Speaking of Mitt Romney

Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm, is buying Talbot's for $369 million, according to a report on Boston.com.

No word on whether the soon-to-be private company will retrench and close more stores, including our store on Green Street.

But the struggling chain already had closed 90 stories since March 2011.Maybe this deal will reverse things.

Odd ending to CVS

I've generally been a proponent of the proposal to build a CVS at the intersection of Storey Ave and Low Street, but I have a difficult time arguing with the final outcome of Tuesday's council meeting.

The council was right not to suspend the rule requiring two readings, as reported in the Daily News. Any effort to circumvent the rules - no matter how good the intentions of the sympathetic councilors - would have been an unfitting end to such a controversial issue.

I hope the entire proposal can come back again to the council. Didn't sound likely.

As an aside, why is no one building on that large empty lot sitting off Storey Ave near Port Plaza?

What if...

you read my column on what ifs on Newburyport Today.

Just got an interesting phone call

I typically avoid phone calls with odd phone numbers, but I just took this call. A woman caller - with a slight Southern accent - asked me if I could take a three-question opinion poll. I said sure.

1. Are you voting for Barack or Mitt Romney?
I told her I was probably going to vote for President Obama.

2. Are you voting for Elizabeth Warren or Scott Brown?
The Barack thing pissed me off a bit, so I said Elizabeth Warren (and that may hold true.)

So I'm thinking this is some kind of National GOP poll. Then came ....

3. In Newburyport are you in favor of the proposed Local Historic District.?

I said I was.

Then I asked, who was funding the question. She claimed she only knew it came from "Voter Research."

Finally (and yes, this is a fourth question) ...

4. Do you support the debt exclusion question for the schools and senior center? (I'm paraphrasing here.)

I said I did.


Anyone else get a call? Any insights on the source?

Exit, Stage Left

A bit of research keeps bringing me back to old posts on this blog. I do miss the vitality we once had here. I keep trying to bring it back, but I've got too much going on right now.

Anyway, we'll keep trying.

Happened upon this little ditty about high end Boston jeweler Shreve, Crump & Lowe. The Boston Globe article details some labor charges facing the company, but the interesting element for me centered around our "Billionaire Steve Karp's" investment in the company.

He apparently had a stake in the jewelry store before exiting last year.

Karp, who along with his partners invested an undisclosed sum in Shreve’s, said he had no involvement in operations and was unaware of the federal investigation.

“It hadn’t been financially successful,” he said. “We didn’t want to keep putting more capital in the business. We were happy to get out of it.”

Says to me that Karp isn't afraid of pulling out of a deal if the numbers don't swing in his favor. Doubt that will ever happen here, but who knows. He acquired most of the downtown seven years ago (2005). That's a long time to a dog and to an investor.

One has to think his firm, Newburyport Development, is making money from the shops, restaurants and marinas. But is operational revenue enough?

Did I miss this?

Item on Boston.com

Amesbury, Chelsea, and Newburyport have adopted union-backed changes to their employee health insurance plans that they say will bring much-needed savings.

Port Pride Coffee

A very nice woman, Michelle Piotrowski, sent a very complimentary email.

I respond positively to compliments.

I am writing to let you know that I am hosting a coffee on Friday May 25th at 10AM. Someone (TBD) from the city and Port Pride folks will be here as well to answer any questions people have.

I am doing the coffee then, to take advantage of the window of time that the preschool crowd has, but littler kids are welcome.

I live on Bartlett Dr, which is off Turkey hill Rd, and  I can be reached by email michellepiotrowski@me.com or at 978-255-2179.

Would you mind posting this on your blog? I'd love to get a good turn out.

 There you go.

For a complete list of events, go here.

Port Pride

Nice letter in the paper today about the need to vote on June 5.

In fact, it leaves me wondering...why isn't every parent of school aged kids carrying signs and pushing for this question.

I understand some people oppose the project, and I respect their various reasons even if I don't agree with them.

But if I can send my kid to a new school for $30 a month tops, I'm finding a way to pay for that.

Meet the New Brez

I thought the dogs and ponies performed well last night at Mayor Holaday's school forum.

For those who haven't seen a picture of the proposed Bresnahan School, here you go...

For those without any sense of humor (or sense at all), that's actually the Garfield School, where I spent grades 5-8.

A fine place to attend school; a GREAT place to play stickball.

Anyway, no real revelations. As I noted in the comments to the previous post, the Solar Panels on the Nock will be used again. In fact, since the school's heat will be converted from electric (!!!) to gas (I think) the solar panels will be able to produce a great deal of the school's electricity.

Other revelations...
* Murphy Road, which will serve as an access point to the new school, will be upgraded with sidewalks and new sewer pipes, all part of the costs.
* The city, according to the reimbursement formula used by the state, has done a nice job of maintaining the buildings it currently has. In the eyes of the state, this isn't an issue of neglect.
* The fields behind the middle school will be upgraded to compensate somewhat for the loss of the fields at the Bres. (The new school will be built on the playing fields; the senior community center will stand where the current school does.)
* People seemed concerned about the bathrooms. The youngest kids will have a bathroom in their classroom. The older kids will not.
* The amountless ballot questions are required by the state.
* The Nock estimate went up from $17m to $27m because the city couldn't have a solid estimate done until the state gave a green light for reimbursement.
* Both schools will be highly energy efficent.

Let me know if I missed something. I attended the first part of the meeting, but The Boy was hungry (swimming lessons followed soccer practice followed by sign holding will do that to you) so I watched the rest from home. It's probably on cable if you're interested.

All in all, it's a good presentation. The one killer piece of info would be the anticipated cost of repairing, maintaining these buildings as they are for the next 20 years. Roofs, electrical systems, windows, skylights and many other things will need to be replaced or repaired. How much would that cost?

If we had that info, we could say, "We're going to be spending XX million anyway. So why don't we spend a little more and get two entirely new school buildings that will serve the community well for the next several decades." That seems like a winning argument.

Here's the actual picture, btw.

What's Wrong with Some Division?

Look, Newburyport folks don't agree on everything.

Yes, we love our town. Yes, we think it's the best place in the world to live. We have each other's back if someone needs help.

We care for each other. We really do.

But we don't agree on everything.

An outsider looking in might snicker at our hot button issues.

• Should we have a big park on the waterfront or a REALLY big park.
• Should we have protections for our huge inventory of beautiful historic homes or shouldn't we?
• Should union electricians have been hired to do the work on the expansion of our excellent community hospital?
• Should residents pay $5 a year - or visitors 50 cents an hour - to park downtown?
• Should we change zoning to accommodate the development of land that's adjacent to our commercial sector while preserving 20 or so acres of open space.

The answer to each question involves several shades of gray, but the above give succinct summaries of our larger controversies.

All in all, if those are our major disagreements. I think we're in pretty good shape.*

So let's put up our yard signs. Have spirited discussions. As long as we're respectful and peaceful I see nothing wrong with a little divisiveness.

At the end of the day, this will still be the best place in the world to live. I think we can all agree upon that.

*The one issue seems fairly black-and-white to me - the sorry state of our public school buildings. I'm a full support of the debt exclusion questions and I'll post more on this after I've toured the schools. To me, this falls under "having each other's back if someone needs help."