Mike Ross
The list follows. Anybody notice anything interesting, besides the fact that indicted (but still innocent) Chuck Turner doesn't chair anything? Also, note the new Committee on Women and Healthy Communities, which is described as focusing on improving the lives of "girls, women, and others" (hmm, does that leave anybody out?). Read more
The Globe reports city Councilor Mike Ross wants the BRA to force Northeastern to stop enrolling quite so many students. Seems the school had promised to try to curb enrollment, but it actually now has 585 more students than it promised to have.
The Globe reports a jawboning session called by City Councilor Mike Ross got the partners who own the burned Peterborough Street building to agree to rebuild - and to let the old restaurants back in.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette gets the scoop: Ross is thinking of running for the seat now held by Mike Capuano - if Capuano wins the Senate election.
You may recall Mike Ross's last effort to get students more spaced out - using ISD to cast out excess students - proved unenforceable and possibly illegal.
Scott Van Voorhis reports this time, the councilor is seeking an ordinance that would levy a $300 fine on any real-estate brokers who rent a single apartment to five or more college students.
The Boston City Council discussed Mayor Menino's proposal to raise local meals and hotel-room taxes, but took no action on the plan so that its Committee on Government Operations can hold a hearing in August - standard procedure under council rules for new business.
Menino has proposed a 0.75% meals tax - on top of the 6.25% state tax going into effect on Saturday - and an increase of 2 percentage points in the current tax on hotel rooms. The council's Committee on Government Operations will host a hearing in early to mid August.
During the council discussion today, at-large candidate Doug Bennett, stood up behind councilors with a large "No New Taxes Mayor!" sign. Bennett argues with unemployment near 10%, now is the worst time to be raising any taxes.
On noticing the sign, council President Mike Ross "recessed the meeting and asked him to take the sign down," Reuben Kantor, Ross's chief of staff said. "So he did, and left." Bennett says he was kicked out; Kantor says he was simply asked to take the sign down.
Video of Bennett raising his sign.
The city council president is proposing legsilation that would let people who live in foreclosed properties continue to stay there as long as they pay "full market value rent" each month - until the property is sold.
... Foreclosures and evictions lead to abandoned properties. Banks have left over 1,000 properties abandoned in Boston, having catastrophic impacts on neighborhoods. These abandoned homes provide easy opportunities for crime. They become homes for squatters and drug dealers, and lead to crashing property values and skyrocketing crime rates.
The foreclosure crisis also tears apart the fabric of our communities. In March, I took a tour of the Four Corners area of Dorchester with people who'd been affected by foreclosure. The stories I heard that day were not of irresponsible homeowners, but of predatory lending practices that made it impossible for these hardworking individuals and families to keep their property. ...
The Daily Free Press reports that City Council President Mike Ross's proposal to force Boston colleges to hand over the addresses of off-campus students could violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act - and that Emerson College is already vowing to not hand over names.
Ross begs to differ as he continues his campaign to prevent more than four unrelated students from sharing apartments. An ordinance he helped pass last year has proven unenforceable, in part, the Free Press reports, because ISD can only respond to complaints, and nobody's complained about groups of students living together.
The Berkeley Beacon writes it still opposes Mike Ross's plan to get colleges to help enforce the city's ban on student apartment cramming, but acknowledges that, yes, comparing it to Nazi yellow-star policies was going too far:
The suffering of Ross' father is well-known in the Boston community. We should have done our research, but we did not.
Similarly, our tone and language in the editorial were hyperbolic and flippant. Ross does not plan to round up Boston's college students and put them in concentration camps, nor does he plan on tattooing us for identification by "Gestapo-like" guards. That was sarcasm and exaggeration that, in the fervor of argument, went too far.
Ross's letter to the Beacon.
So City Council President Mike Ross wants to require local colleges to help the city figure out if more than four students are living in apartment, because it seems that since the city passed its five-students-and-you're-out regulation, not a single student swarm has been broken up, since ISD can't legally tell who's a student and who isn't.
Paul Flannery passes along word that the student paper at Emerson editorialized that this is just the sort of thing Hitler would have done:
Suppose some Boston city councilor proposed to ban more than four gay people from living together, claiming that such large gatherings of gays was a public nuisance. Or imagine if a councilor proposed such a Gestapo-like imposition on the city's Jews, or such a nouveau-Jim-Crow decree on Boston's blacks. ...
If the council president is serious about his cap on coed cohabitation, history provides a number of examples from effective tyrants. For instance, forget forcing colleges to report off-campus students' addresses. Hitler had Warsaw's Jews wear armbands for easy identification by the SS. Tattoos were effective, too.
Yeah, that's just what the son of a man who survived ten Nazi concentration camps while the rest of his family was wiped out would do. But, hey, Emerson teaches kids how to be DJs on indie FM stations, not how to do research or make rational arguments.
In one of his first acts as council president, Mike Ross today asked city lawyers to stop a planned fact-finding investigation into what action, if any, the council could take against Innocent Until Proven Guilty Turner.
Previous Council President Maureen Feeney had worked with city lawyers to hire some fancy-shmancy retired judge at $500 an hour - plus an investigator at $90 an hour - for a fact-finding mission that could have cost the city $50,000. Then federal prosecutors filed a court motion that might limit what the council could learn about the bribery and conspiracy case against Turner. In a statement, Ross said:
Given the pending motion and that the city is contending with a budget gap and the possibility of additional cuts to state aid, I believe that the money spent on fact-finding can be better used elsewhere.
Open Media Boston reports that new City Council President Mike Ross wants to hold at least some council meetings in Boston neighborhoods - and at night - so that the sort of people who don't get paid to attend meetings in the middle of the day can see their elected officials in action.
Ross himself discusses what he wants to do with his yearlong term (beyond promoting world peace, of course), such as:
I will require that all council documents be made available electronically on the City of Boston website. It is time for the City Council to enter the 21st century, and ensure that all documents, legislation, and resolutions be fully accessible online.
Hmm, what about those minutes that city lawyers say can't legally be put online?
On Switchback, Bill picks up on something in that recently released proposal for improving Boston Common: That city councilors Mike Ross, Bill Linehan and Sal LaMattina really wish the MBTA would stop with all this nonsense about putting a Silver Line tunnel under the park. They write:
The Silverline project will rip up the entire stretch of the Common along Charles Street for up to 10 years, for the staging area for heavy equipment. It will snarl traffic as they close a lane for the construction of a new tunnel, and it will make an entire stretch of the Common nearly unusable during that time. All of this will be done for the purpose of putting in bus transit that is unnecessary, when tunnels already exist for light rail, and when it is nearly universally agreed that the bus system as set up does not work, and is not nearly as effective or efficient as light rail.
The Silverline Project is a mistake. The plans in place will disturb sacred grounds, such as the historic graveyard. Unused light rail tunnels already exist below ground, and the MBTA, with its multimillion dollar deficit, should be looking at ways it can build a system around what is there, and ensuring that we have opportunities to become a greener, more efficient city while not tearing up our precious parks system during the construction.
Ed. note: The T has a multi-billion dollar deficit.
Councilor Ross explains what he and councilors LaMattina and Linehan are thinking up for Boston Common, which they say deserves to be not just America's oldest park, but it's greatest:
... The proposal that I'm most excited about is the establishment of a restaurant on the park. Our vision is a popular eatery that entices a diverse and vibrant crowd. When our Committee visited New York City, we saw two sites that were intriguing models for the Common: The Shake Shack at Madison Park, which serves $7 hamburgers and draws huge lines; and the Boathouse at Central Park, which provides a cafeteria, indoor and outdoor bar, and moderately priced restaurant, all with a great view.
There are several ideal locations for this establishment that will be presented in the report. We see great opportunity in this effort for improvements in the park, the neighborhood, and the city as a whole. A restaurant provides benefits by increasing year-round, late-evening traffic on the Common, which has a positive impact on crime in the area, and helps reinvigorate the neighborhood. ...
Kevin McCrea, meanwhile, provides the opposing viewpoint, at least when it comes to creating a conservancy for the Common.
Hi. My name is Reuben, and I am Boston City Councilor Mike Ross's Chief of Staff.
Mike and I have read with interest the writings regarding the Boston Common on these pages. We are energized to see so many people who are as interested in the future of the Common as we are.
At Boston Daily, Mike has posted his Ross Report on the topic. We are excited about a number of the proposals that we'll have in this report, and wanted to clear up a few misconceptions. Read more
The Dorchester Reporter reports that dapper Mike Ross looks to have enough votes to become president of the Boston City Council in January, taking over from Maureen Feeney of Dorchester. If so, he'll beat out Steve Murphy, who seems unable to ever get elected to anything except his current seat. The new post could also give Ross some citywide visibility - and let's not forget how Tom Menino became mayor.
Maybe with the new job, Ross will even update his MySpace page.
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