It looks like Greenfield will probably join the legion of towns statewide who have banned plastic bags from their store shelves, thanks to a motion to reconsider filed by Precinct 8 City Councilor Doug Mayo. I’m expecting that revote will generate the seven votes necessary to pass the ordinance, with Council President Karen Renaud breaking the tie of what will likely be another council split decision.
Speaking of Madame President, her decision to appoint an ad hoc committee to study Greenfield’s lack of affordable places for people to live is a good start, but will likely do little to advance a conversation that no one in Greenfield wants to have, which is the need to construct a homeless shelter of its own in the downtown area.
While we are on the subject of downtown, the end of Greenfield’s “Parkageddon” appears to be in site with the announcement of the Nov. 9 opening of the city’s new $10.7 million parking garage. My question is, does that mean we now get back all of the downtown spaces that were converted into permit parking when the new courthouse opened? That would seem to make sense, but then again, this is Greenfield government we are talking about.
And on that note, one need look no further than Greenfield’s decimated health department to see the negative impact internal city politics can have on a community’s ability to conduct basic business. I realize there are certain members of the council who aren’t wild about Greenfield Mayor Bill Martin’s methods of conducting business, but the time has come to put that aside and restore the money that was cut from that budget, hopefully before someone becomes violently ill because of a lack of timely inspections.
As for the current chairman of Greenfield’s Board of Health, apparently a few people aren’t buying that Steve Adam is not running for mayor. According to Adam, since last week’s column, he’s been inundated with calls and emails about a mayoral run “because apparently people don’t believe you.” Tell me something I don’t know, pal.
I happened to see Steve at this week’s GCTV Open House, which I attended as a member of that organization’s board of directors. But the truth is, I would have been there anyway because I love that organization and the work they are doing. And we certainly seem to have found the right leader in Oscar Lanza-Galindo, who I believe is poised to take that organization to the next level, especially when it comes to community engagement.
While we are on the subject of GCTV, can somebody explain why the City Council wants to suddenly move its meetings from the new high school to the Jon Zon Community Center, a site that currently does not have the infrastructure to broadcast live? Talk about bad ideas.
Heading east to Orange, I’m curious how that community is going to handle marijuana legalization. There apparently will be a special town meeting in December to limit the number of pot locations in that town, but there are already at least six such applications that have been endorsed by the town, with others on the way.
Speaking of the commonwealth’s new cash crop, if you liked the botched manner in which the state rolled out the new marijuana legalization law, you are probably going to love how it handles Question 1 if the nurse staffing referendum passes. Talk about a potential nightmare in the making.
Speaking of the ballot questions, specifically the third one, what is it about this state that we find the need every few years to vote on whether to curtail the rights of a certain segment of the population? So much for “blue state” tolerance.
While we are on the subject of the “left versus the right,” if you are so locked into your ideology that you feel compelled to insult or degrade someone in public whose views differ from yours, it doesn’t make you a hero – it makes you an ass.
And for those of you who believe the politics of moderation are a thing of the past, I have four words – Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who I predict will cruise to re-election next month by a double-digit margin
So, I believe, will, Sen. Elizabeth Warren who’s been taking a lot of guff since releasing the results of her Native American DNA test, which, in retrospect, probably wasn’t the best idea because it only exposed her to greater ridicule. And while I always enjoy a good political dust-up, I can’t begin to tell you how little I care about what may very well be the biggest non-issue ever raised in a Massachusetts statewide election.
And as mean and petty as politics seems to be right now, we can always agree on the Red Sox, who, as I write this, are two wins away from winning the World Series and cementing their legacy as the greatest team in franchise history.
Hopefully, they will return from La-La land this weekend with the World Series trophy in tow, and give us all something to cheer about before we have to head back to the polls a week from Tuesday.