Debatable questions
The recent candidates debates at WCAT once again proved to be a valuable tool in informing the voters about the candidates and issues in advance of the April 26 Town Election. I was happy once again to have had the privilege of serving on the press panel that posed questions, in two separate debates, to those running for the Board of Selectmen and Town Clerk.
I know how much hard work goes into putting televised debates on local cable. I produced and directed dozens of televised debates in the 1980s and early 1990s when the cable studio was on Water Street. It’s a time-consuming, labor-intensive and often thankless job for those involved in providing this invaluable public service, most of whom aren’t getting paid.
All those involved – the candidates, moderator Bill Carroll, producer David Watts, the WCAT staff and crew – pulled off the latest debates without a hitch. Everyone did themselves proud.
Well, almost everyone.
Continue reading ‘Debatable questions’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Television, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Ann McGonigle Santos, Board of Selectmen, Bronwyn Della-Volpe, cable, candidates, Dan Benjamin, David Watts Jr., debate, election, Mark Sardella, Peter May, Phyllis Hull, Politics, Television, Tony Longo, Town Clerk, TV, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, WCAT, William Carroll
by MARK SARDELLA
For nearly two hours, Anthony Amore entertained the packed audience at The Savings Bank Theater with tales of art theft and the sometimes colorful but often inept characters that perpetrate such crimes. Amore was the opening speaker in the 2016 Sweetser Lecture Series in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
As head of security and chief investigator at the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum in Boston since 2005, one of his primary tasks is handling the ongoing investigation of the infamous 1990 heist in which 13 priceless works of art were stolen from the museum.
Continue reading ‘Art crime expert Anthony Amore entertains Sweetser audience’
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Reviews, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Anthony Amore, Art, art crime, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, paintings, Rembrandt, Stealing Rembrandts, Sweetser Lecture Series, The Art of the Con, The Savings Bank Theater, Vermeer, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Worcester Art Museum
Thanks to ‘Wakefield Main Streets’ program
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — You’ve seen the flower barrels currently along Main Street in the downtown filled with colorful plantings from spring through summer. Starting in May, look for some new additions to that downtown beautification effort.
The Wakefield Main Streets program will be providing four new self-watering planters right in the center of the downtown. The new planters will be placed on the bump-outs on the corners of Main and Chestnut streets and Main and Centre streets.
John Ross, a member of the Wakefield Main Street Program board of directors recently appeared before the Board of Selectmen to pitch the idea.
Continue reading ‘Self-watering planters coming to downtown Wakefield’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, News, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, downtown beautification, flower barrels, John Ross, Main Street USA, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Paul DiNocco, self-watering planters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Main Streets
Make Main Street one-way
Sometimes the solutions to our problems are so close we overlook them.
I am speaking of course of the new “Wakefield Walk” proposal that would make Main Street one-way heading north from the Melrose line to Lowell Street.
The northbound lane would remain open to vehicular traffic with no changes. The southbound lane would become a permanent pedestrian mall. Advocates insist that there would be little or no cost associated with the change.
Sure, there would be an adjustment period. But people are adaptable. They got used to Armory Street being one-way didn’t they?
Any minor inconvenience would be offset by a long list of benefits. Let’s take them one at a time.
Instant Rail Trail, minus the rail. No more endless, multi-million-dollar feasibility studies that serve only to enrich engineers and attorneys. No more NIMBY Lynnfield abutters going on and on about their “private property rights.” On day one we’ll have a 4-mile, paved, ready-made pedestrian and bike path running straight through the center of town.
Continue reading ‘Make Main Street one-way’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: automobiles, bicycle path, bikes, business, carbon footprint, cars, Climate Change, earth, environment, Festival Italia, fossil fuels, Fred's Franks, Holliday Stroll, Lake Quannapowitt, Lynnfield, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Mother Earth, One-way, pedestrians, planet, rail trail, restaurants, sustainability, The Farmland, vendors, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Walk, walking trail
Identity crisis
Identity theft is big business – not only for the thieves but for a host of companies that have sprung up to help consumers thwart those who would steal the identities of others.
But increasingly, identity theft is being committed in connection with other crimes, like drug trafficking. Police are all too aware of this connection, in particular Officer James Scott, a veteran member of the Saugus Police Department.
Scott is a Wakefield native and a former Wakefield cop before joining the Saugus PD.
You may have seen Officer Scott on television last weekend if you happened to be watching the WCVB Channel 5 news. (I know that’s a big “IF.” If you watch TV news at all, you’re a rare breed, and if you watch any broadcast network affiliate, you may want to check for your name on the endangered species list.)
Fortunately, the video is still on the WCVB web site if you want to check it out.
Continue reading ‘Identity crisis’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: Americans, Boston, Channel 5, cocaine, drivers license, drugs, fake ID, fraud, heroin, identity theft, illiegal aliens, James Scott, Lakeside Inn, Lord Wakefield, Lowell, Luis De Jesus Castro, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, News, Puerto Rico, Saugus Police, social security number, TV, United States, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police, WCVB
by MARK SARDELLA
When it comes to larceny, people seem far more fascinated with art theft and fraud than with other types of robberies and scams. Part of the intrigue likely stems from the myth of the gentleman art thief, according to security expert Anthony Amore, who will kick off the 2016 Sweetser Lecture Series with a talk on art theft and art fraud at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29 at The Savings Bank Theater in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
Amore is currently Director of Security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where one of his priority tasks is to continue efforts to recover the 13 priceless works of art stolen from the Museum in March of 1990. Those artworks include masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet among others.
Continue reading ‘Art crime expert Anthony Amore kicks off 2016 Sweetser Lecture Series on March 29’
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, News, Profiles, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Anthony Amore, Art, Art of the Con, art theft, artist, Degas, fraud, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Manet, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Rembrandt, Stealing Rembrandts, Sweetser Lecture Series, The Savings Bank Theater, Vermeer, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Not hot for pot
It’s been a tough week for the Cannabis Community.
Last weekend, the Boston Globe published an op-ed piece opposing legalization of marijuana co-written by Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
Then, adding insult to injury, on Tuesday the much anticipated Report of the Special Senate Committee on Marijuana was released.
The news was not good for herb enthusiasts.
Continue reading ‘Not hot for pot’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: cannabis, Democrats, drugs, Gov. Charlie Baker, Hariette Chandler, hemp, herb, James T. Welch, John F. Keenan, legalization, Linda Dorcena Forry, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Marty Walsh, Massachusetts, Maura Healey, Michael O. Moore, Michael Rodrigues, opioids, pot, prohibition, recreational, Sen. Jason Lewis, Senate Special Committee on Marijuana, Wakefield Daily Item, weed
Hunger games
It’s Restaurant Week in Wakefield, as proclaimed by the Chamber of Commerce. My Facebook friends would tell you that based on my check-ins, every week is restaurant week for me.
Hey, at least I’m supporting the local economy.
Continue reading ‘Hunger games’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Reviews, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: bistro, Brothers Deli & Restaurant, Caryn's, cuisine, dining, Duck Walk, eateries, eating, Facebook, food, foodie, gourmet, Heavenly Licks, Kara Conley, Leanne Wheeler, Mark Sardella, Phuket, Restaurant Week, restaurants, Ristorante Molise, social media, Thai, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield-Lynnfield Chamber of Commerce, ZuZu's Cafe
Apples to Apples
“Sorry” continues the Apple family saga at Stoneham Theatre
Memory, like family, is about connections. And Sorry, currently on stage at Stoneham Theatre, is about both.
Sorry is part 3 of Richard Nelson’s series, “The Apple Family Plays.” (The first in the cycle, “That Hopey Changey Thing,” was produced by Stoneham Theatre last year. Gloucester Stage mounted the second play, “Sweet and Sad,” last summer.)
It’s important to stress that each play, including Sorry, stands just fine on its own, so even if you haven’t seen the first two, there’s no reason not to see this one.
Billed as “a family drama,” Sorry deals heavily with family connections. But the play is also about a different type of connection: the connections between synapses in the brain that form memory – and what happens to individuals and families when those connections fail.
Continue reading ‘Apples to Apples’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, Opinion, Politics, Reviews, theater | Leave a Comment
Tags: Apple Family Plays, Bill Mootos, drama, Joel Colodner, Karen MacDonald, Laura Lautreille, Mark Sardella, memory, Nile Scott Hawver, play, Rhinebeck New York, Richard Nelson, Sarah Newhouse, Sorry, stage, theater, Wakefield Daily Item Stoneham Theatre, Weylin Symes
Judgment Day
“The judgment-free zone.”
That’s what Planet Fitness calls itself in its advertising campaign. It’s smart marketing to appeal to those who avoid gyms for fear of being judged as to heavy, too scrawny or just plain out of shape compared to the rest of the gym rats. “No gymtimidation,” is another way that Planet Fitness puts it.
This space, on the other hand, is not a judgment-free zone. (Although I’m not above a little gymtimidation, so you’re on notice.)
It’s one thing for a gym to call itself a “judgment free zone.” There are those, however, who would turn the rest of the world into a judgment-free zone – albeit minus the treadmills and exercise bikes.
Continue reading ‘Judgment Day’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: addiction, arrest, crime, drug dealer, fitness, genetics, gym, heroin, jail, judgment, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, opiates, opioid, Planet Fitness, prison, science, trafficker, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Police, workout
Mark Sardella 