After a decade long building boom, UMass is deeply in debt, to the tune of $3 billion on its capital side. The building projects pass muster with all examinations I know, no hackerama stuff like we discovered with the MBM scandal that gave UMB a crappy campus more than four decades ago, but still UMass is in debt. That is a big problem for the B2024 boosters because they were counting on the UMass Building Authority to borrow the money to pay for the Boston campus’ first ever dorms, which the Olympians wanted to claim as their athletes village.
I have long hoped that UMB would get dorms and even posted on BMG that one of the requirements for me to support the B2024 bid would be their construction. When B2024 released their proposal it did call for the dorms but with UMass covering the costs. Harumph. As the state comes to grips with its unmet capital spending needs at the MBTA and the Highway Department for just two examples, and the corporatists who are always looking for a handout (like the Convention Center expansion and subsidies for the mega-hotel and parking garage to serve it), this comes as bad news. The piggybank is empty. Neither this Gov nor the Dem leadership have the stones to raise money that we are already obligated to spend. The Globe story is here
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/21/after-building-boom-umass-sizes-debt/rnbYFtGVZsp11mZn9buJAM/story.html
and if you want a Wiki synopsis of the 1970s MBM scandal (it is pretty accurate as I recall the events) it is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBM_scandal
pogo says
…switch at one time was to serve the needs of an city and nearby communities. That meant programs that bridged learning gaps between underperforming secondary schools and university level classes. That means catering to nontraditional students-adults, going back to school to further their career aspirations.
UMass Boston has done a great job focusing on their core mission. But I’m concerned their quest for increased academic status by building dorms for out-of-state students or traditional in-residence students will divert resources and focus from underserved student populations.
A bad idea.
SomervilleTom says
My son attended UMass Boston for a year and a half.
The tacky units offered through the university were overpriced former condos in a gated compound that, when built, isolated their residents from the community that surrounded them. They now do the same for students.
The neighborhood rooming house that he ended up in was, well, a learning experience for him. He learned how to deal with a slumlord, learned what streets to avoid in getting to and from his classes, learned when he could and could not get to campus at all, learned when he could and could not get to his work, learned when he could and could not get to an MBTA station, learned what MBTA stations he could and could not risk using, and so on.
My daughter lived in the infamous “BU Ghetto” off-campus housing located between Comm Ave, Linden Street, Malvern Street, and the former railroad yards — the scene of all-too-many fatal fires because the city of Boston can’t or won’t enforce the housing code against the slumlords who own that neighborhood.
Communities all over the Boston area struggle to deal with universities, public and private, who flood the neighborhoods near them with students because of inadequate on-campus housing. Brookline, Brighton, Alston, and Somerville all suffer from this issue.
In my view, the failure to provide affordable and safe on-campus housing is a major issue for an area so dependent on and proud of its many colleges and universities.
In my view, your objection is itself a weak rationalization to perpetuate and exacerbate an already difficult situation.
rcmauro says
Massachusetts should have a world-class public university. Look at the cross-fertilization that Berkeley and CUNY have added to the educational environments of San Francisco and New York. Massachusetts has a competitive advantage for attracting scholars that we should capitalize upon (and this would extend to all 5 campuses of UMass).
chris-rich says
The area is so wretchedly bereft of ivory towers that people are starting to mistake it for an Arkansas backwater.
It an argument cousin to the construction industry attempts to solve every problem with a building job.
What would be really cool would be to see some role switching where academics bemoan the paucity of construction projects while hard hats decry the appalling shortage of liberal arts PhD candidates.
It would be an entertaining break from the usual predictable efforts of various interest groups to slop some more butter on their bread.
HR's Kevin says
I have no doubt that you could make a sarcastic comment about absolutely anything someone might advocate for. What does that prove?
While I don’t know how beneficial it might be to build up the UMass system, there is absolutely no question that the presence of Harvard, MIT, BU and major teaching hospitals has had a major influence on the Boston economy and provided many jobs for both academics and those in the building trades, so it doesn’t seem all that crazy to suggest that this might reap some benefits.
chris-rich says
Why not just say it’s near the ghetto and call it good?
I walked the whole Columbia Point perimeter last summer.
Here’s your scary ghetto https://youtu.be/P_ZawSC-mcE
You do realize that economic success and asset inflation has pacified many formerly hazardous places, right? Or do you figure Scollay Square is still a vile den of iniquity?
By the way, the In my view iteration doesn’t lend much weight to an argument and is more like a rhetorical ornament.
SomervilleTom says
Walking through a waterfront park on a sunny day is very different from living in a neighborhood, without a car, 24×7. You can do the same with in cherry-picked parts of Roxbury and come to the same mistaken conclusion.
You do realize that “economic success and asset inflation” hasn’t happened around, say, the intersection of Dorchester Ave and Freeport Street. You do realize that people DO get hurt and killed in Dorchester, right?
Young men and women ARE more vulnerable than old farts like you and me. You don’t show a video walk from that intersection to, for example, the nearest Stop and Shop. You cherry-picked a lovely harborside walk, and ignored the gritty reality that was a few short blocks behind you.
Your pitch would be more relevant to my son’s situation if you started at Dorchester Ave and Lyon Street, and taped a walk from there to UMASS campus — at about 1:30A some morning. Recruit a 19 year old son or daughter to carry the cam for extra credit.
I guess we can just stop worrying about crime in Dorchester because you had a nice sunny walk along the harbor. All that talk of “ghetto” is just reactionary nonsense, why do we need police?
Dog whistle indeed.
Trickle up says
I hadn’t made that connection.
My fear would be that the plan goes forward anyway, on the back of the UMass system.
seamusromney says
Last I checked UMass Building Authority was a public entity.
rcmauro says
The German Olympic Committee has selected Hamburg as official Olympic contender for 2024.
Hamburg Olympic bid gets official go-ahead
They consider Boston their top competitor, as this magazine cover from sour-grapes loser Berlin demonstrates.
However some of the weaknesses in our bid have been noted.
“Boston: In the supposed leading candidate Boston, joy over its selection as the 2024 [US] Olympic applicant is long gone. This winter, with its record snowfall of 2.75 meters, has delivered an unhoped-for boost and a strong argument to their opponents in the anticipated rival city of Hamburg. For the subway and regional rail systems that played a central role in the Boston proposal were affected to such an extent that they broke down for days.”
“The source of concern is obvious: if this wealthy city of 600,000 inhabitants on the US East Coast cannot cope with snow, what will happen if a million Olympic tourists want to travel by train? The negative mood was also reflected in a poll taken in the middle of February. The number of supporters among the respondents sank from 51 to 44 percent, that of the opponents rose from 33 to 46 percent.”
Hamburger Abendblatt, 3/18/15