NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A team of political activists huddled at a Hardee’s one rainy Saturday, wolfing down a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Then they descended on Antioch, a quiet Nashville suburb, armed with iPads full of voter data and a fiery script.
The group, the local chapter for Americans for Prosperity, which is financed by the oil billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch to advance conservative causes, fanned out and began strategically knocking on doors. Their targets: voters most likely to oppose a local plan to build light-rail trains, a traffic-easing tunnel and new bus routes.
“Do you agree that raising the sales tax to the highest rate in the nation must be stopped?” Samuel Nienow, one of the organizers, asked a startled man who answered the door at his ranch-style home in March. “Can we count on you to vote ‘no’ on the transit plan?”
In cities and counties across the country — including Little Rock, Ark.; Phoenix, Ariz.; southeast Michigan; central Utah; and here in Tennessee — the Koch brothers are fueling a fight against public transit, an offshoot of their longstanding national crusade for lower taxes and smaller government.
At the heart of their effort is a network of activists who use a sophisticated data service built by the Kochs, called i360, that helps them identify and rally voters who are inclined to their worldview. It is a particularly powerful version of the technologies used by major political parties.
In places like Nashville, Koch-financed activists are finding tremendous success.
Early polling here had suggested that the $5.4 billion transit plan would easily pass. It was backed by the city’s popular mayor and a coalition of businesses. Its supporters had outspent the opposition, and Nashville was choking on cars.
But the outcome of the May 1 ballot stunned the city: a landslide victory for the anti-transit camp, which attacked the plan as a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money. “This is why grass roots works,” said Tori Venable, Tennessee state director for Americans for Prosperity, which made almost 42,000 phone calls and knocked on more than 6,000 doors.
Supporters of transit investments point to research that shows that they reduce traffic, spur economic development and fight global warming by reducing emissions. Americans for Prosperity counters that public transit plans waste taxpayer money on unpopular, outdated technology like trains and buses just as the world is moving toward cleaner, driverless vehicles.
Most American cities do not have the population density to support mass transit, the group says. It also asserts that transit brings unwanted gentrification to some areas, while failing to reach others altogether.
Public transit, Americans for Prosperity says, goes against the liberties that Americans hold dear. “If someone has the freedom to go where they want, do what they want,” Ms. Venable said, “they’re not going to choose public transit.”
The Kochs’ opposition to transit spending stems from their longstanding free-market, libertarian philosophy. It also dovetails with their financial interests, which benefit from automobiles and highways.
One of the mainstay companies of Koch Industries, the Kochs’ conglomerate, is a major producer of gasoline and asphalt, and also makes seatbelts, tires and other automotive parts. Even as Americans for Prosperity opposes public investment in transit, it supports spending tax money on highways and roads.
“Stopping higher taxes is their rallying cry,” said Ashley Robbins, a researcher at Virginia Tech who follows transportation funding. “But at the end of the day, fuel consumption helps them.”
David Dziok, a Koch Industries spokesman, said the company did not control the activities of Americans for Prosperity in specific states and denied that the group’s anti-transit effort was linked to the company’s interests. That notion “runs counter to everything we stand for as a company,” he said.
“Our decisions are based on what is most likely to help people improve their lives, regardless of the policy and its effect on our bottom line,” he said. Koch Industries has opposed steel tariffs, for example, even though the company owns a steel mill in Arkansas, he said.
The group’s Nashville victory followed a roller-coaster political campaign, including a sex-and-spending scandal that led to the mayor’s resignation.
But the results also demonstrate that the Kochs’ political influence has quietly made deep inroads at the local level even as the brothers have had a lower profile in Washington. (This month, Koch Industries said David Koch would step away from his political and business roles because of declining health.)
“These are outside groups,” said Nashville’s new mayor, David Briley, in an interview. “They don’t represent Nashville’s interests or values.”
A Nationwide Effort
The Nashville strategy was part of a nationwide campaign. Since 2015, Americans for Prosperity has coordinated door-to-door anti-transit canvassing campaigns for at least seven local or state-level ballots, according to a review by The New York Times. In the majority, the Kochs were on the winning side.
Americans for Prosperity and other Koch-backed groups have also opposed more than two dozen other transit-related measures — including many states’ bids to raise gas taxes to fund transit or transportation infrastructure — by organizing phone banks, running advertising campaigns, staging public forums, issuing reports and writing opinion pieces in local publications. In Little Rock, Americans for Prosperity made more than 39,000 calls and knocked on nearly 5,000 doors to fight a proposed sales-tax increase worth $18 million to fund a bus and trolley network. In Utah, it handed out $50 gift cards at a grocery store, an amount it said represented what a proposed sales tax increase to fund transit would cost county residents per year.“There’s nothing more effective than actually having a human conversation with someone on events that affect them on a day-to-day basis,” Akash Chougule, policy director at Americans for Prosperity, said in an interview. “It’s a great opportunity for us to activate people in their own backyards, and we’re among the first to do it in a sustained, permanent way.”
The paucity of federal funding for transit projects means that local ballots are critical in shaping how Americans travel, with decades-long repercussions for the economy and the environment. Highway funding has historically been built into state and federal budgets, but transit funding usually requires a vote to raise taxes, creating what experts call a systemic bias toward cars over trains and buses. The United States transportation sector emits more earth-warming carbon dioxide than any other part of the nation’s economy.
The Trump administration had initially raised hopes of more funding for transit by advocating a trillion-dollar infrastructure push. However, when that proposed plan was made public it reduced funding for transit-related grants.
On the Ground in Nashville
Nashville’s idea to invest in transit got off to a strong start. Introduced in October by Megan Barry, who was mayor at the time, it called for 26 miles of light rail, a bus network, and a 1.8-mile tunnel for buses and trains that would bypass the city center’s narrow streets.
Getting There: Highway construction boom built on myths
How did Americans develop their love affair with driving?
Visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington and the transportation exhibit “America on the Move” will sell you on the commonly held theory that when Henry Ford made cars affordable, Americans loved them and demanded more and more highways.
Of course, that exhibit is sponsored by General Motors, which donated millions to put its name on the collection.
But University of Virginia history professor Peter Norton, author of “Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in American cities” contends that’s a myth. Just as outgoing President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex, Norton says an automotive-construction complex took over our country, paving from coast to coast.
Sure, Americans like their cars. But it was a conspiracy of economic interests that turned us into a car culture. Where cities once enjoyed a network of cheap, fast streetcars, GM, Firestone and oil companies bought and wiped them out, replacing them with buses and cars. “This country destroyed and rebuilt its cities in the 20th century to serve automobiles,” Norton says.
And those same interest groups are alive and well in Connecticut.
Groups like “Move CT Forward” aren’t pro-transportation as much as they are pro jobs — in construction. The groups have spent a lot of money lobbying in Hartford to keep their members, the unions and contractors busy. While I’m happy they’re promoting transportation, their motives are hardly altruistic.
This is nothing new, Norton says. The original interstate highways built in the 1950s used Portland Cement because that company lobbied so hard for its product over cheaper asphalt. Now that rusting rebar and crumbling cement is costing us a fortune.
Another myth from that era was that Eisenhower built the interstates to move troops quickly for national defense. That may have been the pitch to Congress, but the real reason for the highways was to evacuate civilians from the big cities in the event of nuclear war. Luckily, we never had to test that idea.
When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston — the most urbanized highway city in the country —authorities last summer didn’t even try to evacuate people because they knew more would die on congested roads than in the storm.
Who pays for all this road building? You do, in the form of income taxes and, yes, gasoline taxes. But Norton says gas taxes are hardly a fair way to pay for everything.
Why does the motorist driving on a dirt road pay the same gas tax as one driving Interstate 95? The costs they place on road maintenance, the environment and our stress levels are grossly different, so why isn’t the cost? “It would be like having Best Buy selling everything by the pound. People would flock to the electronics (our crowded interstates) instead of the towels,” he notes. I’m not sure Best Buy even sells towels, but I take his point. He reminds us that before the interstates, the nation’s first “super highways” like the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes were built as toll roads — not freeways — and remain that way today.
Driving may seem to be free, but it isn’t. Until we ask drivers to pay for its real cost, there is no incentive to do anything but drive (and pave) more.
As gas plant rises, pastors, PSEG remain at odds
By Brian Lockhart
BRIDGEPORT — The ongoing construction of a new gas-fired power plant in the South End is changing that harborfront neighborhood’s skyline.
But behind-the-scenes, a coalition of pastors has escalated its fight with plant-owner PSEG Power LLC and Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration over what critics characterized as a vaguely-worded 2016 deal that outlined what PSEG would do for the community in exchange for support for the plant’s construction.
The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport and other religious leaders have triggered a dispute-resolution section of the city’s pact with PSEG to force confidential negotiations among the parties. The pastors for months have alleged PSEG reneged on offering a robust construction union apprenticeship program and on hiring locally.
The pastors, PSEG and city officials had been trying informally to settle their differences for several months to no avail. “We didn’t feel the initial requests for response (to the allegations) were getting the level of attention they warranted given the size of the project and gravity of its impact on our community,” said Carl McCluster, whose Baptist Church is located across from PSEG’s property.
PSEG has continually insisted the company has met or exceeded its obligations.
As the sides remain at odds, the window of time to reach a resolution is closing. The gas-fired plant is 38 percent complete and scheduled to begin operations June 1, 2019. Most recently, a massive 10-story, 7 million pound crucial piece of equipment — a heat recovery steam generator that recycles the plant’s exhaust — was floated up the coastline by barge and installed on the property.
So what could PSEG and the city offer the pastors to satisfy them when the gas plant is nearly half built? The Rev. Cass Shaw, the Council of Churches’ president, did not want to offer details given that the negotiations are supposed to be confidential.
“We hope and trust we can come to an understanding of how best to serve Bridgeport residents,” Shaw said.
Good faith
The gas-fired power plant will, by 2021, replace the aged coal-run facility with the iconic candy-cane smoke stack next door that PSEG has operated since 2002. That swap, announced in early 2016, was considered a compromise between activists who wanted the industrial site shut down and redeveloped and city officials who did not want to lose PSEG’s substantial tax payments — $51.1 million over the next four years — and contributions to area charities — $525,000 since 2016.
The Ganim administration, City Council and PSEG also in 2016 drafted a Community Environmental Benefit Agreement that committed PSEG to: Establish a construction union apprenticeship training program; try to hire Bridgeport residents and contractors; and provide $2 million to be divvied up as grants among municipal departments and private entities for public health and environmental initiatives.
To date, PSEG has graduated 15 city residents from its Ready2Work program aimed at placing participants into labor union apprenticeships, with applications being accepted for a third class in July. And the company said that as of mid-June, city contractors, suppliers and businesses will earn $22.73 million off of the plant project.
But pastors like McCluster and others have claimed that, in order to sell their congregations on the gas-fired plant, PSEG promised dozens more apprenticeships and even more local investment. For example, while there are 400 union laborers building the plant, according to PSEG, 13 percent of the work hours have so far gone to Bridgeport resident One problem is the Community Environmental Benefit Agreement, which only requires PSEG to make a good faith effort without establishing actual goals. PSEG recently said it hopes a minimum of 15 percent of the work hours go to Bridgeport residents.
Another complaint the pastors have is that the agreement required an independent facilitator to monitor PSEG’s compliance, which has not happened. The Ganim administration has argued that, in the meantime, the city’s small and minority business office is monitoring the project.
Money in limbo
And lastly there is a complication with PSEG’s required $2 million payment. The company has made the money available, but the Community Environmental Benefit Agreement did not delineate the legal, banking and accounting complexities involved in depositing and distributing the cash.
Stuart Sachs is chairman of a special task force the city appointed to accept the $2 million. This week, he briefed members of the City Council on why that money remains in limbo.
“I don’t know who wrote this (Community Environmental Benefit Agreement), but (I) would like to roll it up and whack them in the ear,” a frustrated Sachs said. “I hope what you’re beginning to understand is this procedure is fairly complicated.”
Sachs said his task force, after investigating several options, has decided to partner with the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County to accept, manage and distribute the $2 million.
Sachs added that some of that $2 million will be spent on hiring the facilitator to provide the oversight of PSEG and the gas plant construction that the pastors have been demanding.
“I wish we could have had it earlier,” Sachs said.
Preston to hold zoning hearing on Mashantucket request to allow RV campground on Route 2 land
By Claire Bessette
Preston — The Mashantucket Pequot tribe is considering creating an RV campground resort on three parcels on Route 2, where tribal officials initially had proposed hosting the Revolution Rock Festival in 2016.
The town Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on a proposed zoning regulation text amendment to add recreational campgrounds to the Vacation Resort section of the existing Resort Commercial District. Tribal officials requested the zoning regulation language change for the three parcels at 451, 455 and 495 Route 2 in the Resort Commercial District.
The land is an expansive field with wooded areas at the edges located between the Route 164 intersection and the Hilton Garden Inn hotel at the Watson Road intersection, about a half-mile from Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Town Planner Kathy Warzecha said Tuesday’s hearing is only for the regulation wording change. The tribe would need to apply for a specific development plan if the text amendment is approved. The amendment would allow recreational campgrounds in the zone with a special exception, which also would require a public hearing.
“We continue to work with the town of Preston as we consider all potential options for the use of properties owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation along the Rt. 2 corridor,” tribal spokesman Lori Potter said in an email response to a question about the tribe’s pan.
In a letter dated May 22 to commission Chairman Arthur Moran Jr., Mashantucket Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler said tribal officials met with Warzecha in March to discuss the possible development of an RV campground resort at the properties. Butler said tribal officials were told the regulations did not include the specific language for RV campgrounds within the zone, but the commission was in the process of reviewing regulations.
“It will provide economic benefit to the region by attracting visitors that will use the region’s businesses therefore improving viability,” the tribe’s text amendment application stated. “It will diversify the business environment and encourage a positive sustainable economy. It will promote appropriate economic development along Route 2.”
CT approves $8.5M for transit-oriented development projects
Joe Cooper
Projects in Hartford and West Hartford are among five municipalities that share in an $8.5 million grant to accelerate transit-oriented development, the governor announced.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday said the second round of funding for the transit-oriented development program will also go to projects in Danbury, Stamford and Torrington.
The funding, meant for highly populated, mixed-use business and neighborhood centers near transit stations and corridors, is administered by the Office of Policy and Management (OPM).
"Transportation isn't just about cars, trains, and buses – it's about building vibrant communities and continuing to make Connecticut a more attractive place to live, visit, and do business," Malloy said.
Under Phase I of the project last year, the state approved $15 million for 11 projects in municipalities including New Britain, East Windsor, Berlin, Wallingford and Norwalk.
The following projects will receive the grants under Phase II:
West Hartford – New Park Avenue: $2 million to construct infrastructure improvements along New Park Avenue from New Britain Avenue to Oakwood Avenue.
Hartford – Main Street: $450,000 to develop a section of Main Street from State House Square to study improvements for bike and pedestrian amenities, transit services, new streetscaping and a new cycle track, and other linkages to improve bike and pedestrian connections within the project area, among others.
Stamford – Springdale: $1.9 million to prepare design and engineering drawings and build improvements around the Springdale Train Station
Torrington – East Main Street: $1.9 million to construct new sidewalks, and repair and replace existing sidewalks along portions of East Main Street between Torrington Heights Road and the Big Lots Plaza.
Danbury – Downtown Streetscape: $2 million to design and construct sidewalk and streetscape infrastructure improvements along downtown pedestrian routes near the Danbury Train Station.
Demolition To Begin On Derelict Dillon Stadium
Jenna Carlesso
Demolition is set to begin on the ramshackle stadium in Colt Park that city leaders have tried unsuccessfully for years to revive.In the coming weeks, crews will start to dismantle at least half of the bleachers at Dillon Stadium, the historic South End arena that once hosted The Grateful Dead and professional sports matches. Project managers will evaluate the remaining seating along the east side of the stadium to see if it is salvageable, said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, which is overseeing the effort.
The renovation is expected to conclude in spring 2019, when a new, professional soccer team will begin playing at Dillon. Bruce Mandell, who is putting the team together with two business partners, said he plans to announce a club name, franchise details and sponsorships this summer.CRDA has chosen Newfield Construction Inc. to spearhead the upgrades of several structures, including bathrooms, locker rooms, concession stands and a press box. Other pieces of the stadium, like the bleachers and natural grass field, will be ripped out and replaced with new materials. The project calls for a new, west side seating area and an artificial turf field.
Under a deal hammered out between the city and CRDA, the development authority would manage Dillon for five years, with the option for three, five-year extensions. Mandell’s company, Hartford Sports Group, would pay $300,000 annually to cover overhead expenses and another $25,000 that would go into a community fund. The fund will pay for neighborhood events.
Mandell is also putting up $7 million to $10 million to form the team, backed by the United Soccer League. Hartford Sports would have access to the facility for 20 years. After the first five, the group’s annual payments will be adjusted for inflation.
The company is also responsible for the cost of police patrols outside the stadium, security inside the facility, utilities and maintenance. The city will pay for utilities during community events.
Mandell acknowledged that the project’s timeline and budget were tight, but he was optimistic the stadium would be completed by April 2019.
Project managers have tried to fend off comparisons to Dunkin’ Donuts Park. The grand opening of the $71 million facility north of Hartford’s downtown was delayed a year due to construction and design flaws, and the development ran more than $10 million over budget.
“That hovers over every conversation,” Mandell said of the Dunkin’ Donuts Park fiasco. “How could it not? This project is one-eighth of the size, but so what? People should have expectations that we’re all working together to bring this thing forward in a positive way.”
A use agreement for Dillon is being finalized and subcontractors are still being selected.
Before its decline, the stadium was home to the Hartford Bicentennials soccer team and New England Nightmare women’s football league. It was a popular live music venue in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Grateful Dead and Kiss.
Dillon, built in 1935 at the southern end of Colt Park, has been deteriorating for years. It has most recently been used for high school football and soccer games.
The $5.4 billion proposal, the costliest transit project in Nashville’s history, was to be funded by raising the sales tax city residents pay by one percentage point, to 10.25 percent, and raising other business taxes. A coalition of Nashville businesses urged voters to endorse the spending as vital to a region projected to grow to almost 3 million people by 2040, an increase of 1 million.
“It will be far-reaching, it will serve every part of our city — north, south, east, and west — and it will help to shape our future growth and development,” said Ms. Barry, who enjoyed approval ratings near 70 percent. A poll by her team found that close to two-thirds of voters would support raising taxes to pay for transit.
The vote was set for May 1.
But then in late January Ms. Barry, who is married, acknowledged a nearly two-year affair with the former head of her security detail after a series of exposés, including reports of steamy texts, overseas trips and inappropriate spending. In March she resigned, and later pleaded guilty to theft. Ms. Barry did not respond to requests for comment.
Americans for Prosperity kicked its campaign into high gear.
Secret Weapons
The team that gathered at Hardee’s in March, two weeks after Ms. Barry’s resignation, was led by Ms. Venable and Mr. Nienow of Americans for Prosperity. Other canvassers that morning included a local Tea Party leader and a lawyer-turned-fantasy-novelist who writes about a young witch who pushes back against an authoritarian government.
Central to the work of Americans for Prosperity is i360, the Kochs’ data operation, which profiles Americans based on their voter registration information, consumer data and social media activities. The canvassers divided the neighborhoods into “walkbooks,” or clusters of several dozen homes, and broke into teams of two.
There are rules: No more than two people at a door (to avoid appearing threatening). No stepping on lawns (homeowners don’t like it). And focus strictly on the registered voter. If anyone else answers, say a polite “thanks” and move on.
“It’s the concept of opportunity cost,” said Mr. Nienow. Their data zeroed in on people thought to be anti-tax or anti-transit and likely to vote.
On a laptop in her S.U.V., Ms. Venable tracked, in real time, the progress of the four pairs working that day. By 4:30 p.m. they had knocked on 230 doors and connected with 66 people, a success rate of 29 percent. “Excellent,” she said.
“Everything we do is very scientific, very data-based, very numbers-based,” said Mr. Chougule, the Americans for Prosperity policy director. “We are able to see who are the people that are most likely to engage on this issue, who are the people most aligned with us that we need to get out, and who are the people whose minds we can change.”
Another weapon in the Koch arsenal is Randal O’Toole, a transit expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington that Charles Koch helped found in the 1970s. Declaring transit “dead” and streetcars “a scam,” he has become a go-to expert for anti-transit groups. Crisscrossing the country, he speaks at local events and writes opinion pieces.
At a forum in Nashville in January hosted by a conservative radio host, Mr. O’Toole gave an impassioned speech. “I think of light rail as the diamond-encrusted Rolex watch of transit. It’s something that doesn’t do as much as a real watch can do. It costs a lot more. And it serves solely to serve the ego of the people who are buying it,” he said, meaning city officials.
Public transit critics have long raised fears that rail projects are a conduit for crime, and Mr. O’Toole himself has made that argument: “Teenagers swarm onto San Francisco BART trains to rob passengers,” he warned in a blog post last year. But in Nashville, Mr. O’Toole made a different argument, namely that transit is for hipster millennials and would be a conduit for gentrification, forcing people to move further away to find affordable housing.
In another line of attack, he also argues that ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are the future of transportation, not buses and trains. “Why would anybody ride transit when they can get a ride at their door within a minute that will drop them off at the door where they want to go?” he said in an interview.
Asked whether low-income people could afford to use Uber instead of a bus, he said that subsidizing their rides would still be more cost-effective.
Raj Rajkumar, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Mobility21 research center, which focuses on transportation issues, said studies have shown that mass transit reduces congestion and pollution. But he also said there is some truth in concerns that transit could bring gentrification. To offset that, he said, transit plans should be paired with measures to increase affordable housing.
Still, in most places and over the long run, buses and trains are the most effective and cleanest way of moving large numbers of people large distances, he said. Ride-sharing can help people on shorter trips, Mr. Rajkumar said, or getting to and from a train station. “But if you’re going 30 miles, Uber is less suitable. I don’t think Uber and Lyft can really replace public transit,” he said.
A Money Trail, Undisclosed
The scale of the Kochs’ anti-transit spending is difficult to gauge at the local level, because campaign finance disclosure standards vary among municipalities. But at the state and national level, the picture gets clearer.
Last year Americans for Prosperity spent $711,000 on lobbying for various issues, a near 1,000-fold increase since 2011, when it spent $856. Overall, the group has spent almost $4 million on state-level lobbying the past seven years, according to disclosures compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks political spending.
Broadly speaking, Americans for Prosperity campaigns against big government, but many of its initiatives target public transit. In Indiana, it marshaled opposition to a 2017 Republican gas-tax plan meant to raise roughly a billion dollars to invest in local buses and other projects. In New Jersey, the group ran an ad against a proposed gas-tax increase in 2016 that showed a father giving away his baby’s milk bottle, and also Sparky the family dog, to pay for transit improvements among other things. “Save Sparky,” the ad implores.
In Nashville, Americans for Prosperity played a major role: organizing door-to-door canvassing teams using iPads running the i360 software. Those in-kind contributions can be difficult to measure. According to A.F.P.’s campaign finance disclosure, the group made only one contribution, of $4,744, to the campaign for “canvassing expenses.”
Instead, a local group, NoTax4Tracks, led the Nashville fund-raising. Nearly three-quarters of the $1.1 million it raised came from a single nonprofit, Nashville Smart Inc., which is not required to disclose donors. The rest of the contributions to NoTax4Tracks came from wealthy local donors, including a local auto dealer.
Both NoTax4Tracks and Nashville Smart declined to fully disclose their funding.
‘I Knew We Were Going to Win’
After Ms. Barry’s resignation, Nashville’s pro-transit movement struggled. Its messaging became muddled, strategists said, with supporters claiming that the plan would do everything: create jobs, benefit the environment and even boost the health and wellness of residents.
Ultimately, the pro-transit camp failed to fend off criticism that the plan benefited a gentrifying downtown at the expense of more distant lower-income and minority areas.
“If everyone’s going to pay for it, everyone needs to benefit,” said Rev. Jeff Obafemi Carr, who threw his support behind the opposition campaign and mobilized African-American voters.
After the vote, the Americans for Prosperity crew celebrated its victory at the Nashville Palace, a country music venue. “I knew we were going to win,” Ms. Venable said. “But I wasn’t taking my foot off the gas for a second.”
How did Americans develop their love affair with driving?
Visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington and the transportation exhibit “America on the Move” will sell you on the commonly held theory that when Henry Ford made cars affordable, Americans loved them and demanded more and more highways.
Of course, that exhibit is sponsored by General Motors, which donated millions to put its name on the collection.
But University of Virginia history professor Peter Norton, author of “Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in American cities” contends that’s a myth. Just as outgoing President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex, Norton says an automotive-construction complex took over our country, paving from coast to coast.
Sure, Americans like their cars. But it was a conspiracy of economic interests that turned us into a car culture. Where cities once enjoyed a network of cheap, fast streetcars, GM, Firestone and oil companies bought and wiped them out, replacing them with buses and cars. “This country destroyed and rebuilt its cities in the 20th century to serve automobiles,” Norton says.
And those same interest groups are alive and well in Connecticut.
Groups like “Move CT Forward” aren’t pro-transportation as much as they are pro jobs — in construction. The groups have spent a lot of money lobbying in Hartford to keep their members, the unions and contractors busy. While I’m happy they’re promoting transportation, their motives are hardly altruistic.
This is nothing new, Norton says. The original interstate highways built in the 1950s used Portland Cement because that company lobbied so hard for its product over cheaper asphalt. Now that rusting rebar and crumbling cement is costing us a fortune.
Another myth from that era was that Eisenhower built the interstates to move troops quickly for national defense. That may have been the pitch to Congress, but the real reason for the highways was to evacuate civilians from the big cities in the event of nuclear war. Luckily, we never had to test that idea.
When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston — the most urbanized highway city in the country —authorities last summer didn’t even try to evacuate people because they knew more would die on congested roads than in the storm.
Who pays for all this road building? You do, in the form of income taxes and, yes, gasoline taxes. But Norton says gas taxes are hardly a fair way to pay for everything.
Why does the motorist driving on a dirt road pay the same gas tax as one driving Interstate 95? The costs they place on road maintenance, the environment and our stress levels are grossly different, so why isn’t the cost? “It would be like having Best Buy selling everything by the pound. People would flock to the electronics (our crowded interstates) instead of the towels,” he notes. I’m not sure Best Buy even sells towels, but I take his point. He reminds us that before the interstates, the nation’s first “super highways” like the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes were built as toll roads — not freeways — and remain that way today.
Driving may seem to be free, but it isn’t. Until we ask drivers to pay for its real cost, there is no incentive to do anything but drive (and pave) more.
As gas plant rises, pastors, PSEG remain at odds
By Brian Lockhart
BRIDGEPORT — The ongoing construction of a new gas-fired power plant in the South End is changing that harborfront neighborhood’s skyline.
But behind-the-scenes, a coalition of pastors has escalated its fight with plant-owner PSEG Power LLC and Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration over what critics characterized as a vaguely-worded 2016 deal that outlined what PSEG would do for the community in exchange for support for the plant’s construction.
The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport and other religious leaders have triggered a dispute-resolution section of the city’s pact with PSEG to force confidential negotiations among the parties. The pastors for months have alleged PSEG reneged on offering a robust construction union apprenticeship program and on hiring locally.
The pastors, PSEG and city officials had been trying informally to settle their differences for several months to no avail. “We didn’t feel the initial requests for response (to the allegations) were getting the level of attention they warranted given the size of the project and gravity of its impact on our community,” said Carl McCluster, whose Baptist Church is located across from PSEG’s property.
PSEG has continually insisted the company has met or exceeded its obligations.
As the sides remain at odds, the window of time to reach a resolution is closing. The gas-fired plant is 38 percent complete and scheduled to begin operations June 1, 2019. Most recently, a massive 10-story, 7 million pound crucial piece of equipment — a heat recovery steam generator that recycles the plant’s exhaust — was floated up the coastline by barge and installed on the property.
So what could PSEG and the city offer the pastors to satisfy them when the gas plant is nearly half built? The Rev. Cass Shaw, the Council of Churches’ president, did not want to offer details given that the negotiations are supposed to be confidential.
“We hope and trust we can come to an understanding of how best to serve Bridgeport residents,” Shaw said.
Good faith
The gas-fired power plant will, by 2021, replace the aged coal-run facility with the iconic candy-cane smoke stack next door that PSEG has operated since 2002. That swap, announced in early 2016, was considered a compromise between activists who wanted the industrial site shut down and redeveloped and city officials who did not want to lose PSEG’s substantial tax payments — $51.1 million over the next four years — and contributions to area charities — $525,000 since 2016.
The Ganim administration, City Council and PSEG also in 2016 drafted a Community Environmental Benefit Agreement that committed PSEG to: Establish a construction union apprenticeship training program; try to hire Bridgeport residents and contractors; and provide $2 million to be divvied up as grants among municipal departments and private entities for public health and environmental initiatives.
To date, PSEG has graduated 15 city residents from its Ready2Work program aimed at placing participants into labor union apprenticeships, with applications being accepted for a third class in July. And the company said that as of mid-June, city contractors, suppliers and businesses will earn $22.73 million off of the plant project.
But pastors like McCluster and others have claimed that, in order to sell their congregations on the gas-fired plant, PSEG promised dozens more apprenticeships and even more local investment. For example, while there are 400 union laborers building the plant, according to PSEG, 13 percent of the work hours have so far gone to Bridgeport resident One problem is the Community Environmental Benefit Agreement, which only requires PSEG to make a good faith effort without establishing actual goals. PSEG recently said it hopes a minimum of 15 percent of the work hours go to Bridgeport residents.
Another complaint the pastors have is that the agreement required an independent facilitator to monitor PSEG’s compliance, which has not happened. The Ganim administration has argued that, in the meantime, the city’s small and minority business office is monitoring the project.
Money in limbo
And lastly there is a complication with PSEG’s required $2 million payment. The company has made the money available, but the Community Environmental Benefit Agreement did not delineate the legal, banking and accounting complexities involved in depositing and distributing the cash.
Stuart Sachs is chairman of a special task force the city appointed to accept the $2 million. This week, he briefed members of the City Council on why that money remains in limbo.
“I don’t know who wrote this (Community Environmental Benefit Agreement), but (I) would like to roll it up and whack them in the ear,” a frustrated Sachs said. “I hope what you’re beginning to understand is this procedure is fairly complicated.”
Sachs said his task force, after investigating several options, has decided to partner with the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County to accept, manage and distribute the $2 million.
Sachs added that some of that $2 million will be spent on hiring the facilitator to provide the oversight of PSEG and the gas plant construction that the pastors have been demanding.
“I wish we could have had it earlier,” Sachs said.
Preston to hold zoning hearing on Mashantucket request to allow RV campground on Route 2 land
By Claire Bessette
Preston — The Mashantucket Pequot tribe is considering creating an RV campground resort on three parcels on Route 2, where tribal officials initially had proposed hosting the Revolution Rock Festival in 2016.
The town Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on a proposed zoning regulation text amendment to add recreational campgrounds to the Vacation Resort section of the existing Resort Commercial District. Tribal officials requested the zoning regulation language change for the three parcels at 451, 455 and 495 Route 2 in the Resort Commercial District.
The land is an expansive field with wooded areas at the edges located between the Route 164 intersection and the Hilton Garden Inn hotel at the Watson Road intersection, about a half-mile from Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Town Planner Kathy Warzecha said Tuesday’s hearing is only for the regulation wording change. The tribe would need to apply for a specific development plan if the text amendment is approved. The amendment would allow recreational campgrounds in the zone with a special exception, which also would require a public hearing.
“We continue to work with the town of Preston as we consider all potential options for the use of properties owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation along the Rt. 2 corridor,” tribal spokesman Lori Potter said in an email response to a question about the tribe’s pan.
In a letter dated May 22 to commission Chairman Arthur Moran Jr., Mashantucket Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler said tribal officials met with Warzecha in March to discuss the possible development of an RV campground resort at the properties. Butler said tribal officials were told the regulations did not include the specific language for RV campgrounds within the zone, but the commission was in the process of reviewing regulations.
“It will provide economic benefit to the region by attracting visitors that will use the region’s businesses therefore improving viability,” the tribe’s text amendment application stated. “It will diversify the business environment and encourage a positive sustainable economy. It will promote appropriate economic development along Route 2.”
CT approves $8.5M for transit-oriented development projects
Joe Cooper
Projects in Hartford and West Hartford are among five municipalities that share in an $8.5 million grant to accelerate transit-oriented development, the governor announced.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday said the second round of funding for the transit-oriented development program will also go to projects in Danbury, Stamford and Torrington.
The funding, meant for highly populated, mixed-use business and neighborhood centers near transit stations and corridors, is administered by the Office of Policy and Management (OPM).
"Transportation isn't just about cars, trains, and buses – it's about building vibrant communities and continuing to make Connecticut a more attractive place to live, visit, and do business," Malloy said.
Under Phase I of the project last year, the state approved $15 million for 11 projects in municipalities including New Britain, East Windsor, Berlin, Wallingford and Norwalk.
The following projects will receive the grants under Phase II:
West Hartford – New Park Avenue: $2 million to construct infrastructure improvements along New Park Avenue from New Britain Avenue to Oakwood Avenue.
Hartford – Main Street: $450,000 to develop a section of Main Street from State House Square to study improvements for bike and pedestrian amenities, transit services, new streetscaping and a new cycle track, and other linkages to improve bike and pedestrian connections within the project area, among others.
Stamford – Springdale: $1.9 million to prepare design and engineering drawings and build improvements around the Springdale Train Station
Torrington – East Main Street: $1.9 million to construct new sidewalks, and repair and replace existing sidewalks along portions of East Main Street between Torrington Heights Road and the Big Lots Plaza.
Danbury – Downtown Streetscape: $2 million to design and construct sidewalk and streetscape infrastructure improvements along downtown pedestrian routes near the Danbury Train Station.
Demolition To Begin On Derelict Dillon Stadium
Jenna Carlesso
Demolition is set to begin on the ramshackle stadium in Colt Park that city leaders have tried unsuccessfully for years to revive.In the coming weeks, crews will start to dismantle at least half of the bleachers at Dillon Stadium, the historic South End arena that once hosted The Grateful Dead and professional sports matches. Project managers will evaluate the remaining seating along the east side of the stadium to see if it is salvageable, said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, which is overseeing the effort.
The renovation is expected to conclude in spring 2019, when a new, professional soccer team will begin playing at Dillon. Bruce Mandell, who is putting the team together with two business partners, said he plans to announce a club name, franchise details and sponsorships this summer.CRDA has chosen Newfield Construction Inc. to spearhead the upgrades of several structures, including bathrooms, locker rooms, concession stands and a press box. Other pieces of the stadium, like the bleachers and natural grass field, will be ripped out and replaced with new materials. The project calls for a new, west side seating area and an artificial turf field.
Managers are resolved to stay within the $10 million, state-funded budget.
“There is a lot of pushing and shoving inside the budget,” Freimuth said. “It has shifted a thousand times, but we’re trying to stay within it.”Under a deal hammered out between the city and CRDA, the development authority would manage Dillon for five years, with the option for three, five-year extensions. Mandell’s company, Hartford Sports Group, would pay $300,000 annually to cover overhead expenses and another $25,000 that would go into a community fund. The fund will pay for neighborhood events.
Mandell is also putting up $7 million to $10 million to form the team, backed by the United Soccer League. Hartford Sports would have access to the facility for 20 years. After the first five, the group’s annual payments will be adjusted for inflation.
The company is also responsible for the cost of police patrols outside the stadium, security inside the facility, utilities and maintenance. The city will pay for utilities during community events.
Mandell acknowledged that the project’s timeline and budget were tight, but he was optimistic the stadium would be completed by April 2019.
Project managers have tried to fend off comparisons to Dunkin’ Donuts Park. The grand opening of the $71 million facility north of Hartford’s downtown was delayed a year due to construction and design flaws, and the development ran more than $10 million over budget.
“That hovers over every conversation,” Mandell said of the Dunkin’ Donuts Park fiasco. “How could it not? This project is one-eighth of the size, but so what? People should have expectations that we’re all working together to bring this thing forward in a positive way.”
A use agreement for Dillon is being finalized and subcontractors are still being selected.
Before its decline, the stadium was home to the Hartford Bicentennials soccer team and New England Nightmare women’s football league. It was a popular live music venue in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Grateful Dead and Kiss.
Dillon, built in 1935 at the southern end of Colt Park, has been deteriorating for years. It has most recently been used for high school football and soccer games.