when people ask me where I live I have to be ready for them to make a really awful face… as in, “why?… why do you live in Bridgeport?!”… and then I proceed to tell them, with a huge grin on my face, just how awesome it is.

In the past few weeks we have met so many of our neighbors, small business owners, and other locals who are overjoyed about the renaissance happening here. Everyone seems to be doing their part– everything they can possibly do to make it more interesting and more lively. I’m talking about people like Liz Squillace of Paradox Ink, who does this to electrical boxes (is that what they are?) that just weren’t interesting in any way to begin with…. and now they are fabulous… And Marcella Kovak of Bananaland who runs this awesome site, Be Our Neighbor. That just barely skims the surface of cool peepsters in our area.

We have also tried to do our part. When we moved here we knew there were things happening and cool people around, we just didn’t know where, when, how, who or what. We started to make a little list for ourselves… it included local restaurants, bars, cafes etc… slowly I would add to the list which spots had free wi-fi, outdoor seating, live music, great food etc… this way, on a Sunday afternoon, if we were itching to go somewhere for great pizza that also had outdoor seating and a high cleanliness rating (that was part of my note system too, I’m big on clean bathrooms at restaurants), I would just refer to our list and pick a spot. Soon after it became obvious that we should publish this for everyone in Bridgeport who could benefit from our database. And so, Our Bridgeport was born. It turned into the where to eat, where to drink, where to play, where to shop, what to do, database, complete with a rating system, blog, and events calendar. We would walk around to all of the local business, snap pictures and get to know the owners… add them to our site with hopes of getting more people in the know.

Did you know that there is a beach, which spans 3 miles, less than 30 seconds from our house on bike? Did you know that handfuls of movies are shot in our downtown buildings and streets? Did you know that we have amazing theater, art, and dining? Where you aware that we have an atrium that looks like this, which just underwent restoration and is now filling up with stores, cupcake shops, cafes, and restaurants? A red and white smokestack that helps me find home whenever I’m lost?! Have you any idea that Bridgeport is home to many a wine vinyard?! Just kidding that was a photo from San Francisco. gotcha.

So what are you thinking? Crime? Danger? Dirty? Yes, we have our fair share of those things like any city… we have rundown buildings, and a home that was christened with graffiti before we moved in (which we love), but I’ll take all that if it comes with a ferry in my backyard, beautiful, old buildings being revived and turned into special places, a home so big (and affordable) that I can do this in it, and antique stores that carry things like this so I can take pictures and put them on my flickr (and, I should also mention that stores are never picked over and totally affordable around here).

SO, if you live in the area or feel like swinging through, I urge you to use Our Bridgeport database as a guide for what to do, where to go and eat and drink and play and be merry! Give us your feedback. and if you don’t feel like it, then that’s cool too… just come visit and see for yourself just how wonderful it really is.

And no, I was not paid to say ANY of the above.