It's 2014. Facebook is free. Twitter is free.
This is why city government should consider communicating with the public beyond photo ops.
"The media" has never published stories about every demo permit issued.

Thanks "In The Know". It would make sense that Cumberland Farms would want to get rid of that dated building and replace it with a larger modern one. I have seen some new CF and they are HUGE.

The Media, YES... one would think that Cumberland Farms applying for and being granted a building permit to construct a new store would be of interest to the community and be covered as a business story like the new Walgreens across the street that is going up, or the Panera, etc at the old Derby Bowl. I see the media dropped the ball.. again.

You are referring to the Ansonia side of the border. All for the Demo monitoring or order-to demo but far short of some of the larger demo projects that should occur in Ansonia. The small demo projects are child's play compared to Ansonia downtown improvements which should focus on the structures that go back to the ladder 1800s. Those past due demos are truly hurting Ansonia's economic come back as pieces of structure are literally falling off the factory buildings in town.

Hmmm, one city got media coverage for a project while the one across the street in another city did not get media coverage. I guess it is the media's fault. That makes perfect sense, in 2014. Perfect.

My point is that newspapers are dead. There are free tools on the World Wide Web the government can use to publicize stuff like this. It is economic development. Tell people it is happening. Why wait on a reporter to do it? The Internet can be used by government for more than ribbon cuttings. The local government can actually convey information people want to consume.

It's a fine line being walked when you expect local government to report matters to the media. This developer might not want to reveal their plans just yet. Would you like local government to report when you are late on your taxes? It goes both ways if you make it a requirement. That's why media has the power of the Freedom of Information act. To the defense of the Indy, these guys do the best with what they have. They do not have a big staff, and they do not accept advertising. Unfortunately, they don't always have the time or manpower to peruse the records at city hall. I'm sure if someone stepped up and volunteered to assist in this task for the enrichment of the public's knowledge, they would be more than happy to report such events.

go to the Ansonia web site. Look back a couple of months minutes from the P & Z . There will be a major expand of Cumberland.

We shouldn't HAVE to go the P&Z web site to read about this proposal. How on Earth did all the online and print media in the area totally miss this redevelopment story!? It was discussed and approved at TWO Ansonia P&Z meetings!?

BTW, the media, you REALLY think reporters are not needed and the government to report things? Sorry, it was a "dead" newspaper that caught Chris Christie this week shutting down the George Washington Bridge to get revenge on a Democratic mayor who did not endorse his reelection bid. Yes! Yes! Christie was going to tell New Jersey residents all about that himself without a reporter digging into it. I think I've made my point on the value if the media.. and newspaper reporting, even in 2014.

Hi this is Eugene from the Valley Indy.
Sorry, I had no idea there was a new Cumberland Farms.
We used to attend Ansonia P&Z meetings when we first launched, but, in our early years (2009-2010), there just wasn't much activity and we haven't been to one in quite some time.
I think the last time we were there was over the summer, when a resident complained about the lack of progress at the Fountain Lake project.

I'll be honest -- we have a long list of stories we want to write about but haven't had the time.

In this case, we didn't know about it.

We've published 7,000 stories since June 2009.

I'm sure in that same time period we missed 1 million, but such is the news game!

I'm at eugenedriscoll@gmail.com for story tips. Don't assume we know!

THANKS!

Oh, donate to ValleyIndy.org -- a free publication. We've been down a reporter for more than a year.
http://valley.newhavenindependent.org/donate/

We accept advertising, actually, but we don't have a sales staff. Businesses can upload ads to our Flyerboard. It's on the right side of the home page, under See, Click, Fix that got me involved in this thread.

Have a good weekend, neighbors. Roads are slick!

http://valley.newhavenindependent.org/

I don't know why all the hate here for the media. The fences literally just went up a couple of days ago. and as to why Derby's project is such a large story is because it right now an eye sour and EVERYONE notices and probably asks ValleyIndy about it daily. All you had to do was ASK ValleyIndy and they would have dug up the story for you. don't right away go bashing them.

That said I can't wait to see the new Cumbys but will miss it while under construction. To think how busy S&S and BJs are going to be... I hope it won't take too long.
ValleyIndy you are awesome!

I'm reading the comments above mine. Woo, a story about modern community reporting!

I think the major difference today and years ago is that there is no longer a barrier between the public and the reporters. It's much, much, much more collaborative than in the past.

(Other major change is that we know what people want to read, based on what they click)

If you're so inclined, you can pretty much track where I am 24 hours a day Monday through Friday by following the Valley Indy Facebook page, Twitter, Foursquare and the site itself.

We constantly get info from readers and we respond to everything. They are the best source of info because they know the community better than anyone.

I don't check See Click Fix often, because I think it is used too often locally as a place to bash people, which the Valley Indy was becoming before we switched to Facebook commenting three years ago.

But we're always mining info and data from readers -- that's how news stories start, really. Someone posts, "Hey, what's going on at Cumberland?"

(While I hate we missed reporting on this story, I can guarantee you we'll get more reads now than when it was in front of the P&Z, because once you start writing about process, you're dead in the water, unfortunately)

Regarding the Bergen Record, heck yeah a newspaper broke that story. I'm so happy that someone realizes that, because so often it just gets attributed to TV news.

But I would bet my non-existent 401k that the reporters researching that story had to NOT write other stories.

For every story published, there's two more that need to be written, in my experience.

OK, this is a good thread. Bye

Good Discussion. The CF expansion has been on the public record for quite some time but you can't blame the only valid local media outlet for not reporting on that yet.
It's an important story in context, but let's face it folks, it's not huge.

"I don't check See Click Fix often, because I think it is used too often locally as a place to bash people, which the Valley Indy was becoming before we switched to Facebook commenting three years ago." -

ValleyIndy, you PROMOTE See, Click, Fix on your web site (it's how I discovered it) but you don't like it and have "switched to Facebook"??

Planner, while sad some of the P&Z notes have a board member calling the CF project a great "gateway to Ansonia" as it and Burger King are the two first businesses people see entering Ansonia from Pershing.

Yes, the fact that someone in Ansonia would consider a new Cumberland Farms a big "WELCOME TO ANSONIA" sign is disturbing with so much blight elsewhere but it sure did seem important to the board that this get approved.

I think the point is when people drive by and see construction fences go up, they for some reason wonder why the media hasn't mentioned it online or elsewhere. It IS important to them and they want to know what's going on without having to read P&Z notes. Heck, someone throw the site plan up here.

That said, all ones needs to do is ask CF. They close in February, the new store opens 4 months later so demo is about to start. I had a neighbor find out that by asking yesterday.

Yes, Barbara, to comment on stories at ValleyIndy.org you need a Facebook account.

If you visit our Facebook page, you'll see more conversations.

Yes, we offer the "See, Click, Fix" widget from the home page, and, yes, I rarely check here because too often it is people insulting each other.

However, I would not ask that the widget be swept under the rug, because the way people behave online is not the fault of the "See, Click, Fix" service. It's a worthy service.

We didn't report this story because we didn't know about it. I'm not sure how else to explain it.

We can't report on every construction fence that goes up in the lower Naugatuck Valley -- and this one was easy to miss -- but we appreciate the information.

I'm not sure when the fence went up, but last week there was a fire in Shelton.

After seeing the fence Saturday, while picking up prescriptions for my toddler at CVS, I'm not sure I would have stopped everything we were doing last week to go find out about it, but we have a story coming -- assuming Cumberland Farms returns a call.

Thanks ValleyIndy!

At the very least, I'm sure you can drop by Ansonia City Hall and get a copy of the site plan Cumberland submitted and post it to your web site. People LOVE to see what a project like this is going to look like and the site plan and drawings are indeed public records as you well know.

Look forward to your story and being able to see exactly what CF intends to build visually.

Site plans usually don't reproduce well, but if they submitted some renderings that we can post, we will post them.

Thanks ValleyIny (again!)

Yes the P&Z minutes to do renderings were presented. Look forward to seeing them. People don't have time to go review these thing in person. Thank God we have your site. We all know the CT Post and NH Register won't inform people of things like this.

While this isn't really an issue that needs fixing, as an architect I have to say I have been watching the activity on Pershing lately with amusement.

Whoever hired the people building Cumberland Farms needs to be given an award. Never have I see a crew take down a store and two houses, excavate a site, put up a new store (that looks fantastic, BTW) and get an entirely new development almost ready to open with such speed. If only every contractor works like this crew! Applause to CF!

That said, the other projects are laughable. One could have built 7 Cumberland Farms in the time it is taking to even put ONE new building on the Valley Bowl site (ALDI and Panera seem to be in no rush) and the Walgreen's projects seems to have hired the Muppets from start to finish.

Someone working for Walgreen's had the bright idea of not tearing down Xpect and putting up a new plaza building so Red Raider's could be taken down for the Walgreen's store. Instead, they have spent MONTHS cutting apart the old Xpect building and trying to turn it (which is just a metal box) into a new shopping center. The progress has been so painfully slow it's a good thing CVS is across the street as it will be 2016 before we see Walgreens open. Who's hair brain idea was that!?

Walgreen's corporate. They are the owner and developer. I think their A&E and CM are in-house. You think this is slow? They bought the property about six years ago!
The Valley Bowl site (there is no definite tenant beyond the anchor) is a small, local developer. I think this is their first commercial development.

Planner.

I hear you. Walgreens has owned Red Raiders for 6 years and the fact it's taken them this long to break ground is crazy. Not only that, their plans to tear down the existing plaza were approved and they were still putting "FOR LEASE" signs in the windows of vacant stores in the plaza they knew was coming down. HUH?

It does seem Walgreen development arm has no idea what it's doing. Perhaps it has too many project going on. However, from an architectural standpoint whoever thought they could save a buck by spending months cutting apart Xpect like they are doing now instead of simply tearing it down and throwing up a new building should be axed. As I pass that site and see them try and turn an old metal structure into a new plaza building when a new building could have been up and open by now I laugh.

I do have concerns about Valley Bowl, but it's not my properly. They are STILL just moving dirt around and ALDI planned to be open this fall. I also worry they are going to kill Italian Pavilion. Restaurants already died on that site over and over. Now, IP has to expect people to drive through an active construction site for months upon months while this developer tries and figure out how to put up it's new structures?! I wouldn't want to be the owner of IP. I went by the other night and the lot was pretty empty. It may be their first commercial development, but they have to be under contract with the tenants to get this done. Wow.

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