Good morning. Bridgeport is looking to restore the deteriorating Perry Memorial Arch in Seaside Park.
Built in 1918, the arch was dedicated to superintendent of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, William Perry. He later became the president of Bridgeport’s Parks Commission and helped create Seaside Park. Today, officials say the granite arch is in need of roof, wall and foundation repairs.
The City Council plans to obtain a $500,000 grant from the National Park Service's Save America's Treasures initiative to fund the restoration. Officials hope they can start repairs by spring.
Here’s a bite-sized look at what else we are hearing:
Stamford, Connecticut will vote on updating its city charter on Election Day. The city Charter Revision Commission wants to make it easier for residents to access government documents and hold officials more accountable. One of the proposed changes would require high-level officials to live in the city unless exceptions are voted for them by the Board of Representatives. Only one-third of officials currently live in Stamford.
Long Island educators are concerned about rising antisemitic and racist incidents. At least five of these hateful incidents have occurred since the beginning of the school year throughout the region. Educators fear the incidents may escalate amid the Israel-Hamas war. Christopher Probst, director of education of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County, cited students' use of social media and large amounts of hateful content online as possible sources for these incidents.
Connecticut’s new state historian is considering the removal of an infamous Pequot War statue from the state Capital. UConn professor Andy Horowitz succeeds former state historian Walter Woodward who retired in 2022. State Senator Cathy Osten is leading a movement to remove Captain John Mason due to his terrible actions committed in the war, including the slaughter of hundreds of Pequot in the 1637 Battle of Mystic.
Forty-two New York universities have received complaints alleging that gender and race assistance programs are discriminatory against white and male students. Most of the complaints were filed by former American Enterprise Institute professor Mark Perry, claiming that women have no need for special assistance. Perry and other complainers have caused the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to force schools to alter their programs to include all genders and races in accordance with Titles IX and VI.
New York plans to acquire 43 acres of Flowerfield Fairgrounds in Suffolk County. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is in agreement with local advocates and the Saint James Head of the Harbor Neighborhood Preservation Coalition who believe the area should be protected from development. Residents sued the Town of Smithtown and contractor Gyrodyne LLC in 2022 after they planned to build medical offices and a hotel on the property without a thorough environmental review.
Completion of the Long Island Rail Road’s $2.5 billion Third Track this year was made possible after creating a $20 million local community benefits fund in 2017. A Newsday investigation finds the fund dissolved political opposition that often stalled construction projects in the past. A few side projects leveraged the funding of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including a pickleball court in Floral Park, a $9,000 "Welcome to Garden City Park" sign, among other projects.
President Biden has awarded a Stony Brook University physicist the National Medal of Science. The medal is the nation’s highest scientific honor. Barry Barish received the award for his groundbreaking research on sub-atomic particles and for the first detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes. This achievement officially confirms a key part of Albert Einstein’s 1905 and 1915 “Theory of Relativity.”
A West Haven native co-produced the new off-Broadway production “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.” David O’Brien is a student in the Theatre Management & Producing MFA program at Columbia University's School of the Arts. As a part of the crew on Dracula, O’Brien helps bring in funding for the production and publicizes the show. The gothic, gender-bending comedy debuted on Monday and will remain in Manhattan's New World Stages until January.
