City Poised to Name Harbor Place Boardwalk After Dempsey

Haverhill state Rep. Brian S. Dempsey speaks during a ceremony at the end of construction on the Harbor Place project on Merrimack Street.

State Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, the second-most powerful lawmaker in Massachusetts as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is about to get a holiday gift from his hometown.

It’s unlikely there will be any Scrooges on the City Council Tuesday night when Mayor James J. Fiorentini asks the panel to name the portion of the Merrimack Street boardwalk behind the Harbor Place project in Dempsey’s honor.

As House Ways and Means chairman, Depmsey secured state money to help redevelop the former F.W. Woolworth store and adjacent properties as part of the Harbor Place project. Harbor Place also will include a satellite campus of University of Massachusetts Lowell and innovation hub based on the university’s model in downtown Lowell.

The council is expected to vote during its regular meeting Tuesday beginning at 7 p.m. in the Theodore A. Pelosi Jr. Council Chambers at Haverhill City Hall.

 

 

12 thoughts on “City Poised to Name Harbor Place Boardwalk After Dempsey

  1. Nobody is calling him a hero.
    How about this, why not campaign against him and when you get elected you can turn away the local aid and send it to other communities.
    Imagine sitting at Christmaz dinner with Duncan and Jack… Not sure they’d have a positive thing to say but I’m sure they will tell everyone how to do it. Reminds me of the two guys on the muppets…
    Merry Christmas dunk and Jack, spread some cheer and take a gander at the Harbor Towers and view the Christmas tree..

    • Dan, you’re missing…dare I say intentionally ignoring… the big picture about my comments (and I believe Duncan’s given I have been reading his very informative posts for years) in that the absolute mess this city is in has a direct linear result of two people…Dempsey and mayor Taxman. If a case study were to be done dating back 25 years about the overall quality of life for city residents relating to taxes and the affordability factor to live in the city, crime, city financial health, decline in city services, growth of illegal invaders occupying the city and city services, and drugs requiring city law enforcement services, you’d find the negative factors in each of these categories corresponds exactly to both of these elected officials starting their political careers in the city, and promoting their “tax and spend” and “government is the answer to all problems” liberal agenda.

      Dan, in the past you’ve responded negatively to my observations about “out of control liberalism” and its relationship to public policies here at the local level which are the root cause of virtually all of the problems this city faces…policies which have been promoted and enacted by these two elected officials. I’m not trying to be insulting, or condescending when I ask if you read and understand the economic data that Duncan often posts here on WHAV, but it leads me to politely ask that you at least have some intellectual integrity with your comments here. Be a cheerleader all you want Dan, as you obviously have some personal vested self-interest in the promotion of all the liberal policies which have ruined the quality of life for many in this city, but save the juvenile, childish comments for someone who isn’t paying attention.

      Merry Christmas…

    • “Reminds me of the two guys on the muppets…” –

      This actually gave me a chuckle. It reminded me of a NYT Op-Ed years ago penned by Greg Smith, former Goldman Sachs, who said that him and his colleagues referred to us regular folks as “Muppets”.

      I cannot campaign against him because he’s not in my District, never have been, but I was gerrymandered out of former Harriet Stanley’s (now Lenny Mirra’s) District into Linda Dean Campbell’s. She’s too well liked to run against for other reasons, and word is, that if she didn’t do as The Party told her (which she started off moderate), she would be Primaried. So now we’re literally filled with state legislators that wait and look at “the board” to see whether BoB DeLeo votes red or green, then the rest fall in line and follow suit. That’s what “representation” looks like in Massachusetts.

      Now, if you think being a top five contender for the most fiscally irresponsible states in the country is great, in part because of what Brian Dempsey has done and continues to do, it really doesn’t matter what anyone has to say, does it? Straight form our CAFR’s, over just the past five (5) years: 2.5% in revenue growth and 8% in expenditure growth. An 18% increase in debt issuance, and a 26% increase in debt servicing. Roughly 40% of the entire budget services Medicaid, which has increased 26.4% in said five years. During this time, incomes have declined (although bumped last year) and still far from 2001 highs, with an 18% increase in direct taxation. This is just for starters on basics.

      My direct efforts are behind the scenes, or can sometimes be found contributing through various local/national media/publications. I regularly work on issues and relay them to receptive people in/around our government. I don’t care what their Party affiliation is because math and government legislated financial engineering does not care either. My work is on the macro long curve, not the daily/monthly noise that many politicians take premature victory laps over. I wish I could do more, but as many of us have found, this state, even with new public record laws, still maintain their opaqueness and restrictions to public records. If you have ever tried yourself, you would (or should) be disgusted by the lack of transparency with our own government.

      If folks want to believe what Dempsey et al. have done or are doing with money that in reality does not exist (further debt issuance for perpetual shortfalls), then more power to them. I’m a product of the 2008 financial crisis, so in a strange way, I can thank Brian and his cronies for awakening me and pissing me off, and use my expertise/contacts to expose them for the frauds that they truly are and what they are REALLY doing to The People of this state and this city. They may call themselves “Democrats”, but they’re really not.

  2. Call him what you want, this man has brought and continues to bring money to the city.
    This project and many others wouldn’t have come to fruition if it wasn’t for him.
    Chairman please don’t puke on the boardwalk and Duncan yes the taxpayers may have paid for this and I’m happybitsbhere in Haverhill. Would you rather this taxpayer funded project go to Lowell or Lawrence?? Just wondering