By Dalia Diaz
Ten months after gas explosions devastated sections of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, a press release was sent out by a theoretical coalition of non-government organizations, nonprofits, local, state and federal officials, and a small business owner. They were supposed to hold a press conference to update the public on business recovery efforts in the three communities.
They intended to provide an update on data showing that more than 70 percent of the nearly 900 small, locally-owned businesses that were affected by the disaster returned to pre-crisis operations.
However, they lied to their communities again. This was a coalition of mostly government officials looking to gain another press highlight of their faces and actions. This was supposed to be a transparent press conference of the area’s amounts of money which has been spent on businesses affected. We still don’t know where the actual dollars have been spent.
My first impression seeing the media advisory was that it represented another political photo-op for the people involved. Speakers for the occasion were Congresswoman Lori Trahan; State Senator Barry Finegold; State Rep. Christina Minicucci. There is no reason for them to be there. They had not been elected when the accident happened.
It was held at a business in North Andover that, thanks to God, has been restored and back to work. But why there? How about in a place yet to recover such as Maria Lopez’s boutique Curiosity in South Broadway, Lawrence? Her store has not opened and owes four months of rent on her business.
There were very few members of the business community, in general, but Maria Lopez was there and it became very obvious the discomfort on the mayor’s face and attitude when she began talking. He seemed nervous in front of the television cameras because Danny is not used to being confronted in public. In private, she told me that he has been very disrespectful.
This lady has been put through so much, including from the Department of Labor. She works on her store alone yet they forced her to get workmen’s comp insurance for her “employees” to avoid a $250 daily fine. Nobody would help her.
According to a press release from the governor’s office, Funding will be spread across three major areas:
$2 million for direct technical and other business support engages local organizations to provide flexible direct support services for impacted businesses.
$6 million for municipal discretion for business support and economic development will enable providers such as Mill Cities Community Investments (MCCI) and Eparatodos/eforall to amplify technical assistance, including bookkeeping, staffing, inventory management, claims submissions, business development, etc.
$2 million for longer-term regional support for economic development and marketing efforts to attract business to the businesses in the three impacted communities. Although some people are taking advantage of those courses, the business owners were not asking for education.
What the public did get was another PR stunt with a hogwash plan to intend a boost in businesses that are still struggling. The Latino community of Lawrence has not been taken into consideration because they hired a public relations firm from Boston to launch a campaign to attract customers to the Merrimack Valley. This press conference was just to get a “Rock the Register” campaign some needed press and how better to do that than to lie to the public about getting transparency. Part of the public relations stratagem is a raffle of $500 weekly in each community. Is that prize money part of the Columbia Gas money? Is that any way to fix this fiasco? It was another Mayor Rivera “I–need–my–face–on–TV–and–newspapers-again–this–month” action.
Look how little they considered our community that “Rock the Register” doesn’t even translate into Spanish. Lawrence businesses do not need new customers; they need to be made whole for their losses to get back on their feet. Those are the brains behind that marketing campaign!
