Herald article on mayoral candidate Rick Scirocco

[ron_newman]

Not many Davis Square folks read the Herald, but you might want to check out today's article on mayoral candidate Rick Scirocco. Not very flattering.

The preliminary election is Tuesday, September 25. Mayor Joe Curtatone (campaign website; city website) has two challengers, Scirocco and Suzanne Bremer, a Tufts University librarian.

Ward 6 alderman Rebekah Gewirtz (whom I strongly support) also has two challengers, Charles Chisholm and Bob Adams. The top two finishers in each race will advance to the final election on November 6.

[Edited to add links.]

Comments

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

So you were OK with how she handled the CVS (started before her term) and Someday Cafe (which happened during her tenure)?

Um, yes, more or less. As you say, CVS was essentially a done deal before she got there so what was she supposed to do? Furthermore, CVS is far from the worst thing that could be there. While I would have preferred a different tenant (say Trader Joes [yes, I know there's not enough parking but a man can dream]) that wasn't in the cards. A local store certainly would have been better, but I can't think of a local store which could guarantee enough income to the landlord over a long enough time to make the renovation practical. You need an anchor tenant who isn't going to go out of business in order to get a bank to loan you the money to renovate. The office building with the bricked-in arcades previously at that location was no great architectural or cultural masterpiece either. Perhaps they could have put in a hooters-for-hair instead :)

As for Someday, how can you blame Rebekah? Gus is the one who "forgot" to renew his lease, and, as I understand it, she tried unsuccessfully to help the employee collective find a new space. In the end, I miss Someday a lot, mostly for the Toscannini's, but certainly don't blame it on Rebekah. in addition, the current tenant isn't so bad, is it? Maybe a bit less grunge than Someday, but a good addition to the neighborhood. Now if they'd just bring back the waffles, I'd be in there all the time.

What chain store did PLRG replace? I can't remember what was there.

The West Coast Video pit of despair. By the way, props to the landlord there who has PLRG, Jimmy Tingle's and one other local business that I can't remember. I think he's going out of his way and perhaps sacrificing (short-term) profits to keep it local.

How was Jack unapproachable?

I didn't say he was, just that Rebekah is [b]more[/b] approachable [b]to me[/b]. Maybe it is an email vs phone thing or a generational thing, I don't know, but I probably chat with her two or three times a month just out on the street. She proactively lets me (personally) know what's going on, and remembers what issues I'm interested in and invites me to the appropriate meetings (not that I make it to most of them). I see Jack around but don't really chat unless there's a specific issue and, despite having sat at a table with him on multiple occasions, don't have a sense that he remembers who I am from occasion to occasion.

Finally, one of the main reasons I voted for Rebekah in the first place is that, while out canvassing, she personally spent 45 minutes at my kitchen table talking politics with me and my wife.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

Can someone tell me how to edit my own posts?

[ron_newman]

Sorry, you can't edit a comment once you've posted it. All you can do is delete it and post again. (But please don't delete it!)