We just had a very competitive primary election in two City Council districts.
But the turnout was pathetic.
Less than 10 percent of registered Democrats – i.e. those who were eligible to vote – went to the polls. The citywide turnout was similar, not that that’s much of a consolation.
Why is that?
It’s hard to know exactly.
Maybe part of the problem was that there was such a low-profile Democratic primary for mayor and no Republican primary.
Or maybe the extension of term limits really turned people off since they had already voted twice for two-term limits for city politicians.
But we suspect that the main reason is that most people just don’t know who their City Council member is or what he does. And maybe that’s the fault of each individual voter.
But we can’t just leave it at that.
In the most recent issue of our sister newspaper, the Tremont Tribune (covers the neighborhoods of Community Board 6), we report on a troubling trend of over-leveraged landlords finding themselves in hot water in buildings they paid way too much for. Fordham Towers is exhibit #1, but it is only one of many buildings facing, or on the brink of, a crisis.
My name is Robert Lopez. I’m a longtime Norwood resident. When I first moved to Norwood by Gun Hill Road and Jerome Avenue, the neighborhood was mainly middle class, working folks. It was a very desirable, quiet and convenient place to live with mass transit and shopping around the corner. Fast forward to the present, I am sad to say that within the past five to six years, and despite some nice curb-appeal improvements like new street trees and renovated parks in Norwood, I have noticed the working class fleeing out of Norwood in disgust of what the neighborhood is becoming as the working class in Norwood is slowly being replaced by people on public assistance, Section 8, HASA and other city subsidized programs. Of course I am not saying all subsidized people are low-class. However, as we all know, the "bad apples" ruin it for the good ones. It is these "bad apples" that I refer to.