Ciclovia I
We decided to call the Ciclovia of August 5th number 1 to distinguish it from the upcoming one on September 9th which will be Ciclovia II.
During the past couple of years I have been suggesting postponing it to September when the weather is still warm and the attendance will be better. In August, many families are on vacation back home or traveling. Others might be spending a nice summer day at the beach or a lake and won’t interrupt their day to let their child ride a bike on Essex St. and I don’t think the child will disagree with that.
When I wrote last year that the street was empty and the attendance was dismal, some people in the administration became angry and said thousands of people enjoyed it. Now that they decided to have one day in September, let’s compare to see if I was right.
The only effort that continues not to be made is getting the small businesses along the street to open for the afternoon to draw of curious onlookers who probably have never gone shopping in that area. This year a few did and we made sure to photograph them. Haverhill is very successful doing that at times of festivals or holidays.
New Bilingual Elections Coordinator
Franklin Miguel, former city councilor at-large candidate was hired by Mayor Dan Rivera with a $90,000 salary and received a gift from Community Development of $49,000 to fix his house. Now, his wife is the new bilingual elections coordinator. I don’t even know her name as yet but she started on Monday the 6th of August.
Interestingly, she is taking the next two weeks off since she had her vacation plans and will return to work one week before the Primary Election.
Oh, what a mess this election process will be!
Having the mayor been so generous with her husband, do you think he’ll deduct the two-week vacation from her check?
Matias’ campaign
Speaking of Franklin Miguel, he is in the Dominican Republic, along with Joel Chalas from DPW and Representative of New York Adriano Espaillat, supporting Juana’s campaign there. She met with former presidents Hipólito Mejía and Leonel Fernández and appeared on a television program This past Monday at noon with Rep. Espaillat.
In the group picture, Joel Chalas is on the left and Franklin Miguel is on the right. Are they on vacation or do they have the mayor’s blessings to campaign with her?
How many city workers are campaigning for her during work hours? We already know that’s the way the mayor works disposing of the resources as if this is his personal property but why did Juana allowed it? Hasn’t she heard about public’s perception? Or, is this going to be her modus operandi as well?
Mayor’s radio expenses
I have been following Rivera’s payments to Costa Eagle for what he calls “radio ads” when we know he doesn’t have radio spots. So far this year he made two payments: On March 22. 2018, he paid $2,500 and on July 10, another $4,000.
He no longer has his weekly radio program so I will continue to check for the rest of the year. $6,500 in six months is an exorbitant amount to pay for a one-hour weekly program
