Robo-Clinton!
Hey, what do ya know? I just got a call from Bill Clinton! Well, a recording of Bill Clinton, anyway, asking me to vote for his friend Tom Menino.
Odd, considering I live 30 miles outside the city limits. You'd think they would filtered their list to remove 508s or something.
Comments
Some people have all the luck
When I heard about that, I made sure not to leave my desk (well, OK, the dining room table), just in case he called.
A few minutes ago, the phone rang. Could it be him? I picked up the receiver with eager anticipation. And heard:
I'm sure that they will apply that same attention to detail on
the voting lists. Didn't Bulger say that the election wasn't over until the returns from St. Augustine's Cemetery came in?
Please call me Bill!
Just as I was reading your entry the phone rang from across the room. I leaped to get it. No! It wasn't Bill Clinton or Rob "See ya in 2-years" Consalvo, it was a theater company begging me to renew my subscription.
I was so disappointed that I hung up on him.
Stupid cellphone.
We got THE CALL
Just what I needed to help me make up my mind.
carburbia is where Meninos biggest supporters are
After all, The Boston Globe "the voice of the suburbs," just endorsed 4 more years of blandness, ignoring the arts and parks. How many editors at the Globe actually live in Boston? Menino barely does, he's closer to Dedham than downtown.
Come on, Menino bends over backwards to make Boston as difficult as possible to walk or bike around so carburbanites can drive unobstructed, he encourages chains and big box walmart/target/supermarket type stores to open in Boston neighborhoods to make carburbanites moving to Boston more comfortable. And the slovenly, bland, suburbanites have their man.
No Menino fan, but still ....
... I don't think there is much merit to a number (in fact, most) of your claims.
West Roxbury
Wow. So, only people who live in the expensive downtown apartments "live in Boston"? As a resident of West Roxbury (don't call me Westie), I'm frankly insulted you think so.
And what the hell are you talking about, Menino making Boston difficult to bike around? He's installed seven miles of bike paths, AND bike lanes on alot of main streets. And he's working on new bike cages at T stations, and that rent-a-bike program thing. I forget the name, it's basically Zip-Bikes.
As for Walmart, the closest one is still in Walpole, as I recall, so what are you even talking about? Menino encourages all sorts of small businesses to open in Boston, and supports them at their grand openings. Yes, he cuts the ribbons, but that is showing support.
Frankly, it's elitist to suggest that only certain neighborhoods are BOSTON. Menino's worked hard for every neighborhood, not exclusively downtown, and not only the ones that "anon" thinks are Boston.
-Foxed
There is a Target, same
There is a Target, same thing as Walmart with a different color scheme, in Dorchester and Menino has been huffing about revitalizing Downtown crossing with another.
Hes been mayor for 16 years and got what, 8, maybe 10 miles of bike lanes done? Cambridge and Somerville have many, many more, and have much higher goals. Not to mention the lack of bike racks. Minneapolis has 40+ and 83 miles of paths. Hes been in power 16 as mayor, more as city councilor, why the baby steps? Why did he fire the last bike commissioner?
He fought the E line coming back and let the silver line be downgraded to a bus (if he didnt have sway with the T he wouldnt have spent so much time fighting the E line). Somervilles mayor fought and got a green line extension.
Its not elitest to say that areas like Hyde Park and West Roxbur are more suburban than where most of the people in Boston live. Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Dorchester have many more people and aren't more expensive. Thats fine if people want the suburban life (suburban meaning less than urban, and in both those areas meaning no subway, more car ownership, more single detached houses.., more sprawl, more chains) Its just that after 16 years of being ruled by someone who thinks Boston needs to be more car centric, who still has the emerald necklace parks be all cut up so carburbanites can drive along it.
Why is Boston playing catch up when it comes to walkability, just to please the suburban drivers, while Cambridge, Somerville and cities across the country are realizing that cities shouldn't be office parks with parking garages for the lazy carburbs. We need people running the city who like city life (parks, public transit, walkability) not a guy from the suburbs who gets chauffered to work in an SUV, never walking around downtown, who thinks more parking and chains like Target are going to make Boston a fun place to live and work.
One thing I agree with
I thought it was pretty convenient that the bike lanes magically appeared like three weeks before the preliminary election. Better late than never, I guess.
Does anyone know the status of the "city complaint iPhone app"?
Are you clueless or intentionally misleading?
[quote]Thats fine if people want the suburban life (suburban meaning less than urban, and in both those areas meaning no subway, more car ownership, more single detached houses.., more sprawl, more chains)[/quote]
Other than drug and grocery stores (chains everywhere) you'd be hard pressed to find much chain activity in West Roxbury or Hyde Park. And I find it interesting that the fact of a neighborhood being under served by transit equates with suburban. West Roxbury could easily support and make good use of an extended Orange Line, for example. But it's not there, so the neighborhood doesn't count? What kind of logic is that?
DTX in Chains
Do I go to dunkin donuts, 7-11, or CVS for that?
Not much else.
Just curious
Anon, Where do you live?
Do you vote?
Where, exactly, is carburbia?
well, since its a response
well, since its a response to the robo-clinton call to someone 30 miles outside Boston, I would say that's carburbia.
I don't know why all these people in West Roxbury are getting upset, they're irrelevant to this post, other than that they aren't getting the calls, its people way out of the city who are.
OK, not W. Rox
So, that narrows it down a bit, you don't live in W. Roxbury & I'm guessing not in Hyde Park either. So where in the "Real" city do you live? And, do you vote?
I think sometimes people in W. Roxbury get sick of others saying W. Roxbury isn't really the city. It really is. One big difference around election time is that people who live there tend to vote more than in many of those real city neighborhoods. And many even walk to the polls!
sounds like a lot of city workers on Uinversal Hub today
Sounds like a lot of city workers on Universal Hub today, they always move as far away from anything resembling city life to places like west roxbury but have to live within the city limits to be on Menino's ever expanding payroll. You kids know your guy menino is going to win, hes got tons of money and all the city workers doing his bidding.
Even though he promised to only serve 2 terms, he's mayor as long as he can buy it. And all of you can relax knowing you have a job for 4+ more years.
I do not believe Flaherty
I do not believe Flaherty would cut city workers and most city workers are civil and not political (even if strings were pulled at some point to get the job.) How exactly would Flaherty winning cost 99 percent of those workers their jobs? Most of those jobs are protected by civil service.
Twitter me this!
I used to work for the city
And most of the AFSCME guys I knew weren't really Menino's biggest fans.