Chairman's View: Bike New Canaan (April 22, 2019)

Chairman’s View: Bike New Canaan

APRIL 22, 2019 BY NEW CANAAN TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRMAN JOHN ENGEL

It’s Earth Day. I am reminded we really need bike lanes in New Canaan.

We need to begin with a bike lane down South Avenue that connects Waveny Park, the YMCA, our schools and the New Canaan Village.

I wrote about adding bike lanes in my New Year’s resolutions in December when I wrote about eliminating plastic bags. We banned the bags. Now that it’s warm out, thoughts turn to bicycles and beaches.

Yes, beaches. Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson suggested that bike lanes could connect Darien beaches to New Canaan’s parks. While non-residents pay $45 to park a car at the beach, our residents can ride bicycles to Weed Beach and Pear Tree Point for free. Think about it, free beach access.

Former Advertiser Editor Greg Reilly reported last June that the route from New Canaan to the beach is 7.7 miles. Going to the beach from New Canaan is slightly downhill, 30 minutes. The return trip takes 43 minutes.

South Avenue will soon be repaved and restriped. Are we waiting for repaving? Why wait? We should stripe a temporary path now and begin to train drivers and bikers how to share the road.

There are two types of bike lanes. Sharrows are symbols painted in the road indicating that drivers and bicyclists share the travel lane. Existing law already allows for shared use. Sharrows simply reinforce that reality. A 2016 Chicago study concluded Sharrows don’t encourage biking, nor do they improve safety. In contrast, bike lanes are typically four-foot-wide lanes specifically dedicated to cyclists. They exist on busier streets and demarcate bicycle space from motorized vehicle space with a line of white paint. This is what we need on our widest, busiest roads including South Avenue.

My family rented Citibikes in New York City on the first warm day of spring. (The lanes were clearly marked in green paint.) It was the most efficient (fastest and cheapest) way to get around New York City in nice weather. New Canaan should contract with a bike share service, like Citibike in New York and Hubway in Boston. New Rochelle began a bike share program last year with 11 stations. After six months they had 1,400 registered users, had sold 36 annual passes and 67 weekly passes and had logged 5,200 trips over 2,800 rental sessions. Norwalk’s Bike/Walk Commission has selected the same firm, P3GM, to roll out its bike-share program in 2019. Fairfield and Bridgeport may be next. The bike-share vendor hires a local bike shop to maintain the bikes and docking stations. Here, it’s Lou Kozar and New Canaan Bicycle.

Bike lanes. Bike sharing. After we connect Waveny and the train station to Darien’s beaches, we should add bike rental racks at Irwin Park, Kiwanis Park, the Glass House, Grace Farms, the historical society and the library. We must take the first steps to becoming a bike friendly town. This is an inexpensive initiative. It benefits our residents. It’s healthy for the planet and it’s the right thing to do. I’ll be adding this to our Town Council agenda.

John Engel is chairman of the Town Council. Chairman’s View represents the views of the chairman and not necessarily the views of other council members.

Chairman's View: 11 Resolutions for 2019 (Dec. 31, 2018)

Chairman’s View: 11 resolutions for 2019

DECEMBER 31, 2018 BY JOHN ENGEL. CHAIRMAN, TOWN COUNCIL

When Advertiser reporter Grace Duffield asked for a New Canaan resolution, I could hardly stop at one. Here’s 10 more. We have much to do in 2019.

1. Bike paths from New Canaan to the Darien beaches. Darien suggested this. Get state permission to paint the bike stripe down South Avenue. What are we waiting for? Also contract to add bike rental racks at Waveny, Irwin Park, Waveny Park, Kiwanis Park, the Glass House and Grace Farms. Stamford is offering bike rentals downtown.
2. Recycling: Let’s get serious. New Canaan now pays $197,000 to sort garbage, up 5 times, and this is just the beginning. We must separate glass from plastic from garbage. Ban supermarket plastic bags. Reuse and recycle paper bags.
3. Caffeine & Carburetors: Bring it downtown permanently. Ask all stores to open those mornings. Help wanted in stores? Tell us what you need. We all volunteer to help.
4. It’s time to paint the big Waveny water tower and take the unused tower down. It’s metal, so put a massive New Canaan Rams  car magnet on it. Change it periodically. Special messages for Darien games.
5. Resolve to post more positively, not negatively, on social media with constructive ideas and thanks. The rest of the world is watching.
6. No more stolen cars. Resolution for everybody to get in the habit of taking their keys with them. Strengthen neighborhood watch. Work together to watch out for each other.
7. We have new Board of Education leadership. With this change I hope to see the board present a budget within Board of Finance guidance instead of passing the Superintendent’s budget without challenge and then fighting with town government for status quo. Change the paradigm.
8. The end of political yard signs. We can’t ban them. We need a gentleman’s agreement. All it takes is the willingness of the two parties. If a candidate sees he is the only one littering the town with signs for a month he won’t do it.
9. The end of real estate signs in residential neighborhoods. P&Z promised they would address this. All other commercial signs are banned so why is real estate the lone exception? This one is obvious.
10. I want preservationists to objectively rate our buildings and work with the town on a long-term public private plan instead of criticizing each new proposal one at a time.  What restrictions should be put on the sale of Vine Cottage, the Playhouse, the Police Station? Is the Library really sacred? It’s time to make choices. How can we sustain rentable assets like Gores Pavilion, Vine and Waveny as long-term break-even propositions?
11. High speed electric car charging stations downtown? This initiative is aimed at tourists since residents charge at home. Encourage Merritt Parkway transients to shop or eat here while charging. Our Parking Commission should identify ideal locations, both public and private, and market their existence online.

Chairman's View: On Bags and Budgets (Feb. 4, 2019)

Chairman’s View: On bags and budgets

FEBRUARY 7, 2019 BY JOHN ENGEL, CHAIRMAN, TOWN COUNCIL

The Town Council is considering a proposed townwide ban of supermarket plastic bags. Letters are starting to pour in. Supporters of the ban cite the environmental impact. Opponents of a ban say we are chipping away at freedom and personal choice.

Greenwich, Stamford and Westport banned the bags; Darien will be next. Will New Canaan’s decision rest on the more successful write-in campaign? Fewer than 25 people have weighed in. We all want to get greener but do we need more laws? We want to hear your thoughts.

The Budget. The First Selectman declared victory this week, proposing the lowest budget increase in a decade, up 0.16%, with two highlights: One is the way we look at contingency, consolidating department contingencies into one account at the town level. The second is a hiring freeze. Both seem sensible. If passed the mill rate will increase from 16.96 to 18.32 this year. Unfortunately, next year our debt service is forecast to rise and I fear the mill rate may rise with it, making us less competitive with Darien and Westport.

Our Superintendent of Schools brought in a school budget, up 2.05%, and believes we are done because they met Board of Finance standards published in the fall. We are not. Board of Finance models were based on changing assumptions. The whisper number from the Board of Finance and Town Council is we need another $1.5 million (from a schools budget that only rose a modest $1.4 million). Sound impossible? It may be too hard to turn the ship in one year. We did not get to this point in one year and we may not solve it that quickly. 

Consider that over the past 13 years spending increased 42% while enrollment was flat. In the last seven years spending increased 24% while enrollment decreased 3%. 

Consider that Darien teaches 4,726 students with 767 teachers and administrators whereas New Canaan teaches 4,113 with 749. If we managed to Darien’s ratio of 6.16 we would have 81 fewer staff across our schools. 

This is not a criticism of our schools or a statement that their budget is “fat” It is not. It is simply recognition that to meet Board of Finance debt targets of debt service below 10% in a period of rising interest rates we will have to make long-term systemic changes. If zero growth is too much in one year then perhaps a 3-year plan growing 1% per year is something the Board of Education and Board of Finance can agree on together. Such a plan would bring the mill rate back to a level below 18, reassure a jittery housing market, provide less stress to our schools than year by year cuts, meet Board of Finance long-term debt guidance and would be consistent with “stable but slightly decreasing enrollment” projections from our demographer.

Chairman’s View represents the views of the Town Council chairman and not necessarily those of any other Town Council member.