What did I say?

We are a very argumentative city.

The Daily News, as I previously noted, recently started to allow people to comment on line about stories on its website. I made a snarky comment about "shades of the Current?" but I was wrong!

Whereas it seems hardly anyone ever comments about stories on the Current's website, things are getting very contentious over there on the Daily News' website.

The hottest issues are a summer camp program in Amesbury that denied participation by a child with an allergy to peanuts and eggs, the dog-goat debacle in Rowley (now resolved) ... and the Newbury town beach (two stories).

Words such as "preposterous," "reprehensible," "ignorant" and "narrow minded" are flowing fast and furious. And that's the tame part. One person says to, "f the poor, f the homeless, f new orleans and f plum island." Oh my.

Over on Newburyport According to X, Mr. X has got his hands full with a reader who objects to his opinion on a senior citizens center at Cushing Park. 24 comments and counting ...

Mr. X is dead set against a center being built at Cushing Park, his contention being that the city is obligated to provide to the residents in the neighborhood off-street parking spaces in case of a snow emergency; the reader thinks the city owes the neighborhood squat but owes the senior citizens plenty.

There is an ordinance that says businesses (including apartment/condo buildings, I guess) don't have to provide parking for residents if there is a municipal lot within 300 feet. And Cushing Park, while it does have a playground area, is mostly a paved parking lot.

The Mayor is not proposing using all the parking lot, just the corner of it, I believe.

When stuff like this comes up - tough issues that Mayor John Moak inherited rather than caused - I feel bad for him. Sort of. OK, hardly at all but it sounded good.

Time will tell what repercussions, if any, his successors will inherit from his decisions, and those of the City Council, of course.