By JOSH RESNEK
Many thousands of visitors flooded the Leader Herald’s website and Facebook site to read about and to comment regarding the mayor’s Aruba vacation taken during the worst weeks of need in the city.
Social posts soared as interest rose in the mayor’s trip.
The mayor has developed a habit of leaving the city when emergency strikes.
The Leader Herald has recorded more than 3,000 visitors to our sites since we posted news of him leaving the city and flying to Aruba while at the same time his crack team of highly paid public relations experts suggested the rest of us remain here to accept our fate.
Everett remains one of the state’s most virus stricken locales.
While vacationing last week in Aruba, the virus figures soared, the need for free food gained momentum, and the city searched for solutions to the mounting epidemic.
“I can run the city with my cell from anywhere in the world,” the mayor said many months back during an earlier trip to Aruba in March.
At that time, he left for Aruba as the city was shutting down knowing he would close city hall and not have to show up.
The mayor has shown a habit of leaving the city when the pressure for on-site, real-time 24/7 leadership is essential.
When he left for his trip last week, the city scored its highest level of infections since the pandemic changed the world in March.
According to a city hall source who wished to remain unnamed, during a scheduled trip to Aruba several years back a major snowstorm was bearing down on the city when the mayor was supposed to board his plane at Logan Airport.
“During a snow emergency, he was driven to the airport by a city snowplow,” reported the source.
The following sampling of the messages left on our Facebook page shows a wide range of thinking. We have not used the writer’s names, although the signed posts on our Facebook page for all to see can be reached and viewed at: EverettLeader- Facebook.com.
We urge our readers to check out all the comments. They are all signed.
Here are some of the posts:
“I like the mayor!! I have no issues with him… but if he is in Aruba and telling all of us to not travel then I am very disappointed in his actions !!!!” was one of many dozens of comments left on the LH Facebook site.
The comments are varied.
“Vote him out!!!” wrote an Everett resident.
“The only cell he should be working on is one in a State Prison,” wrote another visitor.
“Maybe that’s why you’re getting the run around from city hall for the assistance they are supposedly offering residents. That they approved you for and now won’t respond. He took the money and went to Aruba,” a visitor commented.
“Not to worry – he has his Everett mask with him – not on, but with him!” wrote another visitor. This comment refers to the face masks recently sent out to Everett residents.
Many visitors to our site expressed amazement and concern that the mayor has taken a vacation at this seminal moment in the city’s modern history.
More than a handful of visitors expressed unconcern about the mayor’s vacation to Aruba at a time of emergency.
“Who cares if he is away with his family. Everyone is out and about partying and gathering with friends lol everyone is being irresponsible lol,” an Everett woman wrote.
“He thinks he’s the tough guy that can do what he wants. Now he needs to resign,” an Everett man posted.
The Facebook comments are a reflection of the thinking of Everett residents who often scan social media.