THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, NOVEmbER 15, 2024 Page 3 ~ Op-Ed ~ To the Commonwealth: Everett Is No Longer the “Last Mile” I By Mayor Carlo DeMaria, Jr. n 1953, a young Boston University graduate student, John DiGiacomo, wrote a thesis on the social history of Everett to that point. In surveying Everett in the early 1950s, DiGiacomo wrote “Everett’s newly adopted title, ‘City of Diversifi ed Industry,’ is certainly appropriate in that no title ever fi t a city more accurately…chemicals and chemical compounds, oil and all its derivatives, iron and all kinds of things made of iron…and electric current to run them all are a part of the city’s industrial makeup. Everett is now the most highly industrialized city of its size in the country and this boast can be extended to the world.” While Everett’s industrial past was indeed once a source of great community pride, the toll Everett residents paid over the decades to play host to industries that powered the Commonwealth and the wider region was high. At great expense to public health, to our local environment, and to the infrastructure of our community, Everett spent more than a century as an industrial front-line community. For decades, Everett residents toiled in chemical and oil plants, leaving a legacy that includes higher than average rates of mesothelioma and an inordinately high urban heat island eff ect that risks exacerbating the health risks of vulnerable populations. 131 years ago, in 1893, the Cochrane Chemical Works, known today as the Monsanto Company, became the city’s fi rst large corporation. Other industrial fi rms such as The New England Fuel and Transportation Company (known today as Everett LNG), American Agricultural Chemical Company, and the Everett Factories Corporation realized the potential of the acres of waterfront property, availability of transportation, and proximity to Boston as prime sites for future plants and by 1920, Everett was already established as an industrial city. By 1939 and the onset of the Second World War, General Electric purchased land in Everett and by 1941 was being awarded defense contracts by the government to help produce aircraft engine parts and components that would aid in America’s fi ght against the Axis powers during the war. And though, as Mr. DiGiacomo documented in the middle of the 20th century, industry continued to hum along for a time, as needs changed, the economic incentives associated with Everett hosting industry began to dissipate. Once burgeoning factories began to quiet before eventually shuttering altogether, ensuring that the people of Everett would not only have to navigate the health and environmental implications of working in and around chemicals and fuels, but for many, they would have to do it without the same guarantee of a well-paying job. Meanwhile, for decades the city was blocked from developing large swaths of its own land. In short, Everett was given a shortsighted deal by toxic industrial entities to help power the region in exchange for environmental degradation, poorer public health outcomes, and jobs that eventually went by the wayside. And, as if that wasn’t enough, generations of Everett residents were forced to cohabitate with an industrial graveyard of a bygone era, rather than enjoy and benefi t EVERETT | SEE PAGE 8 SABATINO/MASTROCOLA INSURANCE AGENCY 519 BROADWAY EVERETT, MA 02149 Auto * Home * Boat * Renter * Condo * Life * Multi-Policy Discounts * Commercial 10% Discounts * Registry Service Also Available Sabatino Insurance is proud to welcome the loyal customers of ALWAYS READY TO SERVE YOU: Our Staff are, Emma Davidson, Jeimy Sanchez, Josephine Leone, Marie D’Amore, Rocco Longo, Z’andre Lopez, Anthony DiPierro, Darius Goudreau, Laurette Murphy, Danielle Goudreau and Tina Davidson. PHONE: (617) 387-7466 FAX: (617) 381-9186 Visit us online at: WWW.SABATINO-INS.COM
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