Tom Ryan in the latest issue of the Undertoad, September 29, 2006 has suggested that I started the Newburyport Political Blog to blog about Mayor John Moak’s failures.

Oh.

In truth, if Donna Holaday had been elected mayor of Newburyport, MA, I am not sure that the Newburyport Political Blog would exist. When I started the blog on January 1, 2006, I desperately wanted to make sure that “progressives” had some sort of “voice.”

And actually, I had sort of a sinking feeling about Mr. Moak being mayor. But I never anticipated that I would be quite this disappointed, if not down right panicked about the future of Newburyport, MA under his leadership.

If Donna Holaday had been elected mayor, I think that the Planning Office would not be in disarray. Newburyport would still have Nick Cracknell as Newburyport’s Planning Director and Julie LaBranche as City Planner.

I am quite sure that Donna Holaday would have honored the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority’s survey and not wanted all parking on the waterfront.

I also think that Ms Holaday would never have thought that having a 40B project on the Woodman property would have been a good idea.

And with Mr. Cracknell and Ms LaBranche in place in the Planning Office, I would have been confident that zoning issues to protect Newburyport, MA were being worked on and that Newburyport Planning Office was doing its best to implement the Newburyport Master Plan. And that there would have been some sort of check on the all the development happening in Newburyport, MA.

I’m sure if Ms Holaday had been elected there would have been other issues to blog about. Whether those issues would have been alarming enough for me to start the Newburyport Political Blog, who knows.

So did I start the Newburyport Political Blog to blog about Mayor John Moak’s failures? No. Do I blog a lot about the concerns I have about the direction that the City of Newburyport is taking under Mayor Moak? Yup, you bet I do.

Would I like to see these first 9 months be a huge learning curve for the Mayor of Newburyport, MA and if the Newburyport Political Blog is still in existence 9 more months from now, be blogging about how much Mayor John Moak has learned, how he would be listening to the residents of Newburyport, MA and how proud I would be to have him as Mayor of our City? You bet.

I would love to blog about the positive direction Mayor John Moak might take the City of Newburyport, MA. There’s still time. And it would really work for me.

Do I think this would actually happen? In truth, I still have that sinking feeling about Mayor John Moak being mayor of Newburyport, MA. And I would really, really love to be wrong on this one.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport