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Thursday, November 23, 2017
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Beauport Hotel Oral Presentation, March 12, 2013
Beauport Hotel Oral Presentation 3/12/13
Tonight, our city, our citizens, and you, our elected city councilors find ourselves at a crossroad. Tonight, you are being asked to make a profound far-reaching decision, a decision that could ultimately shape a new economic future, positively impacting the financial foundation of our city for decades to come.
I’ve witnessed our waterfront activity over 70 years, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to our peak world-wide fish production of the ‘40s and ‘50s. I’ve seen it all. Today we have come full circle, and once again, our fishing industry is in the doldrums, only this time the forecast guarantees a dire economic outcome.
In the ‘30s and ‘40s, Gloucester citizens were optimistic. A new government-supported community fish pier came on line. Investment in fishing vessels continued (even during those depression years) while hundreds of experienced fishermen and supporting wharf workers looked forward to harvesting a limitless unregulated fish resource from Cape Ann to the Canadian Maritimes.
Today we cope with world-wide fishing regulations and our own federal government’s draconian cuts to already reduced fishing quotas. Our few fishermen are leaving the industry. A diminishing handful of boats and no new shore side investment is today’s norm. All this, while over 70% of our harbor is economically handcuffed by an outmoded Designated Port Area (DPA) regulation, intentionally designed to shut down any investment other than those fish related…AND THERE ARE NO FISH! Why is it that Boston, New Bedford, and other nearby ports, are developing on their waterfronts, unrestrained by DPA-type restrictions, while Gloucester with acres of undeveloped public and private waterfront marks time?
HERE ARE TODAY’S FACTS:
1. Fish can be processed anywhere. That was established over 50 years ago when Booth Fisheries left Gloucester and relocated on I-95 North in N.H.
2. Any existing fish related businesses presently located on prime Harbor Cove water frontage can operate anywhere and probably more economically. Cape Pond Ice Co. recently succumbed to this known reality.
3. All existing waterfront fresh fish businesses, including the two fish auction houses, ideally, could be RELOCATED to the community fish pier currently operating at 50% capacity.
4. Eel grass beds, modest tidal surge, alleged industry-related offensive odors, noise pollution, and falsely forecasted warnings of traffic congestion, are all “red herrings”, invented by the opposition to stonewall this hotel development.
5. Opponents of this hotel project have pulled out every stop. Their letters have failed to make their case, submitting negative comments, often outright falsehoods in substantiating their opposition. Young Fort opponents, born in the ‘60s, and property owners born in the early ‘80s, describe a bygone era, a neighborhood industrial activity reminiscent of the ‘40s and ‘50s, years before they were born. These writings, “lacking credibility”, attempt to discourage any new outside development. These opponents represent the status quo; change is not acceptable to them. They have a “good thing going” and they want to keep it that way!
6. A hotel on this prime central harbor location is the highest and best use for this run-down, obsolete property. It will improve, clean up, and attract both locals and visitors to a rediscovered Pavilion Beach.
This hotel proposal should be approved for all of Gloucester. It is a long overdue, once in a lifetime, economic shot in the arm and represents a one-time capital expenditure that far exceeds the total collective waterfront investments over the last 70 years. It is a win, win proposition. I remind you tonight…..A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS. I IMPLORE YOU TONIGHT……APPROVE THIS HOTEL PROJECT!
Ron Gilson
Tonight, our city, our citizens, and you, our elected city councilors find ourselves at a crossroad. Tonight, you are being asked to make a profound far-reaching decision, a decision that could ultimately shape a new economic future, positively impacting the financial foundation of our city for decades to come.
I’ve witnessed our waterfront activity over 70 years, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to our peak world-wide fish production of the ‘40s and ‘50s. I’ve seen it all. Today we have come full circle, and once again, our fishing industry is in the doldrums, only this time the forecast guarantees a dire economic outcome.
In the ‘30s and ‘40s, Gloucester citizens were optimistic. A new government-supported community fish pier came on line. Investment in fishing vessels continued (even during those depression years) while hundreds of experienced fishermen and supporting wharf workers looked forward to harvesting a limitless unregulated fish resource from Cape Ann to the Canadian Maritimes.
Today we cope with world-wide fishing regulations and our own federal government’s draconian cuts to already reduced fishing quotas. Our few fishermen are leaving the industry. A diminishing handful of boats and no new shore side investment is today’s norm. All this, while over 70% of our harbor is economically handcuffed by an outmoded Designated Port Area (DPA) regulation, intentionally designed to shut down any investment other than those fish related…AND THERE ARE NO FISH! Why is it that Boston, New Bedford, and other nearby ports, are developing on their waterfronts, unrestrained by DPA-type restrictions, while Gloucester with acres of undeveloped public and private waterfront marks time?
HERE ARE TODAY’S FACTS:
1. Fish can be processed anywhere. That was established over 50 years ago when Booth Fisheries left Gloucester and relocated on I-95 North in N.H.
2. Any existing fish related businesses presently located on prime Harbor Cove water frontage can operate anywhere and probably more economically. Cape Pond Ice Co. recently succumbed to this known reality.
3. All existing waterfront fresh fish businesses, including the two fish auction houses, ideally, could be RELOCATED to the community fish pier currently operating at 50% capacity.
4. Eel grass beds, modest tidal surge, alleged industry-related offensive odors, noise pollution, and falsely forecasted warnings of traffic congestion, are all “red herrings”, invented by the opposition to stonewall this hotel development.
5. Opponents of this hotel project have pulled out every stop. Their letters have failed to make their case, submitting negative comments, often outright falsehoods in substantiating their opposition. Young Fort opponents, born in the ‘60s, and property owners born in the early ‘80s, describe a bygone era, a neighborhood industrial activity reminiscent of the ‘40s and ‘50s, years before they were born. These writings, “lacking credibility”, attempt to discourage any new outside development. These opponents represent the status quo; change is not acceptable to them. They have a “good thing going” and they want to keep it that way!
6. A hotel on this prime central harbor location is the highest and best use for this run-down, obsolete property. It will improve, clean up, and attract both locals and visitors to a rediscovered Pavilion Beach.
This hotel proposal should be approved for all of Gloucester. It is a long overdue, once in a lifetime, economic shot in the arm and represents a one-time capital expenditure that far exceeds the total collective waterfront investments over the last 70 years. It is a win, win proposition. I remind you tonight…..A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS. I IMPLORE YOU TONIGHT……APPROVE THIS HOTEL PROJECT!
Ron Gilson
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
TIME FOR COUNCIL TO SIGN ON FOR HOTEL OVERLAY
(submitted to Gloucester Daily Times May 8, 2012)
In the seventy years I’ve observed Gloucester’s waterfront, never have we had a more promising opportunity to move this city forward “economically” than Beauport LLC plans for the Birdseye “Fort” hotel site. All the major improvements on our harborfront over the past seven decades do not equal this one 26 million dollar capital investment currently being proposed for one parcel in the Fort. After all the debate and hoopla have been aired; the reality is this Beauport hotel proposal is an economic game changer for Gloucester. It will showcase our harbor.
Over the years Gloucester’s fish business has changed from frozen to fresh. Cutting, packing and freezing every redfish and whiting landed (hundreds of millions of pounds annually) is no longer the process. Today we're primarily cutting an ever diminishing few ground fish for area retail restaurant customers. We no longer store millions of pounds of processed fish for months in cold storage, waiting for the Lenten season. We are not processing fish 24/7, 365 days a year as the opposition would have us believe! That was in 1947 to 1950…before some of the protesters were born!
From our tumbled down Paint Factory, around the entire inner harbor, numerous derelict wharfs await investment. The harbor is dotted with rotten pilings from Capt. Joe’s to the Building Center. The I-4 C-2 parcel has gone begging for 50 years. On the Fort, Good Harbor Fillet moved out and is now out of business at Blackburn Industrial Park. North Atlantic Fish sold out and Amero’s Fort Point, formerly Cape Ann Fisheries, lies fallow. Producer’s property awaits city auction and Sam Parisi’s building is empty of tenants. Do we need any more proof? The handwriting is on the wall. The taxpayers, the realists, are crying out, waiting for relief.
In the court of public opinion, the opposition has not made their case. They’ve called in every doom and gloom anti-advocate from all points of the compass, to no avail. The new greasy pole is up and ready, the carnival has been booked for June. It’s business as usual in the west end; St. Peter’s Fiesta is alive and well!
Finally, Gloucester has a chance to move our waterfront forward with a local investor, private money and a redeeming concept for the economic rebirth of our city. It is Beauport LLC that will jump start Gloucester’s harbor bail out! While posted at Market Basket in early March of this year, over 300 Gloucester citizens signed my petition enthusiastically for this Fort renewal. It’s now time for our city councilors to sign on. Beauport LLC hotel will rightfully be Gloucester’s Motif #1, a window on the harbor! Remember: “A rising tide lifts all boats”.
Ron Gilson
(submitted to Gloucester Daily Times May 8, 2012)
In the seventy years I’ve observed Gloucester’s waterfront, never have we had a more promising opportunity to move this city forward “economically” than Beauport LLC plans for the Birdseye “Fort” hotel site. All the major improvements on our harborfront over the past seven decades do not equal this one 26 million dollar capital investment currently being proposed for one parcel in the Fort. After all the debate and hoopla have been aired; the reality is this Beauport hotel proposal is an economic game changer for Gloucester. It will showcase our harbor.
Over the years Gloucester’s fish business has changed from frozen to fresh. Cutting, packing and freezing every redfish and whiting landed (hundreds of millions of pounds annually) is no longer the process. Today we're primarily cutting an ever diminishing few ground fish for area retail restaurant customers. We no longer store millions of pounds of processed fish for months in cold storage, waiting for the Lenten season. We are not processing fish 24/7, 365 days a year as the opposition would have us believe! That was in 1947 to 1950…before some of the protesters were born!
From our tumbled down Paint Factory, around the entire inner harbor, numerous derelict wharfs await investment. The harbor is dotted with rotten pilings from Capt. Joe’s to the Building Center. The I-4 C-2 parcel has gone begging for 50 years. On the Fort, Good Harbor Fillet moved out and is now out of business at Blackburn Industrial Park. North Atlantic Fish sold out and Amero’s Fort Point, formerly Cape Ann Fisheries, lies fallow. Producer’s property awaits city auction and Sam Parisi’s building is empty of tenants. Do we need any more proof? The handwriting is on the wall. The taxpayers, the realists, are crying out, waiting for relief.
In the court of public opinion, the opposition has not made their case. They’ve called in every doom and gloom anti-advocate from all points of the compass, to no avail. The new greasy pole is up and ready, the carnival has been booked for June. It’s business as usual in the west end; St. Peter’s Fiesta is alive and well!
Finally, Gloucester has a chance to move our waterfront forward with a local investor, private money and a redeeming concept for the economic rebirth of our city. It is Beauport LLC that will jump start Gloucester’s harbor bail out! While posted at Market Basket in early March of this year, over 300 Gloucester citizens signed my petition enthusiastically for this Fort renewal. It’s now time for our city councilors to sign on. Beauport LLC hotel will rightfully be Gloucester’s Motif #1, a window on the harbor! Remember: “A rising tide lifts all boats”.
Ron Gilson
Friday, May 18, 2012
BACK SHORE OVERLAY JUST NEEDS SYSTEM OF REVIEW
Another hotel overlay zoning proposal, only this time it’s in my neighborhood. We purchased our condominium in 2002. We are not direct abutters to the Atlantic Road motels; we live year round at 87 Atlantic Road. During our back shore residency, numerous private homes have changed hands with the new owners investing substantially in upgrades, major additions and pricey new homes. People in this neighborhood take pride in their properties.
These petitioning motel owners are no different. In fact, they are prominent well-run successful major Gloucester businesses in our Bass Rocks neighborhood. They are an established tourist attraction…a destination. They provide a service to our vacationing out-of-town visitors. They provide local seasonal jobs and wages, a breakfast restaurant that in our judgment ranks as one of the premiere seasonal restaurants on Cape Ann – open to the public--all this, while contributing substantially to our real estate tax base as well as collecting meals taxes and occupancy taxes for city coffers.
While our neighborhood is zoned “residential”, it hasn’t always been so designated. Our Bass Rocks motel/residential neighborhood for the last 100 years plus, has always been a mecca for tourists.
History records hotels were here first. They are not imposing their business on us; we residents, all “late comers” to this area, bought into existing properties and virgin land constructing private dwellings with the full awareness of the existing motel presence in the immediate neighborhood.
The opposition from our neighbors is in some respects understandable. Certainly there are concerns; however, their negative talking points are in my opinion, often “red herring”. I don’t buy the predicted dire traffic threat….50 additional rooms/cars will not equal the year-round daily traffic generated by the Elks Lodge, especially during special events, weddings, charity drives, etc., that cause overflow parking along Atlantic Road. I am more concerned with the annoying 100+ motorcycle caravans on a sunny weekend day, roaring by my front door; but then again, motorcycle drivers have rights too! Just as weddings are business functions common to our Atlantic Road Bass Rocks community. Who would deny this pre-existing business activity? We live in America!
Obstruction of views?? The petitioners’ properties back up to the Bass Rocks golf course, holes #3 and #4. There is no residential view obstruction. Sewer problems and beach parking on Farrington Avenue – grasping for straws! It’s the same old litany of regurgitated talking points, advanced by opponents to every application for growth and renewal in our city. In my view, the opponents are “crying wolf” for their own self interests, i.e., “We’ve got ours; we don’t want anyone else to improve their situation.”
Having said all of the above, we are generally in favor of this application to improve our city’s hospitality posture, add jobs and increase city tax revenues. We feel that this sensitive “by right” overlay application, if approved, should only move forward after appropriate in depth public review and scrutiny by the Planning Board and City Council, just as the Birdseye hotel overlay application in another sensitive city neighborhood is currently making its way through the established appropriate permitting process.
Ronald and Joan Gilson
These petitioning motel owners are no different. In fact, they are prominent well-run successful major Gloucester businesses in our Bass Rocks neighborhood. They are an established tourist attraction…a destination. They provide a service to our vacationing out-of-town visitors. They provide local seasonal jobs and wages, a breakfast restaurant that in our judgment ranks as one of the premiere seasonal restaurants on Cape Ann – open to the public--all this, while contributing substantially to our real estate tax base as well as collecting meals taxes and occupancy taxes for city coffers.
While our neighborhood is zoned “residential”, it hasn’t always been so designated. Our Bass Rocks motel/residential neighborhood for the last 100 years plus, has always been a mecca for tourists.
History records hotels were here first. They are not imposing their business on us; we residents, all “late comers” to this area, bought into existing properties and virgin land constructing private dwellings with the full awareness of the existing motel presence in the immediate neighborhood.
The opposition from our neighbors is in some respects understandable. Certainly there are concerns; however, their negative talking points are in my opinion, often “red herring”. I don’t buy the predicted dire traffic threat….50 additional rooms/cars will not equal the year-round daily traffic generated by the Elks Lodge, especially during special events, weddings, charity drives, etc., that cause overflow parking along Atlantic Road. I am more concerned with the annoying 100+ motorcycle caravans on a sunny weekend day, roaring by my front door; but then again, motorcycle drivers have rights too! Just as weddings are business functions common to our Atlantic Road Bass Rocks community. Who would deny this pre-existing business activity? We live in America!
Obstruction of views?? The petitioners’ properties back up to the Bass Rocks golf course, holes #3 and #4. There is no residential view obstruction. Sewer problems and beach parking on Farrington Avenue – grasping for straws! It’s the same old litany of regurgitated talking points, advanced by opponents to every application for growth and renewal in our city. In my view, the opponents are “crying wolf” for their own self interests, i.e., “We’ve got ours; we don’t want anyone else to improve their situation.”
Having said all of the above, we are generally in favor of this application to improve our city’s hospitality posture, add jobs and increase city tax revenues. We feel that this sensitive “by right” overlay application, if approved, should only move forward after appropriate in depth public review and scrutiny by the Planning Board and City Council, just as the Birdseye hotel overlay application in another sensitive city neighborhood is currently making its way through the established appropriate permitting process.
Ronald and Joan Gilson
Saturday, March 31, 2012
REZONE THE FORT, CITIZEN PETITION
March 31, 2012
At the Planning Board meeting on Monday, March 12, 2012, after delivering my remarks, I presented the board with a "Rezone the Fort, Save Gloucester", citizen" petition
containing 328 names of fellow Gloucester citizens.
These signatures were collected at the Post Office entrance and during several cold stints at Market Basket, Gloucester Crossing, a week prior to the meeting. While this petition and an online version containing over 500 signers, and still counting, represents a cross section of our community's five wards and is impressive by its very number; to me, there's another side to this story, even more laudatory.
Every signer of my petititon came with a positive comment and I quote: "It's about time"; "It's
long overdue"; "We need to open neighborhood fire stations"; "My son bought his first house, he needs tax help"; "Gloucester needs this downtown hotel"; "Clean up the Fort"; etc.
The positive eager responses and feedback to this petition is running 20 - 1 in favor of this hotel development. I found these verbal responses even more impressive and inspirational than the
actual number of signatures collected. As Paul Harvey would say, "AND THAT'S THE REST OF THE STORY."
Ron Gilson
At the Planning Board meeting on Monday, March 12, 2012, after delivering my remarks, I presented the board with a "Rezone the Fort, Save Gloucester", citizen" petition
containing 328 names of fellow Gloucester citizens.
These signatures were collected at the Post Office entrance and during several cold stints at Market Basket, Gloucester Crossing, a week prior to the meeting. While this petition and an online version containing over 500 signers, and still counting, represents a cross section of our community's five wards and is impressive by its very number; to me, there's another side to this story, even more laudatory.
Every signer of my petititon came with a positive comment and I quote: "It's about time"; "It's
long overdue"; "We need to open neighborhood fire stations"; "My son bought his first house, he needs tax help"; "Gloucester needs this downtown hotel"; "Clean up the Fort"; etc.
The positive eager responses and feedback to this petition is running 20 - 1 in favor of this hotel development. I found these verbal responses even more impressive and inspirational than the
actual number of signatures collected. As Paul Harvey would say, "AND THAT'S THE REST OF THE STORY."
Ron Gilson
City Can't Pass on Beauport's Hotel Investment
published March 12, 2012
Despite the opposition’s ongoing spin citing the Fort’s recent marine industrial
rejuvenation, the cold, hard facts remain that this marine industrial zone dramatically
mirrors the demise of the local fishing industry as we once knew it.
rejuvenation, the cold, hard facts remain that this marine industrial zone dramatically
mirrors the demise of the local fishing industry as we once knew it.
From Beach Court along Commercial Street, around Fort Square to Parisi’s harbor front
(formerly Mariners-O’Donnell-Usen) prop., there has been no waterfront generated investment
of any magnitude in 50 years.
These undeveloped prime waterfront properties, including Amero’s (Cape Ann Fisheries), Curcuru Fresh Fish Wharf and Producer’s Harbor Front property, now owned by the city (taken in 2010 for past due taxes), have not attracted any outside marine related private investment for over five decades!
Where are the opposition’s alleged viable, solid “marine industrial opportunities”? Where
are the water acidification plants and bio labs? Why haven’t these proposed marine science oriented investors knocked on our door years ago?
The fact is, only a few marine related businesses currently operating on Commercial Street in 2012 can actually justify being in this marine industrial zone. Good Harbor Fillet moved to Blackburn Industrial Park years ago and North Atlantic Fish recently sold out; still others could exist away from Harbor Cove. The ice company manufactures ice cubes elsewhere. Its 350-ton daily output is history and it now sells T-shirts and offers tours to stay alive....faced with a recently announced 23% water increase, they are already crying! Ocean Crest and Neptune Harbor, like all remaining fish businesses (despite the positive spin) are struggling along with others I'm told, to fill their fresh fish orders. Neptune Harvest Fertilizer is dependent on a continually diminishing fish waste supply as they anxiously await the latest round of industry quota reductions from on high....NOAA.
Now we have a local investor, Beauport Gloucester, seeking to commit 20 million dollars, removing an obsolete waterfront eyesore and erecting a first class hotel, an improvement for our entire city.
This is a ”cash cow”, waiting with a solid economic remedy, no strings attached!
This is an opportunity that can’t be passed by. THE DAYS OF SAIL ARE OVER!
Dory Fishing on Schooner Adventure
Essex Shipbuilding Museum
March 28, 2012
A large crowd was treated to an outstanding talk by Ron Gilson, author of An Island No More, at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum on Wednesday evening. Ron introduced his slide illustrated reminiscence of an eight-day trip on Adventure when he was 17 years old in 1951 with random vignettes of his youth on the wharves of Gloucester Harbor.
Someone once said something like, "We experience life only once--as a child. All the rest is memory." At age 79, Ron brought us back to the days of his youth. With some emotion, he evoked all of the excitement, adventure and sense of awe that many of us feel when we search our own memories of growing up. His respect and love for an era now gone by enveloped the audience and made us all feel privileged to share his experience and memories.
March 28, 2012
A large crowd was treated to an outstanding talk by Ron Gilson, author of An Island No More, at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum on Wednesday evening. Ron introduced his slide illustrated reminiscence of an eight-day trip on Adventure when he was 17 years old in 1951 with random vignettes of his youth on the wharves of Gloucester Harbor.
Someone once said something like, "We experience life only once--as a child. All the rest is memory." At age 79, Ron brought us back to the days of his youth. With some emotion, he evoked all of the excitement, adventure and sense of awe that many of us feel when we search our own memories of growing up. His respect and love for an era now gone by enveloped the audience and made us all feel privileged to share his experience and memories.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
FLOATING MARINA WOULD BE HARBOR HAZARD
Gloucester Daily Times “Letters to the Editor” February 1,2012
Unedited Version as originally submitted follows:
INNER HARBOR FLOATING MARINA PROPOSAL - My View
First and foremost, Gloucester’s deep water commercial harbor is its crown jewel. Our harbor is a recognized prime commercial waterway on the eastern seaboard. For years activists and preservers of the “working waterfront” have advocated for our blue collar fishermen and the preservation of Gloucester’s quintessential commercial harbor.
In the mid ‘60s, urban renewal devastated our working waterfront. Until recently, every public administration and economic development body have refused to recognize and address this major economic deficiency in our commercial tax-paying community.
To that end, we have rebuffed the commercial residential development of the paint factory by several private developers opting for a non-profit marine-related whaling research organization. This property, after decades, now half its original size, is the potential emblematic harbor front door to our city. Currently, this inactive property is a visual reminder of unproductive grandiose dreams, seeking some form of public funding. While the periphery of our stagnant harbor continues to remain blighted and punctuated with undeveloped properties, this floating marina proposal, however well intentioned, is destined to compound our working waterfront felonies of the past.
The one asset we have miraculously retained over centuries is our undisturbed natural deep water waterway, especially the inner harbor itself. Until now! If the Waterways Board and the “fast track” Gloucester Daily Times, have their way, the very lifeblood of our community will be jeopardized by diminishing the only area showing new growth in a promising dynamic commercial working waterfront.
Our expanding new cruiseport facility, with its ocean-going tug and its continuing effort to attract medium-sized cruise vessels, is not enhanced by the introduction of a sprawling recreational mooring field at the narrow entrance to their North Channel waterfront location. Introducing a 450’ x 40’ (football field +) small boat obstacle, right smack in the middle of a deep water channel intersection leading into the far reaches of our harbor’s north and south channels, is a BAD proposal.
This narrow North Channel has a long history of near misses, collisions and sinkings. It can be argued that this floating marina is set back from the working channels, out of harm’s way; it is not. At high water this area is a frequent short-cut for medium sized vessels crossing the harbor. As I write this piece, a modern-day, state of the art cruise ship, has run aground on a well-chartered ledge through negligence and inattention.
A commercial harbor with year-round 24/7 daily activity is no place to install a series of permanently anchored recreational floats! Think about this proposed 450’ long, 18,000 sq. ft., proposed “breakwater”, with 30 small vessels tied up at night, unaware owners and crews sleeping, about to be run down by a huge loaded herring trawler with an out-of-control engine! This whole floating breakwater, sitting dead center in our harbor, would be wiped out, similar to the recent cruise liner accident. The point is, anything can happen in an overcrowded active commercial waterway.
Suppose a sudden sou’west gale sweeps down the harbor as these small yachts hang precariously onto surging floats? Even our 110’ Coast Guard cutter, from the same harbor area, always seeks calmer waters and refuge at the end of the fish pier in the North Channel or on the pier’s south side Cripple Cove end. This practice started in 1940 and continues to the present day!
Let’s face it, we can’t have it both ways: an active working harbor with a pleasure boat facility in the middle cannot co-exist “safely”. It is a stretch to promote this concept in a busy commercial harbor. The Waterways Board is asking for trouble! A tendered facility would be ideally operated by yacht clubs in mainly yachting oriented communities, i.e., Marblehead and Manchester-by-the-Sea.
No matter how It is promoted as an economic panacea to the downtown merchants, at best, it is a three-month expensive “questionable” source of revenue, dependent on the weather. The harsh reality is, it will be a 12-month, indisputable inner harbor navigational distraction and hazard…..an accident waiting to happen.
All successful marinas operate from the land for the following reasons:
• Derive their income by providing multiple services on site
• Supply on site parking for their boat owners
• Provide maintenance and repair services
• Rent mooring dockage and upland storage space, seasonally and year round
• Locate out of the way, usually conveniently accessible to a main waterway
I am always in favor of meaningful waterfront development. This floating marina plan is a dangerous solution to circumvent the Designated Port Authority (D.P.A. zoning) restrictions. D.P.A. zoning is effectively killing our waterfront economic advancement. This is all about outmoded zoning in a transitioning working harbor. Our city fathers and state political representatives should move heaven and earth to get out from under this bondage, once and for all!
Consider the following:
1. City does not belong in the marina business.
2. Marina dollar investment cannot be recouped.
3. Marine legal liability exposure is SCARY!
4. Marine liability insurance (absolutely necessary and required) is expensive.
5. Three months (transient only) operating revenue is a financial loser.
Consider the following less dangerous harbor locations:
1. Behind Ten Pound Island
2. Inside Eastern Point Breakwater adjacent to E.P. Yacht Club
3. In front of Niles Beach
4. Off Half Moon Beach
5. A few visitor floats at Freshwater Cove area or mouth of Little River.
This floating marina proposal is a pricey infrastructure investment. This major city government undertaking demands thorough research from all departments, especially the legal department! Proceed with caution!
Ron Gilson
Gloucester
Unedited Version as originally submitted follows:
INNER HARBOR FLOATING MARINA PROPOSAL - My View
First and foremost, Gloucester’s deep water commercial harbor is its crown jewel. Our harbor is a recognized prime commercial waterway on the eastern seaboard. For years activists and preservers of the “working waterfront” have advocated for our blue collar fishermen and the preservation of Gloucester’s quintessential commercial harbor.
In the mid ‘60s, urban renewal devastated our working waterfront. Until recently, every public administration and economic development body have refused to recognize and address this major economic deficiency in our commercial tax-paying community.
To that end, we have rebuffed the commercial residential development of the paint factory by several private developers opting for a non-profit marine-related whaling research organization. This property, after decades, now half its original size, is the potential emblematic harbor front door to our city. Currently, this inactive property is a visual reminder of unproductive grandiose dreams, seeking some form of public funding. While the periphery of our stagnant harbor continues to remain blighted and punctuated with undeveloped properties, this floating marina proposal, however well intentioned, is destined to compound our working waterfront felonies of the past.
The one asset we have miraculously retained over centuries is our undisturbed natural deep water waterway, especially the inner harbor itself. Until now! If the Waterways Board and the “fast track” Gloucester Daily Times, have their way, the very lifeblood of our community will be jeopardized by diminishing the only area showing new growth in a promising dynamic commercial working waterfront.
Our expanding new cruiseport facility, with its ocean-going tug and its continuing effort to attract medium-sized cruise vessels, is not enhanced by the introduction of a sprawling recreational mooring field at the narrow entrance to their North Channel waterfront location. Introducing a 450’ x 40’ (football field +) small boat obstacle, right smack in the middle of a deep water channel intersection leading into the far reaches of our harbor’s north and south channels, is a BAD proposal.
This narrow North Channel has a long history of near misses, collisions and sinkings. It can be argued that this floating marina is set back from the working channels, out of harm’s way; it is not. At high water this area is a frequent short-cut for medium sized vessels crossing the harbor. As I write this piece, a modern-day, state of the art cruise ship, has run aground on a well-chartered ledge through negligence and inattention.
A commercial harbor with year-round 24/7 daily activity is no place to install a series of permanently anchored recreational floats! Think about this proposed 450’ long, 18,000 sq. ft., proposed “breakwater”, with 30 small vessels tied up at night, unaware owners and crews sleeping, about to be run down by a huge loaded herring trawler with an out-of-control engine! This whole floating breakwater, sitting dead center in our harbor, would be wiped out, similar to the recent cruise liner accident. The point is, anything can happen in an overcrowded active commercial waterway.
Suppose a sudden sou’west gale sweeps down the harbor as these small yachts hang precariously onto surging floats? Even our 110’ Coast Guard cutter, from the same harbor area, always seeks calmer waters and refuge at the end of the fish pier in the North Channel or on the pier’s south side Cripple Cove end. This practice started in 1940 and continues to the present day!
Let’s face it, we can’t have it both ways: an active working harbor with a pleasure boat facility in the middle cannot co-exist “safely”. It is a stretch to promote this concept in a busy commercial harbor. The Waterways Board is asking for trouble! A tendered facility would be ideally operated by yacht clubs in mainly yachting oriented communities, i.e., Marblehead and Manchester-by-the-Sea.
No matter how It is promoted as an economic panacea to the downtown merchants, at best, it is a three-month expensive “questionable” source of revenue, dependent on the weather. The harsh reality is, it will be a 12-month, indisputable inner harbor navigational distraction and hazard…..an accident waiting to happen.
All successful marinas operate from the land for the following reasons:
• Derive their income by providing multiple services on site
• Supply on site parking for their boat owners
• Provide maintenance and repair services
• Rent mooring dockage and upland storage space, seasonally and year round
• Locate out of the way, usually conveniently accessible to a main waterway
I am always in favor of meaningful waterfront development. This floating marina plan is a dangerous solution to circumvent the Designated Port Authority (D.P.A. zoning) restrictions. D.P.A. zoning is effectively killing our waterfront economic advancement. This is all about outmoded zoning in a transitioning working harbor. Our city fathers and state political representatives should move heaven and earth to get out from under this bondage, once and for all!
Consider the following:
1. City does not belong in the marina business.
2. Marina dollar investment cannot be recouped.
3. Marine legal liability exposure is SCARY!
4. Marine liability insurance (absolutely necessary and required) is expensive.
5. Three months (transient only) operating revenue is a financial loser.
Consider the following less dangerous harbor locations:
1. Behind Ten Pound Island
2. Inside Eastern Point Breakwater adjacent to E.P. Yacht Club
3. In front of Niles Beach
4. Off Half Moon Beach
5. A few visitor floats at Freshwater Cove area or mouth of Little River.
This floating marina proposal is a pricey infrastructure investment. This major city government undertaking demands thorough research from all departments, especially the legal department! Proceed with caution!
Ron Gilson
Gloucester
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
'Harbor renewal' can't come fast enough
James Tarantino is absolutely “right on”. Change is coming to Gloucester’s waterfront and the reality is, it can’t come fast enough! Since the 1960s we have witnessed our waterfront’s steady decline. For decades we’ve been assured of a coming resurgence in the fishing industry. Politicians, wives’ associations, and activists have lobbied positively for the industry over the years. Today our fishermen for the most part have been driven out of business. Our federal government has successfully imposed regulations and schemes by promoting a general mind-set of allegedly depleting resources; adopting ridiculous 800 lb. species quotas; limiting days at sea; instituting catch-share programs; and closing plentiful fishing areas, thus bringing about the current state of our local industry. To Mr. Tarantino, I say, the “fix is in”; no longer can we hope for fish-related harbor buildup and fleet renewal, the likes of the ‘40s and ‘50s. The world’s fishing industry has changed; the consumer has changed; the work force has changed; and Gloucester citizens must change their antiquated harbor attitudes also.
“Jim” Davis does have a plan for Gloucester’s premier harbor industrial park. Davis is a business man and a local (summer) homeowner, who is well aware of the economic free-fall that Gloucester’s waterfront has been experiencing for decades. He is stepping up, investing in our faltering waterfront. This isn’t a Chicago bank holding paper; this is a local resident with economic resources and a vision.
Mr. Tarantino asserts that Mr. Davis and other interested investors are taking business risks for personal gain! Isn’t that what private investing is all about? Return on investment is only one incentive; along the way our harbor will come alive, properties will rise in value, employment and tax revenues will increase. As the old saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all boats”.
“Jimmy T.” is “right again”. The Fort is a linchpin. I see the Fort as a jumbo economic egg about to crack wide open. A few non-resident Fort activists and even fewer Fort home owners should no longer influence the economic future of Gloucester’s entire taxpayer base.
For too long the anemic Fort area has gone unnoticed, out of the way, subsidized by the city’s taxpayers. This waterfront economic downward trend must be reversed. Properties have gone undeveloped, owners denied the right to invest because of regulations – zoning restrctions, D.P.A. restrictions, etc. This has to change. For too long the former Producers’ Fish Co., now city owned; Cape Ann Fisheries Co. property; and the former O’Donnell Usen Fish Co. parcel (all prime harbor front real estate); have been allowed to languish in economic limbo. This was brought about by a mix of federal and state regulations, coupled with declining fish landings, resulting in an absence of previous investor interest. The city’s economic development arm must intervene and work positively with these owners.
It’s interesting that Mr. “T” mentions the Cripple Cove area – that’s “Capt. Joe’s” property, formerly Gorton’s East Gloucester flake yard,skinning loft, smokehouse, and redfish wharf complex. When I was a kid, this property was meticulously maintained and employed 200 of my Ward II neighbors. Today, and for decades, this multi-acre property has been wasting away and currently employing only its two owners, handling one product, lobsters. Small boats tie to decrepit pilings on the periphery of this unimproved property; it’s a prominent, visible reminder of a bygone era, a decadent inactive waterfront, crying out for renewal.
Selected prime waterfront properties from Rocky Neck to Harbor Cove are presently undergoing ownership/development changes. Finally, harbor renewal is on the horizon!
Recent changes in our city council makeup, renewed awareness, and reenergized leadership from our proven forward-thinking mayor now promises monumental, beneficial change for our city.
No one cares more about Gloucester, its harbor, and our anchor industry’s heritage than I do. I wrote a book attempting to preserve a portion of our illustrious history. No one can reminisce more than this writer. I love the “old days”, but the reality is we have many books, first-class museums, and excellent city archives that do the remembering. The fact is, Gloucester must move forward and recognize this new wave of private investment as an opportunity. Gloucester is entering an exciting era
“Jim” Davis does have a plan for Gloucester’s premier harbor industrial park. Davis is a business man and a local (summer) homeowner, who is well aware of the economic free-fall that Gloucester’s waterfront has been experiencing for decades. He is stepping up, investing in our faltering waterfront. This isn’t a Chicago bank holding paper; this is a local resident with economic resources and a vision.
Mr. Tarantino asserts that Mr. Davis and other interested investors are taking business risks for personal gain! Isn’t that what private investing is all about? Return on investment is only one incentive; along the way our harbor will come alive, properties will rise in value, employment and tax revenues will increase. As the old saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all boats”.
“Jimmy T.” is “right again”. The Fort is a linchpin. I see the Fort as a jumbo economic egg about to crack wide open. A few non-resident Fort activists and even fewer Fort home owners should no longer influence the economic future of Gloucester’s entire taxpayer base.
For too long the anemic Fort area has gone unnoticed, out of the way, subsidized by the city’s taxpayers. This waterfront economic downward trend must be reversed. Properties have gone undeveloped, owners denied the right to invest because of regulations – zoning restrctions, D.P.A. restrictions, etc. This has to change. For too long the former Producers’ Fish Co., now city owned; Cape Ann Fisheries Co. property; and the former O’Donnell Usen Fish Co. parcel (all prime harbor front real estate); have been allowed to languish in economic limbo. This was brought about by a mix of federal and state regulations, coupled with declining fish landings, resulting in an absence of previous investor interest. The city’s economic development arm must intervene and work positively with these owners.
It’s interesting that Mr. “T” mentions the Cripple Cove area – that’s “Capt. Joe’s” property, formerly Gorton’s East Gloucester flake yard,skinning loft, smokehouse, and redfish wharf complex. When I was a kid, this property was meticulously maintained and employed 200 of my Ward II neighbors. Today, and for decades, this multi-acre property has been wasting away and currently employing only its two owners, handling one product, lobsters. Small boats tie to decrepit pilings on the periphery of this unimproved property; it’s a prominent, visible reminder of a bygone era, a decadent inactive waterfront, crying out for renewal.
Selected prime waterfront properties from Rocky Neck to Harbor Cove are presently undergoing ownership/development changes. Finally, harbor renewal is on the horizon!
Recent changes in our city council makeup, renewed awareness, and reenergized leadership from our proven forward-thinking mayor now promises monumental, beneficial change for our city.
No one cares more about Gloucester, its harbor, and our anchor industry’s heritage than I do. I wrote a book attempting to preserve a portion of our illustrious history. No one can reminisce more than this writer. I love the “old days”, but the reality is we have many books, first-class museums, and excellent city archives that do the remembering. The fact is, Gloucester must move forward and recognize this new wave of private investment as an opportunity. Gloucester is entering an exciting era
Friday, July 29, 2011
Development is Fort Solution, Not Problem
Finally, "Sam" Parisi, a Commercial Street resident, is speaking out.
A Fort waterfront property owner, businessman, and former fisherman, Parisi, is telling it like it is (Letters, the Times, June 28), and in a few short paragraphs to the Times, Parisi lays out the dire plight of his industry and the neighborhood he resides in.
The day after his 1960 G.H.S. graduation he was on the deck of his family's dragger, F/V St. Rosalie. He brings to the table eight generations of Parisi family involvement in the fishing industry.
In my lifetime, the Parisi's have built, skippered, invested, and crewed at least a dozen large commercial vessels. They have owned several waterfront properties, hired hundreds of fellow crewmen, and landed millions of pounds of fish over these years. "Sam", his brother "Mike" and their wives, continue to eke out a living on the waterfront while our own federal government commit felonies, break into our fish auction, and routinely fine and regulate our harbor out of existence….that's the reality.
Entering Commercial Street and the Fort area, we are greeted with a "For Lease" sign on the upper floor of the Chamber of Commerce building. Across the street is a new wharf and building, for years begging for a tenant. The Birdseye plant and acreage cries out for development. The Amero property (formerly Cape Ann Fisheries) languishes, while the former Producer's wharf property is now owned by the city for $78,000 in back taxes, and is reduced to storing lobster traps, for free!
Parisi's property offers 33,000 square feet of class A building space but only 20% is rented! Because of increasingly more stringent government regulations, Parisi has lost three of his four tenants years ago and they haven't been replaced. Contrary to frequent activist "spin", business investors are not lining up for Parisi's waterfront space, even at a reduced rate!
In 1964, "Tony" Parco and partner "Ed" McCollum opened Ocean Crest Seafood. At the Open House festivities, I counted no less than 32 floral tributes sent by fishing vessel owners, soon to be their suppliers.
Now, all those boats are gone and have not been replaced. The founder's siblings labor on. The company has reinvented itself. They have representatives sitting daily at the fish auction and have established a successful fertilizer division, Neptune's Harvest. They continue streamlining their operation. Yet Ocean Crest Seafood survives while struggling with diminished product availability as more and more fish is processed out of town and away from the local waterfront.
Next door at Cape Pond Ice Co., management has rewritten its business plan. Their boat customers are few, they now market bagged ice cubes, create specialty ice products, and actively promote and sell Perfect Storm inspired "T" shirts, etc. The ice company has reinvented itself with new products and creative merchandising. They, too, are hanging on!
The Fort business community has changed. Companies once totally water dependent are now only water related!
Finally, "Sam" Parisi, a Commercial Street resident, is speaking out.
A Fort waterfront property owner, businessman, and former fisherman, Parisi, is telling it like it is (Letters, the Times, June 28). And in a few short paragraphs to the Times, Parisi lays out the dire plight of his industry and the neighborhood he resides in.
The day after his 1960 G.H.S. graduation he was on the deck of his family's dragger, F/V St. Rosalie. He brings to the table eight generations of Parisi family involvement in the fishing industry.
In my lifetime, the Parisi's have built, skippered, invested, and crewed at least a dozen large commercial vessels. They have owned several waterfront properties, hired hundreds of fellow crewmen, and landed millions of pounds of fish over these years. "Sam", his brother "Mike" and their wives, continue to eke out a living on the waterfront while our own federal government commit felonies, break into our fish auction, and routinely fine and regulate our harbor out of existence….that's the reality.
Entering Commercial Street and the Fort area, we are greeted with a "For Lease" sign on the upper floor of the Chamber of Commerce building. Across the street is a new wharf and building, for years begging for a tenant. The Birdseye plant and acreage cries out for development. The Amero property (formerly Cape Ann Fisheries) languishes, while the former Producer's wharf property is now owned by the city for $78,000 in back taxes, and is reduced to storing lobster traps, for free!
Parisi's property offers 33,000 square feet of class A building space but only 20% is rented! Because of increasingly more stringent government regulations, Parisi has lost three of his four tenants years ago and they haven't been replaced. Contrary to frequent activist "spin", business investors are not lining up for Parisi's waterfront space, even at a reduced rate!
In 1964, "Tony" Parco and partner "Ed" McCollum opened Ocean Crest Seafood. At the Open House festivities, I counted no less than 32 floral tributes sent by fishing vessel owners, soon to be their suppliers.
Now, all those boats are gone and have not been replaced. The founder's siblings labor on. The company has reinvented itself. They have representatives sitting daily at the fish auction and have established a successful fertilizer division, Neptune's Harvest. They continue streamlining their operation. Yet Ocean Crest Seafood survives while struggling with diminished product availability as more and more fish is processed out of town and away from the local waterfront.
Next door at Cape Pond Ice Co., management has rewritten its business plan. Their boat customers are few, they now market bagged ice cubes, create specialty ice products, and actively promote and sell Perfect Storm inspired "T" shirts, etc. The ice company has reinvented itself with new products and creative merchandising. They, too, are hanging on!
The Fort business community has changed. Companies once totally water dependent are now only water related!
Good Harbor Fillet, the area's largest fish plant, has relocated "inland" to Blackburn Industrial Park.
This is not a rosy picture, especially when the neighborhood's City Councilor Ann Mulcahey continues to bash and outright reject any positive area renewal.
I would remind Councilor Mulcahey that new development, whether hotel, clustered residential or direct waterfront related business, is not the problem at the Fort, it is the SOLUTION! In fact, it is the answer to Gloucester's economic survival!
City Councilor Mulcahey states publicly that she has the votes on the council to deny any future hotel proposaI. I ask, "Who are these harbor anti-development councilors?" Gloucester taxpayers deserve to know before our next city election!
Ron Gilson, Gloucester
Taxpayers For Harbor Economic Renewal
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Condos Get Bad Rap When it Comes to Land Use
Condominiums Get a Bad Rap
As the Fort neighborhood (Birdseye) zoning discussions move forward, the anti-condominium crowd once again advances its agenda of smoke and mirror scare tactics. This fiery political rhetoric is really warmed over political spin. As a two-time condo owner over the past ten years, I take exception to their persistent, false assertions.
Not long after returning from the service in 1961, I had the pleasure of meeting and conversing with our own famous Gloucester economist, Roger Babson. This question was asked: what advice would you have for a young man like me who wants to live and raise his family in Gloucester? Babson’s answer: there is only so much waterfront property; it is Gloucester’s most important asset. Whenever one has a chance to buy waterfront land, he should make every effort to do so. Cape Ann is in general a granite rock pile with large tracts of interior unbuildable acreage. Shoreside residential development is essential to Gloucester’s future as a growing vibrant community. Babson’s advice in 1963!
At a social gathering some years ago, a prominent local business man said this: The City of Gloucester should award John McNiff a medal for what he has given the city. McNiff took an antiquated piggery and dairy farm, sited on a challenging hilly, rocky acreage and transformed it into a national award-winning condominium community with an ocean view. Nugent Farm condominium complex is a no-maintenance “cash cow” for Gloucester..... that keeps on giving!
Hawthorne Point, Thorwald and Rockaway condominiums are other successful examples of cost effective multi-unit housing development, all quietly returning big dividends to city coffers.
These are the facts:
1. Condos generate higher real estate tax dollar volume on minimal land area, demanding fewer city services.
2. Condo housing takes advantage of excellent locations and smaller land areas, capitalizing on economies realized through clustered townhouse/condo designs.
3. Condos are often owned by older “empty nesters”, frequently vacant during the calendar year, eliminating any school demands and reducing the need for full city services.
4. Condo owners are responsible for the maintenance of their internal infrastructure, common area roads, snow plowing, landscape services, trash removal, etc. .....at no cost to the city.
5. The condo concept has made prime location waterfront living affordable to a larger tax-paying population.
6. Condo ownership is not for everyone; it is a sensible and efficient lifestyle that fits a perceived need by a diverse group of housing consumers.
As Roger Babson observed, shelter is a basic need. Cape Ann’s available residential land mass is minimal. We must be constantly vigilant, seeking out opportunities to increase the housing tax base. In an era of unfunded federal and state mandates, requiring city-wide sewer and water infrastructure improvements, schools, and expanded city services, demanding millions of dollars in added municipal investments, etc.; I ask, where is the increased tax revenue coming from?
The Fort’s residential and commercial community is a unique geographical area in our city. It will always be. Obsolete industrial buildings and undeveloped prime waterfront land presently disrupts and impedes this neighborhood. There has never been any intention to change its character. Fish, fertilizer, ice, lobsters, and retail entrepreneurial activity make this mixed area distinctly Gloucester. Because of its allure, nestled in a seaside location, it provides a special “step back in time” living experience, reminiscent of another romantic era. For decades the Fort residents have recognized and guarded this magnetism. Anyone moving there seeks the area for this very uniqueness. That allure is the attraction! In the final analysis, we are all custodians of this land that we live on. It only makes common sense that the area’s potential be fully realized.
Ron Gilson
Friday, December 24, 2010
A Landmark Year for Gloucester's Waterfront
Decision Time On The Waterfront
The year 2010 will be remembered as a turning point in Gloucester’s history. After 45 years, local government finally took control (temporarily) of the I-4 - C-2 parcel downtown, long considered critical to our Main Street economic revival. The second happening was the acquisition of the idle Birdseye property by a local investor. These two events could positively change Gloucester’s future economic direction, if we are prepared to make the necessary hard zoning decisions.
Mac Bell’s multi-use Birdseye proposals, currently under city government review, already have initiated vigorous public debate by activists bent on preserving the run-down status quo character of the “Fort” area. The arguments pro and con in this debate will play out publicly, and should influence any future decision-making by the city’s planning and zoning boards.
The larger more pressing problem is the Fort Point, direct harbor frontage land area which has remained ignored and undeveloped for decades. This blighted, unproductive land area, currently devoted to lobster pot storage, is not the highest and best use for this prime water frontage. The 1-4 Amero harbor frontage properties of the former Cape Ann Fisheries and Producer’s Fish Co., cry out for development. This whole neglected area resembles a war zone. Why aren’t the marine related developers and promoters of the spin-type “wave energy and ocean acidification projects” attracted to these shovel-ready, properties currently lying fallow? This is where the Fort’s major future development should be focused.
Yes, there certainly are “positives”. Ocean Crest Seafoods, Cape Pond Ice, and Felicia Oil Co. can justify their continuing need for wharf frontage. Neptune Harvest/Ocean Crest with their trendy organic fertilizer and new green storage tanks, as well as Intershell’s new retail expansion showcases upgrades in the area. These ongoing investments demonstrate continuing faith in the Fort’s commercial community. Survival in any business depends upon renewal, innovation, and staying competitive. Neptune Harvest products are today’s fertilizer innovation.
In fairness, there’s not much new about processing fish waste. In the 1940s, the products of LePage’s Glue, Rogers Glue and Isinglass Co., and other fish waste plants, were considered novel for that era. These facilities were located in West Gloucester and in a field now known as Pond Road Industrial Park. From its Commercial Street location, Good Harbor Fillet Co., a fish processing plant, moved to a modern building in Blackburn Industrial Park. Lobster business activity, conducted in a rented Commercial Street building, could be accomplished anywhere.
The reality is: fertilizer, fuel oil sales, lobsters, tuna landings, and retailing of exotic seafood products can be processed, shipped, and marketed almost anywhere away from a wharf on Commercial Street. In other words, the work of the often clichéd “working waterfront” can now be “worked” anywhere!
COMMON SENSE “NO SPIN” REALITY POINTS
1. Gloucester and its fishing industry have changed. The men are gone, the boats are gone, and the fish are off limits!
2. We have a federal government and an ever-growing NOOA-NMFS, intent on regulating independent fishermen – the core of Gloucester’s once famous
industry - out of business!
3. Any and all fish landings can be processed at one wharf, the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.
4 FACT: At the height of 1940-‘50s, millions of pounds of fish were processed on only 60% of the available wharf frontage.
5. FACT: We have more available vessel wharf space in our harbor today than at any time in Gloucester’s history.
6. FACT: Booth Fisheries relocated inland to I-95 North in Portsmouth, N.H., in the 1960s, proving fish processing can be accomplished anywhere.
7. FACT: Barren prime waterfront land and unimproved, obsolete buildings impact negatively on the entire tax paying population. Failure to react to this fiscal reality is to place politics ahead of government’s fiduciary responsibility.
8. FACT: Gloucester is no longer the fishing capital of the world. Change has come to the Fort for many reasons; to survive economically, Gloucester’s city officials must respond to this change.
Ron Gilson
Gloucester
The year 2010 will be remembered as a turning point in Gloucester’s history. After 45 years, local government finally took control (temporarily) of the I-4 - C-2 parcel downtown, long considered critical to our Main Street economic revival. The second happening was the acquisition of the idle Birdseye property by a local investor. These two events could positively change Gloucester’s future economic direction, if we are prepared to make the necessary hard zoning decisions.
Mac Bell’s multi-use Birdseye proposals, currently under city government review, already have initiated vigorous public debate by activists bent on preserving the run-down status quo character of the “Fort” area. The arguments pro and con in this debate will play out publicly, and should influence any future decision-making by the city’s planning and zoning boards.
The larger more pressing problem is the Fort Point, direct harbor frontage land area which has remained ignored and undeveloped for decades. This blighted, unproductive land area, currently devoted to lobster pot storage, is not the highest and best use for this prime water frontage. The 1-4 Amero harbor frontage properties of the former Cape Ann Fisheries and Producer’s Fish Co., cry out for development. This whole neglected area resembles a war zone. Why aren’t the marine related developers and promoters of the spin-type “wave energy and ocean acidification projects” attracted to these shovel-ready, properties currently lying fallow? This is where the Fort’s major future development should be focused.
Yes, there certainly are “positives”. Ocean Crest Seafoods, Cape Pond Ice, and Felicia Oil Co. can justify their continuing need for wharf frontage. Neptune Harvest/Ocean Crest with their trendy organic fertilizer and new green storage tanks, as well as Intershell’s new retail expansion showcases upgrades in the area. These ongoing investments demonstrate continuing faith in the Fort’s commercial community. Survival in any business depends upon renewal, innovation, and staying competitive. Neptune Harvest products are today’s fertilizer innovation.
In fairness, there’s not much new about processing fish waste. In the 1940s, the products of LePage’s Glue, Rogers Glue and Isinglass Co., and other fish waste plants, were considered novel for that era. These facilities were located in West Gloucester and in a field now known as Pond Road Industrial Park. From its Commercial Street location, Good Harbor Fillet Co., a fish processing plant, moved to a modern building in Blackburn Industrial Park. Lobster business activity, conducted in a rented Commercial Street building, could be accomplished anywhere.
The reality is: fertilizer, fuel oil sales, lobsters, tuna landings, and retailing of exotic seafood products can be processed, shipped, and marketed almost anywhere away from a wharf on Commercial Street. In other words, the work of the often clichéd “working waterfront” can now be “worked” anywhere!
COMMON SENSE “NO SPIN” REALITY POINTS
1. Gloucester and its fishing industry have changed. The men are gone, the boats are gone, and the fish are off limits!
2. We have a federal government and an ever-growing NOOA-NMFS, intent on regulating independent fishermen – the core of Gloucester’s once famous
industry - out of business!
3. Any and all fish landings can be processed at one wharf, the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.
4 FACT: At the height of 1940-‘50s, millions of pounds of fish were processed on only 60% of the available wharf frontage.
5. FACT: We have more available vessel wharf space in our harbor today than at any time in Gloucester’s history.
6. FACT: Booth Fisheries relocated inland to I-95 North in Portsmouth, N.H., in the 1960s, proving fish processing can be accomplished anywhere.
7. FACT: Barren prime waterfront land and unimproved, obsolete buildings impact negatively on the entire tax paying population. Failure to react to this fiscal reality is to place politics ahead of government’s fiduciary responsibility.
8. FACT: Gloucester is no longer the fishing capital of the world. Change has come to the Fort for many reasons; to survive economically, Gloucester’s city officials must respond to this change.
Ron Gilson
Gloucester
Monday, December 6, 2010
Out of the Ashes Rises A Symbol of Hope
December 6, 2010
Congratulations to our Cape Ann Jewish Community, especially to their synagogue design and architectural oversight committee, for the beautiful futuristic building taking shape on historic Middle Street. This modern temple sends a message of hope and inspiration. Our Jewish community is alive and well, moving forward with an edifice that inspires hope for the future while honoring their founding fathers from the past.
Gloucester has been my home for a lifetime and some of my most memorable experiences involved my Portuguese neighbors and lifelong Italian friends. Reflecting on my formative years, our Jewish community the smallest of Cape Ann’s ethnic groups influenced my life more than any other; I am truly grateful.
It has been my good fortune to have lived in some of Gloucester’s most exciting times. The period from the end of WW II – 1945 to the opening of the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge in 1951 (when we were still an island) was for me, undoubtedly Gloucester’s finest hours. It was in this brief period that Gloucester was a community like no other. We were the leading fishing port in the world! Millions of pounds of fresh fish were landed daily. Hundreds of wharf workers and vessel support personnel worked the waterfronts, three marine railways, and numerous processing plants. A fleet of 200 vessels sailed from Ipswich Bay to the Grand Banks, a thousand miles away! The whole city prospered, Main Street was alive! Gloucester was like no other place. It was a special time.
My father worked for Ben Kerr of the National House Furniture Co. at the corner of Elm and Main Streets during the 1940s. Around the supper table we were introduced to the Jewish community, listening to my father’s stories working for the Kerr family. On several special occasions, Dad was recruited by Ben to pump the organ (bellows) in the synagogue. It was quite an experience for my dad; he even donned a yarmulke.
One hot summer night in July of ’45, my mongrel dog was severely injured in a fight. The vet’s phone rang and rang. My father remembered that Dr. Morris Pett was a dog lover. He called the doctor, and was told to come to his office on Middle Street, but to enter the back way with “Rags” wrapped in a sheet. While Dr. Pett’s patients unknowingly waited in his outer room, Dr. Pett sutured my dog’s neck in his rear examining room....no charge! Dr. Pett was a little boy’s hero. He was a kind, compassionate and giving person, a Gloucester legend.
I only recall three Jews that worked the Gloucester waterfront in the mid forties. Nathan Flasher, a lumper (longshoreman) and my friend Gene Marshall, a lumper and marine insurance broker, who rented a one room office in the green building (still there) on the Gloucester House wharf. The third person was a “worker of the wharves”, Harry Slafsky. Across the street from Ed Bloomberg’s Strand Theater (now Palazola’s Sporting Goods store) on the West End of Main Street was Slafsky’s Pawn Shop. Harry was a short, portly man, a natural salesman with an outgoing personality. His pawn shop was not in the busiest section of Main Street, so Harry conducted business daily on the waterfront, reminiscent of the peddlers of old. In those days, Gloucester hosted a large 15 - 20 vessel southern fleet each summer. These southern crew members lived aboard their boats between trips – a captive clientele. Harry, with rings on every finger and a dozen wrist watches on each arm, brought his wares to these customers. This was my first lesson in retail merchandising.
Upon my return from the service in 1961, I took my first job at the Gloucester Safe Deposit & Trust Co. on the corner of Main and Duncan Streets. All the tellers belonged to “Bob” Kramer’s suit club. Every week “Bob” would collect a buck from each of us, placing us in the “lottery” with a chance to win a free suit. The trouble was, after a year of contributing, I never won! I expressed my displeasure to “Bob”. Low and behold, the next week, I was “shocked, shocked” to learn that I had won the grand prize of a nice suit. “Bob” threw in a Dobb’s felt hat to boot. Bob Kramer was my friend, long before and after the suit experience. He called me “Herbie”, my dad’s name. Everyone in Gloucester who knew “Bob” Kramer, owner of Bob’s Haberdashery, loved him.
In Sarah V. Dunlap’s wonderful, informative chronicle “The Jewish Community of Cape Ann”, an oral history, she tells the story of the five musical Sandler brothers. Sandler’s Music Store was on the corner of Hancock and Main Street (where the curtain shop is today). High school kids flocked to the store’s record department to test play hit records of the day in one of six soundproof booths at the rear of the store. On the second floor the brothers gave music lessons.....perhaps Fred Slafsky and “Louie” Norton, my fellow R.O.T.C. band friends, were taking sax and trombone lessons at the time. Both are retired medical doctors today.
Twenty years later in the early ‘70s, I acquired Gene Marshall’s marine insurance business after his untimely passing. I was associated with attorney Solomon Sandler who conducted his law practice directly above my ground floor office, with his son Mark and their associate “Bob” Laramee. Attorney “Sol”, became my marine insurance adviser. He was like a father to me; he was my mentor.
When I reminisce about Gloucester’s Jewish community members, I think of the Alper family. Leo sold me my first college topcoat for one dollar weekly. “Ted” Linsky gave me credit and auto service for years. His son, “Steve”, still continues the Linsky family business. “Lenny” Linsky, was a WWII wounded survivor of the Normandy Beach landing. Richard and “Winnie” Bell were in our restaurant every weekend. Fred Axelrod sold me a suit for my engagement – 50% off! Dr. David Cohen, with his soft, kind voice treated me when I was ill as a youngster. Dr. Broder was my dentist on Pleasant Street. These people and many more impacted my life. They contributed significantly to the prosperity of our community.
Arriving from Europe as peddlers and laborers, Gloucester’s Jewish population, while few in number, would become a major influence in the Cape Ann community. Religiously they moved forward from their humble shul beginnings on Liberty and Addison streets to Prospect, and then Middle Street. Professionally they became prominent Main Street merchants, doctors, lawyers and educators. Their story is a classic American story; it’s what this great country is all about! These are my thoughts when I pass the beautiful temple rising out of the ashes on historic Middle Street.
For those who disagree with the architecture of the new temple, I remind you that the designs of preeminent architect Frank Lloyd Wright were met with serious criticism during his early career. Locally, Gloucester High School was faulted for its design in 1938, dubbed “the factory”. Now 70 years later, it is still a vital component of our community!
After three negative and demeaning letters to the Times, I say, “enough already”! YOU, Mr. Golden, “just don’t get it”. You are too busy looking at the trees! The people of Cape Ann know the “cut of your jib”. On this noble temple project, Mr. Golden, the train has left the station and you’re not on it!
Ron Gilson
Congratulations to our Cape Ann Jewish Community, especially to their synagogue design and architectural oversight committee, for the beautiful futuristic building taking shape on historic Middle Street. This modern temple sends a message of hope and inspiration. Our Jewish community is alive and well, moving forward with an edifice that inspires hope for the future while honoring their founding fathers from the past.
Gloucester has been my home for a lifetime and some of my most memorable experiences involved my Portuguese neighbors and lifelong Italian friends. Reflecting on my formative years, our Jewish community the smallest of Cape Ann’s ethnic groups influenced my life more than any other; I am truly grateful.
It has been my good fortune to have lived in some of Gloucester’s most exciting times. The period from the end of WW II – 1945 to the opening of the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge in 1951 (when we were still an island) was for me, undoubtedly Gloucester’s finest hours. It was in this brief period that Gloucester was a community like no other. We were the leading fishing port in the world! Millions of pounds of fresh fish were landed daily. Hundreds of wharf workers and vessel support personnel worked the waterfronts, three marine railways, and numerous processing plants. A fleet of 200 vessels sailed from Ipswich Bay to the Grand Banks, a thousand miles away! The whole city prospered, Main Street was alive! Gloucester was like no other place. It was a special time.
My father worked for Ben Kerr of the National House Furniture Co. at the corner of Elm and Main Streets during the 1940s. Around the supper table we were introduced to the Jewish community, listening to my father’s stories working for the Kerr family. On several special occasions, Dad was recruited by Ben to pump the organ (bellows) in the synagogue. It was quite an experience for my dad; he even donned a yarmulke.
One hot summer night in July of ’45, my mongrel dog was severely injured in a fight. The vet’s phone rang and rang. My father remembered that Dr. Morris Pett was a dog lover. He called the doctor, and was told to come to his office on Middle Street, but to enter the back way with “Rags” wrapped in a sheet. While Dr. Pett’s patients unknowingly waited in his outer room, Dr. Pett sutured my dog’s neck in his rear examining room....no charge! Dr. Pett was a little boy’s hero. He was a kind, compassionate and giving person, a Gloucester legend.
I only recall three Jews that worked the Gloucester waterfront in the mid forties. Nathan Flasher, a lumper (longshoreman) and my friend Gene Marshall, a lumper and marine insurance broker, who rented a one room office in the green building (still there) on the Gloucester House wharf. The third person was a “worker of the wharves”, Harry Slafsky. Across the street from Ed Bloomberg’s Strand Theater (now Palazola’s Sporting Goods store) on the West End of Main Street was Slafsky’s Pawn Shop. Harry was a short, portly man, a natural salesman with an outgoing personality. His pawn shop was not in the busiest section of Main Street, so Harry conducted business daily on the waterfront, reminiscent of the peddlers of old. In those days, Gloucester hosted a large 15 - 20 vessel southern fleet each summer. These southern crew members lived aboard their boats between trips – a captive clientele. Harry, with rings on every finger and a dozen wrist watches on each arm, brought his wares to these customers. This was my first lesson in retail merchandising.
Upon my return from the service in 1961, I took my first job at the Gloucester Safe Deposit & Trust Co. on the corner of Main and Duncan Streets. All the tellers belonged to “Bob” Kramer’s suit club. Every week “Bob” would collect a buck from each of us, placing us in the “lottery” with a chance to win a free suit. The trouble was, after a year of contributing, I never won! I expressed my displeasure to “Bob”. Low and behold, the next week, I was “shocked, shocked” to learn that I had won the grand prize of a nice suit. “Bob” threw in a Dobb’s felt hat to boot. Bob Kramer was my friend, long before and after the suit experience. He called me “Herbie”, my dad’s name. Everyone in Gloucester who knew “Bob” Kramer, owner of Bob’s Haberdashery, loved him.
In Sarah V. Dunlap’s wonderful, informative chronicle “The Jewish Community of Cape Ann”, an oral history, she tells the story of the five musical Sandler brothers. Sandler’s Music Store was on the corner of Hancock and Main Street (where the curtain shop is today). High school kids flocked to the store’s record department to test play hit records of the day in one of six soundproof booths at the rear of the store. On the second floor the brothers gave music lessons.....perhaps Fred Slafsky and “Louie” Norton, my fellow R.O.T.C. band friends, were taking sax and trombone lessons at the time. Both are retired medical doctors today.
Twenty years later in the early ‘70s, I acquired Gene Marshall’s marine insurance business after his untimely passing. I was associated with attorney Solomon Sandler who conducted his law practice directly above my ground floor office, with his son Mark and their associate “Bob” Laramee. Attorney “Sol”, became my marine insurance adviser. He was like a father to me; he was my mentor.
When I reminisce about Gloucester’s Jewish community members, I think of the Alper family. Leo sold me my first college topcoat for one dollar weekly. “Ted” Linsky gave me credit and auto service for years. His son, “Steve”, still continues the Linsky family business. “Lenny” Linsky, was a WWII wounded survivor of the Normandy Beach landing. Richard and “Winnie” Bell were in our restaurant every weekend. Fred Axelrod sold me a suit for my engagement – 50% off! Dr. David Cohen, with his soft, kind voice treated me when I was ill as a youngster. Dr. Broder was my dentist on Pleasant Street. These people and many more impacted my life. They contributed significantly to the prosperity of our community.
Arriving from Europe as peddlers and laborers, Gloucester’s Jewish population, while few in number, would become a major influence in the Cape Ann community. Religiously they moved forward from their humble shul beginnings on Liberty and Addison streets to Prospect, and then Middle Street. Professionally they became prominent Main Street merchants, doctors, lawyers and educators. Their story is a classic American story; it’s what this great country is all about! These are my thoughts when I pass the beautiful temple rising out of the ashes on historic Middle Street.
For those who disagree with the architecture of the new temple, I remind you that the designs of preeminent architect Frank Lloyd Wright were met with serious criticism during his early career. Locally, Gloucester High School was faulted for its design in 1938, dubbed “the factory”. Now 70 years later, it is still a vital component of our community!
After three negative and demeaning letters to the Times, I say, “enough already”! YOU, Mr. Golden, “just don’t get it”. You are too busy looking at the trees! The people of Cape Ann know the “cut of your jib”. On this noble temple project, Mr. Golden, the train has left the station and you’re not on it!
Ron Gilson
Monday, November 23, 2009
Francesco "Capt. Paul" Brancaleone Remembered
The recent passing of Paul Brancaleone has saddened our fishing community, his family, and his many friends. Paul’s accomplishments and contributions to his adopted Gloucester deserve recognition beyond a condensed remembrance that a newspaper obituary provides.
I met Capt. Paul in the early ’70s, when as a marine insurance broker I insured his vessel, the inshore dragger Santa Lucia. Over the years, our routine business association developed into a closer relationship, one of admiration, respect, and friendship.
Paul came to this country as a young man in his early thirties. Like so many in the 1950s era, waves of immigrants arriving from economically depressed Terrasini, Sicily, all sought a better lifestyle. Historically this has been Gloucester’s story repeated for centuries. Fishing in the old country was Paul’s expertise. Like so many others before and since, he readily adjusted to his new surroundings and would immediately find acceptance and work on our thriving waterfront of that decade. Brancaleone would become a successful vessel owner/operator, businessman, employer, home owner, and a respected family breadwinner in his newly adopted country.
I often have asked myself: how would I fare, adjusting to a foreign country, reacting to a totally new lifestyle, while learning an unfamiliar language and providing for my family?
Gloucester’s new citizen was a personable, polite, gregarious individual, always a gentleman, and had no trouble fitting into the local waterfront scene. In his trade, he was a recognized expert fisherman, a reliable hard worker, and a contributor....Paul Brancaleone gave back to our local fishing industry from the day he arrived!
Gloucester’s fishing industry in the late 1950s and ‘60s was prosperous and promising to newcomer Paul. He immediately took his place alongside his contemporaries at Fisherman’s Wharf. Accepting Paul into their fraternity of highliners were Capt. "Gus" Sanfilippo of the F/V St. Rosalie; Capt. Emilio Spinola and his brothers, Mike and Tom; their uncle, Sam “Glo” Scola; and the family patriarch, Capt. Domenic Spinola of the F/V St. Mary, newly launched only a few years before. There was also Capt."Tom" Aiello of the F/V St. Providenza, Capt. “Joe” Giacalone and his partner Sebastian “Bikee” Scola in their
F/V St. Peter. Also, the Testaverde family in their F/V Linda B.; the nearby
F/V St. Peter III, captained by "Tom" Favazza; and Capt. Benny Chianciola in the F/V Serafina II. All were successful whiting and inshore groundfish producers of the day. These few vessels were charter members of the original Gloucester Whiting Association, organized at Fisherman’s Wharf in the early 1950s and managed by my friend Ray Kershaw. Its membership would exceed 50 inshore vessels in the
‘50s and ‘60s.
Within a few years of his arrival in Gloucester, Paul Brancaleone, the risk taker, would roll the dice and join this fleet with his own dayboat, F/V Santa Lucia. Fishing with his compardi vessel owners, Brancaleone and his Santa Lucia crew became a reliable producer of whiting and groundfish, landed daily at Fisherman’s Wharf in the decades of the '60s and‘70s even into the‘80s. Paul didn’t own the largest boat in the fleet nor did he receive headlines for his production. He merely went about his business everyday....a true highliner!
For decades, this dayboat fleet regularly provided volume quality fresh groundfish to the gourmet restaurant trade from Gloucester to New York and Philadelphia! Capt. Paul and his Santa Lucia were part of that production. This inshore fleet, frequently overshadowed, often going unrecognized for their achievements, were the prosperity builders of Gloucester in those years, advancing Gloucester’s reputation for providing the best fresh groundfish in the industry.
A few weeks ago, while in traffic passing St. Peter’s Club, I observed my friend Paul sitting on a bench socializing with his fellow retired compardis in the bright morning sun. I recognized his familiar beaming smile. I waved and he waved back. I thought then how wonderful it was that Capt. Paul lived to enjoy his hard earned retirement. I will miss seeing my friend, Paul, now gone from the scene.....no longer with us.
I met Capt. Paul in the early ’70s, when as a marine insurance broker I insured his vessel, the inshore dragger Santa Lucia. Over the years, our routine business association developed into a closer relationship, one of admiration, respect, and friendship.
Paul came to this country as a young man in his early thirties. Like so many in the 1950s era, waves of immigrants arriving from economically depressed Terrasini, Sicily, all sought a better lifestyle. Historically this has been Gloucester’s story repeated for centuries. Fishing in the old country was Paul’s expertise. Like so many others before and since, he readily adjusted to his new surroundings and would immediately find acceptance and work on our thriving waterfront of that decade. Brancaleone would become a successful vessel owner/operator, businessman, employer, home owner, and a respected family breadwinner in his newly adopted country.
I often have asked myself: how would I fare, adjusting to a foreign country, reacting to a totally new lifestyle, while learning an unfamiliar language and providing for my family?
Gloucester’s new citizen was a personable, polite, gregarious individual, always a gentleman, and had no trouble fitting into the local waterfront scene. In his trade, he was a recognized expert fisherman, a reliable hard worker, and a contributor....Paul Brancaleone gave back to our local fishing industry from the day he arrived!
Gloucester’s fishing industry in the late 1950s and ‘60s was prosperous and promising to newcomer Paul. He immediately took his place alongside his contemporaries at Fisherman’s Wharf. Accepting Paul into their fraternity of highliners were Capt. "Gus" Sanfilippo of the F/V St. Rosalie; Capt. Emilio Spinola and his brothers, Mike and Tom; their uncle, Sam “Glo” Scola; and the family patriarch, Capt. Domenic Spinola of the F/V St. Mary, newly launched only a few years before. There was also Capt."Tom" Aiello of the F/V St. Providenza, Capt. “Joe” Giacalone and his partner Sebastian “Bikee” Scola in their
F/V St. Peter. Also, the Testaverde family in their F/V Linda B.; the nearby
F/V St. Peter III, captained by "Tom" Favazza; and Capt. Benny Chianciola in the F/V Serafina II. All were successful whiting and inshore groundfish producers of the day. These few vessels were charter members of the original Gloucester Whiting Association, organized at Fisherman’s Wharf in the early 1950s and managed by my friend Ray Kershaw. Its membership would exceed 50 inshore vessels in the
‘50s and ‘60s.
Within a few years of his arrival in Gloucester, Paul Brancaleone, the risk taker, would roll the dice and join this fleet with his own dayboat, F/V Santa Lucia. Fishing with his compardi vessel owners, Brancaleone and his Santa Lucia crew became a reliable producer of whiting and groundfish, landed daily at Fisherman’s Wharf in the decades of the '60s and‘70s even into the‘80s. Paul didn’t own the largest boat in the fleet nor did he receive headlines for his production. He merely went about his business everyday....a true highliner!
For decades, this dayboat fleet regularly provided volume quality fresh groundfish to the gourmet restaurant trade from Gloucester to New York and Philadelphia! Capt. Paul and his Santa Lucia were part of that production. This inshore fleet, frequently overshadowed, often going unrecognized for their achievements, were the prosperity builders of Gloucester in those years, advancing Gloucester’s reputation for providing the best fresh groundfish in the industry.
A few weeks ago, while in traffic passing St. Peter’s Club, I observed my friend Paul sitting on a bench socializing with his fellow retired compardis in the bright morning sun. I recognized his familiar beaming smile. I waved and he waved back. I thought then how wonderful it was that Capt. Paul lived to enjoy his hard earned retirement. I will miss seeing my friend, Paul, now gone from the scene.....no longer with us.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
OUR BIGGEST AMERICAN HOLIDAY, JULY 4TH - WHAT IT MEANS
USMC War Memorial Sunset Parade, Washington, D.C.As we approach America’s annual July 4th celebration of our countries independence, I am publishing my Friday blog early this week. Thanks to my friends Warren Silva and Tom Hare for their submissions. To me, it is why we celebrate the meaning of July 4th. As only Kate Smith could sing, “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
remember the shoe bomber?
Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.
Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to
say. His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record,
Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to
the religion of Allah,' defiantly stating, “I think I will not apologize
for my actions,” and told the court “I am at war with your country.”
Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:
Judge Young: “Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court
imposes upon you.
On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the
custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7,
the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence
on each count to run consecutively. (That's 80 years.)
On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be
served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon
you for each of the eight counts a=2 0fine of $250,000 that's an aggregate
fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the government's recommendation
with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of
$298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.
The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes
upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it.
But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.
This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair
and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.
Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your
terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been
through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that
to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with
individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As
human beings, we reach out for justice.
You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a
soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to
call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers
of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a
soldier, you are not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate
with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign
documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to
justice.
So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow. But
you are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are a
terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted
murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when
you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered
where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: 'You're no big deal.'
You are no big deal.
What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys
have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to
grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led
you here to this courtroom today?
I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to
search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you
to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I have
an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire
record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.
It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You
hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live
as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we
individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries
freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because
we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful
courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is
administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for freedom's
sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have
filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other
judges.
We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we
treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake
though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to
preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The
world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after
tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.
Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America, the American
people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not
war, individual justice is in fact being done. The very President of the
United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and
lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of
citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to
mo ld and shape and refine our sense of justice.
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America.
That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten.
That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.
Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.”
say. His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record,
Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to
the religion of Allah,' defiantly stating, “I think I will not apologize
for my actions,” and told the court “I am at war with your country.”
Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:
Judge Young: “Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court
imposes upon you.
On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the
custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7,
the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence
on each count to run consecutively. (That's 80 years.)
On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be
served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon
you for each of the eight counts a=2 0fine of $250,000 that's an aggregate
fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the government's recommendation
with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of
$298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.
The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes
upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it.
But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.
This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair
and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.
Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your
terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been
through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that
to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with
individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As
human beings, we reach out for justice.
You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a
soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to
call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers
of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a
soldier, you are not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate
with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign
documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to
justice.
So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow. But
you are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are a
terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted
murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when
you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered
where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: 'You're no big deal.'
You are no big deal.
What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys
have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to
grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led
you here to this courtroom today?
I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to
search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you
to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I have
an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire
record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.
It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You
hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live
as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we
individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries
freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because
we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful
courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is
administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for freedom's
sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have
filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other
judges.
We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we
treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake
though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to
preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The
world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after
tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.
Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America, the American
people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not
war, individual justice is in fact being done. The very President of the
United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and
lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of
citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to
mo ld and shape and refine our sense of justice.
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America.
That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten.
That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.
Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.”
Captured Photo Collection � The 65th Anniversary of D-Day on the Normandy Beaches Photos
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/wp-content/photos/dday01.jpg
American soldiers march down English street to landing craft embarkation, June 6, 1944Friday, June 26, 2009
Gloucester City Government - It's Politicians, Past and Present
Gloucester City Hall
In my book, An Island No More, I talk about Gloucester being like no other place. Our government and our politicians have in the past and in some ways carry on this unique public image. I’ve been an interested observer of local politics for over 50 years and we’ve had our share of different, sometimes whacky, political candidates.
John P. Canavan, a city council hopeful in the late ‘40s campaigned on a platform of hot topping the harbor as his solution to the scarcity of downtown parking. Then there was the declared dark horse in 1967’s runoff, who actually rode a horse into Kelleher’s Bar during the election eve buffet. We had a junkman by trade, who campaigned unsuccessfully several times, increasing his vote count as he gained oratory experience. He also wrote eloquently in the Times. It was rumored at the time that he enlisted the services of a ghost writer. It turned out the mystery pen belonged to a local coal and lumber czar. Who could forget John J. Burke, Esq., one of our most colorful mayors in the early ‘50s, a pleasant change from the honorable “straight-laced” Weston U. Friend? Of course, all of the above were part of a different era; looking back, post WW II politics were innocent years.
Things didn’t seem as serious in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Life in Gloucester was positively exciting, our fishing fleet was growing by leaps and bounds, and our families were prosperous. Life was great for our blue collar community that turned into a tourist artist mecca in those carefree summers so long ago.
In many ways, as Gloucester moved forward in the 1950s, our fishing industry experienced a gradual decline over the next several decades, bringing us to the present day. We now live in different times, having experienced basic economic changes. We continue to adjust and rise to the challenges that these lifestyle changes impose upon us.
For starters, the modern day complexities of municipal governing require a reexamining of our present government and how we go about delivering our municipal services. As a life long observer, I feel the time is now, perhaps long overdue, to reexamine the City Manager form of government in earnest. We have city manager experience and we made some poor choices in the past; let’s revisit the city manager form of government.
I personally feel that our mayoral form of government went out with high button shoes! If we are to continue our present form of government, I feel the mayor’s term should be increased to four years and no more than two consecutive terms. As it presently stands, a new mayor barely arrives in city hall when she finds herself having to mount a reelection bid only months into her first two-year administration. These short two year terms and reelection campaigns, coupled with the lack of term limit restrictions on incumbents, are expensive to conduct and play into the hands of municipal unions. All politicians seeking reelection must bow to these voting groups. This is a no-win situation for the general taxpayer, rightfully expecting improvement and efficiency in the cost of government administration. This is exactly the position Gloucester finds itself in today.
Politicians in the past have given our city away in better economic times and now find that these cushy employee union negotiated contractual benefits are realistically no longer affordable. These freely given cumulative benefits are seen as bargaining chips agreed to by incumbents as a means of perpetuating their own political longevity. The chickens have come home to roost....the gravy train has stopped! Terms limits address this issue!
All city councilors should run “at large”. The “Ward Councilor” title should be relegated to the trash heap! Ward candidates are not required to compete city wide. They only have to convince a narrow segment of the city’s entire voter population. In this limited voter constituency, the incumbent, often unchallenged, walks in avoiding the scrutiny of our entire voting community. While the premise for this ward representation is to deliver neighborhood services by their ward designated councilor, that councilor, who only catered to a ward constituency, then gets to vote on matters affecting the entire city! To me, this doesn’t ad up. All councilors should be governed by term limit restrictions and serve only two consecutive terms, i.e., eight years.... AT LARGE.
Our present form of city government needs to be revamped. Our executive branch, mayor and assistants, et al appears to be bogged down in the daily minutia, the nuts and bolts of administrating our budget. These duties should be delegated to a professional manager, leaving the mayor and inner staff to focus totally on issues of attracting new business development, increasing our tax base and generally moving our beautiful city forward.
In keeping with the above, I am reminded of a former city council that came to be known as the “Reform Council”, circa 1968. My friend from boyhood, Andrew Nickas, was a member of that council, along with Joe Salah and others. Together, they became known for constantly making things happen for Gloucester. That group successfully acquired the St. Peter’s High School (Fuller School) purchased from the Boston Archdiocese at a bargain price. They successfully opened up the formally landlocked Blackburn Industrial Park, negotiating with the state for an access road off Route 128. The Reform Council was always moving. It seemed that every week there was a new announcement, bringing meaningful economic change to Gloucester. They were not interested in their own longevity, only striving for the community’s overall better quality of life!
Over the past 50 years, Gloucester has experienced lackluster style government with few bright spots; however, the Reform Council, circa 1968 was by far the very best short term city government Gloucester has experienced in my lifetime.
CHANGE – Gloucester’s government must adopt new ways.
Comments? Email: anislandnomore@comcast.net
John P. Canavan, a city council hopeful in the late ‘40s campaigned on a platform of hot topping the harbor as his solution to the scarcity of downtown parking. Then there was the declared dark horse in 1967’s runoff, who actually rode a horse into Kelleher’s Bar during the election eve buffet. We had a junkman by trade, who campaigned unsuccessfully several times, increasing his vote count as he gained oratory experience. He also wrote eloquently in the Times. It was rumored at the time that he enlisted the services of a ghost writer. It turned out the mystery pen belonged to a local coal and lumber czar. Who could forget John J. Burke, Esq., one of our most colorful mayors in the early ‘50s, a pleasant change from the honorable “straight-laced” Weston U. Friend? Of course, all of the above were part of a different era; looking back, post WW II politics were innocent years.
Things didn’t seem as serious in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Life in Gloucester was positively exciting, our fishing fleet was growing by leaps and bounds, and our families were prosperous. Life was great for our blue collar community that turned into a tourist artist mecca in those carefree summers so long ago.
In many ways, as Gloucester moved forward in the 1950s, our fishing industry experienced a gradual decline over the next several decades, bringing us to the present day. We now live in different times, having experienced basic economic changes. We continue to adjust and rise to the challenges that these lifestyle changes impose upon us.
For starters, the modern day complexities of municipal governing require a reexamining of our present government and how we go about delivering our municipal services. As a life long observer, I feel the time is now, perhaps long overdue, to reexamine the City Manager form of government in earnest. We have city manager experience and we made some poor choices in the past; let’s revisit the city manager form of government.
I personally feel that our mayoral form of government went out with high button shoes! If we are to continue our present form of government, I feel the mayor’s term should be increased to four years and no more than two consecutive terms. As it presently stands, a new mayor barely arrives in city hall when she finds herself having to mount a reelection bid only months into her first two-year administration. These short two year terms and reelection campaigns, coupled with the lack of term limit restrictions on incumbents, are expensive to conduct and play into the hands of municipal unions. All politicians seeking reelection must bow to these voting groups. This is a no-win situation for the general taxpayer, rightfully expecting improvement and efficiency in the cost of government administration. This is exactly the position Gloucester finds itself in today.
Politicians in the past have given our city away in better economic times and now find that these cushy employee union negotiated contractual benefits are realistically no longer affordable. These freely given cumulative benefits are seen as bargaining chips agreed to by incumbents as a means of perpetuating their own political longevity. The chickens have come home to roost....the gravy train has stopped! Terms limits address this issue!
All city councilors should run “at large”. The “Ward Councilor” title should be relegated to the trash heap! Ward candidates are not required to compete city wide. They only have to convince a narrow segment of the city’s entire voter population. In this limited voter constituency, the incumbent, often unchallenged, walks in avoiding the scrutiny of our entire voting community. While the premise for this ward representation is to deliver neighborhood services by their ward designated councilor, that councilor, who only catered to a ward constituency, then gets to vote on matters affecting the entire city! To me, this doesn’t ad up. All councilors should be governed by term limit restrictions and serve only two consecutive terms, i.e., eight years.... AT LARGE.
Our present form of city government needs to be revamped. Our executive branch, mayor and assistants, et al appears to be bogged down in the daily minutia, the nuts and bolts of administrating our budget. These duties should be delegated to a professional manager, leaving the mayor and inner staff to focus totally on issues of attracting new business development, increasing our tax base and generally moving our beautiful city forward.
In keeping with the above, I am reminded of a former city council that came to be known as the “Reform Council”, circa 1968. My friend from boyhood, Andrew Nickas, was a member of that council, along with Joe Salah and others. Together, they became known for constantly making things happen for Gloucester. That group successfully acquired the St. Peter’s High School (Fuller School) purchased from the Boston Archdiocese at a bargain price. They successfully opened up the formally landlocked Blackburn Industrial Park, negotiating with the state for an access road off Route 128. The Reform Council was always moving. It seemed that every week there was a new announcement, bringing meaningful economic change to Gloucester. They were not interested in their own longevity, only striving for the community’s overall better quality of life!
Over the past 50 years, Gloucester has experienced lackluster style government with few bright spots; however, the Reform Council, circa 1968 was by far the very best short term city government Gloucester has experienced in my lifetime.
CHANGE – Gloucester’s government must adopt new ways.
Comments? Email: anislandnomore@comcast.net
Friday, June 19, 2009
The Future of Gloucester’s Fishing Industry – Part III – Harbor Planning
When Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, ending WW II, the landscape was totally obliterated. I stood on ground zero in Hiroshima twelve years later. The sight has remained etched in my memory for over 50 years. Talk about a new beginning! City planning, while heart wrenching and emotionally draining, was also awe inspiring to view the total transformation of a war torn ancient city into a totally new well-planned metropolis.
Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport; a close second is American baseball. Hiroshima city owns a world class baseball stadium, thanks to American troop introduction of the sport after the war. That planning and building of a sport stadium was easy, given Hiroshima’s devastated landscape of 1945.
Gloucester harbor planning – future crystal ball viewing by any planning agency is not so easy. We own a partially developed waterfront with, in most cases, viable waterfront businesses operating, i.e., Gorton’s of Gloucester, Rose’s Machine & Oil Division, Ciulla’s Fish Display Auction, Oceancrest Fish Company, commercial freezers, various restaurants, and the new Cruiseport facility, to name a few. All of these operating businesses and approximately 70 other direct waterfront parcels around the harbor periphery fall within the D.P.A. (Designated Port Authority).
This port authority came into existence for Gloucester about 1978. Mass. Chapter 91, “Coastal Zone Management, D.P.A. Control” governs our harbor waterfront from the Fort to East Gloucester. The intent of this authority and other layers of government were to prevent and protect our waterfront from development by unrelated industry. Restricting use guaranteed future space for any resurgence of the fishing industry. Whoever was in authority in 1978 did not investigate the harbor’s past history, for if they had, they would have clearly seen the economic stranglehold they were imposing on about 50% of the waterfront! That’s about the same properties that remain vacant as of this writing. The Fort’s former Cape Ann Fisheries, I-4-C2 parcel, the Building Center’s coal wharf, and other undeveloped waterfront parcels bordering the harbor have labored economically since well before 1978.
![[Derelict+Wharf.bmp]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWmBKPPg9XbgkaWM7iTviivDOu-mJ3BvQoKR6JbAalaESHq47AG2nOXbcuCu5P315u3C2LVWSwsGD5-pcFHezZvTnSWQ908gvVXfeerE4SiAwWcIxHsnkno1tuIK0qUQLh4U937pV1uO7/s1600/Derelict+Wharf.bmp)
Capt. Joe and Sons East Main Street Wharf, 2009
I continue to remind our planners that the peak years of Gloucester’s anchor industry were the 1940s and ‘50s. In 1978, I was in the marine insurance business, insuring approximately 90% of the existing fleet. In that year, Gloucester’s fleet numbered approximately 120 offshore vessels. This was about half of our fleet in 1950. I remind the reader that in the peak year of 1950, when our fleet produced hundreds of millions of pounds of edible fish annually, that production was accomplished on approximately 50% to 60% of the waterfront property! In spite of the above, in 1978, with a declining fishing fleet, this Designated Port Authority status was adopted, including all waterfront properties in its wake; it was negligent overkill from its inception! The D.P.A. simply ended any hope of future development in our harbor! By adopting D.P.A. status, the total development we were attempting to encourage and shape, really doomed our waterfront to the present day.
Gloucester’s hands are tied, waiting for an industry rebirth that will not happen. If it did, we can accomplish the Herculean tasks of the 1950s on the existing waterfront, independent of the D.P.A.’s currently protected vacant, undeveloped parcels.
Scuttlebutt: Gloucester and the remains of our once great fishing industry core workforce owe a sincere thank you to Mr. Richard Gaines, staff reporter of the Gloucester Daily Times. His continuing in-depth professional candid reporting should be appreciated by many. Gaines delivers the waterfront news daily. Without his reporting and the supporting editorial leadership of our hometown paper, Gloucester’s fishermen and indeed the fishing industry countrywide would loose an important voice. Mr. Gaines, whom I have never met, is Gloucester’s resident professional industry advocate for truth and fairness. Gaines and his mighty pen continue to expose unfairness in interpreting local and federal bureaucracy as it affects the lives of our citizens. I like the cut of his jib! Ron Gilson
Comments? Email: anislandnomore@comcast.net
Next Week's Blog: Gloucester City Government - It's Politicians, Past and Present
Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport; a close second is American baseball. Hiroshima city owns a world class baseball stadium, thanks to American troop introduction of the sport after the war. That planning and building of a sport stadium was easy, given Hiroshima’s devastated landscape of 1945.
Gloucester harbor planning – future crystal ball viewing by any planning agency is not so easy. We own a partially developed waterfront with, in most cases, viable waterfront businesses operating, i.e., Gorton’s of Gloucester, Rose’s Machine & Oil Division, Ciulla’s Fish Display Auction, Oceancrest Fish Company, commercial freezers, various restaurants, and the new Cruiseport facility, to name a few. All of these operating businesses and approximately 70 other direct waterfront parcels around the harbor periphery fall within the D.P.A. (Designated Port Authority).
This port authority came into existence for Gloucester about 1978. Mass. Chapter 91, “Coastal Zone Management, D.P.A. Control” governs our harbor waterfront from the Fort to East Gloucester. The intent of this authority and other layers of government were to prevent and protect our waterfront from development by unrelated industry. Restricting use guaranteed future space for any resurgence of the fishing industry. Whoever was in authority in 1978 did not investigate the harbor’s past history, for if they had, they would have clearly seen the economic stranglehold they were imposing on about 50% of the waterfront! That’s about the same properties that remain vacant as of this writing. The Fort’s former Cape Ann Fisheries, I-4-C2 parcel, the Building Center’s coal wharf, and other undeveloped waterfront parcels bordering the harbor have labored economically since well before 1978.
Capt. Joe and Sons East Main Street Wharf, 2009
I continue to remind our planners that the peak years of Gloucester’s anchor industry were the 1940s and ‘50s. In 1978, I was in the marine insurance business, insuring approximately 90% of the existing fleet. In that year, Gloucester’s fleet numbered approximately 120 offshore vessels. This was about half of our fleet in 1950. I remind the reader that in the peak year of 1950, when our fleet produced hundreds of millions of pounds of edible fish annually, that production was accomplished on approximately 50% to 60% of the waterfront property! In spite of the above, in 1978, with a declining fishing fleet, this Designated Port Authority status was adopted, including all waterfront properties in its wake; it was negligent overkill from its inception! The D.P.A. simply ended any hope of future development in our harbor! By adopting D.P.A. status, the total development we were attempting to encourage and shape, really doomed our waterfront to the present day.
Gloucester’s hands are tied, waiting for an industry rebirth that will not happen. If it did, we can accomplish the Herculean tasks of the 1950s on the existing waterfront, independent of the D.P.A.’s currently protected vacant, undeveloped parcels.
Scuttlebutt: Gloucester and the remains of our once great fishing industry core workforce owe a sincere thank you to Mr. Richard Gaines, staff reporter of the Gloucester Daily Times. His continuing in-depth professional candid reporting should be appreciated by many. Gaines delivers the waterfront news daily. Without his reporting and the supporting editorial leadership of our hometown paper, Gloucester’s fishermen and indeed the fishing industry countrywide would loose an important voice. Mr. Gaines, whom I have never met, is Gloucester’s resident professional industry advocate for truth and fairness. Gaines and his mighty pen continue to expose unfairness in interpreting local and federal bureaucracy as it affects the lives of our citizens. I like the cut of his jib! Ron Gilson
Comments? Email: anislandnomore@comcast.net
Next Week's Blog: Gloucester City Government - It's Politicians, Past and Present
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Future of Gloucester's Fishing Industry, Part III - Harbor Planning
The post scheduled for this week"The Future of Gloucester's Fishing Industry, Part III - Harbor Planning" will appear next Friday, June 19.
Today I am running a series of photos from my book, "An Island No More", regarding yesterday's waterfront activities and highlights of the past. (Father's Day, June 21, is an excellent time to purchase a copy of this book at the local bookstores, gift shops, Border's, and www.amazon.com)
Portuguese Blessing of the Fleet Procession to the State Fish Pier, 1946 (DaCruz photo)
United Fisheries, F/V Grand Marshall to be converted to dragging, '41 circa Larry Colby Photo (This vessel became Capt. Frank Rose's F/V Spring Chicken)
Melanson's Boat Yard 1950. F/V Margie L. under construction at head of Gloucester harbor, directly across from the new Rockport National Bank branch on Parker Street. (Larry Colby photo)
Gorton's Cold Storage, corner of Scott Street and East Main Street (presently self-service gas station located across from Rose's oil wharf, formerly United Fisheries Wharf, in 1940s)
Ben Pine's Atlantic Supply Wharf before urban renewal 1940s.
(Presently location of Capt. Carlo's wharf, restaurant and seafood display auction property)
At left of the photo is the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center.
Harbor Cove Italian Seiners, Larry Colby Photo, circa 1949 (In background Gloucester Coal and Lumber Company unloading coal crane, Building Center property)
In Memoriam - Butch Clemeno Welding at the Gloucester Marine Railways, 1973
Today I am running a series of photos from my book, "An Island No More", regarding yesterday's waterfront activities and highlights of the past. (Father's Day, June 21, is an excellent time to purchase a copy of this book at the local bookstores, gift shops, Border's, and www.amazon.com)
Portuguese Blessing of the Fleet Procession to the State Fish Pier, 1946 (DaCruz photo)
United Fisheries, F/V Grand Marshall to be converted to dragging, '41 circa Larry Colby Photo (This vessel became Capt. Frank Rose's F/V Spring Chicken)
Melanson's Boat Yard 1950. F/V Margie L. under construction at head of Gloucester harbor, directly across from the new Rockport National Bank branch on Parker Street. (Larry Colby photo)
Gorton's Cold Storage, corner of Scott Street and East Main Street (presently self-service gas station located across from Rose's oil wharf, formerly United Fisheries Wharf, in 1940s)
Ben Pine's Atlantic Supply Wharf before urban renewal 1940s.
(Presently location of Capt. Carlo's wharf, restaurant and seafood display auction property)
At left of the photo is the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center.
Harbor Cove Italian Seiners, Larry Colby Photo, circa 1949 (In background Gloucester Coal and Lumber Company unloading coal crane, Building Center property)
In Memoriam - Butch Clemeno Welding at the Gloucester Marine Railways, 1973
Friday, June 5, 2009
The Future of Gloucester’s Fishing Industry – Part II -- CHANGE
While many activists base their efforts on a fishing industry “comeback”, the reality is it isn’t going to happen. “Comeback”, meaning hundreds of meaningful shore side processing jobs, hundreds of new career fisherman on hopefully hundreds of boats....anything resembling the 1940s and ‘50s, is simply out of the question. Still there are those holding out hope for a return to the deluge volume of the early ‘50s! Dr. Carmine Gorga has publicly stated his only hope is “will we be ready....”
Since 1950, our once anchor industry has been on a downward spiral. There are many citizens of Gloucester who point to declining fish landings, being the result of governmental regulations, and a lack of resource compared to the industry heydays of the ‘40s and ‘50s. That is all true; however, there are even deeper reasons for Gloucester’s industry demise. I realize that over fishing and over regulation are often thought of as the main cause of our industry failing, however, I believe “change” in our society is the principle culprit.
Some activists subscribe to a renaissance in fish stocks as a result of federal resource conservation rules that currently govern our remaining few boats. These regulations for Gloucester fishermen are similarly enforced throughout the domestic fishing industry. Government regulations have become a way of life in the industry.
Before I discuss change and how it plays such an important role in our harbor planning of 2009, current planning boards and other governmental agencies should review a similar period in our time: the Great Depression. In many ways, our waterfront history of the ‘30s is repeating itself some eighty years later! In the mid 1930s at the height of the depression, Gloucester and its prime (only) industry, fishing, was in the doldrums. Unemployment was off the charts, if records were kept, fishermen were dumping their entire trips overboard outside the breakwater in protest to one and two cent per pound fish prices.
Dory Trawler Adventure
Unloading Trip at Boston Fish Pier 1951
Economically, we were losing to Boston in the ground fishing business.
Our fleet of ground fish dory trawlers was transitioning to the new dragging method. The ground fish industry that was growing and prospering in Boston, was declining in Gloucester. Our local, once leading roaring '20s waterfront with its gala fishermen races notoriety, propelling our image round the world, was over. There was a glimmer of change. A new type redfish was showing up in the Portuguese fleet’s nets of their newer draggers, such as the F/V Elvira Gaspar and Evelina M. Goulart. Dragging was the way of the future. Gloucester fishermen were responding slowly in those depression years, however, there was a light at the end of the tunnel and it was the lowly redfish.
The 1930s had their activists, the movers and shakers of our waterfront. Everett Jodrey, a barber by trade in a shop on Duncan Street, was the fishermen’s friend between trips. His granddaughter, Debbie Ryan, told me he was totally sympathetic to the fishermen’s plight. Jodrey had other friends and associates, Capt. Albert Arnold, Ben Pine, John J. Burke and Joe Mellow, a lobster dealer. Piney was a junk man originally, turned boat manager. Albert Arnold captained the gillnetter Phyllis A.. Only Johnnie Burke was college educated and a lawyer.
These were ordinary men who came together in extraordinary times. Everett Jodrey, father of the Jodrey State Fish Pier, dedicated in October 1938, and the above-mentioned activists had a far reaching vision; they addressed the need of a changing waterfront back in the 1930s. These ordinary men all possessed waterfront “street smarts”. They had a vision of the emerging dragger volume fishing. They capitalized on the timely arrival of Birdseye’s newly developed quick freezing method, thereby facilitating the redfish boon of the ‘40s and ‘50s. As highline Capt. Lloyd Campbell would say years later, “The redfish were eatin’ the keel out of the boat, you!”
The domestic fish industry, its products, and the fishermen delivering same, have changed ways dramatically. The consumer has changed and the products one demands at the supermarket are numerous and unheard of only a few years ago! Looking back and ahead the main ingredient missing in the fishing industry of the future is the availability of the men themselves. The world of harvesting the oceans has moved forward technologically almost beyond comprehension. The industry has outsmarted itself and is capable of catching and processing fish in previously unheard of volume.
While our anchor industry has changed, not only in Gloucester but fishing ports the world over, so to have the men that once made up our harvesting workforce. Fishermen of fifty years ago are no more and they’re not being replaced. In my youth, the often heard cry, “there’s no future in fishing, don’t go”, has been heeded – those who witnessed their fathers and others toil on the sea away from home and families for days, weeks at a time, no longer are willing to sacrifice and pay that price. There will always be fishermen and fish to catch, but it will not return to yesterday; the men and industry has moved on. We live in a different world. The soccer moms of today will not tolerate the absence of their breadwinners.
So where does that leave Gloucester? We have to rise to the occasion and reinvent ourselves. Fishing is no longer our way of life. It is our heritage and we in Gloucester should recognize this shift and proceed on a new course. We must change, adapt and accept new concepts to revitalize our economic future.
The whaling industry started in Nantucket. In less than 100 years it moved to New Bedford because the harbor of Nantucket could not accommodate the larger whaling vessels needed to hunt the sperm whale the world over. Both ports capitalize on their whaling heritage, and they do it to the letter. The whaling industry’s heyday lasted approximately 100 years. Gloucester’s fishing industry has been around almost 400 years, claiming over 5,000 lives. We’re America’s oldest seaport! That’s our heritage; people want to learn about our history. We need to do a better job in promoting our heritage and make that story our primary public relations mission to the world.
That’s the background. Today’s government leaders, activists, and harbor economic development planners need to start with this history. Next week’s blog will explore our harbor planning, the planners and course of action for our local governmental agencies relative to our key economic asset.....our waterfront of the future.
Since 1950, our once anchor industry has been on a downward spiral. There are many citizens of Gloucester who point to declining fish landings, being the result of governmental regulations, and a lack of resource compared to the industry heydays of the ‘40s and ‘50s. That is all true; however, there are even deeper reasons for Gloucester’s industry demise. I realize that over fishing and over regulation are often thought of as the main cause of our industry failing, however, I believe “change” in our society is the principle culprit.
Some activists subscribe to a renaissance in fish stocks as a result of federal resource conservation rules that currently govern our remaining few boats. These regulations for Gloucester fishermen are similarly enforced throughout the domestic fishing industry. Government regulations have become a way of life in the industry.
Before I discuss change and how it plays such an important role in our harbor planning of 2009, current planning boards and other governmental agencies should review a similar period in our time: the Great Depression. In many ways, our waterfront history of the ‘30s is repeating itself some eighty years later! In the mid 1930s at the height of the depression, Gloucester and its prime (only) industry, fishing, was in the doldrums. Unemployment was off the charts, if records were kept, fishermen were dumping their entire trips overboard outside the breakwater in protest to one and two cent per pound fish prices.
Dory Trawler Adventure
Unloading Trip at Boston Fish Pier 1951
Economically, we were losing to Boston in the ground fishing business.
Our fleet of ground fish dory trawlers was transitioning to the new dragging method. The ground fish industry that was growing and prospering in Boston, was declining in Gloucester. Our local, once leading roaring '20s waterfront with its gala fishermen races notoriety, propelling our image round the world, was over. There was a glimmer of change. A new type redfish was showing up in the Portuguese fleet’s nets of their newer draggers, such as the F/V Elvira Gaspar and Evelina M. Goulart. Dragging was the way of the future. Gloucester fishermen were responding slowly in those depression years, however, there was a light at the end of the tunnel and it was the lowly redfish.
The 1930s had their activists, the movers and shakers of our waterfront. Everett Jodrey, a barber by trade in a shop on Duncan Street, was the fishermen’s friend between trips. His granddaughter, Debbie Ryan, told me he was totally sympathetic to the fishermen’s plight. Jodrey had other friends and associates, Capt. Albert Arnold, Ben Pine, John J. Burke and Joe Mellow, a lobster dealer. Piney was a junk man originally, turned boat manager. Albert Arnold captained the gillnetter Phyllis A.. Only Johnnie Burke was college educated and a lawyer.
These were ordinary men who came together in extraordinary times. Everett Jodrey, father of the Jodrey State Fish Pier, dedicated in October 1938, and the above-mentioned activists had a far reaching vision; they addressed the need of a changing waterfront back in the 1930s. These ordinary men all possessed waterfront “street smarts”. They had a vision of the emerging dragger volume fishing. They capitalized on the timely arrival of Birdseye’s newly developed quick freezing method, thereby facilitating the redfish boon of the ‘40s and ‘50s. As highline Capt. Lloyd Campbell would say years later, “The redfish were eatin’ the keel out of the boat, you!”
The domestic fish industry, its products, and the fishermen delivering same, have changed ways dramatically. The consumer has changed and the products one demands at the supermarket are numerous and unheard of only a few years ago! Looking back and ahead the main ingredient missing in the fishing industry of the future is the availability of the men themselves. The world of harvesting the oceans has moved forward technologically almost beyond comprehension. The industry has outsmarted itself and is capable of catching and processing fish in previously unheard of volume.
While our anchor industry has changed, not only in Gloucester but fishing ports the world over, so to have the men that once made up our harvesting workforce. Fishermen of fifty years ago are no more and they’re not being replaced. In my youth, the often heard cry, “there’s no future in fishing, don’t go”, has been heeded – those who witnessed their fathers and others toil on the sea away from home and families for days, weeks at a time, no longer are willing to sacrifice and pay that price. There will always be fishermen and fish to catch, but it will not return to yesterday; the men and industry has moved on. We live in a different world. The soccer moms of today will not tolerate the absence of their breadwinners.
So where does that leave Gloucester? We have to rise to the occasion and reinvent ourselves. Fishing is no longer our way of life. It is our heritage and we in Gloucester should recognize this shift and proceed on a new course. We must change, adapt and accept new concepts to revitalize our economic future.
The whaling industry started in Nantucket. In less than 100 years it moved to New Bedford because the harbor of Nantucket could not accommodate the larger whaling vessels needed to hunt the sperm whale the world over. Both ports capitalize on their whaling heritage, and they do it to the letter. The whaling industry’s heyday lasted approximately 100 years. Gloucester’s fishing industry has been around almost 400 years, claiming over 5,000 lives. We’re America’s oldest seaport! That’s our heritage; people want to learn about our history. We need to do a better job in promoting our heritage and make that story our primary public relations mission to the world.
That’s the background. Today’s government leaders, activists, and harbor economic development planners need to start with this history. Next week’s blog will explore our harbor planning, the planners and course of action for our local governmental agencies relative to our key economic asset.....our waterfront of the future.
Friday, May 29, 2009
The Future of Gloucester's Fishing Industry - Part I
There will always be fishing in Gloucester. There will always be men to go fishing. That is our heritage and has been for close to 400 years. It is not, however, Gloucester’s future.
If you were an adult in the late 1940s or 1950s, you witnessed the big show! Sixty years ago, Gloucester’s fishing industry was at its peak. We were the recognized world leader in production of volume fish products. Since the mid-1950s, our dominance in the industry has steadily declined.
Gorton Pew's F/V Mother Ann Being Towed
After Launching in Essex, 1947
To understand this rise and fall of our once anchor industry, we must review a few basics. At the end of the great depression in the early ‘40s, our fleet of offshore vessels had completed a transition from dory fishing to a motorized dragging method of fishing. Gloucester’s fleet was on the threshold of adopting a vastly different, more efficient, method of catching fish. A few newer draggers were being built just before WW II.
A new modern fish pier was created on Five Pound Island, complete with processing stalls and freezer coming on line in 1938. Clarence Birdseye introduced quick freezing and the Portuguese fishermen were occasionally catching a new, strange redfish in their trawls and nets. All these factors came together in the early 1940s. Pearl Harbor and WW II brought immense increased demand for our newly discovered redfish. This required the modern day quick-freezing method of processing that completed the picture.......no more salt.What we didn’t know at the time, was the epic era we were about to enter and the historic impact our fishing products would have on this country and the European war torn world economies.
For the decade between 1945 and 1955, Gloucester and our citizens enjoyed unparalleled prosperity. This is the era I grew up in and it really was a big show. Our city was totally involved. If the family’s breadwinner wasn’t a fisherman or a wharf worker, it was a rarity. It seemed our entire population was intimately involved in supporting our anchor industry. It was an exciting era; it was Gloucester’s way of life. In those days, I thought Gloucester’s business, fishing, would go on forever!
Graduating from Gloucester High School in 1951, I immediately took a job on this busy waterfront. It was what many young men and women did in those days.
Joe Codinha's Ultra-Modern Redfish Processing Plant, off East Main Street, 1945
The F/V Benjamin C. highline crew, pictured on the vessel's whaleback, steaming home from the fishing banks in 1947.
Center: Highline Capt. Joe Ciarametaro, surrounded by his crew
Maiden Trip F/V Felicia, Leaving Gloucester under command of Capt. Salvatore Nicastro
Now some 50 plus years later, our 200 big boat offshore fleet of the 1950s is reduced to a couple dozen inshore boats, several hailing from Maine ports because they are legally prohibited from landing dragger lobsters in Maine. These lobsters are a vital by-catch, extra cash to the crew, the main incentive for the Maine draggers to land their fish and their lobsters in Gloucester. Therefore, the reality is, the Gloucester inshore fleet includes these additional visiting Maine boats.
Today, our main processing fresh fish firms are the display auction, Ocean Crest Seafood and maybe one or two other fresh fish handlers. The Gloucester Seafood Display Auction handled 20,600 pounds of fish yesterday, a sharp contrast to a routine one million pound day in 1950. In the year 1946, the Master Mariner's yearbook listed 19 fish handling firms on Gloucester's waterfront, and we were only just beginning to ramp up to our phenomenal postwar fish production.
What is Gloucester’s fishing future? If you buy into the Harvard PHD trained, self-declared industry experts, our fishing industry is on the verge of a major comeback. They say our only concern should be “will we be ready”, the inference being, will Gloucester be prepared to handle the anticipated deluge of fish to be delivered in the near future!
Preposterous!!! The Carmine Gorgas, David Rubens and Peter Bearses of our community, along with other well-meaning activists, are, in my mind, wrong on their prognosis of the so-called comeback of our once world leadership in the fishing industry. I intend to prove my case in succeeding blogs.
Next Week , Part II: CHANGE
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