JRA Cycles used to be at 246 Salem Street. It is a GREAT bike shop that moved across the street to 229 Salem some years ago. Now this would have been a nice place for the public access TV station to move to, but rather than fill a void in our city, empty spaces, McGlynn doesn't suggest, he just lets chaos breed more chaos.
Next door to the block where JRA used to be is the old brake pad place. It is MORE of an eyesore than 425 Main Street, which John Waller wrote about in a prrevious Patch article.
Blight on Main Street?
Would you like to see the former A&B Auto Repair property cleaned up? Let us know by posting a comment below.http://medford.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/blight-on-main-street
On September 19, 2011, I wrote this article prior to the 2011 election: http://emptrystorefronts.blogspot.com/2011/09/empty-stores-black-eye-on-mcglynn.html
Since the 2011 posting 29 Forest Street is now filled (it would have been a great place for our public access station,) Bestsellers is back, and the empty car lot on the ragged Locust Street - drive over that mess, it feels like you are sailing the seven seas, in a perpetual storm! - is now going to be apartment buildings, but Mystic Ave is still a mess - 282 Mystic Ave, 312 Mystic Ave, the old Blockbuster and Staples/Dunkins buildings...still empty last I checked. You do get a Paul Camuso bumper sticker while turning left to go on Route 93, defacing public property on the Somerville Line. Heck, the City Councilor does work across the street in the new Century Bank building, and it really sends a message. Perhaps the Councilor should be spending more time bringing businesses into Medford - as Camuso promised years ago in campaign rhetoric published on the web - instead of having himself or someone else slap bumper stickers on things around the city. Perhaps the Mayor should clean off his bumper stickers defacing both sides of Central Ave and pave Central Ave while he is at it.
It's a twisted joke that Medford is chock full of pot holes, political bumper stickers - the late Sheriff DiPaola's sticker is right there with McGlynn's on Central Ave. and empty storefronts. Why isn't the Mayor cleaning off those bumper stickers defacing property? Why do the residents on the corner of Central Ave and the Fellsway have to put up with junky stickers on both sides of the street?
Mike McGlynn talking about River's Edge is like Henry Ford bragging about the Edsel, his spectacular failure. That kind of talk is not worth listening to. It is propaganda.
Talk is Cheap, not just the name of a Keith Richards solo album. I was in the studio with Mr. Richards while he was recording that lp/cd in 1988. I actually know who the real producer of the record is (met him that night and spoke with him on the phone yesterday.) His name is not on the album because of record label politics. Politics - in rock music and in city life - sometimes get in the way.
http://medford.patch.com/groups/rock-journalist-joe-vig-/p/rovers-edge-vs-425-main-street
