C.Belanger: "My Mistake."

The normally cheerful Kendall Wallace opted to throw a brush back pitch (Link) at Councilor Belanger's noggin.

I’ve always felt people regarded as experts in their field are a good source to rely on when trying to make a decision. Apparently, fresh­man City Councilor Corey Belanger doesn’t share that view, as he has tried to sidetrack the effort by the Lowell School Committee to move forward with the exciting plans for the downtown Lowell High School project. He has called for “ another review of the options” that have been reviewed for the past five years.
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Like every major project, it has taken nearly five years to get to the point the city is asking for approval from the state to move forward with this ambitious revitalization. In that period, tons of research and other options have been explored. The school department hired additional consultants and there was unanimous agreement that keeping the high school downtown and doing an impressive architecturally pleasing facility was the best option.

It seemed everybody was in agreement that this is the way to go, until Belanger asked his colleagues to again review the options.

One would think if you are on the council or run for public office you are aware that a great deal of research has taken place for the city to get to this point.

Ya. One would think.

Thinking requires that one avail themselves of all the information out there, rather than focusing on the pie-in-the sky utterances of nothing, puked out on AM radio infomercials. I covered that in a diary titled - Put Up or STFU (Link).

The worst of Wallace's critique is the suggestion that Belanger has had his head in the sand for at least five years. Belanger himself holds the criticism up when, on the Council floor, he states: "…this is one of the biggest projects that this city is going to face in the next 5 to 10 years… ." But, by April 8th, Belanger was caught fully extended on the most wobbly of limbs. The best recovery Belanger could manage was a working man's mea culpa, "My mistake."

Diligent citizens will have made an ink notation on Belanger's stumbling stewardship. But, I'm not here to kid anyone. With voter turnout the way it is, a chunk of our City Council operate carefree under the "Liberty of Low Expectations" that the current electorate has bestowed.

You can watch C.Belanger's motion play out, here:


You'll note, that even after Belanger admits that this issue has completely gone over his head, like so much chin music, he STILL assert that "all the stakeholders have input in this decision." Have they NOT? Um... There has been 5+ years of process, which included, as Wallace pointed out, "Nearly 600 people were in the Lowell Memorial Auditorium .." (bold mine).

I'll repeat, I am completely ambivalent about where the High School is located. I can see the pro's and con's of the arguments made. Whatever happens, it will be a compromise, making everyone happy and pissed with the outcome, to some degree.

The hair across my ass comes from a subversion of a drawn out public process because a select group has either followed C.Belanger's mode of just waking up to the matter at hand. Or, they simply don't like the outcome that the process had derived.

If that select group can buy the AM airwaves, blurting misinformation and offering undefined promises of a Mecca of economic development, that is all well and fine.

The question is, do we Lowellians allow the incursion, by masked men with masked proposals, into a transparent process because they have enough under the table influence in City Hall?

My answer is NO.