DOES TONY HAVE A PONY IN THE RACE TO EVICT COLUMBUS? JUST TAKE A LOOK…

                                                                     Tony's Pony?

Here is a call to action from Councilor Tony Palomba. It isn’t getting maximum circulation because, so far, he has shared it on certain social media sites, while electing not to share it on others. So, you are likely reading this on a Facebook site that he decided to skip.

Here goes:

“Time sensitive request! The Public Works Subcommittee of the City Council has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, 4/18 at 7:00 PM to consider Pigsgusset Initiative’s petition to change the name of the Columbus Delta. While many have signed the petition, sent numerous letters to the entire City Council and have testified at the full Council hearing in June (2022), we have been asked to send more letters in advance of this next hearing.”

I need to pause right here. The underlining of the last sentence is mine. It begs the question: Who is the “we” that he is referring to? Have members of the City Council asked to have more letters sent to themselves?

Or does that “we” refer to one of Tony’s non-government leadership positions, such as his board of directors position at Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment, which just happens to be the principal sponsor, if not the actual creator, of the petition to rename the Columbus Delta?

Tony’s call to action continues:

“Here is a template letter that people can use as is or adapt as you see fit. The email addresses for the 3 Councilors who are members of the subcommittee. Please take some time in the next few days to send your letter to these Council members.”

So, Tony’s call to action includes a template letter to spare his minions the onerous responsibility of thinking for themselves. So, what do you think? Does Tony’s template letter invite its readers to express their own position on the renaming of the delta? Yes, if they agree with him. You will see the template letter, but the call to action continues:

“Also, if you are able to join us for the 4/18 hearing, please do show up. If you're not able to attend in person, there will also be virtual access. Here is a link that will tell you how to access the meeting virtually.

Thank you so much for your support of these efforts as we continue to work towards a Watertown community that is inclusive and welcoming to all of the many people who live here.”

So, in this final paragraph, who exactly is the city councilor thanking, and what “efforts” is he referring to? Obviously, it has nothing to do with his position as an elected official. This is about a field marshal rallying his militia.

Now, let’s take a look at the template letter. I will spare you my sentence-by-sentence analysis, but I did underline some choice statements.

April 13, 2023

"Dear Public Works Committee Chair Piccirilli,

I am writing to you in support of changing the name of the Delta in Watertown Square. We first wrote to the City Council about this in August 2020. The center of our city is where hundreds of neighbors gather to make our voices heard about a variety of issues. To some, the current name of the square and presence of the Columbus monument is upsetting. While others feel strongly that the name should stay the same, I ask: What side of history do you want to be on? And what side of history do you want Watertown to be on? Nearly 500 years after papal decrees were used to propel European colonial conquests, the Vatican recently repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which Columbus used to justify the slaughter of the Taino people. Is the public interest served by keeping a name that offends some while failing to reflect our unique community today?

In your wisdom, you passed Watertown Council Resolution #85 in 2019, which states “The Town Council shall have sole authority for the naming of Squares or Intersections in the public right-of-way under the control of the Town of Watertown.”  Part A further states “the Town Council understands that said naming may have long-lasting effects and will span future generations whose perceptions and values might change.

Times have changed. Italian-Americans are no longer persecuted as they were when they first arrived in the United States. The discrimination and violence they experienced is a stain on our country’s history. Thankfully, it is in the past. Wouldn’t it be best to have the center of our city named for all the people who live here now? And shouldn’t the monument, that belongs to a private religious organization, be returned to them? It does not belong in our public square.

Thank you for your consideration,"

Well, folks, that’s the template letter, or should I call it what it actually is, “the speech?”

Here’s my question:

When a citizen goes before their elected representatives to provide testimony on issues that they care about, do they have the right to expect impartiality from those representatives?

I happen to be a realist. We can’t expect those representatives to check their opinions and biases at the door, but I think we have the right to expect that they will be open-minded judges of the testimonies they hear.  

This conflict of interest is not about legality. It’s about blurring the lines and making it seem normal. It’s about ethics and perception. And it’s about trust. Do you trust those whom you elect to represent you? Because if you don’t, then you don’t trust your government. And that is a truly sad state of affairs if you happen to believe in democracy.

COUNCILOR PALOMBA,

OUT OF RESPECT TO THE INSTITUTION

YOU SERVE,

RECUSE YOURSELF!

BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING

TO DO.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle for Watertown

WILL CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BE EVICTED FROM WATERTOWN SQUARE?

The Battle for Watertown (referring to the actual ongoing battle, not just the name of this blog) resumes this Tuesday, April 18, at 7 pm.

This particular battle is mostly about a rock.

Not this Rock…

It’s about THIS rock…

The battle began at Watertown City Hall on June 21, 2022, when a petition was presented to the then-town council to change the name of the Columbus Delta. Like many people, I had no idea it was called the Columbus Delta because I had always heard it referred to as simply the delta. For over forty years, I walked past that rock without ever noticing the name Columbus Delta engraved in the rock in big capital letters.

This turned out to be a highly emotional meeting before a jam-packed audience. We got to learn quite a bit about the Pequossettes, who occupied Watertown before Europeans invaded, as Europeans did pretty much all over the world, a few centuries ago. It was quite a lecture, designed to deliver the mother of all guilt trips. If you would like to read my impolite blog post about that meeting, you can pull it up here.

From that June 2022, meeting and from online comments that followed, I learned that some people cannot even look at Columbus Rock without being traumatized and that groups conducting protests on the delta have been known to cover the rock with a blanket so its existence and message could do no harm to those who are especially susceptible to being traumatized.

 I don’t know if the message on the rock is considered a microaggression or a macroaggression or if a separate aggression is committed every time a vulnerable individual, walking past the rock, happens to glimpse the message.

But, on the other side of this coin, there are longtime Watertown residents, many of whom are Italian American, who revere Columbus and embrace the message on the rock. To them, this is their rock, it was their parents’ rock, and it should be their children’s rock and their grandchildren’s rock.

So what do we do?

Or, more accurately, what do our elected representatives do?

On Tuesday, April 18, at 7 pm, the City Council’s Committee on Public Works will open their hearts and minds to the community and then vote to make their recommendation to the Council on the petition to rename the Columbus Delta.

The Committee’s three members are Vincent Piccirilli, chair, Lisa Feltner, vice-chair, and Tony Palomba, secretary.

It might be worth noting that the petition is the work product of the group known as Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment and also worth noting that Councilor Palomba is listed on their site as a member of their steering committee, a.k.a. board of directors.

Well, I’m sure that in order to avoid an obvious conflict of interest, he will recuse himself from this vote, as any principled public official would do.

And if the Committee votes to recommend that the full Council adopts the petition, I trust that at that Council meeting, Councilor Palomba and Councilor Gardner, herself listed as a steering committee member, will both steer themselves out of the Council chambers while the vote is taking place.

And as for the solution to addressing this sticky issue in a (need I say, election year?), they could simply vote to officially rename the delta, “The Delta,” leaving  Columbus Rock untouched. But that would be an untidy solution since the rock clearly says Columbus Delta in big capital letters.

Maybe they could simply vote to provide a similar monument elsewhere on the green dedicated to the Pequossettes, which would display whatever message the petitioners would see fit. They might even find an actual Pequossette to appear at its dedication.

This would allow us all to be good neighbors, respecting − even while disliking − each other’s political and cultural views. We would all then be free to picnic or protest at the rock of our choice, where perhaps civilized thought-provoking conversations would occasionally take place between members of the disagreeing tribes, without government intervention.

And what a great lesson all of this could provide for our student population, where they could see tangible proof that great compromise is attainable, while also being exposed to the one diversity that too infrequently sees the light of day – diversity of opinion.

Oh, and regarding the location of this additional monument, not to worry, neither tribe will have a placement advantage over the other, because, from both locations, everyone will have an equally spectacular and inescapable view of our great monument of public folly…

…Godzilla on Galen!

Bruce Coltin, The Battle for Watertown

THE WOMAN WHO LOVES GODZILLA AND HAS NO PATIENCE WITH STUPID PEOPLE (WHICH MIGHT INCLUDE YOU)

I guess you could say: It’s in the eye of the beholder.

When I look at the building at 66 Galen Street, I see a monster rising out of the sea (or in this case, a river) quaking the ground as it plods onto Galen Street, where towering over the city, it snatches up pedestrians and cars in its giant hands.

 And here’s Godzilla on Galen, formerly known as 66 Galen Street.

But some of you see it differently. One member of the community likened the eyesore of a building to a giant spaceship and reminded us that the developers will be landing another giant spaceship right next to it.

Hmm. Spaceship?

My Godzilla impression came from my view of the monsterish building, while walking up Galen Street from Watertown Square. So I decided to take a second look. I walked carefully up the sidewalk brushing past the monster in order to view it from its rear end. When I reached the halfway point, I immediately gained a different perspective. It struck me, not as a monster or a spaceship but as a cruise ship.

Actually, more like a surrealistic cruise ship.

Here's a side view of the building.

 Now imagine that you live in West Watertown where Broder, the developer of the former Cannistraro site is building their life science “campus,” and something that looks like this becomes the permanent view from your kitchen window or backyard. And imagine that life science workers are relaxing on the rooftop patio, looking into your kitchen window or backyard. That’s the kind of thing that happens when nobody is looking out for you.

Then I continued my climb up Galen Street until I reached the end of the ship. Here’s a shot of it from behind.

 

It’s docked awfully close to the street. Don’t you think?

Now, here’s a shot of a real cruise ship.

What’s a key difference between 66 Galen and a real cruise ship? One can sail off into the sunset and the other stays put, casting dark, mood-dampening shadows on the miniature people and vehicles that cross its path.

I would like to think that as a city of 35,000 people, where many of us will disagree on any number of local issues, we can all come together to agree that building #1 at 66 Galen is an abomination and building #2, once it’s built, will be equally monsterish, or spaceship-ish or cruise ship-ish. Take your pick.

In today’s Watertown a similar abomination could soon be coming to a neighborhood near you – like at the former Cannistraro site and the former site of Sterritt Lumber, and anywhere else in Watertown that will accommodate a Carnival cruise ship.

You might be alarmed by this prospect, but not everyone is. In fact, for some among us, it’s party time!

The following quotes come from the same person. She is responding to comments on Watertown News, where she is countering the many people objecting to the biotech invasion, specifically 66 Galen Street and the Broder plan for the former Cannistraro site. I’ve quoted some of their alarmed, articulate comments in my previous post.

Here are some of her comments in response to theirs.

Watertown News, March 11, 2023:

“There is NO need to take action to limit biotech in Watertown. Biotech is a clean, modern industry which brings educated people and high paying jobs to Watertown.”

Watertown News, March 13, 2023:

“I am a Watertown resident for 7 years, homeowner and taxpayer. My doctor, dentist and hair stylist are located in Watertown. And, like other Watertown residents, I’m qualified for some of those biotech jobs because I put in significant time and effort to make myself qualified. I want more people like me to move to Watertown, so they can both live and work in the same town.”

Watertown News, March 17, 2023:

“There’s no need to wait for anything. What’s happening in Watertown is *modernization* and it’s a good thing. It will bring more educated people to live and shop in Watertown. I think the new buildings look great. They’re only 4 or 5 stories… not “massive” or “super high” in my opinion… and appear to be designed to fit into the landscape. Also, they’re designed to “green” standards.”

“For those who worry about “empty buildings” – don’t. All the biotech lab buildings open now or under construction in Watertown will be utilized, because lease rates will fluctuate to match demand. Remember that, in a free market, *price* adjusts to rebalance supply vs. demand. Moreover, there is still *significant* demand for biotech lab space as new small biotech start-ups open, while others lay off staff or shut down. Biotech is a fluid ecosystem, unlike other industries, so people looking in from the outside should not jump to conclusions.”

Watertown News, March 17, 2023:

“I simply disagree. It seems that modernization has a bad name with some. The truth is that, throughout history and around the world, no place stays the same over the decades and centuries. I am firmly in the camp of progress. I think the new buildings look modern and appropriate, and my opinion is as valid as anyone else’s.”

That was quite a lecture. There are more of her highly quotable comments, but I think you get her drift. I was about to summarize, but there really is no need. She is crystal clear. There is no ambiguity. And the woman who loves Godzilla is not alone. There are plenty of others who agree with her, so I am grateful that she is their spokesperson, putting it all on the record for the rest of us to see.

Watertown, my friends, is up for grabs.

Perhaps I have failed to mention this (just kidding), but we are in an election year. Can we please get at least one candidate, who runs on a pro-neighborhood and sensible progress platform and who will understand what it takes to get elected?  And who once elected, will be the councilor who always asks:

How will this decision impact this neighborhood?

Because without respecting the neighborhoods, we are at the mercy of anyone with deep pockets and a good song and dance.

In the meantime, 66 Galen stands and will continue to stand as a monument that will serve as a constant and powerful reminder of progress gone bad.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle for Watertown