The story confirms for us cynics why Deval would want to do this.
Opponents of the streamlining legislation say it would provide the state too much power and allow developers to steamroll legitimate opposition. They also say the state’s Energy Facilities Sitting Board, which would be expanded under the new bill to include representatives from municipalities and environmental groups, is an unfair arbiter, because its mission is to approve energy projects as opposed to protecting the environment.
This bill will allow more than wind farms to bully thier way into communities.
My long standing hunch that Deval is nothing more than Ivy League-corporate minded-make money-screw the little guy-smartest guy in the room-take advantage of every opportunity-elitist kind of guy is now a very high probability.
Coke, Texaco, Ameri-Quest, Gutierrez, his Publisher, The Green Company……..
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This is why I think Pags can beat Deval next September. This senate race is good prep for him.
Like now he knows to shut his goddamn mouth about Romney and Kennedy and concentrate on his election. And now he knows the Celts thing can only go so far and won’t need it in Gov’s race. And now he knows how bad Deval is and how is base is disappointed.
He knows he can get his 15% ( probably much more) at the convention and take it to the voters in September capturing all sorts of blocks from Democrats, Independents, environmentalists, business people, ….
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Great Great effort by Michael Flaherty regardless of what happens today. I told you years ago that those Flahertys are smart people who are great campaigners and campaign strategists. They are a big reason why Steve Lynch is who he is.
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This caught my eye today. The Herald comments on DeLeo not endorsing any of the Senate candidates.
Hmmm, I wonder if Deleo is thinking of handing the A.G.’s job off to himself if Martha wins this. (Which she should) Endorsing someone makes it look self-serving. Bobby could go in to serve out the year remaining in the term without running for re-election. Go out in style.
Of course he has to get 81 reps to vote for him. And it is a secret ballot you know?
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My friends in Cambridge tell me Galooch has been everywhere since the hit and run.
Good move Anthony. When you keep seeing a guy it’s tough to stay pissed off at him for something that doesn’t involve you.
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WEEI Sports radio has really picked it up a notch.
Competition is good.
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Comin soon
Howie Carr Protest Phase 2. A.K.A. the “See You In Hell, Howie” Phase.
God help us all.
As an advocate for the preservation of the Fernald Developmental Center, I feel obliged to second Ernie’s thesis:
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p>As I’ve noted in a previous post, the governor wants to grab the land at Fernald for development–land, by the way, that could be worth up to $200 million. As the Waltham Tribune reported the other day, this is setting up a potential battle between the City of Waltham, which doesn’t want to see this land overrun with housing development, and the Patrick administration, which appears to be in favor of that outcome.
Driving through the complex, it is evident that many of the buildings are condemned and uninhabitable. It is time to let Fernald go – it represents a previous generation’s model of care for disabled people, when the idea was to warehouse them and hide them away from their communities. We can do better today, and if the property can be redeveloped so as to meet other community needs, great.
and you don’t mean that local opposition to projects should be muzzled. You just think that the time for Fernald has passed. Right?
We have never advocated keeping the present buildings at the site, and we favor responsible development of the campus. My point was that the administration appears to want to put a large housing development in there and the City of Waltham doesn’t want it.
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p>My comment actually had nothing to do with keeping a facility on the campus for the current Fernald Center residents. That is a separate issue; and unfortunately, you have misrepresented that as well. Fernald does not represent a previous generation’s model. Other than the fact that the administration is currently letting care there deteriorate, Fernald has been a world-class facility.
Radiation experiments were conducted on children without informed consent there in the 1940’s and 1950’s. As recounted in the book The State Boys Rebellion, until the 1970’s children were warehoused there, denied full opportunities to learn and develop to their potential, and sometimes subjected to ill-treatment. Today we would recognize no need for many of those so confined to be in institutional care at all.
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p>Fernald is not that place today; I’m not claiming that it is. But its history and origins stem from the eugenics movement and the desire of society to lock away the feeble-minded. As I know from my wife, a career human services provider, there is no need to provide care in large, impersonal institutional settings isolated from the community as a whole. When she has had the opportunity to serve people who have lived at Fernald, she describes it as liberating them. Recently a client who had been nonverbal in the institution began, after moving into a community setting, to talk. There are many such stories of enriched lives and new skills she has shared with me over the years.
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p>It’s time to let Fernald and its dark history go. And it makes no sense for the state to invest further in its deteriorating housing stock.
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p>I certainly concur that the redevelopment of the property needs to be responsible and in tune with local needs.
Interesting re: DeLeo. I think it might be a shot at Murray. (Or he’s radioactive and we just don’t know it yet.)
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p>98.5 is horrible. Horrus horribilus. Frat brats run … well, something shy of amok. Amok would be more interesting.
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I understand the morning guys are the former BCN team, an Opie&Anthony clone. They’re not for many people over 35. But Dennis&Callahan … two of the ugliest souls ever exposed over the airwaves. Seriously, just snide anger and unearned resentment. Makes me literally queasy.
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p>The hosts I happen to hear when I tune in are Felger & Masseroti, Jerry Trupiano on Sat. afternoons, and occasionally Gary Tanguay. These guys are all way way more rational and likable than any of the EEI guys, except Mike Holley.
I don’t disagree. WEEI is horrendous. From what I’ve heard (not the afternoon stuff), 98/5 aspires to be no better.
I liked Toucher & Rich when they were on ‘BCN, but 7am is too early to listen to people yell at me through the radio. The difference between them and D&C is that while both pairs are moronic, Dennis & Callahan haven’t realized that yet.
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p>I often listen to the Big Show on the way home, which is better than anything 98.5 has on.
I’ll confess to the Big Show as an occasional guilty pleasure. The Big O is an insider who gets the business of sports. And Lou Merloni is a voice you want to listen to. But too much yelling and weak callers usually drives me away after a while. I always find Felger refreshingly (and uniquely, in Boston) independent from the interests of the franchises.
Please don’t conflate the wind energy reform with issues like the water regulations: this is an extremely necessary step to take if this state is going to build its wind energy capacity. I’ve sat through too many town meetings with people determined to obstruct the siting of any wind projects in the town whatsoever to think that this really can be accomplished at a municipal level.
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p>A strong state board that is focused on assessing environmental impacts of projects realistically, with input from the community, is exactly what we need, and I’m glad we’re heading towards that. A decade of obstructionism on the Cape has shown us that we need a detached but responsible authority to approve such things.
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p>Full disclosure: I work for a wind energy consultancy that does business with companies working in Massachusetts, though I don’t personally work with any of those clients. But given that, I would have agreed with what I just wrote long before I worked in this industry.
I love seeing the windmill spinning beside route 93 in Medford. I would love to see thousands of them, in places where they are wanted. On the other hand, the people, even the ants like me, deserve to be heard. Deval’s attack on the Fells has totally eviscerated the environmental review process that had been used to stop this highly detrimental project from going forward on several occasions.
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p>It is particularly disturbing to have an environmental secretary who is also energy secretary. Who is his master? Is it the environment or is it corporate development? Deval is muzzling the voices of the little guy and these projects will go forward full speed ahead. He knows better than us, he knows more than us, so he won’t listen to a word we say.
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p>It is interesting that you talk about the problem with having municipalities block projects. That was the mindset behind the creation of the metropolitan park system. The idea formulated by Charles Eliot worked for over one hundred years but now Governor Patrick is letting Stoneham gut the park system. It was not supposed to happen this way but this is now reality. I am just hoping that the project is stalled until we can get Governor Patrick out of office and elect an environmentalist who may be able to undo the untold damage currently being inflicted.
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p>I encourage you to read Eliot’s report. It is so amazingly modern in its approach and so comprehensive in its scope. I wish Deval would read it, and Charley and Tom from Brookline. They won’t though because they do not want to be hindered by actually understanding what the parks are all about.
Globe article.