Moving the Seat of Government

If Mayor Carlo DeMaria has his druthers, the balance of the City’s seat would move off of Broadway.

In a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce last week, Mayor DeMaria said he would like to sell City Hall and find a different location. He said he would like to move several other prominent services from Broadway as well – perhaps finding a new home for Everett’s City seat along the Malden River.

First on his list is to get out of City Hall.

“I’m actually looking to maybe get out of City Hall and RFP it for a development and structured parking,” he said. “I have the old high school. I can relocate City Hall there while we search for a new home.”

That came after business leaders said the City needed to look at structured parking if it wants the City center to grow.

“I think we’re one of the only city centers around without structured parking,” said Steve Sachetta, of the Chamber. “It’s getting worse every day. I can’t even get out of my street and onto Main Street in the mornings.”

Mayor DeMaria said he also is looking to move the Wellness Center and the youth clubhouse as well.

“I’ve already said that we want to move the Stadium to the GE parcel on Air Force Road,” he said. “Having a Stadium on Cabot Street in Everett is detrimental to the neighborhood…At the same time, I’m now looking to move the clubhouse for the kids and the Wellness Center to the GE parcel also.”

It’s all part of an effort to move functions that cause traffic off of the main roads and to other parts of Everett so congestion gets more spread out.

The same is true for the Whittier School on Broadway near Sweetser Circle, he said.

“The Whittier School is a big question,” he said. “Do we want to hold on to it or RFP it? That’s something we’re going to have to talk about.”

Shipping containers

One of the most trendy things to use these days for restaurants, coffee shops and even art galleries are large shipping containers.

When containers are at the end of their useful lives, many times they are discarded or stacked throughout industrial areas – such as is done on Norman Street now.

However, some innovative communities have begun to reuse them as a way of creating low-cost retail opportunities in areas that aren’t in traditional business districts.

Mayor Carlo DeMaria said he would like to do the same along the Northern Strand Bike Path and at the GE park parcel – where an emerging neighborhood is forming, but retail is not likely to become established. “I’ve seen them use those containers for everything, electrifying them and using them for restaurants and galleries,” he said. “We want to get some of those put on the bike paths and open that area up.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *