No "Adult" zone on the Middleton Peabody border

Middleton voted tonight to NOT have their adult entertainment zone be at the end of Russell Street next to the Peabody City line.

Salem News: Locals opposed to Middleton adult district
Salem News: Hearing on adult district rescheduled
Salem News: PDF of the proposed areas and amendment

I hope to add just a little bit to this discussion here.

First two images showing the locations (proposed on the Peabody line, and as adopted off Rt. 114)
(PLEASE NOTE: THE AREA SHOWN AS ADOPTED IS MUCH SMALLER THAN DRAWN HERE - I WAS SHOWING THE WHOLE ROAD AND IT IS ONLY THE AREA NEAR RT. 114)

~~click on images for larger view~~

Now I got upset when I first heard about this proposal in Middleton just like many other Peabody folks. But, as I later learned, it is important to note that this was not intended to actually prepare one of these location for adult zoned businesses... in fact NO SUCH BUSINESSES ARE CURRENTLY PLANNED.

The intent of this action by the Town of Middleton was to PREVENT any adult businesses from being able to locate in their community anywhere they wanted to do so! Since Middleton DID NOT HAVE an adult zoned area, that would permit these businesses to open ANYWHERE in the town they desired.

The only way to prevent this from happening was for them to designate some area of the town as Adult Zoned so that they could limit all such development to those areas.

The town NEVER planned to have adult businesses open in these areas... in fact, these areas were chosen BECAUSE they would most likely NEVER BE DEVELOPED for such businesses.

Now, I applaud Middleton for thinking ahead and attempting to make their town better for their citizens... they really should have thought through the backlash that was sure to follow when they tried to foist their 'adult' areas onto the backs of folks in Peabody.

I am glad they finally saw the light and voted responsibly tonight.

Thanks to the Peabody Patriot for first alerting us all to the outcome of the meeting tonight

Peabody: A MOST LIVABLE CITY!

Peabody is named one of the top 15 most livable cities in America!
Well, at least Forbes Magazine thinks so!

Forbes Magazine: America's Most Livable Cities 2009
Salem News: Forbes: Peabody one of the country's 'most livable' cities

Now I have been reading some of the comments at the Salem News... and they are really quite ill informed.

To start with, Forbes defines the Greater Peabody area as having 700,000+ people. This is explained in the article quite well. They were using US Census Metropolitan Statistical Areas which include a larger area than simply the named location. So, as the article states, this is more of an honor for the North Shore in total rather than just Peabody alone.

Here is the explanatory paragraph from the article which explains exactly what is included in the rankings...

Behind the Numbers
To form our list, we looked at quality of life measures in the nation's largest continental U.S. metropolitan statistical areas--geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. We eliminated areas with populations smaller than 500,000 and assigned points to the remaining metro regions across five data sets:

1. Five-year income growth per household (Moody's)
2. Cost of living (Moody's)
3. Crime data (Sperling's Best Places)
4. Leisure index (Sperling's Best Places)
5. Annual unemployment statistics (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Any way you wish to cut this, it is a big plus for our City. Of course the easy jokes have already been made (I guess the Forbes people didn't visit!) but a little fun never hurts.

I think most people are rather proud of Peabody and like the community feel of the City. I have been getting emails from several friends around the US saying "Congrats!" for living in such a good place! Of course, some of these same folks emailed me a few months back to laugh at our 9/11 police contract... but that is a different topic!

New Blog on Peabody Politics

A group of citizens led by Keith Doucette has opened up a new blog to focus specifically on the next elections here in Peabody.

2009 Peabody Elections

As is usually the case, Keith has interesting things to add to the blog-o-sphere. Check it out.

Fate of the Higgins is tied to new "Mega" Voc

It seems that the fate of a new or renovated Higgins Middle School rests entirely on whether or not the City of Peabody joins in on the new mega vocational school (North Shore Technical High School) that is going forward on the site of Essex-Aggie.

Salem News: Treasurer: Schools to be built

Here is a quote from the article by Massachusetts School Building Authority executive director Kathleen Craven... (my emphasis in green)

The MSBA has pledged to pay 60 percent of the project, or $75 million, said the agency's executive director Kathleen Craven, who was also on hand for the breakfast. The state has also passed a $60 million earmark in a state bond bill for the project, but Craven said she has not seen any "relief from the state on that."

At this point, without that state bond money, the communities would be on the hook for the remaining 40 percent of the project, Craven said.

The vocational school project is also key to renovating Higgins Middle School in Peabody, Craven said, because that is where Peabody's high school vocational programs are located.

"If Peabody comes into the district, we will be able to start work on the Higgins Middle School. ... It's a domino effect," Craven said.

Cahill said money for local school projects already in the pipeline will be there.

So there you have it. The real reason that the Higgins Middle School in Peabody is on the back burner for State funded projects. We had been told that the delay was partly due to "indecision" on the fate of the Voc at the Higgins... but now we see that the State is unwilling to fund the Higgins IF we do not join in the consolidated North Shore Technical High School (NSTHS).

While I don't like the State telling local communities what to do and how to do it... this one seems to be a fair request. Join in to become part of the 16-community NSTHS and we can then move onto the problems at the Higgins.

There are many good reasons to consider joining in such a collaborative school - one being that because of the numbers of students involved, more programs with more limited interest can be offered - resulting in more highly trained and skilled workers entering our local workforce. It also will allow the local communities and the State to save money by combining separate programs that only can offer limited services right now.

So... let's stop talking about it and debating it and putting it off for someone else to decide AND VOTE TO JOIN THE REGIONAL VOC.

It will benefit our current vocational students AND it will move us closer to a renewed Higgins Middle School.