From: gjc@mitech.com (George J. Carrette)
Newsgroups: ne.politics
Subject: Re: Bulger
Date: 8 Jan 93 14:00:03 GMT
Organization: Mitech Corporation, Concord MA

In article <BZS.93Jan7190718@world.std.com>, bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes:
> Another factor is not how many people live in Boston but how many
> people use Boston. When someone lives in Newton or Framingham but
> comes in town for "things Boston" (even just shopping, I mean,
> shoppers expect the roads and other transport to be there, they expect
> police around etc) then the numbers you cite may be misleading. One
> way to assure collecting on that kind of activity fairly would be a
> city sales tax.

Another way is through property tax. Real estate is more valuable
in a place that attracts a lot of people. Traffic increases,
sales increase, rent increases the value goes up, more tax revenue.

The real problem is that Boston has lost too many VOTERS.
That is to say, the amount of revenue generated from people
who VOTE (residential, tax-paying population) has gone down.

There is too much REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION.

Now Flynn wants to even that out with some TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

Gosh in some suburbs of Boston, say Lexington and Concord come to mind, 
"TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" is not very popular, historically. 
Might even be a catching fraze.

>> get rid of rent control .. get
>>some income-producing and property-tax-paying -population- would
>>return to the city and then the sales tax wouldn't be needed, etc...
> 
> You're probably right. 

The New York Times agrees, and recommends NY get rid of rent control.


> Bringing it back to Bulger, has anyone ever
> looked into rent control and similar practices (public housing) in
> Southie? 

Nobody with academic credentials, that I've heard about.

There is somebody who got an "Arts Council" grant in Cambridge who
did a serious study recently. But he is having a hard time
getting paid for his efforts. The entire exhibit is set up
in a truck/trailer kind of thing. Good reviews. Not biased. Very
interesting material not gathered in one play anywhere else.

> From my experience I think you'd find some pretty startling
> things, like politicians buying votes hand over fist in that part of
> town with these sorts of things. Conversely, take a drive through
> black neighborhoods in the actual southern portions of Boston and
> wonder why there are no streetlights and the streets are in a state of
> disrepair that one generally associates with, well, not a northeast
> city. Don't guess, take a drive someday, the blatant disparity would
> be shocking even to a hardened political conservative.

No kidding, like my street in Cambridge. The sidewalk NEVER GETS FIXED!
It is a black neighborhood. I just don't understand. And the Mayor
of Cambridge is black, but he could give a damn about my neighborhood.

But a *hardened* political conservative would not be shocked. 

> I think some day the story that will be written about Boston will be
> about how they took the programs meant to help poor people and handed
> the goodies out to their friends, and it was done so blatantly no one
> even knew where to begin to fix it.

Well, at first their friends *were* poor. So that was OK. The problem
is that once the spigot gets going there is no way to stop it.

Great quote from a black parent of child who was in the original "busing"
thing. "The white parents didn't care if the schools were being destroyed
        by this. They knew their kids would grow up to get a city job
        anyway no matter how ignorant they were. But -my- kids, I knew they 
        would need to get an *education*"

That was from a special on PBS.

-gjc

Newsgroups: ne.politics