Who wants to be my Best Friend?
If you didn’t see this story on television, you won’t believe me because it is too outrageous.
Pentucket Workshop Preschool in Georgetown was all over the news last week because it has a policy that children cannot call another one “best friend.” It was known as a result of a 4-year-old girl who came home very sad because her teacher told her it was not right. By calling another kid “my best friend,” she was making the others feel bad.
This is similar to giving trophies or medals to all the members of a team at the end of the season because having winners and losers makes some of them feel badly.
Childhood is the best time to start learning that not always you can get your way. You may not win all the time and sometimes, we all may not be equal: some of us are better than others for certain things. They should learn that in the baseball fields and not on the job.
There is a war about words going on. Many people talk about leadership qualities in children and I wonder how sincere they are. Another word banned is “bossy” referring to a girl for being an extrovert, bright and ready to respond. They believe that calling her “bossy” that will prevent her from becoming a leader, forcing her to change her ways at an early age.
This upbringing is the reason why some colleges and universities had to provide a day off to students with ice cream and psychological care when Donald Trump won the election. This is the kind of generation we are raising! Memes, wimps!
Updates on the Lawrence City Council
Sometimes I wish for our city councilors to remain quiet at the meetings and say nothing. The problem is that some of them think they are there to show off and instead, put a foot in their mouths.
That was the case during the City Council meeting of April 17, when someone looking for permission to build a single family home explained that he is going through red tape and run around from the city. Part of the testimony involved that this is an empty lot with no sidewalk and people throw trash on it. District A Councilor María De La Cruz asked, “Would you be able to build a sidewalk?” You can watch the meeting on YouTube and at 1:05 you will see the exchange.
Councilor Brian DePeña clarified for her benefit that sidewalks are the city’s responsibility, not the residents’. Councilor De La Cruz was prompt to say that’s not what she said arguing that she was misquoted. Watch the meeting and you’ll see her reaction.
At the end of that meeting, while they were setting up dates for the upcoming committee meetings, Council President Kendrys Vasquez reminded Pavel Payano, chair of the Public Safety Committee, not to begin a new meeting. He must first adjourn the previous one of April 12th because they never ended it properly and it remains open.
That meeting is also on YouTube and you can see when Councilor Marc Laplante got up and left and Councilor De La Cruz refused to stay passed 10 o’clock because she already stayed an extra hour and “that’s overtime.” She also mumbled on her way out that she works during the day. Does she think the other councilors don’t do anything but council meetings for a living?
Where’s Estela’s fire watch?
On June 1, 2017, I wrote in this column about a home located at 125 Haverhill St., owned by two elderly sisters. The house was empty because they were hoping to renovate it but the city decided to put a Fire Watch costing $300 each day to the owners. A Fire Watch is when a member of the Fire Department stands watch 24 hours a day in front of the dwelling to prevent someone setting it on fire.
We all know that the purpose was to take it from the real owners and into the city coffers.
We also know that it’s who you know. Why is it that the building on 175 Haverhill St. – one block away – is even more dilapidated with a collapsed roof and sitting next to the Oliver School, doesn’t have a Fire Watch? It belongs to City Councilor Estela Reyes.
School administrators have complained that this building poses a threat to the students next door. There was a time in which she said that it would be demolished and then she asked for the city to do it. It’s been years and nothing has been done.
Now, with the purchase of the lot across from the police station for $675,000, the city is ready to begin construction soon in the Oliver School renovations and Councilor Reyes will be able to ask for one million dollars if she wishes for the property on 175 Haverhill St. We have created a precedent with Dr. Gorn so, we have to treat her the same way.
High rents in Lawrence
You can tell elections are coming when politicians start talking about the high cost of rents in Lawrence and something must be done. I have written about this in the past with the intention of educating the public as to the reason for this to happen. It’s called SUPPLY and DEMAND. Available apartments are few and knowing that, landlords are asking for exorbitant rents. The sad part of that there is nothing anyone could do.
In 1994 voters in a state-wide referendum approved the elimination of rent-control policies in communities across Massachusetts. Rent control lasted for nearly 30 years in Boston, Cambridge and the nearby suburb of Brookline. But the frustrations of landlords, together with scandalous stories of well-heeled public servants living in cheap flats, eventually took their toll. The newly adopted law states that under Chapter 40p the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act, no city or town may enact, maintain or enforce rent control of any kind…
Chapter 40p states that in order to help residents with the high cost of rents, property owners shall be compensated so that the cost of any rent control shall be borne by all taxpayers of a municipality and not by the owners of regulated units only. And that is how Section 8 was born.
You can find more about this in my column of June 1st, 2016.
So, the next time a candidate promises that he or she will do something about the high cost of rents in the city, ask what needs to be done and how he or she will do that. If it turns out to be just a promise and after being elected the response is “There was nothing that could be done,” it’s your fault for trusting another liar.
During the presentation at the Disabled American Veterans “Queen City” Chapter 2 office on Haverhill St. in Lawrence, my mind was going a mile a minute with what I was hearing. In the audience was Jaime Melendez, the director of the veterans’ service office at City Hall and Francis F. Witty, DAV Commander who was visiting had no idea of what really goes on with that office.
As part of his talk about what he can do for veterans in general was to be a liaison between the volunteers and the city government. As an example, he said, “Let’s say that you need to replace windows in this building, I could ask the city to help out with that.”
Of course, he didn’t know that this building went without heat for weeks until recently the city replaced the furnace and getting any services for veterans from City Hall are almost impossible.
He didn’t know that Jaime Melendez sends veterans to that building when they need services such as information about benefits, documents to fill out, etc. That is the purpose of Jaime’s office but these volunteers find themselves picking up his load too often.
I spoke to a woman who told me that when her father died, her mother went to his office to settle the corresponding benefits as a widow and she was not helped. Veterans, in general, complain about the lack of support they get from his office.
A great example is that of the veteran who needed heart surgery or would die in two months. The next appointment he could get for a doctor was months away. He went to see the volunteers at this office and Cathy made a telephone call and got him to a doctor the next day. The man had his open heart surgery and was present at this event.
It took one veteran placing a call to State Representative Juana Matias to search for $25,000 to provide a van to transport veterans to appointments free of charge.
New Inspectional Services director at City Hall
Just found out that Ana Camargo is the new director of Inspectional Services.
More details next week.
