Originally, I figured our chat with Boston City Councilor Rob Consalvo was too parochial for BMG, but he hit two topics of wider concern — pot dispensaries and breed-specific dog regs. While I don’t do a lot of self-promotion for Left Ahead here, I paste our teaser for the show and plug in a player in case those pique your interest. — Mike
We got to two hot topics with Boston City Councilor Rob Consalvo — zoning of medical-marijuana dispensaries and breed-specific dog regulation. Those are two big ones and the District Councilor is ahead on both.
Mild Disclaimer: Mike knows Rob and is in his district. Hyde Park was the default neighborhood example in this show.
He separated any moral or other quibble on locales for prescribed pot sales and likely growing. Instead, he has taken the lead on defining the zoning for what is a legal use. Listen in as he talks about the considerations, what public hearings have and will occur, and by the bye he went directly from our show to a meeting with the Boston Redevelopment Authority on this specific issue.
He figures Boston will be on, if you pardon, the high end of the maximum of five dispensaries a country may have. He defines likely and unlikely spots.
Dogs may be even trickier. Boston was one of many Massachusetts cities and towns that had breed-specific regs — in this case, things like muzzles on the 4 or 5 definitions of pit bulls when in public. Then last fall, the commonwealth ban the bans, forbidding breed-specific rules. Consalvo talks about the input from animal control, police and EMS that led to Bostons regulations.
He describes his reasoning and how he hasn’t given up or given in. Instead, he is leading on two state laws to attack the attackers. One approach is amending the new law to include wording like “after the word ‘dog’, the following words:- unless municipal attack data indicates a specific breed may be deemed dangerous.” That goes back to Boston’s original ordinance.
He describes another law in the works that would allow enforcement of fines after dog attacks. As it is, the $250 first and $500 subsequent attack fines have little power to inspire the owners to train and control their dogs. He wants Boston to have the power to attach liens on property or auto-excise bills.
Listen in as Consalvo describes his strong moves in these two areas.
