Democrat and former BET member Sean Goldbrick calls for multi-family housing project on Riverside's Glen Avon Drive

goldbrick residence, riverside, ct

“Housing is a human right, and we have a moral obligation to provide it,” he says while defending the proposed Transportation Oriented Development bill, HB 5429.

That bill would allow high-density housing to be developed around train stations with the goals of increasing supply overall and adding affordable units. The bill specifies 10% affordable units. It would allow, as of right, development of 15 residential units per acre, in a 1/2-mile radius of a train station. Goldbrick, who has been glowingly described as “the Elizabeth Warren of Greenwich Democrats” is enthused by the prospect of ending single-family zoning in wealthy enclaves like Riverside.

“My own property on Glen Avon is less than a 1/4 mile from the train, so it’s perfect”, Goldbrick told FWIW. “And though it comprises just a third of an acre, that’s still enough to build five units of housing for recent Harvard graduates or refugees from communist countries like Venezuela. And if you combine all the land on Glen Avon, Club Road, and Miltiades, there’s space for hundreds of apartments — hundreds!

‘I’ve spoken to my neighbors about this”, he continued, “ but they’re cruel — heartless, in fact, and won’t agree to simply turn our property over to Joe Pecora for a new, humane use of what we’ve been so selfishly hoarding. So the only answer is for the state to act, and seize our land using the People’s sovereign power of eminent domain.

“And remember”, he urged, with a fierce look on his face and a tear in his eye, “remember, the next time a Nor’easter is blowing freezing winds and biting snow through our neighborhoods, cast an eye on the homeless, shivering yard workers and Women’s Studies grads huddling behind your pool house, and recall that false claim that housing is nothing but a ‘want’. Remember the cruelty!”