Letters to the Editor

Multicultural Fest Sept. 28

Dear Editor,

It’s hard to believe that September is half gone and our calendars are filling up with fall festivals. The Beachmont Improvement Committee (BIC) is planning its 3rd Annual Beachmont Multicultural Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28.

Once again, we will have beautifully costumed dancers from several Latin American countries, guitarists, singers, artists, and food.

Young and old will be able to participate and enjoy the giant puppet parade as it winds its way through Kimmerle Park. We will offer bistro table and other seating for visitors to comfortably enjoy the entertainment. There will be games and activities for our younger visitors as well. 

We hope you will visit us  at Kimmerle Park, located in Beachmont Square opposite the Beachmont T Station and Dunkin’ (Donuts) from 1-5 p.m.

The BIC thanks the Massachusetts and Revere Cultural Councils for grants to help fund this event for our residents. Come join us. Everyone is welcome!!

Beachmont Improvement Committee

In Response to Traffic Op-ed

Dear Editor,

I’m responding to the guest article of Mayor Arrigo dated Aug. 28, 2019, entitled, “Understanding Traffic and Addressing It.”

Mayor Arrigo fails to adequately address, or even appreciate, the two major problems we are experiencing, in the City of Revere.

The first is the overbuilding of Apartments and Traffic.

We can see all of the large apartment buildings and complexes sprouting up throughout Revere. There are the apartments being built up and down Revere Beach, in West Revere , in Rowe’s Quarry, at the Northgate Apartments, on the old Shaw’s site, on Yeamans Street (Ward 4) and soon, over at Suffolk Downs (HYM).

The result of all these new apartments is traffic. Because of the overbuilding of new apartments, Revere now has constant traffic problems and gridlock. The traffic is bad, and only getting worse.

Mayor Arrigo’s “attempts” at alleviating the traffic have been insufficient. In fact, his plans at addressing the traffic are based upon outdated, “mis-informed” data from MassDOT. Mayor Arrigo mistakenly contends that our traffic problems are caused by Revere Beach. As we all know, Revere Beach is not causing our traffic congestion on Revere Beach Boulevard at 6 a.m. Just like we know that Revere Beach is not causing our traffic problems in the dead of winter. How can we trust Mayor Arrigo to solve our traffic gridlock if he can’t even figure out where all the cars are coming from?

In an effort to be constructive, I have created a very simple equation, which, hopefully, Mayor Arrigo will review anytime he considers approving a new apartment building:

Lax City Hall Oversight + Apartments = Traffic

The intertwined problems of overbuilding apartments and the resulting traffic have been obvious to all, but Mayor Arrigo, for the past three years. In fact, :

Now the Revere Journal has reported ( Feb. 27) that the traffic data from MassDOT, that Mayor Arrigo used to approve the 13,000 apartments at Suffolk Downs, plus all the other approved Apartment buildings in the City of Revere, was based upon “mis-informed data.” In other words, this data is incorrect.

Recently, State Senator Boncore and Representative Madaro (East Boston) were at a MassDOT meeting where it was stated that, “Massachusetts has been using outdated traffic projections.” MassDOT has told Revere that between 2013-2018 our traffic would increase by 5 percent. These projections, relied upon by Mayor Arrigo, are untrue. Actually, as it was admitted by Andrew Paul, an engineer with the MassDOT, these projections of increased traffic were off by 45 percent. This is an increase of 20 times of what has been projected for the traffic conditions of Revere.

Another way of saying this is, when it comes to the traffic in Revere, Mayor Arrigo is cooking the books.

Despite the Mayor’s constant efforts at deflection, we know that his explanations for our traffic woes are wrong. We know the “Big Dig” is not the reason why we have gridlock traffic in this city. Neither are the addition of a third harbor tunnel or the new roadways under the old expressway the reason why we have traffic in Revere. The overbuilding of apartments in all corners of our city is the reason why we have such crippling traffic.

Since the beginning of Mayor Arrigo’s time in office City Hall has approved the building of approximately 4,400 new apartments. Every morning and afternoon, we can see on our roads the impact of such reckless building. Now consider that the soon to be built Suffolk Downs will add an additional 13,000 apartments, and at least that many cars to our roads. Mayor Arrigo’s reckless building spree causes Revere Residents congestion from the thousands of newly built apartments without any forethought, while relying on faulty traffic data.

The question I have is, How many Wake Up Calls does it Take for Mayor Arrigo to realize that he is recklessly, and haphazardly overbuilding apartments in Revere?

Despite Mayor Arrigo’s use of inaccurate traffic projections, constant deflection and misrepresentation of the causes of our traffic woes, the true facts are finally being disclosed. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out traffic, resulting from uncontrolled apartment construction, is our #1 problem. Now it is time to firmly address Revere’s traffic problems, because they are not going away and will not improve without certain action.

Let the record show, Councilor Dan Rizzo was the only Revere City Councilor to vote against the Suffolk Downs Project, and its 13,000 apartment units. This is not because Dan Rizzo is against development. Dan had the foresight to realize that approval of the Suffolk Downs Development, as planned, would further clog our already clogged roads, and would strain Revere’s water supply. Dan is just against senseless, careless, and reckless development, which does not improve the quality of life for all Revere residents.

We can still correct the errors caused by Mayor Arrigo’s reckless policy of uncontrolled apartment construction and the traffic it causes. However, to do so we can’t afford anymore missed “wake up calls.”

We need to go back to the basics. We are a city blessed with public transportation and unrivaled access to Boston and Logan Airport. We need to take advantage of our attributes, and build sensibly while considering how do we improve the quality of life of all residents of Revere.

Hal Abrams

Former School Committeeman, and Retirement Board Member

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