Editorials – Everett Leader Herald

The people have spoken

SEPTEMBER 21: The “Vote” sign at the door to City Hall points the way to Ward 5 Precinct 2. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Primary elections are preliminaries for the big event on November 2.

In this primary, it can be said that many people have voted and many have had their say.

The primary numbers don’t compare with the final election tallies.

The final election will bring out many more voters than in the primary.

But the primary sets the tone for what is to follow.

In many respects, the primary is the election, except to say, primary winners, can down in flames in the election.

Second place finishers can battle to the top in the election and defeat the primary winner.

We’ve witnessed such political events during a long life. Margins are important.
Wide margins of loss in the primary are sometimes almost impossible to bridge in the election.

Yet many primary second placers can work hard and smart and finish off the primary winner in the finale on November 2. We learn that political campaigns are all idiosyncratic.

What does this mean?

Patriots looking good

Several weeks ago, we said with great zeal the Patriots were going nowhere with Cam Newton at quarterback.

We were right about that.

Mac Jones looks to be the real thing.

He is not Tom Brady, but then, there only is one GOAT.

Jones throws the ball like a rocket. He has pinpoint aim guided by great reflexes and he is able to stand in the pocket ala Brady and complete passes at a high level of success.

On second thought

Maybe the Patriots will have a good year after all with their new and talented young quarterback, Mac Jones.

Jones was a great college star at Alabama who set national passing records for one of the great college football teams in America.

That means something as he takes over the leadership position with the Patriots.

Mac Jones is not Tom Brady. There is, after all, only one GOAT.

But Mac Jones has 25 years on Brady.

He is at the start of his run. Brady is coming to the end of his run.

This is fact, not fiction.

The $96,000 Disgrace

The allegations made by City Clerk Sergio Cornelio against the mayor have a solid ring of truth. Revelations that the mayor recently received $96,000 of Cornelio’s money after threatening Cornelio’s financial well-being with the possible loss of his job, as well as a threat to cut the city clerk’s office budget, unless Cornelio gave him the money is one more reason for voters in this city to remove Mayor Carlo DeMaria from public office.

What the mayor did to Cornelio, threatening him, demanding money from him, receiving $96,000 from him for nothing but to satisfy the mayor’s greed, is a crime against Cornelio, a disgrace for the office of mayor of Everett and it is an abuse of his position, his authority, and his power as the mayor of the city.

The mayor could do such a thing with any number of people who are scared, indeed, petrified they could lose their jobs unless they satisfied his whims.

The mayor’s payment from Cornelio for $96,000 is a dark moment in mayoral history here.

Over-development

We received many comments about the over-development story we published on the front page last week.

We made the case that the city needs development but that over-development must be stopped.

Lexington St. dwarfed by new a building. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Why?

To save the neighborhoods from being trampled and changed so that they are unrecognizable.

The city needs a cohesive development schedule or plan.

Presently, anyone can build anything they want (so long as the mayor is their friend or benefactor).

We need more planning for development than now goes on at city hall.

The vision the mayor has of a great Everett metropolis like Sinclair Lewis’ mythical city of Zenith in his great novel, “Babbitt,” is not going to happen here.

Everett’s charm, if you will, is not found in monstrous apartment houses and now planned for skyscrapers – although the eastern side of the Parkway is a good place for giant developments like that.