Well, honeybunch, here it is jest a few days from the new school year! It seems like only yestiday we were talkin’ about how much school is gonna be out for the next eight weeks or so. Before you know it, the eight weeks are up, and the kiddies find themselves at the end of their summer. No more are the school year’s waiting until Labor Day to open – with the exception of a few private schools. Nope. They start earlier, but they still don’t get out earlier. Go figger.
Of course, our editor has a few thoughts in this week’s editorial page about traffic and drivers. Cobina was tellin’ him about how she’s been in her gassamobuggy several mornings over the past couple o’ weeks and people are jest makin’ like stop lights and stop signs don’t exist – at least not for them. M’self was drivin’ t’other day on El-em Street near the Elm Diner, and at Second and Elm, she paused to stop for the light which changed. A car came up from behind her and jest blew past the light.
Last week, I was drivin’ along Brown Street, and I stopped at a four-way stop at one o’ the streets, and a thoid car saw we were stoppin’ so he just barreled through. Somebody’s gonna git hurt and then there are gonna be pearls clutched and tears streamin’.
D’ya think it might be cuz most o’ society now is goin’ to pot, and people don’t think authority – or authority figgers – need to be listened to? That’s Cobina’s take on the matter.
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As we’ve been discussin’ over the past few weeks, the two political parties are havin’ a primary come Sept. 10 – the GOP can count this as the foist one it’s had in a dog’s age. Meanwhile, this is jest the standard operating procedure for the Demmies. It seems the GOP is takin’ this go-round very seriously. Leaders in that party see that people might be lookin’ elsewhere besides the Demmies for leadership, seein’ as how they can never git their ack together. It’s jest one flavor of Demmie over another.
Well, in order to set themselves apart, according to Sammy Bluejay, the party is gonna have a debate betwixt the two candidates – endorsed candidate Michelle Gregorio and challenger Steven Mullins – on Sept. 5. They’ve asked our esteemed editor to moderate the event.
This is a good step for the party as it needs to set itself apart from the current establishment and make a real alternative for the voters. We shall see. Sammy Bluejay sez that GOP members are excited about the event. Let’s hope the voters who don’t count themselves as Republicans do the same.
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Meanwhile, Iva Lootey has made some interesting observations whilst he is flutterin’ about the burg. Iva sez that the interesting thing, so far, is the way the signs are distributed. Each of the three candidates in the Demmy primary seem to have enclaves in town – districks that seem to favor one candidate over the other two.
That is an interestin’ point. Of course, effen yew know who is runnin’ the various factions of the party, and the history behind it, where the bases of support are is no real surprise. It’s always been that way even when it was Roper v. Allen v. Johson running the Dems. Now, it’s Morrissey v. Picard v. Borer. Each has a section of town that is on the side of the faction.
What needs to be seen – and it’s a mystery thus far – is what other members of the party are gonna do. Like Iva was sayin’, the fack that it’s a three-way race means that support is gonna hafta come from outside the normal enclaves, and the vote count is gonna hafta be higher for there to be a true winner.
Effen this thing is decided with the same 6,000 votes that seem to come out every primary, the plurality of victory is probably gonna be slight, and it will mean that the winner – whomever it is – will have more votes cast against him or her than will be cast for. That is a liability right off the bat.
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Nelly Nuthatch was by, and she was tellin’ yores truly that city politicos are now really gonna try to kick the can down the road past the November election and maybe do it in the spring. This doesn’t set well with the people on the Charter Revision Commish, but the politicos don’t care.
For 18 months the commish worked – almost by it self cuz it didn’t have any resources – to make alterations in the charter that would go up for a vote in November. Now the politicos are saying they don’t have enuff time to let the public know about them.
It is that or is it the fack that now the recommendations are made the politicos see that this could alter the balance of power away from the status quo? One would be permitted to doubt their reasons. John and Jane Q aren’t as helpless or, to be blunt, stupid, as the politicos wanna make it sound.
Stalling the vote until the spring will give the establishment time to pick and pick and pick at the recommendations and marshal their political machines to make sure it don’t pass. We’ve seen this before. It looks like the social media complaints against the proposals are what talking heads would call a “proxy war” against commish’s ideas.
Like I said this has been seen before – maybe not in this way, but in similar fashion. Put together a charter revision panel, let it work out what should be done, and then trash it. Well, they haven’t trashed it yet, but that’s on the horizon. And those on social media who’re pitchin’ the biggest arguments are the dupes of political power brokers who don’t want their positions to change.
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Whilst all that stuff is goin’ on, we see that another week has gone by and the Haven site is still a decaying mass of buildings that have yet to be demolished. It’s been several weeks now since reps from the developers said things would get percolating over there. We have seen nary movement over there.
People in the neighborhood are rightly concerned about the site. There are four blocks of abandoned buildings, and there have been four fires. We’re one windy night from a spark becoming a conflagration and good property being damaged cuz of neglect.
It would be nice effen someone from the city or from the developer gave updates as who what is going on over there. The property owners adjacent to it should be able to have some idea as to what to expeck…or is that asking too much?
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The wag sez that he saw a blurb about the city re-upping the “boot” program. One wonders whether the scofflaws around the burg saw it. Probably not. We’ve come to that time o’ year when the city is lookin’ for kopecks it is still owed. The boot program has been a rather lucrative alternative to liens. We shall see what happens, but yew know once it starts, there will be much wailing that a body wasn’t given any notice.
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,
Dear Felicia,
I most protest the way you phrase your comments about The Haven as if we are waiting for the developers to act. I listened to the board meeting when they were present and heard every frustrating word and argument going around and around. I finally lost my cool and commented to “Please put one foot in front of the other and vote to close the street!!” I am totally behind the developers in this! And they said they would not move forward until this was done! Anyone in the construction business knows that you can not safely build something this size with the roads open, large and dangerous trucks moving in and out and hazards galore!
And so they voted finally to close the road. The ball is in the cities court because after 3 weeks, ABSOLUTELY NO EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE BY THE CITY TO CLOSE THEM! How hard can this be! Only in West Haven where no official can make ANYTHING happen!! Nuff said! I’ve been in West Haven two years and am amazed at the one hoop after another that these developers have gone through. When the city closes the roads, then point the finger another way!