Campaign Kickoff!

Good Morning!

Well, I spent an interesting evening at the Waltham VFW last night. It was the campaign kickoff for my friend Ken Doucette, who is running for Mayor of this city.

Yes, I'm on the campaign staff. It hasn't been determined what I'll be doing yet, but I'm hoping for campaign blogger....an area I'm a bit familiar with. There's always MySpace and Facebook, too!

Ken is my age, and we even attended Bunker Hill Community College at the same time, although I didn't know him then. He's also an Eagle Scout of Troop 211...and that's enough for me.

This city is facing a number of challenges, and I was stunned to learn that several problems that are constantly raised by citizens have actually been addressed, and even funded...but the city is so badly managed right now that these projects have never been completed.

Have you driven on Main Street Waltham recently? I don't need to tell you about the traffic. What you probably didn't know was the poor condition of the stoplights along the main line. Many of these are simply on timers, and the lights don't react to traffic conditions...they just change on their schedule. The city has funded the installation of "traffic loops", which are embedded in the street and detect the traffic flow, and the lights react accordingly. This project has never been done, mostly due to mismanagement and lack of communication among city departments under the current administration.


Ken is certainly no flash-in-the-pan...he's been an elected member of City Council for the past 7 years, and has been instrumental in more than a few of the more public things around the city. Recently, Ken was instrumental in getting the Memorial Circle built on the common, honoring Waltham citizens who have given their lives in the wars of these United States.

Ken also took the lead in changing several local zonings from residential to conservation land, thus preserving open space in the city and keeping it out of the hands of greedy developers. (One of the key points the current administration has not done - the city is far too overdeveloped).

Perhaps his biggest achievement, and the one with the most impact on the future of this city, was the just completed six month project to update the city's master plan. I could only shake my head at how long it has been since the plan was updated. No, it wasn't 2000. It wasn't even 1990. If you can believe it, the City of Waltham has not had a master plan since 1950.

So, I'm hoping for a succesful campaign...at the very least, I'll gain some valuable knowledge from the experience.


I'll leave you a couple of tidbits...

I was talking to another gentleman, and I remarked how brief the campaign is. Ken announced last night, and the election is rapidly coming up on November 6, 2007. Would that the presidential election cycle was that brief!

I also ran into my state Rep, Peter Koutoujian, and I took the opportunity to thank him for his recent vote on defeating the gay marriage ammendment in this state. Imagine my surprise, however, when I discovered that not only does he live in my ward, he's literally two doors away from me on Harris Street. (I do email him all the time, but legislator's private addresses are notoriously hard to come by.)

So, all in all, a succesful start to the campaign. I'll post ocassional updates in this space, and there may yet be a campaign blog or other online resources...