matthew Mandell, Police Chief Foti Koskinas, 3rd Selectwoman Candice Savin and 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker.
Bedford Middle School students do know rocket science.
And many other types.
Last weekend, 2 BMS Science Olympiad cleaned up at the Connecticut championships.
After a long, grueling day in Coventry, they won 15 out of the 23 gold medals. Events ranged from Anatomy & Physology and Bio Process Lab to Codebusters and Experimental design.
The teams have practiced since the fall, under the guidance of teachers Dr. Daniel Cortright and Kathry Nicholas.
The wins earn the Bedford squads a trip to Kansas in May. They’ll represent Connecticut in the National Science Olympiads.
“Gold Coast Mystery Series” author Timothy Cole reads and chats at the Westport Book Shop next month (April 13, 6 p.m.).
The series includes “The Sea Glass Murders” (a Connecticut Book Award finalist), “Murder This Close,” and recently published “The Moscow Five.”
Timothy Cole
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The Greens Farms Garden Club invites everyone to meet Trish Manfredi. The noted floral designer and flower show judge will create art with surprise plant materials, and containers presented by the audience.
The event is next Tuesday (April 4, 11 a.m., Green’s Farms Church). Refreshments will be served.
Trish Manfredi
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“06880” has mentioned “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” twice already.
The Coleytown Company production opens this Friday (7 p.m.). at CMS. The show also runs Saturday (April 1, 1 and 7 p.m.) and Sunday (April 2, 1 p.m.).
We normally wouldn’t add another plug. But Inna Agujen Veloso’s video may be the best middle school sizzle reel ever made.
Bridgewater Chocolate welcomes New York artist and fashion illustrator Kelsey Linnartz to their Main Street store on April 8 (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.).
She’ll customize ivory boxes, using her trademark bright colors — with a purchase, of course.
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Longtime Weston resident Joan Williams died peacefully Monday evening. She was 87.
Joan moved to Weston in the early 1970’s with her first husband, commercial artist Paul Williams. She was a very successful businesswoman who worked first for a commercial art studio in Detroit. She moved to a management position at Weston Racquet Club, helping it to flourish through the ’80s.
She later became the first employee of Newman’s Own. Joan worked with Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner, handling finances of the company for 28 years and earning the tile of CFO.
Joan loved her home. She enjoyed playing tennis, collecting art and antiques, listening to music and singing, reading, gardening, and spending time with her Scottish terriers and cats.
Her family says, “Joan will be remembered for her frank and honest manner as a beautiful woman.”
She is survived by her husband Steve Campbell, stepson Adam Campbell, nephew Mark Kalnow and niece Sheryl Reiber.
At Joan’s request there will be no funeral or public memorial service, just a private gathering. In lieu of cards and flowers, contributions may be made to the Yale Eye Center at Yale New Haven Hospital.
(From Amazon Fresh and the PAL clubhouse, to Beachside Avenue and Owenoke Park, “06880” covers the town. Please consider supporting us. Click here — and thank you!)
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House and speech before Congress yesterday reminded Americans that Ukraine’s war against Russian occupation continues, even as media attention has waned.
Westporters don’t need that reminder.
Since we announced our “Building Bridges” campaign with our new sister city of Lyman on Monday, residents (and their families and friends) have raised $105,909. That’s an outstanding outpouring of generosity!
We need less than $145,000 more to reach our goal of $250,000. That will provide 150 homes ruined during the Russian occupation with new roofs, windows and more — plus a generator for every one. And a water filtration system for the entire devastated town.
We hope to reach that goal by Christmas (Sunday). Thanks to our partnership with Ukraine Aid International — a non-profit founded by Westporters Brian and Marshall Mayer — all material can be delivered 3 days later.
Pleaseclick here. Click the “I want to support” box; then select “Support for the City of Lyman.” Scroll down on that page for other tax-deductible donation options (mail, wire transfer and Venmo). You can also donate directly, via Stripe (click here).
Support for the effort comes from Rabbi Michael Friedman of Temple Israel. He says:
“We are all inundated with requests for charitable contributions at this season of the year. Yet a personal call to help specific people in a specific city — even if it is very far away — gives our heartstrings a special tug. What a fabulous way to directly aid fellow human beings in dire need.”
At least once a week, someone asks “06880”: What’s up with the Amazon Fresh store that was supposed to replace Barnes & Noble? Nothing has happened there for months.
We’re not the only town left in — literally — the dark.
An answer comes from The Real Deal. The New York real estate website says that since September, Amazon has not opened a new Fresh store. At least 7 locations appear to be completely built out, but unopened. Another 26 locations are like ours, with development halted.
There are “zombie stores” in several states.
The Real Deal explains:
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It’s cheaper for the company to keep the stores in place while not operating, rather than ditch the stores altogether. While the company is on the hook for rent, maintenance and taxes, shutting down a store could also force Amazon to pay a fee for a lease withdrawal or severance to hired employees.
Click here for the full story. In the meantime, if you want to give Amazon money for groceries, go to Whole Foods. They have not yet closed that part of their operations yet. (Hat tip: John McCarthy)
Yesterday’s innovative “Holiday Card” — actually, a series of large images projected on the front of Saugatuck Congregational Church, thanks to the AV team of Craig Patton and Mark Mathias — was even more stunning that anyone expected.
(Photo/Richard Hyman)
The show will be repeated tonight and tomorrow (weather permitting), from 5 to 8 p.m. The best viewing spot is probably the Colonial Green parking lot, across the street.
Jarret Liotta has many memories from his time in Los Angeles. Once, he attended a Passover Seder with Mel Brooks. The 1983 Staples High graduate quipped, “I didn’t know you were Jewish!”
Now — as Hanukkah collides with Christmas — Liotta is “proud to re-present a shot, low-quality video” he made back in those days.
He thinks Mel Brooks would have appreciated it.
Liotta’s latest film, “Small Town Movie,” is “a light comedy that explores racism, gun violence and the cancel culture.”
He calls this Christmas vs. Hanukkah piece “probably more controversial.”
The Westport Police have released arrest reports for the December 14-21 period.
Five people were detained in custody. The charges for each:
Conspiracy to commit larceny, interfering with a police officer, assault on public safety personnel.
Reckless driving, disobeying the signal of an officer, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, larceny of a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to sell a controlled substance.
Possession of burglar tools, conspiracy to commit larceny, criminal attempt to commit larceny, disobeying the signal of an officer, misuse of plates, reckless driving, failure to signal properly.
Manufacture or possession of burglar tools, conspiracy to commit larceny, attempt to commit larceny.
The following citations were issued:
Traveling unreasonably fast: 12
Operating a motor vehicle under suspension: 5
Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 5
Violation of any traffic commission regulation: 4
Stop sign violation: 3
Failure to drive in the proper lane: 3
Insurance coverage fails minimum requirements: 2
Disorderly conduct: 1
Traveling too fast for conditions:1
Cell phone, 1st offense: 1
Failure to yield to a pedestrian: 1
Tinting windows: 1
Failure to keep plates readable: 1
Misuse of plates: 1
Failure to display lights: 1
One citation was issued last week for overly tinted windows.
The photo above provides a great segue to this item: Wheels2U is growing every day. Last month, the door-to-door ride service provided rides for over 2,300 people directly from their homes and offices, to and from the train station.
The service will take 2 brief holidays — December 26 and January 2 — before resuming full steam ahead.
For more information about Wheels2U, click here. For more information about the Westport Transit District’s services for the elderly and people with disabilities, click here.
And finally … on this day in 1808, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted and performed in Vienna, with the premiere of his 5th and 6th Symphonies, 4th Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy.
Westporters waited eagerly for Casa Me to open. The Italian restaurant in Sconset Square is now serving satisfied diners.
We waited for Saugatuck Provisions too. It sold its first steak, pork (and pasta) on Tuesday.
But several highly anticipated openings seem to have stalled. We’re twiddling our thumbs waiting for …
Amazon Fresh. The innovative grocery store — just pick up your stuff and walk out (after scanning your app, of course) — has not been worked on in months. The place looks abandoned (a very un-Amazon-like description).
Way back in February, The Original Pancake House announced a summer opening. They said they’d take over the 2nd floor space formerly occupied by Boca restaurant (and before that, Acqua). There are over 100 locations in 28 states and overseas. This will be the first in Connecticut. After months with no activity, it looks like work has finally begun. But there’s not even a “coming soon” link on the website.
In July, callers to a Post Road restaurant near Shearwater Coffee heard: “Hi! You’ve reached Pizza Lyfe, formerly Ignazio’s. We are remodeling, and will be back soon!” “Soon” is still on its website. Hungry potential diners wonder what’s taking so long. It was already set up as a pizza place, right?
Meanwhile, there is good news about Mexicue. The Main Street outpost of the New York, Washington and Stamford restaurants, mixing “street food sensibility” with fine dining, was announced in February. Nine months later, the website promises a November 16 opening.
(“06880” is your regular source of restaurant and retail news. Please click here to support our work.)
Westporters have watched for months, as the former Barnes & Noble on the Post Road is transformed into an Amazon Fresh grocery store.
The mid-gut interior was the subject of last week’s Photo Challenge. Fred Cantor, Will Gibson, Elaine Marino, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Bobbie Herman, Clark Thiemann, June Rose Whittaker, Brooks Sumberg and Barbara Phillips all quickly identified Betsy Pollak’s photo. (Click here to see.)
Lynn added this great factoid: The site of a future supermarket started out — before Barnes & Noble — as a Waldbaum’s.
Meanwhile, who remembers that this Post Road location was actually the second for Barnes & Noble? The bookstore’s first Westport outlet was less than a mile east, in the space currently occupied by Bev Max.
Before that, it was a Pier One. And — waaaaay earlier — it was a bowling alley.
Unlike Amazon Fresh, that space is unlikely to return to its original roots.
Here’s today’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this intriguing sight, click “Comments” below.
Every couple of years Bob Weingarten drives up and down the Post Road, counting “For Sale” and “For Lease” signs. (He does not check out Main Street or Saugatuck.)
Right now, the number is 61. That’s in between the 50 or so in 2017, and the more than 65 in 2019 — but fairly consistent with the past.
Mumbai Times (next to Westport Hardware) is newly vacant. So are a couple of bank buildings — Citibank and Bank of America.
But the bank at Morningside Drive North, which was vacant for about 3 years, should reopen soon. And there’s plenty of activity across the street, where the old Barnes & Noble and Marshall’s are being converted into Amazon Fresh.
The former Men’s Wearhouse building has a sign saying “SOLD,” but there’s been no action there in months. The Garden Center near Goodwill has been vacant for quite a while. So has the former Olympia Sports store in Compo Shopping Center.
Here are some of Bob’s photos:
(Photos and collage/Bob Weingarten)
Clockwise, from top left:
Former Blockbuster and XL Men’s Shop (considered for apartments)
The former garden center near Stop & Shop
The former Boccanfuso and Subway
The former Men’s Wearhouse (planned for multi-family housing)
The former bank next to Walgreen’s
The former Bank of America, next to Starbucks.
Looking at Bob’s photos, I thought: Man, those are some fugly buildings.
What do you think of the commercial real estate market on the Post Road? Click “Comments” below.
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We need less than $145,000 more to reach our goal of $250,000. That will provide 150 homes ruined during the Russian occupation with new roofs, windows and more — plus a generator for every one. And a water filtration system for the entire devastated town.
