Let occupants stay on waterfront land

1/29/2009

Whatever the city of Bridgeport is going to accomplish on Steel Point, the all-but-abandoned spit of waterfront land east of the Pequonnock River that has forever been the target of large-scale development dreams, it won't happen soon. In the meantime, the city should let people who are putting the land to use go about their business.

For more than a century, the Pequonnock Yacht Club has made its home on Steel Point in Bridgeport. It has done nothing to deserve its unceremonious ouster, which was reiterated recently as the club approaches its planned exit date in November. Seeking only an extension of a few months to keep disruptions this year to a minimum, club officials say they were denied.
The city has given no indication as to why.

The problems concerning Steel Point development over the years are too numerous to mention, but high on the list is the fact that the city bulldozed scores of homes and businesses to clear a path for a project that has never been built. These homeowners and businesses paid taxes and helped make Bridgeport what it was, for good or for ill. Far from seeing the folly of such a course of action, though, the city wants only to continue on that course.

Here's a suggestion: Wait until something -- anything -- other than a fence is built on Steel Point before kicking anyone else out. The plans as they existed as recently as a few months ago are finished; nothing resembling them will ever be constructed. A replacement proposal is in limbo.

Until there is something concrete -- actual, physical concrete -- on the peninsula, the yacht club should be told it can stay in its current location if it needs the time. Bridgeport won't give up its Steel Point dreams, but it also won't make anyone else pay for decades of disastrous outcomes.

If nothing else, at least someone should get some use out of this land.