Other thoughts after the mayor’s PR press conference
What this community really needs is for Mayor Rivera to stop his grandstanding and begin fixing the city streets. The streets all over Lawrence are even worse than during the gas emergency. Roadway repairs are slow and the roads remain more torn up than before the gas line replacements. For goodness sake, people are spending more on vehicle repair than ever before. These are repairs that the normal driver can’t get refunded from the city or from Columbia Gas.
While speaking to several people about car repairs they came up with an estimate that the average amount of money spent so far, for many vehicle owners in Lawrence is $700.00. These are mostly repairs of tires alignment, shock absorbers replacement, brakes due to the slow down and stopping of avoiding roadwork potholes, etc.
It is possible to seek compensation directly from the city for vehicle repairs. If you have paid money for vehicle repairs associated with the streets in Lawrence, I recommend that you file for reimbursement with the City’s Attorney’s office. Contact the City Attorney’s office to see what type of form you must complete in order to be considered for reimbursement for damages associated with these awful roads. The payout percentage is very low as the city hardly ever accepts responsibility for anything. If that occurs, then your next step may be to take the city to small claims court for anything $7,000 or less. Good luck!
Press coverage in our community
Please take the time to read the article on page 2 about the coverage of local news in minority communities.
On Wednesday, July 10th, Free Press Action’s Heather Franklin testified about Massachusetts’ local-news crisis before a hearing of the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses. The committee was convened to consider Bill H.181, which would establish a 17-member commission to study journalism in underserved communities across the state.
Where’s the media when you need it?
Univision came to interview William Green in front of the police station as a result of the videos he has been posting on Facebook.
On Thursday, July 11th, Thalia Varelas called him and it appeared as if finally, the Boston media would echo his complaints.
Of course, the interview was in Spanish; William recorded it and posted it on his Facebook page but it has not aired as yet.
Where’s the Chief’s gun?
William Green was the first to notice that Police Chief Roy Vasque is not using his department-issued firearm. Having been a police officer himself, details like that do not go unnoticed.
We started looking through recent photographs of Chief Vasque and he is right but, what does it mean? We don’t speculate but are really curious about it.
