NEIGHBORHOODS
What’s going on in your part of Stamford
WEST SIDE
The neighborhood’s first farmers market will kick off this month, introducing five organic-produce-slinging farmers to the city streets at Fairgate Farm, 129 Stillwater Ave.
The market, open May through October on Thursdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, is supported by grants from the city and U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a news release.
The first market will be held May 31. Fairgate is run by Charter Oaks Communities, the city’s housavailable ing authority.
The markets will “support the efforts to improve the access to and increase consumption of fresh, local food to the Stamford community,” Charter Oak CEO Vincent Tufo said in the release.
The participating farms, rooted in more than 500 years of organic harvest, include Gilberties’ Herb Farm and Sport Hill Farm from Easton; Ryder Farm from Brewster, N.Y.; The Hickories from Ridgefield and Fairgate Farm in Stamford.
For more information, visit fairgatefarm.com or email fairgatefarm@gmail.com.
WATERSIDE
Free kayak and paddleboard rentals are available Sunday as part of the SoundWaters Shakedown Weekend.
Single and double kayaks and paddle boards will be for free one-hour use from noon to 6 p.m. The last session will be at 5 p.m. The event will be held rain or shine.
The launch site is Boccuzzi Park, 200 Southfield Ave., on Stamford Harbor. Only walk-up use will be available.
SoundWaters will rent kayaks and paddle boards at Boccuzzi Park every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Labor Day. Reservations can be made in advance online.
The cost for single kayaks and paddleboards is $30 per hour. Double kayaks rent for $45 an hour. To reserve a kayak or board in advance, visit SoundWaters.org/rental.
Founded in 1989, SoundWaters is an environmental education organization focused on protecting Long Island Sound and its watershed. SoundWaters hosts shipboard and land-based programs for 32,000 children each year.
TURN OF RIVER
After several delays, the Zoning Board is expected to discuss this week a proposed zoning code text change that paves the way for a new Life Time Fitness center in the High Ridge Office Park.
A special meeting to discuss the proposal — which calls for allowing standalone gyms in office parks — will be held 7 p.m. Tuesday in the city hall’s fourth-floor cafeteria.
At the board’s most recent meeting on the plan, Chairman Thomas Mills called for city attorneys to provide advice about how much oversight the board has if it approves the change.
According to an agenda, that legal issue will be the topic of a discussion with Jim Minor, a city attorney, at 7 p.m. Monday.
The proposal has become a lightning rod in the Turn of River area just blocks south of the Merritt Parkway.
Residents have flooded public meetings to decry the proposal as bailing out a developer’s poor investment while harming the neighborhood with traffic, noise and light pollution. The developer, New-Yorkbased George Comfort & Sons, has argued the change is necessary and will breathe life into office parks with high-vacancy rates.
SPRINGDALE
The Springdale Neighborhood Association will hold a neighborhood walk through history next month.
The walking tour, based on information from the book "Springdale Remembered" by Rosemary H. Burns, will take attendees back in time on June 16. The tour will start at 2 p.m. and will begin on the local library porch, 1143 Hope St., according to a news release.
“We will go back in time to when the State Cinema had bowling alleys in the basement, the Twin Rinks were an X-ray tube factory, and a trolley car rolled down Hope Street,” the release said.
CITYWIDE
Three grassroots political groups plan on joining forces at city hall Monday in an effort to boost voter registration and turnout.
Women on Watch, Stamford League of Women Voters, and Indivisible Stamford Plus will meet at city hall at 11 a.m. and will hold several voter registration activities, according to a news release. Mayor David Martin is expected to attend and proclaim June as Voter Registration/ Voter Turnout Month.
“Voter turnout has been declining for years,” Women-On-Watch member Ann Weiss wrote in an email “We were appalled that in the November 2017 mayoral election, only 25 percent of registered voters bothered to vote . ... We plan to do whatever we can do to change this situation.”