Taxation without occupation
First, they came for your plastic bags. Now, they’re back for your property rights.
Article 26 on the April 29 Annual Town Meeting warrant proposes a new bylaw that would pertain to vacant storefronts. Under the proposed bylaw, property owners of first-floor storefronts that are vacant for more than 90 days would have to register with the Building Department. The property owner would then have four choices: 1) Fill the vacancy; 2) allow public art to be displayed in the space; 3) pay a $100 quarterly fee to the town; or 4) request a waiver from the Town Council.
Having injected itself into the retail marketplace with the plastic bag ban, town government has now set its sights on the commercial real estate market.
Like the plastic bag ban, this new measure has a “feel-good” component — unless you happen to be a commercial landlord being told what to do with a property that you own and pay taxes on. Then, not so much.
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Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Americans for the Arts, Art, building, business, bylaw, commercial property, fee, Humor, landlord, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Opinion, plastic bags, private property, profit, property tax, public art, real estate, rent, retail, store, storefront, taxes, Town Council, Town Meeting, vacancy, Wakefield Cultural Council, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Welcome to Wokefield
I know that you’re used to seeing this column on Thursday, so you may be wondering why you’re reading this on a Monday. The reason is, I have an important announcement concerning a personal new beginning. I thought it only appropriate that I announce it at the start of, not just a new week, but a new month.
The news is that at long last I have seen the light. I have renounced my past ways. I see now the injustices that my own privilege has served to perpetuate. I have been enlightened to the inherent value of diversity, equality and sustainability.
In short, I have joined the Woke Community.
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Tags: bike paths, Board of Selectmen, candlelight vigil, diversity, equality, farmers' market, female, gender, guns, heteronormative, landfill, male, Mark Sardella, parking, plastic bags, Reading, sculpture, solar panels, Stoneham, sustainability, The Hiker, Theo Allice Ruggles Kitson, Tonno, Town Council, trash, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Daily Item woke, Wakefield MA, Wokefield
One child, one vote
Whenever you see proposals to “expand voting rights,” or “make voting easier,” your BS detector should go off.
Since the right to vote is already guaranteed by law and voting is easier than falling off a log, I am always suspicious of efforts to “expand” or “simplify” voting. At best, these measures are thinly veiled efforts to gain an electoral advantage. At worst, they facilitate the manipulation of election results.
As proof, I offer the fact that the same people who promote these election “reforms” always oppose the simplest, zero-cost measure to prevent voter fraud: voter ID.
Two recent examples of measures to “expand” or “simplify” voting were connected to the Orwellian sounding For the People Act just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Among other things, this bill purported to “expand voting rights.”
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Tags: adolescents, brain, children, citizens, Congress, Dan Crenshaw, election, elections, For the People Act, government, Humor, illegal aliens, Mark Sardella, maturity, Opinion, plastic bags, Politics, science, Seth Moulton, Steve Sardella, teenagers, Tide Pods, veterans, voter, Voter ID, voting, Wakefield Daily Item
For those who like music spiced with a bit of history – or vice versa – last Saturday’s Polymnia Choral Society production of Franz Josef Haydn’s The Creation was a doubly rewarding experience.
The sanctuary of Wakefield’s First Parish Congregational Church was a fitting venue in which to experience Haydn’s oratorio depicting the miracle of the world’s creation. It the words of Polymnia member Eileen Worthley, “With its sublime arias, joyous choruses, energetic arpeggios, and rollicking fugues, it is altogether a jubilant work of praise to the glory of the Creator.”
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Tags: Bible, church, classical, concert, Dana Lynne Varga, Eileen Worthley, First Congregational Church, Franx Josef Haydn, instruments, John Milton, Joseph Holmes, Melrose MA, music, oratorio, Paradise Lost, Philip Lima, Polymnia Choral Society, Sylvia Berry, The Creation, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Women’s March
On the heels of the devastating news that only men applied to serve on new Public Safety Building Committee came the bombshell that no women were among the top 50 highest paid town employees.
What’s a girl to make of this during Women’s History Month?
In the real world, most people understand how the list of the 50 highest paid town employees works. Most of them are cops, followed by firefighters, Light Department employees and DPW workers. What do these jobs offer that others don’t? For one thing, they have the opportunity to pad their base salaries with lots of detail and/or overtime pay. So, if you’re willing to work your butt off and spend lots of time away from hearth and home, you can rake in a fair amount of cash.
But that still doesn’t explain why there aren’t more women on the list.
Or does it?
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Tags: boys, Carol Antonelli, COPS, employees, female, firefighters, gender, girls, Health Director, Humor, Kim Smith, male, Mark Sardella, men, misogyny, Opinion, pay, police, Politics, salary, sexism, social construct, Tax Collector, Town Clerk, town hall, Wakefield Daily Item, women
Fine for parking
It was heartening to see the Wakefield Town Council take an action recently that will benefit those who drive automobiles, because the trend across the Commonwealth and the nation in recent years has been to treat motorists as the scum of the earth.
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Tags: automobiles, bike lanes, Boston, Burrage Yale, business district, Cambridge, cars, downtown, drivers, Ed Dombroski, Green New Deal, Harvard Square, Humor, infrastructure, Jame Hartshorne, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, motorists, Opinion, parking, pedestrians, Politics, public meeting, social media, Town Council, upgrade, VHB, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Eight men out
Who couldn’t have seen this coming?
The folks who took the “man” out of selectman now want to manipulate the gender composition of other boards.
So much being gender neutral.
Recently, the Wakefield Town Council advertised for candidates to serve on the crisply-named “Public Safety Building Re-Assessment Committee.”
In mid-November, the notice was posted widely – online, on social media and in the Wakefield Daily Item — requesting applicants to serve on the newly-created committee.
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Tags: committee, Facebook, female, gender, gender neutral, Internet, ladies, male, Mark Sardella, Mehreen Butt, men, nail salons, Permanent Building Committee, PSB, Public Safety Building, Public Safety Building Re-Assessment Committee, selectmen, sex, Town Council, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, women, Zumba
Take a hike
Throughout his decades as a steady presence on the local scene, he has cultivated an air of quiet reserve. But now, one of Wakefield’s most iconic 
figures has finally broken his silence.
Some may find what he had to say shocking.
In an exclusive interview with the Wakefield Daily Item, the character known affectionately as “The Hiker” touched on a wide range of topics, from his own identity issues to “toxic masculinity” and gun rights.
We caught up with the local icon in front of The Rockery in Wakefield Square.
WAKEFIELD DAILY ITEM: What’s the one thing that you would like people to know about you?
THE HIKER: That I’m not a “Minuteman” — not that there’s anything wrong with that. Does this look like a tricorn hat to you? This is Wakefield, not Lexington or Concord. Come on people. Take a history class.
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Tags: ableism, Artichokes, bronze, climate, goat yoga, gun, History, Humor, interview, Lake Quannapowitt, male, man, marble, Mark Sardella, men, minuteman, Opinion, parody, rifle, Rockery, satire, soldier, Spanish American War, statue, The Hiker, Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, Toxic Masculinity, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Pretty Vacant
“Isn’t it a shame about all the empty storefronts downtown?”
“Which ones are empty?”
“Well, I haven’t been downtown lately. Nobody goes there anymore because there’s too much traffic and not enough parking.”
“Oh.”
There’s one myth almost as persistent as the one that Wakefield has become so overdeveloped that there’s no room for an autumn leaf to fall. It’s the fiction that Wakefield’s business district is a ghost town riddled with boarded up properties and “For Rent” signs.
Yet, somehow these contradictory canards exist side-by-side in local lore.
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Tags: Boys & Girls Club, business, economy, hippies, John Devlin, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Molise, myth, Nonnos, Piece O Pizza, Procol Harem, Sixties, social media, storefronts, stores, Tommy James & the Shondells, vacancy, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Yogi Berra
Goodbye Green Monster
By MARK SARDELLA
BOSTON – Fans of the World Champion Boston Red Sox will notice a big difference when they attend 2019 home games at the park that John Updike once called, “a lyric little bandbox.”
In preparation for the team’s home opener, crews have already begun dismantling Fenway Park‘s iconic “Green Monster,” the 37-foot high left-field wall that has stood 310 feet from home plate since the Park was built in 1912.
“Walls are immoral,” said Red Sox owner John Henry. It was Henry who last year spearheaded the name change of Yawkey Way after he determined that 20th century Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was a racist.
“Furthermore, walls don’t work,” the Red Sox owner continued. “Tens of thousands of home runs have been hit in Fenway Park. The wall did nothing to stop them.”
It was unclear what, if anything would replace the left field wall, although Henry said that a number of possibilities exist, including drones, remote video surveillance, aerial monitoring and a network of ground sensors.
“Walls are medieval technology,” Henry added.
Reached for comment at his home in Ohio, Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi said, “Wait – what?”
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Tags: Andrew Benintendi, baseball, Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Green Monster, home runs, Humor, John Henry, John Updike, left field, Mark Sardella, Politics, TomYawkey, wall, walls
Mark Sardella 