A report last week indicated Boston Mayor Thomas Menino sent a letter to Suffolk Downs management expressing his displeasure with plans revealing the track is considering opening the casino first, if approved to do so, and then getting on with…
Category: Editorials
Letter of Intent Re-energizes Business Possibilities
The net result of Suffolk Downs ownership putting up the state’s required $400,000 non-refundable fee last week in order to submit the track’s official letter of intent with the state Gambling Commission has been to excite dramatic interest in the…
The Opening of School
Next week will mark the official opening of Revere’s Public Schools. However, the McKinley School is already open for its extended learning program this week. One would be hard pressed to imagine just how many moving parts there are when…
Governor Quashes Ethanol Trains; Petruccelli Motion the Difference
Revere residents have Governor Deval Patrick and Senator Anthony Petruccelli to thank for putting the kibosh on ethanol delivery through this city by rail once a week. The plan to use trains to transport 1.7 billion gallons of the highly…
Suffolk Downs Steps Up to Plate
With the swift writing of a giant check, Suffolk Downs has entered the legitimate realm of possibility when it comes to turning the track into a full fledged casino. This happened last week when Suffolk Downs President Chip Tuttle wrote…
Moose Club Smoking Ban is Doing the Right Thing
The local Moose Club has banned smoking inside its facility – and is the first private club in this city to do so. As such, it is setting a great example and one, frankly, that was long overdue. Revere’s private…
Perception is everything
Everett Representative Stephen Smith by all appearances has been given a pass by the Revere Building Department that has been dealing with Smith for longer than three months and with not much success. Even though Smith was in Chelsea District…
Car Rental Surcharge Going out the Window?
A few years back, the city fathers, led by the late Councillor at Large and former mayor George Colella, implemented a tax on car rentals originating in Revere with the stipulation that that tax be put toward paying for a…
Gaming Commission needs a Jump Start
There is not a hint of question that leaders in communities to be impacted by casino gambling are at odds with the timetable recently set out by the state Gaming Commission. Mayor’s Menino and Rizzo and City Manager Jay Ash…
The Summer of 2012
The tragedy in Colorado has touched Americans in different ways everywhere during this otherwise lovely summer of 2012. At the Showcase Cinema complex in Revere Monday evening the theaters were evacuated during a showing of Batman. Some theater goers were…
The Sandcastle Success Story
In just nine years the Sandcastle Festival has become one of the best attended, talked about and written about summer venues on this part of the Northeast coast. From a very humble, quiet, somewhat stumbling and fumbling beginning, the festival…
Our Opinions: of Sandcastles and Things
The city is on the eve of another Sandcastle Festival, which will likely prove to be the mother of all festivals ever to have occurred in this city in its long existence. Master sculptors from around the nation will again…
The New Transit Center
The recent ribbon cutting for the all new Wonderland Parking Lot and Transit Center, known by its official name as the Intermodal Transit Center, was a significant moment in this city’s modern history and in the history of transportation in…
People Politics: Running into a Pulitzer Prize Winner at the Bin
Early Tuesday morning, thinking about bacon and sunnyside eggs, black toast and cream cheese, we made our way onto Shirley Avenue and into the Bagel Bin. The Bin had just reopened after closing for a vacation for a week. Seated…
The Fourth of July Celebration
It will be a thoughtful day for many of those celebrating the Fourth of July holiday. Virtually nothing about our lives is the way it used to be anymore. Everything about American life is vastly changed. The future looks uncertain.…
The Unemployment Rate
State statistics reveal that Revere’s overall unemployment rate has dropped to 6.8 percent. At least this is what the rate was in May. The local unemployment rate has gone down 2 points since January and it is almost 4 points…
Fire Chief Good Choice
Mayor Dan Rizzo has re-appointed Fire Chief Gene Doherty as the city’s director of Emergency Management – a position he is eminently qualified to hold. It is likely there is no one serving in municipal government here more capable of…
Joe Quarantello
The city has a new Licensing Board Commissioner and he is Joe Quarantello. Mr. Quarantello was sworn in at city hall earlier this week. He took the oath of office with Mayor Dan Rizzo standing almost by his side. Mr.…
Traffic Mitigation
On first blush, the traffic mitigation package unveiled by Suffolk Downs recently is dedicated to two major thrusts – to reduce the McClellan Highway backlog, which will require a major piece of work in East Boston with a flyover at…
The City Budget
The city is once again dealing with limited funds to meet its obligations for the coming year. In other words, even after carefully watching all spending and making cuts here and there, the city needs new revenue streams or added…