South End publisher vows you can have her space saver when you pry it from her cold, dead hands

I didn't say anything in favor of space saving, and the original article wasn't necessarily in support of it either. Regardless, I think she is on point about public process, if the city (by means of the elected Mayor) has a policy, why should a non-representative group of residents in a neighborhood be allowed to decide they will live under rules contrary to city policy?

Just a couple of points of clarification. First, for those that don't know, the SE Forum is an umbrella organization of South End neighborhood and business associations that has been around for a dozen plus years. We have sponsored initiatives on everything from expanded street cleaning to an improved/faster trash contractor pick up environment (including pilot testing new approaches/timing). We are a pragmatic results-oriented group because the15 active neighborhood and 2 business associations represented by the presidents or chairs of those organizations don't have a lot of time or patience for soap boxes or violins.

On the space saver initiative, as with every other issue we tackle in the Forum, we have consensus or unanimous agreement among all members before moving forward. If the combined independent and business neighborhood associations of the South End (with the active participation from USES, IBA, our city councilors, state reps, etc.) do not represent something reasonably close to a common South End voice, then the alternative would seem to suggest every issue decided by referendum.

The Forum has been talking about this initiative for over 4 years. Just in the past 2 years, the issue has been discussed in neighborhood association newsletters, front page of the Globe, in the Herald, in the Boston Courant and at least twice in the SE News. Four different electronic media outlets, including WBUR, Fox25, and Channels 4 and 5, covered our initiative; last year even the NY Times carried the story of the South End Forum's effort to ban the use of space savers. Last month even the Atlantic carried the story. A number of Boston-based blogs have also carried carried the story.

In fact, a SE news reporter was present when we finalized our initiative with the Mayor in person at a public Forum meeting soon after his inauguration. Frankly, I can't think of a single South End issue where there has been more outreach, more publicity, more discussion, more blog commentary than the South End Forum's initiative to make the South End space saver free. To suggest that there has been a lack of open discussion, of "transparency" or lack of publicity or "public process" or that the Forum is something akin to a group of clueless and grumbling vigilantes with an axe to grind and too much time on their hands--on this or any other Forum sponsored issue--would seem to prove the wisdom of no good deed goes unpunished.

Every district and at large councilor and all our state reps and our senator have been part of our on-going discussion (including the support of Councilor Linehan specifically for the South End initiative), We've had discussions with 3 different Commissioners of Public Works on the issue (that's how long it's been under discussion) but it wasn't until a new Mayor Walsh committed to support our effort to launch the initiative as a neighborhood/city partnership with the full cooperation of PWD and the trash contractor that we were able to become the first neighborhood in the city to attempt to become completely space-saver free.
And to our delight, as we suspected, thus far Southenders have greeted the effort with open arms. Truth be told, the effort will take some time to stabilize as a norm for the South End and we fully expect a few hiccups. But we really think that we've done our homework in spades, have reached out to every possible public and private communications vehicle, patiently asked for the cooperation of all Southenders to make this work, and tried to represent what we have been hearing for years is the overwhelming desire of Southenders for a space saver free South End.

Happy to have more discussion today of the issue here on UHub since every mention helps to educate and inform, something we're always trying to do as best we can. But I hope I've helped to give a little detail and history to allay any lingering fears that both the decision-making process and our public/private partnership implementation with our friends in the city has been anything less than wide open and completely transparent.

Be sure to let us know how it works out.

This is like little kids squabbling about how someone else got a bigger cookie or did fewer chores and it's not faaaaair. Little kids sit and pout because they can't get perfect justice. Adults put on their big kid pants and go do what's got to be done, and don't spend all their time trying to judge whether someone got more or did less. I really think at the end of the day, you'll feel a lot better if you just pick up a shovel and put your mind at rest over the unfairness of it all.

here: whether or not space savers should be allowed in the first place?

Transparency and inclusiveness of all voices on the issue by the South End Forum is important, but if you believe in the South End Forum's cause if not its methods, why not come out and say so? If you stand against their cause, shouldn't you disclose that, too? Then you could go about challenging what they stand for, instead of just the way they're standing for it.

I frankly don't understand your priorities here. If you really are a social-justice warrior, fighting for the rights of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised, shouldn't you be fighting space savers first, and then the methods of well-intentioned people who are also fighting them second?

countered by attacking my Ebola reference (above), wondering, "Do you think making Ebola jokes makes [the South End's public housing residents] feel welcome?" I conceded that my crack was hyperbole in bad taste, but that was the moment I sensed she's not exactly a paragon of reasoned discourse.

Take a stand, Sue. It's pitiful that you're ducking that question while making a stink about the South End Forum.