The real deal with Somerville politics?

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

I read lots comments about pro-mayor this and anti-maor that, and there appear to be a good number of contested races in the city this election cycle. Anyone care to enlighten me (and hopefully others) on what the sweep of citywide politics looks like from where you sit, and maybe a little of the history that went into it? Major points of contention? Anywhere I can read more? Thanks in advance.

Comments

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

I do think that on the surface, the city appears to be running smoothly. But I think a lot of it (particularly financially) is smoke and mirrors. The Dot Gay administration also appeared to be going great, until the smoke cleared, and people saw that the city was in financial trouble. That's when they began selling off city property to balance the budget. Don't forget that Joe's administration closed a school to save money by moving school administration offices and some city offices into the building. It has now sat vacant for 3 years, while we rent 2 school buildings to house Lincoln Park students while their school is rebuilt. Does this make sense to anyone? Also, I think the large raises given to some at City Hall, and the new postions created, will come back to haunt us. I think there has been a large amount of sell-out to developers to give them what they want, whether it's good for the city or not, for a financial pay-off. I think that's what's driving this proposed re-zoning of Union Square....development dollars (the real question is where are those dollars actually going??). And I feel if it passes as proposed it will completely kill Union Square as we know it today. Rather than duplicating the success of Davis Square, it will turn it into a wasteland of enormous buildings.

Governor Patrick: "Put down your cynicism"

[hillville.livejournal.com]

School enrollments are declining, so the city may not need the number of shcools it once had. Still, older school infrastructure needs to be either upgraded or replaced. The city ran the numbers and realized that the cost of rebuilding two old schools was more than building a new one big enough to replace both. And sometimes you gain far more by selling unneeded property than it costs to rent -- temporarily -- a smaller amount of space to tide you over until new facilities are ready.

These are exactly the type of choices that bond rating agencies look at when they assess a community's creditworthiness. Both Moody's and Standard and Poor's have praised the city's fiscal management.

As for the pay raises "some people" got at city hall: non-union employees (all of them) had received NO salary adjustments for five years -- just adjusting pay scales to meet the rate of inflation would have required an 11 percent one-time raise. That's what happens when people play the "they're-all-overpaid-hacks" game that leaves public salaries unchanged for years and years while their real purchasing power goes down.

And right now, all across the state, dozens of communities have asked for Prop 2 1/2 overrides, and many aren't getting them, so they're cutting back on teachers, closing firehouses, elminating school sports and doing all the other things communities have to do when they run out of money. Somerville, by contrast (and in part by growth in its commercial tax base), is getting by, even with millions less in annual local aid than the city used to get in the pre-Dot Com Economy Collapse, pre-Mitt days.

One of the best-kept secrets in Somerville is that our city spends LESS per capita than ANY city in Massachusetts with a population of 50,000 or more -- AND STILL we have programs (like 311 and Connect CTY) that most communities don't.

As for Union Square, it was once far denser than it is now, with more multi-story buildings, and it once had far more access to Boston and the rest of Somerville via public transportation. When the Green Line gets to Union Square in a few years, the Square is going to change, so planning for that change makes sense.

Union Square "as we know it" is great, but it can definitely be improved. With set-asides for arts oriented retail and community space, with anywhere between 12 and 15 percent set-asides for affordable housing, with the potential to work a linkage deal that gets the city a new public safety building or maybe a new library, an updated Union Square could and should be a net plus.

If you want to believe that this adminsitration isn't doing a good job with the city's finances, that's fine. But I think you're looking through a distorted lens and misreading the evidence.