Fitchburg Needs Hero Ted?

Yesterday there was an article in the Telegram about Ted DeSalvatore. Part of their candidate profiling thingy. It was called Campaign tackles crime, property values, ‘perks’ and was crazy hilarious!

Just look at the opening:

Ted E. DeSalvatore says he came to the city because he was looking for a place that needed him.

Oh my. Ted, your ego is remarkable. Perhaps there is a place that needs you, but I'm pretty sure it's not Fitchburg. Maybe you could go to Iraq? They can use all the help they can get. And they have "thugs"!

Moving on, the article gives his background, including his imaginary job that I discussed already. So let's just skip that bit and move forward to some crazy-ass logic!

The Back Streets Association, which he formed, was his attempt to create a grass-roots organization that would unite residents against the “thugs.” However he said that when people criticized the organization as being a front for his aspirations for mayor, he disbanded it so volunteers could continue their work unfettered from his reputation.

Umm... that doesn't make any sense.

I'll admit right now that I don't know that much about the history of the Back Streets Association. I know he founded it with Clark Patterson (his campaign manager), and the claims about the BSA being a front for his mayoral aspirations can be found here. To quote from there:

[DeSalvatore] stated, as though I already was aware (which I had not been), that the purpose of the Back Streets Association was to form a "grassroots group" that would endorse him for mayor "when the time is right." I told DeSalvatore that that is a specifically prohibited purpose of a 501(c)3 organization, and he stated that "I will bow out and turn it over to the directors and just stay in the background."

Hmm...

Perhaps this is just an artifact of the reporting style, but focus on the statement in the article: "he said that when people criticized the organization as being a front for his aspirations for mayor, he disbanded it so volunteers could continue their work unfettered from his reputation."

Notice anything funny? I did! He never said it wasn't a front for his aspirations for mayor! Isn't that the sort of claim you'd want to debunk? Unless you couldn't debunk it, because it was true and you stupidly went around telling people as much.

Even stranger is this concept of disbanding a group "so volunteers could continue their work unfettered from his reputation". What the fuck?

Let's say you're involved in an organization you really believe in, with important volunteer work to do. Then let's say you're sort of a jackass and cause trouble for the group because your reputation is so bad. What do you do?

A sane person would recognize they're hurting the cause and personally leave the organization. They would not disband the organization! A disbanded organization doesn't continue its work! It's disbanded!

Oh, but if the organization is secretly a front group for your mayoral campaign that doesn't work. Because they don't have anything to do if you quit. So disbanding makes sense in that case.

Enough of that, let's move on:

He said clean streets and safe neighborhoods around the downtown will likely mean a change in demographics for the area.

“If it happens, I’m successful … I’d be a hero,” he said about gentrification. “People will have to move where they can find lower-cost housing.”

Ted, you make it too easy. The last panel of my old crappy political cartoon was supposed to be satire, not a disturbingly accurate representation of how you think of yourself!

I loved that the reporter used the word "gentrification". It has almost universally negative connotations, and DeSalvatore is under the delusion that people will praise him if he achieves it!

It's bad enough that he basically wants to eliminate any minorities or poorer members of the community, but to think he'd be a hero for it is just ridiculous. The town is 15% Latino, generally not a population that's crazy about the idea of gentrification.

Humorously, DeSalvatore also gives his reason for moving here as being "It was what we could afford." So if he were successful in gentrifying the town I suppose he'd have to move out of it. Certainly if it had been that way when he was looking for a place to live we wouldn't have to deal with his bullshit now. Not that I support gentrification at all, I'm just saying maybe there's one upside.

One last bit, about moving social services off Main St and into his imaginary community center that he's never provided specifics about and probably doesn't really intend to do:

“We have to care,” he said. “I can’t fix people. But I want to help.”

Oh my god, he wants to neuter people!

Anyway, the guy's a nut. Primary election, hurry up!