Remembering Warren Blunt: City Councilman, City Official, Community Activist, Friend

I heard the voice a lot. Maybe once every other week or so. Maybe more.

Anyway, the voice would always say. “Hey, Rob.” I’d look over, walk up to the car and quickly would get engaged in a freewheeling conservation with the driver, who was the owner of the voice.

The voice belonged to Warren Blunt whose funeral is being held Saturday at Mount Aery Baptist Church on Frank Street.

Warren died last Friday at the far too young age of 63. However, his death cannot erase what a nice man he was and frankly I loved getting into conservations with him. We talked a lot about Bridgeport politics and as a former City Councilman and veteran city health official Mr. Blunt knew what he was talking about. Through the years we discussed far more than Park City politics, thankfully.

I found out about Warren’s death in one of the worst ways possible: I saw his picture on the front page of the newspaper and then read the headline. The Connecticut Post has received a great deal of harsh criticism in this space, but certainly acted in a fine way by making Warren Blunt’s passing a headline news story. (We would be remiss, though, if we did not mention the fact that in the story the Post identified Warren’s district as the 30th. It wasn’t: Warren served the 135th.)

The news was shocking because it wasn’t too long since I had seen Warren and laughed with him. That was one of the great things about Warren. You would always be laughing.

One of my favorite recollections about Warren was when we were talking about the New Movement Party. The New Movement Party was a coalition of ant-Bill Finch and anti-Joe Ganim forces that came together during the mayoral election of 2015. I asked Blunt about the chances the New Movement Party as they were starting to get some decent press coverage. Not missing a beat Warren quipped, “Why don’t they just call themselves the No Movement Party.” I laughed and a few days later the New Movement Party was stomped out of existence.

Warren Blunt was much more than a Bridgeport politician, though. He was a sports junkie, an avid reader, a man of faith and a definite force in his community.

Perhaps he is best known for championing the youth curfew which was enacted by the City Council a few years ago and is still on the books today. Warren would explain to anyone willing to listen that the point of the curfew was not to curtail the civil liberties of Bridgeport’s young people, but rather to protect them from the city streets, which unfortunately at times can be pretty violent.

Warren’s stance on that issue wasn’t surprising, it was typical Warren. Bridgeport is my adopted home town and I love it here, despite all of its warts. So did Warren. Bridgeport is still a splendid city, but it will shine a little less brightly without our friend. Warren Blunt will be missed.