Around Town
Planning Board in spotlight with huge development proposal
By Josh Resnek
One of the largest and most ambitious real estate developments in the city’s history is taking shape and form as the Planning Board goes about it’s business to rule on the project – or at least to begin to guide it wherever it is heading
A Planning Board meeting last week at city hall heard a presentation from John Tocco and Ricky Beliveau and a group of their professional development experts about the project.
The project as laid out by Tocco’s team calls for the redevelopment of a 25-acre site in the city’s Riverfront overlay district – one of the choice remaining parcels of developable land in the city.
Curiously, or not so curiously, the mayor is on record as opposing the project which calls for three mid-rise residential buildings with 830,000 square feet of residential real estate space with 591 units, 585 parking spaces, and a 14-acre public riverfront path and park.
By comparison, the Encore Boston Harbor and Hotel is about 3 million square feet for the casino, the hotel and the grounds.
That development cost about $2.3 billion to build out.Continue Reading
Follow renowned local authors Arnie Jarmak and Josh Resnek as they recount life in Chelsea, Ma in the ’70s & ’80s
Rugged takes the reader on a tour of Chelsea through a first person narrative that details the truth about the city and the trials and tribulations of its people and their leaders. Rugged captures the city’s true essence in all its gritty glory and tragic history with Jarmak’s photographs cleverly woven into the sublime narrative. Volume 2 of this multi-volume series is a continuation of Jarmak and Resnek unveiling the hardscrabble city they encountered and loved when they were much younger men with their lives spread before them like an endless dream.
Click the photo above to purchase your copy of Rugged today!
Offensive barrage leads Crimson Tide to big win
By Lorenzo Recupero
The last time the Crimson Tide scored so many points in a regular season win it went on to be crowned state champion.
In the 59-0 shutout over Greater Boston League rival Somerville High School on Friday, the Crimson Tide and first-year head coach Justin Flores snagged win number one of the season and did so putting up the most points EHS has scored in a game since 2017, when a then John DiBiaso-led Tide dropped 55 against Lowell HS.
The lopsided win, the first of his coaching career, earned Flores high praise from his players.
“It felt great to get the win and it being the first made it even sweeter. The guys presented me with the game ball at the end which was a special moment I’ll never forget,” said Flores, who received the game ball signed by his team captains, Jayden Prophete, Chris Zamor, Pedro Rodrigues, Dom Papa, and Aidan Duclos.
The 59 points scored by the Crimson Tide (1-1) is the most points the team has scored in a single game over the last 20 seasons.Continue Reading
What’s the deal with the Jewish holiday during the next ten days?
By Josh Resnek
The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana began Saturday evening at sunset.
It is the Jewish New Year – a holiday celebrated by Jews all over the world for about 3,000 years.
At the onset of the New Year, according to Jewish law, a ten day period of penitence begins at the same time God opens the Book of Life.
During this ten day period of penitence, Jews need to look back at the past year and try to make things right for wrongdoing they might have done. In other words, this is a period of repentance for Jews. It is a time to let God know that you are sorry for whatever wrongs you have committed. The full array of wrongs runs the gamut from breaking any of the Ten Commandments, to committing crimes, to harboring hatred for a neighbor, to mistreating family members and friends, and even those you do not know.
Repenting is different from apologizing.
Repenting means you’ve straightened yourself out and made yourself proper in the eyes of God for the coming year.
You must prove to him you are worthy of another year of life.Continue Reading
Everett’s Jake Willcox lighting up Ivy League
By Lorenzo Recupero
Former Everett High School quarterback and lifelong Everett native Jake Willcox is blazing a winning trail for Brown University football to start the season.
Kicking off his senior year, Willcox worked magic in leading the Bears to a 29-25 season-opening victory over Bryant, completing 36 passes for 355 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Willcox’s 3 scores and 355 yards through the air are both career-highs and earned him the Gold Helmet Award from the New England Football Writers Association.Continue Reading
Click the link for a listen to Joe Rez’s newest single “Never Homesick” streaming on Spotify, Youtube, and Apple Music today!
Around the city…
About Memorials we build
Wherever there is a memorial, I read the inscriptions, I check out the names and the dates of the placement of the memorial. The 9/11 memorial was placed in Everett Square around 2011, more than a decade after two Everett residents, the Trentini’s, perished on one of the flights that slammed into the World Trade Center on that fateful Day.
Memorials generally take many years to establish.
For instance, the World War II Memorial in Washington DC wasn’t built and dedicated until 2004 – almost 60 years after the end of the war in 1945.
The Bunker Hill Memorial took a good 75 years to build following the battle where some 1500 American patriots lost their lives standing up to the British Empire.
Here in Everett, squares and some street corners during the past three decades have memorialized the sacrifices of Everett residents who gave their lives in the service of their country in World War II and Korea and in Vietnam.
The 9/11 memorial speaks well of the city. Such a memorial is fitting and right.
Firefighters feel the pain
Everett firefighter did the right thing on 9/11 to honor not just the nearly 3,000 innocents who died in the terrorist bombings but to honor as well more than 300 members of the New York City Fire Department who gave their lives so others might live on that day.
Sunday’s 60 Minutes piece about the sacrifices made by the more than 300 dead in New York City on that day was a profound look at how first responders were not deterred by the hopelessness of the situation.Continue Reading
— Eye on Everett —
The Blue Suit and Josh Resnek have become good friends and confidantes over the past few years. They have shared everything about themselves with each other – their secrets, their fears, their hopes, their triumphs and their failures. Again and again, I, Josh Resnek, editor of the Leader Herald, want our readers to know how intimate the relationship is between me and the favorite Blue Suit of the most powerful man in the city of Everett.
There are those who claim the Blue Suit is a figment of my imagination – and he is, always has been, and always will be. Then there is the Blue Suit himself, arguing with me, and with others, that he has all the attributes of a living, breathing, snorting, eating, sweating, human being even though he is an off the rack, machine made, blue cloth suit. That’s hard to take for some people, and I am told that many others believe the Blue Suit is as real as say, President Biden or former President Donald Trump, and that he speaks with authority, and that he knows public policy, and that he could probably run for office in Everett as a write-in and win.
So in one respect the Blue Suit is a fiction, made up and all about unreality.
On the other hand, he is as real as you and me and he has a certain lifelike appeal to many of our readers.
How many people read the Blue Suit?
This is impossible to know.
There are questions about the Blue Suit that I have been asked about which I do not know.
For instance, one of his admirers asked me recently where the Blue Suit banks.
“I really don’t know. I’ll ask him,” I told that person, a woman reader of the Leader Herald who claims she enjoys the Blue Suit’s personality.
So I asked him: “Where do you bank your money? And also, how much money do you have? And how do you keep your money?”Continue Reading
Attorney Anthony Rossi and Family giving back to honor his late father
Leader Herald Staff
Attorney Anthony Rossi and his brother Terigi grew up in modest circumstances in the family home on Harley Street with his mother Gina, and his late father, Antonio.
To the Rossi Family’s great regret, Antonio died three years ago at the age of 75, leaving forever an empty space in the life and times of all the Rossi’s.
In a quest to honor the sacrifices his father made for him and his brother in the effort to educate them properly, Anthony Rossi has been making charitable contributions to the educational institutions he and his brother attended to honor the memory of his father.
The late Mr. Rossi was a machinist who came to Everett in the 1960’s from Italy and who worked long and hard to cement the future for his sons and his wife.
To give thanks for that sacrifice, Anthony Rossi has recently been giving back in honor of his father.
“I’m blessed. I was blessed to have such a good father. And so I am giving back. I want to carry on my father’s name to focus on the needs of Everett children, whether financial, emotional and to also contribute to make educational facilities everything they can be,” he told the Leader Herald.Continue Reading
Op-Ed
Decide for yourself
By JP Beckta
Does Mayor DeMaria care about Everett’s children? He says he does. Do actions speak louder than words?
The issue of using Pope John for housing or as a school came up at the June 27, 2022 City Council meeting Members of the School Department and Administration appeared before the September 12, 2022 City Council meeting to address renovating Pope John for use as a Junior High School Mayor DeMaria appeared at the October 11, 2022 City Council meeting at which he said he would only renovate Pope John to the “gold standard.”
Mayor DeMaria declared at the December 12, 2022 City Council meeting that he would never renovate Pope John for a school.
The mayor’s office was supposed to put out an RFP for modular classrooms. The City Council repeatedly asked about the RFP.
Erin Deveney appeared at the February 27, 2023 City Council meeting to inform them that [they] “have been working” on the RFP. And it was referred back to sponsor on March 27, 2023.
After that, the issue sank without a trace. The only action was that the City Council cut out of the budget the mayor’s proposed use of ARPA funds to buy modulars.Continue Reading
Flores, Crimson Tide drop opener to Xaverian
By Lorenzo Recupero
Crimson Tide Football and its newest head coach finally got a taste of real-time football.
The Everett High football season opened Friday against Xaverian High School, and although the Tide went down, 32-21, it did so not without a fight.
Falling behind 17-6 at halftime, the Crimson Tide (0-1) fought back in the second half, nearly taking the win away from third-ranked Xaverian.
First-year EHS Head Coach Justin Flores did not get his first win at the helm for the Crimson Tide, but regardless of the outcome, he was happy to get his feet wet and the EHS football season off the ground.
“It felt great to get underway with an official game,” said Flores. “Scrimmages were limited in terms of reps and what we were doing on both sides of the ball. [We’re] looking forward to moving on from Friday’s game and getting back on the field for another test this week,” said Flores, who will play his first home game at Veterans Memorial Stadium against Greater Boston League opponent Somerville High School (0-1).Continue Reading
Editorials
Running out of open space
The proposed Rivergreen development project spread over many acres and intended to produce almost 600 new units of residential living spaces, is, on its face, an incredible project that most cities we believe would welcome.
However, Everett suffers from a lack of open space.
This is a very crowded city.
The Rivegreen property – about 25 acres – is one of the last sprawling open spaces in Everett where multiple acres are available, presumably, for a variety of developments.
The mayor has written to the Planning Board that he is against this project – not because he is against projects like this, rather, because this project would take away open space where he envisions a new high school might possibly be built.
How that new high school can come to be is problematic as it will likely cost $500 million and will take at least a decade to get off the ground.
What to do in the meantime?Continue Reading
The 2023 Crimson Tide
Everett High football and new head coach Justin Flores kicked off the season September 8th against Xaverian. (Photos by Joe Resnek)
