Hey, there! Log in / Register
Yoon would open City Hall late; McCrea would oppose more charter schools
By adamg on Fri, 08/14/2009 - 4:14pm
Mayoral candidate Sam Yoon wants City Hall to take a page from banks and stay open past normal business hours at least once a week so people who work for a living could have a chance to conduct city business. In a statement, he says:
One of the most appealing solutions is to shift hours to offer later services on Wednesday and close earlier on Fridays. We would stay open until 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and close at 2:30 p.m. on Fridays. We would also be able to move the regular City Council meetings to Wednesday evening to allow more people to attend.
The bottom line is that Boston's residents are our customers (and our bosses), and we should treat them that way.
Meanwhile, Kevin McCrea, also running for a big office on the fifth floor of City Hall, says he would oppose expanding the current cap on charter schools because those schools serve mainly to create more divisions in society, through restrictive admissions policies:
... We need to work towards making all of our public schools good schools.
I went to public schools growing up in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Vermont and I am proud of the education I received. It can be done, if we have the will to actually work at it. I applaud the commitment and the work done by educators in the Charter Schools, but what we need to do is take what they have learned is working to educate kids (longer school days, longer schools years, parental involvement, discipline, acknowledgment of accomplishment) and bring that in to the public schools. ...
The other three candidates all support charter school expansion in Boston, although in different forms.
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
This is a great idea. We
This is a great idea. We just applied for a marriage license, and are getting married in Boston. But, we saw Boston City Hall closes at 4:30 pm. Since you can get a license from any city in the Commonwealth, we saw Cambridge is open late Mondays (and is $15 cheaper). Why is it more expensive and less convenient to use Menino's employees than Cambridges? How inefficient is he running this city?
Also, we saw Newton was cheaper and open late one day a week.
We got our license in Newton
It was much easier to get to from Brighton than Boston City Hall. And it's definitely a much nicer building. :-).
We got ours in Cambridge
...but mostly because I didn't like the idea of our marriage license being issued in a building as flat-out ugly as Boston City Hall.
This is a brilliant plan, and one that just might tip me over into voting for Yoon. He was pretty impressive in the Brighton town hall on Thursday night too.
Cambridge welcomes refugees...
...from Brutalist regimes.
Open city hall to the public
To whoever wins this election -- please remove the security barriers in the city hall lobby and make the building fully open to the public, as it was designed to be. A local government that has the trust of its citizens has no need for metal detectors and armed guards.
I concur
The entrance to Boston's City Hall is the WORST ANYWHEREEEEEEEEEEE.
Terrible, insulting to all us citizens and residents. There can be security but the whole entrance needs to be redesigned.
Wait, does the Mayor even know about this?? He drives in underground and takes an elevator directly to his office. Probably has never had to go through the metal detector in his life.
Of course...
Of course, the last time I got to go to city hall to get my resident parking sticker, the 3 "guards" at the door were too engulfed in their conversations to bother even standing behind the security X-ray belt thing and look at their screen or even to look at me when I set off the metal detector. One other person that was behind me in the line just laughed and went right in.
If Osama and the terrorists
If Osama and the terrorists came to attack Boston City Hall and take Mumbles hostage, they'd get lost inside the building and end up like Charlie on the MTA.
Lets have everyone stay open late!
My dentist, doctor, the post office, 24 hour RMV!
hey reactionary, read the first sentence
One of the most appealing solutions is to shift hours to offer later services on Wednesday and close earlier on Fridays.
Who sets these hour?
Or maybe the question is, who signs these contracts?
Closing up shop at 4:30 is absurd, plain and simple. I like the way you're thinking, Sam.
Sam needs better policy people
Sam should hire me to work on policy. I don't think he mentions that other cities and towns and state governments have had some success in changing their hours.
The state of Utah, for example. It put its employees on 10-hour, four day work week schedules.
Sucks if you work everyday but Friday (apparently, they're closed then?) but otherwise, beneficial.
CommonWealth magazine has a good story about it, in its summer issue.
http://www.massinc.org/index.php?id=743&pub_id=2480
This is a great idea.
I like the way Sam Yoon thinks.
Yoonie Tunes
Sam Yoon needs to run for Mayor of Cambridge. He might just win. If that does not work out, he could run for office in France.
Or why not Arlington... or North Hampton..
Perhaps you mean Northampton...
If Yoon could run this city as well as Cambridge, we'd all be fortunate. The more I hear about Yoon, the more I like him.
Cambridge has a City Manager
The citizens elect the City Council members. The Council appoints a City Manager, although I think the current one has been there for decades. The Council also selects one of their own to be Mayor, which is more of a ceremonial role.