In the Spotlight: “Green Side of the East Side” Anti Littering/Anti-Dumping Campaign

On July 21, the Stamford Advocate published a feature story about our grass-root cleanup team. We want to express our thanks to the 11 teen workers who pick up garbage, paint over graffiti and water our gardens and planters in our neighborhood every week!

Also in July, the Stamford Sanitation and Recycling Division waived our dumping fee at the City’s Scale House. By having this fee waived, we save approximately $800 on an average each month for the dumping of the bulky waste collected from the East Side.

In addition, the Sanitation and Recycling Division also agreed to provide, at no cost, 38 metal waste receptacles and plastic garbage bins to be distributed all over the neighborhood at street corners, near underpasses and bus stops. These receptacles and bins are for litter and recyclable materials.

We ask you to properly place your litter and recyclable materials once these receptacles and garbage bins are installed.

We also like to thank Frank Fedeli, Supervisor of the Citizens’ Service Bureau Center, and his dedicated Customer Service Specialists, for their assistance in helping us remove dead trees and bulky trash found in some of the properties on the East Side. Mr. Fedeli has agreed to fine owners for illegal dumping on their property.

If you need to dispose bulky waste to the City’s Scale House, see the City’s instructions.

Share your ideas and suggestions for our campaign and follow us on Facebook@EastSidePartnership and Twitter @EastSidePartner. Together let’s make the East Side streets cleaner!

Weekend Gardening July 16, 2016

East Side Spring Clean-Up

On Saturday, April 23, 2016, despite a rainy morning and start to the day, the East Side Partnership welcomed over 35 volunteers of all ages (starting at age 5!) to help us clean and plant around our neighborhood. Food was graciously provided by Rinaldi’s Deli, James Grunberger and Stamford Restaurant & Pizzeria. Andy Caruso lead the planting volunteers around East Main Street cleaning over 20 planters and filling them with spring flowers. Other volunteers worked around the East Side side to clean up trash and debris around our neighborhood in addition to cleaning the area around Exit 9 off of 95.

Thank you to all those who participated. It was a successful morning with a great group of volunteers. We look forward to your continued support of our community programs and projects.

East Side Partnership – Neighborhood Meeting Update

The East Side Partnership held its first Neighborhood Meeting of 2016 on Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The meeting was at Chelsea Piers CT with many business owners, property owners, community partners and leaders attending the event. Katie Travia, the Executive Director, welcomed the audience and gave a neighborhood update. Clark’s Hill Shopping Center remains vacant along East Main Street, but the plan for that space is to renovate the space and bring in new tenants in mid to late 2016. The former Just Cats building will be opening in the next few weeks as a drive-thru convenience store for coffee, milk, eggs, grocery items and more. We will  post updates about it as we receive it. The East Side Partnership continues to work to bring together prospective business owners with property owners.

The East Side Partnership has goals for 2016 that revolve around revitalization projects, training/programs and special events in addition to serving as a neighborhood advocate for the East Side of Stamford. The larger project that the East Side Partnership will be focusing on is revitalizing Courtland Park.  We have applied for a grant to rebuild the playground at the park. We are excited about this opportunity and will keep everyone posted as our plans progress with this. We will need support from the community in terms of building, gathering supplies, feeding volunteers and more. Below are a few events that are coming up as well with the East Side Partnership, and all events are posted on our events page as well.

East Side Professional Development Training: Wednesday, April 20th from 6:30PM – 8PM. Join us to learn how to craft a professional resume and use LinkedIn effectively to find a job.

East Side Spring Clean-Up Day: Saturday, April 23rd at 9AM. Meet us at Domus School to clean our neighborhood for Spring. Bring an employee, coworker or neighbor!

Francis Cronin Field Naming: Saturday, May 7th from 11AM – 1PM. Please join us in this special event to honor Francis Cronin by naming the field at Domus after him. The event will include food, entertainment and a kickball game with the Stamford Police Department and Trailblazers Academy.

Captain Brian McElligott gave an update about the police activity around Stamford and particularly the East Side. The audience had the opportunity to ask questions, which revolved around parking concerns, recent events in Stamford and illegal dumping.

Ann Brown and Laura Labosky from the Stamford Urban Transitway Project Team gave an update in regards to the construction on East Main Street and Myrtle Avenue.  Construction will resume on Monday, April 4, 2016 along both roads. The team is currently setting up traffic patterns. Along East Main Street, the sidewalks along the north side of the street will be re-constructed. New traffic signals and brick crosswalks will be installed the Lockwood and Myrtle intersections. The construction on East Main Street is targeted to be completed in the fall of 2017. Along Myrtle Avenue, new drainage, sewers and water/gas/electric lines will be installed on Myrtle Avenue as it was along East Main Street. The construction will start along the east side of the street. The east side construction will be done by the fall timeframe. The west side construction of Myrtle Avenue will start in the spring of 2017 and go until the fall of 2017. For the businesses losing on street parking, the city is continuing to work through solutions. The 2 solutions will be the current construction staging areas along East Main Street / Maple Avenue as well as Myrtle Ave / Elm Street. Traffic patterns will impact the East Side during this construction, but the city will monitor and address issues during this timeframe.

Jim Grunberger, the Chairman of the East Side Partnership, gave the closing remarks highlighting some of the clean-up efforts being completed by high school students in Stamford on the weekends. Following a Q/A session, he thanked the audience for their time and asking for their continued participation and support of the organization.

Stamford Urban Transitway‘s Next Phase and the Impact on Businesses

The East Side Partnership was featured in the Stamford Advocate on Sunday, March 27, 2015 with an article focusing the Stamford Urban Transitway and construction resuming along East Main Street and Myrtle Avenue. The reporter for the Stamford Advocate attended our neighborhood meeting and published the article after hearing an update from the Stamford Urban Transitway Project Team. The article is available online here: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Stamford-Urban-Transitway-s-next-phase-raises-7084641.php

Graffiti Clean-Up

With 4 underpasses from 95 in our neighborhood, we have to battle with graffiti artists to keep our streets clean. 3 high school students from the East Side of Stamford worked in February to clear graffiti from the Lockwood Avenue underpass. Thank you to Oscar, Eshae and Mario for your hard work!

If you see any graffiti around our neighborhood, please take a picture of it and send the location to mail@eastsidepartnership.org. Dont forget our friends at Citizens Services, who can help address graffiti, bulk trash removal and other neighborhood issues.

East Side Partnership Sewing Workshop

Over the past 5 weeks from October 21 – November 19, 2015, the East Side Partnership has hosted free sewing classes for Stamford residents on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Nelly Gonzalez was our patient and impressive sewing instructor. We had 13 participants on average and over 5 children in attendance each night for 2 hours. The group had a lot of energy, enthusiasm and creativity. They established friendships, learned great tangible skills to help their families or even get a job, and networked with each other. The course included learning the sewing basics and included designing and creating a skirt and dress from scratch.

The course of made possible by a grant from St. John’s Community Fund. The East Side Partnership utilized businesses in our neighborhood to help us execute the workshop, including nightly dinners from Speedy’s Pizza on East Main Street. Thank you to everyone who helped make this workshop such a success!

East Side Partnership Neighborhood Meeting – November 2015

On Tuesday, November 10, 2015, the East Side Partnership held its last meeting for 2015. The meeting was held at Chelsea Piers CT. The attendees included East Side Partnership board members, community representatives, residents and business owners. Jim Grunberger, our Chairman, gave the opening remarks and welcomed the group. He thanked our previous Executive Director, Eva Weller, for her time and commitment to the East Side Partnership. Jim introduced Katie Travia as the new Executive Director for the East Side Partnership. Katie has been a resident of the East Side of Stamford for over 7 years and brings enthusiasm to her new role.

Katie provided an update on the projects the East Side Partnership has been involved since the last meeting in April. The projects included helping the city and Charter Oak Communities with the McKeithen Park Revitalization Project, coordinating the Harvey School Volunteer Day, rebranding the East Side Partnership’s website and marketing materials, planning a free sewing workshop for Stamford residents and organizing a petition for the Board of Representatives requesting a parking solution for businesses that lost on street parking as a result of the Urban Transitway Project.

Eileen Heaphy, the East Side Partnership’s Vice Chairman and a member of the Board of Representatives, gave an update on the upcoming construction projects on the East Side, which include projects on Courtland Avenue, the 95 bridge and the Urban Transitway Project. Captain Brian McElligott gave a police report on the East Side of Stamford as well as Stamford. He provided advice to the audience on street safety and indicated that the city will be launching a new camera systems across some of our parks between 2015 – 2016.

Erin McKenna, Associate Planner from Stamford’s Land Use Bureau, served as our keynote speaker providing an overview of the McKeithen Park Revitalization Project. The project started in the fall of 2014 with planning and design work. Charter Oak Communities collaborated with the City of Stamford on the project, which included a build day on August 28, 2015 with over 200 volunteers from the community. The result is a new playground for the residents of Lawn Hill Terrace and surrounding areas. Further renovations are scheduled for 2016 for the park including a basketball court, splash pad and community garden. Erin’s presentation is included below.

The East Side Partnership also provided an update from the Department of Engineering on the construction project on East Main Street for the Urban Transitway Project.

Police: Heroin tip leads to arrests of father and son

A tip reporting a possible heroin deal last week resulted in the arrests of a 51-year-old New Haven man and his 26-year-old son.

Read more here...