Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods organizer Shirley Kressel says in a Boston Globe op-ed that the group has filed a bill that would tap the state budget to the tune of $5.5 million a year to run the 10-acre park. By way of comparison, Kressel points out, the city of Bostonspends $15 million on its 2,200 acres of parkland.
So much for running our city like a business.
The lease drawn up by the Greenway Conservancy would give the group rights similar to private ownership, including the power to determine what events are held in the parks and the right to charge admittance to events. In short, Kressel says, the Conservancy is seeking public funding to run a privately controlled park.
The $15 million the city spends pays for gems like Franklin Park, the Boston Common, the Public Gardens and Jamaica Pond – spaces where residents of all Boston neighborhoods can play ball, sunbathe, sail, swim, listen to concerts, see plays, fly a kite, protest the war in Iraq, rally in support of a presidential candidate or meet friends for lunch. Freedom of assembly, free speech, the pursuit of happiness — this is what public spaces in the United States are for.
Businesses are best suited to run enterprises that earn profit. Let the stewardship of publicly-owned land remain under the control of our local government.
So this private group wants ownership and $550,000.00 per acre – when the public care is a tiny fraction of that.
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p>Hey all you Math Whiz types – what is the”per acre” cost of 15.5 million divided by 2000 acres? I think 10 acres at a maintenance cost of $5.5 million comes out to $550,000 per acre!
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p>No way is this private group any kind of bargain, that much is clear.
Whenever private organizations step in with promises to do the job better and more efficiently than government, it's important to scrutinize their claims carefully. In this case, the claim doesn't appear to stand the test of that scrutiny.
As Judy notes:
As taxpayers, we should hold our elected leaders to that standard. There is always a temptation among public officials to sell off public land and assets for one-time revenue gains, particularly in difficult fiscal times. Once those assets are gone, they're gone forever. Similarly, when government privatizes services, public oversight is diminished forever.
In this case, it appears that not only does this group want to control publicly owned land, they want the state to pay for it. Am I reading that right?
Rather presumptive and inflamatory to frame the editorial as private v. public.
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p>Greenway Conservancy is a public charity.
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p>Executive director makes $200K or so. Seems like a lot.
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p>The cost to maintain seems high too, but absurdly exaggerated in the editorial.
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p>The charity sought and received a lot more in contributions than they’re asking for in their pork public funding. The pork’s no worse than the hundreds of millions of pork throughout the ’09 budget.
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p>But the private v. public framing’s just wrong. I’m sure as a public charity, the Greenway Conservancy can probably manage to run the Greenway at least as inefficiently as Government.
The Public Charities unit is the name of the office in the Attorney General’s Office that regulates nonprofits in Massachusetts. This particular group is a private, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. As such, this argument is correctly framed as private v. public. The Conservancy is not a public agency and it is not a charity in the sense of an organization that donates money to philanthopic causes.
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p>I’d have thought that the “public” in public charity meant not private.
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p>I mean, it has public statements, accepts public donations, is overseen by the State, there is no owner who personally gains and no board of director receives compensation.
the characteristics of a private, nonprofit organization. It’s not public because it is not directly funded by taxpayer revenues through the general fund. (The irony is The Conservancy is apparently seeking state funding indirectly.) They file a public tax form for nonprofits and a form with the AG’s office, but there is less information available in those filings than what public agencies must provide via public records requests.
I’m outraged.
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p>I’m equally outraged at the taxpayer cash that going to those private organizations that aren’t subject to open meeting laws like the Mass Alliance of Boys and Girls Club; Childrens Friend and Family Services; Counsel on Aging; METCO; Junior Achievent of Central Massaachusetts, Junior Achievent of Eastern Massaachusetts; Junior Achievent of Southern Massaachusetts; My Turn, Inc.; Blue Hill Regional Technical School; Cape Code Community College.
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p>To name a few
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p>Each as private as the Greeway Conservancy. Each beneficiaries of taxpayer largess courtesy of the ’09 budget. Of course those others don’t have Charlie Baker and William Weld on the Board. Maybe that’s the difference.
Anyone can be inefficient. The real question is whether the government or the charity can be more ineffective.
I hope that after playing Monday morning quarterback on our state of the state post Mitt Romney and the Business model of government. That many of use realize that it just does not work; even Mitt finally got that as he has run screaming from our state. Let me suggest to you that the business model based on selling a good or service to a consumer (economics 101). I want you to ask your self who is the consumer???? Is it you and I???? Wait a minute I thought we were the investors isn’t it our money???? Why then are we paying for the good or service twice????? Does that work for you consumer??? Or should I say investor??? Or are you the OWNER???
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p>Government and the model that has worked for over 200 years is you take a little from everyone and you pool it in order to buy and pay for services that benefit everyone. That is what government does.
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p>Now I am no fool nor am I an ostrich are there times when money is wasted and miss spent you bet there is. Yet ask your self in your lifetime working have you ever seen a business waste money on a bad idea or and unnecessary service well it happens all the time and when they goof up enough they are no longer there. Public structures suffer a similar fate in that we vote them out and bring in a new team because government cannot file for bankruptcy because it is you and I. Do you want that on your Credit Report? I don’t. Think about what they could do with that little gem your score I bet would be in negative numbers.
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p>Private business wanting to control the green way LOL that’s just to funny some one making a profit controlling the jobs and controlling who gets to use it and collecting more tax payer dollars to do that. This is a design that stifles Opportunity. Opportunity for you and me to enjoy that park as we wish within reasonable guidelines since we paid for it, Remember what’s under it the BIG DIG Public tax dollars oops your money and mine oops we are the owners so we are going to pay again to use it at a higher rate then any other PUBLIC land in the area. Are we crazy? No they are crazy I say stop the grab for profits on our hard earned money and provide us the opportunity to enjoy what we have already paid for and manage it well with my tax money in the manner I, we all wish to contribute for. Business models belong in the business world. Government can get better but it can’t ever be a business unless your willing to give away your money a second , third, fourth, time.
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p>Best to All
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p>As usual just my opinions
There is for sure waste in the private sector. The question is how much waste vs. the public sector? Unions, contracts, collective bargaining, prevailing wage, police details, work injuries, pensions, sick days, civil service hires, general “piss poor” work attitude… they don’t have a chance.
While market factors do naturally incentivize efficiency, government's capacity for long-term vision, collaboration, and public responsibility make it much more effective than business is in certain circumstances.
This is most clear when finite resources are in demand. The “Tragedy of the Commons” is that, in short, it is in the best interest of each individual to maximize his or her use of a public good, because the negative repercussions of that overuse and/or misuse will be split by all.
One area that this is very clear is the growing water crisis:
And while a greater historical investment in the public oversight of water may have alleviated the current growing water crisis, does this mean we want to turn over its management and allocation rights to people like T. Boone Pickens, the largest private U.S. water owner?
And while the subject of “water scarcity” may feel a little off-topic, it is only one example of this phenomenon which very well could have been substituted for something such as “lack of open/green space in urban areas.” Sound familiar?
Your Suggesting that the private sector has No Unions, No collective bargaining, No police Details, No work injuries, no pensions (true one for you) no sick days, No civil service (not much of that beast left in government either) and Private sector has No “Piss Poor” work Attitude your kidding right
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p>Who are you working for Google?
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p>I have to laugh at the No Unions or Unions are killing us, or Unions are over paid, did you ever study American History because if you did you would know that Unions are the reason the Middle Class even exists today. Try looking at the working conditions say in 1880 to 1910 and see if you can see a real middle class. More likely the working poor just a half a step above new immigrants you know the Irish, Italians, the Greeks, Turks, Germans, Russians etc etc. Unions raised the average worker to a living wage in their hey day. Where are we now that Unions have declined? How are your Health benefits? How are your Wages? Did you get a raise this Year? Maybe we need more Unions back in the private sector to Keep the CEO from robbing you the average worker Blind you know the guy who makes 400 times a week what you make.
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p>Pensions LOL do you think private business would offer a single dollar in Pensions if it were not for Public pension systems. How about the fact that the state for all of it’s employees and Pensions does not pay the employer 7.45% into Social Security and the state and municipal workers don’t pay 7.54% they pay 8 or 10%. hummm I think you swallowed the red herring of business can do it better. Not to mention isn’t private business that built the big dig, isn’t Parsons Brinckerhoff that designed this hole in the ground. How about the Private companies of Black Water and Halliburton are doing such a great job don’t you think. I wonder what it would cost if we turned the Army over to Black water who pays 4 and 5 times that of the US Army could you imagine that contract Maybe John D you would like to pay that tax bill. Collectively Government does a good Job does it do a great job that could be discussed on an item by item basis.
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p>One last thought could you imagine the CEO of lets say GE running our State like a business? What would his salary be not what we are paying Deval Patrick by a long shot and how about the 100 million dollar bonus and the golden Parachute when we elect the CEO of Raytheon because our Taxes were going up to fix bridges pay for schools Libraries Fire and Police protection. Maybe we should Hire Black Water to replace Police Departments. LOL torture instead of a ticket.
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p>If you don’t like being part of the collective society that pools resources to accomplish large projects then go live in a cave but do not suggest that there is some other model out their that works when Millions of people are involved because it just doesn’t
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
So glad I was on Vacation last week
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p>Wrongo. My comment was “There is for sure waste in the private sector. The question is how much waste vs. the public sector? ” Luckily most smaller companies DO NOT have unions and are free to operate efficiently. Just look at Detroit and how the auto unions have destroyed the car industry. If they have Police details it is because of the collective bargaining of the Police Union and their influence on politiians since certainly private companies don’t need Police “flagmen”. Nor do private companies stand for excessive sick days or people faking injuries which is so common in the public work market… you would get fired. Do you know anyone working for the City or the State? Ask them to tell you a few of the stories that workers do every single day.
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p>Pensions, check out Tom Birmingham. After a nationwide search for a replacement position to head the Boston Public, Birmingham is one of the finalist and odds-on favorite (like Marty Meehan). So he currently collects $16,000 per year. If he gets the BPL job making $200K (est) and works for 3 years, he will collect approx. $150K pension for the ret of his life. Can you point to a practice in the private sector where this happens? Anybody who gives a shit about the public should be outraged at this practice. Every single penny going to hacks like this in the pension fund is a penny NOT going to help kids on drugs, pay for oil subsidies, pay for school lunches, teachers… And finally “piss poor” attitudes in the private sector will get you fired while in the public sector gets you “time off”.
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p>
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p>Please spare me the history lesson. I’ve heard this same bullshit story so many times. Ya, ya we’d all be working in sweat shops blah blah. Speaking of swallowing…, let’s talk about “unfunded public pensions”…
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p>Are you proud of this? Does the current Social Security System make you happy about public employees managing money (BTW, don’t try to say SS is a private company, they are gov workers with gov rules and gov employees). The same is true for the Big Dig and Military contracts. There is a large degree of private companies doing work managed by the government. Prevailing wage laws, no oversight… The government fucked up these projects not private industry. Those companies took huge advantage of a system created by government since they are too stupid to do anything themselves.
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p>I real comparison would be to check out a private company getting a new roof put on their building and then check out the State of MA putting a new roof on one of their buildings. The State will pay 3X the cost and wait twice as long for a roof that will last half the time and the government will not chase the contractor since the owner is related to a member of the House.
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p>Sadly, people like you have become so accustomed to the standard bullshit we are fed daily that you can’t see the truth anymore. You hear about pensions scams, disability scams, public workers going home during the day, cost overruns… and you do nothing. If you think the system works fine the way it is then I suggest you are part of the problem and not the solution. I don’t mind paying for things as long as I’m not getting robbed in the process and that is exactly what’s happening now. Excuse me but I have to go write a check to pay for the body building fire fighter who’s out on full disability while paying NO TAXES.
How many people make a living wage at these non-union shops John. If unions never existed John you would be just another one of the peasants scratching out an existence and working from the time you were a young boy till they buried you.
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p>Man you have no idea from where you came or how you got there. You want me to wake up how about ENRON how about Arthur Anderson lets try today Fannie mea and Freddie Mac or maybe Indy/Mac pillars of ethical businesses who’s employees went to work everyday and did a full days work and what did they get for it try the shaft John. How about retirees from Polaroid or Lucent what have they gotten the shaft You want to suggest that business that pays CEO 400 times the average worker and benefits you will never see are the solution to government. Please take your head out of the sand or the clouds which ever and see that this is a cooperative effort and no one group can claim exclusive rights to the moral high ground but to suggest that unions or government deserve to be done in or removed for business to take over well thank you I am now ROFLMAO because that would be letting the inmates run the prison.
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p>Capital ism works with some oversight government works because it provides opportunity for every one. Both have their faults neither is perfect that is why we need to continue to work to improve it but to say one or the other is the be all answer is well it is.
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p>May I also Suggest a book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair its a great read if you want to know what life could and likely would be like if Unions did not exist.
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p>Best to ALL
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
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p>Who cares. The government has rules for minimum wage employment. If you want something better, be better and make more money. Get a job someplace else or curse the days when you were drinking in college instead of studying like the nerds (who now own tons of Wal-Mart stock).
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p>Still not buying it. Roughly 14% of workers are Union workers. Are you saying the 14% union Electricians vs all the non-union guys working in houses are preserving all of their jobs. Unions had a necessary place in our history when there were no labor laws. Now there are laws to protect people from being abused so unions are no longer required. History moves on and we should move with it.
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p>I’ve read enough about the greed of Enron and Arthur Anderson. This has been the way is has always been. We have laws in this country. Sometimes people rob banks and sometimes bankers rob banks. Both are wrong and should go to jail.
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p>Anyone stupid enough to put more than $100K in any single FDIC insured bank is a moron and is taking a huge risk. In many cases they do this because “they” are greedy and want huge payoffs. Tough way to learn.
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p>As for CEO paychecks, I don’t really care. These are private companies which can do whatever they want. If the Board of Directors wants to offer a huge check to someone who will raise the stock price by 10X then so be it. How much does Dice-K make compared to the hot dog guy at Fenway or the guy selling cokes? 100X… 500X? How about Tiger Woods vs. the lawn crew at Torrey Pines, Oprah vs. her camera man? It is no different! Or when a friend of mine who is a nurse complains about how much Doctors make, I tell her “Then go become a Doctor… or shut up”.
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p>And benefits… well never mind corporate America, how about the US Senate? My head is in the right place but you may want to check your back side for yours.
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p>The private sector is not perfect but it works a shitload better than the public. Unless your one of the “chosen and connected” union laborers working over at the new Convention Center making $80/hour.