Lean and green
It’s both humbling and gratifying when one’s advice is taken to heart, even if it’s for the wrong reasons and after the horse has left the barn.
In this space last June, I wrote: “One of the Environmental Sustainability Committee’s Guiding Principles is, ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle and compost.’” I added, “They could start by reducing their number of subcommittees.”
Four months later, the ESC apparently saw the wisdom of those words. At its October meeting, the Environmental Sustainability Committee voted to disband all of its countless subcommittees.
Continue reading ‘Lean and green’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: advice, climate, compost, drill, education, electric vehicle, environmental, green business, Green Space, Humor, Mark Sardella, net-zero, Open Meeting Law, Opinion, policy, Politics, recycling, reduce, reuse, Scot McCauley, subcommittees, sustainability, Town Council, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Much of the attention at Saturday morning’s Town Meeting will be focused on Article 4, the town’s latest plan to comply with the state’s so-called MBTA Communities Act, mandating by-right multifamily zoning in all Massachusetts communities served by the MBTA.
Also sure to spark some discussion is a plan to put solar panels on the roof of the Galvin Middle School as described in Article 3.
But most residents probably don’t realize that for the second consecutive Town Meeting, a group of local citizens has signed a petition to place an anti-Israel article on the warrant.
Calling Article 8 “anti-Israel” is understating the insidiousness of this article. It is a thinly disguised anti-Semitic measure.
Continue reading ‘Fight hate; vote ‘NO’ on Article 8’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: anti-Semitism, antisemitism, Article 8, BDS, Fight Hate, Gaza. Middle East, Israel, Mark Sardella, MBTA Cmmunities Act, Oct. 7, October 7, Opinion, Palestine, Politics, solar panels, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield Massachusetts, WHRC
Idle thoughts
From the front lines of the War on Gas-powered cars
This week, the Town Council decided that Wakefield should comply with a virtually unknown, 15-year-old state regulation requiring “No Idling” signs to be displayed on school grounds.
The issue came up after Councilor Bob Vincent did one of his signature deep dives into the legal weeds. Based on what he found, the Traffic Advisory Committee was asked if Wakefield was required to erect “No Idling” signs at local schools.
The chairman of the TAC, Police Lt. Joe Anderson, sought a legal opinion from Town Counsel Tom Mullen.
“We have no known need for the signage in town,” Lt. Anderson wrote to Mullen, “nor do we have a public push to have the signage installed.”
But Mullen wrote back that Vincent was correct and the town should erect no idling signs on school grounds and cited the relevant state regulation. The law allows for penalties of $100 for a first offense and $500 for second and subsequent offenses.
As Lt. Anderson observed, there has been no public hue and cry clamoring for “No Idling” signs. Nor has the Commonwealth threatened to withhold grant funding, which lately seems to be the standard for complying with state law.
Continue reading ‘Idle thoughts’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: automobiles, bike lanes, cars, DEP, drivers, Fight Hate, fossil fuels, gasoline, Humor, idling, laws, Lt. Joseph Anderson, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MassDEP, motorists, No Idling, Opinion, parking, Politics, Robert Vincent, schools, signs, Stop signs, Thomas Mullen, Town Council, Traffic Advisory Committee, trucks, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools
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 suffer from depression and low self-esteem.
The history of human beings on planet earth is the history of exploration and conquest. It hasn’t always been pretty. But only one nation and only one explorer is ever held to account for it.
Continue reading ‘Happy Columbus Day!’
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 the work” to save the planet, literally at all costs.
Continue reading ‘Greens gone wild’
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
Never forget
Shye Klein Weinstein could be any young Zillennial. Arms covered with tattoos, his passions include hiking, rollerblading, kayaking and video games. He could be your son, grandson, nephew, brother, cousin or friend.
But the 27-year-old Toronto native has witnessed more horror in one day than anyone should see in a lifetime.
Weinstein was at the Reading Public Library on Tuesday evening to recount his story of surviving the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival in Israel and how a magical night turned into a morning of chaos, terror and death at the hands of Hamas militants.
Weinstein traveled to Israel in April of 2023 to visit relatives. But when his planned month-long vacation ended, he decided to stay. One day in September of last year, he was at his cousin’s apartment in Tel Aviv when a friend suggested that they go to this music festival in October. The Super Nova Festival was billed as a “psychedelic trans-music festival” that would attract an international audience.
Continue reading ‘Never forget’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, News, Opinion, Photography, Politics, Profiles, Wakefield | 6 Comments
Tags: anti-Semitism, bodies, bombs, Canada, Chabad of Wakefield, explosions, gunfire, Hamas, Iron Dome, Israel, Jews, machine gun, Mark Sardella, music, News, Nova Music Festival, October 7, Opinion, photography, Politics, Rabbi Sruly Brook, Reading Public Library, rockets, Shye Klein Weinstein, SuperNova, Tel Aviv, terrorism, terrorists, Toronto, Wakefield Daily Item, war, Zillennials, Zionism
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 plan warranted hiding information from the public and scheming behind closed doors.
Residents sensed early on that something was amiss. The Planning Board was not listening to the clear majority of citizens who wanted no part of the board’s supersized compliance plan and map, which went well beyond the state mandate in terms of geographic area and multifamily units allowed.
Continue reading ‘A simple plan’
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 that the recent “obnoxious heat” was spurring “lots of good climate conversations.” (Helpful reminder: when it’s hot, it’s climate change. When it’s cool, it’s just weather.)
One of the ESC’s most pressing tasks of late has been the creation of a “Climate Plan” for the town.
Continue reading ‘Decarbonization roadmap to ruin’
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 than it is today.
If we hadn’t burned enough fossil fuels to enable us to keep the lights and heat on 24/7 in hospitals and research laboratories, if we hadn’t invented the internal combustion engine, enabling us to move food and other necessities of life to where they are needed, imagine the paradise we’d be living in!
We are constantly bombarded with hysterical news that the region, country, hemisphere or planet is currently experiencing the hottest week, month, season, year or decade on record – whichever geographic area and/or time period can be manipulated to produce the direst measurements and justify the most apocalyptic warnings.
Continue reading ‘Summer climate alert!’
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.
Continue reading ‘Minority leaders’
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
Mark Sardella 