It starts with today's article in the Connecticut Post, Sparks Fly in Electrifying Beach Dispute. The UI and the City are squaring off over who will pay for a $1 Million replacement submarine cable to light up Pleasure Beach. Well if you saw my FB post today, you know I have all sorts of qualms about replacing a system that was designed in the early days of the 20th century when we knew nothing of dwindling resources, environmental impact or budget woes. To spend $1 Million to take us back to the 1950's when we now know of pcb contamination, light pollution, broken bank systems and overburdened tax payers, is like paying $400 Million in tax payer funds for a gravel driveway to one man's home in another town - Ohhh was that too close to home? Good.
But back to Pleasure Beach- In 2007, CCB was granted permission to begin restoring Pleasure Beach for passive recreation. We wanted to land some boats on the beach and provide rides back and forth for families via a water taxi we ran. However on the day Mayor Finch took office, I was called in to the new Parks and Rec Director's office held by Charlie Carroll and told "Bill killed the deal" and so we turned our sights to Stratford, Seaside and now the Bridgeport Boat Basin.
Our plan was very simple, easy to implement and best of all, free of tax payer funds. It wasn't going to create Seaside Park II, just allow people a way on and off the the Beach to enjoy the wildlife, enjoy the water and and enjoy the beach.
Now the current plan, if you can call it that, is to install a Multi-Million Dollar transportation system complete with new docks and new vessels all at the expense of the tax payers funds. And you wonder why Bridgeport is broke?
They had an alternative plan that could have gotten the ball rolling half a decade ago, with no cost to the tax payer and would have worked with both the Birders and the Restorationists. Instead, Finch tanked our plan and has in the darkness developed a plan that will pander to the Restorationists, ignore the Birders and cost John Q Public a mint while in the offing. And not to mention, hit a bunch of deal killing land mines on the way.
Lets just say they figure out who pays for the power out to the property, what about the permitting to repair it? What about the environmental issues from opening up a 75-year old power line that has been marinating in Bridgeport Harbor since the FDR administration? And what about the idea that he wants to build ball fields where now Piping Plovers, Ospreys, Prickly Pear and all sorts of other species have decided to call home?
Its not that I am opposed to opening Pleasure Beach- I'm not- and a squash court or two out there would be lovely. But do we need another Lighted Stadium like Seaside Park on a Nature Preserve?
And wouldn't it make more sense to use the $1 Million to build sustainable energy to be a demonstration of the future of Bridgeport's commitment to green technology?
And what about building the vessels on the Left Coast instead of investing the money in Direktor to keep business buzzing in Bridgeport?
What about the DEEP, The US Fish and Wildlife, Army Corp of Engineers and all the other regulators who will have something to say about this?
And what about the second half of Pleasure Beach, Long Beach West? Are they really going to develop a property that is contiguous with Stratford but never address the fact that Stratford has an entirely different vision for their side of the property?
Maybe they have all these issues worked out. Maybe they know of other issues I haven't even thought of- What about restrooms? What about emergency services? What about trash collection? Who will manage this site and do we trust the people who have mismanaged the property for the last 50 years and allowed the Historic buildings on the site to be bulldozed without a single word from the public to do so?
I'm just saying I want to know the plan. I want the details to be open for public view and I want to know who is gonna benefit from this plan after they grease all the palms to make it happen.
They tell me boats will be going to Pleasure Beach next year. And I know they mean it because they're trying to take our docks by force if necessary in the Bridgeport Boat Basin as part of the effort. But when its all said and done, I'm not sure I believe it will really happen because the shady deals, the back room politics and their lack of understanding on how to properly manage a waterfront facility is all too obvious in what they are currently doing at Seaside Park, in the Pequonnock River and in the early stages of Pleasure Beach Debacle.
I'm not sure it will ever happen, but the latest chapter in the sad story of Bridgeport should be fun to watch. So get your popcorn and box of tissues ready because the tragedy continues.
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