Blue Mass Group

1. Lower Income or Majority People-of-Color Communities (0 Replies)

   Based purely on my own unresearched observation, I suspect that a call about a broken streetlight in West Roxbury gets a response faster than a call about one in Roxbury, streets get cleaned and plowed in winter more often or thoroughly, and so on, even in these modern times. I could be totally wrong, but there’s no way to know because there’s no data.

   jimweliky   @   May 3, 2013 at 06:57 EST
   

2. This is What All the Candidates Should Be Doing! (1 Reply)

   Thanks for asking! So, one idea: I think we need to institute a way of measuring the volume and quality of city services provided to particular communities in our city, so that, for example, we could tell if response times to a 911 call are the same in West Roxbury as they are in Mattapan, or Roslindale gets the same level of trash pickup per person as Jamaica Plain, etc.

   jimweliky   @   May 2, 2013 at 19:58 EST
   

3. I'm Sick of the Bedwetters (1 Reply)

   It’s galling that from what I’m hearing this timid, regressive, pathetic proposal is almost entirely a product of fear: fear that some constituents on the right might be mad, fear that some even more conservative Democrat might criticize them (or even god forbid mount a primary challenge), or fear of Republicans. Nobody seems to be thinking about what’s best for the Commonwealth, or for the future. And this from Democrats! But as John Walsh rightly notes in the post quoted above, this fear is misplaced, given that exactly no Democrats lost their seats to a challenger from the right in the last election. So here’s a thought! How about some courage? How about taking a stand, loudly, because you know it’s the frickin’ right thing to do? Maybe, just maybe, if enough people did that, it would change the dynamic! Didn’t we just see that happen with gay marriage?

   And here’s the other thing: you know what might help combat the fear of the right? Creating a little countervailing nervousness about the left! So, make those damn calls! Maybe a few well placed calls from constituents will help our Democratic representatives get in touch with their inner, um, Democrat. Just sayin’

   jimweliky   @   Apr 4, 2013 at 20:35 EST
   

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