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Zoned Out

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Ouch. The BPS has already pulled its first proposal for altering the school zone system off the table. Not because of a backlash or political pressure, but because the proposed Zone 4 lacks a needed 616 seats for grades 6 – 8. That’s a pretty material number in a system with less than 60,000 kids and equivalent to an entire school. Its an embarrassing screw-up for the school system. The attempt to increase the number of zones (of which I am generally supportive) has flushed out a number of interesting items: 1) Integration, the initial impetus behind busing all those years ago, is largely irrelevant. Click on the various zone configurations (current and proposed) that the Globe has helpfully put […]

Without comment

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…School Superintendent Carol Johnson presented a preliminary budget that would eliminate 900 jobs, including 400 teaching positions. Faced with a $107 million shortfall for the fiscal year beginning in July, Johnson raised the specter of closing or consolidating schools in addition to the six she targeted last fall. After 18 months of planning, a nonprofit group called Boston World Partnerships will deploy 125 business leaders and academics to take the city’s promotion beyond traditional trade missions and conventions. One tool going live today is an interactive website, www.bostonworldpartnerships.com, that provides an array of two-way channels for those interested in doing business in Greater Boston…. The Boston Redevelopment Authority contributed $1 million…to set up the organization…

Gulp

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Jim Cramer is obviously a smart guy with a schtick. It’s kind of fun for 2 minutes. Then you have to lower the volume. I am troubled to say that he is sounding much wiser than our leaders in Washington. I don’t know about you, but I think that means we are now officially in deep do-do. In this clip, Cramer rails against the stimulus because it does not invest in infrastructure at anything even close to the level originally discussed. Yup. Then he calls for interest rate and principal adjustments for all mortgage payers, not select ones. Yup. Finally, he gets hot under the collar on Geithner’s lack of a plan. That’s a feeling many of us are getting. […]

Erroll Tyler and the IJ lawsuit

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Kudos to the Globe editorial page and to the Boston Herald for picking up on an important lawsuit regarding Erroll Tyler’s attempt for seven years now (isn’t that long enough, folks?!) to open up a small business in the Boston area. You would think that we are rolling in dough and trying to push away the business tax revenue… Erroll Tyler’s dream is to launch Nautical Tours, a cutting-edge amphibious vehicle tour service based in Cambridge. But, like countless cities across the country, Boston appears to be using its licensing power to protect existing businesses from honest competition by denying others their basic right to earn a living. Last week, the Institute for Justice filed a major federal lawsuit against […]

Just Asking

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

Apparently University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun got into it yesterday, after his team’s win over the University of South Florida, with free lance journalist and self-described political activist Ken Krayeske. Krayeske used the post-game press conference as an opportunity to question Calhoun’s $1.6 million state salary when Connecticut is facing a $944 million deficit this year and a two-year deficit as large as $8 billion. Calhoun shot back (correctly, I might add) that the revenue his team generates for the college and, thus, the state far exceeds what he earns. (Though, I don’t know whether the $12 million figure he threw out is 100% accurate.) Yet, one must ask what it says about our society and its […]