In this last full week o’ October, it’s hard to think that two months from Friday, the guy in the red suit and white beard will make his annual trek. Oct. 25 is a sign that the days are really gettin’ shorter. And effen yew need any other notice that winter is nearing, we set the clocks back an hour in a week-plus. That really puts the dot on the season. Eastern Standard Time, which ain’t so standard anymore – it used to be in the second week o’ October – is a sure sign that things are moving toward more cold and more snow.
Here in the Asylum by the Sea, things are turning attention-wise to the election that is set to be front and center a week from next Tuesdee. Herronner, Mizz Nancy Rossi, and the challenger, Mizz Michele Gregorio are set to face off for the mayoral seat. Why anyone wants to sit in that chair for the next two years is beyond me. But then again, this might be the last time we have this set-up…but more on that later.
Tennyrate, effen this was a horse race, I guess we’d be in the clubhouse turn, heading toward the “stretch.” Things are moving quickly, but it seems that the “issue of the week” or even the “issue of the campaign” is gonna be the Haven.
Last week, Gregorio put the projeck front and center with talk about “financial incentives” (my term). I guess the developer – as most of ‘em do – wants some perks thrown so that it can sweeten the pot of building this mall. Gregorio put that issue on the front burner and Herronner is set to answer in this week’s edition.
Effen there are questions about “perks” the only question Cobina has is, what took so long? Most developers don’t build things as foist announced, and certainly don’t build things without trying to git the municipal government to throw a few things their way. Of course, there is a difference here cuz the MARB (Municipal Accountability Review Board) is in the mix. The city ain’t gonna give anything, whether it wants to or not, without the imprimatur of the MARB.
Still, what in blazes could the city give, tax incentives? Effen yew wanna see a revolt, try giving a developer that ain’t been tellin’ anyone anything for months that it is getting a perk. That should make John and Jane Q very happy. Of course, Herronner knows that.
How this plays out is anyone’s guess. But now I get why things have been a bit, shall we say, slow to begin over there. Somehow I think I’ve been to this movie before, and I think I know how it ends.
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Sammy Bluejay, meanwhile, has been about the berg lookin’ at the city’s latest projeck. I hafta say that Cobina has been noticing this lit’le thing and didn’t think much was gonna be done about it. The tree areas along Campbell Avenue and elsewhere, they have the inelegant name of “tree pits” were bricked and masonry rings put around the trucks maybe about 2 decades ago.
Over time the tree trucks have grown, got wider, and in some cases the roots have lifted things up so that the once nice landscaping became more of an eyesore. Well, I guess someone else saw it too, and it is a recent – and fairly cheap – projeck the city put together. The masonry is gone, and so is some o’ the brickwork. In its place is cinder or something like it. It should move with the roots and not be broken up. It’s like what was around tress when we were young. Sometimes newer ain’t necessarily better. The powers that be are going retro on this one.
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The Wag was in t’other day and this is a circle back to the issue mentioned above about the charter. The City Council gave its OK for the charter revision to move forward, though some people still think they can make some piecemeal questions out of a thing that is of a piece.
The Charter Revision Commission really wove together a document that can’t be parsed into sections. As the city’s barrister noted in his commints to the group, attempting to section out the revisions into smaller questions might do more harm than good. The entire document is built so that each section depends on what came before it.
Effen yew have sectionalized questions, the public could OK one and nix t’other. Effen that happens, the entire documents will need rewriting. It was quite a piece of literature – and political chutzpah – to put this thing together the way they did. Kudos to them.
But, the fack that the vote is set for April might be too clever by half. The Wag seems to think that in a federal primary setch as is set up in April, a municipality can’t glom onto it some local issue or t’other. That part of the equation, which was hoped could save some money, might actually be deep-sixed. Some legal eagles are attempting to see effen the April date might be a problem. Stay tuned.
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Then I mentioned to yew the revaluation announcement by the city. Yup, as Iva Lootey said, “Just when you think it’s over, it starts again.” That’s gotta be the way the homeowners feel They jest went through this, and for the most part property values went down and the city took a big hit on the grand list, which didn’t help things. Now we’re doing it again. The economy is better, but one wonders effen people are really clamoring to be here pr tp ,pve here. One could make the case that they ain’t.
We shall see how this all works itself out, but one would think that this time property values might go up, which could be or not be a good thing for the public.
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The report last week from the American Federation of Teachers about the air quality in West Haven High School was, pun intended, a breath of fresh air for school administrators who’ve been fighting running battles with some parents and activists about the renovation project. Even this papyrus has run letters from parents, and did stories during the O’Brien administration that did everything but accuse the school system and officials of negligence and disregard for the safety of the students.
The AFT report was put together, as I said last week, by a group that really came in loaded for bear, lookin’ to say that the project was dangerous, and that the building was “sick.” Instead, they saw the safeguards put in, the measures that were taken to make kids safe, and saw for themselves that there was less dust than even the cleanest place should have. Cobina wants to know their secret. It’s amazin’ what I find in my domicile.
Tennyrate, whether this new report is gonna satisfy the people who’ve been complainin’ is anyone’s guess. My own take on it is, pun intended again, don’t hold your breath. Everyone has a cause in the modern world, and even if there is independent proof that things are OK, they’ll find something else wrong or find the report invalid somehow. People want not only their own opinions, but their own facts.
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,