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Mayor to try for universal pre-K, $1-billion school repair project and public library in Chinatown
By adamg on Tue, 01/17/2017 - 10:37pm
In his state of the city address tonight, Mayor Walsh proposed projects - some of which will require approval from the state legislature - to improve Boston Public Schools.
Among them: Guarantee a seat in a public pre-K program for every four-year-old in the city. Walsh would fund the estimated $16.5-million annual cost by asking the legislature to redirect taxes on sightseeing tours and car rentals in Boston that now go the state.
Walsh will also ask the state to pay what he says is the city's fair reimbursement for students who leave BPS for charter schools and to make other changes in charter transportation reimbursement and school-construction programs that would add $35 million to BPS each year.
The mayor also announced a plan to spend $1 billion over the next ten years to rehab existing Boston schools.
In addition, Walsh called for adding a BPL branch to the China Trade Center. Chinatown is not currently served by the BPL.
The mayor says that over the next year, the city transportation department will work to bring better traffic control to key intersections across the city through real-time traffic monitoring to adjust the timing of the lights. And he said the city will create "neighborhood trauma teams" in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston and Jamaica Plain to "ams in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston and Jamaica Plain to coordinate immediate response and sustained recovery for all those affected in the aftermath of violence."
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Comments
Thank you Mayor Walsh for working on Chinatown Public Library!
Thank you Mayor Walsh for working on Chinatown Public Library!
On another note around the Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline area "How to get a senior discount for Cable. If you're 65 or older, you can get a discount on basic cable packages. Find out how." could be setup to include Internet
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/5ongbm/around_the_boston_cambri...
BPL
The China Trade center is underused. A BPL branch in Boston's most densely inhabited neighborhood is sorely needed. This is a great idea!
Design. Streets. Chinatown. Theatre District. Tufts Medical area
Design... urban streets design of Chinatown, Theatre District, Tufts Medical area
https://www.google.com/search?q=tunney+lee+chinatown
Walsh's pre-K is DOA
Tourism tax dollars are state dollars, in the Berkshires, in Salem, and in Boston. Cities and towns can capture the restaurant and hotel tax addition. Them's the rules.
Why does Mayor Walsh think the reps and senators from the 9/10th of Massachusetts that isn't Boston will go for losing $16.5M in revenue for their cities and towns so that Boston can have Pre-K paid for with what used to be state revenue?
I'm not arguing against pre-K; I'm arguing that not-Boston legislatures have no reason to defund state programs that benefit their districts so that Boston gets a good thing nobody else has.
Please explain
Explain how it is that you think that Boston is being subsidized by areas outside of Boston?
Take your time. Use references. Show your math.
I think that you will find that Boston doesn't begin to get back the kind of money that it floods the rest of the state with.
"Floods"
Maybe you should show your own math on this one?
Please explain
where I wrote that I think Boston is being subsidized by areas outside of Boston. I didn't write anything close to that.
I don't disagree, although 20% of the sales tax state wide funds the MBTA, the largest benefit of which accrues to Boston.
But that's not the point. That's all irrelevant. What's relevant is that the Mayor of Boston thinks that he'll get the state legislature to agree to change current law so that money that currently goes into the state budget (and funds things for those legislators districts) will now stay in Boston (and therefore no longer fund things in those legislators districts).
It ain't going to happen. The state legislature is not going to vote to change tax policy so that Boston gets more money and their non-Boston districts get less. That's why it's DOA.
I don't disagree, although 20
The bulk of the state subsidies for the T go to fund the commuter rail, which mostly benefits communities that are not Boston, Cambridge, or Somerville.
Source?
Most of sales tax is collected outside of Boston, which means that most of the revenue from the sales tax is collected outside Boston. The commuter rail doesn't represent the overwhelming majority of MBTA's costs, so I'm not connecting the dots.
All of which is irrelevant to my point -- that Hizzonah's proposal is DOA because it's asking for a reallocation of money from not-Boston to Boston from people who are from not-Boston.
Good ideas
If he can turn them into accomplishments, that'll be something.
((DEEP BREATH))
mmmmm....smells like election year! Aaaahhhhhh.......
Among them: Guarantee a seat
Though really, this is a project that pays for itself over a 10-20 year timeframe, in saved SPED and criminal system costs down the road. Earlier and more intensive early education is one of the BEST things a society can invest in to address problems that show up later down the road.
Yeah, okay, but where was
Yeah, okay, but where was this when he first took office?
Timing
One must not make grandiose promises so far before an election that concrete progress will be expected.
Already happening - just budget games
The city now has about 75% of the Pre-K age kids already enrolled. They add a few hundred every year - this would/could have happened in the next 2-4 years whether the city gets the state money or not. It's really a money grab - because the city won't use the $16 million for this program - the schools will get 1/3, about 1/3 will go to overhead and the other 1/3 to everything else - that's how they've done the budget for decades around here. Nice goal - but not any kind of stretch.
A billion dollars on schools in 10 years? Also no biggie - we are already spending tens of millions each year on the capital budget - add in 2-3 new schools to replace say the 19th century ones we are still using - and guess what - it's a billion dollars that was getting spent anyway. Little if any of this is incremental money.
$35 million for charter reimbursements - cool - the state owes us that money - but it won't go far. It's a one time hit and should be used for some capital expenditures - not operations anyway. Will probably either get tossed into the general fund (it's a lot of money -but only 1% of the budget - again non-recurring). Better used fixing up the schools, parks or other facilities. In reality - the state is broke and probably will never make good on that - unless they take it away somewhere else.
Hi tech traffic lights - good idea - LA solved a big chunk of their problem a couple of years ago with software. Personally a little tired of driving out to Roslindale and literally getting stuck at almost every light turning a 20 minute drive into 35 minutes. Trauma teams? Hmm - Menino used to do this - use windfall budgets to hire extra people with new, nice sounding titles in flush times. Then you let them go when times get tough (usually through attrition so nobody notices) and then use the spare money to give remaining workers raises and bennies. It was a way to soak up extra money until you really needed it.
Nothing wrong with any of this - but it's not exactly a bold vision. It's just telling people we are going to keep doing what we've been doing for the past 20 years.
A little more on BPS capital spending
For anyone curious, the BPS capital budget totaled about $470M over the last ten years, so this proposal theoretically roughly doubles that. Is a billion dollars over 10 years a lot to spend? Well, Somerville is trying to build a single school for $257M and Waltham is looking to spend $283M on a school, so maybe not.
Sounds about right
I'm having a lot of trouble getting into the city's website this morning - but say $55-60 million a year for 10 years (allowing for some inflation against the 47 million we spent in the past 10 - guessing there was a big dip around the financial crisis also - but can't get in to find out).
As I mention - guessing the city will try to get 2-3 new schools out of the state over the next 10 years at say even $150 million per - and there's your billion dollars +/-.
Not saying we don't need it - just not a huge stretch if this includes some estimates for new schools on top of the usual capital expenses. Did find some broad plans on the BPS site - but no specifics about how it broke down between capital and new schools. I'll keep digging to see if I can find it.
Chinatown Library
I don't quite get why Chinatown is so fired up to have their own dinky little local branch of the BPL when the main Copley Square Library in all it's glory is only about three blocks away and is, in effect, their local library. It's closer to Chinatown than many residents of other neighborhoods have to go to get to their own dinky little local branches. I suspect it's more a matter of neighborhood pride, and I suppose there's nothing wrong with that.
Dink this
You walk from Essex to Copley on a cold February day or during a rainstorm. Have a nice time.
Neighborhood libraries aren't just for books - they're community gathering places as well. Copley is a wonderful place, one of the things that makes Boston a wonderful city, but neighborhoods are also part of what makes Boston wonderful. Why not have a facility that recognizes what makes Chinatown unique?
Not so much
It's a 22 minute walk, so not quite "3 blocks". Sure it's do-able, but why anyone would be against more libraries is beyond me.
I am pro library - but when
I am pro library - but when the city can barely afford to support the 25 locations they have now, how will adding another help the system. Boston is one of the most densely served library systems in the country. Each resident lives, on average, less than one mile from their local branch. Most within a mile of 2, sometimes 3 branches. I think a Chinatown library would be great - but having lived through years of lip service about how the city "supports libraries" but then the state and city slash budgets every year - it doesn't make any sense to be adding more branches when the ones they have need the care and renovation first.
Cite, please
What do you mean, the city can barely afford to support their locations? Have you read something, or is it anecdotal? Looking around the BPL site, it seems that they have lots of projects underway and are basically on-track budget wise.
Pretty easy to google, but below are a couple of the documents that list the BPL's recent accomplishments, and a meeting of the trustees from last year that discusses budget.
https://www.bpl.org/general/about/BPL_FY16_Accomplishments.pdf
https://www.bpl.org/general/trustees/minutes/2016-01-27-powerpoint.pdf
As a lifelong resident of
As a lifelong resident of Chinatown and former BPL employee, I can guarantee you the walk to Copley is not 3 blocks away. I'm sure I would have enjoyed walking to work in the winter if that were the case.
That aside, I'm glad this project is still in the works. Chinatown did have a branch until the late 50s, but obviously got torn down for other uses. We've already given up space for luxury condos and the Big Dig. Can't we just have something back that was taken away from us?
No.
Do you realize how many small children live in Chinatown? Do you know how many of them are cared for by their elderly grandparents? Has it ever occurred to you that the nearly 1-mile walk from 2 Boylston Street to 700 Boylston Street -- way more than 3 blocks -- might be hard for them? Boylston Station has a lot of stairs and no elevator, so it's not like taking the Green Line to Copley is a better option with a stroller or a wheelchair.