– News about Quincy from Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

“Are your ready for some football?”
A Google Doodle

Quincy Quarry News Weekly Fish Wrap: It has been a turkey of a week.

What with Thanksgiving Day happening this week and many trying to make up for last year’s greatly reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic of the usual Thanksgiving gatherings of family and friends to binge on food and football, many locals appear to have been wicked busy shopping this week given still ongoing supply chain shortcomings.

Plus, with Thanksgiving gluttony one of Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s favorite events of the year, it was a quick and mostly quiet week in the Q for a change.

This is yet another fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into …
An old Columbia Pictures image

Especially as compared with recent weeks and during which all sorts of things hit the fan as well as concurrently into the face of Quincy’s peerless mayor and his cronies.

Even so, there is something positive to report as regards at least slowing one the usual sorts of koched-up redevelopment grifts in Quincy

In this instance, an attempt by the City Solicitor and his family member business partner to endeavored to score approval under the radar of a roughly twice as large as allowed by local code proposal for a condominium project on Sea Street on a parcel of land where the now-former Imperial Dynasty restaurant had long been a local fixture was

Pick a card, any card …
Image via imgflip

For example, surely but coincidentally, the project was never subjected to the standard practice of both first being run by the Planning Department for its review and then a public hearing by the Planning Board.

Also surely but a coincidence, the proposal thus went straight to the Zoning Board of Appeals to seek massive variances from code so that Mayor Koch’s Consiglieri could score approval to build a project twice as large as allowed by code.

The true “Quincy Way”
A Quincy Quarry meme

Fortunately, this suspected attempt at a railroading was busted shortly before last month’s Zoning Board of Appeals (“ZBA”) meeting. 

The basis for slowing down the grifting the variances ask last month: the Consiglieri and his crew did not first hold a de rigueur neighborhood meeting so as to allow impacted nearby property owners to have the opportunity to express their potential concerns.

This “oversight” was raised and a hearing of the City Consigilere’s variance request last month was thus postponed until this week’s monthly meeting of the ZBA so that those who would be impacted by the project could offer comment.

The villagers are not amused
An old Universal Pictures image

And comment they did.  Roughly three hundred people formally expressed their opposition to the proposed project.

So considerable was the opposition that even the usually supine ward councillor was left with no choice but to announce at the ZBA meeting that he was opposed to the project as was presented and which may well be the first time that he has ever done so.

Then after some hemming, hawing, and harrumphing, one of the parties tied to this development grift announced that plans were in the works for a slightly smaller (but still close to twice as large a project as local code should dictate, ed.).

What you want when someone has thrown you over the side
A file photo image

In turn, the Chair of the ZBA then grabbed onto this in the works change in plans with all of the vigor of drowning person grabbing a ring life buoy and thus again readily agreed to table hearing the Consiglieri’s variance appeal until no sooner than next month’s ZBA meeting.

After all, variances are only supported to be granted given a hardship or hardships, whereas the only likely hardship in this instance would appear to be that the Consiglieiri would not be able to make the money he was planning to score on this real estate grift.

Fredo, Fredo, Fredo …
An American Zoetrope image

In turn, courtesy of Quincy Quarry’s sources both high but mostly low, word has it that Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch had a terse conversation with his Consiglieri over what the mouthpiece was trying to score.

A very terse conversation.

Unclear, however, is if Mayor Koch actually has limits as to what can be grifted or if perhaps he had not been duly brought into things.

Regardless, there is no doubt that the Consiglieri yet again stepped into it.

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