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’
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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’
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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’
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Tags: bylaw, conservation, developer, development, Mark Sardella, open space, Paul Reavis, Planning Board, subdivision, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
“It’s not often a community theater gets the opportunity to produce the New England premier production of a Broadway musical,” says former longtime Wakefield resident Nancy Curran Willis.
She is directing the New England premier of Bonnie and Clyde at The Umbrella Community Arts Center in Concord, Mass. The music for the show was written by Frank Wildhorn, who is best known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway. Wildhorn also wrote Whitney Houston’s number one hit, “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”
During its Broadway run, critics and audiences agreed that the strength of “Bonnie and Clyde” is Wildhorn’s music (with lyrics by Don Black). There is some spoken dialog in the show, but the familiar story of America’s most famous outlaw couple is told primarily through songs with titles like “Picture Show,” “This World Will Remember Me,” “Raise a Little Hell” and “Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad.”
Continue reading ‘Bonnie and Clyde ride again in Concord’
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Tags: Aaron Chow, Adam Sherkanowski, Andrea Giangreco, Ariel Sargent, Arthur Comer, Ashleigh Vittum, Becca Griffing, Ben DiScipio, Bonnie and Clyde, Brad Amidon, Brian Boruta, Broadway, Cathy Merlo, Colin Lester Fleming, Concord MA, Connell Benn, David Rodrigues, Don Black, Frank Wildhorn, Glenn Kane, Jim Ansart, Joel Hersh, Ludovica Burtone, Mark Sardella, musical, Nancy Curran Willis, Nate Ramsayer, Nicholas V. Raponi, Owen Reinhold, Pam Sontag, Pat Lawrence, Paul Alperin, Rusty Chandler, Ruth Fontanella, Sarah Cowell, Sarajane Morse Mullins, Sean Crosley, Texas, theater, theatre, Thomas Carroll, Tim McShea, Tom Young, Tristyn Sepersky, Umbrella Community Arts Center, Wakefield Daily Item, West Dallas
Next Wednesday is Veterans Day.
It’s one of the few holidays left that hasn’t been consigned to the nearest Monday in order to create another long weekend for those who have the day off.
If you’re not a public employee, chances are you have to work on Veterans Day. On one hand, I understand not wanting to shut down commerce for another day, especially when the holiday falls right smack in the middle of the business week. On the other hand, what could be a better cause for interrupting business as usual than to stop and honor veterans?
Continue reading ‘Veterans deserve big turnout on Nov. 11’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Air Force, Alicia Reddin, Army, Coast Guard, Galvin Middle School, Gen. John R. Galvin, Global War on Terror, Gulf War, Korean War, Marine Corps, Mark Sardella, Marnie Sheeran, military, Navy, November 11, soldiers, veterans, Veterans' Day, Vietnam War, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, war, women, World War I, World War II
Wakefield’s art theft mystery
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
It’s not exactly the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, but it appears that Wakefield may be dealing with an art theft mystery of its own.
In the past year, a combined total of three paintings have gone missing from two of the town’s oldest institutions, located almost directly across Main Street from one another in the downtown. At least two of the paintings are believed to be by the same artist and all three have some connection to the Unitarian Universalist Church at 326 Main Street.
Continue reading ‘Wakefield’s art theft mystery’
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Tags: Amos Boardman, Art, art theft, artist, Beebe Library, Elizabeth Lowry, Franklin Poole, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Janine Fabiano, Joe Cresta, Joseph C. Payro, Joseph Payro, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, painting, Rembrandt, Sharon Gilley, Storm on the Sea of Galilee, The Concert, theft, Unitarian Universalist Church, Vermeer, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
If there’s one thing that A Measure of Normalcy, the relentlessly manic 90-minute play by Lucas Baisch could use it might be a measure of normalcy.
The play runs through Nov. 1 at Gloucester Stage, and it was written by Baisch, the theater’s 2015 Playwriting Apprentice. Normalcy follows an array of lost souls as they interact in a Midwestern mini-mall.
Continue reading ‘‘Normalcy’ comes up a measure short’
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Tags: A Measure of Normalcy, cartoons, gecko, Gloucester Stage, Lucas Baisch, Mark Sardella, millennials, play, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item
By Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
Is there a parking problem in downtown Wakefield?
The answer can depend on whom you ask. Some blame empty storefronts on a lack of downtown parking, while others say that parking in downtown Wakefield isn’t really a problem if you’re willing to walk a couple of blocks.
But even among those who believe there is a parking problem, opinions on how to solve it are probably as numerous as licensed drivers in town.
Continue reading ‘The enduring issue of downtown parking’
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Tags: Brightview Senior Living, cars, downtown, enforcement, Hart's Hardware, Lt. Steve Skory, Mark Sardella, meters, parking, parking garage, parking ticket, Paul Reavis, police, Police Chief Richard Smith, Steve Maio, vehicles, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police Department
Couponing for a Cause
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
Wakefield resident Joanne Lima has a uniquely altruistic hobby, and among the principal beneficiaries are those that patronize the Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry.
“I’m a big couponer and I’m able to coupon at little or no cost,” she says. Whatever she thinks the Food Pantry could use and her family wouldn’t use, she donates. Each month, she donates to the Food Pantry a quantity of goods worth at least $200 if people had to go out and purchase them. By combining coupons and shopping sales, Lima says, she pays next to nothing for the items she donates.
“My hope is that through this story couponers especially will look to donate their overage to benefit other people,” says Lima. “There are only so many bottles of shampoo you can have in your house and there’s always going to be another sale.”
Continue reading ‘Couponing for a Cause’
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Tags: charity, couponers, couponing, coupons, donating, food, Joanne Lima, Mark Sardella, Market Basket, Massachusetts, shopping, Stop & Shop, toiletries, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warriors
My Way or the High Way
Everybody knows by now that there is a drug abuse crisis in the state, so naturally Massachusetts officials are doing everything in their power to make life easier for drug users and dealers and harder for the police.
God forbid we do anything that might inconvenience the stoner community.
It seems that hardly a week goes by without these official enablers pushing some measure designed to make it easier to escape any unpleasant consequence of spending your days in a euphoric fog or supplying others with the means to do so.
Continue reading ‘My Way or the High Way’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: drivers license, driving, drug offenders, drug traffickers, drugs, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Senate, Supreme Judicial Court, Wakefield Daily Item
Mark Sardella 