Newburyport, The Waterfront

As I type away, massive opposition against Mayor John Moak’s stand to pave over Newburyport’s Waterfront is beginning to intensify.

Are we surprised? No.

This is my guess, if Mayor John Moak came out and said, yup, let’s do some combination of park and parking, the majority of opposition that is mounting feverishly would stop and a great sigh of relief could be heard across our small seaport New England city.

The “word on the street” is that Mayor John Moak is entrenched in his position of all parking on the Central Waterfront, and has absolutely no intention of backing down period. One would hope that the “word on the street” is wrong, but it is the opinion of this local political blogger, that the “word on the street” might well be true.

So, I would very much like Mayor John Moak to wake up, politically so to speak, “drop the waterfront rope” and do a little political compromising here.

The truth is there are no easy answers to the parking solution, answers maybe, but not easy ones. To face that reality, and get on with wrapping this whole waterfront thing up, would be a wonder. Plus, Mayor John Moak would go down in the history books as finally helping the whole thing to come to a resolution. Not a bad legacy. Believe me, that would work for me.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport