Posts Tagged ‘Wakefield Daily Item’

Judgment Day

19Feb16

“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 […]


Smoke signals

07Feb16

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 […]


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 […]


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 […]


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 […]


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 […]


Fantasy League

20Nov15

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. […]


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 […]


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 […]


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 […]