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COURTHOUSE OUTRAGE

The Following letter by Seth Teller was sent to our city councilors. I reprint it here, with permission, because Seth does such a great job encapsulating the negligence of Cambridge city agencies and departments in representing the interests of the East Cambridge neighborhood against those of a private developer.

Dear Councilors,

The residents of Cambridge, and the Council itself, have been terribly served by the various City departments and agencies on the Sullivan Courthouse matter.courthouse

The Community Development Department has been mostly absent throughout the process. Apart from some minor comments around the edges of the proposal, we haven’t seen any informed pushback to the misinformation the developer has been spreading over the City: the questionable traffic studies, the garage parking study, the wind study, and the lighting impact study. The developer didn’t even mention, in their application to the City, the anticipated impact on surface parking in East Cambridge. They didn’t even mention the anticipated impact on residents’ privacy. Did the City or any of its agencies call them on any of this? No.

The Traffic and Parking Department certified, quickly and in writing, the Developer’s proposal to long-term lease 420 parking spaces in the municipal garage. Yet after months of wrangling, we citizens were able to analyze the City’s actual parking data. It shows without any doubt that the garage is headed for full occupancy, even “without” any development at the Courthouse. How could your T&P department have gotten this basic fact so wrong?

Meanwhile, the City Solicitor’s opinion on the critical legal question underpinning the proposal is nothing more than a parroting of the developer’s attorney’s assertions. She did not even acknowledge the existence of a contrary opinion by a nationally-known land-use attorney hired by us citizens. There is no more polite way to say it: this is dereliction of duty.

Councilors, there are myriad technical objections to the current proposal. And there are serious legal objections as well; we maintain that the Planning Board simply doesn’t have the right to grant this permit. But beyond the technical and legal objections, there’s the overarching moral question: should the State of Massachusetts be allowed to discharge the debt it incurred in the 1970’s on the backs of today’s Cambridge residents alone?

Here’s how this story could continue, if only the Planning Board, and the City Council, could find the courage to stand up and say to the State, “This process is simply unacceptable. You cannot take a planning disaster from the 1960’s and 1970’s, which all agree was allowed to be built ‘only because of state supremacy,’ and perpetuate that disaster forever by transferring the site to private ownership.”

Folks, as representatives and residents of our City, it is time to take a stand here. Let’s use every means at our disposal to send this completely inappropriate proposal back to the State, and back to the drawing board. Yes, that will likely mean waiting for the next Governor and her or his administration. But they can’t do any worse than the current administration, who have stonewalled us at every turn. And there’s a reasonable chance that they will do better.

We’ve lived with this monstrosity for four decades. Let’s take a few more years to get it right. Let’s block this proposal with every tool we have, and put the State on notice that their current RFP and sale process is a dead duck. They simply must issue a new RFP that states explicitly that whatever is to be built in the City of Cambridge, by a private developer, shall respect the City’s zoning ordinances. Meanwhile, on our end, let’s convene a grand conversation among all citizens of the City about what ought to be done with the site, as part of the Master Planning process that has been so much discussed of late. (A useful precursor to that conversation would be to hold the next Planning Board hearing in East Cambridge, so that the residents most directly affected, including many seniors who were here before the Courthouse was built, can weigh in.)

That’s the process that should have been followed from the start. We’ve lost a few years and dissipated a lot of energy getting to this point. We can’t get the time back, but we can avoid wasting all that good work. It’s not too late to fix this situation, but correcting it will require the Council to step up and take a stand against this outrageous proposal and the process that produced it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Seth Teller
281 Hurley Street

 Something Is Out Of Alignment

We’ve reached a moment in time where city agencies like Community Development, Traffic, and the City Solicitor, appear to be out of alignment with the needs and vision of Cambridge’s neighborhoods and citizens.

Seth’s letter illustrates not only the bias of city agencies toward development, but also the frustration that many of us have in attempting to protect Cambridge’s unique quality of life, affordability and diversity. Pro-development advocates have been all over this proposed Courthouse renovation, bobbing their heads up and down as if it represents the best chance we’ll ever get to extract a good deal from the developer. Why fight it, they seem to ask, when playing nice will still give us some leverage? And who can blame them for looking at it that way, once you see our city agencies wagging their tails and licking the developer’s hand? With the CDD, Traffic and Parking Department, and City Solicitor all seeming to roll over and play dead in the face of the state and the developer’s arguments, we are left with a group of understandably outraged citizens standing alone in their fight to have Cambridge’s legal zoning laws enforced. Citizens who wish our city agencies would STOP being so ludicrously helpful to our adversaries. Yes, I call them “adversaries,” as I would call any developer who seeks to impose his or her will against our zoning laws or the best interests of our neighborhoods.

I’ve wondered for some time about this almost gleeful rush on the part of the CDD and T&P to support developers’ demands. I mean, why would T&P certify the sale of parking spaces to the developer when the city already has need and use of those parking spaces? I ask that at the same time realizing this is the same T&P that never seems to have a problem certifying additional construction and traffic congestion for the Fresh Pond and Alewife neighborhoods. Just who is it exactly who is setting the mission for these departments? And isn’t it time that mission was re-examined?

I used to think it was our former City Manager who was playing the tune, and the ultimate reason why all city departments were so strongly and reflexively pro-development. But Healey’s gone and the tune keeps playing. Could it be his ghost…?

How many courthouses, 18-story towers and shoe-horned Alewife developments must we endure before our CDD, T&P and City Solicitor start to realize they work for us—today’s Cambridge residents, rich and poor—and not for the affluent thousands who will one day populate those oversized developments they keep facilitating?

TAX THE RICH OR KILL THE POOR

Wealth is essentially finite. There’s only so much to go around.

When a nation’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, the rest of its citizens are left with little scroogemore than long days of struggle, painful progress and unattainable dreams. We see it in the Middle East, in Africa and Asia, and in Third World countries where rulers and their cliques soak up all the wealth like so much gravy.

And we are seeing it today in America.

It won’t be long before we reach the tipping point, when students won’t have money for college, cities won’t have money for schools and libraries, governments won’t have money for basic services, and the poor won’t have anywhere to turn.

It seems as if we’re living in a Charles Dickens novel where the same Dickensian actors—greed, hard-heartedness, self-righteousness and moral vacuity—have once again stepped center stage to suggest, by their actions if not their words, that it might be better for the poor to die and decrease the surplus population.

No matter that those actions are thinly disguised behind Big Lies repeated over and over by agents and tools of the wealthy—by newspapers and TV stations owned by the rich, by a political process and Supreme Court controlled by the rich, by sound bites and legislation pushed by rich politicians—that taxes are unfair, that corporations are people, that the wealthiest among us have no obligation to assist the poorest, that government exists to protect wealth rather than its citizens, and that the surest way to help the poor is to advance the purpose and cause of the wealthy.

How can we still be talking about trickle down economics when so little wealth ever actually trickles down?

If you accept one basic premise—that wealth is finite—then all the financial, economic and social upheaval in our country starts to make sense. There isn’t enough to go around when one sector gets a lock-tight grip on the purse and the purse strings. Once that happens, with so little left on the table, those of us who aren’t rich find ourselves battling each other for an ever-dwindling share of the pie. Programs compete against programs. The needy compete with the needy. Infants battle the elderly and the poor for nutrition allocations. Recovering alcoholics challenge the homeless and disabled veterans for shelter dollars. Sesame Street scraps for funds needed to regulate Wall Street. All the while, the public sector continues to implode and gentrification elbows families and poor people out of their homes.

The recent attack on public sector unions in Wisconsin is merely the edge of the scythe as it begins to mow down the social contract we grew up with and came to expect from a civilized society. Collective bankruptcy is the problem, not collective bargaining!

Tax breaks for the wealthy that began with Ronald Reagan and continued under George W. Bush were beyond obscene, as are the bone-deep cuts to government programs now regularly enacted by a government bled dry of its assets by the Republican Party under the guise of fiscal responsibility. By protecting their excessive assets, the wealthy among us are endangering the lives and livelihoods of so many others. Children will go hungry; students will forgo college; retirees will see their pensions cut; people will lose their jobs and homes; many will go without winter heating fuel; cities will lay off police, teachers and firemen; while the health of our poorest citizens will dramatically decline—all so that a small group of wealthy individuals can amass and accumulate ever more and more money.

Tax the rich or kill the poor? What would Charles Dickens have done?

How about Jesus?

——————————–

This is an updated version of an essay I wrote a few years ago. It’s quite shocking to me how far things have gone downhill since then. With the Republicans, as good servants of their wealthy masters, continuing their assault against social security and medicare, and virtually stymieing any attempts to combat Global Warming, this world is becoming a harsh and unfriendly place in which to live.

Open Letter To The Republican Party

Dear Elephant Men:

Hey guys? You know we’re watching you, right?  And no matter how many times you tell us you’re legislating to prevent fraud, we know exactly what you’re doing.

You know that, right?   Repub

Nobody’s that dumb or lame, really. Why treat us as though we are? Makes it hurt all the more.

“Voter fraud” has the same believability and cover story value as euphemisms like, “Enhanced Interrogations,” “Trickle Down Economics” or “Clean Coal.” Everybody knows what you’re doing, and can see through your lies, even while you deny doing anything and continue to behave in the same manner.

So enough of this fig-leaf excuse of Voter Fraud please?  It’s really beneath you to continue to deny what you’re doing.

Once and for all, there is no voter fraud! Certainly nothing that could be used to explain the sudden rash of Voter Fraud laws pushed through by Republican-led legislatures in nine states. And just so nobody is missing the fact, let me ask this next question directly…You guys are creating laws, directing the will of nine individual state legislatures, to enforce a solution to a non-existent problem, is that right?

The only problem you’re solving is that you guys are held in such low esteem you can’t win an election without cheating.

Don’t you think there should be a law about that? Using a state legislative process to foster political ends? In nine different states? Smells like some sort of conspiracy to me…hmm…?

Lest anybody be confused, this is nothing but a bald attempt by Republican legislators to suppress voting by blacks, students, poor people and anyone else who might vote Democratic. You guys couldn’t win the Presidency last time around, so rather than reform your party by turning to positions that might appeal to larger segments of the voting public, you chose instead to stay with your Big Money Masters, and to restrict people’s right to vote in so-called swing states.

And that’s what you spend your time doing? On the public payroll? Stealing elections?

Aren’t you even a little ashamed?

Okay, fine! That’s your choice and we respect that.

But hey guys, call it what you will, it’s still JIM CROW all over again…and just as shameful.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. Nobody’s accusing you guys of racism. The fact you’re legislating to disenfranchise blacks has nothing to do with racism and everything to do with the fact you’ve completely abandoned whatever moral authority your party once possessed.

So, in reality, you no longer have any ethical basis to stand as a national party.

Sorry guys, but the truth hurts. And if you want to win the presidency sometime soon—just so you know—it won’t be by kissing the backsides of the wealthiest sliver of the nation’s population, or by writing off Immigration Reform and Income Equality. Nor will you win by continually trumpeting your aversion to 21st Century sexual and cultural norms.

One thing more, it’s time you guys stopped running for office in our highest institutions of government, then worked to dismantle that government and cripple its ability to make a difference in the lives of its citizens.

Yeah, I know, that will get you millions of dollars from the Koch Brothers.

But it won’t win you many votes in whatever voting booths you allow to remain open.

Just remember, we see what you are doing.

And we will not forget.

Tales From An Overheated Planet (a poster series)

aTornado_SFTW(See below for more posters)

The posters on this page were created by Paul Steven Stone and Bill Dahlgren to help sound the alarm about global warming in a way that would both engage the reader and make the issue indelible. Keep in mind, with a little more work and expense, these could be billboards or subway posters. As they are, they could be immediately used as digital advertisements or email campaigns or—and something especially powerful to consider—as baseball-type collectors cards for kids. We’ve created thirty posters in all, some of which relate to future realities, others to what is happening today. All of them use humor or irony to engage and hold the attention.

It’s almost indecent that we’ve been as complacent as we have about Global Warming. This is our children’s future at stake. It’s also the greatest planetary challenge the human race has faced in our lifetime.  There is no more room at the conference table for Global Warming deniers; no more time left on the game clock for their obstructionism or their resistance to making the hard decisions. It’s time we blew the whistle and threw them out of the game.

a6-Ways_SFTW

Forgive me for being immodest, but the posters on this page represent the beginnings of a Global Warming Awareness Campaign worthy of the size and scope of the colossal disaster we’re facing. It is a campaign that uses shock, humor and a hard look at the future to shake the viewer out of his or her complacency. It is a campaign that reminds us we’re all in this together, whether we’re swimming in the streets of our hometowns, watching our crops wither to dust in a drought, fighting wildfires, or dodging twisters in our once tornado-free cities and towns. The campaign’s message is solemn and its clear: nobody escapes the wrath and destruction of Global Warming.

If your group or organization would be interested in using/sponsoring these posters, or dovetailing them into your own campaign, please let me know. I can be reached at PaulStevenStone@gmail.com.

Do yourself a favor and review each poster BY ITSELF. Stop and absorb the entirety of one concept before you move onto the next. Do not quickly scroll through them. Most likely the posters will be viewed one at a time when they’re out in the world, and should be seen that way here for their full effect.

aWave_SFTWBear_SFTWaBostonMarathon_SFTWaLiberty_SFTWaGreatLakes_SFTWaPontoons_SFTWaWreckage_SFTWaForestFire_SFTWaSpoiler_SFTWaLettuce_SFTWaSharks_SFTWaPennies_SFTWaPanda_SFTWaDetroit_SFTWaSubway_SFTWaBeetles_SFTWaSkul_SFTWlaUN_Report_SFTWaCarton_SFTWaWeapons_SFTWaTime_Lapse_SFTWaFence_SFTWaStacks_SFTWaLifeguards_SFTWaEyeChart_SFTWaEarth_SFTWaSkier_SFTWaMailbox_SFTW

Can We Just Send Finneran The Bill? Please!

Representative Thomas Finneran will go down in local history for a variety of egregious acts committed against the best interests of the Commonwealth and its citizens. First, of course, he will be remembered as the politician who terminally wounded Clean Elections in our state by refusing, as Speaker of the Massachusetts House, to honor the referendum vote that legally established publicly financed elections and limits on campaign spending for public office.Finneran

Then, of course, the Stalinist Speaker from Dorchester will most be remembered for his conviction on obstruction of justice charges. The obstruction was committed in a trial where he professed ignorance of redistricting decisions that he himself dictated to his dutiful minions. The fact that those decisions discriminated against black and minority voters to the benefit of himself and other incumbent white legislators was a mere coincidence, according to an unrepentant and defiant Finneran.

And most recently, in Federal Court we are witnessing the real legacy of Thomas M. Finneran at the racketeering trial of former Probation Department officials. Though John O’Brien, former Probation Commissioner, and two of his deputies are the ones on trial, it’s really Finneran’s legislative shadow that falls across the proceedings. Because it was Finneran who empowered O’Brien, thus enabling the allegedly rigged hiring system that  favored well-connected applicants over more qualified candidates. A system that fed on a vicious cycle of yearly budget increases voted by a patronage-hungry legislature. A system that poured millions of tax dollars down a sink hole of cronyism. Millions of dollars funneled to friends and relations of politicians rather than the state’s under-funded schools, broken down bridges or its struggling transportation system.

Of course, the biggest cost was paid by those lawbreakers in the probation system who for years were denied the value of honest guidance and supervision by highly qualified probation officers. Who can calculate the price they paid?

But back to our story…

Finneran was Speaker of the House in 1997, when O’Brien was appointed to run the Probation Department. Increasingly frustrated by a system that required the approval by local judges of all probation officers assigned to their courts, Finneran, in late 2001, pushed through a bill centralizing hiring and promotion decisions in O’Brien’s office.

It was Finneran who knowingly created this honey pot for his legislative colleagues. Finneran who enabled John O’Brien and his Probation Department to become the alleged disasters they ultimately became. Finneran who should be sent an invoice for every dollar paid by the state to every under-qualified probation department employee. And if you read the list of the department’s politically-connected employees, you’ll find a select inventory of relatives and friends of the state’s high and mighty, from two sons of former Senate President William Bulger, to children, nephews, friends and campaign workers of more politicians than ordinarily show up for work on a normal day at the State House.

As Finneran explained at the time of his 2001 legislative push to give O’Brien unchallenged hiring authority, “If you scan a list of probation officers, there might be sons and daughters of politicians and judges there. That’s not going to go away. And, honestly, I don’t think it should. They shouldn’t be excluded because of the achievements of their parents.’’

To which I’d like to add, “Nor should a politician be excluded from paying for the cost of his political crime, even if he’s merely its unindicted legislative enabler.

So, please, can somebody figure out how many millions of dollars the Commonwealth has spent in the last dozen years to fund a Probation Department strong on political connections but almost bereft of professional focus or substance?

And then, please, I beg you, send an invoice for that amount to Thomas M. Finneran.

In lieu of our sincere “Thanks!”