See the last three paragraphs of this Dorchester Reporter article.
“When you have one side dominating the crowd, it’s not a true process,” Walsh told the Reporter. “Let the actual community ask the questions.”
So what are we then, just the dumb voters? Fill in the oval and shut up? Next time I go to vote I’ll remember I’m not part of Marty’s community.
This bid has the top political consultants on both sides of the aisle, and millions and millions of dollars behind it. John Walsh is the best organizing talent in the business. If there were supporters to turn out, he would turn them out. I’m agreed with the commenter on this article: If John Fish had real supporters, he would bring them to these meetings. Opponents dominate meetings because there are more of us.
When you’re the big guy, you don’t get to complain about how unfair life is, because the unfairness is all on your side. If no one shows up to support you, despite all your money spent, it’s because no one supports you.
jcohn88 says
I was jut going on here to write this up, and you beat me to it!
These meetings are dog-and-pony shows in which one side (the Boston 2024 side) completely controls the stage and, with that, the agenda.
It’s offensive that he only thinks that people are part of the “community” if they agree with him and that he regularly dismisses opposition as not real or not genuine. It’s paternalistic and contemptuous of democracy.
Walsh has also acted as though issues like the joinder, the salaries, and ballot questions are “distractions,” rather than important questions about accountability and governance. He also acts as though they are resolved. He signed the gag order on city employees. He fixed it, but that can’t change the fact that he signed it in the first place. And that raises what I like to call the “stupid-evil” dilemma. Either he didn’t even read what he signed in the first place (‘stupid”), or he knew what he was signing and agreed with it (“evil”). It’s a lose-lose when you are deciding between incompetent or authoritarian, and that whole story undermines people’s confidence in his judgment.
Similarly with the salaries. Deval’s $7500 a day salary was offered and accepted. Yes, it was turned down later. But it doesn’t change the original reality.
And for him to say that the issue of a referendum is solved is laughable and confusing. First of all, he’s blocking Zakim’s four ballot questions for this November. He believes that Boston should file to be a candidate city with the IOC before the people get a vote and that the IOC should get a vote (spring 2016) before Boston does. Moreover, the text of the referendum isn’t set yet. Marty and Boston 2024 don’t support Falchuk’s referendum, and they have not proposed text of their own. And the simple up-or-down on hosting that they seem to want isn’t what the ballot initiative process is about anyway: it’s about enacting or repealing a law.
jcohn88 says
Ugh..I just realized I said “jut” instead of “just.” Anyway, the content still holds.
Trickle up says
Until just now my working assumption has been that there was a way forward for 2024.
The current feeding-frenzy over over intemperate remarks by Fish and others would die off; the USOC would do some quality polling to inform a serious PR offensive; the amateurs would be muzzled; Fish would step down; 2024 would hire some first-class grovelers; the polling numbers would eventually improve a little; the Globe would come around.
Then and only then would opponents be demonized as unpatriotic people who are not the community, and that only in a measured way in the context of the ballot campaign.
I’m starting to think they won’t pull that off.
sabutai says
In addition to the political problem, they’re building a competency problem. If these folks can’t adequately run a bid, would they be able to run a games?
Al says
the Olympic mayor. If he keeps this up, he’ll be out.
baublehead says
To my ears, his comments ring of ‘old Boston’, and when I say old, I don’t mean as part of our proud shared heritage, but old as in ‘space-savers’ and ‘narrow-mindedness’ and ‘xenophobia’ and…. For example, I was born and raised in Dot. So was my father and mother. I went to a community meeting in Dorchester back in the 1980s, in another parish than the one I was raised. Before the meeting started, some loud-mouth got up and said she would like to have ‘the outsiders identify themselves’…..I thought that was a long time ago, but maybe not.
waldox says
I keep thinking that it can’t get much worse than that Boston 2024 tweet explaining that they don’t think they deliberately support the Nazi agenda. And then it does. Unorchestrated amazing implosion.
TheBestDefense says
digging the hole deeper. He has lost perspective on this issue which calls into question whether he can oversee the effort. Too bad, because I actually like him.
damnthetorpedos says
The Olympics is not only an event of highly-competitive sport, it’s a much-needed cultural gathering that celebrates the efforts of many nations. That event warrants a great, hi-energy host city that already has proper infrastructure and can provide venues to do it justice; for the competitors, spectators, staff, media, and many others.
Boston IS a great city, but she doesn’t have it now, and may not for some time; the groundwork, transit, traffic-friendly access, and perhaps most of all, ‘vigor’, if you will, to stir the masses.
The Bay State was suffering economically before the recession hit. While we’ve made quite a bit of progress in recent years, I’d argue right now Olympic support can’t get traction because the state’s still a bit weary and wary. Such effort is better spent elsewhere.
SomervilleTom says
Starting with the passage of Proposition 2 1/2 in 1980, we have collectively — Democrats and Republicans alike — spent down the wealth of infrastructure and culture that we inherited. We chose to spend our money on sports, jacuzzis, and everything else that struck our fancy while simultaneously refusing to increase our taxes — especially on our wealthiest residents — to maintain (never mind expand) our infrastructure.
We have squandered our physical infrastructure, and we have dismantled and destroyed the last vestiges of the government infrastructure needed to provide the government services and regulation (like functioning IT systems) required by the quality of life we still seek.
We want to live in the Athens of America, yet we refuse to pay for it.
Christopher says
That pretty much by definition comes with a side of Olympics, right?:)
SomervilleTom says
We have much to do first.
Unless the modern-day Athens is what you envision:
Christopher says
I was just making light of the historical reference.
Jasiu says
The games were always held in Olympia.
jconway says
And now the horse has been beaten to death.
When I initially analyzed the bid in comparison to other host city bids and the one I worked on in Chicago, I was honestly shocked at how poorly put together it was. Many people here jumped on me as an outsider, as someone insulting Boston, or someone who had an agenda. I never did. I would love for Boston to host the Olympics someday, I just strongly feel that two impediments that should have been painfully clear were ignored by the boosters, and until they are cleared we can’t have a games worthy of our city.
The first is that the current IOC and bid process is utterly corrupt, leaves host cities with debt and white elephants and little long term investment for the future. Until the IOC changes how it does business bidding for its games is unworthy of our fine city and region. It’s as simple as that, why stoop to their level?
The second impediment is that as corrupt as the IOC is, it has a visionary clause in its bids requiring a strong public transit infrastructure for the games. Long before a lot of other sporting organizations, it recognized the need for sustainable mass transit as a necessity for an international event of this caliber. And we are clearly nowhere near having an American class transit system, let alone, a world class one.
Off the top of my head every other city I have lived in has bad transit than Boston-DC, Chicago, and New York. And ask folks from those cities how they like it and they will bitch and complain that they aren’t up to snuff, but DC has a 21st century system and NYC and Chicago at least have 20th century systems. We still have a 19th century system underground and buses running on 18th century roads above it. Until we solve this regional problem with regional planning, we won’t have a world class system capable of hosting a world class event.
And it may be time to consolidate municipalities and replace 17th century town meetings with 21st century forms of governance, but that’s a discussion for another day…
jconway says
*should read every other city I lived in has better transit than Boston.