Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend. As many of you know, the Senate is in session and Ben Wright, Campaign Director is live tweeting the action. Follow him here – https://twitter.com/ProgressiveMass. They have just voted down a Hedlund amendment to legalize and regulate fireworks. What???
Please share widely!
Hope you brought a charger!!
Keep track of amendments at this site.
pretty much real time……………
Perthe live tweets…
It was much improved but I don’t know how much.
the MBTA naming rights thing. Sen. Chang-Diaz mentioned the deleterious effect on our “polity” and the visible identity of the public sector. Good points. But she seemed to be saying no because it’s hard to quantify the right amount to charge. My position is that our very geography should not be up for sale, at all. Such things matter. They matter hugely. People’s basic conception of the city in which they live is formed by reference to neighborhoods, streets, and landmarks.
I could not believe Sen. Ross saying opponents were focusing on “historic” stations like Park Street, but in his district there are non-historic stations like “West Roxbury.” What? Before merging into Boston, the Town of West Roxbury was incorporated in 1851. That’s older than Copley Square. It was a known place name within the Town of Roxbury before that. In any event, does he not think the “historic” stations downtown would be the most lucrative ones?
Where does it end? Competitive bidding to rename Comm. Av.? Competitive bidding for the naming rights to the BPL? The State House?
And what happens when one bank buys another bank, or some company decides not to renew when the term is up? Just change the name every two years.
Nobody has a problem with the ballpark in Chicago being called “Wrigley Field.” Because everyone’s used to it (though I agree that, say, “Northeast Delta Dental Stadium” and “KFC Yum! Center” seem less likely to feel normal as the years go by) . And I doubt the idea is to efface the word “Copley” entirely from the Copley Square station – they’ll just add other words that someone paid a bunch of money for.
It’s not my favorite thing ever, but it doesn’t bother me all that much.
owned the team and the field, which is a different thing entirely. I, personally, hate the “Northeast Delta Dental Stadium” stuff, where it’s just about the “naming rights” and there’s no connection to the time beyond highest bidder for the name.
To me, the only word that should be at Copley is “Copley.” No added words. I understand it might not bother everyone all that much, but to me it’s of absolutely critical importance. The idea of a polity has been under serious assault in this country and I think this kind of thing has profound psychological consequences over time.
Sen. Montigny went to great lengths to insist that this is not about privatizing what must be public services. I believe this will undermine any sense that there is a public sector. The pittance it would bring in does not justify that. There’s a reason they don’t have “BNP Paribas St-Michel” station in Paris.
Then see the beautiful Golden Dome at the McDonald’s State House.
It’s all just gross and would be entirely unnecessary if we had a responsible tax and funding plan, which we have not had and do not have.
Kudos to the progressives who labored to make it better. It shows what can be done when you stake out ground. Imagine if we had more progressives who did the same!
Back to the House after conf committee… Let’s refocus on that progressive caucus standing strong for a 800+ plan, not going out of the way to defend the weaker $500m favored by the speaker.
“there’s no connection to the *team beyond highest bidder for the name”
Yup. Plus, the whole thing feels downright degrading, not to mention gimmicky. Are we really willing to sell “Government Center” because McDonalds would be willing to kick in a few million? And how much would the confusion over the name change cost the economy, from people missing stops, etc.
Can we kickstarter this thing? I’m willing to bet a “let’s keep the same damn names” campaign could raise millions :p