Community Corner

Norwalk 2.0's Downtown Vision: A Documentary

Next up from Norwalk 2.0: A video documentary to tell the story of how Norwalk's historic downtown has evolved, as well as where Norwalk 2.0 would like to see it go.

This past summer Norwalk 2.0 worked on documenting the history of Wall Street and downtown Norwalk.

Now, Norwalk 2.0 is developing a video documentary to tell the story of how Norwalk’s historic downtown has evolved, as well as where Norwalk 2.0 would like to see it go.

Following the screening of the SONO centric, “Survival of a Small City” Norwalk 2.0  reported that a healthy discussion took place about what if any impact the focus on SONO had on the survival of Norwalk Center.

According to Norwalk 2.0, the project aims to to explore the themes of creative place making and how opportunity to make something happen can start right here, right now.

Norwalk 2.0’s creative placemaking project FACES of Norwalk is designed to ignite activity in downtown Norwalk and bring back a sense of community and pride in the neighborhood.

Wall Street, which connects the East and West parts of Norwalk with a bridge over the NorwalkRiver had been a vital part of Norwalk's growth up until the 1955 flood, and according to the release from Norwalk 2.0, their ongoing project aims to capture the cultural significance of the history since that point and has created programs and projects that have brought attention to the area.

"We like to tap into new tools and technology to tell Norwalk’s story and of course our take on it," said Jackie Lightfield, co-founder of Norwalk 2.0 in the release. "We had a great response to our Norwalk Listens Survey video, and knew we were on the right track with this form of story telling.”

"Community building means being accessible" said co-founder Maribeth Becker, in the release. "This video is a longer format for us to bring all of the great stories about downtown Norwalk to life."

Norwalk 2.0 tapped The Preferred Group, a media firm founded by recent Mayoral candidate Vinny Mangiacopra to produce the documentary.

“There is no question that Wall Street has played a significant role in Norwalk’s past. This project will not only pay respect to its history, but more importantly, show a vision of how the Wall Street corridor can be a thriving place for innovation in the future,” said Mangiacopra in the release. “We’re excited to collaborate with Norwalk 2.0 on bringing this to life.”

Norwalk 2.0 thanks Dorothy Mobilia, Peter Bondi, Rick McQuaid, Norwalk Public Library, Norwalk Historical Society, Norwalk Preservation Trust and the Redevelopment Agency for helping Norwalk 2.0 with their endeavor.

Norwalk 2.0 is a community and economic development organization dedicated to bringing people back to heart of Norwalk’s downtown. Linking the past with the future, the FACES ofNorwalk project received funding support from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts which also receives support from the NationalEndowment for the Arts, a federal agency (DECD Office of the Arts) as part of the Arts Catalyze Placemaking (ACP3) Arts Leadership Implementation grant program.

Norwalk 2.0 is part of a growing national movement that leverages technology to increase social engagement and participation in communities. Gov 2.0, Code for America and Startup America all focus on delivering tech tools to local organizations and communities to enable better and more efficient ways of making communities better.

Becker and Lightfield founded Norwalk 2.0 in the summer of 2010 to address needs in Norwalkafter extensive work as civic leaders.

Norwalk 2.0’s mission is to engage residents, businesses and community organizations to work together and create an authentic, creative, economically diverse and sustainable future.

For more information visit the Norwalk 2.0 website. 



Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here