Smoke signals
There has been much hand-wringing of late regarding the opioid abuse crisis. As there should be.
But when it comes to dealing with substance abuse, we know what works and what doesn’t work. Our long history with alcohol and tobacco provides a blueprint, if only we would follow it instead of looking for other dangerous drugs to legalize and promote.
Just last week, the Wakefield Board of Selectmen showed how it’s done.
They sent a message.
They wanted the message to be loud and they wanted it to be clear: They don’t want Wakefield to be known as a place where minors can come to purchase alcohol.
Continue reading ‘Smoke signals’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: alcohol, beer, booze, bud, drugs, drunk driving, herb, Jeffrey's Package Store, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, pot, smoke, smoking, substance abuse, tobacco, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed
Eve of construction
If you’ve ventured anywhere near downtown Wakefield area in the last few months, perhaps you’ve noticed that there are some trucks and heavy equipment digging up the streets.
If you haven’t been napping somewhere with Rip van Winkle, you may have even heard about the coming $20 million Brightview Senior Living complex. Perhaps you even read in the Wakefield Daily Item as early as January 2015 that Brightview would begin by spending over a million dollars on improvements to the gas, electrical, water and sewer infrastructure in the downtown business district that otherwise the town would have had to pay for.
Those corporate bastards!
Continue reading ‘Eve of construction’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Assisted Living, Brightview Senior Living, Bronwyn Della-Volpe, building, business district, construction, Crescent Street, demolition, dust, Dust Bowl, electric, ice, infrastructure, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, natural gas, physics, sewer, Shelter Development, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, water
When audiences arrives at the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Wakefield, MA for future concerts at the Linden Tree Coffeehouse, something will be missing.
The majestic linden tree that lent its name to the coffeehouse 31 years ago and has graced the front of the church for longer than anyone has been alive, was taken down on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.
“There was a lot of evidence that it was dying,” said church member Peter Stickel, who added that there was concern that the tree could drop one of its large branches and injure someone. Its roots were also starting to push up and damage the pavement of the walkway leading into the church, creating a potential walking hazard.
Continue reading ‘Old Linden Tree gone but not forgotten’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, History, News, Photography, Profiles, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: branch, Brightview Senior Living, church, Joe Cresta, Joe Spear, linden tree, Linden Tree Coffeehouse, Liz Freeman, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Peter Stickel, Shelter Development, steeple, stump, trees, Unitarian Universalist Church, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wendy Dennis, wood
Now’s Your Chance!
We’ve arrived at the Put Up or Shut Up Season.
Monday, Jan. 4 was the first day that you could pull nomination papers to run in the April 26 Town Election. For those who for the past year have been have been telling anyone who would listen that you could do a better job running the town, now’s your big chance!
This is not to say that everyone who has a gripe should run for office. (God forbid.)
Nor am I saying that unless you stand for election you have no right to complain. There’s plenty of room for citizen activism outside of holding elective or appointed office.
Continue reading ‘Now’s Your Chance!’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, campaign, City Hall, Conservation Commission, election, Facebook, government, Mark Sardella, nomination papers, Planning Board, Politics, public hearing, public office, School Committee, social media, town, town hall, Town Meeting, Town Planner, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
The Spirit of Giving
‘Tis the Christmas season, and Mr. Paid Reporter Man is filled with the spirit of giving toward the naughtiest and the nicest in Wakefield. He’s made his list and checked it twice. If you don’t find your name on his list, perhaps you haven’t been sufficiently naughty or nice.
To the Lake Quannapowitt Water Quality Committee: binding arbitration.
To: Dan Lieber: a bug in the WCAT studio.
To Brian McGrail: a night off.
To Seth Moulton: a break from his rigorous MSNBC schedule.
To Town Counsel Tom Mullen: a challenging case.
To Alison Simcox and Doug Heath: 13 SolarBees.
Continue reading ‘The Spirit of Giving’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alison Simcox, Brian McGrail, Bronwyn Dell-Volpe, Christmas, Colonial Point Apartments, Conservation Commission, Dan Lieber, Dennis Cloherty Heron Pond, Douglas Heath, Fred Rich, Humor, Lake Quannapowitt, MBTA, Michael Collins, Pat Bruno, Politics, Richard Stinson, Robert McLaughlin, Robert Mitchell, Seth Moulton, Shaw's, Stephen P. Maio, Thomas Mullen, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, ZBA
This month, Wakefield Community Access Television celebrates its 25th anniversary as Wakefield’s public access television operation.
It’s hard to believe that WCAT has been around for a quarter century. What’s even harder to believe is that public access television has been around in Wakefield, MA for even longer than that.
WCAT was formed in December of 1990, but there were people doing local public access TV in Wakefield for about five years before that – although it felt more like fifty years to those of us involved at the time. I refer to those days as the Dark Ages of public access.
Continue reading ‘Wakefield Public Access TV: the Dark Ages’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, History, Humor, Opinion, Television, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Betamax, Bob Lazarus, Bob Seibel, cable TV, Chance Langton, Charles Laquidara, Charlie Brooks, Charlie Golub, comedy, Gary Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, Lisa J, Massachusetts, Mr. Ed, Rich Ceisler, Tony V, Topsfield Fair, TV, video, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Access Television, Wakefield Tonight, Warner-Amex Cable, WBCN, WCAT
Downtown reality check
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
Who did she think she was – this outside consultant with her studies and her facts and figures – coming in and telling us that our downtown isn’t the economic Death Valley we’ve been led to believe it is? How dare she suggest that revitalization doesn’t happen overnight and that the citizens we’ve chosen to represent us might actually be on the right track?
Continue reading ‘Downtown reality check’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, History, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brothers Restaurant & Deli, business, downtown, economic development, Farmland, FinePoints, Main Street, Mark Sardella, MarketStreet, Massachusetts, Peg Barringer, Reading MA, revitalization, Sabatinos, Sakura, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Fantasy League
The irony of the moment was not lost on acting Planning Board chairman Bill Spaulding.
“I do find it interesting that you’re questioning the parking – the amount of it,” Spaulding told Bronwyn Della-Volpe at hearing last week on Town Meeting Article 12, which was aimed at revitalizing the downtown with more mixed-use, residential-above-retail development.
Della-Volpe is president of something called the Wakefield Civic League, the latest name adopted by the group that in 2014 succeeded in blocking the construction of a public parking garage in the downtown. Shelter Development would have built the garage at no cost to the town as part of its proposed Brightview Senior Living facility.
Now the Civic League is so very concerned about where people will park in the wake of another town initiative to revitalize Wakefield’s downtown. Continue reading ‘Fantasy League’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brightview Senior Living, Bronwyn Della-Volpe, commuter rail, downtown, housing, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Melrose MA, mixed-use development, parking, Pat Bruno, Paul Reavis, Planning Board, residential, retail, Town Meeting, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, William Spaulding, zoning
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
One of the zoning measures that will go before the voters at next week’s Regular Town Meeting seeks to encourage a shift toward multifamily, mixed-use developments in Wakefield‘s downtown area.
Article 12 on the Nov. 16 Town Meeting warrant would make it easier for developers to propose projects in the business and industrial zones that would have retail on the ground floor and residential units on the upper floors. The proposed changes to Chapter 190 Section 32 of the Zoning Bylaw would apply only in districts covered by that part of the Zoning Bylaw: the Business District, Limited Business District, Industrial District and Limited Industrial District.
After a public hearing earlier this week, the Planning Board voted to recommend favorable action on Article 12.
Continue reading ‘Town Meeting article seeks mixed use, residential above retail in downtown’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, News, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brian McGrail, Bronwyn Della-Volpe, business, business district, developer, downtown, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Matthew Lowry, mixed-use development, multi-family dwellings, Pat Bruno, Paul Reavis, Planning Board, public transportation, railroad, residential, retail, Town Meeting, Town Planner, village, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning, Zoning Board of Appeals, Zoning Bylaw
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
One of the Zoning articles that Wakefield voters will be grappling with at the Regular Town Meeting that gets underway on Monday, Nov. 16 relates to open space subdivisions, also known as conservation subdivisions.
At a public hearing earlier this week, the Planning Board voted to recommend favorable action on Article 11, which will ask Town Meeting voters to amend the town’s current Open Space Development (OSD) bylaw.
Open space or conservation subdivisions are seen as an alternative to traditional subdivisions in that they require less land disturbance and preserve greater amounts of open space.
Continue reading ‘Town Meeting to consider open space development bylaw revisions’
Filed under: Feature stories, Nature & Wildlife, News, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: bylaw, conservation, developer, development, Mark Sardella, open space, Paul Reavis, Planning Board, subdivision, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Mark Sardella 