Don’t for a moment believe that Donald Trump has a monopoly on disinformation. We have enough perpetrators here on the East Side of Bridgeport.
As leaders of Park City Compost, a Bridgeport-based non-profit dedicated to creating a food scraps aerobic composting operation and a mission-driven goal to provide broad education about the benefits of composting, we have been stopped from enacting a temporary (one- to five-year) expansion proposal on Bridgeport’s East Side.
We first reached out to community leaders in July 2023. Those who were willing to sit down and converse about the topic learned that our proposal was a net benefit for all.
Unfortunately, some on the East Side refused ever to sit down with us to hear out what we would like to do for the neighborhood, the city, yes, even the region. Instead, residents and attendees of Hall Neighborhood House and a particular parish were allowed to run wild with images of rampant, untamed food waste and rodents, disease, chemicals, and more.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, on a pilot scale, the truth can be observed at Captain’s Cove in Bridgeport’s Black Rock neighborhood, where we have run our small operation since 2021. The local operators of the Cove have not only allowed, but encouraged our work there. No complaints, no issues. And all less than 100 feet from the restaurant at the Cove, a hugely popular summer weekend destination. Our current site is so innocuous that we’ve had visitors not even able to find it when looking for it.
So when looking to expand our operations on what seemed a suitable, one-acre portion of a city-owned brownfield, we anticipated providing many benefits, including local employment (we had anticipated growing six to ten jobs) and activating a site currently used as a storage site for city refuse and a de facto home to feral cats and dogs.
Instead, the Bridgeport City Council voted (with one abstention) to reject the proposal, ending the prospects of expansion there.
Sadly, the disinformation campaign derailed any responsible engagement with the community and means we will now look to move our proposal out of the city. A community that has long suffered from environmental justice concerns has now lost out on an opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past, mostly spurred by a campaign of disinformation and interference.
And we wonder why Bridgeport can’t get out of its own way.
Scott Burns is Board Chair, Park City Compost Initiative, and a Bridgeport Councilman for the 130th District. Tim O’Connor is Executive Director of Park City Compost Initiative and a Bridgeport resident.