United Nations holds 80th anniversary flag raising event in Norwalk

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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. We are continuing our conversation with Barbara Smith and Benny Shikitano, the candidates for mayor here in Norwalk. We thank you again for the time and let's continue, uh, talking. Uh, I'm gonna start with, uh, Barbara. I think we ended with Benny last time. Let's talk about, uh, affordable housing and home ownership opportunities. Yeah, so this is, uh, I think an area very near and. To all of us is the affordability uh factor here in Norwalk, and you know what we're dealing with is, you know, it's not unique to Norwalk it's not unique to our country it's not unique to the global, you know, worldwide we're having a problem with affordability and so I, you know what I would like to see is, is is that we work more towards um offering. pathways to home ownership for young people and young families as well as pathways to for elderly people and those who are looking to downsize. I think that we really need to focus on that young generation, we know that you know entering the housing market is the best way to establish generational wealth, so we need to work with the with the banks and and and and develop programs where people can enter the housing market and for the same reason on the other side is. People can downsize and afford to do so. That's a real struggle for a lot of people here in Norwalk. Well, that's definitely a subject I we, we agree on is, is home ownership. Uh, that's the path to American wealth for certain, but I will say that in Norwalk we, we had a balance of, uh, starter apartments, rental apart, affordable rental apartments, starter homes, condominiums, co-ops, uh, all different paths to home ownership we had in Norwalk. We had, we had, uh, livable, livable neighborhoods, affordable neighborhoods. They got bulldozed to to put up. High rise, very expensive apartments, and these people all got moved out. These are people that have been in families that have been here for generations. They got pushed out of Norlock because of these high rise developments, and now you know everyone is decrying that we need affordable housing, affordable housing. We certainly do need affordable housing, but many of these developments that have been that have been built have, you know, some small portion of it is affordable, described as affordable just by being cheaper than the more expensive apartments. The single mom that's out there are still not paying $20 or $2300 a month for an apartment. Uh, that just can't can't afford to live here, so we have, uh, we have not rocked the apple cart in the city. We've knocked the apple cart over and now we're trying to, trying to repair the situation. What about, uh, responsible growth? Responsible responsible growth involves growth. You have to have growth. If you don't grow as a city, you're going to die. You need growth. You need to constantly expand, but you need to grow in a way that benefits the residents. Community and complements the city both via aesthetically as well as financially. You need to make sure when these developments come in and they get built that they benefit the residents that are here, the property tax paying owners that are here. It needs to complement our city in every way and increase the revenue stream. It's been the exact opposite for the past 10 years. These big developments are being what the services that are required for these big developments are being. On the back of the people that live here and own the homes here and that needs to change so I'm not anti-development. Development needs to happen. You need to grow and you need to improve as a city constantly or you, you know, you you stagnation is not not a not an uh an option for a city for certainly for sure. So you know I, I, I, I agree with growth, but we have to do it in a way that's that increases revenue to the city that makes it beneficial for the people that are here. What about responsible growth? Yeah, so responsible growth to me means continuing to grow in a way that our residents are not overburdened and overtaxed, right? So some of the ways that I would approach that is, um, you know, I think that you know we hear a lot here in Norwalk that we don't want to look like Stanford and we don't, we're a very unique city and so I would what I. would do is make as mayor would be to assure a much stronger architectural review process, perhaps an architectural review board um that we really look at making sure any development keeps the character and historic feel of our neighborhoods and keeping bigger larger development where it belongs where it already is. I also think um. Another area where I would look at is to demand community benefits agreements and you know some of the developments have come in and done some of some of that like with Wegmans for example uh and that's that's you know not housing, but you know we wanna make sure that anyone coming into our community is giving back to our community. What about some local environmental issues? Of course we got the Manresa Island project that is gonna be going on here a little while. Well, I think we all want to make sure that we have, you know, clean air, clean water, um, and that we are, we are making sure that we are leaving a city that is sustainable and resilient for future generations that's and that's a challenge of course and so we wanna make sure that we are keeping our infrastructure up to date, uh, continuing to focus on those issues and, uh, you know, making sure that, uh, again, you know, go back to. Community benefits agreements I think that that's an area where you know we can demand that we um you know are planting trees that we uh that anyone is who's coming into Norwalk is contributing to improving the infrastructure around any development so that's really really important and um you know I again the tree canopy it's one of the most important things we do in here in Norwalk because it creates um equity throughout the city. Uh, Vinny, what about environmental? Well, I'm a very strong environmentalist. I was the president of Seaport Association and our mission was to, to educate about the sound and educate about, uh, the surrounding barrier islands and the environment in general. Um, so we claim to be the, the green, a green city we're moving toward a green city or one of the greenest cities. There don't so many different ways of of putting. However, we don't, we don't, uh, we talk about it, but the actions aren't about it, and I, I would say that you cannot be a green city and pour concrete up to the water line with developments as in what we have coming on Water Street. This is our waterfront should be preserved for everyone to enjoy. Our waterfront should be kept clean. The water should be kept clean. The soil should be kept clean. And we also have, it's incumbent upon us to clean up the the the mess in the city that has been through through multiple administrations over the decades and decades. There's a lot of, a lot of things that need to be cleaned up, so you, you can't, you can't claim to be the greenest city and then close the beach 3 times a year. It's just that I'm aware of it at least, and we need to educate our children far more than we are about the environment. They are the stewards of the environment. They're gonna. They're going to inherit the world that we leave them. Vinny, in 15 seconds, why are you running for mayor? I'm running for mayor. I'm a lifelong Norwalk. I'm running for mayor because we see a lot of, a lot of, we see a lot of good in Norwalk. We also see a lot of bad, and I'm running for mayor primarily to represent the people that call Norwalk home first and foremost. I will represent them before Hartford. I will represent them before the Barbara. I'm running because I believe I am the most qualified candidate to run the city. I have, uh, been on the common council for 8 years. I've been council president, which shows my leadership ability that I have, uh, uh had those positions. I've chaired key committees. Thank you both. You're welcome. Thank you both.

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A major settlement coming down this week. YouTube reaching a $24.5 million agreement with President Trump over the social media giant's suspension of the president's account in the wake of the January 6th riot. One of the president's lawyers on the case is from Greenwich and gave the first interview on the settlement to News Twelve's Frank Recchia. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Welcome to what's being called the quintessential Greenwich white shoe law firm, where celebrity attorney John Q. Kelly. Has tapped in during the course of a high profile career that's brought him global notoriety to a wellspring of trust by some of the world's richest and most famous people, but certainly none more so. I've been very active actually over the weekend. Then President Donald Trump, Kelly's client, to whom YouTube today agreed to pay $24.5 million. To settle a lawsuit filed by Trump after his account was suspended following the January 6 Capitol riots. YouTube was being coerced and acting at the behest of Biden administration officials to censor the president, and that in fact amounted to. Violation of President Trump's free speech rights. Do you find any irony in the fact that this freedom of speech victory for the president comes on the heels of the Jimmy Kimmel incident? No, there's no irony whatsoever. Kelly arguing that Kimmel was back on the air within a week and with vastly improved ratings, while President Trump, he says, suffered long-term damage by being kept off YouTube during the pivotal two-year period leading up to his second White House win. Not the same thing, not the same thing. If you have a presence on YouTube and it's taken away. You know, you lose, you know, hundreds of millions of followers. It's a blatant attempt to silence President Trump, uh, silence his message. Kelly saying the president has directed that 22 million of the settlement will go towards constructing the new White House ballroom. What's it like to be at the vortex of world power, to be at the right hand side of the most powerful man in the world? It's a rather comfortable feeling to be sitting next to President Trump when you're uh talking about issues that concern him at all. In Greenwich, Frank Recchia, News 12, Connecticut. And that's all our time. I'm Mark Suddall. Thanks for watching.

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Norwalk Mayor Barbara Smyth and Vinny Scicchitano 

Power & Politics: Meet the Norwalk mayoral candidates

Norwalk Mayor Barbara Smyth and Vinny Scicchitano

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