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To the Editor:

What follows [see below] is an email that I wrote to Town Councilor Mary Fay as a thank you for her support during a recent zoning board meeting, regarding an affordable housing development planned for 1244 North Main St. (“The Elle”). I’d like to formally endorse her as a candidate for Town Council in the upcoming election, because she has proven through her actions that she has the best interest of taxpayers at heart.  As an unaffiliated voter, I was surprised to learn that we make up a large portion of the population in town (when combined with Republicans, we actually outnumber registered Democrats). With the increasingly extreme views espoused by many Democratic senators and congresspeople (such as support for BDS, censorship, and warmongering), the time is right for free-thinking and rational people to come together and put aside traditional party boundaries. Ms. Fay has a proven track record of service to the town, and her experience as a corporate executive has given her the perspective that many of her fellow candidates lack.

Please join me in supporting Mary Fay for Town Council.

Respectfully,
Anthony LeBlanc
West Hartford

PS – I’d also encourage folks to seek out independent media voices who shed light on some of the most misrepresented topics of our time, such as Michael Shellenberger, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Malice, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Jimmy Dore.  Both sides of the corporate media are pushing a narrative and are not working to inform us of what is really happening.

Hello Councilor Fay,

I’m one of the residents who spoke during the zoning hearing last night, and although the outcome was disappointing I wanted to reach out to you and thank you for your comments. Although I expected that the council would lean toward approval of the proposal, I had hoped that our logically reasoned and fact based objections would carry some weight (or at least be refuted, or even explored to some degree). I agree that a smaller development of 40 units, with more open space, would have been perfectly fine with us … but of course the goal of the developer is to cram as many people into that area as possible. I was not prepared for the cartoonishly emotional, dismissive, and obvious virtue signaling of the council’s responses, of the kind that you’d typically only see on viral social media clips. I’m disgusted by the behavior & disparaging words of the other council members, and genuinely feel sorry that you have to deal with it on a regular basis. 

You were absolutely correct when you said that residents feel like we’re not represented and that our opinions don’t matter, and that was proven last night by the council’s vote against the wishes of every single resident directly impacted by this development. We are the middle class backbone of this town, and have worked hard and scrimped and saved to be able to live here. As many of us mentioned, we’re not opposed to affordable housing but as you mentioned this development is too large and too inconvenient for the location.

Contrary to what the other councilors stated, we are very welcoming of all people and backgrounds and want them to have a stake in the success of our town. Our neighborhood includes people of many different races and creeds, most of them immigrants who moved here to take part in the American dream. My wife grew up in a poor village in China with no car, no running water, outdoor toilets, etc. Her parents worked 7 days a week for years to enable her and brother to have a better life in America, and she moved to West Hartford as a teenager. She graduated from Hall High School, and her positive impression of the town as a welcoming and fair place stuck with her into adulthood and was a significant reason why we chose to settle here in 2014. To say that she was surprised and disappointed with the comments of the council last night would be an extreme understatement.

The fact of the matter is that any large residential complex will increase the number of police, fire, and ambulance calls to the area. It’s not a value judgement to admit the fact that by putting in a parking lot of 50+ cars there’s a high likelihood that car thieves will target the area (we never said that the residents of the new development would be the ones committing the crime).

And the comments about traffic were not related to the increase in volume or existing problems, but to the increase in accidents that is certain to come with a new development of this sort. A basic understanding of statistics would prove that there is a guaranteed, non-zero chance of an increase in risk when you introduce additional variables into a complex traffic flow system. The applicant and other councilors scoffed at the impact of 19 new trips per hour during rush hour, but it takes more than 5 minutes to turn left onto N Main St from Tumblebrook today… so basic math shows that there will consistently be a line of cars waiting to get out of the Elle complex at rush hour. At the same time you will have folks attempting to cross N Main, which will only add to the confusion and delays. I would certainly support the installation of a new traffic light at the intersection of Tumblebrook and North Main, as that would solve many of the problems outlined above. These are the kinds of details that should have been explored by the council, and although you did your part I understand that it can’t happen unless the entire council is willing to take the time and energy.

I thought it was particularly interesting that Ms. Corrado shared that one of their other similar multifamily properties contributes $50,000 annually (seems low) in property taxes to the town. That’s the equivalent of about 5-6 homes in our neighborhood, so subdividing that lot and building 6 new homes would have been a comparable solution from a tax revenue perspective. I understand that the town is under intense pressure to increase the ratio of affordable housing to 10%, and this certainly won’t be the last affordable housing project and zoning change that comes before the town. Instead of solving the problem of why so many people make less than the median income, we’re treating the symptom by driving down the average desirability of residences in town. Long term this will be unsustainable, and eventually the tax base will be eroded. It was briefly alluded to in the hearing, but there are 3 houses within 500 ft of the development that came onto the market due to the proposed development.  Although we love this town, we will likely be forced to add to that number by moving away as we don’t feel welcome in a town that ignores, demeans, and insults their core taxpayers.

Thank you for all that you do, and hopefully voters remember things like this when it comes time to vote.