Democratic Town Committee of New Canaan, CT

Published on The Connecticut Mirror (http://ctmirror.org)

Home > Tong trying to leap past Murphy and Bysiewicz to U.S. Senate

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Tong trying to leap past Murphy and Bysiewicz to U.S. Senate
Mark Pazniokas
and Deirdre Shesgreen
September 6, 2011
William Tong had just finished pitching his candidacy for U.S. Senate, telling the story of growing up as the son of a Chinese cook who arrived in Bloomfield in 1971 with 57 cents and the promise of a job at the Hong Kong Kitchen.

His biography connected with the Democratic town committee in Windsor, a racially and economically mixed suburb of Hartford. One woman smiled at his mention of the long-gone Chinese eatery on Blue Hills Avenue in neighboring Bloomfield.

But then Nathan Karnes, a bearded young man sitting in front, directly, if politely got to the central challenge Tong faces: Why should anyone think that the logical next step for a little-known state legislator is the U.S. Senate?

Leo Canty listens to a pitch by William Tong.

Tong, 38, a three-term state representative from Stamford, is trying to leapfrog over two better-established politicians, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy and former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, for the Democratic nomination.

“I know it’s not the U.S. House, and it’s not the U.S. Senate, but it is a legislative body that I’m proud to say has been pretty productive over the past six years,” Tong replied.

Tong is the first Asian Pacific American in the General Assembly and the first Democrat to represent the 147th House District of Stamford and New Canaan. In his third term, he is co-chairman of the Banks Committee.

His legislative record includes helping pass a foreclosure mediation law, and a bill requiring the reporting of lost or stolen firearms, a measure meant to take away an alibi from those who sell guns that show up in crimes.

“I am three months older, actually, than Chris Murphy. He’s had two terms in the House [three, actually], and I haven’t,” Tong said told his Windsor audience. “He was in the state legislature, Susan was in the state legislature. And all of us are going to talk about our records. My record is real.”

But he knows that Karnes’ question frames his nascent candidacy, and he will have to keep answering versions of the query as he makes the rounds of town committees, introducing himself to Democratic activists, many of whom already know his rivals.

Bysiewiecz, a former state representative, won three statewide elections, beginning in 1998. She has the best name-recognition of the three, but she is coming off a disastrous 2010, having started as a gubernatorial front-runner before jumping to the attorney general race, only to be branded as statutorily unqualified by the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Murphy spent four years in the state House of Representatives, four years in the state Senate and then won a long-shot bid in 2006 to unseat Republican Nancy Johnson, the senior member of the Connecticut House delegation.

They are competing for the seat now held by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who is retiring after 24 years. Unlike two years ago, when Richard Blumenthal was the consensus Democratic pick to succeed Chris Dodd after 30 years, Democrats are resigned to a primary.

“Certainly, I feel like the most unlikely candidate of the three,” Tong said in an interview. “It’s not the next rung in the ladder for me.”

But Tong frames his limited political experience as an advantage at a time when anti-incumbent sentiment is rampant. Congress’s approval ratings are at record lows, and the 2012 election promises to be a volatile affair, with the sour economy likely to drive deep voter angst and anger aimed at Washington.

“I think that people are unimpressed by what is happening in our nation’s capital,” Tong said. And they’re tired of the “same old cookie-cutter career politician.”

But as Tong discovered in Windsor, activists who are an important constituency in primaries, sometimes are vested in and loyal to those career politicians.

In the case of Karnes, he told Tong he first met Murphy when they were active in the Young Democrats. Leo Canty, a labor leader who is the town chairman in Windsor, said later that Murphy’s reputation as a rising star in Washington hardly is seen as a deficit.

Tong is trying to position himself as a politician who understands business and job creation, stressing his family’s background running two small restaurants in succession and his own work as a business lawyer and co-chairman of the Banks Committee.

So while he lacks the fundraising network Murphy has as a congressman and the name recognition that Bysiewicz brings as a former statewide official, Tong said he hopes to generate buzz and win support by pitching himself as different.

“By definition, being fresh and exciting and new means you haven’t been hanging around the hoop for that long,” Tong said.

Tong is emphasizing his personal story, as the son of Chinese immigrants who started in the U.S. with little and built up a small family business, eventually owning a restaurant in Hartford and, later, in Wethersfield.

His parents met at the Hong Kong Kitchen, where his mother was a waitress. After opening his own restaurant, his father faced deportation for overstaying on a tourist visa, but he won an extension and an eventual green card after writing President Nixon.

Tong, who grew up in West Hartford, talks about working after school with his parents in both restaurants, as did his three younger sisters.

But he also is the beneficiary of elite private schools: Renbrook in West Hartford and Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a law degree from the University of Chicago, where Barack Obama was a professor.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, who are the parents of two young daughters, are both lawyers at Finn Dixon and Herling in downtown Stamford. She is a tax attorney. He is described in his firm’s bio as a leader of the firm’s dispute resolution and risk management team.

Tong has not been shy about linking himself to other political sensations in both parties who have taken the political establishment by surprise, including a certain former professor at Chicago and Scott Brown, the Republican who succeeded Ted Kennedy.

So even as he conceded that the U.S. Senate is “not the next natural step,” Tong quickly noted that others “have made the jump from the state legislature to the Senate–you know, Barack Obama, Scott Brown.”

Tong doesn’t drop those names lightly. It’s part of a strategic effort to frame his narrative as a potential political phenomenon–and his opponents as career politicians.

Asked if he paints Murphy and Bysiewicz with that label, Tong responded, “They are what they are.”

He noted Bysiewicz three terms as Connecticut’s secretary of the state. And as for Murphy, he said, “Chris has held office since he was 22 and has hit every rung on the ladder on his way up.”

Tong argued that Murphy was running an “inevitability campaign,” trying to portray himself as the obvious and clear choice in the three-way contest.

Murphy shrugged off that assessment and said he was hardly the face of a “career politician.”

“If I was running as a 20-year incumbent, I might be more worried. But I’ve been in Washington for five years and fought pretty hard to change the culture,” Murphy said. “Whether others want to anoint me as the frontrunner or not, it doesn’t change the way I’m going to run the race,” which he said would be as a come-from-behind challenger.

Murphy did agree with Tong on one thing: “The antipathy for Washington has never been higher and you’ve got to be able to show how you’re going to change the environment.”

For her part, Bysiewicz ignored Tong at a recent forum sponsored by the Working Families Party, focusing on Murphy.

He may prove hard to ignore.

Tong’s first fundraising report showed him raising more than $500,000 in 53 days, compared to Bysiewicz’s $427,000 take and Murphy’s $925,000 haul in the second quarter.

Tong said his surprise fundraising success just shows that even as he embraces the “underdog” label, he can’t be brushed off.

“We’ve been pretty adept at pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” he said.

The Democratic establishment will be watching in October, when the third-quarter finance report is due, to see what else is in that hat.

CT-SenElection 2012Joseph LiebermanPoliticsWilliam Tong

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Source URL: http://ctmirror.org/story/13816/tong-trying-leap-past-murphy-bysiewicz-senate

Summer is winding down, and the temperatures are bound to start dropping any day now (right?). Kids are getting ready to head back to school. September is coming, and with September comes:

The 8th Annual
New Canaan Democrats’ BBQ

Kiwanis Park, Old Norwalk Road
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Sunday, September 11, 2011

(note: the town’s service marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11/01 take place at 5:00 pm at God’s Acre)

Please join us for an afternoon of quality food and quality company as we get the local campaign season underway. Meet the candidates who will be bringing accountability back to New Canaan Town Hall: Beth Jones for Selectman; Kathleen Corbet for Town Treasurer; and John Emert and Joe Paladino for Town Council. Chat with Alison Bedula for Board of Education, Wendy Fog for Board of Assessment and Appeal, and Cindy Franco, Nick Mitrakis, and Ed Vollmer for Constable.

Tickets are $30, and are available from any DTC member or by clicking here (children and teens under 18 are free). Your support for the New Canaan DTC helps us help Democrats win.

From the 2009 BBQ:

Moody’s Investor Services recently announced that it would review the AAA credit rating of New Canaan and 161 other AAA-rated municipal issuers if the nation’s own AAA rating was downgraded due to the impasse over the federal debt ceiling negotiations.

While an agreement to raise the debt ceiling is expected by the August 2nd deadline thus averting the risk of a default by the federal government, the terms of the agreement may not be enough to diminish the threat of a downgrade by the credit rating agencies.

Moody’s announcement was not simply a broad warning to all AAA-rated municipalities – there were another 400 AAA-rated public finance credits that were not placed on review for possible downgrade. Rather, the rating agency announced its intention to review those local governments which may have “direct and indirect reliance on federal spending, sensitivity to deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and vulnerability to disruptions in the financial markets.”

While New Canaan does not directly rely on federal aid as a source of revenue, there are still at least three reasons to be concerned about the implications of potential downgrades of the US and New Canaan’s credit ratings.

First, failure by Congress to address the unsustainable level of the federal deficit will result in serious implications for the national economy and, in turn, our local economy – potentially prolonging the depressed levels of spending and support of our downtown businesses and further delaying our housing market recovery.

Second, should Moody’s and the other rating agencies take downgrade actions, the interest rates at which the Federal government and municipal bond issuers can issue debt would likely increase – thus driving costs higher to fund the US deficit and finance new municipal projects.

Finally, in the event of a downgrade, the US government-backed securities – held in New Canaan’s investment accounts and pension fund – would likely be subject to negative price volatility. When credit quality deteriorates, the market demands higher yields on bonds resulting in driving the price of existing securities lower.

Although the threat of a federal debt default has been averted – Moody’s announcement about the vulnerability of the US and local government debt downgrades should not be ignored. We should expect that Moody’s will continue to consider the financial health and stewardship of our financial resources when reviewing New Canaan’s ability to maintain its top rating.

New Canaan’s AAA rating is an asset to our community and it should be protected by our Board of Finance, Board of Selectmen, Town Council and Town Treasurer. This requires vigilance in budget oversight and expenditure control, conservative maintenance of our reserves, and prudent management of our investments.

New Canaanites should expect nothing less.

New Canaan Patch reports:

Town Council member Thomas O’Dea asked Hersam about his responsibilities in the post, for which Hersam currently receives an annual stipend of $1,400.

“So it’s my understanding you’ve never been asked to perform an audit function or corrabation function of the checks?” he asked.

“This is the first question I’ve been asked in 46 years,” Hersam said. “And that’s being honest.

Maybe the town treasurer should be the one asking the questions.  Just a thought.

At the New Canaan Democrats’ caucus last night, the town’s Democrats voted to run the following candidates for offices in this fall’s November elections:

Selectman: Beth Jones
Town Treasurer: Kathleen Corbet
Town Council: John Emert and Joe Paladino
Board of Education: Alison Bedula
Board of Assessment Appeals: Wendy Fog
Constable: Cindy Franco, Nick Mitrakis, and Ed Vollmer

Beth Jones accepting the caucus endorsement:

You can read coverage of the caucus from the New Canaan Advertiser,  New Canaan Patch, and the Daily New Canaan.

Essay 1

The truth is I like the principles of the Democratic Party as much as I dislike the principals of the other team. But at its heart, I choose to be a Democrat because I am a big tent person and the Democrats are a big tent party. The big tent approach avoids single-issue litmus tests and ideological rigidity. It is an approach that invites and advocates open-minded discussion and solutions-oriented compromise. And while there is a dangerous level of hubris in all party politics, the other guys have more.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. ~~ J. K. Galbraith

I am a Democrat because I believe we hold common beliefs in personal freedoms, social and civil justice, privacy, security and economic opportunity. In short, Democrats believe in inclusion and equality. WE believe that people with a broad variety of political approaches and viewpoints can unite within a single party to advance shared core issues even if they disagree in other areas.

Where I am on the fringe

I believe that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as does not intrude the rights of others. However, to show my Libertarian roots, I believe that same goes for protecting the right to make stupid decisions. I don’t think we should have mandates for wearing automobile seat-belts, eating polyunsaturated fats, smoking in the privacy of our home or buying mandated medical insurance. If my personal choices do not impact others – they should not be in the purview of government oversight.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety ~~ Benjamin Franklin

We need to protect the right to make stupid decisions no different than we protect our civil rights. It seems odd to rally for less government interventionism – the Bill of Rights, same sex marriage, pro-choice and habeas corpus for unlawful combatants- but invite more interventionism into personal choices. More government in the name of Paternalism is just smudge away from civil liberty interventionism.

So as you can see, the real reason I choose to be a Democrat is because they allow and respect differences of opinion – even the political fringe like me.

Essay 2

I am a Democrat because I do not believe in a laissez-faire government.  I think FDR was right to implement the New Deal but I didn’t agree with his attempt to pack the Supreme Court (he failed).  Do I think we need to reform Medicare and Medicaid? Of course, who doesn’t in today’s world of rising health care costs?  But do I support eliminating these programs which current Republican“reform” proposals would do? No, I do not. Cuts yes, slashing, no.

I believe that our government should provide basic services to help our society grow economically and to help ensure that all our citizens have access to services that enable them to participate productively in our society. I think our government has a responsibility to be humane and to protect us from the selfish interests of the market by instituting regulations and policies that safeguard our welfare and future. The market has rarely been proven to self-regulate itself. This means I support the Clean Air Act, financial reform of our banking institutions, the Environmental Protection Agency (which by the way was established by a conservative Republican, former President Richard Nixon) and National Public Radio. For this reason, I pay taxes willingly. I support a fair progressive income tax, a social security tax, the principle of a national health insurance plan that will provide basic healthcare services for all our citizens and mandate that all citizens participate, no matter the condition of their health. No one should have a free lunch to our emergency rooms when they suddenly become sick, which is the system we have now.

I think that those who have succeeded, whether a business or an individual should contribute more in taxes than those who earn less, because they can. This is only patriotic as it demonstrates support for the government which enables them to participate and operate as freely as ours does. I support an immigration policy that recognizes that our country is a country built on the backs of immigrants, some of whom came here willingly and some who were brought here for economic reasons. We need to reform our immigration policy to reflect conditions today. We should not be penalizing children who were brought here with their parents and want to contribute to our society by getting a college education, a job and paying taxes to our government.

For a long time there was very little difference between a fiscally conservative Democratic and a moderate Republican. This is why it was so easy for some Democrats to become a turncoat and join the other side or vice versa. Moderate Republicans shared a conservative interest in the social contract of government while remaining fiscally conservative on how the government spent our tax dollars. George Bush Sr. was a moderate Republican as was the late New York Senator Jacob Javits and Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Fiscally conservative Democrats shared a Republican sentiment which favored reining in the costs of services but not their complete elimination.

Today our government is being held hostage by extremists within the Republican Party who hamstring our politicians with pledges that prevent our representatives from having honest and open discussions regarding policy differences. Today’s Republican Party is dominated by ideologues who appeal to the basest human instincts: fear mongering, greed, and religious zealousness. A few are outspoken libertarians who reject government oversight completely. We can laugh at running a red light at 3 AM when there is no traffic or racing at 100 miles per hour in the desert as examples of a government over reaching into our lives until it is our son or daughter coming home from a party that is hit by that car running the light or our health costs skyrocket because someone’s car veered out of control, turned over and crippled the driver. Make no mistake, libertarians like Rand Paul and Eric Cantor are advocating the end of Medicare, Social Security, income taxes and all government regulatory institutions.

I am a Democrat because I know that our society has advanced when both government and business have worked in concert to promote R&D, implement large public infrastructure projects such as the TVA or the Hoover Dam, and provided incentives for new industries to emerge.

I am a Democrat because I believe the government can help put the country to work by legislating policies that encourage the development of new industries. I reject the voodoo of trickle-down economics that has been revived by Republican extremists after being refuted by economists on both sides of the political aisles. Even David Stockman, the architect of this erroneous theory has spoken out against its resurrection. I support ending the Bush tax cuts.

It is time moderate Republicans change sides and join forces with the fiscally conservative Democrats to move our country forward and not backward. What happened to our admiration for those who knew how to forge a good compromise? I am also a Democrat because I believe good government is built by those who collaborate in good faith and are willing to forge compromises.

Essay 3

I was going to start this essay by extolling the myriad historic achievements of the Democratic Party but decided to forego what would be a very long litany of worthwhile (and self-congratulatory) accomplishments that, while making all of us feel very proud, wouldn’t speak to why – today – the Democratic Party deserves our support and the support of unaffiliated voters and clear thinking Republicans.

It’s 2011, the 223^rd year we’ve had a constitution and the more than 300 million of us who call ourselves Americans are facing some real challenges. Our national coffers are emptying with alarming speed, our political discourse often borders on either the absurd or the hateful, Washington seems frozen in partisan gridlock, and “We the people” seem ever more divided. How can we break out of this morass and best address the challenges we face? With 300 million voices you can bet that there are at least 500 million opinions.

Democrats acknowledge that to govern in a republic with 300 million voices requires an ability to compromise and cooperate, to recognize that competing points of view are not “evil” and to seek and build common ground. To agree that – to paraphrase what one of my fellow essayists wrote in these columns a few months ago “It was a good meeting – everyone went home a little unhappy” is a pretty good working definition of governing successfully.

The past history and current legislative behavior of the two dominant national political parties could not paint a more stark contrast with regard to their ability to compromise and cooperate. Democrats have been willing to admit the need to rethink some of our most cherished accomplishments, to listen to other view points and often incorporate them into proposals even at the risk that many of our party’s staunchest supporters “went home a little (or a lot) unhappy.” The Republicans seem to spend their time chanting in unison “no compromise” and to have confused cooperation with retreat. It seems to me that they believe “having no loaf is better than having half a loaf” and this thinking is proving disastrous for our country.

I claim no special virtue for us Democrats being better at the art of governing than the Republicans – we just have more practice at it than they do. The fact of the matter is that since the early 1970’s we have built a party that is extremely diverse across almost every conceivable socio-economic demographic. This has given us plenty of experience in arguing, yelling, cooperating and compromise – precisely the attributes that any effective government of 300 million voices needs to have. The Republicans in contrast have hewed to an ever more rigid series of political litmus tests that potential party champions must pass. The days of the “Rockefeller Republican” have, sadly, long departed and our country is the poorer for the absence of those voices.

I am a Democrat for a host of reasons – philosophical, historical, and practical. I admit that there is much in our party that I find annoying, irrelevant, or just plain wrong but at its core the Democratic Party since the days of FDR best reflects who, as a country, we are and what we, as a people, stand for.

VOTE DEMOCRATIC!

With over 25 years of professional experience in investments, technology, financial management and governance of pension funds and endowments, it has been my privilege to serve the Town of New Canaan in many facets of finance, budgeting and the implementation of best practices.

I have served as a member of New Canaan’s Board of Finance, chaired the Town’s Best Practices in Municipal Budgeting Task Force, represented the Town in collective bargaining negotiations, and I am a member of the Senior Healthcare and Housing Policy Development Team. My record demonstrates my ability to work, successfully and collaboratively, with New Canaan’s elected and appointed officials, employees, external constituents – such as pension fund advisors, Town attorneys, auditors – and our citizens. Accordingly, I believe that I can offer a new and effective approach to the position of New Canaan Town Treasurer.

New Canaan’s most recent issues – including the Lakeview Avenue bridge arbitration, municipal bonding authority, oversight of legal bills and budgets – illustrate the need for accountability, responsibility, better processes and communication, and underscore the need for a new approach to the role of Town Treasurer.

The Town Treasurer – an elected position mandated by Connecticut State statute – has general oversight responsibilities of Town receipts and expenses – which include payments “on the order of the proper authority”. This means that before funds are disbursed from New Canaan’s bank account, there must be clear evidence that such payments have been properly authorized.

Specific recordkeeping duties of the Town Treasurer include maintaining a record of cash receipts and disbursements, reflecting the purpose and required authorization, if any. Such information must always be open to the inspection of any taxpayer and be presented annually in a town meeting. (See State of Connecticut General Statutes, Chapter 94 Town Treasurers, Section 7-80.)  The Town Treasurer also serves as the ex officio treasurer of the Town’s trust funds, such as the pension fund. In addition, all Town bond issues require the Town Treasurer’s signature.

There are many examples of Connecticut municipalities – such as Darien, Ridgefield, Wilton – in which the elected position of Town Treasurer is an active – not honorary – role. Treasurers from these towns also serve as trustees, overseeing the money management and investments of cash balances, maintaining them at safe operating minimums and investing funds to maximize income while preserving the safety of the assets of the town.

In New Canaan, V. Donald Hersam – the publisher of the New Canaan Advertiser – serves as the Town Treasurer, a position he has held since 1965. Today, the responsibilities of the Town Treasurer are largely conducted by the Chief Financial Officer, a Town employee. Recordkeeping and reporting of the Town’s receipts and expenses are not readily open to inspection and have not been presented in any Town meeting – as prescribed under Connecticut State Statutes.

If elected to be New Canaan’s newest Town Treasurer in more than 45 years, I pledge to be an active steward of our Town’s revenues and expenses; to ensure that payments are made under proper authority; to provide prudent management oversight to the Town’s cash balances and pension fund; to verify the legality and sign all municipal bonding; and, to maintain records and provide transparency for all financial matters under the jurisdiction of the Town Treasurer.

Bringing a new approach of accountability, responsibility and transparency to the role of Town Treasurer – I seek to serve the needs of all of New Canaan. I very kindly appreciate input from across New Canaan and would be truly honored to earn your vote on November 8th.

The New Canaan Democrats are eager to offer voters real accountability at Town Hall this year. The era of passing the buck is over.

While our final nominations will be made at our July 25th caucus, open to all registered Democrats in town, the Democratic Town Committee is proud to endorse the following candidates for local offices:

Beth Jones for Selectman: As a lifelong New Canaan resident, Beth’s concern for the town’s future and recognition of its proud heritage lie at the heart of her desire to serve. As a member of the Town Council, Beth has always championed transparency and good-faith negotiation. As our next Selectman, Beth Jones will stand up for taxpayers by standing firm in her resolve to conduct the town’s business openly and honestly.

Kathleen Corbet for Town Treasurer: No one brings more expertise and a proven record of best financial practices to the role of Town Treasurer than Kathleen Corbet. It’s time to move New Canaan’s financial transactions into the 21st century. The role of the Town Treasurer can not be overlooked. In the coming months, Kathleen Corbet will make her compelling case that our town needs to make sure that the principle of checks and balances ought to apply to the checks we write from taxpayers’ money and open records.

John Emert and Joe Paladino for Town Council: Both of our candidates for Town Council have long records of service to the town, and both are committed to making sure that we have open, fair and honest debate on the Town Council.

Alison Bedula for Board of Education: Alison Bedula is seeking her third term on the Board of Ed, where she currently serves as Secretary. Alison’s nearly eight years of experience helping the Board ensure that New Canaan’s children enjoy a comprehensive, well-balanced and rich curriculum — along with every chance to learn and grow through participation in extracurricular opportunities — provide voters with every reason to support her bid for re-election.

Wendy Fog is seeking her third term on the Board of Assessment Appeals and we are proud of the professional job she has done on this Board.

Ed Vollmer, Cindy Franco and Nick Mitrakis are running for the position of Constable. They round our slate of Democratic Town Committee- endorsed candidates.

As chair of the New Canaan DTC, I am anticipating an exciting campaign in the months ahead. Once our opponents are done pointing fingers at one another, we’ll be ready to engage them in a debate to determine who is best-prepared and most able to institute the changes we need to make to town governance accountable to the every citizen. I am confident that’s a debate we will win.

Essay 1

I am quite intimidated by this month’s topic: “New Canaan in 2031.” Twenty years is a long time and as Neils Bohr, Nobel Laureate and co-founder of much of Quantum Physics once remarked “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” If the brilliant Dr. Bohr was hesitant, what can a lowly New Canaan Democrat hope for? Especially given that “The Station Next To Heaven” is already devoting a significant amount of its citizens’ effort, energy, time, and money wrestling over our future via: The Market Demand Study, The Five Year Capital Facilities Study, The Long Range Planning Study, the Town-Center Planning Study, the Town-Wide Survey Initiative, the Senior Health Care and Housing Policy Development Team, and I am sure many other public and private undertakings. These are important, serious tasks undertaken by knowledgeable and sincere people and deserve our attention and support. In many fundamental ways their work will indeed craft our town’s future or at the least, craft and inform the debate over it.

Rather than trying to compete with these initiatives I want to take a minute and highlight a few realities that any analysis of New Canaan’s future will, in my view, have to incorporate.

• New Canaan is getting older and its overall population is not growing.
• New Canaan remains one of the most affluent towns in the nation – but much of its income and wealth is generated outside of its borders.
• Our proximity to New York City is still a differentiator but is diminishing in importance as the City’s traditional knowledge-based industry at least partially diffuses across the internet.
• A significant percentage of the town’s physical plant is either obsolete or poorly configured for the needs of the next two decades.

Traditionally, people not lucky enough to be born in New Canaan, moved to New Canaan because it was a beautiful town, with superb schools, close to NYC, filled with interesting people. In short – a great place to raise a family. But – as highlighted above – this equation needs to be expanded with a few additional variables relating to older, still affluent, more mobile, but less school-centric citizens. We will need to supplement and expand the reasons people will still want to live here.

• New Canaan as a place for young families to move to must remain a focus (i.e. schools.)
• This must be supplemented with initiatives to increase our attractiveness to “empty nesters” and seniors (probably including in-town cluster housing, condominiums, and apartments.)
• Our physical plant will have to undergo changes – more town services accessible on the web, perhaps expanding shuttle services to our parks and within the central business district, making town buildings ADA compliant, etc.
• We need to craft a plan to re-invigorate downtown to recapture its vitality as a destination that provides a broad menu of services and experiences across multiple price points.

Fortunately, we start this process with a great number of advantages, not the least of which are the legions of successful people who love this town and are invested in its future.

Imagine it’s June 2031. The First Selectman (a Democrat) has just accepted an award from Triple A singling out New Canaan as having the state’s most courteous drivers, our schools remain the envy of the nation, our real estate market (and the Grand List) is robust and growing, town finances are spectacularly well managed, downtown is filled with New Canaanites (and others) of all ages having a great time dining, shopping, or just strolling around, and unfailing civility and good manners define our political discourse. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Essay 2

What do I want New Canaan to look like twenty years from now? Here is my vision of a future multi-generational town in which the community recognizes its responsibility to its aging population and to the future, our children and our neighbors’ children.

It is a beautiful sunny June Day in New Canaan. The year is 2031 and I have been living in New Canaan for thirty years. Our multi-generational town today is the result of the careful planning and foresight of our past Board of Selectmen, Town Council members and citizens.

A demographic study of the town completed in 2011 revealed that the population of New Canaan was getting older and more health conscious. In the 1970’s, our town leaders had established Waveny Care Center as a sanctuary for our elderly so they could remain close to their families and the community they had lived in for most of their lives. My generation, the baby boomers, didn’t want to end up in a nursing home even one with as high a reputation as Waveny, unless there were extenuating circumstances. We wanted to receive medical care in our homes, and thanks to our planners we can.

During these past 20 years, Waveny Care Center has become the pre-eminent rehabilitation center and geriatric care management clinic in the tri-state area. Hospitals and physicians from New York, New Jersey and as far away as California refer their patients to it. Nursing home care and respite care for those with Alzheimer’s is limited to a few beds at The Village. Waveny’s geriatric services offer a personalized boutique homecare and care management service that have become a magnet for attracting middle aged residents looking for a multi-generational community. Care managers work closely with Lapham Center and the Department of Parks and Recreation to offer the latest in brain and memory enhancement programs. Health and Human Services helps to coordinate and promote many of these services which we all now take for granted.

A new multi-generational apartment complex was built on the site of the old library and farmer’s market.

The library moved when it was offered a deal to merge with the old teen center, The Outback, behind Town Hall. The Outback Board was facing a declining youth population. It seemed a natural fit as the library was a convenient meeting place for students and their tutors. Today’s teen center is on the top two floors of our modern high tech library which also rents commercial space to the Department of Education. A land bridge joins the building to our completely renovated town hall.

Elm Street was closed off for pedestrians only ten years ago when the car park was completed in the old parking lot behind the movie theatre and the town had obtained three motorized chairs for seniors from a generous citizen.

We can thank the Chamber of Commerce and the Marketing Committee for revitalizing our downtown into a destination spot for fine dining and unique shopping experiences. Visitors to Waveny Care Center, The Glass House and residents of neighboring towns come here for our unique pedestrian downtown.

Our school system, though much smaller than it was in 2011 as a result of shifts in the local population, is considered to be one of the best in the world. For this reason, the town has been able to continue to attract young, affluent families. These newcomers are multilingual and work globally. They come to New Canaan because they know that their children will be able to compete with their peers in the United States and around the world.
They also come because in 2031 we are still a small, caring multigenerational New England community where affluent seniors and families understand the wisdom of collaborating to meet the needs of both in order to ensure the town’s continued traditional character and wellbeing.

Things I considered and thought about as I wrote the above portrait:

1. New Canaan has a proud history of being a vanguard in multi-generational community living. Our town leaders created Waveny Care Center from a sense of community responsibility for those who had contributed so much to the town during their prime years and then needed a place to rest during their sunset years. It has been a vanguard in nursing care and for living with dignity with Alzheimer’s disease. Today the trend in healthcare is shifting away from nursing home care to providing quality services to seniors in their homes. Waveny recognized this trend when it established its care management services and Brown Geriatric Assessment Center. In this vision of our town’s future, I see Waveny Care Center continuing to be a leader in healthcare services for the elderly. However, as a reflection of the trend to keep healthcare costs low, the facility has become more of an outpatient facility for rehab services commonly performed on the elderly (hip replacements, knees, heart disease, diabetes) and a provider of individualized homecare services to those with private and long term care insurance. Services to those in our community with limited means would be coordinated through the various social service agencies in town. It is quite probable that 20 years from now, Medicare and Medicaid or whatever has taken its place will cover home care services as this is already being challenged in some states.
2. Home remodeling to meet the needs of the elderly will create new job and construction opportunities for local builders. Local ordinances to encourage home remodeling to conserve energy and reduce heating bills for seniors and families will also help jumpstart the local economy as well as help create a local identity as an eco-friendly community.
3. Our excellent school system has been one of the key reasons affluent families of every ethnic background have been drawn to our town. Almost everyone in town with school age children sends their children to our town’s schools even though many of them could afford to send their children to private school. This is what keeps our community connected to one another and committed to one another in a unique manner different from neighboring larger affluent communities where there are the “townies” and the “preppies,” those who attend private school. We cannot afford to neglect our school system as our population ages or we risk losing this population and becoming an exclusive senior citizen community. At some point down the road, one of the elementary schools will close due to a shrinking enrollment. (Will the building become added office space for the town or businesses? Or, will it be torn down and the land sold to a residential developer?) The challenge will be to ensure that all of us who live here are committed to preserving the multi-generational character of the town. This will require that our school Board, administrators, families and teachers collaborate to establish a district that although smaller, remains equal if not better than its peers in the U.S. and abroad. We must become an excellent school system within the world community since the affluent newcomers to our town will be much more inter-connected and multi-cultural than we are today. Our children are working in a globalized world of medicine, technology, scientific research, finance – they will want to be sure their children are able to compete with the children of their peers. We will need to remain informed about the best practices in learning, what our children need to know in the 21st century, and new ways of learning. We will need to take advantage of our evolving understanding of how we learn based on our scientific knowledge of the brain. We will need to be informed about what is going on in comparable schools overseas and exploring global opportunities for our children. We will need to be creative and innovative in our approaches as we manage within tighter budgetary constraints to achieve our high expectations.
4. Our town hall is in desperate need of a makeover. In my vision, town hall stays in its current location but undergoes a major renovation to consolidate office space and meet the future needs of our town (e.g. community meeting space) – Just as Paris got used to the Pomp adieu Centre and Hong Kong to the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Building (modeled after an oil rig), I suppose we would all eventually get used to whatever architectural edifice was built. My preference is for a New England façade and a major interior renovation – like one of the tents in Harry Potter where you walk in and suddenly find yourself in this magnificent space.
5. The library is searching for a new home and a 21st century identity. In my vision, I see a long term relationship or possible marriage between the trustees of the teen center and the trustees of the library. The teen center offers the library a location in the center of town: a new building could be built that would revitalize both institutions. Darien’s library has a special space in its basement for teens that is a center for various activities in addition to an innovative library space for young children.
6. Who doesn’t like to stroll down Elm Street and Main Street? My future vision turns it into a pedestrian walk of fine restaurants and unique shops (an idea that is currently under discussion). The pedestrian walk would distinguish our downtown from our neighbors and encourage us all to abandon our cars and walk more- part of the healthier lifestyles that we are all striving to achieve. A car park behind the new library would replace the lost parking spaces and probably provide more spaces. You would no longer be able to jump out of your car or double-park and run into a shop. But perhaps we would all have healthier hearts as we learned to walk more and give ourselves more time to run our daily errands.

Essay 3

Over the next 20 years, the character of New Canaan will drift in the direction of the national trend, i.e.: an aging population, with fewer children, less income / more wealth and downsized housing.  That is our future, unless we work to chart a different direction.

I think we should be proud of what we have built in our “next stop to Heaven”.  However, we should be mindful that the economic tide has been rising for several decades and very likely the next few will not be as kind.  Over the past 10 years our taxable Grand List of real estate values has increased 162% from $3.1bn to $8.2bn, our student population has grown 6.5% to 4,108 students from 3,857 and our annual cost-per-student has grown 62% to $17,959 per student from $11,058.  We have built ourselves an oasis; a commutable-to-New York town of single family homes and top notch schools.

New Canaan does not hire an economist to forecast housing values, household income or local unemployment rate but I would suggest that all three of these things are in no small way related to the financial services business which employees over 80% of New Canaan households.  A conservative forecast for the financial services industry is for growth-trend numbers of jobs and level of wages – certainly less than experienced in the last 20 years.  New Canaan does however; hire a professional demographer to forecast K through 12 school enrollment.  The forecasters suggest that New Canaan school enrollment will drop 7% in the next five years to 3809 students from 4108 which is good news for the budget but bad news for the political pressures of fewer families with a vested interest in maintaining top-notch schools.

New Canaan will have to do a bit of swimming against the tide if we want to avoid becoming a community of childless households living in oversized McMansions with tiring interest in maintaining top notch schools.  Last year, my retired father in law, a 20 resident of Lynbrook Long Island, was thrilled to receive a reduction in his property taxes because he has no children in the local school.  Be prepared to see more of these of stories.

Over the next 20 years New Canaan can succumb to the pull of the tide and accept the trend of fewer students, rising numbers of retirees, increasing demands for condominiums, senior care centers and outpatient medical services.  This is not a bad vision, just an alternative one to what we have experienced over the last twenty years.

7:30 pm, July 25th at Town Hall, the Democrats will endorse the candidates to run for local offices in this fall’s election. We hope many of you will attend to hear from our candidates and vote! The Democratic Town Committee will be providing refreshments and hope you will stay and visit with fellow Democrats and candidates. Look forward to seeing you on July 25th.
Ginny Apy
DTC Chair