And on such a day …
#MBTA #RedLine: Shuttle buses btwn Park St & Ashmont. Braintree branch service is running btwn Braintree & JFK/UMass https://t.co/LlyGZqgQLZ pic.twitter.com/zqMY0w8BZb
— MBTA (@MBTA) September 22, 2017
The MBTA is becoming a reputational black hole, pulling people in who don’t politically distance themselves. Mayor Marty Walsh has little direct control over the T, but surely he has a job as its chief advocate on behalf of his citizens. Well, yesterday the Mayor had a chance to either a.) blithely shill for the city to Amazon, or b.) represent the real, everyday concerns of Bostonians just trying to get to work.
I regret to say that he did not make the right choice:
Thanks to MassLive’s Gintautas Dumcius:
“And you know, most days, the MBTA’s reliable here. It’s just that when something happens, it gets spotlighted by the press so bad, that it’s like, it makes it sound like it’s crumbling. It definitely needs infrastructure upgrades and I said that yesterday at the Chamber,” Walsh added, referring to his speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
I don’t think I need to point out that “most days” is not compatible with the word “reliable.” And even the “most days” part is arguable — OK, actually it’s just not true. Anyone who actually rides the T can tell you that. Follow @mbta_alerts and you’ll know. I also shouldn’t need to point out that the T is, in fact, literally crumbling, to the tune of some $7.3 billion(+++) in back maintenance.
Unfortunately the mayor is a “car guy” (like the Governor), so he’s not likely to be in touch with how that literal crumbling affects his constituents’ lives.
This is an out-of-touch statement of Coakley-esque proportions. We don’t expect miracles; we do expect elected officials to be in touch with what’s happening on a daily basis in the city, and treat their concerns with urgency, not gloss.
I wonder what the Chamber thought of that line? The T sometimes is a real problem for businesses (people being late, etc.).
“I’m reliable, boss — I’m here most days!” 🤔🤔🤔
Seems like these two goals are actually complementary. If we want to attract businesses to Boston we should make sure we have world-class transit.
The irony is, we would if we bothered taxing corporations and their CEOs a fair rate instead of wasting taxpayer dollars trying to bribe them to come here. Walsh has been an easy mark for the IOC, GE, Indycar, and now Amazon. It’s worth noting BPS and the MBTA are crumbling under his failed leadership.
But our local media is sycophantic whenever he condemns Trump or talks about overcoming his personal adversity. Like Baker, a very likable guy choosing to take the easy road to short term success on any given issue. Real leaders get ahead of public opinion and try to shape it toward the right goals and opportunities. Baker and Walsh are classic wait and see followers who are greatly beloved by the voters for leading as infrequently as possible. They are prime examples of how little attention our local polity pays attention to local politics.
Yes, I think it can be cyclical in a positive direction. Make a few improvements to attract a company that can provide a tax source that can fund more improvements, etc.
Also it’s not a Coakley moment since it won’t affect his polling whatsoever. He will stroll to a second term over a far more capable, compassionate, and forward thinking leader willing to be honest about what’s wrong with our city and how to fix it. Tito, like George McGovern before him, is honorable to a fault. When the inevitable Walsh indictments come down in term 2, I wonder if it’ll be fashionable to print bumper stickers that say “don’t blame me, I’m from Roxbury”.
What Walsh indictments? I missed the memo that his mayoralty is clouded by scandal.
Two aides face extortion and corruption charges over shaking down Top Chef.
He also defended the folks imprisoned over the patronage hiring in Probation Dept as honest public servants doing activity that shouldn’t be illegal. The only major public figure to do so, even DeLeo kept his distance from his former cronies.
Both of his allies the Arroyos Sr and Jr. are in legal hot water. The former over patronage in his Suffolk County gig and the latter over some serious sexual harassment charges.
If your district sends Koh to Congress, who arguably violated some open meeting and contracting laws during the IOC, GE and Indycar processes, that’s another thing to keep our AG and USA busy.
I guess I didn’t realize aides were involved in the Top Chef thing; I thought it was union guys. Your middle two paragraphs appear to argue guilt by association more than I’m comfortable with. The prospect of Koh for Congress doesn’t excite me, but whether or not he broke laws (and I’m not sure how a COS can be in a position to violate the OML) doesn’t change based on his electoral fortunes.
Charley, you are making an important point, but no idea why you have to take a cheap shot at Martha in the process. Coakley was a good public servant – she did really important work as AG on a number of issues, including being one of the only elected officials willing to identify some of the drivers of high health care costs in MA. Yes, she made some mistakes in the campaign against Brown, but she got back up, did a very good job as AG, and as I saw first-hand, was a good candidate in a very tough electoral environment against Charlie Baker.
I just don’t see the need to continually pick on her to make an important point about the sub-par service on the MBTA (or for any other issue.) It’s enough already – in my opinion, she deserves better.
Dukakis was a fine public servant, but his gaffes defined him and a “Dukakis moment” has become short hand for a campaign ending gaffe.
Maybe you should’ve advised her to campaign instead of take a cruise in the middle of a tightening race? That’s the kind of out of touch behavior Charley is talking about and it isn’t a cheap shot IMO.
Walsh is similarly out of touch from the concerns and needs of everyday Bostonians, unfortunately it won’t matter since the media is treating him with kid glooves and short changing the underfunded Jackson campaign.
Probably worth getting your facts straight before you comment – (1) !I did not work for her during the Brown race, and (2) she did not take a cruise during the middle of a tightening race.
It’s easy to take cheap shots at people like Martha Coakley, Marty Walsh and Mike Dukakis, but we risk overlooking all they good they do by continually to focus and buy into storylines that just don’t reflect the whole story. For example, to define Dukakis by one or two gaffes misses all the great work he did and is a total disservice to reality.
I kind of expect more from the discussion at BMG, but maybe that’s my mistake.
Fair. My shot was a cheap shot. I endured about a year of them here. Charley’s was fair since he is asking both politicians to do better and react to the concerns of ordinary people.
Her remark about shaking hands in the cold outside of Fenway was a let them eat cake moment, so is the Mayor of Boston saying he drives and doesn’t think about the T. They only define those individuals if the voters react to them. I don’t think they care about the mayors race the same way.
And BMG used to be a fun place where politicians and policy makers actually showed up to answer tough questions and people could criticize each other’s points of view without taking it personally. It seems we can’t criticize any Democrat here anymore for anything.
I understand that you were very young when Mr. Dukakis was our nominee.
I remember Mike Dukakis as governor. He was a great governor, far more effective than anybody whose held that office since then. After his failed campaign for president, he served on the board of Amtrak for many years.
His gaffes most certainly did NOT define Mike Dukakis for me. He is still at Northeastern, he is very accessible. I encourage you to arrange a meeting.
I’m quite confident that once you know Mike Dukakis, even a little bit, you won’t write things like “his gaffes define him.”
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mike Dukakis and am friends with a young leader in Cambridge he has mentored at Northeastern. The North/South rail will be his defining legacy and he’s still fighting for it every single day when most 80+ sit on their rocking chairs. My point is, even someone like that is only human and capable of making mistakes.
Someone once asked McGovern once how often he thought about losing the presidency, and he replied “every single day”. These losses are real and the result of candidates and their aids making mistakes. They should own them as much as their successes.
I certainly own every single failure I made in all three campaigns I’ve had leadership roles in. The pressure of that job, the endless criticism I subjected myself to on this forum and others, and the 9 and a half months of separation from my spouse and isolation from friends and family took their toll. It was a cheap shot (and an inaccurate one) against Doug and he deserved better, but I don’t think any candidate gets blanket immunity from mistakes that defined them in the public eye just because they have a D next to their name and some of us here worked on their campaigns. That’s certainly never a standard that’s been applied to me.
Doug, you make a fair point and I did think about it after I posted it. I don’t actually want to cause anyone extra pain or embarrassment, and I suppose it could have done so. That being said … I’m pretty sure everyone knows what I mean. I’m not going to bother rehashing that here.
As a dedicated public servant Martha probably deserves better. But I’m going to leave it up because I said what I said and it’s clear enough what I mean by it.
Charley, I appreciate your response and respect your point of view. I just wanted to make a point, particular in this crazy Trump universe that we live in right now, that while it’s easy to shorthand this stuff and focus on a few bad moments, it’s really important to not fall into that trap all the time. In my experience, progressives are great at punishing their own – which is sometimes necessary – but that often takes away from progress on the larger issues and values we share. I have a lot of respect for people who get in the ring and run for office, even when they mess up, and I think in this environment its more important than ever to remember what we are fighting for and to stay focused on the bigger picture. In this case, I just think you could have made a very important point about the MBTA without dragging down Martha.
Just one person’s opinion. Thanks as always for providing an important forum for these discussions – keep up the good work.
The broader point is Marty Walsh is out of touch when it comes to the T-along with our current governor and most of the legislature. I think we can all agree that the current crop of Democrats running for Governor have prioritized these issues more than the 2014 field did and all would be bolder leaders on the T than Charlie Baker or the legislature. The T is my #1 reason to vote against Baker in the fall.
Marty’s record on the T is something that hopefully can be challenged with a spirited campaign, and continued to be challenged by grassroots activists if he is re-elected and continues to ignore it. As soon as he changes his tune, I’ll be the first to sing his praise. I don’t care who gets it done and takes the credit-so long as it happens.