Local Politics

Brother takes public whack at cop-sister

Something tells me there’s going to be some awkward silence around this family’s Easter dinner table. From the letters to the editor in the Salem Evening News, here in Salem, Mass.:

When a co-worker showed me the edition of The Salem News with the high-paying cops salaries in Salem, I bet him anything my sister, Sgt. Kathleen Makros, was in the top five. When he looked, he said I was right.

I just shook my head. If I was a taxpayer in Salem or the mayor, I would be outraged! People are suffering with bills and cops making salaries like that? Thank God I live in a town where the people were brave enough to stand up to the police and the town administrators and say no to more cops and overtime!

Ouch! For those outside of Massachusetts, state law requires private companies to hire off-duty cops at overtime rates to be present at job sites in public areas, unlike most states that only require a flagman or other regular company employee to direct traffic. That little law tends to inflate payrolls, and even if they don’t come out of taxes, they do come from companies who pass on the costs to consumers anyway.

George Washington: “Mission Accomplished”

Boston Mayor Tom Menino has a column in the local newspaper Boston Post-Gazette. Last week he recalled that March 17 is not just St. Patrick’s Day, but also the Suffolk County holiday of Evacuation Day—Boston City workers get the day off, essentially— which recounts, well, let’s let the mayor tell you.

“On March 17, 1776 the British Army finally left ‘the colonies,’ by way of Boston Harbor after being beaten in the American Revolutionary War.”

I’m not sure what Washington was doing at Yorktown but apparently the British had been gone for years. I wonder if Washington had held up a big billboard after the Battle of Bunker Hill: “Mission Accomplished.” I guess the years between 1776 and 1783 only count as a “quagmire” for the American troops.

Way to set an example for all those kids in school, Mr. Mayor. Maybe they should administer MCAS to politicians before they can take office.

Populist mayor opposes health care that would benefit the poor

While he’s known as Mumbles for his uncanny knack for mangling the English language, usually there’s no denying that Boston Mayor Tom Menino is a canny politician. So I’m left wondering who he’s pandering to with his recent inane comments on a proposal to put for-profit medical clinics in retail stores.

The CVS pharmacy chain has a subsidiary called Medi-Clinics that puts no-appointment, limited-service clinics staffed by nurse practitioners inside their stores, including those in Boston. This isn’t a novel idea, as Wal-Mart has had similar clinics in many of its stores. The attraction is that it provides low-cost services for simple medical care and avoids the whole doctor’s-office hassle and the overuse of emergency rooms for mundane health matters.

However, Menino is inexplicably opposed to these clinics. Not that he doesn’t try to explain, but there is no logic to his objections. For example he says: “Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong.”

Um, the pharmacies are already selling prescription and over-the-counter drugs to sick people and making money off them. Not to mention the very large, for-profit healthcare conglomerates and insurance companies and doctors and … well, you get the picture. There are plenty of people who “make money off of sick people.” It’s called capitalism. He doesn’t stop there.

“It is hard for me to understand how a company that sells products detrimental to the public health such as tobacco, soda and junk food, could in the same vein promote good health in their mini-clinics, Menino wrote in a letter to city health commissioners.

Yes, and you’ve never seen a doctor or nurse smoke, drink soda, or eat junk food. It doesn’t mean they can’t provide good health care to their patients. The objection is so weak and illogical, you know that there must be some other reason for it. The question is, who’s special interest is threatened by these clinics? Doctors? Hospitals? Nurses’ unions?

In any case, it seems that the public benefit would only be enhanced by a low-cost alternative to the bloated system that’s already in place, especially since state regulations would ensure quality of care.. Giving the poor, the underinsured, or the just plain inconvenienced more options can only be good. Evidently Menino doesn’t see it that way.

Salem citizens fed up with Halloween hullabaloo

I’m not the only local who’s annoyed that Salem has been turned into Halloween-town every year. In the pursuit of the almighty buck, the city panders to kitsch and drunken revelers.

During October, Salem “turns into Spooky World, which is difficult because everyone walks around the street … like you’re at Disney World,” said longtime resident Michael Szczuka, who owns a dry-cleaning business near the main Halloween retail street. “Our downtown has become an amusement park area - a honky-tonk, really.”

Let’s not forget what makes Salem the “Witch City”, a socio-politico-religious hysteria that resulted in the deaths of 19 innocent people.

While shopkeepers and some residents praise the marketing approach and the city’s increased involvement in managing the event, others say that the growth of Haunted Happenings not only has disrupted their lives, but has left visitors with a skewed view of Salem’s history by burying the real horror of 1692, when 19 people were tried as witches and killed.

“The lack of interest in that and the commercializing of the occult part of it - these women weren’t even witches … it’s absurd,” said Pamela Schmidt, who has lived in Salem for more than 20 years. She said she doesn’t much mind the spectacle but wonders what people are thinking as they leave Salem.

The city officials like to pretend that by bringing in all these people for Halloween—some estimates aid 75,000 last night—they’re giving people a taste of Salem and will come back for all the other non-Halloween stuff. They also like to pretend that it’s a net economic benefit to the city, even though many of the “spooky” businesses that set up for the month are owned by out-of-towners who take their profits with them, and then there’s the cost of massive police presence and cleaning up and the businesses that shut down because of the crowds and you begin to wonder.

And for the surrounding cities and towns like Beverly, Swampscott, Lynn, and Peabody—where we live—you don’t even get that. All you get is massive traffic of people passing through. Last night about 70 percent of the 75,000 people expected in Salem had to pass by our house. Good thing we went out early for a birthday dinner. Whew!

At least next year we won’t have to deal with it any more.

Highway robbery on the way to work

My daily commute to Boston requires that I travel over toll roads (unless I want a much less convenient drive on secondary roads, but more on that later.) I can drive down Route 128 to the Massachusetts Turnpike, East—Toll: $1.00. Or I can drive down Route 128 to Route 93 to the Mass Turnpike, West—Toll:$1.00. Or I can drive down Route 1A, through the Ted Williams Tunnel to the MassPike, West—Toll:$4.00. Round trip is $2, $2, $5, respectively. (You only pay on the Ted Williams going west.)

That’s pretty expensive and in fact I usually drive the most expensive route because, of course, it’s the much quicker one. And I’m driving off the peak hours; if I was driving during peak, my commute would be twice as long.

Okay, that’s the price you pay for living and working north or west of Boston. (Commuters from the south of Boston have no tolls, go figure.) But now, our illustrious overlords are contemplating massive toll increases. I should point out here—as I have before—that the Massachusetts Turnpike tolls set up 40 years ago or more were to be torn down after the bonds required to pay for the construction of the road were paid off. Which they were. In the mid-80s.

But in the People’s Republic, you never kill the job. Nope, once a publicly funded program starts it must continue in perpetuity. So new bonds were taken out and now we’re paying off the massive overages on the Big Dig (not to mention overtime for all the nephews and nieces and coatholders of all those state politicians who work for the Turnpike Authority.)

So now we’re looking at tolls going from $2, $2, and $5 per day to $3.50, $3.50, and $9.50 per day! That’s an additional $1125 per year for the fastest route! Additional! (Actually the increase will worse because users of the electronic FastPass system get a small discount off the regular fare right now, but that will likely be eliminated too.)

What will I do? I’m not going to pay it if I can avoid it. When our offices move to Braintree next year, we plan to move down to the area, which will let me avoid tolls roads all together. Until then, as of January 1, I’ll just have to drive on those secondary roads: Route 128 to Route 93 to Route 16 to Route 2A to Brighton. I’m sure I won’t be alone and my entire commute will become longer and more painful. But what choice do I have? I certainly can’t afford yet higher taxes and fees if I can avoid them.

Silly liberal overlords who think that increasing taxes and tolls doesn’t affect behavior. Silly sheeplike voters who complain to one another and yet continue to vote the same corrupt tax-and-spenders into office every year.