'FNX listeners narrowly pick his Rage Against the Machine choice over some other guy's choice. Selected comment:
Yoon looks like a badass. I feel if I don't vote for him he'll come to my house and punch me in face, steal my wallet, and drink milk straight from the carton.
Well, nobody who's going for his fifth term in office; you know the other three will definitely be there.
WBZ announced Jon Keller will moderate a debate on Aug. 26, from 7 to 8 p.m. at 'BZ studios for livecasting on Channel 4 and 1030 AM.
Mayoral hopeful Michael Flaherty says he wants a referendum this November to let voters say if they want a limit on how long somebody can serve as mayor. In a statement today, he says:
Mayoral hopeful Sam Yoon is celebrating Tom Menino's reign by vowing to serve no more than two terms as mayor - just like Menino once did:
If eight years is long enough for the President of the United States, then it should be long enough for the Mayor of Boston. Politicians, just like everything else, have a shelf life. After two terms, staleness begins to creep into administrations. Term limits ensure fresh leadership and a healthier democracy.
Yoon goes online with the lefties at Daily Kos and promptly gets bushwacked by some Somerville residents upset about parking enforcement there. But he manages to steer the conversation back to Boston issues - some interesting stuff there about transportation - and ignore questions about when he's going to get rid of Joe Trippi.
Via Kat Powers.
How else to explain the humongous Flaherty and Menino signs now sprouting up on front lawns everywhere? But it is kind of odd that Yoon and McCrea signs are still so small.
Meanwhile, Joyce Linehan reports that, at least in South Boston and West Roxbury, Flaherty supporters seem to favor Chevy Suburbans.
The Herald reports the Sox offered up to $400,000 to save the Boston Police mounted unit, which often helped keep order around Fenway Park but that "the mayor looked a gift horse in the mouth and said 'neigh.' "
In a statement, Councilor and Would-Be Menino Replacement Yoon said:
Our mounted unit was an important community policing tool and public safety resource for our parks. News of its elimination prompted an outpouring from across the city of people pleading to save the unit. There were dozens of cost-saving reforms the mayor could have implemented to save the unit. But once again, Mayor Menino chose symbolism over substance.
Now we hear reports that the City turned down an offer from the Red Sox to continue funding the mounted unit. At a time when Boston is cutting back on schools, city services, and public safety, it would be shortsighted and foolish to reject an outstretched hand. The administration needs to clarify what happened and be transparent about any offers that were made regarding the mounted unit.
“These are the very public-private partnerships that can make our city great – and can transform education, athletics, and the arts for Boston's children. We need a mayor who can tap into all the generosity and talent that Boston has to offer.
Yoon tweets he bought a raffle ticket at fundraiser for the Boston Living Center last night, gave it to a cop on the way out, the ticket won $300, the cop gave the money to the center.
City Councilor and mayoral wannabe Sam Yoon says he will vote against the mayor's budget when it comes up for a vote tomorrow.
For Yoon, this is nothing new: He's always voted against the mayor's budget (you may recall the 2006 dustup with then Council President and now also mayoral wannabe Michael Flaherty, who ordered the boys in blue to clear the council chambers of the 300 kids Yoon had brought in to call for more anti-violence programs).
Not directly, of course. However, Thomas Kane, co-author of a study on Boston charter and pilot schools, went public today to say Mayor Menino is wrong to call for a blanket expansion of charter schools in Boston (Menino would convert under-performing BPS schools into charter schools):
Scot Lehigh doesn't like the Tom Menino on display during the whole Tall Ships fiasco.
Mayoral candidate Sam Yoon says he's filing legislation to eliminate the Boston Redevelopment Authority and replace it with "a comprehensive City Department for Community Development & Planning." He said the city needs a planning department that can help guide smart growth and development centered on pedestrians, bicycles and public transit rather than cars.
Our disjointed, dysfunctional planning process is choking the city's development. Boston's future needs to be guided by better planning and real public participation. ...
Boston is the only city in the United States without a planning department separate from its redevelopment authority. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has outlived its usefulness and it should be disbanded. In its place, we need a comprehensive city planning agency which is accountable to the public, not just the developers and the Mayor. Boston's development should benefit the entire city and that requires a public process, not a political one.
It is high time to stop being defensive and secretive - let's open the doors and invite in people with fresh ideas to participate in planning for a new, forward-looking Boston.
More.
Councilor Sam Yoon said yesterday that if elected mayor, he would fight to gain a half-cent increase in the sales tax in Boston to pay for new efforts to combat juvenile murders and other crimes in the city.
Yoon's made his proposal in an interview with Channel 4's Jon Keller. The proposal, which would require the approval of the state legislature and the governor, would raise $35 million and would help bring Boston back to the best years of the "Boston Miracle," when the city went two straight years in the 1990s without a single youth homicide.
Yoon also called incumbent Tom Menino stale and said it's simply time for a 21st-century mayor, one who would act on things such as a Boston Finance Commission report that identifies $70 million in savings through "common sense" reforms:
Politicians, just like anything else, have a shelf life.
Sam Yoon says the city could save several million a year by ditching most of the cars individual workers now have and replacing them with a fleet from which workers would check out cars.
Yoon says Washington, DC recently signed a contract with Zipcar that let it reduce the number of non-emergency vehicles from 360 to 58:
Boston has 1,125 vehicles in its fleet not including police, fire, and schools. Of those, 871 are cars and vans, each with an average cost of ownership of $10,000. If we can reduce our fleet by just 100 cars, we would save 1 million dollars per year, every year.
He adds the Washington cars will be equipped with GPS devices that trigger alarms should the car be driven outside established boundaries. Ultimately, he says, some of the vehicles could be replaced with all-electric cars - recharged at stations around the city.
His complete statement:
Some notes from today's Radio Boston interviews with Tom Menino, Michael Flaherty, Kevin McCrea and Sam Yoon. Although Menino didn't show up in person, it didn't really make much of a difference, since the four were interviewed separately - and asked different sets of questions:
Tom Menino
"I'm not going talk about the past," but he said he has "the experience and thoughtfulness" to make this a city that works for all its people.
Radio Boston on WBUR tomorrow will be about this fall's race for Mayor of Boston. Starts at 1 p.m., 90.9 FM. Sam Yoon, Michael Flaherty and Kevin McCrea will be there live, but Tom Menino sends his regrets - along with a taped interview.
Kate really doesn't want to be on Yoon's mailing list. Kate has so far been unable to get off his mailing list:
...The first e-mail you sent had no "unsubscribe" link, and I never asked to be on your list. So I wrote to you at [email protected] and asked to be taken off of your list.
The next e-mail I received did include an unsubscribe link, but the link just took me to your homepage, with no instructions on how to be taken off the list. I wrote you another e-mail that you ignored.
The third e-mail, I replied to with a request to be taken off the list, and then I reported you as spam.
The fourth e-mail that arrived today is very irritating. ...
Earlier:
Call him Spam Yoon.
City Councilor Sam Yoon, who wants to replace Menino, says the city needs a better youth-violence prevention program to keep teens from getting gunned down on Boston streets. In a statement, Yoon says:
"I am heartbroken and angry at another teen shooting, and I know we can do better. We must have the political will to make youth violence prevention our top priority, or else we risk losing a generation of youth."
At budget hearings earlier this week, Yoon called on Police Commissioner Ed Davis to crack down on overtime in the police budget and use the saved money for violence prevention.
Yoon says the city needs "a clear protocol for how to respond in the hours and weeks after a homicide – the most critical time to intervene in retaliation."
Today's shooting comes a few days after another teen was murdered on Tonawanda Street.
Yoon's complete press release:
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