Newburyport, MA, Planning Director
July 27th, 2006Well, no offense to whoever wrote today’s editorial in the Newburyport Daily News, but as far as I’m concerned Doug Locy, the chair of the Newburyport Planning Board and City Councilor James Shanely, who is on the City Council’s Planning and Development Committee know an awful lot about planning and development. And not to repeat myself, but they are two outstanding and honorable men and I would trust them to do right by the City of Newburyport, thank you very much. (Does whoever wrote this editorial even know these two gentlemen?)
I know that there are folks who didn’t like him, but for many of us Nick Cracknell set a very high bar for what a Planning Director can be. And Doug Locy and James Shanely not only worked closely with Mr. Cracknell, but my guess is that he taught them a great deal, and we are lucky to have two men who, along with many, many others, were more than willing to learn.
So, I’m not real big on the bashing Doug Locy and James Shanely thing, in what they felt was taking an honorable stand. This doesn’t work for me.
And yes, I know that it is Mayor John Moak’s choice who the new Newburyport Planning Director will be (as long as it gets the Newburyport City Council’s approval), but I’ll come right out and say it, darn it, I just don’t trust Mayor John Moak when it comes to picking a Planning Director for Newburyport, Massachusetts (I really would like to have a different opinion on this one.) And I think a lot of people feel the same way.
Our Mayor has let the position languish for 3 months, claiming it would be too expensive to fill it right away. This has never worked for me.
Yes, the survey came in for the Waterfront, and guess what, people do not want it to be a parking lot (that however is a whole other post), but we have this weird “task force on the waterfront” thing going on by Mayor John Moak, the goal of which seems to be to “get around” the survey. Good grief.
And then there’s the whole business of the 40B housing project being resurrected on Low Street, when there was an excellent compromise (see earlier posts) at hand.
If I trusted the Mayor on this appointment, I wouldn’t be blogging my little heart out about it.
And again, no offense to whoever wrote that editorial. “Reasonable people can disagree,” however, I think the Newburyport Daily News is really, really wrong on this one. And I think an awful lot of people following this whole process would agree.
Mary Eaton
Newburyport