Protecting Our Residents and Roadways
Dear Editor,
As we enter into week eight of the Coronavirus State of Emergency, many things have changed in our community overnight. One particular issue that stands out in my mind, and it’s as clear as ever to the hundreds of residents of our community I have spoken with, is the negative impact that the Tobin Bridge has had on our community. It is one of the main reasons I decided to seek the position of State Representative this year. A promise I will make to the residents, if elected your State Representative, is that I will work tirelessly to address and prove to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that the Tobin Bridge has had a major negative effect on our community. For many years it’s been evident that the Tobin Bridge impacts our community in a negative way on a daily basis. I have said previously that we should be acknowledged as an impact community and it is time we take a strong stand to protect our residents and roadways. The past eight weeks has proven that my strong stand on this matter holds merit. Although the community has been stressed to stay home as much as possible, many of our residents are considered essential workers, meaning they still get up each day and travel to their jobs.
The one thing that has recently changed for the positive is the congestion on our streets and on our main roads. We are not currently seeing thousands of vehicles daily exiting off Route 1 South, traveling throughout the streets of Everett to skip the Tobin Bridge, enter the City of Boston and continue to travel to work, only to return the same way in the evenings. It has been an eye opener to drive around the City of Everett and make this realization over the past eight weeks. At the same time, it saddens me to realize that our community has been treated unfairly for far too long by the state. If elected as your State Representative, I promise I will not rest until the Commonwealth of Massachusetts understands and comes to an agreement with our community, to help our residents be able to enjoy a quality of life they deserve without being a cut-through community for the North Shore. At almost every zoning Board of Appeals meeting that I’ve attended, the largest discussion is about traffic impact and how we can Re-Develop our community with new smart development and controlling our vehicles and not outside traffic. Truth be told, if the non-resident cars were not using Everett as a cut-through community we would not have to continually have this discussion at every meeting.
The Time Has Come to Have Everett Take a Front Seat On protecting our Residents and Roadways.
Michael J. McLaughlin
Candidate for State Representative/Ward 6 Councilor