Dog Poop on the Sidewalk: Is It a Problem on Your Street?

Since my wife and dog and I moved to North Salem in December, I've noticed a lack of responsibility among my fellow dog owners.

Warning — The photo that accompanies this post might turn the stomachs of some readers. But what's worse is running into it in person. My wife and I (and our elderly dog) moved to North Salem in December. We love our new neighborhood. That said, I think we have to be honest that there is a dog poop problem along Buffum Street. As a dog walker myself, I have to take responsibilty for keeping those deuces off the sidewalks. One of my neighbors has taken to drawing attention to the problem by writing "PIG" in big chalk letters on the sidewalk whenever a thoughtless dog owner leaves their pooch's little presents right in the way of pedestrians. I took the attached photo yesterday. It's just the latest example. I applaud my chalk-using neighbor…

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What Do You Think About Gov. Patrick’s Travel Ban?

Do you agree with the governor's decision or was it too drastic?

All non-emergency drivers were ordered off the roads on Friday when Gov. Deval Patrick issued an executive order banning travel during the blizzard. (Editor's note: The ban is lifted statewide as of 4 p.m. Saturday.) Patrick's executive order is being praised by some and bashed by others, reported The Boston Globe. While former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was in charge of the commonwealth during the Blizzard of ’78, praised the governor’s move, others called the order “tyrannical” and say the strict ban and hefty fines were too much, according to The Globe. Those caught violating the ban would face up to a year in jail and a $500 fine. What do you think? Do you agree with the governor’s decision or do you think the travel ban …

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Please Don't Help My Kids

A Patch blogger's post about not helping her children on the slide is being debated across the country.

A Patch blog from Alameda, Calif., called “Please Don’t Help My Kids” has struck a nerve with readers across the country. Posted in September, the blog has taken off over the past few weeks as it has found a second life through social media sharing. The blog has 124,000 Facebook recommendations and 833 people have tweeted the blog. The blog is an open letter to other parents at the playground. The blogger Kate Bassford Baker’s basic request is for parents to not help her daughters on the slide. She wrote that she wants her daughters to do things and learn things on their own. Learning to walk up the slide’s ladder is the first step to learning new things and overcoming obstacles, she wrote. “Because, as they grow up, the ladders will only …

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Momma Bear

4:17 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Well said Travis.....   more ›

A Voice In Salem

To Everything There Is A Season

Yes I'm leaving Salem Patch, but I'm not going away.

  Life is a series of occurrences, many being memorable for good reasons and others for not so good reasons.  2010 was a year of deeply personal trials for me. I found myself being tested in ways that challenged me not only physically but also psychologically. Health problems vexed me. Events and people from long ago haunted my thoughts. I was working and existing but I was not living. One person and one random occurrence changed everything. A busy Friday night in early November, 2010 found me at the Gulu-Gulu Cafe wearing headphones and staring intently into the screen of my laptop. A small writing project for a sports web site was occupying my time. A young lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked if the empty seat to my left was …

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A Voice In Salem

1973 - A Divided Council Fights Over Mayoral Office

Practicality prevailed when Joe Ingemi and S. Steve Salvo vied for the corner office.

The early 1970's were a critical time in the history of modern Salem.  Sam Zoll and Dick Guy faced off in the 1969 mayoral election. They were looking to succeed Francis X. Collins who had occupied the corner office at City Hall for twenty years. It was a true north Salem versus south Salem contest. When the smoke cleared Zoll stood as the winner. Zoll completed a two year term and stood for re-election in 1972 where he defeated a marginal candidate by the name of Morin. My memory of Morin presents a bear of a man with a bushy beard who would paddle from the beach at Derby's Wharf to Marblehead on a large truck tire inner tube. His bicycle would rest on his lap as he paddled. Once he hit Marblehead he would tie the inner tube to his bike …

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A Voice In Salem

A Martian Christmas, The Grinch And The Paramount

Salem's Christmas past ties right into its Christmas present.

If you were an adolescent in the 1960's and a teen in the 1970's you know that television and the movie theater played a real role in your daily existence. Other than radio there was no other electronic media out there. Growing up as local movie theaters were fading, I can only remember two in Salem. There was the Salem Theater and then the decidedly more upscale, at least in appearance, Paramount Theater. Each was located on Essex Street.  The Federal, Empire and Rialto Theaters were slightly before my time. Most of the Christmas movies that I remember from childhood were shown on television. To this day my favorite Ebenezer Scrooge remains Alistair Sim in the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol". Other versions have been well done but …

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A Voice In Salem

P. T. Barnum Would Have Loved Our Lottery

From The Game to Power Ball, a gambling fever endures.

A couple of times every year, lottery fever hits Salem and other communities across the country. Once it hits it spreads quickly without regard for race, creed, color or sexual preference. Many succumb to this fever.  Gambling may be classified as a disease, but lottery fever is not. If it was, the powers that be would be moved to declare it an epidemic, isolate and perhaps move to eradicate it. The first symptoms in Massachusetts occurred in 1972 when "The Game" was created. I remember those tickets in my Grandfathers store, Bill's Variety. They came 24 to a sheet and cost fifty cents a piece. That game was basically the end of lotteries as criminal enterprise. It had become a state-sanctioned and controlled business. The lottery was sold…

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A Voice In Salem

Universal Steel - Goodbye and Teenage Memories

Some recollections of Charlie Schialdone and the times before a brownfield.

If all goes as planned, by the time you begin to read this sentence the yellow, cinder-blocked building on the Universal Steel site will be under the wrecking ball. And years of neglect, followed by tax issues and an eventual seizure by the city, will finally come to a merciful end. Most people seem to know this property as a federally designated brown fields site that sits just off of the North Street overpass. It has been long vacant and contaminated with polychlorinated byphenyls (PCB's), known to cause cancer and other dangerous metals, to include lead and arsenic. In the winter of 1976 Universal Steel hired a scrawny Salem High School distance runner to help out in the what was known as the yard. That skinny kid was me. A winter of …

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William Legault

5:59 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

My memories of the place are good ones. The people that worked there treated me well. There were the yard guys like Charlie, the old man whose name escapes me operating the crane, the truck drivers and the other yard kid, Eddie who was a bit older than me. Overall it was a positive experience.   more ›

A Voice In Salem

Salem's Downtown Drinking Issues Are a Two-Way Street

The individual has to be held responsible - as does the business.

  Recent actions taken by the Salem Licensing Board have caught the attention of many local residents and prompted some lively discussions on Salem Patch. Those who frequent downtown businesses on weekend nights can attest the vibrancy that has become downtown Salem. By late afternoon, it is not unusual to see places filling up with those out for a burger and a beer at Major Magleashe's or some delicious pasta and a good red wine at Cafe Graziani. Salem, along with Beverly, has become a destination for the dining and drinking crowd. This is good for everybody, but like anything else, it brings some negative with the positive. Among the many are residents looking for a relaxing night out are more than a few who have done a little pregame …

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Was Thursday's Vehicular Homicide Sentence Fair?

The sentencing of a local woman to two-and-a-half years in jail Thursday after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide outraged family members of the victim. Where do you stand?

The family and friends of a Danvers teen killed in a car accident in Salem earlier this summer had some harsh words for the drunken driver who was behind the wheel following her sentencing in Salem District Court Thursday afternoon. Angelique Griffin, 25, of Salem, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of vehicular homicide and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. A judge sentenced her to serve two-and-a-half years in prison with a six-month home confinement, according to WHDH. The passenger in her vehicle, Dillon Renard, 19, was killed on June 16, when the PT Cruiser Griffin was driving crashed into a parked tow truck outside All Star Collision Center on Boston Street. Griffin's lawyer argued that the guilt she …

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