By adamg on Wed., 9/15/2021 - 9:42 am
In addition to thanking their supporters and the voters of Boston last night, Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George tried to define each other:
Wu: "This is about a choice for our future. This is a choice about whether City Hall tackles our biggest challenges with bold solutions or we nibble around the edges of the status quo."
Essaibi George: "Let me be very clear about this: The mayor of Boston cannot make the T free. The mayor of Boston cannot mandate rent control."
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Nibble
By emac
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:00am
Can someone explain the logic behind free T? Instead of targeted transit or income subsidies?
And rent control doesn’t seem like a winner, but i assume that’s easier than reforming our awful zoning rules and easement process so we can expand the housing stock to meet demand.
Of course, I’m all in for Wu because Karen “tough talk†George isn’t trying to nibble around the edges, she’s trying to double-down on the status quo with more cops (…why?) and more corruption.
free public transportation
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:55am
Administering means tested programs for free/reduced cost transit service costs money. Lots of money.
Not means testing transit access at all means you not only don't have to spend money on administration of the means testing program, but you save money because you don't need to run a ticketing system at all.
The two reasonable choices are 'subsidize all tickets at some general rate and keep your ticketing system' or 'remove your ticketing system'. The middle ground of 'keep your ticketing program, subsidize all tickets by a certain amount, subsidize some other tickets by a larger amount based on means testing' just eats cash that could instead be going towards improving service or lowering cost of entry.
Thanks
By emac
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 1:49pm
Did a little research into this after I posed the question. Free local buses would be fairly cheap, local bus revenue accounts for $34m out of $700m revenue (and $2.1b budget — so a -300% margin overall), making that free with some other adjustments would cost a little more. So that wouldn't going to break the bank. Follow-on question is how much would free local buses (or free T overall) help get people out of cars, help poor people get around to access work and services.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/04/19/...
Free T
By Adam schepp
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 1:50pm
There is a simple solution that avoids all the administration. T Buses that service low income areas which is pretty much all of boston are free. Entry fares go away at orange, red, blue like stops that are in poor areas.
Drivers get billions in
By Kinopio
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:16am
Drivers get billions in handouts. Letting people ride the bus for free is the least we could do.
Cycle Tracks
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:18am
Remind me how they are being paid for again?
How is snow plowing paid for?
By Parkwayne
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:31pm
How is trash removal paid for?
How are schools paid for?
I am the daughter of a T bus
By redheadedjen
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 4:55pm
I am the daughter of a T bus driver and that is so not true. EVERYBODY should be getting their basic benefits. It should not be an outlier.
I can explain thar
By Bob Leponge
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:56am
Same as the logic behind free roads, free parks, free schools, etc.
You Mustn't Get A Property Tax Bill I See.
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:10pm
Also, free roads?
Guess again: https://www.salestaxhandbook.com/massachusetts/gas...
Thank you, Boston Globe
By emac
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 2:00pm
Speaking of taxes, would the “let me be very clear†George family ever pay their taxes (sales and property) if they didn’t have the Globe to remind them?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/01/metro/recor...
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/26/city-...
24¢ / gallon does NOT cover
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 2:22pm
24¢ / gallon does NOT cover the cost associated with maintaining our roads.
It's the same "free"
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:26pm
We pay taxes that fund our "free" services.
Our taxes pay for libraries. We don't pay to check out books.
Now, simply replace "MBTA" for "libraries" and "ride the bus" for "check out books." Even if you're rich or own lots of books or are from out of town.
Lets drive 10k miles a year.
By DPM
Thu, 09/16/2021 - 5:16pm
Lets drive 10k miles a year.
Lets assume 30 mpg. Lets assume a 5 year old car, pretty average all around numbers here.
2016 Camry MSRP of 23,840
26.6 cents a gallon in MA gas taxation
Excise tax = ((.1X 23,840)/1000)x25= $59.6
Gas tax= (10,000/30)x .266= 88.66
Total taxation? $59.60+ $88.66= $147.66
AGAIN annual MA revenue from car driver? $147.66
Now the cost to ride the MBTA? $90 per month
$90 x 12= $1080 per year
So a MBTA commuter is paying 7.3x the amount that a driver is. 7.3 TIMES THE AMOUNT.
Except
By geep9
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 2:36pm
nothing about Wu's housing polices suggest anything to expand the housing stock. She's for more "community input", and more input from district based city councillors. That's code for nothing gets built.
really feels like post Marty Walsh, housing production will head downwards. And that isn't just for Wu but probably all five of the top contenders yesterday.
A mayor w developer husband...
By Sami
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 3:23pm
Are you comparing Wu's approach to housing with Essaibi George enabling her developer husband's approach?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/essaibi-george-i...
That's fine because we
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 9:08pm
That's fine because we actually need housing in Concord and Lexington. Boston is not going to solve the regional housing crisis by itself, though it certainly has been trying. Anyway, if you think they're having a hard time throwing up buildings in Boston, you must be pretty drowsy.
Well..
By geep9
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:01am
Both statements accurate!
Somewhat
By Angry Dan
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:44am
The future mayor definitely won't be able to make any bold changes if she has a NIMBY mindset and is focused on preserving the status quo.
While one offers vision with room for compromise
By J.R. Dobbs
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:25am
The other clenches fists, stomps their feet, and cries "NO! NO! NO!"
Party affiliations aside, it's pretty easy to tell who represents the "Get Off My Lawn" caucus and who wants some progress that perhaps we *all* can come to a concensus on.
George's key demographic lives in the Riviera and tosses money up north to keep *them* from coming down *there*.
Them?
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:58am
You mean JP people?
The problem is JP people keep expanding into Roslindale and parts of Dot. Roxbury is next. JP people are displacing the urban working class from areas of the city by driving up rents.
This forces working class people into Weymouth, Randolph, and Holbrook. They could have stayed in the city but someone with a Masters in French Poetry and grew up in Simsbury who is really, really into urban living "discovered" Elm Hill Avenue and is telling all their friends.
This is ridiculous for a lot
By Kinopio
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:19am
This is ridiculous for a lot of reasons but let’s start with the fact that someone is by definition not a JP person the second they move out of JP. There are zero JP people in Roslindale or any other neighborhood.
I'm Sorry
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:29am
I meant to say people who can't afford Brookline or Cambridge.
That
By Michael
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:24pm
is almost everybody
Holbrook has been working
By redheadedjen
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 4:55pm
Holbrook has been working class for a while.
George's key demographic?
By Waquiot
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:13am
You do see that she bested 3 other real candidates along with the two who no one knew for a reason.
I'll give you that Essaibi-George campaigned to the right of the other candidates, but that wasn't hard given the platforms of the rest. If she were running in most American cities, she'd be seen as the center-left candidate that she is.
Well said
By erik g
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 3:07pm
I hadn't actually paid much attention to AEG's policy platforms until the election news broke today, when I went to read the meat of her proposals. Some of it is pretty progressive stuff. She wants to totally overhaul BPS and BPD, introduce universal childcare, and expand Vision Zero. I'm personally in Wu's corner, but if AEG is the "moderate" choice, then I'd say we're doing a hell of a lot better than we were when it was Walsh vs. Connolly.
AEG seems to be pro vision
By DPM
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 4:40pm
AEG seems to be pro vision zero right up until it gets hard.
Eg. Centre St.
indeed
By tape
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:59pm
if she's so into it, why is none of it happening in the neighborhood where she lives and why have I never heard a peep from her advocating for it, again, especially in the neighborhood where she lives?
Michelle supports mandatory masks on the MBTA
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:27am
Except when she holds a press conference to greet voters at Forest Hills.
Forest Hills is a station, not an MBTA vehicle...
By runforit
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:02am
I assume you know the difference between the two?
Masks Are Required In All MBTA Stations
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:17am
https://www.mbta.com/covid19
I assume you knew that, right, or did your snark just get checked?
If you've been on the T at all...
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:37pm
You'd have this announcement burned into your memory: "face coverings are required on board MBTA vehicles and in stations."
My heart says Wu but my brain
By hux
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 10:38am
My heart says Wu but my brain can't help but agree with Essaibi George. All of Wu's incredibly unrealistic pandering with rent control and a free T really turned me off.
At least it isn't the same
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:03am
At least it isn't the same thinking this city has been stymied with. We need bold thinking and to move forward.
We don't need the same old status quo from someone that panders to the police and isn't willing to think outside the box. We don't need another "West Roxbury" mayor.
Sure Wu has some ideas that I may not 100% agree with but I am willing to try something, anything other than doing the same old same old. Boston needs to change. We are one big mess of traffic. We cannot add more roads to appease car owners. We haven't raised the gas tax in 25 years and it shows. We can't continue to let the T crumble b/c that's all that has been done in the last 30-40 years.
Michelle has a vision for a livable city and that is what I want. Just my 2 cents:)
And
By BobGoblin
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:38am
This is why Essaibi George will be mayor :/
I know it's framed as "Free T
By Martin
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:40am
I know it's framed as "Free T", but I like think of it more of not spending tons of money on german barriers and constantly breaking pass machines.
The point of infrastructure is to support business and residents, improving productivity and hopefully accessibility to opotunities. As counter intuitive as some things sound at first blush, in the whole, it might be cheaper. And doing things in the cheapest way is a good goal.
I know the right wing voice in everyone's head tells them not to give things to *the undeserving poor* (see Victorian slums), but I promise, that voice is wrong.
It’s a negotiation. You say
By Kinopio
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:49am
It’s a negotiation. You say free T and you likely get a bunch of free bus lines.
How About Free Hingham Ferry? Free Commuter Rail From Weston?
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:13pm
Or is one not like the other?
I actually think the T should be free, but I am having trouble seeing why just one bus line is free while everyone else pays.
Agreed
By Rob O
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:50pm
All public transit should be 100% funded through general taxation.
But I am willing to start anywhere.
not so much
By hux
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:20pm
It's one thing to have vision and then have to compromise on how far you go with it. That's negotiation.
It's another thing entirely to just pander to what people think they want with unrealistic promises, and it's another even to pander by promoting a policy that has proven detrimental to the thing it is supposed to fix.
Maybe this is just my perception, but in the past Wu has seemingly presented herself as well-read and knowledgeable on policy, yet is championing a policy, rent control, that has been proven not to work.
Maybe all the other good ideas she has makes up for it, and she did do more on the council than probably anyone else, but i just wish she wasn't promoting such a bad policy that has actually been proven to be bad.
Rent Control Works
By John Costello
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:28pm
Rent control does work. It works for the connected. It works for those smart enough to game the system.
Rent control was great for the Cambridge and Brookline of the 80's and early 90's for those who were smart enough to get into a unit.
Rent control worked fabulously against the poor. Anyone go through Somerville in the 80's and early 90's? That's where the working people lived because the rent controlled apartments in Cambridge were taken by many, many college educated / well paid people.
Read Wu's rent control plan
By cw in boston
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 1:44pm
It is not the old rent control of the 70s and 80s.
Bhahaha
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 1:48pm
Oooo the new and IMPROVED rent control. Thank goodness!
Rent control is banned in MA at the state level!
By anon
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 2:01pm
Again the is Wu pandering which is all she seems to do. Rent control was prohibited at the state level, enacted by voters in 1994.
https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Rent_Control...(1994)
Where can you find her plan?
By Mayor race
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 2:14pm
I don’t see a detailed rent control plan on her campaign site. I’m curious what it is.
San Fran has rent control, and is the most expensive city in the US to rent. I’m more curious as to how her plan is different, and will prevent the rental shortages that San Fran has.
If a reader happens to know the difference, please comment. I’m genuinely curious.
-
By tape
Thu, 09/16/2021 - 12:03am
proven by whomst?
but its not
By me
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 12:54pm
the MBTA is a state agency. the mayor has no ability to alter fares. You (non-mayor) have as much ability to negotiate as the mayor. If you want this discussion, talk to your state rep.
Mostly, but ...
By adamg
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 1:37pm
The mayor has some say in the discussion because Boston currently pays some amount (last I checked, $85 million, but that was awhile ago) to the T annually just for the right to have the T exist, on top of whatever residents pay in fares.
Beyond that, though, there is the bully pulpit. No, the mayor of Boston does not set T fares. Yes, the mayor can speak loudly and often about problems at the T - actually advocate for her constituents. That the previous non-T-using mayor did not reflects more on him than on whoever will be sitting on the fifth floor of City Hall come November.
Regardless of which one here
By Alex Sm
Wed, 09/15/2021 - 11:21am
Regardless of which one here wins, this city will ultimately regret not electing Andrea Campbell, the candidate who best combined smarts, personal history, and progressive pragmatism.
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