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Thoughts on Tuesday's Election in Boston

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– Boston should take a lot of pride in the quality, depth, and diversity of its at-large city council candidates. Top-to-bottom, this is a serious group, all worthy of consideration, and all seem to have run hard — marching in parades, doorknocking, leafleting. – Had the pleasure of walking down Centre Street in high-voting Ward 20 this morning at rush hour. There was a literal swarm of city employees — a BTD command center, DPW workers painting lampposts and powerwashing (!?) the sidewalks, street sweepers, construction workers rebuilding the library, and, of course, supervisors for everyone. Must be election season in Boston. – The Herald threw a curveball into the at-large race. First, they endorsed five candidates (and you can […]

Small suggestion

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The Globe editorial page has settled into a very even-keel point of view on school reform, embracing accountability, testing, funding, high academic standards, as well as charters and newly proposed readiness schools. They’ve been advocates of positive change. Editorial pages and news pages are different. Opinions belong on the opinion pages and we could use a little less tilt in the Globe’s day-to-day education reporting. This space has noted the tilt several times in the past (here, here, and here). A little more knowledge of the history of how Massachusetts went from, on average, having pretty good schools to having the best schools in the country would help improve that reporting. And (small suggestion) on a day when Jamie Vaznis […]

The Senate Race That Never Was

/0 Comments/in , /by Liam Day

I’m sitting here watching Jim Braude’s Broadside and he’s lamenting that a race for an open Senate seat has yet been able to induce exactly one brand name Democrat. This comes on the heels of today’s somewhat surprising announcement (or lack thereof) from Congressman Steve Lynch that, despite pulling nomination papers, he won’t be running after all. I say surprising because his nascent campaign had, in fact, scheduled three events for today – one in Springfield, another in Worcester and again in Boston. Conventional wisdom had it that these were kickoff events. I say somewhat, however, because, to be honest, I’m not, really. Just as I will be even less surprised if Congressman Mike Capuano also declines to run. (He […]

More Doors Equals Faster Service

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I’m a big fan of the planned expansion of the MBTA’s Fairmount Line. Its a little used commuter rail line that runs from South Station to Readville. In between are some of the densest areas of the city that don’t have ready access to subway service. The MBTA has (slowly) been adapting the Fairmount Line by adding stations, in an effort to provide more service to these communities. Some supporters of the expanded Fairmount Line have been pushing for DMUs, which are self-powered vehicles that could operate on commuter rail lines but might be able to provide more subway-like service. When the MBTA looked into this option, they found that DMUs had significant benefits — quicker acceleration, lower operating costs […]

Would you rather be….

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secretary of transportation in Massachusetts or drummer in Spinal Tap? Good luck and g*dspeed, Jeffrey Mullan.