Today's News

I was going to toss these into a larger post with some fresh Karp material, but the Web site containing the Karp tidbits is painfully slow. So I'll provide those a bit later.

But I did want to point you toward a few worthwhile tidbits in today's Daily News.

The first piece details a story that's been told but it never seems to get old. Victor Tine writes a profile on architect Edmund Burke who was among the handful of people who saved this town from destruction.

From the article:

Edmund Burke was a native of the central Massachusetts town of Lancaster. He graduated from MIT with a degree in architecture and moved to Newburyport when he married city native Ruth Connolly in 1939.

He had a professional interest - and a personal one - in the architectural heart of his adopted city's downtown. Newburyport's central business district boasted the largest collection in the nation of intact Federal Period commercial structures, most of them built in the 10 years after an 1811 fire destroyed the city's downtown.

"He used the word 'handsome' a lot, and I think he considered them handsome buildings," said the Burkes' nephew, local attorney James Connolly.

In the early '60s, the original urban renewal plan proposed demolition of many of Newburyport's downtown buildings.

Ruth Burke was a multi-generational Newburyporter whose grandfather had owned the Phoenix Building at 20 State St., the first structure to be rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1811.

When Ruth Burke learned that the Phoenix Building was one of those slated to be razed in the urban renewal program, she decided to work to stop it, according to her niece, Elizabeth Enders of New York.

She found a willing ally in her husband.

I recognize times have changed, and the downtown looked like hell. But I just can't imagine any rational plan that involved tearing that building down.

The piece ran exactly on the right day--Election Eve. If enough people read how one or two people can change the fate of the city perhaps more than half of us won't forget to vote tomorrow.

The other piece I was going to direct to you was Stephen Tait's City Hall notebook. He writes that the city will not be the recipient of the toxic waste from Woburn after all. I can't find it on the Web site, otherwise there would be a link.

Back to our "for entertainment purposes only" voting.