Immovable Objects
For the first time in living memory peddlers in Wakefield, MA are being asked to abide by the town’s regulations. But from the reaction, you’d think that instead of being asked to move 100 feet every two hours they were being forced to run the gauntlet.
Contrary to popular belief, local regulations have always indicated that hawkers and peddlers were supposed to move “from place to place” when doing business in town. And the regs have always said, quite explicitly, that “No vendor has a right to a specific location.”
So there was never any doubt as to the intent. The problem was that the old regulations were silent when it came to exactly how often and how far the peddlers were supposed to move. Nature abhors a vacuum and the peddlers took full advantage of it. Several of them have occupied the same locations all day, every day, from spring through fall for years. And with the vagueness of the old regulations, the town couldn’t tell them how often they were supposed to move, so it let them be.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
Tags: Board of Appeals, Board of Selectmen, business, hawkers, hot dog, ice cream, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, peddlers, slush, transient vendors, vendor, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning
Filmmakers Michaela O’Brien & Melissa Langer examine EB in Bogota, Colombia
While working as a documentary photographer in 2011, Michaela O’Brien visited an orphanage in Bogota, Colombia. While there, the 2004 Wakefield High School graduate met two girls, Nixa and her older sister Nury. Both girls were afflicted with a rare, genetic skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa, or “EB.”
O’Brien watched as the sisters wrapped their limbs in plastic to minimize damage to their raw and fragile skin. She saw the girls draw stares when out in public.
Inspired by these feisty and resilient sisters determined to be independent, O’Brien began an impromptu film shoot and upon her return to Boston shared the footage with film editor Melissa Langer. Convinced of the power of the story, the film makers made three more return trips to Colombia where they documented their discovery of a wider EB community.
Their documentary film, In Crystal Skin, focuses of four individuals with EB and their separate but interwoven stories of struggle in the face of great odds.
Continue reading ‘Rare Disease Focus of Documentary’
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Tags: Bogota, Colombia, documentary, EB, Epidermolysis Bullosa, film, In Crystal Skin, Mark Sardella, Melissa Langer, Michaela O'Brien, rare diseases, Wakefield MA
Town to try national “Main Street” model
“It’s all about bringing your downtown back to life or giving it more life,” said Gin Wallace, executive director of the Beverly Main Streets program. “It will make a difference in your community in terms of jobs and visitors.”
Wallace spoke to about 60 Wakefield residents gathered in The Savings Bank Theater last night about the ways that the Main Street program could serve Wakefield as an economic development tool to revitalize the downtown business district.
Continue reading ‘Revitalizing Wakefield’s Downtown Will Take Time’
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Tags: Beverly MA, Beverly Main Streets, business, business district, downtown, Gin Wallace, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Paul DiNocco, revitalization, Steve Maio, stores, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Memorial Day 2014 in Wakefield, Massachusetts
As sun and clouds waged a day-long battle overhead, hundreds of residents turned out yesterday for local ceremonies honoring those who gave their lives in defense of America.
“The freedoms we do enjoy,” keynote speaker Victor Santaniello told the crowd at the West Side Social Club’s morning program on Moulton Field, “do come at a very high price.” He spoke of the over 1.3 million Americans who have died in wars since 1775. To them, Santaniello said “we owe our thanks and our honor.”
Santaniello currently serves as the Director of Assessments for both Wakefield and Reading. He spoke of his service as a United States Air Force veteran, serving as an Aircraft Loadmaster aboard the C141B Starlifter with the 15th Military Airlift Squadron/63rd Military Aircraft Wing out of Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, Calif.
“My military service helped make me the man I am today,” Santaniello said. “The discipline and sense of purpose can instill confidence that stays with you long after your discharge.”
Continue reading ‘Wakefield Honors Its Fallen Heroes’
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Tags: American Legion, Ann Santos, Anthony Velardo, Brian Falvey, Massachusetts, Memorial Day, Rep. Donald Wong, Rep. Paul Brodeur, Sen. Jason Lewis, Thomas Lyons, veterans, Victor Santaniello, Vietnam War, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, West Side Social Club
Parking garage post-mortem & preview of future revitalization efforts
An informal meeting convened just after the close of Monday’s final town meeting session offered an interesting post-mortem on the parking garage debate as well as a preview of coming efforts to revitalize Wakefield‘s downtown area.
Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio announced at the start of Monday’s Town Meeting session that Elm Street resident Jim Scott had come to him with the idea for the post-Town Meeting brainstorming session. Minutes after Town Meeting was dissolved, several dozen local citizens and town officials accepted Maio’s invitation and gathered at the front on the Galvin auditorium.
Continue reading ‘Downtown Decision Dissected After Close of Town Meeting’
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Tags: Ami Wall, Brightview, Doug Butler, downtown, Facebook, Jim Scott, Main Street, Marcie McCauley, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Matthew Jewett, parking garage, Paul DiNocco, social media, Steve Maio, The Savings Bank, Town Meeting, Wakefield Cooperative Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
No Parking: Pot Zone
Over 900 Wakefield voters showed up at Monday’s opening Annual Town Meeting session to vote on a $3 million parking garage. Thursday night’s continued session opened with Article 3, the $79 million FY 2015 town budget.
Math has never been my strong suit, so my fitness to be a Town Meeting teller would probably be called into question. But by my calculations, there should have been 23,000 people in attendance Thursday. I was only off by 22,836. 
Say what you will about Thursday’s dismal attendance, but at least the 164 voters who showed up managed to get through 18 articles without questioning anyone’s integrity.
After Monday night’s vote on the parking garage failed and Article 1 was indefinitely postponed, it looks like Brightview can go back to its original plan to build an assisted living facility without a parking garage. So those who worried about seeing the top of the assisted living building behind the garage will now get to look at all five stories from Main Street.
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Tags: Assisted Living, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, medical marijuana, parking garage, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
May 6 Sweetser Lecture in Wakefield, MA
“As a kid, I was drawn to big stories on broad canvasses,” says historical novelist William Martin, who will be at The Savings Bank Theater on Tuesday, May 6 to deliver the final Sweetser Lecture of the season. His talk will focus on Civil War Washington as depicted in his latest book, The Lincoln Letter.
In a recent phone interview, Martin offered a sneak peak into next week’s talk and his own creative process of writing historical fiction.
“The kinds of movies I saw and the kinds of books I was reading in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s made me want to get into the storytelling business,” Martin says.
It’s a business that has brought him much success, beginning with his first novel, Back Bay, published in 1979.
Continue reading ‘William Martin’s talk to focus on Civil War Washington, DC’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, book, books, Boston, Civil War, D.C., fiction history, historical, Lincoln Letter, MA, Mark Sardella, novelist, Sweetser Lecture, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Washington, William Martin, writer
Boston Globe sports columnist delivers Sweetser Lecture
The world of Boston sports came to Wakefield, MA this week in the person of longtime Boston Globe sportswriter and columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who entertained the Sweetser lecture audience with colorful and at times hilarious stories from his career interacting with some of the biggest sports figures of the past half century.
Shaughnessy began with his own introduction to sports growing up in the small town of Groton, Massachusetts – population 4,000.
“You guys are the big city for us,” Shaughnessy joked with the Wakefield crowd that filled the The Savings Bank Theater.
“I always have fond memories of small town life,” Shaughnessy said as he described playing Little League baseball during the early ‘60s in a town with four teams. The coaches were all men from the Greatest Generation and had fought in World War II. Shaughnessy remembered one coach in particular who had lost the use of one arm.
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Tags: Boston, Boston Globe, Dan Shaughnessy, David Ortiz, Fenway Park, Jon Lester, Manny Ramirez, Mark Sardella, Red Sox, sports, Ted Williams, Terry Francona, The Savings Bank Theater, Wakefield MA
Boston Globe Sports Columnist Speaks in Wakefield Tuesday, April 29
His book, Francona: the Red Sox Years just came out in paperback, but Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy plans to talk about the Red Sox and the whole range of Boston sports when comes to Wakefield next Tuesday, April 29 to deliver the second Sweetser Lecture of the 2014 series.
Shaughnessy is also the author of several other best-selling books about the Boston Red Sox, including Curse of the Bambino and Reversing the Curse. In a phone interview, he offered a preview of next week’s talk.
“I covered all eight years that Francona was here,” Shaughnessy said. But the columnist is also the first to admit that he and the former Red Sox manager weren’t always on the best of terms.
Continue reading ‘Dan Shaughnessy Looks Forward to Sweetser Lecture’
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Tags: baseball, Boston Globe, Boston Red Sox, columnist, Dan Shaughnessy, John Farrell, Mark Sardella, sports, sportswriter, Sweetser Lecture Series, Terry Francona, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Information Pleas
Call it the calm before the storm.
The fiery debate that raged in Wakefield, MA over the downtown parking garage issue up to the April 1 special election has of late been reduced to glowing embers. But it is beginning to heat up again in anticipation of the May 5 Annual Town Meeting.
The hot items are Articles 1 and 2 on the warrant (and it is called a “warrant” not an “agenda” as I’ve heard some refer to it). Those first two articles will relate to the Assisted 
Living/garage issue, and some are predicting that it will be like the Wild West, with overflow crowds wanting to debate the issue or just attending for the entertainment.
It was already going to be a historic night, marking the very last Town Meeting ever held in the old Galvin Middle School Auditorium before it is reduced to rubble. It should be a fitting send-off for a venue that has hosted Town Meetings for at least half a century.
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Tags: Assisted Living, election, free press, Galvin Middle School, information, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, parking garage, Town Meeting, vote, voter apathy, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, William Carroll
Mark Sardella 