I think more green space is always good, but there’s already three parks within walking distance of downtown, so that feels like a hard sell. Maybe there’s open land or abandoned property in the more urban sections of the city that could be turned into community gardens and/or parks though, I just don’t know the spots that need it most. I’d like better variety in the restaurants, but there’s not really much control the city has over stuff like that.

I would like to see Stamford set up its own utilities. We all hate Eversource, so why not have a public power company to maintain the lines & hold down generation costs? While we’re at it, Optimum also sucks some serious shit, particularly downtown. It’s okay now that I’m in Westover, but downtown I only had the option of cable, and it was practically unusable. A municipal ISP would be great, or even just some laws to put the screws to them about upgrading their old cable whenever they decide to run fiber to the new luxury apartments.

What else…a public bank would also be cool. When cities can service their own debts, it often creates impressive efficiencies. North Dakota of all places has a public bank for the entire state, and it’s basically the only part of their government that’s worth a damn. Let them service low-cost businesses loans/mortgages & accept depositors, and we might also get some local growth.

Oooh! Here’s a thought: ban foreign ownership and corporate ownership of single-family homes. You want a house? Gotta be an actual person. Limit landlords to one rental property a piece. If you want to make rental money, you gotta go big & dense. Require all new developments to set aside some percentage of units as affordable housing, with none of that separate entrances bullshit so the bourgeoisie can avoid looking at their neighbors.

I’m warming up to this! Ranked Choice or Approval voting would be cool. I don’t hate Simmons, but I wouldn’t mind if city elections were more open to third-party challenges. I think we’re all pretty tired of the red vs. blue thing, and if it works here we can point to it at the state level and be like “See? Not so hard, is it?”

What else what else what else…that’s all for now. I do reserve the right to come back and inflict more of my ideas on you all though.

Holy shit. I haven’t been in Stamford long, but this seems unusually intense for this city.

You’re not wrong about induced demand, but neither is u/iamsce about how it’s both ways in LA (and Seattle). I think the big difference is that southern CT is basically a big suburb of NYC, and so all of the traffic is tied to people commuting. The flight to the suburbs during the pandemic (when there were also less people on the road) hasn’t helped.

I’m fortunate enough to WFH in Stamford, and the only time I really notice the congestion is when my wife and I visit her family in NJ & PA. When I lived in NYC and Philly, the traffic was constant and unavoidable.

My wife is a vet here, and CoL is a huge factor, as is inflation. At her hospital they have vet techs that make more than I do as a software engineer, and they are still struggling to recruit and retain both doctors and staff. This area is just a really, really expensive place to live.

That’s good to know—still coming about $200k under what 70% would give, so I feel great about it.

Yeah, assessed values are often still comically low relative to actual prices. For example, our house was last assessed by the city at $515k. New assessment came in at $660k. Actual assessment when we bought it? $1.2 million.

OP doesn’t even live in Stamford, so is part of the reason prices are so inflated and assessments are going up. I find it difficult to feel all that sympathetic for an out-of-town landlord.

Hobby shops, check out Battlegrounds. They’re up in Norwalk, but they’re the closest “general purpose” gaming store. They have a D&D section in their Discord, and it looks like you’re not the only one’s interested in getting a game together. It’s run by a guy named Steve, who I haven’t met but also haven’t heard anyone speak ill of him.

Stamford itself is more of a networking challenge. The only hobby-type shop is the Warhammer store, and they’re Games Workshop products only. They also have a Discord, but it’s “unofficial” because of GW’s social media policies. That said there’s people in that group who I know for a fact play D&D, and if you’ve ever considered tactical gaming it’s a good community, which I’m happy to invite you (or anyone else) to.

That’s all I’ve got, but hopefully it’s a start.

I sometimes think that a good percentage of Atlanta’s success is just that Lakeith is a truly phenomenal actor. I’ve loved him in every role he’s had.

Company Name: GNA Associates
Building Address: 51 Bank Street
When you lived there: from 8/21 to 11/22
Would you recommend them: Yes
Comments: When we were looking in the area, they were offering $3050/month for a 3 bed/2 bath with washer/dryer unit. Most other buildings wanted $5k+ for the same.

I wouldn’t say they were super responsive on maintenance or the most organized, but as long as you paid rent on time they also never hassled you. We needed to go month-to-month after our lease ended, which should have jacked up our rent, but they never assessed it or asked us to renew.

The biggest potential downside is that the walls are paper thin to adjoining apartments, and the windows are fairly old, so noise could be an issue. I used to live on a busy intersection in NYC, so it didn’t bother me too much.

Bonus: there’s a restaurant on the first floor (Quartiere) that’s pretty good, and fun to hit up when we wanted to grab drinks/food on a whim.