Carlo's calm

If you follow Everett politics and have paid close attention to the politics practiced here during the past 10 years, then you can come to appreciate the persona Mayor Carlo DeMaria is developing.
Since taking office in January, the new mayor has tried to mend fences, to bring together competing constituencies, to broaden his public view and to be as inclusive as he can, knowing that Everett is a politically difficult place.
And we believe Mayor DeMaria has succeeded in bringing together many people and that the proof in the pudding is the relative calm at City Hall among all the important municipal employees and departments.
The wounds that existed when Mayor Hanlon left have largely been healed, and because of the mayor’s interest in healing rather than in making new enemies or creating new problems because of miscalculated public policy initiatives, his administration is succeeding.
The mayor’s biggest obstacle today and for the foreseeable future is the economy. The national economy is tanking. The local economy has weakened. Reality is setting in. Real estate values continue to fall. Foreclosures have hurt many local residents and homeowners, and frankly, the outlook is for economic weakness rather than strength.
If the mayor can keep the city solvent while moving forward with all the work that needs to be done, if he can maintain the calm among competing constituencies here and if he can help the city government to go along with the new ideas his administration is proposing, well, he can become one of the most popular young mayors in the state.
Those are all big ifs, but he seems to be doing the right thing and acting the right way.
It’s all about persona.

The gas and oil crisis

Everett residents and residents nationwide are absolutely freaked out by the precipitous rise in the price for gasoline and heating oil.
The price is going up and up, higher and higher, and no one in a position of responsibility believes that there is anything that can be done.
We’re told by the president this is the free marketplace. Controls are wrong. Controls will do nothing.
Well, we’d bet at this juncture, that controls would cause the price of oil to collapse, and especially if the controls are placed on the speculators who are pushing up the prices every day when such prices rises aren’t warranted.
We’re not big-time economist, but we know supply is not outpacing demand. If it were, there’d be no gasoline at the gas station when we fill up our automobiles.
Home heating oil is going to be $4.00 a gallon, about $800 a fill-up for an average tank refill in a private home.
We have a useless Congress and a useless president.
Who are we supposed to depend on?