Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

NOT The Real Story

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I am in receipt of the latest mailer from the Marzilli campaign-directed to Burlington residents, lamenting about the people who have to leave Burlington due to affordability. As a former long, long time resident of Arlington I can tell you that 27yrs ago Arlington became UN-affordable for my family. We were not alone in this dilema at all Rep. Marzilli. We did an exhaustive search for affordability and there was none. We did find it in Burlington and continue to enjoy this town. One of my children has been trying for several years to buy in Arlington but that is not a reality. We do not see the exodus that you describe here in Burlington. This mailer is just not sincere. Sunday’s Globe has 72 properties in Arlington for sale/Burlington has 28. Who is running where Rep. Marzilli??

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    • Frank, I will be here for as long as there are issues that impact my families every day life. I see that as a very long time. I am glad I found fellow travelers.

  2. Every time I end up in Burlington, I feel his pain.

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    Drive from Lexington into Burlington on the Middlesex Turnpike.  There’s a red light in front of the Market Basket.  150 feet ahead, in front of the Vitamin Shoppe, there’s a green light.  No cars.  The Vitamin Shoppe light turns red, and then the Market Basket light turns green.  After two light cycles you get a short run before the next matched pair of lights timed to require long stops at every signal.

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    When it snows, plowing and salting exists only on the Lexington side of the line.

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    I feel like I’m stuck in Burlington any time I need to drive through town. 

    • I was only able to discern two issues from your Post. Traffic issues and winter road maintainance, neither comment is relative to the mailer that Rep. Marzilli sent to Burlington residents, which prompted my posting. Issues pertaining to traffic on Midd. Tpk. are not a local issue, they are a State issue. Once you cross from Lex. into Burlington 2A becomes Midd. Tpk., which is a State maintained road. In Burlington there is never salt used on OUR TOWN roadways due to water/enviromental concerns. With all of that said, I am interested in hearing your thoughts specifically related to my posting regarding the lack of sincerity(IMHO) in Rep. Marzilli’s lastest campaign mailing to Burlington residents.

      • Interesting.  If that’s the case, you would think the state rep would be able to do something about the timing of the traffic signals.

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        Marzilli’s right.  Affordable housing is an issue throughout the district.  Arlington has higher property values than Burlington, but that doesn’t make Burlington particularly affordable.

        • From Arlington Hights to Harvard Square is approximately 5 miles-there are 39 traffic lights between those two points, and almost NONE of those lights working in conjunction, so possibly Rep. Marzilli can address that issue as well?

          • The road is not a state highway, it’s municipally owned.  Mot of these signals are owned by the City of Cambridge, and these signals:
            – are outside of Arlington
            – are outside Marzilli’s district
            – are, in fact, tied together in a network.  They are set to move with inbound traffic weekday mornings, and outbound at other times.

            • I am well aware that Mass Ave is not a state highway, that was the point of my comment. For the lights that ARE in Arlington, they can/do fall under Rep. Marzilli’s purview.

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              As far as the lights being set to move with the inbound and outbound traffic flow, let’s ask someone who drives the #77 bus 5 days a week for over 38 yeas(as I have) for their thoughts and actually how many of those lights are in Cambridge.

                • The thing is, simply a trolley on a lane on a major street (as  the 79 was, which was the streetcar on the current 77 route) is not significantly better than a bus. Likewise, a trolley with its own lane is not significantly superior to a bus with its own lane (although it would be a big difference for, say, Washington Street Silver Line, as it would avoid the traffic around Chinatown/Downtown Crossing by using the portal-but I digress). Basically, it would not be worth the cost of putting up caternaries. For the Lexington/Arlington area (and, potentially, Burlington), the real public transit improvement that could happen is a Red Line extension under the bike path  (or along route 2, although there are problems with the steep grade.) However, this will not (and really, considering the cost, should not before a host of other projects) happen in the near future. The 2003 PMT analyzed this (nearly $1 billion) and rated it low priority. What it did rate medium priority was creating bus lanes out of Alewife. Unfortunately, the link to these seems to be unoperational; I have contacted CTPS.

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                  But basically, trolleys are not really a solution to the area. But, if you want to see a perfect world, where all our transit dreams are realized:
                  http://www.vanshnook…

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                  Especially check out the section of DMUs. Fascinating stuff.

      • Pablo, you and Rep. Marzilli are incorrect, according to realestate.yahoo.com the Medical price for a house in Arligton is $470,000.00 while the median price for a home in Burlington is $449,000.00-Also the property tax rate in Arlington is $ 10.94 (in 2005 per the Arlington Town website)and the property tax rate in Burlington is $9.20 per thousand. So, again in IMHO, Burlingtin IS more affordable to live in than Arlington.

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        Yes, if would be a cleaver idea if the State Rep. could do something about the traffic light timing, however, due to the heavy access to highways, hotels, resteraunts and hospitals, the state prefers to leave that to the Mass Highway Department which is monitored throughout the year.

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        • I guess I am totally puzzled by this line of attack.

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          Is the beef that Arlington at $470K is unaffordable compared to $449K in Burlington?  Is $450K the magic boundary between affordable and unaffordable?

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          Then, if Burlington is affordable and Arlington isn’t, it’s somehow wrong for a candidate from Arlington to raise the issue of affordable housing?

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          And what is the “medical” price for a home?  Is there a special price for doctors and dentists?

          • My appologies, I made a spelling error, (well a few actually…graduate of Arlignton High!) I did not mean “medical” I meant median-

        • I call thee unclean!  No, seriously, Chick-fil-a is the fast food purveyor of the best chicken sandwiches and waffle fries in the country (and  my bad, there’s one in Peabody now).  They’re based in the South, and rare up here.  But delicious.

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          Now if we could get a Bojangle’s up here in New England, we’d be cooking with gas…

      • The Burlington Mall doesn’t have the only Chic-fil-A in Massachusetts.  Mall rats can find one at the Northshore Mall in Peabody, and the Peasant Lane Mall just over the line in Nashua, New Hamster.

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        Their chicken comes with a philosophy.  From their website:

        Our official statement of corporate purpose says that we exist “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” That’s why we invest in scholarships, character-building programs for kids, foster homes and other community services. Come to think of it, it’s also not a bad motive for striving to serve a really, really good sandwich.

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        I also hope you’re not hungry today.

        Closed Sundays. It’s part of the Chick-fil-A recipe.

        Admittedly, closing all of our restaurants every Sunday makes us a rarity in this day and age. But it’s a little habit that has always served us well, so we’re planning to stick with it.

        Our founder, Truett Cathy, wanted to ensure that every Chick-fil-A employee and restaurant operator had an opportunity to worship, spend time with family and friends or just plain rest from the work week. Made sense then, still makes sense now.

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        • At least twice I’ve driven up to Burlington to find Chick-fil-a shuttered, much to my annoyance.  Frankly, I would like it if more employers had that attitude about giving all employees a day to rest, but life is what it is.

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          However, I discovered Quizno’s six years ago when they were not around here, so maybe there’s hope yet for the South Shore.

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          As for raj…you just don’t get it, man.

          • …never heard of Chick-fil-a (what’s that supposed to refer to?)

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            but my younger brother, when in high school in the middle ages (late 1960s) took a course they called “Bachelor Basics.”  It was really Home Ec for guys.  He actually turned into a pretty good cook. 

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            We haven’t been to a fast food emporium in decades–except to use their rest rooms.  But, it strikes me that, if your emporia are closed, it might be advisable to at least know how to heat up your food.

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            I’m being tongue in cheak, of course.  Except for the first paragraph above.

            • Never heard of it?  Chick-fil-a is a fast food joint that is based in the South…great chicken sandwiches and waffle fries.

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              I’m actually a bloody good cook, and have made a few sums of money cooking for others and have taught some cooking classes.  But good food is good food, wherever you get it.

  4. in the Eastern MA region makes me feel glad that we bought our house in Wellesley in 1963 for US$159K, just before the 1980s boom began.  We had to put in a few improvements over the years so our base for cap gains taxes would be higher.  But, for federal tax purposes, the cap gains taxes would be pretty much nill anyway.

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    Some friends of ours bought their house–in Arlington–just a couple of weeks before the housing bust began in 1987-88.

  5. There have been many side issues to my original post responding to Rep. Marzilli’s last mailer. Not wanting to go over and over the same issue, Burlington is very affordable and that mailer was not as it truly is. The facts I stated due concur.

    • I still don’t know why the median $449K home that I can’t afford in Burlington is affordable, when the $470K home that I can’t afford in Arlington isn’t affordable.

      • Pablo, That is the question you should be asking your Rep. Marzilli. It is his feeling that if we cannot afford Burlington we can afford Arlington or some combination of the both yet figures do not support any of the above. It could be that Fuzzy Math is back in vogue. He (Rep. Marzilli) stated in his mailer to Burlington residents and I quote, “When I hear about another person who can no longer afford to live in Burlington”, that statement is simply very insincere. I guess we have to agree to disgree.

        • I looked at the district, in a map, and it LOOKS like a salamander!

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          I think a good post would be the issues for each of the sub-districts in the 4th Middlesex.  From what I have seen, Rep. Marzilli knows Arlington and its needs really well.  But he is having to learn more about Lexington, Billerica, and Woburn.

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          Rep. Murphy even spelled and named our historic house WRONG which looked really silly – in his mailer!  Hint – it is not the Jason Roosevelt House, Rep. Murphy, it is the Jason Russell House!

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          I would think that residents of each district may want to set up posts where they ask the candidates to respond about the issues particular to their “rep district”.

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          Just an idea.  Oh – and from what I have seen Rep. Natale’s pitch seems to be “give a young guy a chance.”  No offense, but that doesn’t cut it, at least for me.

    • I know several young people (25-35), who grew up in Burlington and wanted to stay there but could not afford to buy. They either still live with their parents or have moved out of town.

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      The MBTA must pay pretty well if you think a $450,000 house is afordable.

      • At some point this “affordable” mantra becomes utter nonsense. Somebody can afford to buy the housing inventory, otherwise there would not be the ability to bid up the prices of the housing inventory. 

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        If the children of the residents can’t afford the housing prices,  they, like the rest of us, will have to move elsewhere  Or their parents can provide them with accommodations.  But, other than that, they don’t have a god-given right to live in the towns in which they were raised.

      • Have never been able to purchase a home. We have always rented in both Towns. Have been retired since ’94.

        • What exactly is your objection to the mailing?

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          The mailing says that it is expensive to live in Burlington. It doesn’t say it isn’t expensive to live in Arlington. Are you just out to get Marzilli?

          • Hi Lyn PB,

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            sorry my last post was delayed as that does explain my point.

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            I am not out to “get” Rep. Marzilli, I am out to get the facts, which is something that this mailing does not provide. What if one of the other candiates sent a mailing to Arlington residents (or Lexington, Woburn or Billerica)such as Rep. Marzilli did?? What would your reqaction be?

      • Hi LynPB,

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        sometimes it is the other way round and the parents are the ones that live with the children…and the MBTA has nothing to do with it.

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        The bottom line is that affordable housing is a very real issue everywhere, where I take umbrage is when I get a mailer from Rep. Marzilli, telling me, a Burlington resident and I quote (again), “When I hear about another person who can no longer afford to live in Burlington….a) I worry about what will be left of our community, b) I wonder who will be next, c) I wish there were something I could do about it d) all of the above”

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        In following just the “numbers” or the “math” it has been demonstrated that Burlington is more affordable than Arlington (median house price and tax rate)-it was also demonstrated that Burlington’s population on the 2000 census was 22,876 and listed on the http://www.burlington.org web page, the population demographic for 2007 is 23,786, so I fail too where the exodus from Burlington is.

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        Traffic lights, salt vs sand on the roads, etc..is not the parent issue, the parent issue being the disingenuous and incorrect mailing sent out by Rep. Marzilli-shame on him.

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        • The mailing did not say that Arlington was cheaper than Burlington. The mailing said that people in the district including Burlington are having a hard time affording housing.

          • I would suggest you re-read the mailing. I have quoted it EXACTLY…that is not what it said and the innuendos made were directed at Burlington residents; this was NOT an Arlington mailing.

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            Factually Incorrect, period.

  6. All Candidates have web sites for any and all ques. They do respond. Printing errors are just that “errors”. Not nice for the recipient and most definitely embarassing for the Candidate. It happens and nobody feels good about it.

  7. when i factored in cost of commute to cambridge (where i worked) and rent (which was no cheaper than arlington) it was too expensive.  this was in 2001 or 2002 when i first moved to MA.  so i don’t know if people are leaving burlington because it is not affordable, but i can tell you that i never moved in for that very reason.  take my personal anecdote for what you think it’s worth.

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