The Sun needs to stop taking potshots at the new City Council and its voters, based on their rejection of the newspaper’s campaign to advance the Cawley location for the new high school.

The true villain in this set piece is UMass Lowell, which inexplicably swallowed up a huge amount of taxable property for its own ends, therefore severely reducing the taxable base for the city. So, what could the (pre-Belvidere) City Council do? Well, they could build a high school near the Tewksbury line, and sell off the downtown real estate to taxpaying entities. Problem solved (but let’s be very, very quiet about it!). Oh, and let’s throw in the eminent domain boogeyman, just for good measure. Yeah, that’ll scare them good.

Had they, and their Sun fanboys, been transparent about the solution to the impending UMass Lowell tax shortfalls instead of wielding this invisible hand to Cawley, they might have actually gotten buy-in from most city councilors and voters (even those from Belvidere). Look, there ought to be a plan that will provide an MSBA-approved project without a pool and without land-taking. Perhaps The Sun could jump in to help the councilors work out something, instead of taking potshots from their ivory tower.

LEON DESCOTEAUX

Lowell