Ed Letter: Save Rogers Magnet School

Successful school should not close 04/16/2008

To the editor:
I was absolutely outraged with what I read in The Advocate on April 11 regarding the potential closure of The International School at Rogers Magnet. Reading between the lines, it appears from out of nowhere, the Board of Education will be closing the school, shutting down the International Baccalaureate program and moving all non-magnet students to the new school they're building with a new, untested, and unproven curriculum of study.

Worst of all, those of us with children in the school as part of the magnet program would be sent back to our district schools that we opted out of attending to begin with.

Was it not a few months ago that Rogers was being honored as the most improved school in Fairfield County? Was it not a few weeks ago that we received a No Child Left Behind Act report showing that Rogers was one of two schools in the whole city that would qualify to be removed from the "in need of improvement" lists with one more year of good test results? Was it not just the other week that we were celebrating the successes of the International Baccalaureate program to such an extent that there was consideration of extending the program to the middle school years?

And now what message is the Board of Education giving? That one of the most successful schools in the city should be shut down? That the most improved school not just in the city, but in the entire county, should be crossed out as an unsustainable success?

Should Rogers go, what will Stamford offer parents with elementary school children? The academic successes of Rogers and Westover are to be celebrated and duplicated, not shut down and discarded. Most towns celebrate their successful schools. Towns with successful school systems not coincidentally have higher property values.
Parents want to live in communities with good schools, and our school board seems to be saying that good schools are not what Stamford is about.

John C. Ross
Stamford Click here to read more.

Ed Letter: Save K.T. Murphy School

K.T Murphy is vital to the identity of its community 04/04/2008

To the editor:
Neighborhoods are an important mechanism in our society, and an integral part of community life. They not only enhance our personal lives, but sustain the livability of our cities.
The mayor and school board should pay heed. As evidenced by the furor being raised on the message boards, it is obvious that K.T. Murphy Elementary School is a huge element in a living, breathing community, and has a fiercely devoted following. This isn't just a random group of parents saying "please don't close our children's school" (new story, April 1); this is an entire community telling you that this school is their heart.

While understood that everyone loves their schools, how many places exist where the devotion is intergenerational? Where else do you find such passion expressed by a legion of alumni that spans decades? Though the Cove has certainly become more transient in recent years, there are still plenty of life-long residents there for whom Murphy School is a piece of their personal history, and many more who are in the process of building the memory.

K.T. Murphy is part of a century of Cove history, and is as defining an element of the neighborhood as Cove Island. They both bring a community together.

Any attempt to dissolve that community spirit by closing Murphy School ought to be viewed as a deliberate dismantling of a neighborhood, and should be met with opposition at every turn. Cove residents must fight to preserve the quality of life here, which includes our neighborhood school!

Lois A. Hogan
Stamford Click here to read more.

Little Doggie on the Mend

Dog recovering after unknown predator's attack
By Donna Porstner 04/12/2008

STAMFORD - The Lhasa Apso attacked by a wild animal in his North Stamford back yard early Sunday is back home with his owners and regaining his strength.

Rascal was released Wednesday from a Norwalk animal hospital, where he received around-the-clock care.

"He's pretty slow, and he sleeps a lot - and he looks really awful - but he's moving along," his owner Lynne Stone said. "He just kind of moves from one soft spot to another."

Rascal, who is 13 - 91 in dog years - is taking five medications, one for pain, one anti-inflammatory drug, plus antibiotics.

"He's just like a little old man," Stone said.

The pooch had been outside for about 10 minutes when Stone noticed he had gone missing at about 5 a.m. Sunday. She and her husband, Ted, found him hours later bleeding from the neck in a wooded area behind their home on South Lake Drive. From the puncture wounds on his neck, they presume a coyote picked up the 18-pound dog and dragged him there.

"I am amazed he's made it. He must have a pretty strong little will in there," Stone said. "He thanks everyone for their well wishes."

The Stones received phone calls from strangers concerned about the dog after a story about the attack appeared in The Advocate.

Coyote attacks on pets have become more prevalent in lower Fairfield County in the past 10 years, state environmental officials said.

In 2003, Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford's 15-year-old Bichon Frise, Chardonnay, was killed by a coyote in the back
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yard of their Greenwich home.

Chris Vann, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said coyote attacks on pets have become more common with suburban sprawl and the movement of coyotes into established residential neighborhoods.

"We sometimes field several calls a week, and this problem has been increasing over the last decade," Vann said.

Pet owners are urged not to leave food outside because it attracts coyotes, and they are warned not to leave dogs unattended in the dark.

"People may live in an area for years and never suspect their yard is a potential hunting ground," Vann said. Click here to read more.

Wikipedia Entry: West Side of Stamford

West Side of Stamford-- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Side of Stamford, Connecticut is one of the poorest and most violent sections of the city. It is located north of the Waterside neighborhood, west of Downtown and east of Greenwich, Connecticut. The different sections of the West Side including Vidal Court, Fairfield Court, Spruce Street, Friendship Building and the infamous Southwood Square (formally known as Southfield Village).

One version of the boundaries of the West Side has it located between Stillwater Avenue, Broad Street, West Main Street and West Avenue up to Exit 6 Interstate 95.[1]

The West Side has had a problem with violent crime for years. "Despite efforts to curb it, the area is still a breeding ground for drug dealers, and gangs, such as the Bloods, the Crips, the Merrell Avenue Posse and the Haitian Posse," according to an April 2007 article in The Advocate of Stamford. "A shootout last year [2006] between factions of the Crips that left two people injured spurred a citywide police sweep called Operation Clean Streets."[2]

Ethnic groups

The West Side has a large Italian American population, but much less than in the past. After World War II and the emergence of Italian-Americans from the working class, Blacks became a larger presence, and more recently Haitian Americans and Hispanics have moved to the neighborhood. The Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Church on Schuyler Avenue in the neighborhood was built for Italian-Americans in the early twentieth century at a time when Roman Catholic Churches were organized for groups by national origin.[citation needed]

Many Italian-Americans in the neighborhood in the Twentieth century immigrated from Minturno, Italy and communities near it. The Minturnese Social Club, founded in 1939 and only made up of members whose families hailed from Minturno, had 120 members in 2007. A Minturnese tradition, the Festa de la Regna ("Festival of Wheat") celebration of harvest day and honoring the Maddona delle Grazie, is still honored with an annual procession. On July 8, 2007 the procession was held on Stephen Street after a Mass said in Italian at the Sacred Heart Church. The procession included women in traditional black and white dresses, a float with miniature palm treas, a stuffed rooster, sheaves of wheat and an Italian flag, a marching band, a woman in red, white and green traditional dress with a sheaf of wheat and men carrying a yellow throne with a portrait of the Maddona delle Grazie.[3]

Another group of Italians in Stamford, came here from Settefrati, Italy. They also have a Social Club located on 23 Virgil Street, in Stamford, CT. The Settefratese tradition in Stamford is to have a Mass for their Patron Saint, La Madonna di Canneto, followed by Sagne e Fagioli at the Club.

Local institutions

Stamford Hospital with a campus of more than 10 acres, is the largest institution in the neighborhood[4], the Yerwood Community Center is located in West Stamford, as is Lione Park, and the Westover Elementary School. The public E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course is to the north

The New Covenant House soup kitchen, established in 1978, is in the neighborhood and is the only soup kitchen set up to help people in Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan and Darien. Run by Catholic Charities of Fairfield County, the soup kitchen provides daily hot meals and extreme nourishment to the homeless.[5]

Pellicci's Italian restaurant has been located at the same address on Stillwater Avenue since 1947. The family-owned restaurant is known for unpretentious, old-fashioned Italian cooking. Joe DiMaggio, Nancy Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Walter Cronkite have all dined there. The eatery sells more than 1,000 poinds of baked chicken a week.[6] Click here to read more.

Letter to Stamford Talk from Chowhound

Hi Stamford Talk, you've been sent the following by a Chowhound moderator:

We really do understand your frustration with our request not to post about Napa & Co. It's even more frustrating for all of us to have to ban discussion of good places. But we really do need you to stop posting about them.

The problem is, it's not possible for us to block just the insiders who violate the rules about posting on their place -- they use too many IDs (literally dozens of them in the case of Napa & Co, from names you'd recognize like Fairfield Foodie, John Leah, tdchow, TwoSuns, to many one time names) and post too many dishonest posts. (We're not counting the new nametag you registered last night to post about Napa, which we've deactivated.)

With a lot of work, we've been able to confirm that the posters mentioned above are all employed at Napa or related to an employee. We just don't have the resources to continually examine each and every reply that comes in on Napa, deciding if the poster is a legitimate poster, an innocent newbie who doesn't know any better, a disgruntled regular poster like yourself, or one of the sleazy bunch who got the place banned in the first place.

Luckily, we don't have many places on our banned list because word has gotten out and most restaurant owners, staff and family members realize the risk isn't worth the reward. We only put this measure in place when there's been a concerted campaign to post phony reviews which will bring people into a restaurant. And even then, it's not intended to punish the place -- we don't even normally send emails like this, since we don't want to damage the restaurant's business, we just want to keep our site honest. You seem really frustrated, though, so we're hoping opening up a little with the details will help you understand why we have to do what we've done.

It's no accident that Chowhound is a sleaze-free, hype-free site where like-minded chowhounds swap chow tips. We've had to moderate carefully to create that environment and we have to occasionally delete honest posts like yours to keep it that way. We hope you can accept that and maybe come to appreciate it.

We know that the Napa & Co ban has been particularly hard on the Tristate community, since it's a restaurant many of you would like to discuss. With the intense history of dishonest postings on this place, sadly, we've been left with no other choice.

We're hoping that now you're acquainted with the details on this situation you'll be better able to abide by our guidelines (including the prohibition on registering more than one posting alias.)

The Chowhound Team
Chowhound.com
For Those Who Live to Eat Click here to read more.

Stamford Coyote Incident

Owner blames coyote for attack on her dog
By Donna Porstner Staff Writer 04/08/2008
STAMFORD - Rascal, a 13-year-old Lhasa Apso, is clinging to life after his owner said it was attacked by a coyote Sunday morning in her North Stamford back yard.

Lynne Stone, who lives on South Lake Drive near the New York border, said Rascal was in the back yard, which has an electric fence, for about 10 minutes early Sunday when she heard an unusual sound. She looked outside but didn't see anything. It was about 5 a.m. and still dark, so she took a flashlight but still couldn't find the 18-pound pooch.

Hours later, Stone and her husband, Ted, found Rascal unresponsive and barely breathing with puncture wounds in his neck next a lake behind their home. They rushed him to a Norwalk 24-hour emergency animal care center.

"He's basically in the equivalent of doggy ICU," she said. "He's hooked up to a little intravenous."

From the bite marks on his neck, the Stones presume a coyote carried him away.

Though the doctor said the dog's prognosis is good, it is not known whether Rascal can survive without costly round-the-clock medical care.

Rascal's sister Squirmy, who went inside minutes before the attack, was unharmed.

Though coyotes in residential areas generally pose no threat to humans, they often prey on small dogs and cats.

The state Department of Environmental Protection recommends owners supervise their pets while outdoors or keep them fenced in to protect them - particularly this time of year, when wild animals are looking for food for their
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young.

"Most animals are wary of people, and will stay away if someone is there," DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said.

The DEP warns pet owners not to leave food or trash outside, including pet food, table scraps in compost piles, food scraps on barbecue grills, and fruit that has fallen from trees, because it can attract coyotes.

Though older, smaller dogs in yards with electric fences can be taken by coyotes, Stamford Animal Control Officer Laurie Hollywood said there is no way of knowing what kind of animal attacked Rascal.

"If it's puncture wounds obviously another animal did it, but to say what animal did it would be guessing," she said. "Hopefully, it was an isolated incident. It could be the neighbor's chocolate Lab. You just don't know."

Pets in Stamford have gone missing in recent years, but there have been no reported incidents of coyotes killing or wounding pets, Hollywood said.

"We get sighting calls at all the time, but we haven't had anyone actually report a coyote taking their animal in probably a couple of years," she said.

It's rare for coyotes to leave their prey alive, she said.

Since coyotes and other animals pose a threat, Hollywood recommends owners with dogs under 15 pounds keep them supervised and leashed while outdoors.

"Everybody likes these little teacup dogs these days - that's something you need to stay there and protect - they can't really protect themselves," she said.

Coyotes are particularly dangerous because they often stake out their prey for two weeks and learn its routine so it knows when to attack, she said.

"They know which houses have animals because of the urine scent in the yard," Hollywood said. "They know which animals are weaker and which ones to target."

If dogs and cats must be left alone a 6-foot fence is the best way to protect them, she said. Electric fences do not prevent other animals from entering the yard, she said.

Stone plans to leaflet her neighborhood to warn other pet owners.

"We knew there were coyotes in the area. I should have been more vigilant," she said. "Sometimes small dogs make good breakfast treats." Click here to read more.

Pedestrians in Stamford: Maligned, Misunderstood

Advocate: Pedestrians are in jeopardy at station- 04/07/2008
To the editor:

If Stamford police officers wants to make our city safer, they need only to place themselves at the Springdale train station at the evening rush.

Commuters trying to cross Hope Street, using the crosswalk, take their lives in their hands daily. Cars drive by at high speeds, honking their horns and shooting angry looks as we try to cross the street on our walk home. The sign by the side of the road does not get their attention, and most drivers feel inconvenienced to have to stop.

I just hope that a solution is found before someone gets seriously injured.

Phyllis Pugliesi
Stamford Click here to read more.