Meet Arthur
Hi, I’m Arthur Augustyn.
If you’re reading this, you want to know who I am, why I’m running for Mayor of Stamford, and whether I deserve your support.
The short answer: I’m not a politician. I’m an artist. I’m a writer who happened to serve as Stamford’s Director of Communication from 2018 to 2021. If you received the “COVID-19 Daily Newsletter” during the pandemic, that was my work. My job was more than crafting messages. It required understanding how the city functions. What’s possible, what isn’t, and how to communicate to residents during normal times and a crisis.
I’m running for mayor because my experience at the Government Center showed me something troubling. Stamford’s culture is paralyzed by fear. Not just caution, but deep negativity eroding our societal trust and bringing the gears of government to a halt. People have a fundamental distrust of people, information, and change. This is what I refer to as “anti-social nihilism.” It’s when you believe people are bad and nothing can be trusted. My campaign offers the alternative Stamford needs: The Future is Brighter!
I’m only in the United States because my parents believed the future was brighter. They were born in Poland under the communist regime. In the 1980s, they took a risky journey to Rome where a United Nations program facilitated by the Catholic Church helped resettle them to America. They arrived in Boston where my older sister and I were born. We later moved and I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts.
The way my dad tells it, the plan was never to end up in Boston but to eventually move out to California. Once me and my sister were in college, he made the move with my mom to Los Angeles. When I graduated college, I went to go live with them for 3 years, but the New England in me had taken root. I consider the east coast home and moved back to make my life here. I bounced around a few different places, but in 2019 I moved to Stamford and purchased my home downtown in 2022.
I know some residents wonder what it means that I wasn’t “born and raised” here. It’s a fair question. When you’ve spent decades in one place, newcomers feel like visitors. But Stamford is where I’ve chosen to plant my roots — something I haven’t had the opportunity to do since my parents left their home in Poland. What drew me to Stamford — and what keeps me here — is our city’s sense of community. I saw it everyday when I was sending out communications during the pandemic. My role required getting deeply familiar with the people and places providing resources in times of crisis and I saw how that community kept us together when we needed it most.
Working for the city was a positive experience, but there were signs of the coming discontent of our current moment. It went into overdrive post-pandemic. Across the country people are leaving cities and moving to communities like Stamford. This is increasing the demand for housing, which creates new problems for people who already live here — specifically increased housing costs. This leads to frustration and sometimes anger or even resentment.
My background gives me a perspective some lifelong Stamford residents might not have. I’ve seen how the challenges of an influx of new people plays out across America. When I moved out to Los Angeles, I drove across the country (twice, on the way back) and I saw countless cities and towns. Everywhere from the wealthy communities of Malibu to the middle-America towns like Des Moines, I heard the same thing: These newcomers are ruining our city and I don’t trust our government for doing it to us!
This attitude becomes a deeply negative worldview I call anti-social nihilism: People are bad. Nothing can be trusted.
I didn’t know what to do about this issue, but a few years after leaving Stamford politics I wrote for the Stamford Advocate what’s causing this negativity. In short: the reason Stamford can’t fix its problems is because this negative worldview has taken over our culture. It is a culture of fear. The city makes all of its decisions based on fear — which is why it rarely makes any decisions at all. Our government is dysfunctional. We can’t approve projects, or appoint members to boards, or pass a legal ordinance. We can’t even pass a symbolic resolution complimenting a civic servant for years of service without breaking down into petty feuds.
These ideas may have started small, but that have spread. Despair is contagious, but so it optimism.
That’s why I’m running for mayor. I’m offering an alternative to anti-social nihilism. I call it pro-social conservatism.
It’s built on two simple ideas.
First: people are our greatest resource — not our biggest problem. Every resident brings value, skills, and connections that can strengthen our community.
Second: we should conserve what makes Stamford strong. Our people’s ability to live here, the safety of our public spaces, and our sense of community through shared values. These things deserve to be defended and expanded. This works with the first idea, because we need people willing to conserve what makes Stamford strong.
My vision is different from traditional candidates. I’m focused on cultivating optimism and possibility. This is a big shift and it requires succeeding in big actions to inspire our public to believe big projects can be successful. This cultural shift hasn’t been attempted before, so there’s no conventional qualifications for it — but I’ve succeeded in uncharted territory before.
When I became Stamford’s Director of Communications, the city’s media relations were stuck in the 1990s. Nonexistent social media, press conferences where no one showed up, and messaging that reached fewer than 1 percent of residents. There was no roadmap for modernizing the system — in Stamford or anywhere in the country. I created one myself. I made a policy document for our legal department and I developed internal standards. In that first year, our audience grew exponentially month to month. That growth accelerated during the pandemic when these channels became essential.
Today, I help businesses integrate artificial intelligence — another field with no real guide on how to do that. Whether it’s in government or the private sector, I’ve learned the same lesson: when there’s no manual for solving a problem, you listen carefully, adapt constantly, and build things that work for the people you’re helping.
But really, this campaign isn’t about me. It’s about giving Stamford an optimistic framework to view our future. It’s about replacing fear with a shared belief: The Future Is Brighter!
I believe in this campaign. Even if I don’t win an election, shifting our city’s conversation is its own win. If I can convince one person Stamford’s best days are ahead of us, we’ll be better off than we were before. But I should be clear: I believe solving this problem is necessary for Stamford’s future. That’s why I’m in this to win.
You — the people of Stamford — are our greatest resources. With your support, ideas, and energy, we can lift our city out of its fear and bring it to believe in what’s possible.
Together, the future really is brighter.
Core Values
Our campaign is guided by principles that inspire us to work tirelessly for a brighter future for Stamford.
Optimistic
Stamford’s community is remarkably resilient. We can adapt and integrate changes to ensure the future is brighter!
Pro-Social
Stamford’s greatest resource is its people. Every person has value, skills, and connections to make Stamford stronger.
Conservative
Stamford is great because of what was here already. We need to conserve our people, public spaces, and independence.
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