Meanwhile, away from the Ballot Box

Shockingly, there are still a few things going on before tomorrow's election. Don't forget to vote, by the way. Polls open at 7 a.m., close at 8 p.m. Enjoy.

Here's two items from the last few days. One is good news for downtown, the other is a fairly strong suggestion for the future of the city.

Downtown gets another boost as Micron Products Inc. gets set to buy the Harper Furniture building. Micron is building quite a compound downtown, and is something of an anchor tenant in that area at this point. Not only does this sale take care of the Harper building's future, but it also brings more employees to downtown. That end of downtown could use another quality restaurant or shop or two, and hopefully this growing mass of daytime activity will help.

Then there's this story of a developer encouraging Leominster to speed up its permitting process. This is something Fitchburg officials should at least very much consider, if not take advantage of immediately. The slow permitting process across the state is an issue, and chances are most communities will not take advantage of this new state law. It would likely give Fitchburg a competitive edge moving forward, and Fitchburg needs every edge it can get.

There may be a downside to this, speed doesn't lend itself to lengthy review and thinking, but the city should consider targeting some areas as quick-permit areas. It can generate interest in areas that otherwise wouldn't be considered, and can be an attraction to business consider a number of communities in the region. It may take some time and effort to create a fast-permit plan, but it would be well worth it for the city.

OK, OK. We can't help ourselves, and need to delve into politics today. We got an e-mail from Republican Edward Niemczura titled "Edward Niemczura on switching parties." Here it is, in it's entirety. Steve DiNatale, someone is paying attention to you.

Politicos who switch parties usually bend over backwards to
ingratiatethemselves with their new comrades. This makes them convenient
lapdogs for theParty to call upon. I know this was the case with former
Texas Senator PhilGramm. He was a Democrat congressman until he read the
tea leaves and saw thatTexas loved Ronald Reagan in a big way. So he
jumped parties,won the Senateelection thanks to the publicity of his conversion,
and was the most reliablevote on the Republican party line. He also became their
biggestfundraiser.