Letters to the Editor

THANK YOU TO CITY COUNCIL FOR SUFFOLK DOWNS VOTE

Dear editor:

Thank you to the City Council for taking steps to strengthen Revere’s future by moving forward with the transformative development project at Suffolk Downs. Your vision will bear fruit for Revere for years to come.

As to Councilor Rizzo’s comment that there “isn’t any mitigation,” it’s important to point out that you don’t mitigate positive impacts. Mitigation is to compensate for significant negative impacts of something like a slots parlor, which would attract petty crime, and exploit addicts. 

You don’t mitigate $40 million+ in tax revenue – a staggering figure that will dramatically enhance Revere’s ability to strengthen its schools, improve its roads and infrastructure, and provide programming for youth and seniors.

You don’t mitigate the creation of jobs for residents, or places for residents to enjoy high-quality shopping and dining right here in Revere, without having to look with envy at what other cities have.

You don’t mitigate the creation of significant acreage of public parkland and open and recreation space, which is a crucial part of HYM’s plan. The amount of open space available for residents to enjoy will rapidly increase thanks to this development. 

And you don’t mitigate the creation of an innovation center, which will attract high-end, 21st-century businesses to Revere, and help ensure that the hundreds of talented kids who graduate from Revere High School every year will have an opportunity to stay here and start businesses here. 

With any development project will come trade-offs – there is no such thing as a free lunch. 

But unlike the short-sighted, quick-fix visions offered in previous years, the vision laid out by HYM, Mayor Arrigo, and the City Council takes a historic property and turns it in to an asset that will make Revere a desirable place to live and work for decades to come – rather than laying rotting and dormant, which has happened too often to commercial properties in our city. 

When I worked in the Mayor’s office, I got to witness firsthand every day how Mayor Arrigo, his team, and the Council are working hard to change Revere’s reputation and improve the business climate here in the city. The hard work is finally paying off. 

Kudos to all those in city government and in the private sector whose foresight will improve the lives of all Revere residents.

Joe Gravellese

 

 

CONNECT PROGRAM’S NEW OFFICE

Dear Editor,   

Thank you for your recent article about the CONNECT Program’s new satellite office in Revere. With the City of Revere’s support, we are delighted to offer Revere residents free instruction and support to get jobs, manage their finances, access training and education, and solve housing challenges.  Revere residents will be able to get some services on the spot, and get help accessing other services at the main office in Chelsea. 

The new office is open on Tuesday afternoons 1-5 p.m. at 13 Walden St., with ambitions to expand those hours in the future. 

Since 2012 the CONNECT program has coordinated the services of five organizations under one roof to support residents’ economic mobility.  Together, these organizations — The Neighborhood Developers (TND), Metro Credit Union, Bunker Hill Community College, Metro Housing Boston and MassHire Metro North — help residents in Chelsea and surrounding communities make a better future for themselves.  In Revere CONNECT also works closely with the Revere Community School, which offers English classes and other adult basic education in the evenings at Revere High School.  As Fatou Drammeh, coordinator at the Revere Community School, points out, English skills are a major barrier to a better life for many people in Revere, who together speak over 30 languages!  We look forward to forging relationships with other important community stakeholders as we shape our services to Revere’s needs over the coming years.

Stefanie Shull, Director, CONNECT