Monday, June 22, 2009

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be....

I've been so busy, there is hardly time to write. Spent the morning talking to seniors at Florian Hall, competing against Michael Flaherty's mom! We were all very cordial, and enjoyed social niceties in between greeting the people as they came in to play Bingo.

Multiple media interviews today, subjects everything from technology to how in debt Flaherty is. Remember Cellucci getting those funny loans years ago?

"The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender's slave." That quote comes from Proverbs 22:7

Had a quick stint talking to Jim and Margery today on WTKK speaking about the Tall Ships, and how we need to have events like this in Boston. Jim said it well when he ended with, 'what someone needs to do is schedule some darn debates so we can get some of these ideas hashed out. Even Michael Flaherty's mom told me today she can't wait for the debates. Why is everyone so afraid of the Mayor? Just schedule the darn things!!

Tomorrow night is the first debate in the City Councilor at Large race on Boylston Street hosted by the Ward 4 and Ward 5 Committee. What does it tell you about how much power Menino has on these Ward committee's that they will have a debate about City Council candidates which everyone agrees have hardly any power, but none of them are scheduling Mayoral debates!!! I thought Democrats were for democracy? All 4 of the candidates for Mayor are Democrats, wouldn't it be good to have the Ward committees invite the candidates over to discuss issues?

I ended the night at a BRA forum on the future of the Greenway, and discussions about transit in that vicinity. There is a lot of support for bicycles, bicycle paths and making things pedestrian friendly. I spoke and described the Montreal bike sharing plan and suggested an idea of my own. Why not have certain days during the nice weather to shut down all traffic around the Greenway to make it a super pedestrian friendly way, give people a place to ride bicycles, skateboard, rollerskate, etc. This was met with some positive response. It really is just taking a playbook from Memorial Drive in Cambridge, and 5th Avenue and Times Square in NYC.

The BRA has shelved any further discussion about the Greenway until the fall. In other words, Menino has made sure that nothing controversial about development will happen while he is in the middle of an election campaign.

Kairos Shen would not commit one way or another about whether the BTD would become part of the BRA. I did figure out that Kairos Shen is an anagram for "noise shark" which is an apt description of what the BRA does, they create a bunch of noise to confuse and cloud issues, while eating neighborhoods alive. Just ask anyone who survived the urban renewal of the West End, or residents of Fort Point Channel how happy they are with the BRA.

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