Update, Stamford Murder: Marco Paoletta

I’ve been writing about restaurants a lot recently, probably because it’s easy to write about, and this is harder.
In the latest Advocate article, it says that not only do police believe Marco Paoletta was targeted, they think the killers knew when his raquetball game at the JCC ended, and that’s when they got him.
Well. That is disgusting and sad and scary. As I passed the Jewish Community Center on my way home from the gym, and glanced to my right at Vine St. where Paoletta was found, I felt sick. I hate to imagine how terrifying the last moments of his life were. I hope someone saw something, and that we can find out who did this.

Something else got my attention in the Advocate article: former Stamford police officer Vito Colucci is a friend of the family. I had read about Colucci in the Stamford Times a few months ago; he published a book about being a private investigator. I called Barrett Bookstore in Darien, and they had five copies. I'm looking forward to reading a Stamford cop’s account of his job. I’ll let you know what I think. So far, I’m taken aback by how large the print is, but that will make it easier to read on the elliptical at the gym. It might be too disturbing to read at night, anyway.

I should end by saying to Paoletto’s family that I’m very sorry, and that a lot of people are thinking about Marco and hoping the case is solved.
____________________

Here’s some text from the Advocate article. You can also view the Stamford Times’ article for similar information.

Murder victim targeted after racquetball
By Zach Lowe, Staff Writer for the Stamford Advocate, January 16 2008
STAMFORD - Police believe a city man found dead on the side of a road near a school this month was the target of a planned killing, timed for the end of his racquetball game at a nearby community center.
The body of Marco Paoletta Jr., 51, was found by police on Vine Road near Turn of River Middle School on Jan. 3 at about 6:30 - a few minutes after Paoletta, a local racquetball champion, finished his game at the Jewish Community Center, said Capt. Richard Conklin, head of the police department's detective bureau…
Police have narrowed their focus to the few minutes after Paoletta left the community center and before his body was found with a gunshot wound to the head.
Vito Colucci Jr., a private investigator whose wife is related to Paoletta, said police have active leads and are piecing together an idea of who may have targeted Paoletta.
"This is not a cold case by any means," said Colucci, who is acting as a spokesman for Paoletta's nine siblings. "They are making progress."
Colucci said the killer may have known Paoletta's schedule and waited for him outside the community center.
Paoletta may have known the killer and set up a meeting for after his racquetball game, Colucci said…
Paoletta, known to his friends as "Chickie," was a lifelong Stamford resident who worked in the credit division of a bank in Bridgeport.
His siblings said they were shocked by his death could not think of anyone who would want to harm him.
Police did not recover a weapon and have not speculated on what kind of gun the killer used. Click here to read more.

Stamford Food: So, So Good

Yikes. I've spent the entire morning posting on Chowhound.com, which is a great site for posting your own restaurant reviews, reading other foodies' suggestions, and discussing local food options. If you care at all about eating out, you should be checking that site out. I apologize in advance for the "Tri-State" board, which necessitates sorting through Long Island, Westchester and even New Jersey to find the CT topics. Just search the board, though, for either Stamford or Fairfield CT. I got so many food ideas that I don't even know what to do with myself.

Here's my shortlist of places to try: Athens Pizza's Greek pizza, Sundance Cafe on Broad St. for soup, Uncle Dai for Chinese, Giovanni's Deli, Belltown Pizza, Springdale Pizza, and also Avenida and Toku Shin in (gasp!) Greenwich. I usually support Stamford restaurants, but if it's Latino or Asian food, I'll travel. I know most of the places I listed are smaller, but I've tried almost every single good restaurant in Stamford (more about that odyssey later). I'm trying Market this week, which the NY Times just gave a "VERY GOOD." I'll be calling for reservations the second it opens at what, 11:00? and pray that the rest of Stamford has yet to hear about the review.

Last night when I went to Dunn's Loft, the Summer St. parking lot was completely full, which is odd on a Tuesday night. Where IS everybody? I asked. Who is out on a TUESDAY? Now, I realize, they were probably at Market.

Later this week, I'll post my glowing review of Dunn's Loft (four words: filet mignon, pool table!) and my goal of trying every Stamford restaurant, which I get closer to as each week passes.

Until then, Stamford, eat! Eat! Click here to read more.

TaWa: Best Indian Lunch Buffet in Stamford

Tawa is the newcomer taking the Stamford Indian food world by storm. Well, it's taking my life by storm. I went there for lunch last month, not intending to get the buffet. I'm anti-buffet because I am deep-down PRO-buffet, but that's bad for many reasons.

The entrees were quite pricy for lunch, so I said "What the heck" and got the buffet. It changed my life. I give the lamb koorma most of the credit for that. I'm decidedly NOT a lamb koorma girl, but this was fantastic. It's the dark stuff in the picture, and its heat went superbly with a cold glass of chardonnay. The price for this buffet? TEN BUCKS. You can't buy anything for ten bucks around here. AND, you get your 6th lunch FREE!

Tawa takes the rice pudding because 1, it's cozy, 2, the staff is nice, and 3, you can park without losing your mind. Dakshin, another good Indian restaurant, is downtown, in parking hell. I'm sure Dakshin is good for you downtown working folk. But I work in the Bull's Head area, in a place called "my house," so I don't feel like driving downtown, paying for parking, and walking to lunch, especially in the winter.

Tawa is right beside Home Goods, with the liquor store and tanning salon. I was dubious about TaWa's little storefront, but don't let that deceive you. TaWa, is, as far as I can tell, very good.

Note: I didn't go wild for the naan, but I've only been to Tawa once, and maybe it's better at dinner.
Another note: Wouldn't it be cool if the New York Times reviewed Tawa like they did Duo? Click here to read more.

Stamford Events Calendar

I'm very excited to start a calendar feature. Clicking on the CALENDAR link (not the actual calendar) will take you to my google calendar. Please let me know if there are any interesting events coming up! Click here to read more.

Ahoooooooooooooo: Coyotes in Stamford

“That’s a pretty dog!” I shouted across the road to a woman in a reflective safety vest. On our residential street, you’re taking your life into your hands trying to walk your dog, and I am SO not joking. I was taking my Toter can out to the curb. We made small talk about our dogs, then she told me she’d seen a coyote on the next road over. We’re in a ‘hood off High Ridge. So folks, coyotes are on the prowl.

Today’s News 12 Website has an article about coyotes. It doesn’t tell you much more than I can. It mentions to watch your small pets, but anyone who heard about Kathie Lee Gifford’s bichon frise knew that. Her little dog was killed in her Greenwich backyard in 2003.

Around the time of the KLG incident, I was driving on Shore Rd. in Greenwich on my way home to my Southfield ‘hood. I saw a large yellow dog trotting down the sidewalk. How cute! I thought. A dog using the sidewalk! I passed him, then tilted my head in puzzlement— was that a coyote? Yup. Trotting as if he were out for a jog, totally civilized, on the sidewalk. That’s one cool coyote.

The News 12 article DOES have one tip I forgot about: Keep your eye on your "younger" children. Click here to read more.

Fitness Does Matter, So Fix Your Sign!

I'm not making fun of Fitness Matters, and in fact, I am probably giving the business some nice free advertising. I saw these two signs when I went to Mackenzie's Bar and Grill a few weeks ago, so they may have fixed their sign by now- I hope. These two signs side by side, couldn't be much funnier.
Fitness Matters is right underneath Mackenzie's, which always looks busy, so they won't remain "Stamford's Best Hidden Secret" for much longer!










Don't click to read more. I apologize. My idiot Blogger template won't let me choose which posts to put that "Read More" on. Click here to read more.

Redistricting: Test Scores, Money, Suspense!

Even if the words “Board of Education” and “redistricting” sound boring to you, keep reading. Stamford’s effort to balance its school population is one of our most important city-wide issues. At tonight’s hearing, parents and residents will have a chance to speak to the Board of Ed about the controversial proposal to close one school. The BOE has yet to choose which school to axe, so you can imagine the tension.

Redistricting involves ensuring schools are balanced in income and ethnicity. That’s cool: complicated, but cool, and in the best interest of the city as a whole. Four Stamford schools scored so poorly that they had to implement government-mandated No Child Left Behind interventions (school choice and tutoring). That’s a problem. Mixing high-achieving and low-achieving students has been shown to work, so let’s go for it.

The meeting also, and more controversially, involves the need to close one of Stamford’s twelve elementary schools. Oops, Stamford committed to building a brand new magnet school in the Cove before realizing our school population was not increasing as predicted. Closing a smaller school will provide kids for the new school, and according to a Jan. 5 Advocate article, save the city $5.4 million.

One of the schools at the top of the "maybe you'll get axed" list is Toquam Magnet Elementary-- one of only four of Stamford Schools that met NCLB standards. (Four out of TWENTY.) Kids apply for magnets in a lottery, and the student body is designed to be racially and socio-economically diverse. It makes sense to ask why the BOE wants to close that school, or any school that is performing well AND is racially balanced. Some Toquam parents suspect the board wants to disband Toquam because it would be easy to send those kids back to their neighborhood schools, and perhaps it wants the Toquam building for something else.

I’ve corresponded with a couple Toquam parents, and their feeling seems quite reasonable: the BOE needs to make a convincing case for whatever school they decide to close. In my opinion, if the BOE disbands Toquam, it needs to explain how the performance of that magnet will be replicated. While test scores aren’t the only indicator of success, it’s one measurement, especially when other Stamford schools are bombing out.

In the end, maybe it all comes down to money. Maybe closing Toquam saves the most money. Public education is always a compromise between cost and the best interests of kids, and choices are never easy. The Board of Finance will meet with the BOE at the end of the week to hear their reasoning and, I assume, decide if they agree with the BOE. Stamford, things are heating up.

School redistricting affects the future of Stamford as a whole. This is a segregated city except for a few areas. Mixing different types of people, again, can only help in Stamford’s quest to become a better city. We want a city whose student population is increasing. We want Stamford to be the place where people want to raise their kids.

I’d like info to be more easily accessible to interested residents. I don’t have kids, but I want to keep up with this issue. I want one place I can go for board notes, newspaper articles, and editorials. I don’t want to have to visit 5 websites (City of Stamford, Stamford Public Schools, Stamford Advocate, Stamford Times, Save Toquam) to find information. I’m not sure if SPS could maintain the site, or if a newspaper could do it, or if an interested resident would do it, but in today’s world, info needs to be online, and we need to be able to find it in less than five places.

I recommend two places for information:
1. At the Board of Ed section of the Stamford Public Schools site, you can read minutes of the 2007 meetings. However, each meeting’s minutes are in a separate PDF. It’s not very user-friendly, but it’s worth clicking around. I stumbled upon October 18 and found some thorough background on the situation.
2. The Save Toquam site is useful because it includes text from old Advocate articles, which DISAPPEAR FROM EXISTENCE after two weeks. The site also has commentary from Toquam parents and letters to the editor. I found Jeff Herz’s "January Situation Update" post helpful. If anyone knows how I can find old Advocate articles, other than keeping stacks of yellowing newspapers around my house, email me.

I’m going to end on a positive note: children are wonderful, children are resilient. We need to do whatever we can to give EACH ONE of them a safe, structured environment and capable, caring teachers. Once we do that, things will work themselves out. Happy, safe kids = good citizens and Stamford residents. Let’s give props to the teachers who work hard every day at a very challenging job.

*Last year the Supreme Court ruled that race can no longer be used as a factor in redistricting, so schools will use socio-economic and first language statistics. Click here to read more.

Stamford's Jan.3 Murder: Too Much Info?

1. I'm a sensitive person. Words matter to me. I don't feel too good about this line from an article in the Stamford Times.

"Paoletta, whose last address was 10 Tuttle St., was a long-time Stamford resident who was well known in by the police department, according to Conklin but does not have an arrest record."

I don't have a problem with the Times printing this. I do have a problem with the police captain saying this about someone. It seems to me that if you're going to imply someone is a trouble maker, you need to have some specifics... if, in fact, that's info you should be sharing.
"Was well-known" is pretty ambiguous. A quick skim made me say, "Oh wow, some police staff were his friends?" A second read made me say, "Oh. He got in trouble a lot, or caused trouble." Now I might have a negative view of this person, not based on any real info. I don't like that. I'd like to know more about Marco Paoletta, more than just that he's not the police's favorite citizen. I do appreciate honesty, but I don't think that's an appropriate comment for the captain to share with the entire city.

Here's a little more info from the Advocate about Paoletta:
"Known to friends and his nine siblings as "Chickie," Paoletta was a lifelong Stamford resident and local racquetball champion, his family said...
Paoletta may have been in the area because he played racquetball often at the nearby Jewish Community Center on Newfield Avenue, said his sister, Brenda.
He had recently taken up the game again and was talking about it at a Christmas dinner with relatives.
"He was happy," Brenda Paoletta said of her brother. "Everything was perfect."
He played racquetball often as a child and won YMCA tournaments, she said.
Paoletta earned an associate degree at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven and worked in the credit division of a bank in Bridgeport, relatives said.
Carmella Circell, another sister, said the family cannot think of anyone who would want to harm their brother.
"I'm just in shock," she said. "I just can't believe someone would murder him. I wonder if he was robbed." (Jan.5 article by staff writer Zach Lowe)

2. I am totally freaked out by this murder. I feel so sorry that this violence had to happen to someone. I'm also freaked out that I could be driving along a road that we take as a shortcut to Dunkin Donuts, and all of a sudden see a bleeding person on the side of the road. That's what happened. Motorists saw this and pulled over. They also heard a loud bang. I don't know details, such as if they saw him pushed out of a car or anything.

I really, really hope they find who did this. I hope Paoletta's car, found burning in Norwalk, will provide leads. Click here to read more.

Events Jan 8-10: School Redistricting Meeting, Russian Movies, and A Pretty Voice

Tues Jan 8, 7pm: A School Redistricting Hearing will be held tonight at Cloonan Middle. Stamford wants to redistrict the elementary schools so they’re more socio-economically balanced (Supreme Court recently ruled that race can’t be a factor). The meeting ALSO involves discussion about which elementary school will be closed, since OOPS, Stamford committed to building a new magnet school in the Cove before they realized the school population wasn’t increasing like they predicted.

Tues, Jan 8, 6:30 pm: Russian Film Festival at the Ferguson. We're lucky to have events like this. I bet Darien doesn't, and they also don't have the Haitian Book Festival. Grab a friend, get dinner at Capriccio, and walk over to the library.

Wed, Jan 9, 8:30: My friend Beth January is playing at Las Vetas lounge. That's in Fairfield, but I met Beth in Stamford, and she's in the Stamford Talk inner circle, so drop by if you're in the area. You can hear samples at digstation.

Thurs, Jan 11, 6:30: The Ferg is showing Sicko by Michael Moore. I dozed off halfway through, but my friend Keya loved it. Movie will be shown in the Third Floor Auditorium.

I’ll post more events later if I find them! Click here to read more.

Stamford's First Murder of 2008

Stamford, I'm sick of talking about your murders.

I read this morning that a man was found lying on Vine St. with a head wound. That’s right by Dunkin Donuts on High Ridge. At 6:45 pm on Jan 3., residents heard a loud bang and then found the man, who later died. There were no stab or gunshot wounds, so police thought it might have been a hit and run. Awful, but not murder.

Before bedtime, I checked my google reader and read in the Stamford Times that it was a gunshot wound. My stomach sank. I felt queasy at the thought of a murder victim lying in the road that I take home from Saturday morning coffee. Not again, Stamford.

And then, to add insult (and confusion) to injury, I read this Advocate headline:
" Gunshot wound found in head of dead Stamford man"… WHAT?
I read it again. Wound found in head. OK, it makes sense. A WOUND was found in the HEAD of a DEAD man. But something is awkward about that. You don’t FIND a wound in someone’s HEAD. You SEE it. Especially if there’s blood.

I called my sister over. “WHAT?” she said disbelievingly. Even a math major can see something wrong with that headline. Found wound head dead?
“It rhymes!” I said. It sounds like first grade spelling class. But to make it even more awkward, the last two words rhyme and the first two look like they should rhyme, but they don't.

In a way, this headline is almost disrespectful. Maybe I'm being picky. But I shouldn't have to look at this headline and laugh, should I? Advocate, you're awesome… but this headline is unacceptable!!!

I don’t mean to be flip and only focus on misguided words. This man got shot and dumped. I feel so bad. He was alive when police got to him. And four hours after they found the man, they found his car burning on a street in Norwalk. Norwalk! I’ve had enough of you as well! Your Christmas Eve murder was so sad and depressing.

Stamford residents, I don’t mean to scare you, but we need to keep our eyes open. There are no good and bad parts of this town. Weird stuff happens everywhere.
On one side, Dunkin Donuts and the Turn of River library. Next door: murder victim.
One side: my NYSC and Tip Top Nails. Across the street: Murder.
One side; Me getting gas at the Shell. 100 yards away: Woman murdered in hotel stairwell.
I wasn’t blogging at the time of the Cove murder, so I don’t know much about that.

I’m trying to find a message here. Stamford’s a real place with real problems. Unlike the zip codes to its left and right*, Stamford is economically and ethnically diverse. People have a lot going on besides making 130,000 (or 168,000) dollars a year (respective median household income of neighboring zips)**. I feel lucky to live in a place where there’s a lot going on. But that means, we have some things to deal with, and that’s why we need to talk, and that’s why I started this blog. I need to learn about the people I live near, and I’m doing that.

One last thing about the headline. “Wound found in head of DEAD man.” Isn’t that a bit gauche? Just because there was a popular movie with “DEAD MAN” in the title doesn’t mean we should all throw those words around. I understand that news is news, but maybe “victim” or even “murder victim” would fit in the headline space. Concise doesn’t have to mean callous.

*Nothing against you, Greenwich and Darien; I like you, I like your residents, I like your restaurants, and you have your own interesting issues. In fact, I like both of you very much, and one day, maybe I’ll have time to analyze you.

** Info according to city-data.com. Stamford’s median household income is around $66,000. Click here to read more.

New Stamford Restaurant: Fin II

Part of me thinks we don't need another sushi restaurant in Stamford. We already have Duo (ravingly reviewed in the NY Times), Kujaku and Kotobuki. I love Duo, and Kotobuki is my tried and true standby. Now the Advocate reports that Fin II is opening on West Main… right next door to Kujaku and a block away from Duo. Okay, that’s odd. However, I’ve eaten at almost every Stamford restaurant except Market, so I’m excited about Fin II, if only to have something to talk about.

Here’s what the Advocate has to say: “Fin II is the sister of Fin, a popular Japanese restaurant in Fairfield. The Stamford opening generated a lot of buzz among the sushi and Japanese food aficionados in the area, though for those who had never been to Fin in Fairfield, the unprepossessing little storefront remodeling seemed like much ado over relatively nothing. Now that it is open and has been sampled, it is most definitely much ado over something.” I didn’t hear the buzz, but I’ve been scaling down my extragant eating out lately, so maybe I’m out of the loop. I also haven’t been on Chow.com in a while.

Advocate Writer Melanie Barnard writes: “Still, the simplicity and almost sandwich-shop look of the place gave pause until my friend admonished me with a heaving sigh that I'd spent too much time and money in the glitz and glitter of new restaurants, and that the honored Japanese tradition is much more of restraint and quiet demonstrations of quality.” If I didn’t know the Advocate has nothing but good intentions, and if I didn’t know in my heart that anyone who doesn’t like Duo is crazy, I’d think that comment was a crack against Duo’s stylish interior and not so time-honored menu selections. Barnard’s review is overwhelmingly positive, so I think she meant to assure patrons that the simple interior doesn’t mean plain, poor food.

I’m looking forward to trying Fin II. Prices sound reasonable, so if it’s as good or better than Kotobuki, I might have another restaurant in my rotation. Click here to read more.

I'm Going to Planet Fitness

Planet Fitness is an awesome gym, but DON'T JOIN IT, because I want to join it, and I don’t want the rest of you taking up the elliptical machines. I visited the gym with a friend last month (Stamford Talk research) and was impressed.

I love my NYSC, but after they renovated and put in squash courts and a pool… well, the gym lost its tough-guy edge. Now, it looks like the tough guys are at Planet Fitness. I’m OK with that, because I like to feel tough when I go to the gym.

Good things about Planet Fitness:
It offers tons of cardio machines and a relaxed atmosphere. There are rows of cardio machines- 4 or so rows of 15 machines, all in a block, facing the same direction. At first it looked awkward, but once I got on the elliptical, surrounded by all those people running and stepping like crazy, I didn't think twice about breaking a sweat. I was part of a TEAM.

And the 10 $ a month price tag? Unbeatable! If you get the black card for 20 $, you get unlimited guests (and, oddly, tanning). I'm going to keep my NYSC membership; I've been going there for 8 years and got grandfathered in at a good price during the renovation. To me, though, PF is worth the additional 20 bucks so I can work out with my 3 friends who belong, AND make my husband go as my guest.

Bad things about PF:
I wish there were more free weights. At 5 pm, it was pretty busy. However, it’s cool to have to work in with people. You have to actually talk to them and say, "Hey, can I work in?" rather than going to the THIRD lat pull so you can avoid talking to anyone (that's what I do at my NYSC). Anyway, the point of PF is to offer basic stuff so the price can stay low. There are no classes and no towel service, but the locker room is pretty nice, and that’s important.

If you want to pay 80 bucks a month and get yoga and Boot Camp and Latin Groove classes and beautiful new machines, go to NYSC. If you are less high-maintenance and just want straightforward weights and cardio, PF could be the perfect gym for you. No, the perfect gym for me. You stay away. Click here to read more.

Do We Care About the Naked Gold David?

I don't. But I mean, does Stamford as a whole care that an art store at the Bull's Head intersection displays a life-sized, gold-painted replica of Michelangelo's masterpiece?

I drive by there regularly and either don't notice it, or I think, without much interest at all, wow, that's weird. A naked, gold man, right beside the road.

I can't figure out who would care. Since it doesn't faze me, I assumed no one else cared either. I guess I forgot there's not one type of person in Stamford. We're young, we're old, we're rich, we're poor, we're neither, we own, we rent, we're Italian, we're Haitian, we have kids, don't have kids, etc. In all this mix, someone is probably really annoyed by that statue.

You might think, if 888 Wash had to take down the scary paper mache bear, should the naked guy go too?
The answer is no.
Bear = scary. Naked gold man = funny.
888 Wash = government building. Art/framing store = private.

I suppose the sidewalk that David stands on is probably public, so I'll change my "no" to "maybe, I don't really care." I'll have to swing by one day to see what the owner thinks. I should gather some data.

Maybe I could stand beside the statue with a sign that says, "Honk if you think this statue is funny." I could have a friend stand with me holding a sign that says, "Scream out your window if you find this statue offensive." That would make for a fun day. I'm changing my "maybe, I don't really care," to "leave it up, it gives this town some wackiness." Click here to read more.