Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
No means no
Wakefield has now joined the growing ranks of Massachusetts cities and towns that have decided to “just say no” to the state meddling in local zoning. Town Meeting voters outright refused to comply with the state’s mandate forcing MBTA communities to allow multifamily housing as of right near public transportation. Last week, Town meeting rejected […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: citizens petition, development, housing, law, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MBTA, MBTA Communities Act, multifamily, News, Opinion, Planning Board, Politics, public hearings, public transit, residents, state, town, Town Meeting, transit, voters, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, zoning
Hate globally, act locally
I’ve never been so glad that I got to experience Wakefield as a normal, working-class town, before the Home of the Warriors turned into the home of the social justice warriors. Wakefield’s official slogan used to be “the most enterprising community north of Boston.” (Try to imagine a time when capitalism was considered a good […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 12 Comments
Tags: Amherst, anti-Semitism, Cambridge, Climate Leader Communities, colonizers, Concord, Gaza. Middle East, Hamas, housing, immigrants, Israel, Mark Sardella, October 7, Opinion, Palestine, petition, Pledge of Allegiance, Politics, social justice, Specialized Energy Code, terrorism, Town Council, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield MA, Wally Moccia, war, Warriors
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
Zoned out
While you’ve been busy arguing over whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden is the worse tyrant, our local mandarins have been busy pushing a new zoning bylaw that will alter the complexion of the town. If they can get it through the spring Annual Town Meeting, it will be an even bigger boondoggle than the […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: activists, Chapter 40A, Climate Change, developers, district, Donald Trump, EOHLC, housing, Humor, Joe Biden, mandate, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts General Laws, MBTA, multifamily, Opinion, Planning Board, Politics, public hearings, Section 3A, Specialized Energy Code, three-story, Town Meeting, triple decker, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning
Human rights or resources?
The Wakefield Human Rights Commission (WHRC) has decided how it will respond to future human rights atrocities such as the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians, including infants and children. It will provide “resources.” This decision stemmed from questions raised in The Wakefield Daily Item regarding the absence of a […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: atrocities, Chabad of the North Shore, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas attacks, Holocaust, human rights, Israel, Jessica Sutich, Jewish, Jews, Mark Sardella, Menorah Lighting, New Zealand, Oct. 7, Open Meeting Law, Opinion, Palestine, Palestinians, Politics, resources, Sherri Oken, terrorist attack, Vigil for Peace & Solidarity, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield Town Council, WHRC
Do the right thing
Last Thursday’s public menorah lighting ceremony drew the largest crowd ever for this annual public celebration on the Common to mark the start of Chanukah. It was a heartening response in the wake of the horrific Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis by the terrorist group Hamas. Most of the victims were civilians […]
Filed under: History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: anti-Semitism, Chabad of the North Shore, Chanukah, colleges, Hamas, Hanukkah, human rights, Human Rights Commission, Israel, Jewish, Jews, lights, Mark Sardella, massacre, menorah, New Zealand, Opinion, Palestine, rabbi, terrorism, university, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, WHRC
Sore losers
As everyone knows by now, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has overturned the Wakefield Conservation Commission’s denial of Northeast Metro Tech’s plan to build a new vocational high school The decision means that NEMT can now proceed with plans to build a much-needed new regional vocational high school on a wooded parcel across Hemlock […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: activists, appeal, ConCom, corruption, election, environment, forest, high school, injunction, Mark Sardella, MassDEP, Middlesex Superior Court, NEMT, Opinion, Politics, Save the Forest, slander, trade school, treesNortheast Metro Tech, vocational school, Voke, Wakefield Conservation Commission, Wakefield Daily Item, Wetlands Protection Act, woods, Zoom
Thickly settled
If there’s one thing the public has made abundantly clear of late, it’s that they hate overdevelopment and especially all the new multifamily housing being built around town. The discussion of overdevelopment dominates conversation in the public square, the local coffee shops and on social media. It’s a far greater concern than potholes or a […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: affordable housing, Anne Danehy, building, by right, Chapter 40A, construction, density, development, district, Edward Dombroski, EOHLC, Erin Kokinda, globalism, Greenwood, housing, Jim Hogan, Jonathan Chines, Julie Smith-Galvin, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MBTA communities, Michael McLane, multi-family, Opinion, over-development, overdevelopment, Politics, population, residential, units, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, West Side, zoning
Mark Sardella 