Greenway Conservancy
Mar 27, 2009 12:13
The
Greenway Conservancy, an instrument of the Artery
Business Committee (which represents corporate
interests seeking to influence the creation of public
works), promised to take care of the Greenway park
entirely with private money. But so far, this private
group has already received $10 million dollars from
the City and State, and gotten a lease on the
Greenway parkland that comes with millions of State
dollars a year in additional funding. The Conservancy
is now asking the taxpayers to do its spring
clean-up, appealing to the park-loving volunteer in
all of us and invoking the Earth Day spirit to engage
us in "clearing debris, sweeping, raking, cleaning
benches and picking up litter" on the morning of
April 22. The Artery Business Committee, which now
calls itself A Better City -- since it has expanded
beyond the Artery corridor -- will provide snacks.
This is a small price to pay for a big piece of work.
What is the Conservancy doing with all those millions
of dollars, on top of the millions they have
collected privately? We don't know; they are exempt
from the Open Meeting and Public Record Laws.
Mayor Tom "whitewash my fence" Menino has been doing this for years, slashing public sanitation services through Boston Shines and other free-labor opportunities. He's gotten people all over the city to join in -- after all, the streets are filthy and he's obviously not going to clean them up; at least this way, you get a donut and coffee, maybe a T-shirt, some tools to use, and the City hauling away the debris. We never have enough money for our public services. Although...our officials find money to give bonuses to the "temporary" City Hall employees, to float all those pension balloons, to pay $200,000 to private law firms to drag out the City Council Open Meeting Law case for four years, to give away on tax breaks and land deals for big developers, etc. We could easily find enough money in City Hall to keep the place spotless, get the kids taught properly, clean up the streets, and do all the other things we need. The same goes for the State.
Mayor Tom "whitewash my fence" Menino has been doing this for years, slashing public sanitation services through Boston Shines and other free-labor opportunities. He's gotten people all over the city to join in -- after all, the streets are filthy and he's obviously not going to clean them up; at least this way, you get a donut and coffee, maybe a T-shirt, some tools to use, and the City hauling away the debris. We never have enough money for our public services. Although...our officials find money to give bonuses to the "temporary" City Hall employees, to float all those pension balloons, to pay $200,000 to private law firms to drag out the City Council Open Meeting Law case for four years, to give away on tax breaks and land deals for big developers, etc. We could easily find enough money in City Hall to keep the place spotless, get the kids taught properly, clean up the streets, and do all the other things we need. The same goes for the State.
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