Hey, there! Log in / Register

2009 elections

By adamg - 8/4/09 - 3:45 pm

David Bernstein reports that MassVote, the group the Menino campaign said was too inexperienced to run a debate, has signed up a large number of groups in the black and Hispanic communities as co-sponsors of its Sept. 3 mayoral forum - which Yoon, McCrea and Flaherty have said they would attend.

By adamg - 8/4/09 - 3:35 pm

In a get-together with a group of local political bloggers (and me), mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty compared Downtown Crossing to a wartorn Iraqi city, would not rule out replacing Police Commissioner Ed Davis and said a hidebound, vindictive City Hall is stalling vital development and driving young people out of the city (David Kravitz has a live-blog summary of the discussion; I have some more here).

By adamg - 8/4/09 - 10:21 am

Michael Flaherty is springing for lunch for a bunch of bloggers today. Have any pressing questions for the mayoral candidate? Post them, up to about 12:30 p.m. and I'll ask. Over at Blue Mass. Group, David will live-blog the session (I'll be bringing my laptop, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be blogging live).

By adamg - 8/3/09 - 1:38 pm

At-large City Council candidate Tito Jackson (no relation, but he does have a "Jackson Five-Point Plan") will be dishing up the ice cream between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. today at his campaign headquarters, 57 Warren St. in Roxbury.

By adamg - 7/31/09 - 3:11 pm

At-large council candidate Andrew Kenneally opens a South Boston office and says he'll be handing out the free round food and caffeine-enhanced goodness between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., at 258 W. Broadway.

By adamg - 7/29/09 - 6:10 pm
Cut sign

Sliced Flaherty sign at Centre and Baker streets in West Roxbury. Two large Menino signs across the street were untouched.

The Michael Flaherty campaign is still totaling up just how many of its campaign signs were damaged in a vandalism spree across West Roxbury and Hyde Park. One supporter said as many as 200 signs were damaged - large ones by having "Flaherty" excised and smaller ones by being simply slashed.

The Bulletin reports on the vandalism. Flaherty and Yoon backers blame Menino, while the Menino camp says it's had signs destroyed in the North End and Charlestown.

By adamg - 7/29/09 - 4:20 pm

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.

By GarrettQuinn - 7/29/09 - 3:44 pm

So Doug Bennett is at it again and this time instead of stickers on street lights it's holding up signs at city council meetings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFl1etwox4s

Doug really needs to get a steady cameraman or at least invest in a tripod.

By adamg - 7/29/09 - 1:55 pm

Sam Yoon proposes giving a tax break to building owners who retrofit their roofs with waterproof membranes on top of which they pour on dirt and then plant vegetation:

These roofs promote energy efficiency, reduce storm-water runoff, improve air quality, lessen the urban heat island effect, reduce noise, promote productivity, beautify rooftops, and extend roof life. They also create new markets and jobs for rooftop garden products.

By adamg - 7/29/09 - 11:06 am

Sam Yoon was tearing into the city's Elderly Commission (for handing out shwag with prominent "Mayor Thomas M. Menino imprints") at a campaign stop in Mattapan when three Menino functionaries (including his chief of staff) rose to object. The Dorchester Reporter chronicles the interchange.

By adamg - 7/28/09 - 4:55 pm

David Bernstein alerts us to a nascent controversy over the Boston Election Department's decision to move the "St. Brigid's polling place" (which is not actually at St. Brigid's) to, um, somewhere else.

By adamg - 7/28/09 - 2:31 pm

Mike Ball interviews at-large City Council candidate and libertarian Sean Ryan, who sees economic collapse as just the catharsis the country needs, but who admits that in the short run, he'll be running on a platform of more charter schools (with the ultimate goal of education vouchers) and an end to the BRA.

Earlier:
Ryan on 9/11 and the Federal Reserve.

By adamg - 7/28/09 - 8:05 am

Of course, even if he wanted to, he couldn't, since he obviously doesn't live in Boston.

The other day, the Globe explained why Bostonians get to see roughly 72,000 commercials a day in which FiOS Guy triumphs over Cable Oaf even though they can't sign up for it. Verizon says it'll get around to wiring up New England's largest city one of these days and that dense cities are simply harder to wire than spread-out suburbs, but Tom Menino says it's a personal vendetta against him because he wants the company to pay taxes on its wires along public ways.

Ars Technica reports Boston isn't alone: New York and Washington have been slow to get FiOS as well.

By adamg - 7/28/09 - 8:02 am
Defaced sign

Dan Farnkoff passes along this photo of a defaced Yoon sign on Poplar Street in Roslindale.

By adamg - 7/28/09 - 12:15 am

Blue Hill Avenue near Packy Connors has become "an open air market of crime, filled with drugs, alcohol and prostitution," and that cannot be allowed to continue, according to Carlos Henriquez, running against incumbent Councilor Chuck Turner.

By adamg - 7/23/09 - 6:08 pm

This just in from the Menino camp: Hizzona says he'll be participating in three debates and "a forum," so get out your calendar now:

The first is Weds., Aug. 26 on Channel 4 between 7 and 8 p.m. (with a rebroadcast the next night on Channel 38. A second hour-long debate will follow on Thurs., Sept. 10, 5-6 p.m. on Channel 25 (with co-sponsorship by the Herald). Menino will face off with challengers Sam Yoon, Kevin McCrea and Michael Flaherty.

The third debate will be Mon., Oct. 19, sponsored by the Globe, NECN, Channel 2 and WBUR. No time listed for the tete-a-tete between Menino and whover comes in second in the Sept. 22 primary (what? I shouldn't assume Menino will be one of the two finalists?).

There's also some sort of forum that Channel 5 is trying to work out.

Sam Yoon tweets: Right direction, not enough.

By adamg - 7/23/09 - 2:52 pm

Over at the Dorchester Reporter, Mike Deehan and Gin Dumcius have started a podcast on this fall's elections. In their first 'cast they talk about the mayoral candidates' differing approaches to charter schools and take a look at "reprecincting" - turns out that some precinct lines haven't been redrawn in 50 years, so some precincts are humongous while others are minuscule. Podcast feed.

Obligatory disclosure: I do Web stuff for the Reporter folks.

By adamg - 7/23/09 - 7:31 am

City Councilor Michael Flaherty says he opposes Mayor Menino's plan to increase meals and hotel-room taxes in Boston, saying adding 0.75% to the meals tax and 2% to the hotel tax would unfairly burden local diners and business owners already hard hit by the recession.

Flaherty, who wants to replace Menino, says there's plenty of fat in the existing city budget that could be could to raise the $18 million Menino says the city would gain by implementing the taxes. Both proposals go before the city council on July 19; Flaherty will vote against both.

Kevin McCrea also opposes the new taxes: "The city is not in a fiscal crisis, just a crisis of management."

... If, unfortunately, the tax increase is passed remember that the Mayor promised to have it offset the residential property tax. If he doesn't include that in his legislation, you will see yet another example of him saying one thing and doing another.

Flaherty's statement:

By adamg - 7/22/09 - 2:57 pm

The tax on meals, already set to increase to 6.25% next month, will go up to 7% Oct. 1 under a plan released today by Mayor Menino to combat a drop in state aid.

Subscribe to 2009 elections