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Quincy vows battle over Long Island
By adamg on Fri, 01/26/2018 - 9:11am
The Patriot Ledger brings us up to speed on Long Island-related news south of the Neponset: The Quincy City Council this week passed a resolution telling Marty Walsh to shove it when it comes to the proposed re-build of the bridge and Quincy's mayor continued to look at possible legal options to block the bridge, which would connect Boston to its harbor island through Quincy.
The Patriot Ledger quotes one councilor as saying he's convinced Walsh's end game is to build a luxury development on the island, rather than an addiction recovery center and that he doesn't want to see another Marina Bay on the harbor.
Walsh made rebuilding the bridge and creation of a comprehensive recovery center on the Island part of his re-innauguration speech earlier this month, after seeming to have cooled on the idea in his first term.
The city shut the bridge as a safety hazard in 2014 after first evacuating the homeless and addicts bused there for a variety of programs.
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Comments
Question
What percentage of Quincy's tax money originates from jobs in Boston?
22.4353%
rounded up
Source?
Seems very low.
Luxury Development
I'm on record blasting Walsh for handing the city over to developers more that I can remember, but even I don't think Walsh would be this brazen. Despite the general voter apathy we saw in this year's mayoral election, I'm not convinced his administration could survive this in the next one.
Not necessarily
Walsh is that brazen or did you forget his previous antics? And in case you hadn't noticed, the people who need Long Island most don't have brown paper bags of money delivered to City Hall.
Follow the money. State
Follow the money. State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry has just quit the Senate, to go to work for John Fish, who already has a foothold on Long Island, via Camp Harbor View.
Remember that City of Boston lawsuit against the Everett casino? It was dropped as soon as Fish's Suffolk Construction won the bid to build the casino.
Why not?
If we can increase our tax base AND rebuild the bridge AND create public access water front parks AND replace the treatment facilities closer to where they are needed, why not sell 1/2 the island to developers? This seems like a clear improvement over having a large chunk of prime property which is currently only accessed by insiders like the B.Good farm people, etc...
If this is going to be another island park which can only be accessed by boat, that's not much different than the rest of the harbor islands, which are very nice of course but already meet the needs of people who want to take a ferry to a park and/or have their own boat. If traffic is a concern, set up a bus route out there which runs more on the weekends for recreational access.
Do you most of you feel the only valid options are full restoration to prior use or letting it lie dormant and having the buildings revert to nature?
Sure! Why not sell half the place to developers!
As long as they skip the 10% fee that Marty shakes them down for the so called "low income" pool, let them build real low income housing that far enough from Fenway and Fanueil Hall and Newbury Street and every other bullshit landmark that developers like to show off when they're selling overpriced crap to suckers.
I mean now that gentrification is now moving low income people from Bunker Hill to Bowdoin Street, which one of the vampires that are making bank from this bubble will step up and make that commitment to Long Island? Should I ask Linda Forry now that she's traded access for big bucks?
Or will they just pay Marty and his minions off again?
Exactly?
The luxury housing market pays for a lot of stuff.
We should use that to our advantage, not pretend that it's not happening and just howl into the wind about inequity. If selling off 1/2 the island to developers gets us a park in the harbor with public access and $200k+ in annual, additional tax revenue•, that's a huge win vs. having a second Peddocks Island out in the harbor. Unlike other developments, this displaces exactly no-one to boot.
• assuming a developer would build $20m of luxury housing out there which seems feasible to me.
Just what we need
A couple hundred connected luxury screamers when the wall gets built.
A luxury development?
He's "convinced" that Marty wants to build a luxury development? You mean (expletive) shelter for human beings?
Fun fact: The number of humans is finite. The number of humans who have even heard of Boston is even more finite. The number of humans who want to live in Greater Boston is even more finite. The number of humans who have the immediate liquidity and wherewithal to fill a U-Haul and come to Greater Boston to live is even more finite.
You build enough places to live, eventually, somebody will need to make back the money they spent to build them sooner rather than later. Currency is finite too. Human shelter is a basic right. Hitler deserved a place to live every second he was alive on this Earth.
What was this moron's point? He might as well have expressed a fear that Marty Walsh was going to give children ice cream.
"The number of humans who
"The number of humans who have the immediate liquidity and wherewithal to fill a U-Haul and come to Greater Boston to live is even more finite."
I said that to myself thirty years ago, when me and all my friends got priced out of the west Cambridge neighborhood I grew up in. They're still coming.
Of course they are
We're still outbreeding the mortality rate, and nobody's a farmer anymore.
There's the catch
Did you already forget the organic farm developed out there as a treatment program was stolen by B.Good?
https://www.bgood.com/our-community/our-farm/
"Our Farm"
Nice to see B.good is carrying on the centuries old New England tradition of seizing land from those already using it.
I didn't make that connection right away
But I'll take credit for a delicious bit of irony, even unintentionally.
Do it
Make they pay for the bridge and still put the treatment center there. Win-Win.
[INT. OFFICE, DAY]
"Hahahaha, " chortles Marty to himself, as thunder crackles ominously outside his office window, "soon those fools will realize the true genius of my master plan. You see, I never really meant to build that wildly unpopular homeless shelter on the island where there used to be a large homeless shelter. Instead, I have cunningly lured the mayor of Quincy into my clever trap, by getting him to angrily protest the shelter, then pulling the rug out from beneath him by bait-and-switching the island into luxury condos. This will achieve my nefarious goal of... um... drumming up more opposition to my plan than there would have been otherwise? No, that can't be right. Uh... making the mayor of Quincy look like a fool by--no, wait, this makes ME look like a fool. Was it 'confuse the residents of both cities, then cruise easily to reelection?' That sounds right. Must have been that one."
Bring back the bridge.
And this time make it available to pedestrians and cyclists.
It used to be. Old bicycle
It used to be. Old bicycle guidebooks mention riding out to Long Island.
In all seriousness.....
This is the perfect location for park/recreation land.
Bikes, boats, kids, sightseeing stands/binocular stands, kite flying, sunbathing, ice cream eating, greasy burger loving, bird watching, sail boating.....
I might even ban cars and not allow parking. If you want to get out there you have to bike, walk or take a boat.
Everyone wins.
Love this idea
Hopefully our politicians will too
Just build it in Quincy
Take the $100 million for the bridge and instead build a facility in Quincy. Everybody wins and we can do something else w Long Island.
What a great idea...
...lets build a public park 300 feet from drug addicts. Or will there be tall fences to keep them in? Maybe we could sell little capsules of NarCan and the kids can feed the drug addicts / homeless through the fence.
Oh yes, lets add a bicycle lane, we don't screw up enough traffic and cause people to needless risk their lives, run through crosswalks and act like they are superior because they ride a bike. Waaah, it makes you healthy, until you flip over some douche's el Camino.
Grow up.
Relocate all homeless shelters from all of Boston to Long Island, or as much as you can.
Put a separate area for drug rehab.
Get them off of 'methadone mile' - get these people some help.
If clear up that area past the south end, put luxury housing there, then put your affordable income units there. You want to drop a bunch of people on an island.
For the douches who want to bike out there, go back to 4th grade if you want to bike.
I'm saying no shelter or drug addicts.
Just a park.
No money for that though
I think you need to either have the treatment out there or the developments to justify or offset respectively the cost of rebuilding the bridge.
Or a hyper loop?
This should be a decision of
This should be a decision of Quincy related members not Uhubers
No it shouldn’t. It’s Boston
No it shouldn’t. It’s Boston property, just rebuilding a bridge.
Bleep Quincy
I mean it. For those of you unfamiliar with the City of Presidents, think of their political situation in terms of when they hold a vote at a bar to elect a "Mayor" of Dorchester or Scituate to help raise money for the Saint Patrick's Day parade, except these ding dongs have a budget and a police force.
For years it was Mayor Koch's guys versus Mayor Phelan's guys on who would run the city. Watching it from a distance was like watching, how shall we say it amateur wrestling night at the VFW Hall. It is unusual to watch since knowing that they are fighting themselves to death fighting for peanuts. These guys used to duke it out for what, a better tee time up at Granite Links?
Koch is trying to protect some of the wealthiest constituents of Quincy; Squantum voters.
The luxury development play and the bridge costing too much, which is what Koch has said in other reports, is a smoke screen for people in Squantum not wanting the 276 bus from BUMC running down a public street a few times a day, something that was in place for generations. If anyone walked away from Long Island detox / shelter, they have to cross two bridges, well a bridge, and a causeway to get to the mainland all while passing through Boston Health security and the BPD's main firing range. Their fears of 28 Days Later - Boston Harbor Edition, are unfounded.
Quincy has a massive heroin problem and homeless problem of their own. It is Malden with worse traffic. Get the bridge built and get these people well. Let's not have some small minded mayor block the needs of others.
ignore Quincy
Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry, Ferry,
can't
They need quick EMS access. Can't do that with a ferry. And Quincy would LOVE us to use a helicopter, so that's not gonna happen either.
If I break my neck or have a stroke on Georges Island
I'll be evacuated by boat. The Harbor Islands have thousands of visitors every day during warm-weather months, and surely the DCR has to deal with the occasional accident or near-drowning already several times each year.
How Would Have You Got Out 2 Weeks Ago?
The Hingham Ferry was down for a week owing to ice damage to the docks and ice in Hingham harbor.
What happens on a Tuesday night in January when the dock on Long Island is frozen in and someone goes into cardiac arrest with winds at 50 mph so that a helicopter make a safe landing?
A bridge solves the problem.
If everyday was 74 and sunny we would have to worry about this on UHub, because we would be posting on KeyWest Hub. Things are different here.
I'm going to slightly correct you
If we were KeyWest Hub, there still would be issues with choppy seas affecting rescues sans bridge.
Ferry, ferry, ferry sounds nice...
.. but those things blow some worst exhaust imaginable.
Why isn't anyone talking about using boats?
Sure there will be occasional issues with the weather, but you can set up a really robust ferry system and docks for a hell of a lot less than the $50-$100 million the new bridge will cost. Plus going by boat solves the Quincy problem.
Boats
over
Bridge <- My protest sign
Two Terminals Needed - They aren't free.
Also, have you ever taken the ferry to Hingham in the winter during a stiff breeze when it is dark outside? Now add the glorious mixture of you being possibly mentally ill coupled with you are coming off your high. Have fun Popeye The Sailor. No spinach is going to help you then.
Once again, bleep Quincy and their concerns of a few buses going down a public street.
Is a bus that much different?
They always used to bus the "residents" back and forth to the island. Buy ferries that are mostly indoor seating and you won't feel the stiff breeze. If bus drivers can get used to the crowd and their issues, the guys on the boat can too.
If it was the same price, sure build the bridge, but I bet the boats and their terminals could be built for less than $30 million.
Thus spake Mayor Tiny Koch...
Earlier...
Quincy mayor to Walsh: If you want to put addicts back on Long Island, buy a ferry
that said, still a bunch of BS all around.
EMS
See comment above but its because they need quick EMS access to the island. Boat not so much..
Valid point
OK, I can see where EMS access is an issue without a bridge.
All I ask is to price out both options. If the boat option saves 50 million dollars you could probably afford to pay $5 million a year to run medivac helicopters when someone needs urgent care.
One last thing: The boat option could be up and running in 2 years or less. It will be at least 10 years before any bridge is open.
I have also heard the
I have also heard the administration make that claim, but I wonder why then it is appropriate for a working farm and a summer camp to have access to the island without that same quick EMS service? seems somewhat hypocritical.
if it's a stormy, windy day
if it's a stormy, windy day in summer, you can not run camp that day, or not tend the farm that day. In the winter when the docks sometimes ice over - no farm, no camp.
You cant just not have the shelters etc open on the days when they're needed the most because the weather is the worst.
Also, the shelter etc population is probably more likely to need medical transport than farmers and camp kids.
Casino revisited
Maybe Donald Trump can resurrect his 1990s pitch for the casino he wanted to build on Long Island. Nothing seems farfetched anymore.
Trump only builds the BEST
Trump only builds the BEST bankrupt casinos!
The Patriot Ledger quotes one
Huh. I assumed he wanted to rebuild the recovery center so all the people moving into the new luxury buildings didn't have to taint their eyes with all the addicts in the area.
On the fence
I’m torn on this one, bringing back the bridge and shelter sounds great to me. We certainly need it! However turning it into a luxury island and marina sound good too, but if they want to get their Bentley’s to the island they need to BUILD THEIR OWN BRIDGE. The city can use the money it would have spent on the bridge and rehab of the building plus sale of the island to build a new larger space for people in need.
Why all the haters hatin' on Quincy?
Been living in Quincy Center a year now. It's affordable vs Cambridge, Somerville, the parts of Boston that are safe to live in. It's in my opinion more genuinely diverse than, say, Cambridge, especially socioeconomically. Location couldn't be better. Cities that endlessly brag about their 'progressive' and inclusive politics could stand to learn a thing or two from Quincy.
Why the Quincy hate?
This issue. This particular issue. The bridge had to be torn down and now the services that are provided on the island, while in theory still going, do not have the same effect that they did when those receiving the services were on Long Island. And the City of Quincy fought any efforts to fix the bridge when it was standing, leading to the bridge becoming unsafe for use. Quincy wanted the bridge down. They wouldn't directly come out and say they were blocking any long term repairs on the bridge, but now that Boston is looking to rebuild the bridge, the true colors of Quincy come out.
Other than that, I actually like Quincy. I went to school with a lot of Quincy kids. Had some good friends down there. Of course, back then (the 1980s) the bridge was not a big issue. Other than the a-holeness of Quincy when it comes to the bridge, it's a great city.
Side question
Which Boston exam school did you go to a lot of Quincy kids with?
The school that uses a different exam
Boston College High School.
I was doing work-study stuff there one day and ran across something or other that listed the number of students by zip code. Quincy zip codes had the largest numbers at that time.
I'm a Quincy resident
And i generally love the city, but i still think the hue and cry about The Evil Bridge is parochial bullshit.
Shame on Quincy
When are Mayor Koch and the City of Quincy going to pony up and pay their fair share to Boston for all the Quincy residents Boston treats in its detox and addiction facilities? Or the Quincy residents roaming around Mass Ave and Newmarket? NIMBYism at its finest here.
Just my thought
Boston needs to start charging Quincy for all Quincy residents who are receiving treatment in Boston for drug addiction and those who are taking up beds in their homeless shelters.
Not in MY back yard!!
Not in MY back yard!!
Homelessness is on the rise
Homelessness (and especially family homelessness) is on the rise here, thanks to developers building luxury condos that people buy and don't live in or turn into AirBnbs to make bank while displacing residents. Shutting down Long Island took away beds that people relied on for shelter. It took away outdoor access for people in treatment and trying to turn their lives around. The bridge needs to be rebuilt. Beds need to open back up. And then we need to build housing that people can actually afford to live in to improve social stability, shore up communities, and keep our city vibrant and diverse.
Can't We All Just Get Along, Mayors Walsh and Koch???
JANUARY 27,2018 – 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
RECOVERY MATTERS - A COMMUNITY FORUM
WHAT: A community forum to discuss the critical issues facing everyone who is impacted and suffers from addiction and the tragic toll it continues to take.
This is the second in a series of programs focusing solutions. The aim being to continue to create an atmosphere of communication, open and honest dialogue from individuals who believe that recovery is both possible and sustainable.
WHY: In the first 9 months of 2017, there were 932 confirmed opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts. The Department of Public Health estimated at the time an additional 491 to 582 deaths. The opioid crisis impacts everyone, our workforce, our friends, family and communities, something must be done.
WHO: Recovery Matters started as a diverse group of Massachusetts based clinical professionals, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, mental health professionals and pharmacists. It quickly expanded to include members of law enforcement, EMT first responders, journalists, union workers, individuals, family members, and concerned citizens who are alarmed with the continued and unabated acceleration of the opioid crisis in our state.
Partial List of Speakers & Topics:
Keynote Address: Ritchie Farrell from Lowell is an author, filmmaker, WGA screenwriter, & motivational speaker. His documentary, High on Crack Street, aired on HBO and received Columbia University’s du-Pont Award for excellence & which the Academy Award winning film “The Fighter” is based on.
Peter Grinspoon MD, Allison Burns, Pharm D, Jake Nichols, Pharm D: Medications The issues w medication assisted treatments including injectable naltrexone, buprenorphine and methadone will be examined as well as examples of real world implementation
Pat Glynn Quincy Police Department, Rich Lombardi Essex County Sherriff’s office: Public Safety Issues.
Topics include first responder burnout, re-entry programs (success and barriers) and a personal story of recovery post long term incarceration
Phoenix Multi Sport, Refuge Recovery, Right Turn, Teen Challenge: Alternatives in recovery programming
Sue Burchill RN and Voices of Recovery in the Workplace. How do we keep children safe (emotionally and physically) while attending school within Methadone Mile?
Saturday Jan 27, 2018 9-3 PM
IBEW Local 103
256 Freeport Street
Dorchester, Ma
(Lunch will be served)
SPONSORS: End Mass Overdose Inc. – Comella’s Restaurant Group -The RoundTable Maryellen McCormack Housing Development- Metro Boston Alive - The New Market Business Association-Local 103 IBEW
INFORMATION & PRESS CONTACT: Brianne Fitzgerald: [email protected]
If you keep snipping away at
If you keep snipping away at the leaves, it's just going to keep on growing. If you kill it at it's root, then it will be dead. Find out where the heroin, synthetic heroin, other opiates, etc., are coming from and start attacking it there. If the drugs are not available, then the addicts are going to find it harder and harder to find a drug dealer.
Where heroin comes from
Plants. Just like pot.
The way to stop that is to salt the earth. The Romans didn't get past North Africa, and that was against countries who weren't defending themselves with helicopters and nukes.
Wrong answer. You know
Wrong answer. You know exactly what I'm implying.
Is a luxury development even
Is a luxury development even possible? Or are there conservation restrictions on the island?
1860's
Believe it or not I once saw a plan at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds from the 1860's that called for 12 to 14 massive house lots on the island.
I've been out on the island. The hospital, its related equipment, the huge 50 foot cliff as you come out to the island, the existing camp, the civil war cemetery, and the former bunkers of Fort Strong take up a huge amount of the island.
The new Marina Bay threat is an idle theat.
Long island
Long Island is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation area and State parks.
Further development must be highly restricted if not impossible.
Put tolls the
Neponset River Bridge.
Better yet....
Just close the Neponset River Bridge......they can take a ferry to Boston.
Marty's Revenge
Ship all the homeless on the red line destination Quincy Center station. The plan is working.
Long Island should be a public park
I don't care whether you get there by bridge or by ferry, but it should be open for public use by everyone. You can put the treatment facilities there and still have it be a public park. Shattuck State Hospital is right next to Franklin Park.
Small point
But the Shattuck Hospital was built in Franklin Park. Not sure that is something that could happen today--taking away parkland.