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!

Frank Cronin Field Naming Event

BALL FIELD IS NAMED AFTER FORMER STAMFORD ASSISTANT CHIEF OF POLICE

STAMFORD, CT, May 7, 2016 ─ Stamford Police Foundation, Domus and The East Side Partnership co-hosted a field naming event on the Domus campus. The newly renovated ball field has been named after former Assistant Chief of Police Francis Cronin.

During his 37-year career with the Stamford Police Department, Cronin was an extraordinary career policeman not only to his peers, but also to his community.

Known as “Pinky” during his time, Cronin led the police anti-drug unit to make thousands of arrests and significantly reduced drug activity in Stamford in the 1980’s. Cronin was stabbed several times while investigating drug trade.

Cronin progressed through the ranks from a uniform patrolman to a sergeant in the Detective Bureau. He was the Commander of the anti-drug unit, known as COPE-PACT (Community Oriented Police Enforcement-Police and Citizens Together), and also headed the Internal Affairs Unit. Frank was promoted to Assistant Chief of Police in 2010.

As he rose through the ranks, Cronin became a mentor and teacher. He was a father figure to the community: he often played handball with teens and turned troubled youth in the right direction. Cronin taught many officers who worked under him to treat both victims and suspects with compassion.

Cronin was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1993. He worked tirelessly while struggling with bone cancer for 18 years. Cronin passed on March 25, 2011, and he has been deeply missed by his family, friends, colleagues and many others in our city.

Police Chief Jon Fontneau said, “I had the distinct pleasure of working with Frank Cronin. During that time Frank Cronin received many accolades for his initiation and

Contact: Miranda Zhang of East Side Partnership 203-324-5167 mail@eastsidepartnership.org

Garland Walton of Domus 203-524-4877 gwalton@domuskids.org

tenacity in bringing countless criminals to justice. Frank was adept at all facets of policing. He was an extremely principled individual who had a reputation for fairness, and firmness. Frank Cronin was a role model police officer for whom I had tremendous respect.”

Mayor David Martin said, “Chief Cronin was incredibly dedicated to Stamford, and especially the East Side neighborhood. He worked hard to build strong relationships with residents that ultimately helped him keep us safe. His impressive 37 years of service to our community will not soon be forgotten with his name a legacy living on at this ball field.”

The East Side Partnership renovated the Francis Cronin Field along with the City of Stamford.

“The expansion and renovation of this field was a labor of love for the Trailblazers and CLC children,” said James Grunberger, the East Side Partnership chairman. “Frank Cronin was a one-of-a-kind man who lives on in some way as a hero for all of us.”

The field is shared by Trailblazers Academy, a charter middle school run by Domus, and Childcare Learning Centers.

Mike Duggan, Executive Director of Domus said, “We’re grateful to the East Side Partnership and the Stamford Police Department, who are both excellent partners in our work, for their dedication to this neighborhood. We’re honored this field, which hosts so many local children and families each day, will now recognize a man committed to bringing people together.”

For more photos, please see the Stamford Advocate’s posting here.

UConn Urban Agriculture Program

In August 2015, the East Side Partnership began conversations with the UConn Urban Agriculture Program to discuss starting a program in Stamford using our garden space on Crystal Street for the program. In the program, students would learn about how to grow, harvest and distribute organic food to an at-risk community. The class started in late October with approximately 10 students participating in classroom training on Wednesday evenings at UConn’s Stamford campus. German Cutz Ed.D. is managing and facilitating the course. He is the Sustainable Families and Communities Educator at the University of Connecticut. If you are interested in joining the course, email German at german.cutz@uconn.edu.

Now that its warm and lighter out in the evenings, the program has moved to our garden on Crystal Street behind Firestone. The participants are preparing the garden and will plant seeds, which they will tend to throughout the summer and fall timeframe. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures on this wonderful initiative and be sure to say hello them if you see them working in the garden!

East Side Underpasses Beautification

We met with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the City of Stamford on June 23, 2016 and got the preliminary green light to design a light and art-based, traffic calming revitalization on two Interstate 95 underpasses and the East Main Street railroad bridge.

Click on the link below to access the slideshow.

Finding the Hidden Potential in Stamford’s East Side Underpasses

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!