By Colleen Flaherty
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
Article Launched: 11/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
Should downtown Greenwich be groomed as an arts and cultural center over the next 10 years, or should development be limited?
Should the town make reduced-rate housing available to some town employees in the coming decade?
Unable to reach a consensus on these and other issues, the Planning and Zoning Commission will take extra time to revise the draft of its 10-year Plan of Conservation and Development.
The draft, initially slated for release last month, will now be released in December after the commission weighs feedback from residents, according to Planning and Zoning Chairman Donald Heller.
"What's happened is that it's taken longer than we originally anticipated," said Heller. "Some of the comments made were very, very good."
Written every 10 years as required by Town Charter and state statute, the Plan of Conservation and Development outlines the town's land-use initiatives for the next decade, ideally aligning development goals with those of conservation. A draft in circulation since July emphasizes the preservation of green space and other natural resources, as well as the need to mitigate traffic and congestion through better infrastructure.
While most residents support those goals, they are divided on the plan's recommendations regarding downtown development and housing, Town Planner Diane Fox said.....
....Aside from content, both Fox and Heller said the commission is also revising the plan's format. At 200 pages, residents have criticized the draft as being too long and, with sections that skip back and forth between focus areas, hard to read.
The final draft will be better organized and shorter, said Fox, with a chart and figure-heavy appendix.
The commission is also working on a "vision statement" for the plan, something the Representative Town Meeting recommended earlier this fall.
A public hearing on the plan before the Planning and Zoning Commission is set for January. Revisions may be made to the plan after that, said Heller. The RTM will vote on the document in March.
Lieberman faces wrath of Democrats
WASHINGTON - Sen. Joseph Lieberman facing a demotion by Senate Democrats for sharply attacking President-elect Barack Obama during the election campaign, Thursday defended his actions as "best for our country.
Lamont: Lieberman will become a Republican
Lamont: Lieberman will become a Republican
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
Article Launched: 11/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
Ned Lamont, the Greenwich Democrat who challenged U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman two years ago, believes his former opponent will soon join the Republican minority in Congress.
Lamont declined to say Thursday whether the junior senator from Connecticut and self-described "independent Democrat" should be punished for backing U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential bid.
"My sense is he's psychologically moving into the Republican column," Lamont said. "I think he'll probably jump."
Lamont, an entrepreneur and millionaire, challenged Lieberman's support for the Iraq war and won the Democratic primary in 2006.
But Lieberman formed a third party, Connecticut for Lieberman. With support from Republicans and unaffiliated voters, he won the general election.
Lamont had expected Lieberman would make peace with state Democrats....
.....One possible punishment for Lieberman is being stripped of his chairmanship of the Senate Government Services and Homeland Security Committee.
As speculation about Lieberman's fate increased Wednesday, the senator's office sent out an e-mail announcing he had helped secure more than $25 million in security grants for Connecticut in fiscal year 2009.
But Lamont said Connecticut has nothing to fear if Lieberman loses clout with the Democratic majority in Congress.
By Neil Vigdor
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
Article Launched: 11/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
While local Democrats were celebrating victories by Jim Himes and Barack Obama deep into the night Tuesday, U. S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., was driving back to Washington, D.C., with his wife, Betsi, and daughter, Jeramy.
That was always the plan, win or lose.
Where the road goes from there for Shays is uncertain after voters in the 4th District rejected the incumbent's bid for re-election and handed him his first political defeat since he ran for mayor of Stamford in 1983.
"I need to decide where we live, where I'm going to work - Connecticut, New York, Washington. To my credit, I have not thought about what do I do if I'm defeated. I wasn't looking to hedge my bets," Shays said in a telephone interview Thursday from his office on the Hill.
Shays and his aides must vacate that office by Thanksgiving.
A former state represenative and former real estate agent, Shays, 63, said he has ruled out running for governor or for Senate in two years, as some Republicans have been suggesting in the 48 hours since New England's last remaining GOP House member went down to defeat to Himes.
"I cannot imagine running for public office again," Shays said....
.....During the campaign, Shays was widely criticized by Himes for his support of the war in Iraq, where he has been more times than any sitting member of Congress since the invasion in 2003. He was also questioned about comments made in a Labor Day radio appearance on the "The Brian Lehrer Show" in which he said "the fundamentals of the economy are sound. No one can disagee with that."
Shays stood by that assessment and said that sound bites given by candidates are often twisted.
"If it wasn't this comment, it would have been something else," he said.
Looking back on a Washington career that began when he won a special election in 1987 to fill the seat of the late Stewart McKinney, Shays referred to an 88-page book put out by his campaign when asked about his greatest accomplishments.
It was that same book that Shays campaign distributed to the audience at each of his seven debates against Himes.
"I feel like I've been let go really at the height of my effectiveness," Shays said.
America is a country of immigrants, both its people and its plants. While our native plant inventory is large, the American plant population known to have originated overseas is larger.
To focus on corporate travel, Hogg Robinson Group recently outsourced its North American leisure travel business to Valerie Wilson Travel Inc.
To the editor:
We have all tolerated the behavior of "our" Sen. Joseph Lieberman as he desperately sought to help his friend John McCain win the election. Many of us felt his motivations were focused more on Joe and what he could get in return if McCain were elected, given that he clearly could not hope for much from a Democratic administration, which he had attacked and betrayed for months.
It's one thing to support a friend; but I felt he really crossed the line with his hateful attacks on Barack Obama at the Republican convention and has done even worse since then.
Monday, he took it to an even lower level. When asked by radio interviewer Glenn Beck whether he agreed that America would "not survive" a fillibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate, he said: "Well, I hope it's not like that, but I fear."
I believe he crossed the boundaries of civil discourse, and demonstrated a lack of judgment, morality and even soundness of mind. How could he seriously consider that America would not survive if there were 60 Democrats in the Senate? Not survive?
This was inflammatory, incendiary and clearly a last-ditch, cynical attempt to scare people into thinking they'd better vote against Democrats.
He must be called to account, and while we have little power other than to wait until the next election, there is something we can do now to send a message.
This week or next, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he will meet with Lieberman (who no longer merits honorable titles given his recent behavior) and discuss his role in the party and his committee chairmanship. Sen. Reid has said it's a party matter.
I believe it is a Connecticut matter as well, and that ITALwe the citizens of this stateITAL should at least weigh in on this issue with Sen. Reid. I will be contacting Sen. Reid and urge others to do so.
This is not just an internal Democratic issue or an internal Senate issue - Lieberman is our senator. He clearly has little regard for his own party, so how can we trust him to represent our interests?
Whatever your feelings, including if you think Lieberman deserves yet another chance, share them with The Honorable Harry Reid, 528 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; Phone: (202) 224-3542; Fax: (202) 224-7327; or contact him via link on his Web site http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
Speak up Connecticut citizens.
This is our issue, too.
Kathy Lewton
Stamford
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