Gordon Baird
Fishtown Local
Gloucester Times

Write in - and right on!

It’s coming up tomorrow, March 3, the primary to replace Ann-Margaret Ferrante. This voter is proud to never have missed voting in a primary or an election and will be casting his first write-in vote ever. That’s right, Democrat Sarah Wilkinson has shown her commitment, longevity and dedication to Cape Ann and after 20 years of service, she has passed the audition for higher office.

She is a write-in and doesn't have her own line on the Democratic ballot because of a party technicality. She is a registered Independent but the deadline to change party's in the cycle had passed even before Ferrante had passed. So one must write her name on the proper line and check the box. It’s not an insurmountable obstacle. For example, Lisa Murkowski has twice won a US Senate seat in Alaska as a write-in after she was “primaried” by extremists in her party but won in the general election.

It's all about the candidate, not the party in this contest. Moderation is a most valuable commodity as is being an able moderator, able to organize and clarify positions, policy and modus operandi. In politics, pendulum shifts can have a nasty habit of swinging too hard and too far. An independent can offer more nuanced positions on political shifts with an eye to the past as well as the future. Lately, the state has rushed
to mandate all sorts of mass building intentions as well as reductions of zoning protections. Is there a middle position on 3A which has taken a one-size-fits-all approach to developing cities and towns? Some politicians, Wilkinson included, have stated that one size doesn’t fit all and that the issue the law aims to address is one for individual communities to address.

Well, that’s good because there is tidal wave of intrusive neighborhood busting proposals coming that could force the end of "home rule”. For example, the Massachusetts Senate Housing Committee has favorably advanced the so-called YIMBY Bill (Yes In My Backyard), SB 2836, that would eliminate minimum lot sizes in the state, allowing for larger lots to be split into smaller lots as a matter of right and reform existing parking requirements. So much for density, privacy, home owner rights and home rule. It’s a developer's - or a conniving new neighbor’s dream - to just buy in and start carving a smorgasbord of lots.

Also, there’s YIGBY, (Yes In God’s Backyard), SB 1430 to enable instant multi-family zoning for property owned by faith based communities. A faith based community could be any group that gets tax status as a “church”, from the Branch Davidians to The Church in East Gloucester. What entitles them to instant rights to condo-ize your neck-of-the-woods or mine, codified into state law?

But these aren’t houses for people who live here, they are for people who haven’t arrived yet. The 3A law was originally conceived as a way to move folks out of Boston to more affordable towns and cities. Its origins were very Boston centric. Should they have more rights than existing residents - to just carve up neighborhoods that have have retained their character for generations? A example of a swinging pendulum that has taken an important issue - Affordable Housing - and rammed it down the throats of existing communities. Yes, we need more Affordable Housing, but should that priority rise above all issues of livability, town character and fairness? And all supposedly built around the rock-solid notion that the MBTA rail service will whisk everyone in and out of town to work each day?

The state leadership is full-speed-ahead on its aims to make over our quality of  life. Who says our current order must be so fundamentally changed? Affordable housing is a problem around the world, not just in Mass. A state with no single-family lots is a bridge too far. Moderation is essential. More housing, yes. Flooding the zone, no. That’s not what we bought into, nor is it a Gloucester or Commonwealth tradition.

So aim your pen to the Write-In line tomorrow. We need a moderate thinker, strong but creative. Rockport has held onto its wonderful quality of life for centuries and for the last few decades, Sarah has been a big part of it. It’s so important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think Ms. Wilkinson will work to protect us as hard as she can. So write in - and right on!