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Kevin McCrea
By adamg - 8/14/09 - 4:14 pm
Mayoral candidate Sam Yoon wants City Hall to take a page from banks and stay open past normal business hours at least once a week so people who work for a living could have a chance to conduct city business. In a statement, he says:
One of the most appealing solutions is to shift hours to offer later services on Wednesday and close earlier on Fridays. We would stay open until 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and close at 2:30 p.m. on Fridays. We would also be able to move the regular City Council meetings to Wednesday evening to allow more people to attend.
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 - 7/21/09 - 4:37 pm
Mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea says he would emulate a pilot state program and hire civilians to handle flagging at construction sites - but also make detail work available to police cadets who can't get on the BPD because of budget constraints:
The benefits of this are many. We allow police officers to be at their best for their important job of public safety. We help to lower the unemployment rate in Boston by hiring residents to fill these jobs. We lower taxes for Boston residents by lowering the costs of construction to our roads, bridges and buildings in the City of Boston. This can help lower the cost of building housing as well.
His complete statement:
By adamg - 7/15/09 - 11:42 am
Well, nobody who's going for his fifth term in office; you know the other three will definitely be there.
WBZ announced Jon Keller will moderate a debate on Aug. 26, from 7 to 8 p.m. at 'BZ studios for livecasting on Channel 4 and 1030 AM.
By adamg - 7/13/09 - 4:47 pm
Mayoral hopeful Michael Flaherty says he wants a referendum this November to let voters say if they want a limit on how long somebody can serve as mayor. In a statement today, he says:
By adamg - 7/11/09 - 9:08 am
Kevin McCrea writes the owners of One Beacon Street get a tax break of between $5 million and $8 million a year for building in a "blighted" area:
The juxtaposition of the One Beacon tower on beautiful Beacon Hill, just down from the State House and Franklin Park which is in the heart of Dorchester and Roxbury is striking.
When will our society stop giving tax breaks to the rich, while crying poor and shutting down cultural attractions in poorer sections of town?
By adamg - 7/8/09 - 12:17 pm
How else to explain the humongous Flaherty and Menino signs now sprouting up on front lawns everywhere? But it is kind of odd that Yoon and McCrea signs are still so small.
Meanwhile, Joyce Linehan reports that, at least in South Boston and West Roxbury, Flaherty supporters seem to favor Chevy Suburbans.
By adamg - 7/3/09 - 10:06 am
Maybe Tom Menino figures he can keep delaying negotiations over debates until after the election. The Herald reports His Honor continues to play coy on the whole debate issue, while his mouthpiece tut-tuts a group organizing forums as unworthy of the mayor's attention because he finds it "doubtful" the group can actually organize a debate.
Kevin McCrea, who says he'll debate anyone anytime, fulminates:
... What does that mean? You mean they can't invite a bunch of people and put 4 chairs and a microphone on a stage? I would believe that Menino might not be able to handle that on his own, but MassVOTE?
The arrogance and disregard for the people shown by Menino is truly incredible. What is more incredible is how the mainstream media in this town play along with his invisible suit as well. The TV stations and the Globe and the Herald play along with this ruse because they are afraid of his vindictiveness, and they aren't doing the fourth estate's job which is to expose what is going on. ...
By adamg - 6/19/09 - 8:57 am
Scot Lehigh doesn't like the Tom Menino on display during the whole Tall Ships fiasco.
By adamg - 6/12/09 - 9:15 am
Kevin McCrea isn't just a candidate for mayor. He's also a resident. Which means that when a city worker did a half-assed job fixing some loose cobblestones outside his South End job, he got to track and detail how the city responded to the problem - including the dispatching of six workers and three trucks to fix the two-foot-by-two-foot problem. What set off the burst of activity: McCrea asked the city lawyer in charge of public-records requests for the official city tracking reports on the cobblestones, not for a fix to the problem.
By adamg - 6/10/09 - 9:17 am
Mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea agrees with his opponents that charter schools can be A Good Thing. But they're not enough, he writes:
... The two elephants in the room are busing and failing schools. Raising the cap on charters only slightly addresses getting more kids out of the regular schools and into better charter schools. In addition, there is no guarantee that the kids who need it most will get into those charter schools, instead it could be that many of these favored seats will go to favored people. ...
By adamg - 6/5/09 - 1:23 pm
According to Kevin McCrea, there are rival groups of media outlets working on debates (Channels 4 and 5 acting on their own and 25 and the Herald vs. a grouping of NECN, WBUR, WGBH and the Globe) and the mayor's people may be playing one against the other.
By adamg - 6/3/09 - 3:32 pm
Kevin McCrea reports a meeting between representatives of the various campaigns and media types ended in a standoff between Menino's minions and the media:
... The media sources had clearly laid out to the candidates that they wanted to lay have two debates and that the candidates needed to agree to both debates or there would be neither.
So, since Menino balked the Media sources rescinded their offer and we have no debates scheduled.
By adamg - 6/3/09 - 10:39 am
Kevin McCrea acknowledges that Tom Menino has done a good job supporting Boston's GLBT community, but says MassEquality never even talked to him before endorsing Menino and that there's still more a mayor could do:
By adamg - 5/28/09 - 8:58 am
Kevin McCrea senses a certain inefficiency in a Boston DPW that lets a major commercial thoroughfare be torn up every single year for different utility work, rather than requiring it all get done at once:
... I went to Johnson Paint on Newbury Street to pick up some paint for a job. They were repaving Newbury Street which seems to happen often.
I went inside and said to the guys "this repaving isn't good for business, how often do they do this?" The guys exclaimed, "this is the FOURTH year in a row they have repaved the street, and it is terrible for business." I asked if they really have repaved it four years in a row and they insisted it had, and explained how 3 years ago they replaced gas lines, then the next year they opened up the street for water lines in the same place, and now they are redoing it again.
Also see today's Globe piece on the mayoral candidates and the efficiency of city agencies (and the city's efficiency in tracking their efficiency).
By adamg - 5/22/09 - 2:16 pm
Some notes from today's Radio Boston interviews with Tom Menino, Michael Flaherty, Kevin McCrea and Sam Yoon. Although Menino didn't show up in person, it didn't really make much of a difference, since the four were interviewed separately - and asked different sets of questions:
Tom Menino
"I'm not going talk about the past," but he said he has "the experience and thoughtfulness" to make this a city that works for all its people.
By adamg - 5/21/09 - 1:20 pm
Radio Boston on WBUR tomorrow will be about this fall's race for Mayor of Boston. Starts at 1 p.m., 90.9 FM. Sam Yoon, Michael Flaherty and Kevin McCrea will be there live, but Tom Menino sends his regrets - along with a taped interview.
By adamg - 5/19/09 - 9:45 am
Kevin McCrea attended a School Committee hearing on redistricting yesterday:
... Councilors Turner and Yoon got to come in late, take the microphone and say they are against the 3 to 5 zone change and then leave early without having to listen to what all the people have to say. I waited for 2 hours to hear what the parents and students had to say and to hear the Superintendents responses.
There was a lot of concern for the Timilty and two way bilingual education. One young student got up and eloquently asked why we as a society are not funding the schools and not taking care of those less fortunate. She received loud cheers and applause and drum banging. The superintendent said that we need more revenue and mentioned the meals tax and casinos(!?) as possible forms of revenue. ...
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