Tag Archives: Scott Smith

Eno Marsh Preserve: Overlooked Green Space, With Historic Past

Posted on December 28, 2025 | 10 comments

Scott Smith has introduced “06880” readers to some of Westport’s most hidden treasures (including, most notably, Haskins Preserve).

Today, he shines a light on another. Scott writes:

There’s an under-the-radar patch of open space in Westport that I suspect few people know about: the Eno Marsh Preserve.

Tucked into the southwest corner of town, it’s a mix of wetlands and woods shoe-horned in behind some homes and condos, the railroad tracks. and more swampland that extends to the Norwalk border.

A short walking trail that winds through the parcel is accessible from the far end of daily-fee parking lot #4, off Saugatuck Avenue, with another entrance at the end of a private road next to the handsome brick building farther down Route 136 that originally housed the offices of William Phelps Eno.

Managed by the Aspetuck Land Trust, the pocket preserve is named for the local man considered the “father of traffic safety.” A New York trust fund baby of the gilded age, Eno devoted his life to bringing order to the newfangled world of automotive transport in the early part of the 20th century.

He’s credited with the invention of the stop sign, pedestrian crosswalk and traffic circle, among other innovations. The transportation institute he founded survives to this day, in Washington. (Click here for his fascinating Wikipedia entry.)

The former Eno Foundation building, on Saugatuck Avenue.

Here in Westport Eno owned a 32-room mansion on the Saugatuck River, across from his offices; I suppose part of his original estate extended to the wetlands out back.  Though the office building survives, the circa-1877, 15,000-square foot mansion known as Judah Rock was demolished in 1997, after a failed preservation effort.

The Preserve’s location is obscure, and some wouldn’t consider it even all that scenic. In fact, its most noticeable view may well be of the big new apartment complex rising across the train tracks on Hiawatha Lane.

View from Eno Marsh Preserve, of the Hiawatha Lane apartments.

But what the short, brambly trail does have are several of the tallest trees in town — including 3 or more magnificent tulip poplars that soar on thick trunks to spread their branches into the sky. You can see these trees on a Google satellite map view of the preserve.

Eno Marsh Preserve tulip poplars. 

The site clearly doesn’t get as much love — or foot traffic — as some of the other Aspetuck Land Trust properties in town, among them the lovely Caryl & Edna Haskins Preserve, the expansive Newman-Poses Preserve, and the Leonard Schine Preserve, with its marked trails and children’s playscape.

Perhaps that’s as it should be; not all open spaces need to be popular. I’m sure the wood ducks and deer in this empty quarter of Westport cherish their privacy.

But I treasure its existence, and trust the preserve can be maintained as a public resource — not just for its natural beauty, but also as a reminder of a time when the privileged among us left real-life legacies to enjoy, and to remember them for long after they are gone.

Eno Marsh Preserve. (All photos/Scott Smith)

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Posted in Environment, History, Transportation

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[OPINION] A Semiquincentennial Flagpole For Westport

Posted on November 15, 2025 | 23 comments

Long-time Westporter Scott Smith sees things the rest of us miss. Today, he sees the need for a flagpole. Scott writes:

This month, we honor our veterans and assess election results.

I hope it is not too early to turn our attention to an upcoming landmark event in our nation’s history. I’m talking about the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, to be celebrated on July 4, 2026.

Even in this divisive political time, I like to think that the one thing all Americans can rally around is the flag of the United States.

So here’s the idea: Let’s celebrate the semiquincentennial by erecting a tall new flagpole at the most prominent, historic spot in Westport — by the cannons at Compo Beach.

An iconic spot for a new flagpole? (Photo/Tim Woodruff)

There are 2 flagpoles at Compo. One is set inland among trees at the entrance, with a smaller flag at the lifeguard station along the boardwalk. Both strike me as underwhelming.

One current Compo Beach flagpole …

Given that it’s hard to see these flags from any distance, wouldn’t it be swell if the town had a great big American flag, and Westport’s too, for all to see?

,,, and another.

A new flagpole off Cedar Point would complement the cannons, while serving as a navigational aid and eye-catching marker for meetups. As an old analog guy, and longtime boater and kayaker, I’ve long sought out fluttering flags to gauge wind and weather.

Flying the town’s “Minute Man” flag in addition to Old Glory would also be a fine way to salute the brave patriots who battled the British after their landing at Compo in April 1777, then fought the Redcoats again after their return from destroying the colonial depot in Danbury.

As it happens, the town may already have a flagpole on standby. On a trip to the yard waste dump on Bayberry Lane this summer, I noticed a sizable metal pole rusting away in a weedy back corner of the lot. Perhaps it can be refurbished and returned to service.

Flagpole at the yard waste station. (Photos/Scott Smith unless otherwise noted)

What say we run this idea up the proverbial — and perhaps literal — flagpole with Westport’s new first selectman Kevin Christie?

Then we can all have something to salute at next year’s Independence Day fireworks at Compo Beach.

(The “06880” Opinion page is open to all readers. Send submissions to 06880blog@gmail.com.) 

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Posted in Beach, History

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Scott Smith’s Monkey Balls

Posted on September 28, 2025 | 15 comments

Longtime Westporter — and even longer outdoor enthusiast — Scott Smith has a knack for seeing what most of us miss, all around us right here in our home town.

From time to time, Scott shares his observations with “06880.” Today he writes:

My regular walks along Hillspoint Road, between Sherwood Mill Pond and Compo Beach, always get more interesting this time of year. I see splats of the big fat lime-green fruit that falls along the bend in the road.

The funky roadkill is from the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), a tree native to the Red River Valley of southern Arkansas, southern Oklahoma and northeast Texas. Known for its thorny branches, grapefruit-size fruits and decay-resistant wood, it was widely planted as a living fence by homesteaders, a practice that allowed its spread across much of the country.

Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880s, thousands of miles of hedge were constructed by planting Osage orange trees closely together in a line. “Horse-high, bull-strong, and pig-tight,” is how the sodbusters described it.

They also gave it a lot of names: monkey ball, mock orange, horse apple, hedge apple, hedge ball, pap, monkey brains, and yellow-wood, our Wiki friends tell us.

Hillspoint Road hedge apple … 

After barbed wire made such hedge fences obsolete, the trees found use as a source of rot-resistant fence posts and an effective windbreak. I figure that is how 2 of the trees found their way a long time ago to Compo Cove.

The fruit is inedible to humans. But I’ve read that squirrels will tear them open to get to the seeds and pulp inside, and other foraging animals will consume the seeds.

My son and I brought some home over the years. The overstuffed deer and squirrels in our yard never touch them.

I’m more intrigued by the theory that this strange fruit is a leftover from the Ice Age, when megafauna like 10-foot-tall ground sloths, mammoths and mastodons roamed the land.

The Osage orange, the thinking goes, developed super-sized fruit for these prehistoric beasts, which then dispersed the partially digested seeds they ate.

… and tree … 

With the extinction of the great mammals by Pleistocene hunters, the Osage orange became an “anachronism”—a species whose adaptations no longer have a co-evolved partner in the modern ecosystem.

I suppose you could also argue that this relic of a tree also had a role in its own demise. Its branches were prized by the Osage Native Americans for the construction of strong yet limber bows (another name for the tree is “Bodark,” an altered version of “bois d’arc” or “bow wood,” coined by early French explorers).

I imagine the Osage were not the first indigenous people to weaponize this stout wood.

In any event, I thank the homeowner — and Westport’s Public Works Department — for putting up with the seasonal mess all these years.

And I applaud these plucky survivors for finding such a scenic and lasting home here in Westport.

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… and a quished monkey ball. (All photos/Scott Smith)

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Posted in Environment

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A Year In The Life Of Scott Smith’s Compost Heap

Posted on July 17, 2024 | 4 comments

In Westport’s Barnes & Noble, “Gardening” books sit on one side of the store.

“Nature” volumes are on the other.

So where does Scott Smith’s new book go? “On Compost: A Year in the Life of a Suburban Garden” is all about living sustainably, and with ecological purpose. It’s about gardening and nature.

But it’s also about raising a son. About being part of a neighborhood. And engaging with the world.

“On Compost” defies easy categorization.

Of course, to anyone who knows Smith — a longtime Westporter, journalist and committed global citizen — that’s no surprise.

Scott Smith

Just like his book, Scott Smith moves easily and fluidly from idea to idea. He connects with a variety of people who, on the surface, have little in common with each other.

And just like his compost heap, there’s always more going on beneath Smith’s surface than meets the eye.

Throughout his life — working for non-environmental publications like Business Week, Bon Appetit and Golf Digest, and now as communications director for Friends of Animals — he has loved the outdoors.

“It thrills and nurtures me,” he says. At the same time, he acknowledges enormous challenges like climate change and pollution.

Following the mantra “think globally, act locally,” Smith has spent nearly 2 decades tending a compost heap in the back yard of his small (1/3 acre) property, off Greens Farms Road.

He  began the project after clearing the land of years of neglected overgrowth and invasive species.

Curious at first, his neighbors soon embraced the compost heap. Building it helped him connect with them — and to the land sloping down, less than a mile away to Long Sound.

Scott Smith’s compost heap.

“Before chemical fertilizers, farmers collected seaweed for fertilizer,” Smith explains. They also used “horseshoe crabs, bunker, ground-up shells — even horse manure from New York City.”

The book explores all that, and much more. It started as a “year in the life”-type diary. Smith is keenly attuned to Westport’s 4 seasons, and writes lovingly of the magic of each.

Focusing on a compost pile — as humble as that sounds — allows him to talk about bigger ideas. Smith tackles food waste, modern landscaping, and the effect of modern pesticides and fertilizer on our planet.

When he started his compost heap, it was a “fringe hobby,” he notes. In the years since, Sustainable Westport and the Pollinator Pathway have become important parts of town life.

More and more, residents have learned that their yard does not have to be “sterile.” They’re finding ways to make it “more productive, and beautiful.”

But just as the compost pile grew and evolved, so did his book. Early readers wanted to hear more about Smith’s interactions with his son Cole. That relationship now forms part of the volume’s broad appeal.

Scott Smith’s son Cole, in the garden. He graduated this spring from Williams College.

The audience is “people who want to live more sustainably,” Smith says.

That does not mean, though, that everyone needs to start composting. “Even if you have a garden patio, you can improve the soil,” he notes.

Many new residents of Westport have “grown up without how-to, hands-on knowledge” of the land they now own.

They can pay people to take care of their property. Yet Smith senses an urge among many homeowners to get close to nature, using their yards not just for enjoyment, but to learn about the soil, plants, and cycles of nature.

Many of those newcomers come from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Once they hear about composting, they are intrigued by this “classic Connecticut Yankee way of living.”

“On Compost” is an important book, for environmental stewards across America. But it is a very Westport book — including the back story of its route to publication.

Another view of the garden.

Smith spent years seeking the right publisher. An “06880” story led him to Christmas Lake Press, the Westport-based brainchild of Tom Fiffer and Julie Bobkoff. Smith’s concept was perfect for the company.

And — like the compost pile he writes so lovingly about — the publisher was right in his back yard.

(Click here to order “On Compost,” and to learn more about the book.)

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Posted in Environment, Media

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[OPINION] Creative Options Can Keep Jesup “Green”

Posted on May 3, 2024 | 25 comments

Longtime Westporter “06880” reader Scott Smith writes:

I’ve sat on the sidelines for most of the endless debate about downtown parking, but the recent 06880 post about the “field trip” to Jesup Green by RTM members and town leaders really gets my goat.

I can’t believe the town is considering paving over a large swath of precious and historic green space in the heart of downtown for the sake of a few more parked cars.

I googled the Jesup Green area to get a bird’s-eye view. I wanted to explore an idea: If the merchants or town muckety-mucks really want more convenient parking downtown, they should buy 100 and/or 126 Post Road East — the current homes of Paper Source/Bankwell and Bank of America, respectively — and turn those sites into public parking.

Aerial view of downtown shows many empty parking spaces behind the Bank of America building (top center, red circle), and Paper Source (to its immediate left). Jesup Road is the street in the middle. Jesup Green, and the Taylor parking lot, are at lower left.

Each entity could be easily relocated, as there’s already a glut of empty retail space in the area (and certainly no shortage of banks). Hey, knock yourself out and amortize both properties. Presto: There’s your 40 new spaces, close by anywhere downtown.

But do we really want to pave over all of downtown? Looking at the satellite view makes me think there is absolutely no shortage of parking in the area surrounding Jesup Green.

Toni Simonetti outlined current police parking near Jesup Green (center) and behind police headquarters (lower right) in yellow. The purple area shows where new parking could be created at the top of Jesup Green (outline), and along Jesup Road (hash marks).

The problem is access and zoning. No way BofA, with its drive-thru, needs all those parking spaces, for instance. Or perhaps the bank could be persuaded to open up its empty parking spaces to employees of local retailers who bank with them? Has anybody asked?

Not shown in the bird’s-eye view is another overlooked parking option: All the unused spaces behind the Police Department.

Lower parking lot, near police headquarters. The entrance is at the bottom of Jesup Road, near Imperial Avenue. This view is looking west, toward the Levitt Pavilion and Library.

I parked there a dozen years ago while working at the Westport YMCA when it was still downtown, and the Jesup Road municipal lot was closed for renovation and construction of the Paper Source building.

It’s an easy walk, especially for those working and shopping on the southeast side of downtown. Presto: There’s 40 more spaces!

So c’mon, RTM members, First Selectwoman Tooker and Public Works director Ratkiewich: If you’re dead set on adding downtown parking, get off the dime and build a deck on the Baldwin lot.

Or repurpose the police lot for safe, secure parking for retail employees.

Or make a deal to open up or convert existing underutilized retail space to additional parking.

But keep your hands off the town’s unique and under-appreciated riverfront walkways and vistas — especially Jesup Green.

Scott’s suggestion to utilize the parking lot behind police headquarters, near Deadman Brook, has been made by other “06880” readers.

One idea: Use that entire lot behind the headquarters building for police vehicle parking. That would free up the spaces currently used to the west of the building — near Jesup Green — for parking by downtown shoppers, restaurant-goers and employees.

The RTM will discuss a $630,000 appropriation for a study on Jesup Green and Imperial Avenue parking at its meeting on Tuesday, May 7 (Town Hall auditorium), following its vote on the Board of Education budget. Discussion on the parking issue is expected to begin around 8:30 p.m. 

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25 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Local business, Local politics

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Scott Smith: Meeting House Musings

Posted on March 19, 2024 | 14 comments

The other day, alert and longtime “06880” reader Scott Smith tromped around one of Westport’s most historic sites: the “Meeting House” land, where the original Green’s Farms Congregational Church was located. It was there that the West Parish of Fairfield grew and flourished, on its own.

Today the site is off the Sherwood Island Connector, just beyond the I-95 commuter parking lot.

This 1933 map of Greens Farms by George Jennings shows the meeting house across from the burial ground near Greens Farms Road, West Parish Road and Center Street.

Digging into the subject, Scott found that — years ago — a plan was developed by Westport’s Historic District Commission to create an interpretive trail there.

“Like so many other well-intentioned local improvement schemes, it is just gathering dust in some Town Hall office,” Scott laments.

A vision of a possible “West Parish Meeting House” Historic Site, from the Historic District Commission brochure.

“But maybe 06880 readers will be as curious about the site’s potential as I am.”

Scott writes:

For all the chest-thumping we Westporters do about our rich history and vaunted sense of “place,” I find it odd that so little attention is paid to the earliest traces of our beginnings.

I’m talking about the West Parish Meeting House that was constructed in 1737 at what is now the corner of Greens Farms Road and the Sherwood Island Connector, opposite the Colonial Cemetery established even earlier.

Though it was erected nearly a century after the 5 Bankside Farmers and their families first settled on the fertile coastal upland between Sasco and New Creek in 1648, this ground and its forgotten structure seem to be regarded as the foundational heart of our community.

Some years ago, I tried to explore the setting with my then-young son. We parked in the commuter lot and hiked over to the field where I’d heard the Meeting House once stood, until it was burned by the retreating British in 1779.

I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I thought we’d stumble upon the charred remains of the foundation, or kick up an old glass bottle or shard of a clay jug.

We didn’t make it far, defeated by swampy marshland and thick brambles.

Which is why I was intrigued to see the other day that the overgrown field has been bushwhacked back to stubble.

The entrance to the Meeting House site …

I pulled my car off to the side of the road near a gate of the enclosing stone wall, and wandered across the 5.9-acre property. Squat concrete posts, 2 feet high and set about 30 paces apart, mark 4 corners, likely of the original structure.

… and one of the concrete posts. (Photos/Scott Smith)

What I also see in this empty lot is a blank slate to recreate something new. Perhaps it’s an interpretive trail that explains more of the history of these colonial settlers, ideally including stories of the native inhabitants they replaced (sometimes by force). Their absence from our collective memory is even more stark.

To quote the town of Westport website:

By the time of widespread European contact in the early 1600s, the Algonquian tradition characterized Fairfield County. The Westport area was further defined as the Paugussett/Pootatuck group, though there were many dialects and sub-groups …

The Uncowa occupied territory west of the Pequonnock to Southport. The Sasqua occupied lands about the Great Swamp and Sasco Creek. The Maxumux occupied the lands west of Sasco Creek to Compo, extending inland to the Aspetuck River. The Compaw occupied the lands between Compo and the Saugatuck River. West of the Saugatuck were the Norwalk people. North, along the Aspetuck River, were the Aspetuck.

One of the very few reminders of the first residents of this area is Machamux Park, on Greens Farms Road near I-95. (Photo/Fred Cantor)

That’s a lot of people, and a lot to unpack. Perhaps the Meeting House is the place to do it, paying appropriate homage to all who lived and met here long ago.

I’m a big fan of Westport’s open spaces and pocket parks. A model for a reimagined Meeting House Historic Site would be the Mill Pond Preserve, with its native plantings, benches, and signage displaying historic and wildlife information. It was designed and built by a volunteer committee that still actively maintains it.

Details of the proposed plan.

As it always comes down to parking, there would be plenty for school groups and others at the Meeting House if the state lends access to the commuter lot.

Wouldn’t that be a fitting future for one of Westport’s oldest past places?

(The Historic Site was designated as a State Archaeological Preserve in 2010. Details about the original building are found in this Westport Historic District Commission brochure. A fuller preservation and cultural landscape assessment plan may be found here.)

The Historic District Commission’s proposed “ghost structure.”

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Posted in History, religion

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[OPINION] New Homes Should Be Sustainable, Biodiverse

Posted on January 17, 2024 | 19 comments

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.

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19 Comments

Posted in Environment, Real estate

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[OPINION] Westport: Purchase Property Next To Burying Hill

Posted on November 14, 2023 | 42 comments

26-28 Beachside Avenue — Harvey Weinstein’s property, next to Burying Hill Beach, and the one adjacent to it —  is on the market for $17,900,000. The 2 lots on 5.65 acres include 454 feet of waterfront, and a beach.

Longtime Westporter and open space advocate Scott Smith writes:

If the good citizens of Westport can over the years pony up funds to purchase Longshore Club Park, Winslow Park, Baron’s South, Allen’s Clam House and other unique properties around town, why wouldn’t we consider acquiring the 5-plus acre parcel on Beachside Avenue adjacent to Burying Hill Beach?

26-28 Beachside Avenue is to the left of Burying Hill Beach. (Photo copyright GMLS IDX)

While it’s great to see investment in the restored jetty, as a municipal property Burying Hill is still woefully neglected and in serious need of further climate-mitigation repair.

The roadway and parking area are increasingly under water at high tides.

And let’s face it: Despite its spectacular location, with limited facilities, an awkward layout and poor access, Burying Hill is underwhelming as a recreational venue.

Buying the adjoining land at 26-28 Beachside Avenue would allow for the entrance roadway to be moved away from New Creek, and create an opportunity to reimagine the park as a public greenspace along a scenic tidal estuary with unparalleled bluff-side views of Long Island Sound. That is what Burying Hill Beach was meant to be.

The Burying Hill Beach entrance often floods at high tide. (Photo/Ed Simek)

Yes, there’s sticker shock.

But as Donald Trump has been schooling us, real estate appraisals are very much in the eye of the beholder, and lienholder. I, for one, would have a hard time shelling out any amount of money to build a home on ground despoiled by Harvey Weinstein.

26-28 Beachside Avenue. (Photo copyright GMLS IDX)

At the very least, from an ecological/conservation standpoint, it makes great sense to preserve the New Creek watershed from further development. I would hope there are conservation easements or other tax benefits to explore to that end.

Look what happened when the town failed to prevent the blue monster at Old Mill Beach.

So, come on, Westport: Make an offer!

(To see the full real estate listing, click here.)

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Schematic for 26-28 Beachside Avenue.

42 Comments

Posted in Beach, Real estate

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[OPINION] Traffic Troubles? Look In The Rear-View Mirror!

Posted on August 10, 2023 | 48 comments

Long-time Westporter Scott Smith is a keen observer of Westport’s beauty.

And its issues.

Today he takes issue with common complaints about traffic. Scott writes:

I read the frequent gripes on “06880” about local traffic congestion.

Yes, it is often a nightmare.

One thing I never hear mentioned: personal responsibility.

Traffic is always someone else’s fault. You’re the one being inconvenienced by all these other cars on the road, right?

But let’s ask ourselves: How many of the car rides we take each day are truly essential? How many trips are to get a latte at Starbucks, or to pick up that one thing at CVS or the cleaners? How many trips are made simply because “I just needed to get out of the house”?

“Saving time” at the Starbucks drive-thru. (Photo/John McKinney)

I’m willing to bet that fully half of our daily car trips are in no way “necessary.” Leaving aside the occasional Waze-induced traffic jam, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was 50 percent less traffic on our local roads?

And let’s not just beat up on parents for their part in creating twice-daily, self-inflicted jams driving their kids to and from school. According to this federal survey, 1 in every 3 discretionary car trips is for shopping, with seniors accounting for the highest proportion of such travel.

The proportion of trips for social/recreational purposes has grown steadily in recent years as well, with — you guessed it — us baby boomers reporting the highest level of that discretionary travel.

Clearly, for the generation that has always equated cars with freedom and the mythical open road, they are going to have to pry the steering wheel out of our cold, dead hands.

Some mornings I ride my bike to the train station to go to work, especially on gridlock Wednesdays. There are rarely as many as 10 bikes in the racks.

Plenty of room at the Saugatuck station bike rack.

Why is that the case in such a health-conscious, affluent community where on weekends the roads are filled with cyclists riding for exercise? How many of us get in our cars to go someplace to take a walk?

How many of my fellow commuters have ever used the Westport Wheels2U van, much less stepped foot on a Norwalk Transit bus?

And who the heck carpools? Nine out of 10 cars I pass on my way to the train station are single drivers.

Speaking of those vehicles, how much of any local traffic backup is due to the simple fact that practically every other car in Westport is a 20-foot-long, 6,000-pound, 9-passenger Suburban?

Tax vehicles by size and weight and mileage. Use that revenue to help make our roadways safer for cyclists and walkers, especially around schools.

Alarmed by congestion, pollution and spiking rates of child deaths on the roads, a generation ago the Netherlands invested in cycling infrastructure. Today, 36% of Dutch people list the bicycle as their most frequent way of getting around on a typical day. Two-thirds of all Dutch children walk or bike to school, with 75% of secondary school kids cycling to school, preventing an estimated 1 million car journeys each day.

Imagine the benefits of adding a bike trail along the Merritt Parkway’s 300-foot-wide right-of-way. (When I worked in Westport, a colleague who lived in Trumbull would ride his bike to the office, using surface streets, faster than it took him to crawl along the Merritt at rush hour in his car.)

Could the next construction project include a trailway?

With the rise of e-bikes, investing in a multi-use trailway makes increasing sense, rather than encouraging yet more sprawl in outer suburbs. Not only would a bike path cut into the 70,000 cars crowding the parkway each workday, but it would also be a safe and healthy haven for weekend cyclists and charity riders alike.

And before you go all NIMBY in opposing sensible new development around train stations, or if you think our built environment is too complex to upgrade or the Merritt too historic to be enhanced with an adjacent pathway, consider this: Paris is working to become a “15-minute city” where everything you need is located within 15 minutes. Every street will have a bike lane, and 60,000 parking spots are being removed and replaced with parks.

A 2020 report on traffic congestion finds “if development is clustered closer together, people can take shorter trips between home, groceries, entertainment, and other destinations—sometimes even short enough that they can take those trips by walking or biking. But if that development is dispersed along a corridor instead, it leads to longer trips and more vehicles turning on and off the corridor to reach destinations spread along it, creating more traffic on those local roads as well as freeways that serve the area.”

Does that sound like Fairfield County? “If we were going to design a system to generate the maximum amount of congestion each day, this is exactly how it would be done,” the authors conclude.

So my fellow Westporters: Next time you’re stuck in traffic, take a look in the rear-view mirror. We all share responsibility for why our local roads are a mess, and we all can be part of the solution.

That includes driving less and driving smarter and supporting public and private initiatives aimed at moving away from the car-centric culture that is ruining our lives and our planet.

(Do you agree or disagree with Scott’s thoughts? Click “Comments” below. And while you’re at it, please consider a donation to help “06880” continue to open a wide range of topics tor discussion. Please click here. Thank you!)  

Want a solution to traffic? Look in the rear-view mirror! (Photo/Tracy Porosoff)

48 Comments

Posted in Environment, Transportation, Westport life

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Westport History, Black Duck Mystery

Posted on May 14, 2023 | 15 comments

Alert — and history-minded — “06880” reader Scott Smith writes about many subjects.

The environment, Long Island Sound, Longshore — they’re all subjects for his wide-ranging interests. Today he tackles something a tad bit different. Scott writes:

You never know where you’re going to come across Westport history. Let me share a favorite piece of 06880 memorabilia, though it may appeal to only those who frequent the Black Duck Café — and even then only to a particular subset of customer.

I stopped by the Duck recently. It was ages since I had a Big Top Burger stuffed with bleu cheese — a specialty of the house long hailed as Westport’s best dive.

A Westport favorite, for decades. (Photo/Chou Chou Merrill)

The burger was delicious, just as I remembered. But one thing was missing, I realized, after a trip across the slanted floorboards to the men’s restroom.

Gone from the wall to the right of the sink was a framed photo I noticed upon my first visit to the Duck more than 25 years ago. Guys, you know which one I’m talking about: a grainy color print of 2 young women arm in arm in the tropical surf, wearing big smiles, matching Black Duck Café t-shirts and teeny-weeny black bikini bottoms. It was the original wet t-shirt pic, or at least Westport’s iconic version of the genre.

I always figured the photo was from the 1970s, perhaps of 2 bartender friends. The water looks tropical. A snapshot of beach babes on spring break in Florida?

Back at the bar, I asked the bartender: “Hey, what happened to that photo in the men’s room. You know, the one…?”

“Two young guys took it,” she said, anger mixed with disdain. “Brothers. We know it was them because you could see in the security video one of them walking out had a big square object hidden under his shirt.”

She said she knew who the 2 kids were and had even called up the older brother, asking for it back. He told her they had left it in Norwalk, on the sidewalk outside a bar, but then it rained and the picture got all wet and yadda yadda yadda.

“Anyway, it’s gone. Must be a year now,” said the bartender. “I mean, why would they do that? The frame was even screwed into the wall. Besides, those girls are old enough to be their grandmothers.”

Just another day at the Duck.

I asked if she had a copy, but she said no, at least not a good one. What I didn’t add is that I was pretty sure I had a photo of the picture, taken years ago.

Don’t ask me why. Perhaps the storyteller in me thought of sending it to “06880,” to see if anyone knew who the 2 omen were and what their story was.

One thing’s for sure: In the years since I first saw that photo, I’ve gotten married, raised a son, grown gray and bald. Old enough to be a grandfather myself. Those 2 women never changed at all though, forever smiling squintingly at the photographer and fetchingly for all the world — or at least a very small part of —to see.

I found the image on my cell phone after scrolling through a thousand photos. Here it is.

The picture on the bathroom wall may be gone, but the mystery remains. Who are the Black Duck girls?

I can only hope they have had wonderful lives. They’ve certainly brightened mine.

(Nothing says “Westport” more than the Black Duck — or “06880.” You can support your hyper-local blog by clicking here. Thank you!)

15 Comments

Posted in Looking back, Restaurants

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