Last Updated on November 28, 2025 by Matthew Hallock

This is a first-person report directly from you about what issue you most want to address in Fairfield. I talked to over 1000 of you* and your friends & neighbors about what’s weighing on your mind. That’s approx. 2% of the 48,000+ adults from all over town. And what you said is statistically valid for speaking for all of Fairfield. This is what you want to urgently address, in order: Towers, Traffic and Taxes. 

• Stop the big buildings; they are quickly ruining Fairfield.
• Fix the amateur-hour road striping and traffic engineering job; it made congestion even worse.
• Taxes are expected, but not like this.

The Takeaways

We love this town. There is an underlying belief among long-term residents that Fairfield is the best town in Connecticut. This is an internal truism not said to others, because then it’s boasting. But there is definitely a genuine pride in Fairfield. It’s The Town That Has It All, it was said. 

The respect for everyone’s POV is commendable to us as a community. Not one person hurled an insult or rotten piece of fruit at me, doxxed me, loudly declared their disdain for whatever, or said or did anything nasty. I find that remarkable – we are nice to each other and treat our fellow residents how we would like to be treated, no matter how they feel or where they are coming from. 

You feel that nobody is listening to you. My question was simple: If I could work on just one thing in Fairfield for you, what would it be? Sometimes, it felt like I was pulling a cork out of a dike, the way many of you started talking. Your opinions, diagnoses, insights, and unique perspectives rushed out in a torrent because for once, somebody cared about what you thought. One woman drove back from her home 20 minutes away just to speak more with me. Or picture yourself in a supermarket parking lot going on and on and on about something important to you, in a good way. Many drivers didn’t even pull over at an intersection, but just started talking, because you finally had an opportunity. This obviously didn’t create good will with the cars behind you, but they got over it. Your unspoken but screaming message was I am not being heard. 

You hate the buildings and monopoles but don’t know how to stop them. They have not gone up yet, but many big buildings are approved in Fairfield, plus UI’s blight, known as monopoles. Despite this dystopian reality, there is not a feeling of acceptance, like the final stage of terminal cancer, but helplessness. A few people said some big buildings would be OK, but virtually everyone is against the inventory we’re facing. You used expressions like “final nail” and “death knell”. You have a ton of fight in you, but don’t know what to do, as it gets worse and worse. Several people actually pleaded with me, a stranger on the street, to stop the construction. There is a ring of desperation – can’t you do anything? 

Quote: Did a child work on our roads? U.S. 1, Old Post Rd., Rte. 59, Fairfield Woods Rd., Villa Ave. – the list is long. Somebody unqualified got the contracts to work on our arteries, leaving a mess of confusing gutters and road paint striping, mystery lanes, and unneeded esplanades. And, as always, no consideration for alternative vehicles, like bikes. Speaking of which, several called out the rise of dangers in driving due to e-bikes. Teenagers in town are getting the blame for it; many of them said the problem is kids who are too young, like 12, on the roads on motorized two-wheelers. 

Local Property Taxes. The components that bothered people the most are: 1) The residential re-assessment. One person said a real estate broker listed their house for far more than market value, and that inflated number became the assessed amount. In other words, he felt that assessors derived his home’s figure from the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) online instead of town staff being in the field evaluating everyone’s homes in person. 2) Commercial: There is a claim, and not from a few people, that commercial property owners negotiate a lower mill rate instead of the publicly listed one. There is a feeling of inequity: why do they [businesses] get closed-door meetings with Town Hall but I don’t? 3) Sewer: There is a suspicion that the town is underwriting the future infrastructure for buildings we don’t want. All town residents experienced the sticker shock of increased sewer taxes, but haven’t heard a justification why, except generic, uncompelling reasons, i.e., “Much of our sewer system is at the end of its useful life.”  One taxpayer sarcastically commented that there are employees who are at the end of their useful life. Ouch. 

We know a lot about everything. Individually, the intellectual capital that each of us have on a particular issue is beyond comparison. Half a dozen people have detailed knowledge of any topic you can imagine related to Fairfield. I talked to several dozen wicked smart finance professionals and got several dozen perspectives on what was happening and going to happen to Fairfield, CT and USA. Or, one person might know everything about our drinking water, or why we have the highest utility rates in the country, or the dynamics of special ed vs. general ed in our budget, or 2-hour parking signs vs. meters, or anything else – no matter how granular it may be. Collectively, we are at a loss, because there are so many complex issues and no unified hub, but we know it all. Talking to you is like getting a PhD in Fairfield.

You are aware of the rise of misinformation. You don’t trust what you are served, even from your preferred news sources. CBS, Fox, ABC – even NPR – answer to higher powers. You feel the Connecticut media is tilted, or worse. You recognize that even the feeds on your phone from Google, Apple, or Facebook dispense the information they want you to have in the manner they want to present it. The flood of information has created a BS meter in many people’s heads, where if something is not from your trusted sources, there’s a part of you that rightfully distrusts it as misinformation. Since stopping the buildings is on everybody’s lips, the example that comes up repeatedly is Housing. The word is seen as the velvet glove around the iron fist of construction. To paraphrase you, Developers act like they’re pursuing an altruistic goal with apartment buildings, but the bottom line is their pursuit of money. We all need a place to live, but a gazillion rental apartments is not the answer. Here is one NYC commuter who was on the train platform before the chickens: I have worked my tail off my whole life. I am a faithful spouse and devoted parent with a nice home for my children. I resent being made to feel guilty or calling me NIMBY because home prices are through the roof. Besides, these buildings just keep people trapped in the cycle of renting, instead of owning and building equity. The only ones who make out are the developers. 

Other Topics

Education, the environment, or affordable homes did not make the Top 3 of your most-pressing concerns. 

Education. By default, our children’s education is the number one priority for parents in Fairfield. It’s a major reason many move here; it’s half our town budget. However, and maybe because it is a current event and not an evergreen topic, the cryptic alphanumeric phrase 830-g came out of people’s mouths a whole lot more than Education. Perhaps it did not come up much because there’s a feeling that it’s not broken. There’s always room for improvement, but the sentiment is that we are doing a great job with our K-12 education system (but get those college kids off the beach!). 

Safety in the schools. Sandy Hook will always be fresh and deeply relevant to us. We do all we can and share the fear of parents who spoke of the horrible thoughts in the back of their minds as their children go off to school.

POTUS. I talked at length with two out-of-the-closet Trumpsters. Shame on myself, for I was predisposed to think they were filled with acrimony and fanning the flames of division in this country, but they weren’t. Both talked of the need for compassion for our fellow man and wistfully talked about their childhoods here. They genuinely want to bring us together again somehow. 

Keep it local. There was little interest in talking about the actions from Washington, other countries/global affairs, the economy, or any topics beyond our town lines. You don’t want to fix America; you want to save Fairfield. 

*Why I was out there

I asked you to sign the petition to add me to the 2/3/26 special election ballot to serve as your First Selectman. And you did! Almost 230 of you – far above the 179 required. Your reasons were as individual as you are. Many people practically grabbed the pen out of my hands as soon as they heard I was an independent candidate with a reform platform. Others wanted to learn what I and The Voice were about, while a significant chunk of you declined to sign due to loyalty to the Republican or Democrat parties and their candidates. Thank you from your fellow town residents for taking the time to speak; that means the most in the long run. The public has spoken and delivered its marching orders. Now, you want action.