Running down the downtown
“Wakefield has such a pretty downtown,” my friend in the passenger seat said as we drove past The Rockery on the right, with its rows of bright red and white tulips leading up to the Hiker Statue. It was a few weeks ago and the fountain hadn’t been turned on yet.
“That’s not what our local Facebook philosophers say,” I remarked. “They call downtown Wakefield ‘a ghost town.’”
We continued down Main Street, dodging tumbleweeds, looking for a parking space. We didn’t find one.
“Wakefield: a ghost town with a parking problem,” I thought to myself, combining two of the favorite cudgels used by locals fond of bashing the downtown, oblivious to the irony.
Continue reading ‘Running down the downtown’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Albion Cultural Exchancge, business development, business district, commercial, downtown, economic revitalization, economy, ghost town, Lake Quannapowitt, Main Street, MAPC, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, merchants, parking, real estate, restaurants, retail, stores, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Main Streets
By MARK SARDELLA
You needn’t be a Chekhov scholar to enjoy Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” currently on stage at Quannapowitt Playhouse in Reading. Durang’s comedy may have been inspired by Chekhov, but it is 180 degrees from the dark, despairing mood that permeates Chekhov’s plays.
In fact, it’s hilarious.
Wakefield native and second generation QP-er Nancy Curran Willis directs and once again her casting is pitch perfect and she brings the best out in every performer.
Continue reading ‘Quannapowitt Players present hilarious ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’’
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Tags: Anton Chekhov, Ashley Skeffinton, Barbara Douglass, Christopher Durang, comedy, Dayle Ballentine, Kendall Hodder, Margaret McCarty, Mark Sardella, Nancy Curran Willis, Quannapowitt Players, theater, Tim McShea, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
By MARK SARDELLA
Bank robbery isn’t as easy as it looks, especially when things don’t go as planned. That’s the lesson that two brothers learn early on in John Kolvenbach’s comedy The Bank Job, currently at Gloucester Stage.
Fourteen million dollars is a nice haul, but it won’t do you much good if your escape plans hit a brick wall – literally – and you find yourselves trapped in the bank’s executive washroom with the police closing in.
Continue reading ‘‘Bank Job’ pays off with laughs at GSC’
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Tags: actors, Bank Job, bank robbery, cast, comedy, Gloucester Stage, John Kolvenbach, Johnny Lee Davenport, Mark Sardella, Nael Nacer, Paul Melendy, play, production, review, Robert Walsh., Shuyi Jai, stage, theater, Wakefield Daily Item
Zoned out
I know some people don’t like me to write about marijuana, but the subject has been in the local news a lot lately and it’s kind of my job.
So this constitutes a trigger warning for those delicate flowers of the Cannabis Community whose heads tend to explode when I write about pot. (Rest assured if I were writing pro-pot pieces they wouldn’t be accusing me of monomania. They’d be nominating me for a Pulitzer Prize.)
Last November, Massachusetts voters approved ballot Question 4, succumbing to a multimillion-dollar campaign funded by national pot industry interests. Just about everyone outside of the marijuana industry now recognizes that the law approved under Question 4 is at best a confusing muddle and at worst highly flawed.
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, business, cities, drugs, election, hemp, herb, Humor, legislature, maijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Politics, pot, prohibition, Pulitzer Prize, Question 4, referendum, Town Meeiting, towns, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed, zoning
Long before it became part of my job, I would attend practically every Town Meeting. It wasn’t out of any sense of civic duty. I’ve always found Town Meeting to be great entertainment. That has led some to suggest that I seek professional help.
Last week’s two-part episode did not disappoint. If you’re one of the 18,000 or so voters who missed it, there’s always next November. Mark your calendars.
Continue reading ‘Fear and loathing at Town Meeting’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: budgets, bylaws prohibition, Cannabis Community sea turtles, Chamber of Commerce, Christine DeFelice, Galvin Middle School, herb, local government, Marianne Cohen, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, plastic bags, pot, Rada Boutique, schools, Town Meeting, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walton School, weed, William Carroll
By MARK SARDELLA
Wakefield Town Meeting last night overwhelmingly approved three articles intended to ban any recreational marijuana business from operating in the town of Wakefield. The measures included amendments to both the Zoning and General bylaws prohibiting recreational pot businesses in town as well as a moratorium calling for a moratorium on any pot businesses until July 1, 2018.
Town Counsel Thomas Mullen said that after Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question legalizing recreational marijuana last November, he was asked by the Board of Selectmen to come up with as surefire a way as possible of assuring that no recreational pot business could open in town. The three seemingly overlapping Town Meeting articles, he said, offered the town the best protection against commercial recreational marijuana businesses.
After Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio made the motion on Article 25 (the zoning amendment) he asked Police Chief Rick Smith to speak on the issue.
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Tags: Anthony Longo, Bill Carroll, business, bylaws, Doug Butler, drugs, edibles, James Scott, Jim Scott, law, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, moratorium, News, Police Chief Rick Smith, pot, retail, Rown Counsel Thomas Mullen, Steve Maio, THC, Town Meeting, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed, zoning
Municipal self-loathing
Most people think Wakefield is a pretty nice town. We have two lakes, a beautiful Common and a walkable downtown area with some great restaurants. We have easy access to public transportation and are near two major highways. Oh, and we are one of the few places outside of big cities that still has a daily, family-owned newspaper.
And, of course, there’s Fred’s Franks.
What’s not to like?
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Tags: business, city, Community, development, downtown, Facebook, Fred's Franks, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Politics, roads, Route 128, Route 93, taxes, town, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Wakefield 150
Not very many people realize it yet, but 2018 is shaping up as a pretty significant year around here.
If the first thought that popped into your head was that retail sales of weed will be legal in Massachusetts starting in July 2018, it might be time to put down the bong and pick up the job listings.
No, I’m talking about something even more important than that, if you can believe it. It’s also something more local.
The year 2018 marks our 150th birthday as the Town of Wakefield. It’s because of what happened nearly a century and a half ago in 1868 that the address on your checks reads “Wakefield” and not “South Reading.”
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Tags: 150, 1868, 2018, anniversary, Bob McLaughlin, celebration, Cyrus Wakefield, Fourth of July, History, Independence Day, Jeff Wakefield, July 4th, marijuana, Massachusetts, rattan, Reading, South Reading, town hall, Wakefield MA
Comedy fundraiser Sunday, April 9 at Giggles
By MARK SARDELLA
When last we heard from Salem Street resident Danielle Resha, she had won a trip to Superbowl 51 by doing the most pull-ups in 95 seconds in the Live ULTRA Pull-up Challenge sponsored by Michelob ULTRA.
Well, she’s back from Houston, and witnessing Tom Brady and the Patriots pull out an unbelievable come-from-behind Super Bowl victory has inspired her to give something back. She will be participating in Tom Brady’s Best Buddies Challenge charity bike ride in June.
“I’m going to do a 100-mile bike ride from Boston to Cape Cod on June 3 to support Best Buddies. She hopes to raise 3,000 for the charity.
Continue reading ‘Local woman to bike for Best Buddies’
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Tags: Best Buddies, Best Buddies Challenge, bikw bicycle, Boston Militia, charity, Christine Hurley, comedy, football, Giggles, intellectual disabilities, Lenny Clarke, Mark Sardella, new england patriots, pizza, Tom Brady, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Bag the ban
It was only a matter of time.
A small group of our fellow citizens has decided that they know better than the rest of us and want to dictate how we can carry our shopping purchases out of a store. Ten citizens have signed a petition to place an article on the May 1 Annual Town Meeting to prohibit the use of so called “thin film” plastic checkout bags in Wakefield.
Who could have imagined twenty years ago – or even a decade ago – that purchasing marijuana at a store in Wakefield would be viewed as perfectly normal, but using a plastic bag to carry a half-gallon of milk out of a store would make you a lawbreaker?
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Nature & Wildlife, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: bags, ban, business, bylaw, capitalism, choice, Farmland, free market, lightbulbs, litter, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, oceans, petition, plastic bags, recycling, single-use, stores, sustainability, thin-film shoppomh bags, Thomas Edison, Town Meeting, trash, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, wildlife
Mark Sardella 