Around the city…

Again And Again

It cannot be written about enough… the fact that in or within a decade, there will be a literal, physical new city within the city of Everett.

Davis Companies is about to begin building a new city on a property that has been an industrial wasteland, pol- luted and abused, for about 100 years.

The remediation will likely take a year or longer, with mountains of polluted soil being removed in order to make the property buildable.

In the end, and this is difficult to imagine, there will be an entire new grid work of streets and sidewalks, open spaces and commercial interests living side by side residential construction.

One of the keys to the success of this new city neighborhood about to begin happening is somehow integrating it with the other neighborhoods here, or making it a destination for Everett people all over the city.

Thank You Mike

Before the new council got its new president Robert Van Campen, Council President Mike Marchese, in one of his last acts, accepted a thank you from his colleagues for doing a good job as council president for the past year.

Councilor Stephanie Smith handed the citation to Marchese, who gratefully received it.

The citation noted that Marchese had run all the council meetings without rancor, and that he never was untoward to anyone who came before the board, or to other members during a session marked by many controversies and sometimes heated public speaking sessions.

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Marchese elected council president; “I will strive for change,” he says

By Josh Resnek

Mike Marchese says he has no illusions about becoming council president during a moment in the city’s history when the mayor calls all the shots.

Councilor Michael Marchese

“As a body, the council has not challenged the mayor in years. With the exception of taking away the mayor’s outrageous longevity payment, the mayor has total control of government,” he added.

“What I will attempt to do is to make the council more responsive to the needs of the people we represent. The mayor isn’t the only show in town. If the council wishes to act on an issue, we should all work together to have our say, and to make our presence in the city hall chamber relevant. Right now, we are largely and mostly irrelevant,” Marches said.

Marchese won the presidency with a 9-3 vote during an organizational meeting last week.

His emergence as council president is mostly ceremonial but partly about the acknowledgement of his colleagues that a Marchese presidency is welcome – or at least it is not opposed.

Marchese and Councilor Stephanie Smith have been among the most outspoken councilors.

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Vote for Mike Marchese

We urge Everett voters to vote for Mike Marchese next week in the Rep race against the incumbent, Joe McGonagle.

McGonagle is a nice enough man but he has shown a decisive inability to get involved as he should with issues affecting Everett and reaching to the State House on Beacon Hill.

Mike Marchese is a better guy than Joe McGonagle.

He does more for people than McGonagle.

Marchese is generous. He is stand up. He is not afraid to inject himself in public dialogue and to lead it.

He does not hide when his presence is demanded.

Marchese says he won’t sell out to special interests and that he can’t be bought by special interests.

We believe him. He has plenty of his own money. He doesn’t need to invite donations. He is paying for his own campaign expenses as a matter of doing what is right.

Marchese has been at the forefront of leading the battle among his colleagues to use the former Pope John School as a public school to reduce serious overcrowding.

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McGonagle, Marchese Push On in Rep Fight

McGonagle Mailing Attacks Marchese

By Josh Resnek

As the rep campaign spirals into its last week of contention, candidates incumbent Rep. Joe McGonagle and City Councilor, Rep hopeful Mike Marchese, have been lobbing bombs in private and in public.

Each have accused the other of being useless politicians, self-aggrandizing types who care only about themselves.

McGonagle’s advertising makes the point that Marchese is a money grubber working as hard as he can to put as much money into his own pocket as he can.

A citywide mailing that hit most Everett addresses referenced a drug bust at a bar owned by Marchese 20 years ago.

Marchese claims McGonagle is hiding under a rock, heading into Beacon Hill to act like a big- shot, doing nothing, and evading comments and public appearances for a host of important issues to perpetuate his rep’s salary.

“He’s supported by the mayor and by the disgraced racist Anthony DiPierro. That says it all about Joe,” Marchese told the Leader Herald.

Who is right and who is wrong between these two and whether or not it means anything that they are jousting will be revealed next week when voters go to the polls.

Policies always seem to get lost in personality battles in Everett between public figures like Marchese and McGonagle.

Does anyone really care what McGonagle’s policies are or what he speaks out on or what he remains silent about?

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Marchese, McGonagle Trade Blasts As They Come Down To The Wire

By Josh Resnek

In advertisements printed locally last week, Rep. Joe McGonagle accused Mike Marchese of being a money grub for himself.

Marchese, opposing McGonagle in the latter’s re-election bid, claimed again he is hiding under a rock.

Marchese and McGonagle, obviously, are at a wide divergence of personal feelings about each other.

Marchese, running as an independent, has made a contest out of McGongale’s re-election effort.

How successful he will be is a question mark.

This is known – McGonagle is a popular guy. He has been re-elected easily again and again.

McGonagle doesn’t get involved in the Everett political psychodrama, although he is supported by Mayor Carlo DeMaria and former City Councilor Anthony DiPierro who resigned in disgrace some months back following revelations of his overtly racist behavior.

McGonagle never got involved in that contretemps.

Marchese, on the other hand, was all over it.

In fact, Marchese became a leader of the anti-racism efforts and called for DiPierro’s resignation.

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