Vol. 3, No. 6
April 4, 2003
Contents
1) PUBLIC HEARING ON HOME RULE PETITION FOR GANG LOITERING ORDINANCE
What's happening?
Last November, the Board of Aldermen passed and the Mayor signed a pair of Home Rule
Petitions asking the Massachusetts Legislature to authorize adoption of Ordinances aimed at
deterring gang activity. Next week, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Safety will hold
a public hearing on the proposed ordinances. Testimony will be taken on April 8, 2003, at 7:00
p.m., at the East Somerville Community School, 115 Pearl Street. PLEASE NOTE that the
TIME of the hearing has been CHANGED from the previously advertised time of 6:00 p.m.
What are these new laws?
One proposed ordinance, identified as H2660, prohibits "gang loitering." It would allow the
police to arrest members of "criminal street gangs" (as defined in the Ordinance), or those in
their company, for failing to disperse from areas designated by the Police Chief. H2661
authorizes the city to apply to a court for an injunction against the habitual use of any premises,
by gang members and associates, that constitutes a public nuisance.
Where can I get a copy of the actual language?
The text of the proposed ordinances should still be posted on the
City of Somerville web site.
You can also contact Jason Guida at JGuida@senate.state.ma.us
to request that the House bills be e.mailed to you.
There was a recent piece in the Boston Herald about the proposal
(now posted on my web site), which indicates how Senator
Jarrett Barrios, one of the Co-chairs of the Committee on Public Safety, views the proposed
ordinance. Senator Barrios' district includes part of East Somerville. The other Public Safety
Committee Co-chair, Representative Tim Toomey, co-incidentally also has East Somerville
within his district.
2) PUBLIC HEARING ON STATE BUDGET CUTS, INCREASING REVENUE
Part of the problem
Nevada, a state with no corporate income tax, has 132,000 corporations that have zero
employees. What does this curious fact have to do with state and local budgets in Massachusetts?
It means that when these corporations do business in Massachusetts, they then may use "creative
accounting" to shift costs to this state, and profit to Nevada.
Corporate tax loopholes like these cost Massachusetts hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues
each year. They are a big part of the reason that corporate taxes in Massachusetts, which made
up 16% of state revenues in 1968, have now sunk to 4% of state revenues. Sixteen other states
have addressed this problem by instituting "combined reporting" corporations, requiring
disclosure of their complete financial situation - not just the "profits" they choose to declare in
Massachusetts.
This change in tax law is one of several that Massachusetts should adopt, in order to make our
tax system more fair, and to raise revenues. I do believe that both state and local government
could spend their dollars more prudently. I also believe that we are not going to be able to
manage our way out of a $3 billion budgetary shortfall without some attention to revenue.
Part of the Solution
On Monday, April 7, at 10:00 a.m., in the Gardner Auditorium at the State House, the
Legislature is holding a public hearing on the state budget and revenue. At 9:00 that morning,
the Working Family Agenda is holding a "training on revenue and lobbying" in room 222 of the
State House. Last week I successfully sponsored a Board of Aldermen resolution endorsing the
elimination of corporate tax loopholes, and I plan to go on Monday to the State House to further
this advocacy.
If you can't come - and the hearing schedule is certainly not congenial to folks working regular
business hours - contact your senator and state representatives, at (617) 722-2000. For e.mail,
use your rep's first and last name @house.state.ma.us; for your senator, use first letter of first
name, and complete last name @senate.state.ma.us. If you don't know who's representing you,
log on to www.wheredoivotema.com.
3) NEW CITY POLICY: TOWING FOR STREET CLEANING
Readers may remember that last year I ran a newsletter poll, and organized a public hearing with
our Public Works Commissioner, on the question of whether the city should tow vehicles that
obstruct street cleaning. Among my respondents, the numbers were almost evenly split between
those vehemently in favor of that policy, and those vehemently opposed.
Recently, our Mayor has announced, in neighborhood meetings, a new policy of towing for
street cleaning, which began April 1. While she has not formally advised the Board of Aldermen
of this policy change, I have personally witnessed enforcement. So, to avoid the expense and
inconvenience of having your car towed, PLEASE watch the posted street cleaning signs, and
watch the calendar - there's no need to get caught.
4) TRAFFIC COMMISSION VOTES TO UPHOLD 48-HOUR PARKING LIMIT
The Somerville Traffic Commission met on Wednesday, March 19, 2003, to discuss a "request
from Board of Aldermen to amend Article X, Sec.10-5, subsection (i) to allow vehicles with
residential permits to park for more than 48 hours without having to move." Although I have
had many eloquent complaints about the 48-hour parking limit, only two people attended the
hearing to testify, and one other submitted testimony in writing.
On a motion from member Alderman Robert Trane, the commission voted unanimously to deny
the proposal to amend the rule. This result suggests that those who are committed to changing
the 48 hour rule need to organize, lobby, and plan for the long term. There will be nothing
gained by re-introducing this proposal unless there is more public momentum supporting change.
5) EDITORIAL: SOME THOUGHTS ON IKEA
Before the Big Dig opening last week, newspaper headlines unabashedly announced "major
commuter problems seen," "huge traffic problems expected," "traffic headaches will come," and
the like. I couldn't help wondering, what if these headlines were about East Somerville, and not
Boston? What if they pertained to a chronic situation, and not just a few days' transitional
period?
These thoughts came as I reflected on the things I'd learned - or not heard about - in the IKEA
at Assembly Square permitting process, and on various items I'd read in the press, the last of
which was the editorial in the March 27, 2003, Somerville Journal. Titled, "Build IKEA,
Already," this piece praised IKEA for certifying that their furniture is "made of renewable
forests" and without child labor, for mapping old-growth forests, and - "they even produce a
chair made out of recycled yoghurt cups."
Which is all well and good, but what does it do for traffic and air quality in East Somerville?
Back in 2000, I sat in a packed audience in Somerville City Hall while Assembly Square
Planning Study consultant Steve Cecil showed a slide show of Emeryville, CA. Cecil said that
Somerville should use Emeryville as a model for building out Assembly Square. Then, in
January of 2003, I read an editorial in the Cupertino (CA) Courier stating that "Emeryville has
to have the worst planned downtown I have ever seen."
The Courier's editor continues: "How city planners and council could have coupled monstrous
developments without adequate preparation is truly a mystery.... IKEA, the famous Swedish
stores specializing in cheap, assemble-it-yourself furniture, opened its doors on the city's main
"downtown" drag.... However, the town was soon faced with another crisis of bad planning:
none of the roads was built to handle such an influx of traffic." (read the whole
article.)
I had also been following, in the New York papers, the saga of how the town of New Rochelle
had courted IKEA, even making plans to take property by eminent domain for the development.
The project was finally undone by the issue of traffic. Close analysis showed that local arterials
were incapable of handling enough of IKEA's traffic to prevent residential neighborhoods from
being flooded with out of town cars.
Recently, someone sent me a clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer (read a copy of the article)
with the headline "New IKEA is causing massive
traffic jams." The article describes the opening of an IKEA store in Conshohocken, PA, "at one
end of a commercial strip that already has three busy, big-box stores: Circuit City, Home Depot,
and BJ's Wholesale Club. Also in the vicinity ...are a multiplex movie theater and auto
dealerships...." The "permanent fix" to the "monumental traffic jams caused by" the new IKEA
store are conceded to be "years away."
I would hate to see Somerville in the situation of an Emeryville or a Conshohocken.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the kind of planning, permit conditions, or financial commitment
that could prevent such an outcome. Neither the Mass. Highway Dept. nor the MDC commented
on IKEA's MEPA filing, although they have jurisdiction over the two main roads that access
the site, I-93 and Route 28 (McGrath Highway).
The Assembly Square Transportation study (conducted by Rizzo Associates for the city, under
a grant of state money) identified some important improvements that would make Assembly
Square less confusing and isolated, and more accessible. These improvements, however, have
a $60 million price tag. IKEA hasn't committed to funding these improvements, nor has the
state.
The people of East Somerville opposed the construction of elevated I-93, got no support from
their elected officials, and had a major highway constructed in their back yards; they've borne
the brunt of Big Dig reroutings and the closing of the Rutherford Avenue Overpass. If IKEA
renders Assembly Square the kind of traffic disaster I've been reading about elsewhere, the city
has little hope of attracting either a T station or higher end development to the city's prime
redevelopment parcel. Recycling all the yoghurt cups in the world won't undo that kind of harm
to our city.
6) DAN BERN: MUSIC FOR OUR TIME
There have been times I've given up on rock and roll. Yet whenever rock music has become too
commercial, trivial, bland for my taste, someone comes along who plays the Real Stuff, and I'm
hooked again. A couple of years ago, I heard a musician who got me listening to rock and roll
that's younger than I am, for a change.
Dan Bern can be a little reminiscent of Bob Dylan, a bit of Elvis Costello, some shades of Bruce
Springstein, and a whole lot that's quirky and original. He is a gifted musician whose songs pull
no punches. His subjects range from pop culture ("When Elvis died/it was a mercy killing...),
to current geopolitics ("If in times like this/you can talk about individual freedom/you're
probably a terrorist"), to the burden history places on memory ("I saw some letters once/ they
wrote to my dad in Palestine/ in 1949/ shortly before they were shot.")
There are love songs, haunting and wry. Conversations with God. An interior monologue of Lee
Harvey Oswald. A "dream of a new American language;" journeys to Rome, to Jerusalem, to
Lithuania, to Texas, to the Alaska Highway. And these songs rock.
In live performance, Dan Bern delivers a wealth of material, varied in tone, style, and content.
Song after song, he dazzles with his passion, his humor, his versatility. He'll be in
Massachusetts next week: at the Iron Horse in Northampton, on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:00
p.m., and on Friday, April 11, in Cambridge, at the House of Blues, at 10:00 p.m.
You can visit his website at: www.danbern.com.
Better yet, listen to his music. You might find
yourself eagerly awaiting new album releases, once again.
7) WAR PROTEST AND PATRIOTISM: MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE?
Several months ago, it still seemed to me that the prospect of war seemed as though it might yet
pass by, another international crisis averted, a Bay of Pigs not invaded. Since I tend to look at
current events through the lens of history, I put into my "Readers' Quiz" this question: Which
former U.S. president described which U.S. military action as, "one of the most unjust ever
waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."
This quotation proved to be one easily found by a Google search. Many readers rushed to report
that Ulysses Grant had so described the war of the United States against Mexico (1846-1847),
in which he had served with distinction as an army captain. Grant and other U.S. presidents
made remarks about the Mexican War which place in perspective the current popular belief that
criticism of the U.S. war against Iraq is unpatriotic, even treasonable.
Grant wrote in his later years: "I had a horror of the Mexican War... only I had not moral
courage enough to resign..." Abraham Lincoln - not yet president, but a 38 year old
congressman - opposed the war, and publicly criticized President Polk for starting it. Former
president John Quincy Adams, in his last act as a congressman, voted a resounding "'No"
against legislation awarding medals to U.S. army officers who had served in the Mexican War.
Were these critics of the Mexican War "unpatriotic" for not supporting their president and their
troops? What about ordinary people who shared these opinions? Henry David Thoreau refused
to pay his taxes, on the grounds that they would fund this war that he opposed; he was jailed
briefly, and of his experience wrote the book Civil Disobedience.
Does James K. Polk make it on to anyone's list of 10 Best Presidents?
copyright 2003 Denise Provost
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