Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
Social (Media) Security
Is there a “generation gap” in Wakefield? That’s what I’m hearing, especially on Facebook where all the cool kids hang out. The term itself sounds so last century. It used to be applied to the cultural differences between the ‘60s kids and their parents. But now, word on the street is that there are issues […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: cheese, CVS, DeSoto, Dollar Store, Facebook, Family Dollar, generation gap, Hazelwood Cottage, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, media, Mike's Gym, newspapers, Pleasure Island, social media, social security, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Fences can be built and they can be torn down. They can keep people out, or they can keep them in. In August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Fences,” currently at the Gloucester Stage Company, Troy (played by Daver Morrison) is a former Negro League baseball star, gifted with the same power to hit the […]
Filed under: Art, Opinion, Reviews, theater | Leave a Comment
Tags: August Wilson, baseball, Bezawit Strong, Daver Morrison, Eric Engel, Fences, Gloucester Stage, Gregory Marlow, Jacqui Parker, Jared Michael Brown, Jermel Nakia, Mark Sardella, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item, Warren Jackson
Summer’s Big Chill
Summer is typically known as a slow period for news. The theory is that people are on vacation and therefore less likely to make news or to be paying attention when other people make news, so what’s the point of making news? Politicians know this. That’s why, despite a Sept. 9 primary and a Nov. […]
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Tags: ALS, Facebook, Galvin Middle School, Ice Bucket Challenge, Mark Sardella, Market Basket, News, Politics, summer, supermarket, Wakefield Daily Item
Amy Herzog’s funny, moving take on the human condition Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles, currently at the Gloucester Stage Company, deals with some deep matters, including life, death, aging, coming home and moving on. But far from weighing it down, these universal themes emerge as organically as the fruit of a community garden in Herzog’s Obie […]
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Tags: 4000 Miles, Amy Herzog, bicycle, drama, Eric Engel, Gloucester Stage Company, Karl Marx, Manhattan, Mark Sardella, Nancy E. Carroll, play, Samantha Ma, Sarah Oakes Muirhead, theater, theatre, Tom Rash
School’s Out Forever
Galvin demolition conjures ghosts of schools past Watching the big yellow CAT’s giant claw rip through the old Galvin Middle School last week, one couldn’t help but wonder – if those walls could talk, what would they say? (Besides “Get that damn machine away from me!”) They don’t build them like they used to. The […]
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Tags: Baby Boom, Boston Red Sox, Cyrus Wakefield, demolition, Galvin Middle School, General John R. Galvin, Greenwood School, Junior High School, Mark Sardella, schools, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
A Fistful of Dollar Stores
Economic revitalization of downtown areas is usually aimed at sprucing up what’s already here through things like improved, uniform signage and dressing up storefronts as well as attracting the kinds of new businesses that reflect the quaint, warm and homey small town feel that we either remember from our childhoods or have seen on postcards […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: 5 and 10, Dollar Store, Dollar Tree Store, downtown, F.W. Woolworth, Family Dollar, Five and Dime, Five and Ten, J.J. Newberry, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, retail business, stores, W.T. Grant, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Like other secular national holidays, Independence Day brings its share of reminders of the “true meaning” of the holiday. Enjoy your three-day weekend, we’re told, but take a moment to think about why we observe the day. This seems especially appropriate on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, when we pay tribute to those who fought […]
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Tags: celebration, Fourth of July, Independence Day, John Adams, July 4th, Mark Sardella, Parade, Samuel Adams, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Immovable Objects
For the first time in living memory peddlers in Wakefield, MA are being asked to abide by the town’s regulations. But from the reaction, you’d think that instead of being asked to move 100 feet every two hours they were being forced to run the gauntlet. Contrary to popular belief, local regulations have always indicated […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
Tags: Board of Appeals, Board of Selectmen, business, hawkers, hot dog, ice cream, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, peddlers, slush, transient vendors, vendor, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning
No Parking: Pot Zone
Over 900 Wakefield voters showed up at Monday’s opening Annual Town Meeting session to vote on a $3 million parking garage. Thursday night’s continued session opened with Article 3, the $79 million FY 2015 town budget. Math has never been my strong suit, so my fitness to be a Town Meeting teller would probably be […]
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Tags: Assisted Living, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, medical marijuana, parking garage, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Information Pleas
Call it the calm before the storm. The fiery debate that raged in Wakefield, MA over the downtown parking garage issue up to the April 1 special election has of late been reduced to glowing embers. But it is beginning to heat up again in anticipation of the May 5 Annual Town Meeting. The hot […]
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Tags: Assisted Living, election, free press, Galvin Middle School, information, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, parking garage, Town Meeting, vote, voter apathy, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, William Carroll
Mark Sardella 