There has been a lot of talk here on BMG about where to get details on state transportation finances. Transportation for Massachusetts (www.t4ma.org) is a fairly new affiliate in the T4America family. They issued today a new report on the T and state highway improvements and future prospects, mostly written by Rafael Mares at the CLF. I have not had a chance to dig deeply into it but some of the reporting on non-T projects that are underway were new to me. I have always appreciated T4America’s work in other states. You can download a copy of the 27 page pdf file here.
For those who truly love this work, I recently heard T4MA is looking to hire two new staff people.
Please share widely!
Patrick says
I ended up on their mailing list and read this when it popped up in my e-mail yesterday (Such a distraction at work).
It does have some good deeper dives on the numbers relative to what I was able to put together for my larger “wonk post” and does have some promising notes in it.
I think the summary at the end sums things up well:
I’m actually fairly excited to see what Stephanie Pollack can do as SoT as she’s a major transit advocate (Came from the Dukakis Center at Northeastern). I’m a bit bummed we haven’t heard from her much through this MBTA debacle during the snowstorms, considering she chairs the MBTA Board of Directors. Hopefully Charlie will let her get aggressive in working over both the MBTA and MassDOT.
SomervilleTom says
It is clear that Mr. Baker joins Mr. DeLeo in viewing public transportation in general as unimportant, and the MBTA as mostly a thorn to be removed.
I expect Ms. Pollack to resign for the same reasons that I was not surprised to see Beverly Scott resign. Ms. Pollack will no doubt cite “personal reasons” — she is unlikely to want to break more china than needed.
No professional and competent transit planner and advocate will stay in the role that Ms. Pollack holds given the clear resistance they face from the highest levels of state government To do so would be very hard to explain to the next state or federal agency who needs a top-shelf transit advocate and leader.
My view is that Mr. Baker will not only not let her “get aggressive”, but I expect has ordered her to make NO public comment that isn’t cleared ahead of time by Mr. Baker. I do not expect to hear a peep from her during this MBTA debacle, and I do not expect to hear anything except PR-pap about her role in recruiting a replacement for Ms. Scott.
I think we should be very realistic about the current situation. Mr. DeLeo is arguably the most powerful Massachusetts government official. He has made it clear that he actively opposes ANY substantive increase in public transportation spending. Mr. Baker has been saying the same since the campaign.
One of the things my late father said was hardest about his WWII combat experience was realizing that the young Japanese soldiers he encountered on the various Pacific islands he and his colleagues were securing ACTUALLY intended to SHOOT him. The young men would smile at my father and appear friendly while raising their rifles to kill him. My father says it was only the reflexes instilled in his basic training that made him shoot them first — and live to tell the story.
I fear we are in the same denial about the seriousness with which Mr. Baker, Mr. DeLeo, the MA GOP, and too many MA “Democrats” actually WANT TO KILL the MBTA specifically and public transportation in general. They MEAN it. It has been their explicit strategy since the Weld/Celluci era. It is the best explanation for their behavior since then.
These guys ACTUALLY intend to KILL public transportation. The job for the rest of us is stop them from succeeding.
Increased funding is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN absent sustained demand for immediate change from the public.
judy-meredith says
I think you are wrong about the intention of any of the public officials you mention to kill public transportation, but you are absolutely correct about that they will not, cannot, vote for increased funding absent sustained demand from their constituents. Any ideas about how to organize a critical mass of your friends and neighbors to communicate their sustained support for “increased funding” for public transportation to your legislative delegation.
chris-rich says
And that affects optics.
One of my fun photo projects is to eventually get photo sets of the entire subway and commuter rail system. In many instances the stations are in crappy condition, especially on older routes. The station in affluent Winchester has been a flaking mess for several years but it gets used.
Newburyport has some great building that was left to rot. The T doesn’t want to deal with it and the city of Newburyport can’t figure out how to rent it. It’s quite new. Walpole just finished a station restoration that worked out well.
I wonder if there is correlation of location quality with enthusiasm for public transportation?
SomervilleTom says
If Mr. Baker, Mr. DeLeo, and those who join them in these strident (and groundless) demands for “accountability” would provide even lip service to the importance of public transportation for the entire Commonwealth, then I’d be more inclined to share your opinion that these actions are not intentionally aimed at killing public transportation. Perhaps we can all just ignore Mr. Norquist and his infamous pledge, as well as the Massachusetts politicians from both parties who signed it.
In any case, we very much agree that sustained and intense pressure MUST come from the public. Since none of our current “leaders” are stepping up, this presents a golden opportunity for a newcomer to emerge.
Several of us have observed that our progressive “bench” is thin and getting thinner. This sounds like an excellent recruiting opportunity.
TheBestDefense says
is talking about “accountability” then a group of enraged taxpayers should take him out on the State House front stairs and force feed him all of the budgets he authored as the Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee until he points to all of the positive accountability measures that made it into those documents, or until he pukes Red, Green, Blue, Orange, Silver and Purple.
Let’s not let Rosenberg totally off of the hook either as he Chaired the Senate Ways & Means Committee and did nothing that I recall in those areas.
For those us who are activists, let’s remember that it was not just the T that got screwed by the boys on Beacon Hill. The regional transit authorities got hit also, as did our highways across the state. We are looking at a systemic underinvestment in transportation, the Big Dig and MassPort to the contrary, for more than two decades. Hey, that goes back to when Baker-Boy was the former Governor’s chief budget officer. Hmm, makes me wanna ask more questions of the Governor about his role in subverting reliable and safe transportation in the state…