Toward the end of his first term as mayor of Boston, Tom Menino wrote, “Great cities are crafted by a series of actions taken years in advance.” One can surmise that from the beginning he intended a career in Boston politics without ever seeking state or federal office. He was dubbed “the urban mechanic,” a […]
Eugenie Beal
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion, Politics
Keeping the public in parks
FUNDING PARKS has long been a low priority of state government. While the state budget has increased by 3.7 percent since 2001, the share devoted to environmental programs, including parks, has decreased from 1 percent to 0.57 percent. How much lower, one has to ask, is bearable? Gov. Patrick may now give us an answer […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Muster the militia!
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of the State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” –Second Amendment to the US Constitution SOMEHOW, THE OPENING WORDS of that brief dictum have been lost. Where is the well-regulated militia which our forefathers presumably saw as the rationale […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Parks partnerships? Or raw deals?
Daly Field, state-owned parkland on the Charles River in Brighton, is up for grabs. With the help of some community leaders, Simmons College has succeeded in getting the Massachusetts Legislature to enact a bill that may permit Daly’s exclusive use by the college and two other organizations on weekday afternoons, evenings, and some Saturdays during […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Inequality or failure to rise?
According to a recent WBUR poll done by The MassINC Polling Group, more than half of us doubt that the American Dream of a better life for the next generation will be achieved by our children. Upward mobility seems improbable. Middle class status and income will belong to fewer of us, say poll respondents. Class […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The Constitution’s road map
Congress wasn’t intentionally setting out to write a Strategic Plan for the United States, but that’s what the Founding Fathers did in the preamble to the Constitution, only they didn’t have our vocabulary. They envisioned a more perfect union than what they had. It would require that they: establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Legacy making
THERE ARE TWO ways to look at presidential legacies: what historians arrive at after a period of time or what sticks in the minds of the general public. They come together in President Obama’s case. Historians and the public agree already that the election of the nation’s first African-American president was a historically significant event. […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Memo to the Gang of Twelve (aka the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction)
For decades economists have chided the American people for spending too much and saving too little. Now we are told we should spend money to make it circulate while we are trying to reduce credit card balances. Meanwhile, on the national level, the recent debt-ceiling showdown forced to our attention that we must make unwelcome […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
A lesson from Boston’s quest for a public water supply
When we look back to 2011 from some date in the future, it seems likely that people will wonder how there could have been such heated debate over the proposition that all Americans ought to have access to reasonably-priced health care coverage. As they do, perhaps they will see the parallel between today’s argument over […]