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East Boston clammers ready suit against Massport, fuel company over clam-killing oil spill at Logan
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Clammers, etc.
Between the Airport and it's fuel source, the Chelsea Creek, I can't imagine how anything lives at all in East Boston, or why nobody seems to care enough to improve the situation. As always, it's "that's just the way it is" for East Boston, as they permanently deal with things other towns wouldn't put up with for a moment.
Eastie activism
There is actually quite a lot of activism in Eastie focused on MASSPORT, the Chelsea Creek, Belle Isle Marsh and other environmental concerns. There have been a number of small victories (extension of the Greenway a bit closer to Constitution Beach comes to mind as the most recent) that the city and MASSPORT are always more than happy to take credit for. Activism in Eastie goes back to the Maverick Mothers of '68(ish) and while not always completely successful, I shudder to think what Eastie would look like now if it weren't for people reliably fighting back.
I speculate it's because East
I speculate it's because East Boston has a heavy immigrant and/or poor population who don't have the time to organize evening meetings.
You might think the Conservation Law Foundation would help on this lawsuit but who knows.
Get rid of tolls for all boston residents
Even though Eastie is 2 min away from downtown the perception is that it is a completely different universe.
Why? because the rest of Boston (excluding N.End & Southie) have to pay to get there. Plus you can't walk there (easily). So that's 2 things Eastie has that makes people not want to go there. One of them can't be helped (without a bridge), the other can be eliminated by giving all boston residents a free tunnel transmittor on their car. Otherwise eastie will always be a far off city to the rest of boston only passed through, and not stopped in, on the way to the airport.
I say this because boston residents won't get on board with helping eastie if they feel no connection to it.
uhm...ok
Yeah, I've seen hordes of folks marching down from Brighton to fight for the folks in Roslindale. And people in Southie taking one for West Roxbury, because, you know, they don't have to pay a toll to go there. If a $3 toll is going to keep you from visiting part of the city (what? you can't take the Blue line? or a Silver bus? or a regular bus? or a ferry?)...well I don't know what to tell ya....
Somehow I doubt it's more than a toll that keeps people from "getting on board with helping eastie." If you don't want to pay tolls, just fucking say it.
East Boston's *actual*
East Boston's *actual* transportation problem is that it's impossible to get there once the T shuts down. Cab drivers refuse to go there, since they have to pay the round trip toll out-of-pocket, which is often more than the fare.
Solutions I suggest include:
- Getting rid of the ridiculous toll surcharge on taxis ($5.25 versus $3), and allowing cabbies to pass half the round-trip cost (which would be $1.50) to passengers
- Or, you know, running a public transit bus through the tunnel all night, like any other transit-oriented city would have
Not true
"because the rest of Boston (excluding N.End & Southie) have to pay to get there."
No one "pays" to go to Eastie unless you are on the T or in a taxi. All tolls are paid on the Eastie side entering the City. And why do you think the N.End and Southie are excluded?
Clammers pt. 2.
I know there's a history of Eastie folks challenging "the powers that be", but the problem is that often times, they have to challenge on issues that other areas wouldn't even be confronted with. Oil tankers spewing fumes, spilling oil, the airport with it's pollution (noise and air), and that's just sticking with the topics related to today's story. There are many "long standing issues" from trash in the streets to illegal apartments (by the score), and again, that's just scratching the surface. I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking the neighborhood, it's more a complaint about the atrocities the area gets confronted with, and "our" politician's political shrugging off of them as "long standing issues" or "the way it is in Eastie".