Archive for the ‘Humor’ Category
Happy Columbus Day!
This may shock some of you, but within living memory the discovery of America was regarded as a good thing. Now, instead of learning about an adventurous explorer who discovered a whole New World, school children are taught that they live on stolen land and are descended from genocidal colonizers. And we wonder why kids […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: America, Christopher Columbus, colonizers, Columbus Day, education, exploration, explorer, First Peoples, Franklin D. Roosevelt, History, holiday, human sacrifice, Humor, Indians, Indigenous peoples, Italian-Americans, land acknowledgement, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, New World, North America, Opinion, Politics, Samuel Eliot Morison, schools, slavery, tribes, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, war
Greens gone wild
Things got a little hot for representatives of Wakefield’s Environmental Sustainability Committee at last week’s Town Council meeting. But for once, they couldn’t blame climate change. The leading ladies of the ESC must have been a bit dumbfounded by the criticism leveled at them. After all, they’re the good guys (or gals) who are “doing […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Nature & Wildlife, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 10 Comments
Tags: climate, Climate Change, Climate Leader Communities, conservation, cost, Edward Dombroski, energy, environment, Environmental Sustainability Committee, environmentalism, ESC, Global Warming, Humor, Julie Smith-Galvin, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Melissa Eusden, Michael McLane, mission statement, Opinion, planet, policy, Politics, recycling, Specialized Building Code, Tiana Veldwisch, Town Council, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
A simple plan
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, the old saying goes. And willful ignorance of the law combined with arrogance is inexcusable. Exhibit A: the recent ruling by the Attorney General’s Office that the Wakefield Planning Board violated the Open Meeting Law. The Planners convinced themselves that the superiority of their MBTA Multifamily Zoning compliance […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: activists, agenda, Attorney General, board, Climate Change, committee, commuter rail, housing, Humor, James Hogan, magical thinking, Mark Sardella, Masschusetts, Matthew Lowry, MBTA, MGL Chapter 40A, multifamily housing, open government, Open Meeting Law, Opinion, Politics, public transit, public transportation, secret, Theo Noell, Town Meeting, train, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Planning Board, walkable communities, zoning
Decarbonization roadmap to ruin
My new favorite town board is the Environmental Sustainability Committee and its countless offshoots. The ladies have been busy this summer, meeting 10 times in the months of June and July alone! Such a frenzied pace befits a group tasked with saving the planet. As the chairwoman called a recent meeting to order, she hoped […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: automobiles, bicycle, bike lanes, block party, climate, Climate Change, Climate Leaders, decarbonization, electric vehicles, environment, Environmental Sustainability Committee, EV, fossil fuels, Global Warming, heat, heat pump, housing crisis, Humor, lawn, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MIT, Opinion, Politics, school bus, schools, solar energy, Specialized Energy Code, summer, SUVs, taxpayers, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weather, Wentworth, zero emissions zone
Summer climate alert!
As we sweat our way through yet another “hottest summer on record,” it is important to remember one thing: it’s all our fault. If we hadn’t defiled Mother Earth with our damnable human penchant for invention, technology and civilization, the planet would have remained a Garden of Eden with a temperature that’s 1.5 degrees cooler […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Nature & Wildlife, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
Tags: 1816, animals, birds, civilization, climate, Climate Change, crops, drought, earth, Eden, electricity, environment, famine, fossil fuels, frost, gas, gasoline, Global Warming, heat, hospitals, Humor, ice, internal combustion engine., invention, Keith Heidorn, Labor Day, lights, Mark Sardella, nature, New England, oil, Opinion, Paradise, planet, Politics, rain, Red Sox, seasons, sheep, snow, summer, sustainability, technology, temperature, Wakefield Daily Item, weather, wind, winter
Minority leaders
The vast majority of people use cars to get around. Only a tiny minority ride bicycles. So naturally, Wakefield is in the process of taking nine feet of driving lane away from motorists in order to create a separate lane for bicycles on North Avenue.
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Community, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: 18-wheelers, Art, automobiles, ballot question, bicycle lanes, bike lane, cars, climate, Climate Leader Communities, cyclists, ecology, environment, golf, Humor, majority, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MBTA, museum, Opinion, pickup, Politics, roads, Stonehenge, sustainability, SUV, truck, two-wheeler, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Warrior
Green gurus
There is a group in Wakefield that wants very much to tell you how to live your life. And if you run a business, they’ve got plenty of ideas they’d like to “share” with you on that as well. No, I’m not talking about the Opera Club of Wakefield. I speak, of course, of the […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: business, Climate Change, Climate Leader Communities, commercial, compost, developers, education, electric vehicles, Environmental Sustainability Committee, ESC, EV chargers, EVs, fossil fuels, Gobal Warming, green, Humor, kechup, landlords, Mark Sardella, natural gas, Opera Club of Wakefield, Opinion, planet, recycling, residential, social equity, sustainable, taxpayers, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, waste reduction
Fire engine green
In her second to last Town Council meeting before she rides her bike into the sunset, Julie Smith-Galvin has cemented her legacy. She may have also sealed the town’s fiscal fate for decades to come. And not in a good way. By pushing the Wakefield Town Council to literally buy into the latest radical climate […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: budget, Climate Change, climate denier, Climate Leader Communities, decarbonization, diesel, Edward Dombroski, electric vehicles, environment, existential issue, finances, fire engine, fossil fuels, green, Humor, Julie Smith-Galvin, Mark Sardella, Michael McLane, net-zero, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Town Council
Walking the walk
They don’t even try to hide it anymore. The anti-car sentiment couldn’t be any more glaring from those who believe that fossil fuels are destroying the planet rather than the empirical truth: that fossil fuels have done more to improve the quality of life on earth than just about anything. Examples of this disdain for […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: autombiles, bicycle, bike, bus, cars, Climate Change, drivers, Edward Dombroski, election, EOHLC, fossil fuels, Galvin Middle School, Greenwood, housing, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Master Plan, MBTA, Mehreen Butt, multifamily, Opinion, parking, pedestrian, planet earth, Politics, polling place, primary, schools, Stephen P. Maio, teachers, Town Council, train, transit, transportation, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, walk, walkable, zoning
Designing density
We haven’t seen this level of hubris in an elected board since the Wakefield School Committee got rid of the Warrior logo even as a solid majority of residents voted in favor of keeping it. Now, the Wakefield Planning Board is doing its best to ignore the huge public outcry against its plus sized MBTA […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: buildings, elections, houses, Humor, legislature, mandate, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MBTA, Multifamily district, Opinion, Planning Board, Politics, public opinion, School Committee, Town Meeting, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrion, Warrior logo, zoning, Zoning Board
Mark Sardella 