I had some interesting discussions over the weekend and in one of them, the person I was speaking to said that if James Shanley is elected, it will signal a significant change in the city.
That is, the triumph of the new order over the old order. I said that in a previous post, in a kind of sideways way when I was talking about people who love the Rail Trail vs. those who think the time/money could have been better spent elsewhere.
Someone pointed out that it was transportation money and that the whole point of the trail is to get people to walk or ride their bikes instead of driving.
Well, I remember a couple of years ago when architect Andy Sidford attempted to start a drive (ha-ha) to get people to ride their bike everywhere, on every Tuesday.
It went nowhere.
You take baby steps, not giant leaps. Some people here love giant leaps, such as the NRA's latest plans for its east parking lot, or building a whole new sewer plant at ginormous expense instead of just fixing up the old one (at enormous expense, but only a fraction of the cost of building a whole new plant somewhere else).
I will add here, however, my own perspective that Shanley is very sensitive to historic preservation - which at the same time alienates people who also think that the Rail Trail is a big waste of money.
And here on Plum Island - I said recently that people here are all islanders, no matter what, but I see that this even is changing.
The birth of the Plum Island Foundation I think has permanently fractured Plum Island, which was already cracking between the old guard and the new. Not to mention the permanent animosity that has sprung up between Newbury and Salisbury in the fight over sand.
Remember when Newbury was going to sue Salisbury to get the sand from the dredging, even though through an agreement, it was Salisbury's turn to get the sand? From the April 7, 2008,
story in the Daily News:
The original battle over who has the right to the sand erupted last summer, encouraged by Plum Island beachfront resident Robert Connors and members of his Plum Island Beach Association. During a June 2007 interview, Connors said the jetties — built by the Army Corps in 1881 — interfere with the natural north-to-south hydraulics of sand movement along the coast. As a result, he argued sand dredged from the Merrimack River should never go to Salisbury — which is north of the river — but always be used to augement Plum Island, south of the river.
The animosity between PI Foundation members and PITA members is astounding. I guess Larry McCavitt, in the void of someone less contentious, represents PITA and Allison Heartquist represents the PI Foundation.
Heartquist is the mayor's candidate. So is Bob Cronin, although he seems to know what he's talking about.
It does not matter what Heartquist thinks about regionalization with Amesbury and Salisbury because she will never get to vote on any such plan, seeing as how she is executive assistant to the Amesbury mayor.
Ward 1 thus would lose a vote on that critical issue.
