Elections are finally over!

Well, last Tuesday the elections for Mayor and other positions took place. The choices for mayor were not the best in my opinion and I guess the most popular one ended up wining. The situation in Quincy is still not very well defined. With looming increases to property taxes and a proposed and very expensive project to revitalize, out of all places Quincy Center, all that the two mayoral candidates could talk about was the past deeds of each other. This was definitely a very disappointing race.

Quincy's infrastructure is deteriorating, we have a booming commercialization of areas that do very little to help the residents or improve their quality of life. On the contrary, these commercial projects such as the Lowe's and BJ's in south Quincy make things more difficult by cluttering neighborhood streets and over stressing an already decaying and faulty infrastructure. Yet, all they could do was point fingers.

The incumbent and winner of this election refuses to provide details regarding his proposed Quincy revitalization project much less on how exactly it would benefit the city. Note that a project like this is likely to get a lot worse before it gets better. What does Quincy Center really need?

I personally do not think that this is the time to spend billions of dollars on a project like this. Details are needed in order to get the people at ease, something along the lines of "transparency" in government.

There is dissatisfaction among the residents of the city, property tax increases and the increased commercialization of the areas in Quincy without regard to public opinion. I guess that the voters are not too bothered by this.

Anyway, I have reasons to be hopeful now that Jay Davis, ex councillor for Ward 4, was ousted by newcomer Brian Palmucci. Mr. Davis failed to support his constituents over and over again and I think it caught up to him. One time when asked about the value of the people's opinion regarding the proposed Lowe's store in South Quincy, he replied "I will do what's best for the city". That may be the case, but I think the people he represented deserved more merit, that is definitely not the way to respond to a constituent.

A long list of other issues clouded Mr. Davis', who until Tuesday was the president of the city Council, ranging from the unreturned phone calls and e-mails from his constituents to those that affected more people such as the famous billboard in West Quincy. The ire of his constituents in west Quincy was evident back then when they were blind sighted by this so called "monstrosity" and it is still evident now in the comments posted along with the election results published by some local newspapers. I guess we can call this billboard Mr. Davis' "hat rack" (the high point of his predecessor's tenure in the city council for Ward 4).

To the new councillor, congratulations, the expectations are high and I personally wish him all the best luck. Let's hope he ends the bad rep that ward 4 councils have had in the past years.

It’s a done deal!

On Tuesday March 24th 2009, the last hurdle preventing the new proposed Lowe’s hardware store from going forward in Quincy was cleared.

A meeting in the city council chambers in City Hall in front of the board of appeals took place. In this meeting, representatives of Lowe’s presented their case and made the final plea before the board.

I am sure that by saying this I will sound naive but I was sad to see that only two citizens neighboring this project attended the meeting. I say that I may sound naive because at this stage of the game, there was very little that could be done to stop the project from going forward. It was also interesting that the council for WARD 4 where the proposed project will be located did not attend the meeting. He did however mailed a letter to the board, which was read for the record during the proceeding indicating that he had prior commitments.

I want to clarify that I am not against the project nor am I fully in favor. I think everyone has the right to do as they please as long as all the rules are followed. this project has touched pretty much all established regulatory hurdles requiring several filings for special considerations in order to go forward. Again, those are the rules and there are also rules for circumventing the first set of rules. It is the system we have and as such it is the one we use. I do however question common wisdom in this whole process starting with the benefits it will bring to the city. I also want to state that I reside on one of the streets neighboring the project. My concerns are more with the disruption of the status quo the presence of this store will bring to the neighborhood such as the lights on the parking lot left on at night, the noise during the evening hours and the potential nuisances inherent to a business of this kind for example, early delivery hours, noisy vehicles performing those deliveries etc.

To me it does not make much sense that a LOWE’s store is located less than 100 yards from an already established Home Depot. They carry the same items and provide the same services. It is nice to see direct competition this way but I really doubt that prices will drop much or that there will be extended benefits to the customers despite the closeness of these two giants. I think it is worth mentioning that Home Depot has two stores already in Quincy that I estimate are less than two miles apart. Again, this is what I think so I am sure that the marketing people with these two giants know a lot more that I don’t.

The proposed LOWE’s will be located on Burgin Parkway in the area across the street from the Quincy Adams T station. This road by itself is prone to traffic Jams, anyone trying to enter or leave Quincy through this road during rush hours knows what I mean. Imagine the possible adverse impact of having this type of store at this location. It could make things worse. Yes, the state is building a ramp to ease traffic access to rte 3 and the expressway but entrance to the ramp is so close to the proposed entrance to the LOWE’s store that it is scary. However, it is possible that this ramp will partially isolate the Home Depot store from highway traffic and provide Lowe’s with better opportunity ( I guess this validates my point regarding the marketing guys above).

Anyways, we let the smart people in city hall make those decisions however it is unfortunate whenever the big corporate interests come before the constituents.

Enough rambling on my part. I’ll be back with more at some point.

Take care and be good.

Thanks for reading.

Jim

Introduction!

Hello and welcome to my blog. I appreciate your visit and hope you visit often.

To start, my name is Jimmy and I am a resident of Quincy, MA and I have been living here for the last twelve years.

I am originally from the Caribbean and upon moving here I fell in love with this city’s personality and the perks that come from living here (lol).

Over the years, I have tried to keep in touch with the happenings around the city.  I have been able to compare the city with those cities surrounding it and have realized that Quincy has something extremely good going that is worth bringing up to discussion.

This blog is a part time affair and I hope to be able to update it regularly and hopefully also promptly respond to any feedback the readers may provide. I  hope to cover most everything that calls my attention including but not limited to political affairs, community concerns, gatherings etc. 

I would also like to emphasize that it is my personal opinion that I express in this blog and that I understand that not everyone will agree with my views. I accept and expect criticism as long as it is done respectfully and in a civilized manner. Any other way and we will have deal with it as needed. In addition, it is not my intention to offend anyone so if the case presents itself, a quick e-mail to my attention will clarify any issues.

All in all, I hope everyone enjoys what I have to say and my views of this great city and its people.

Thank you all for reading.

Jimmy