Is My Councilor Better Than His Voters Because He Served?

Dedication of the James Ayube Memorial Riverway, September 30th, 2011

A few days ago, I was reading the threads on Salemweb, and ran into Lloyd’s political commentary mixed amongst his Christmas best wishes.  (Christmas is not my favorite holiday, but I hope everybody had good festivities nonetheless.)

I don’t pay a lot of attention;  most of the threads on that board rehash old arguments that would never be settled even if Kim Driscoll were hit by a meteorite in bed tonight.

And why would I take issue with best wishes anyway, even if they’re satirical?  But Lloyd, in this thread, said something that has bothered me enough to stick my head out on a topic I never felt safe to bring up before.

Lloyd:

To Mike Sosnowski - Many thanks for your hard work in the face of dealing with individuals who have little or no appreciation for your service to your country, or your dedication to the ward you live in. Semper Fi.

I’m sure Lloyd didn’t mean anything negative in particular, except for criticizing those who don’t agree with Mike.

Or who don’t appreciate Mike’s service to his country as a Marine.

I respect his service.  But I have disagreed with Mike on many occasions.  I don’t approve of his performance.  I don’t like how he toadies to the Common and the Federal Street associations.  I was livid when he let someone from Northfields tell me what I should have or not have in my neighborhood.

But he’s a veteran.  I should not speak.

Right?

One of Mark Twain’s best short works, “The War Prayer”, goes right to the heart of my unease.  He describes the great swell of patriotism surrounding the Phillipine-American War, which he hated.

In a church, a fervent pastor is leading his flock in excited, vigorous prayer, praying for their young men, soon to go into battle, and for their total victory over their enemy.

In the middle of the prayer, a wild man walks in, and explains:

"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

If you pray for our victory, Twain says, you are praying for some mother’s son to die, for someone’s home to be bombed, for some child to die in fire.  (It’s worth going back to read the whole piece;  I do it no credit.)

I’m no pacifist.  I’ve grown up all my life knowing a military and veterans and armed forces and I don’t see that going away.  But war, as Sherman put it, is hell, and I hate sentimentalizing it or romanticizing it.

More to the point of my councilor, when I am told to support my councilor because he served,  I hear these unspoken things:

• “I served and I’m a better citizen than you!”
• “You can’t tell me what to do.  I served and you didn’t!”
• “You’d act better if  I sent you to boot camp, wouldn’t you?!”
• “Yes, I can tell you what to do!  Say Sir, Yes Sir!”
• “You didn’t serve.  You’re not really a citizen.  Or a person.”

This last point is inordinately cruel:  Though I did register for Selective Service and had no qualms or fears of the unlikely possibility that I would be called up, I would have never been able to pass the physical in any event;  my early eye history and my hearing loss would have certainly disqualified me.

If my councilor is superior to me because he served, and if I could not serve, I would have to think I’m an untermenschen.   (Societies that thought they had untermenschen they needed to deal with have all been stable and happy societies that have never made war within their nations or outside of it.  Right.  Sure.)

Mind you, I don’t think Mike himself thinks this of me.  He might hate what I wrote.  He could even yell at me as if he were my DI—and he’d be perfectly entitled to do so, given our disagreements!

But I’ve heard comments like Lloyd’s from so many people in the past few years.  Several years ago on Salemweb, I had made a comment on Eisenhower (whom I admire) and how I would not necessarily vote for a veteran because none of them were like our former General and President.

I got an extended lecture on the Greatest Generation.

I suspect the person who gave me that lecture, which has become a catechism over the years, did not serve.  Many people who are gung-ho about our military, who love our military above all else, the Fighting Keyboard types who would bomb Iran tomorrow, did not themselves serve.

To too many Americans, our soldiers are totems.  We worship them.  We use them to make ourselves feel better.  We can stand next to the lowest Army private and be his or her friend and be better because we are associated with a soldier.

To hear people tell it, the late James Ayube died for our sins.  I attended the dedication ceremony that named the bypass road for him, and I was dismayed about how my state rep, John Keenan, and my mayor Driscoll, just waved away the facts of Ayube’s death as if they were just a force of Nature.  I am left thinking that ceremony was not so much for Ayube’s family but for ourselves.

I don’t expect a ceremony like that to be a discourse on our foreign policies, but we, the people, are responsible for the well-being, the safety and most importantly the prudent use of our forces, with our  young people that we have asked to fight for us on our behalf.

We can’t take his death for granted, nor romanticize it, nor sentimentalize it.  But I’ve given up on our politicians realizing that because they of all people benefit the most from standing next to a soldier.

Getting back to my point, I’ve heard from a lot of people over the past few years, and not a few of my Facebook friends, who love the idea of a military government, even though it’s against our Constitution.

The military will just make things work!  In a military government, Lloyd can have me sent away for treason.  The Army can kill all them liberals!  Shoot illegal aliens all day, all night, with dogs and choppers and night vision, everywhere! 

I have to think if I am going to toady up to my councilor just because he served, I am helping to insure that the military takeover that we have always criticized other nations for doing, that could never happen because we loved Freedom more than anyone else, will easily happen right here at home.  To hear some tell it, we’re well on our way to welcoming our new Army overlords.

I won’t do it.

Mike can show up at my door anytime and give me General Patton’s method of discipline.  I understand it.  I’ll take it.

But I won’t kiss his ass just because he served and I didn’t.

Back after an absence

Essex Street Mall 2011-05-26 007, originally uploaded by dmoisan.

Via Flickr:
Nature finally turned a switch to "Summer" today, as these folks are realizing.

And I've turned a switch, too.

I haven’t posted in almost six months.  I’m dispirited.

Last winter, my building had the bedbug hysteria that has affected many households in recent years.  Dealing with bedbugs has combined the worst aspects of moving and losing your house to fire or flood.  The Salem News covered the story in my building and it brought out the worst aspect of pest infestations—the moral opprobrium that comes when your betters can look down on you for being “dirty” and “unclean”, even though bedbugs, roaches and mice are blissfully unaware of class distinctions.  

In a building with a shared laundry space, like I have, I’ll never know how I got bedbugs and I just don’t care who or what “gave” them to me.  I just know that pest infestations don’t make me or my neighbors “immoral” or “unclean” or “lazy”, but that was on the minds of many of the Salem News commentariat.

There’s more, too.  Last spring I had quite a screaming match with my ward councilor Mike Sosnowski over a parking proposal at the Jail.

What I learned from that affair is that it doesn’t matter what neighborhood I live in, or what stake I have in anything, if someone more important than me thinks different.  At that meeting, a person from the Northfields neighborhood association asserted that me and my neighbors did not want commercial use at the Jail no matter what.

It doesn’t matter that that Northfields guy probably doesn’t even have a view of the Jail from his house.  And he never cared before about the apartment complex I live in.

As far as I can see, Mike Sosnowski has more or less aided and abetted groups like Northfields.  If you live in cheap rental housing, you will not get representation in Salem.

You will not get it.

Better that you show Mike your mortgage statement—or proof of McIntyre architecture—before coming to him with a problem.

I was at a meeting this past Saturday of the Alliance of Salem Neighborhood Associations.  It was held at the function room of Beverly Cooperative Bank, which is where the Downtown group meets.

I had my own problems with that group, and didn’t want to attend this meeting, except that I made a verbal commitment on recorded video and had to go. 

(I know the camera is on during our Commission meetings.  If I make a gaffe or a curse, then I do.  I don’t try to walk back what I said.  I said it and it’s on tape and that is that.)

Several people in the Alliance complained about being “outsiders”.  I wanted to say to them:  “Where’s Lucy [Corchado, head of  the Point association]?  Where are they?  The Point is a neighborhood, isn’t it?”

Those people have their own advisory board at the highest level of city government.  They have Jason Silva’s [Mayor Driscoll’s chief-of-staff] private number on speed-dial.  I have no doubt that someone like Michael Coleman can have Mike Sosnowski swing into action at 3 AM on a Sunday if he so commands it.  If Teasie Goggin wanted to repeat Mike Bencal’s Al Haig moment (“I’m in control here”, after the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981) when he tried to take charge of City Hall when the mayor was away a few years ago, she has more than enough social capital to do so!

They have that advisory commission in addition to the Alliance!  Tell me they are outsiders again?

As it happened, the meeting was a waste of time for me and and my colleagues on the Commission on Disabilities, since it was supposed to pertain to the MBTA parking garage, but was instead an unfocused rambling about pedestrian access and getting traffic usage stats, only to find out the state had already done that but nobody from the Alliance even read the report.  The Commission probably could have used that, but the person presenting that report didn’t bother to tell us where we could find the data from the state website.

(I’d filmed video of the meeting.  It would have been nice of them to tell us when the MBTA part of the meeting would get under way so I wouldn’t have to guess how long the batteries in my camera would last.  Not long enough as it turned out.)

If I can’t be involved in the workings of my own city, the one that I have spent 47 years in, I think, why am I bothering to blog?

I’ve asked myself that question over and over during the past six months.

The only thing keeping me going is the Commission—whose purpose I believe in with all my heart and soul—and Salem Access Television, where I have been applying my IT talents for 11 years.

I’m very proud, in fact, that SATV now has much of its local programming available over the Net.  Public meetings—including the Commission’s—are now available through our Government page.

I worked very hard with Sal Russo and the staff over the past year to make this possible and I am inordinately prideful.  I’ve been delighted to flip the figurative “bird” to a few former board members who thought this was a “fad” or “something for Dave and Sal to spend money on”.  (In fact, video-on-demand has been a roaring success at SATV.)

There are many other thoughts, ideas and initiatives at SATV and the Commission to make fodder for many more years of blog posts, which is why I’m continuing to blog.

But I will never, ever, let myself believe that I have a stake and a say with what happens in Salem.

I don’t.  And I won’t.

Political Violence Should Be Scary

[Creative Commons photo by cjbrenchly]

Nelson Benton, editor of the Salem News, is scared of the Second Amendment advocates of violence:

One of the more disturbing aspects of all the back-and-forth about the tragedy in Tucson is that there exists an element | and it may be growing | that views the right to bear arms as an essential adjunct to their right to overthrow the government by violent means.

Nelson, you’re right to be scared.  The attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords of Arizona, and the deaths of a federal judge, and a nine-year old girl, is intended to scare us all.  It was an act of terrorism no less in its emotional impact than Oklahoma City or 9/11.

You’d be wrong to assume that this has happened out of nowhere.  And you’d be wrong to assume your own paper didn’t have at least a small role in the violent rhetoric.

This goes back at least 30 years. 

When I was in college in the early 1980’s, Massachusetts government was in bad shape.  We had, and still have, a legacy of corruption, patronage and just plain incompetence.  Our state buildings were constructed, and fell down, on the take, while numerous connected contractors had their hands out.

It was, and is, shameful.  The anti-tax activist Barbara Anderson made her bones during that era. 

So too did talk radio.  I, and numerous other Salemmites and Bostonians, listened to the triumvirate:  Jerry Williams, Gene Burns and David Brudnoy.  They were all libertarians.

And they all preached that government was bad, private sector was good and the best government was the least government.  That philosophy influenced me almost to this day.

We’ve heard the narrative against public employees, politicians and government for so long we take it for granted, and take it as truth.  We’ve taken these beliefs as faith for 30 years.

Second Amendment advocates have been promoting the right to bear arms for just as long;  indeed, libertarians have often been natural allies in their fight.

Now, Nelson, you’re surprised and alarmed by the violence? 

In recent years, your newspaper has been an unpleasant one to read.  Barbara Anderson has written op-eds for the News for years, and they are not of the mild-mannered housewife I often heard with Jerry Williams, but of a harder, almost insane tenor.  She started going off the rails with her 9/11 column, but her most recent column on the Tucson shooting is just nuts.

Another of your op-ed writers, Taylor Armerding, was once a fiscal conservative, though a hard one.  Nowadays I’m afraid that he has a carry permit and will make headlines like Jared Loughner did.

And that says nothing of the cesspool that is the comments section of the Salem News web site. 

I fear, Nelson, that your paper has done its part to further today’s political violence and that your paper’s owners are OK with this just as Roger Ailes and Fox News are fine with Glenn Beck.

Nelson, don’t look to Tucson for the Second Amendment Brigade.  Look to Arlington, and perhaps, even Salem.

Salem City Hall Elevator Dedication

Salem City Hall finally has an elevator!  We saw the elevator under construction when the Commission attended Mayor Driscoll’s proclamation of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this past summer.

Here is the ceremony:

And here is a walkthrough of the new elevator. Notice that there are two elevator doors, as you sometimes see in hospitals; one door covers the ground floor from the sidewalk while the other is at the level of the existing ground floor at City Hall.

This is "The Whirlybird", the old chairlift on the front staircase into the Council Chambers:

Beth Rennard, our city solicitor, used this lift every day.

She won’t miss it.

Charlie Baker, Moral Auditor

A few months ago, Charlie Baker, the Republican candidate for Governor, proposed his “Baker’s Dozen” for cutting costs.  I’d read about it in Blue Mass Group when he first proposed these measures but initially I didn’t take them seriously;  candidates say things or are reported to say things all the time that turn out to have too little context to reasonably comment on.  Besides, most day to day political coverage is noise.

I reread the post on BMG that first caught my attention, Charlie Baker proposes new government bureaucracy to approve lifestyles. 

Charlie Baker’s Dozen ideas to eliminate government waste is still on his campaign’s website so I’m going to assume it is on his ongoing platform.

Point 8:

8. Conduct forensic financial analysis for benefits eligibility – Between $10M to $20M in savings
State agencies need to consider more than just tax returns when determining individuals’ eligibility for public benefits and services. A lifestyle analysis quantifies the living expenses of individuals - such as credit card bills, recreation activities, auto loans, grocery bills - and compares the expenses to known sources of income. If the money spent during the period analyzed exceeds the known funding sources, it is quite possible that there is another source of income. The state should conduct this analysis on a pilot basis for a few services – such as public defendants and public housing - before individuals are deemed eligible for the benefits.

Baker’s idea came from, amongst others, Dan Winslow, former legal counsel to former governor Mitt Romney in an article for Commonwealth Magazine.  Beyond Red and Blue wrote about this in 2008:

For state entitlement eligibility, a simple LAF checklist can consider discretionary spending such as whether persons or households seeking free or discounted state services own property, have credit cards, hold bank accounts, or own a new car, multiple cars or a boat. The checklist could also consider whether an individual purchases cable television, Internet service, or premium cell phone service and whether they buy airline tickets, possess illegal drugs, or smoke a pack of cigarettes daily.

On the face of it, Baker’s proposal seems to be just a financial audit, like the ones Social Security does on SSI recipients.  But Winslow’s association with the Romney administration makes me recall Eric Kriss’ infamous “Givers and Takers” speech of a few years back.

With that history I don’t think this provision is a financial audit.

It is a moral audit, and Baker wants to be our moral auditor.

Many, many people in the disability community, and outside it, get public housing, health insurance and food benefits.  There are people who may get any of the three without ever having set foot in a welfare or Social Security office.

There are working people who live in Pioneer Terrace, a much-maligned housing project near Salem State.

Many will be affected.  Charlie Baker, in his ads, brags about firing 5,000 state employees if he’s elected.  How many people would we need to staff his new moral auditing division?  How many of the 5,000 would need to seek public assistance?

David, of BMG, makes the point that “lifestyle analysis” requires expertise and not cheap at that, based on how the IRS goes after people with yachts.  I think he’s wrong on this point, though. 

The Baker administration, if elected, wouldn’t go to that length;  It would outsource the new agency to one of the Indian or Chinese shops to which most of our customer support calls end up.  The outsourcers would get a directive to flag as many people as possible for fraud for the cheapest possible price, working through their backlog as fast as they can, however they can.

Someone in public housing would get a thick envelope and a threatening letter, and a request to account for all the spending they made over the past five years, say, all in longhand with a 10 day filing deadline.  A representative would follow up with questions, all along the lines of:  “Why did you get that?”,  “Why do you need a computer—can’t you go to the library?”, “Why did your son pay for dinner out?”, “Why aren’t you getting a better job?”, “Why are you still in public housing?”

And then the eviction notice would come.  Maybe there’ll be an appeal process.  If it’s funded.

I think Winslow’s, and Baker’s mindsets are such that they would not stop at a merely fiscal audit, even if they might not say it out loud.  Certainly, Romney only disavowed Kriss because he made his own reputation look bad;  Romney hired him, as he did Baker and Winslow, and he damned well knew what they were all about.

It’s a “small government” nanny state and it will demean many people in the disability community.  Many of them already fear they are somewhat “less worthy” than an able-bodied person.

If we vote for Baker, we may be telling them, as well, that because they are often on the wrong end of the economic scale, they should not be allowed to manage their own lives either.

There will be the stories that come out with this, like the little old lady who gets audited (“But I voted Republican!”  “Oops, our bad!”)  or the disabled war veteran (“Say, son, you sound like you’re old enough to enlist.  Don’t you love your country?  Why aren’t you in the service?”  “Um, ah, err…”  I’d love to hear that one.)

But first, the dignity of the state’s disabled community will be degraded.  And a lot of money will be spent.  Baker won’t care, as long as he’s spending it.

Not Remembering 9/11

As we mark the ninth anniversary of Al Qaeda’s attack on September 11th, I’m proud of this artwork.  I produced it for my friend Leo Jodoin and his TV show, Salem Now, which I have been a crewmember for the 13 years it’s been produced.  It features the improvised, informal, but now established, 9/11 memorial at Market Basket.

I’m proud of my art.

But I’m not proud of what has become the fetish of worship and hysteria that now defines September 11th.

Over a very long summer, we have been hearing about the imam who plans to build a Muslim cultural center a few blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center.  His plans have gone through and before a large number of boards and commissions in Manhattan, as any other project would.

In Salem, I know this process well, and the Commission on Disabilities is one of the participants in the rituals that developers go through to get things built.

The imam’s project has gone through all the hoops and hurdles in Manhattan.  But a lawsuit from one of the relatives of a 9/11 victim is reportedly pending.

To say what I think of this, I need to go back to last spring, when the developers of the Salem Jail wanted to turn the greenspace fronting Bridge St. into a parking lot as a condition for a restaurant on the premises.  There was a heavily attended meeting about this that saw nearly all of the neighborhood groups come to testify.

I wrote about what happened in that meeting but I’ll repeat it:  A guy from Northfields spoke out against the proposed lot.  But more than that, he went into a long speech about what kinds of development would be suitable in the neighborhood.

My neighborhood.

And he told us that the elderly complex—my building—would not be in favor of commercial development.

I was livid.   Beyond mad.  Angry.   Pissed.

The Northfields guy was telling me and my neighbors what was right for us.  I can’t even speak for my neighbors!   We have, in fact, been living next to a commercial office building for many years.

Now, how am I going to tell that imam that he cannot build his center because I believe Muslims brought me pain on 9/11?   I don’t consider myself to have any standing;  as of now, it’s not even clear if the courts will give standing to any relative of a 9/11 victim to bring suit against the organization that plans to build there (a former clothing store that is not even within sight of the WTC block.)

I didn’t like that guy from Northfields presuming to speak for me or my neighbors, so why should I have a position on that cultural center?

There is no rule of law that could enable me to go to Manhattan and stop this.  It’s gone through all the permitting down there and that should be that.  The First Amendment has no asterisks saying “except some religions we don’t approve of”.  (Catholics who oppose the cultural center might want to look at their own history in America first.)

In the next town over, there is a political activist, famous for her anti-tax, limited-government advocacy.  She writes for the local daily, whose editorial board shares her opinions.  She has spoken out against the cultural center (it is not a mosque.)

Does she really think that is in her limited-government bailiwick, to just reach out and tell a municipality in another state even that they must deny a project just because she doesn’t like it?  That is by no means small, limited government!

If she were consistent with her desire for small government and private-sector development (and the imam runs a private organization), she’d advocate for someone like the Koch brothers to buy the Ground Zero site, an enormous parcel of land that much of Salem would fit into, and turn it into a martyr’s center to the sacred 9/11.  (Newt Gingrich also wants to “federalize” the site to create such a memorial.)

There is already a 9/11 church at the site, and their pastor has the hate for Muslims. 

And that is the other reason I feel shamed this day.

For some years now, the Republican party has become more radical and more religious, throwing many moderate conservatives, particularly those in the Northeast, out the door.

They have all but encouraged Christian fundamentalism.   This atheist does not see a lot of distinctions between Al Qaeda’s apocalyptic Islamism, and what Christianism is said to be by many fundamentalist pastors.

Pat Robertson said that “9/11 happened because America looked away from God”.  Was God rooting for Islam that day?

A few years ago when Janet Jackson “performed” at the Superbowl, one columnist from a Seattle paper said that “Al Qaeda had a point!”  We fear jihad, but we now have our own “prayer warriors” in Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, Fist of the North Star.

We all were happy to see the Taliban in Afghanistan, and their theocratic government, brought down.  But I’ve come to think that, to prominent Republicans and Christians, amplified by Fox News, the only sin that Al Qaeda and the Taliban have committed is, is doing terrorism in Allah’s name rather than in Jesus’.

I have recalled General Boykin’s words:

.' Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

And that man was a high-ranking officer in our Army.

We even have our own apocalyptic movement in America.  Osama Bin Laden had to inherit his wealth, but Tim and Beverly LaHaye, authors of the “Left Behind” series, have made their millions convincing people that God will take his own people and leave the world to rot for Satan—and that a good Christian should wish for it!

Afraid of violent Islamism?  From what rhetoric I’ve seen over the past few years, we have more to worry about from our own people.  The Tea Party, whose copies of the Constitution only seem to have the Second Amendment in them, loves its armaments.  Prayer warriors, backed up by Browning, Smith and Wesson.  Someone flew a plane into an IRS office in Austin, Texas.

If Tim McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in OKC today, rather than in 1995, I am certain people would be excusing what he did.  “It’s too bad about that dead baby but her mommy shouldn’t have worked for the government!”  McVeigh himself would be a prisoner of conscience.  Not only would the Tea Partiers call for his freedom but also not a few editorial boards, perhaps even our activist next door.

All because Bin Laden happens to be a Muslim instead of a Christian.  I wonder if he’s for limited government in that world caliphate he wants to build?  If anyone is concerned about the moral state of the world, he certainly is!  He could convert to Christianity tomorrow—as extremely unlikely it may be—and he’d fit right in with some!

That’s why I don’t want to “commemorate” or “remember” or “memorialize” this day.  We put Japanese-Americans in camps in the name of December 7th, Pearl Harbor and we were wrong—and we knew it.  I don’t want to see what we’ll do against Allah—or for Jesus—in the name of 9/11.

UPDATE:  I haven’t read Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, or heard of it before this week, but Andrew Sullivan reviewed it for Powells a few years back.  I’d still like to find it at the library and read it, but from what I read from this review, and other blogs I’ve seen online about D’Souza on his most recent book, he’s virtually shaken hands with Bin Laden, and he recommends his ideological peers in the Republican party do the same.  That has only reinforced my commentary.

My letter to John Tierney on the health reform bill

No picture in this post.  I just faxed this to my congressman. 

Disclaimer:  Does not represent an official stance of the Salem Commission on Disabilities.

Short and I hope to the point:

Congressman John Tierney

2238 Rayburn

House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Tierney,

I’ve followed the news on the health care bill and I understand that you’re undecided on it.

I urge you to vote yes tomorrow.

In your home town you may be familiar with the Salem Commission on Disabilities. We represent the interests of all of Salem’s citizens, businessmen and visitors with disabilities.

20% of the citizens of Salem have a disability.

Health care, and access to health care, are critically important. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 70%—this is a brutal statistic!

Many people on SSI or state welfare are trapped there, lest they lose their health coverage. More, still, become disabled and lose their jobs when their employers get the word and the premium hikes come—they can’t afford to keep people with health issues!

I am an unrepentant supporter of single-payer health care. But the current bill is probably as far as we’ll be able to get. There’ll always be another chance, if President Obama can be courageous.

I realize that, outside Salem, in the rest of your district, this is not a popular stance.

But it’s the courageous one.

You opposed the Iraq war, and expressed that opinion and got through it. You’re still in office.

I ask you to take a stand again, no matter how loud the opposition gets.

David Moisan

Commissioner, Salem Commission on Disabilities

Smoking Ban in Public Housing to Be Discussed (UPDATED)

Nearly a year after it was first proposed, the Council’s Committee on Public Health, Safety and Environment will take up Tom Furey’s proposed smoking ban on public housing in the city.

I loathe and despise the habit but as I said when Tom first proposed it, it’s bad law.  And it’s condescending, encouraging people to think that “poor” (or low-income as the people in my building are) are “bad”.  (If they have money they must be “good” or at least, well, “it’s their money they can do whatever they want with it!”)

Whatever your views on smoking, if you live in public housing and have an opinion, please show up at the meeting.  

Tuesday, 6:30 PM in the Council chambers.  (I can’t be there myself due to other commitments.)

UPDATE:  Last night, the proposal was DOA.

Quote:

Earlier, Furey said that living in taxpayer-supported public housing was "not a right and an entitlement, but a privilege and a responsibility."

OK, Tom, what’s the next rung down?  The poorhouse?  The homeless shelter?  I have been in public housing for 25 years.  Yes that makes me lazy and irresponsible.  Glad to hear it and will try to uplift myself and my neighbors right away.

Some other comments from the 101st Chairborne, Salem News Regiment:

peaceful_life

They have money for smokes because their rent, health care and food costs are largely taken care of by the taxpayer leaving plenty of splash cash.

OK, pretend it’s your mom or dad in my building.  They probably are.  A lot of middle-class people use their parents as tax shelters.  They won’t want their inheritance wiped out by housing when Dad can’t live in the family homestead anymore.  So they’ll have Mom spend down her personal assets and file for Medicaid.

And public housing.  It’s not far from the truth to say that elderly housing is no less a subsidy to middle-class boomers with aging parents, and to old boomers themselves, than it is to dissipated people like myself.

In this economy, and even before, many who would think they were too proud to consider public assistance have come to plead for it. 

And, once they have it, invent justifications for why they are more deserving for public assistance than those “others”.

Meanwhile, in buildings like the Jefferson built by the private sector, you can smoke as thou wilt.   Considering the build quality of that complex, the first tenant to sleep in bed with a smoke may likely be the last one!  (It was, after all, a disposed lit cigarette that destroyed an entire apartment building in Peabody.) 

Not sure about you, Tom, but I am for sure “morally” concerned about that.  As much as I hate the Jefferson, a fire in that complex will be catastrophic and my schadenfreude doesn’t extend to seeing body bags carried out of a smoking crater across the street from me.

Where’s your outrage?  You didn’t think that far ahead when that project was green-lighted in the Usovicz administration?

Now you can grandstand about public housing and personal responsibility. 

Tom,

Get your head out of your ass.

Final Thoughts on Jail Parking and the Greenspace

Final followup, I hope, to the ongoing Salem Jail Parking drama.  The Salem News gave an account of last Tuesday’s meeting, and talked about it some more.

Any time the neighborhood associations get involved in discussions like this, I’m unhappy.

I say this even though I was in substantial agreement with those opposed to the parking plan. 

Had New Boston Ventures came to the meeting with their original 39-space plan, I would have opposed it as well.

But NBV proposed what I thought was a very interesting compromise:  12 spaces and an access road.  The access road is required by the fire department in any event.

During the day, NBV suggested that the new spaces could be used by the elderly housing complex in which I live next door.  We have a serious parking problem.  Whatever my views are on over-dependence on the automobile in downtown, there’s an undeniable need for visitor spaces in my building and the adjoining building next door.  You can’t expect an oxygen delivery van to park in Museum Place.

I’d hoped that the committee would take that under consideration and table NBV’s compromise proposal until the next meeting.  The neighbors would vent and rant a bit but that’d be fine.

I had wanted it to work out—having green space, parking and the restaurant all at once.  Maybe it wasn’t possible but no harm in wanting it!

But that did not happen.  Mike Sosnowski had come into the meeting against the idea and went out against it.  The neighborhood groups were a big reason why.

I’d expected the meeting to have fewer attendees than I expected.  I had thought this was a matter for my immediate neighborhood, the Bridge St. Neck association, and perhaps the few urban planning experts amongst us.

Over 100 people showed up, most all from various neighborhood groups around the city.   They all spoke out against the proposal, whether they lived nearby or not. Despite what the News reported, there was no turn of opinion there.  All came in against, all left against.

Low point—angriest point for me—is when a gentleman from the Northfields spoke out against the proposal.

That’s not what I was angry about;  he had expressed many of the concerns I had had as well.  If he had a view of the Jail from across the river, he may have even had a point.  One point I’ve come back to is the great vista of the Jail from both northbound and southbound Bridge St.  It is beautiful!  I can only imagine what it looks like from the river and am looking forward to finding out when spring finally arrives.

But this guy started talking about how my building (and the building next door) didn’t want the restaurant and any commercial development. 

He didn’t ask us.  I know I didn’t coordinate my talking points with others from my building, but I wouldn’t pretend to speak for them.

He of Northfields, likely of a mortgage with five or six zeros in it, dictating to me and my neighbors what we think.

I was livid!

And he’s wrong about commercial development.  Next door to me is 10 Federal.

10 Federal has been a commercial property for the 60 years it existed;  at first for New England Telephone, then NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, Verizon and now a renovated private office building.

Ironically, it’s very visible coming down the Veteran’s Riverway from the north.

The associations are all of a piece, they all think like this man.

And my councilor has no choice but to go along.  I’m very frustrated with him but ultimately I’m sympathetic—he has an impossible position to govern from.

He answers to the Downtown, Salem Common, Bridge St. Neck and Federal St. Associations.  I’m certain that once the Jail is occupied, there will be the Salem Jail Neighborhood Association. 

My greatest fear is that they can and will all speak for me, without actually needing or appreciating my input.  It isn’t as though people in public housing have an “investment” in Downtown.

And that Mike is just going along, out of necessity.

[Note:  I had posted an earlier draft online that was a bit too vituperative overall and particularly unfair to my councilor Mike.  My frustrations with him have been long pent up because I have never been able to have that hard, though productive, conversation that clears the air.  Perhaps we’ll have one sometime. 

PS:   Despite speculation on Salemweb, I doubt that Mr. Treadwell was the guy who spoke—Mr. Treadwell is an expert who would have well known the exact makeup of my neighborhood and that it was once all commercial.]

Salem Jail Parking Proposal Apparently Dead

The City Council met tonight to discuss New Boston Venture’s proposal to reconfigure the greenspace triangle at St. Peter, Bridge and Howard Sts for additional restaurant parking.

The proposal is apparently dead.

Rather than give my opinions again, here are my notes.  No doubt the Salem News will report this tomorrow;  there was already a letter in today’s News opposing the proposal.

I couldn’t hear everybody who spoke—nearly everyone from the neighborhood groups showed up, but the important points are here as best as I could hear and write down.

The original proposal brought by New Boston Ventures (NPV) was for 37 parking spaces carved out of the greenspace near the Jail wall.

NPV came back with a compromise proposal of 13 parking spaces and a turnaround that would be on a new access road from Bridge St.

There are two restaurants currently interested in the space.  They have indicated that additional parking is a prerequisite for their interests.

NPV talked a little about the sidewalk that bisects the current greenspace and will intersect the access road.  Some thought was given to a crushed stone sidewalk recycled from the original granite blocks from the Jail.

NPV expressed great appreciation for the effort that the city, the Council, and the SRA have put in to make the Salem Jail project work.  Everyone agrees it has become a beautiful building and NPV is happy with their efforts so far.

The head of the Planning Dept. (Lynn Duncan, IIRC) has been inside the restaurant space.  It is on a second level with a river view.  She believes the parking plan is much improved.

If there is no restaurant, the space will be made into housing, 3 units.

But the City would much prefer the restaurant;  she is concerned that if the Jail becomes all private housing, that will threaten or make non-viable the small Jail museum that is in the current plans.

One member of the committee (couldn’t make out whom) talked bout the spaces lost from Morency Manor use.  [For a long while, while the Jail property was vacant, visitors to Morency Manor were allowed short term parking in the Jail lot.  These were used by VNA’s, relatives, and other visitors who needed to stop by briefly.]

NPV proposed their lot to be used by Morency Manor visitors during the daytime hours (2 hr. parking.)

Councilor O’Keefe:  The access road must be there on Bridge St. due to fire regulations.  That is not negotiable.

Counicilor Pelletier: Are there condos [in the Jail]?

NPV:  No.  Apartments for now but if phase 2 is approved, the new building will be condos.  Because of a complicated arrangment involving tax breaks for historic properties, this was necessary for the project to go through.

Question from the committee regarding National Grid’s transformer—why did that take three months to settle?

Transformer siting--National Grid changed their mind on NBV’s placement of the distribution transformer on site.   National Parks Service rejected this placement, due to the sensitive granite wall around the Jail.  National Grid then wanted to place their vault with other utilities, water, sewer, etc. and NBV thought that was infeasible.  This went on for some time.  The morning of this meeting [tonight],  National Grid agreed to a compromise placement suitable to NBV, NG and NPS.

A committee member had a question:  Is the road considered a private access road on what is public land.

Rules were suspended so that the public comment period would take place.  Nearly half the room took their place to speak [including my colleague Charlie Reardon, and myself] so I didn’t get everyone and couldn’t.

The public comment was unanimous—No parking!  The points came down to three.

1) Green space is very very important to Salemmites.  No one wanted to lose any.  People were very concerned over the original  37-space proposal, and very few people, if any, were mollified by the compromise, although people appreciated that NBV tried to change it.  The quote of the night came from one woman:  With the recent reconstruction of Bridge St., and the Leslie’s Retreat park space along the North River to the south, Salem has its own “Emerald Necklace”, like the famous green space of parks, rivers and walks in Boston writ small.

2) Why does a restaurant need additional spaces when there are already spaces available during the evening hours?  Moreover, many thriving restaurants manage to survive without storefront parking.  One committee member put it:  “Salem doesn’t have a parking problem, it has a walking problem.”

3) If the restaurant can give up 13 spaces during the day to Morency Manor, spaces that it would use for delivery trucks and etc., perhaps it didn’t need the spaces after all.

Mike Sosnowski had the closing words before the vote.  He had been present during the long planning process for the Bypass Road, some 35 years of effort, and the word [a new word to many of us at the time] was mitigation.  That green space was mitigation for the road, amongst many other compromises that needed to be made.

Mike, continuing:  I respect NBV very much for what they have done so far.  But it is not worth losing that green space to keep the restaurant.

NBV:  Offered and requested to withdraw their proposal.

The committee voted to give a negative recommendation to the full Council. 

Bypass Road: Now the Veteran’s Riverway

Finally, Salem’s Last Road has a name.  Last week, the City Council voted to call it “Veteran’s Riverway”.  It’s an appropriate name at that!

Not appropriate though, is the nearly two year delay to decide on a name.  I thought it should be called the “Sosnowski Byway” because my councilor dragged his heels for a very long time before taking action on this.

It seems like a small matter when there are much more important matters facing the city, but naming a road should not take as long as it did.  If the council can’t name it in an hour of discussion in what should be an uncontroversial subject, then I have no respect for that body.

I’ve always known Mike didn’t approve of the road.  This wasn’t a problem;  I didn’t approve either.  And my friend Leo Jodoin is constantly harping on that, “It’s not a bypass road!”

I suspected Mike snubbed the mayor when she dedicated the road and he didn’t show up.  That didn’t reflect well on him. 

Neither does this matter.

At least the courthouse is already named after Mike Ruane.  When I and my colleagues on the Commission attend the opening of the new Salem Depot, I’m not expecting him to be there. 

It’s OK, Mike.  Just don’t blame the mayor.

Voting at St. John’s

As I mentioned in my last post, I voted at St. John’s today.   The handicapped entrance is around the corner at the old Pioneer House entrance:

The entrance to the hall is a newly installed door inside the entrance to the left.  It doesn’t have an automatic door opener and no one was at the door, as they often were at the Salem Heights polling place.

Once inside, I checked in, but had trouble with the Automark machine for people with disabilities.  The machine was in the dead center of the room, which was split off by precinct, one side (closest to the handicapped entrance) for Pct. 1, and the other for Pct. 2 (mine).

The area in front of the Automark was blocked by a table, I presumed it was there to divide the two halves of the room.

After looking stumped for a moment, one of the poll workers asked me if I wanted to use the machine.  Affirmative.  She and two other poll workers had to get the key to activate the machine and it was a few minutes before I could use it.

I did get to use the machine and eventually cast my ballot.

I know the poll workers are mostly inexperienced;  the clerk has had to aggressively seek workers in recent years.  Worse yet, there’s still the preliminary and final special elections for the US Senate coming up. 

But those in charge of setup should put the Automark on their checklist.

Election 2009 Thoughts

As we prepare for another municipal election,  I’ve never made endorsements as such on the blog, but here are my thoughts.

First of all, I and the rest of Ward 2 have a new polling place, or really, an old place being used again:  The social hall at St. John’s Church, just next door to me.  It was used in 1995, but later polling was done at Salem Heights.

I hated and resented that for years.  Now it’s back to St. John’s.  I can’t blame people in Salem Heights or in Precinct 1 for hating this, too.  I wouldn’t begrudge them for the hate one bit.  The polling places have been consolidated this year so most wards go to one place for both precincts except for Wards 5 and 6.

I’m obliged to investigate handicapped access;  this lack of access was why St. John’s was dropped in the first place.  I asked around and was told there would be a ramp.  There’ll need to be three;  there’s one up to the entrance, one down to the foyer, and one into the hall itself if I recall correctly.

We’ll see how it goes Tuesday.

On to the candidates. Wards 3 and 5 are the only contested ward races, so for most voters, the at-large candidates are the only ones they’ll focus on. 

That brings me to Teasie Goggin, the highest-profile candidate in all the city, running for at-large.

I respect Teasie.  I’ve talked with her about one of her campaign goals, increased transparency in government.  It is something I’ve talked about, and lived.  If she is elected she will learn what I have learned firsthand!

Unfortunately, Teasie and I have never talked about the big issue that divides us, the senior center.  I fear that if I elect her, she will seek to delay the project such that we’ll be arguing it when I’m 60.  She and my ward councilor are opinionated to a fault with this.

What of other issues?  Boston St.?  I can cite another example of the transparency she is asking for in the Salem Redevelopment Authority controversy over Tavern in the Square.

Respect Teasie as I may, I can’t give her my vote.

I also feel unable (or unwilling) to vote for Tom Furey.  I don’t believe for a moment that he was deliberately malicious when he wanted to ban smoking in public housing, but that is an issue he could have dealt with differently if only he had some forethought.  I’ve learned not to expect that from many councilors, but that is no excuse.

I will vote for Joan Lovely in the at-large.  I almost always disagree with her, but respect her professionalism.  (I appreciate the hand written note on your election mailing, Mrs. Lovely.  Thanks.  But I had decided my position before getting it.)

I like Steve Pinto but don’t feel connected to him, nor to Arthur Sargent, nor to the “new” candidate, Mike Allen (ex-School Committee).

I will not cast a vote for my ward councilor, nor for Mayor Driscoll, for reasons I’ve already explained earlier in the year.  I’m also concerned about her support for casinos, a issue that has been virtually undiscussed.  Mayor Driscoll, like too many in Salem, want to think our recession is a bad dream and soon over.  On the other hand, it’s very much real and may never be over soon, as long as we depend on the quick fix of gentrification.

(Aside:  I’ve thought Shirley Walker’s very public shit fight with Murphy’s restaurant was done out of frustration;  I think she wanted to flip her condo at Derby Lofts like she did in Quincy and wasn’t able to do so.)

By my account, Mayor Driscoll is still depending on gentrification to make her and Salem go.   Not for me.

Not only ghosts around in Salem

Witches, ghosts and demons aren’t the only inhabitants of Salem today.  These LaRouchites are holding court just two blocks from my house at the Visitor’s Center.  They’ve usually set up at the Post Office a few times a year, without the offensive signs.  Wish I had given them a “helpful gesture” but it’s not in my character.

Salem Commission on Disabilities hosts City’s five year plan public meeting

At tomorrow’s meeting of the Salem Commission on Disabilities, Jane Guy will be presenting the city’s 5 Year Consolidated Plan.

The meeting starts at 4 PM at Salem Access Television, 285 Derby St.

For anyone interested, we have a copy of the 100% design plan for the Bridge St. Reconstruction Project (from Howard St. to the Salem-Beverly Bridge) and will have it for inspection at 3 PM at the meeting.

Sidewalk Meeting Set

The City Council Committee of the Whole will review the sidewalk ordinances tomorrow (Thursday, October 15th) at 7 PM, Council chambers.  Several of us of the Commission on Disabilities will be there.

Not coincidentally, Tavern in the Square has started construction of their outdoor seating area.  That would be a done deal.  But the Commission will work to make sure it doesn’t affect sidewalk access elsewhere downtown.

Unofficial Minutes of the Salem Commission on Disabilities, September 2009

The regular meeting of the Salem Commission on Disabilities was held at SATV on September 15th, 2009.  Present:  Jack Harris, chair, David Martell, Debra Lobsitz, Jean Harrison, David Tracht, David Moisan, Jean Levesque, Michael Taylor, Andy LaPointe, Charlie Reardon, co-chair, Jean Levesque, Assistant ADA Coordinator and Mike Sosnowski, City Council Liaision.

SATV Audible Bulletin Board

Jack:  First, I apologize to Dave Gauthier for having him in the agenda as “Ron Gauthier”.  I’ve asked him to come and talk about the audible bulletin board that was on SATV.  I know Andy and Dave Moisan have been talking about this.

Dave Gauthier:  We have three bulletin boards, scrolling announcements that run on each channel 3, 15 and 16.  We used to videotape the announcements on Channel 3, and we had volunteers who would read each announcement to tape.  That tape was run as a program every week.

The problem we had with this is that we did this with older technology.  As we upgraded we found we couldn’t do this anymore.  Andy and I have been trying to come up with a temporary solution.  I’ve been talking with David Moisan, who does the IT work at SATV, about how to resolve this.  Dave and I are talking with the manufacturer of our system, Tightrope Media Systems, to see what they can do.  We’ve reached out to them but haven’t heard anything back yet.

I have no idea how hard it would be to do this;  I’m not a programmer.

Dave Moisan:  I’ve done a preliminary back-of-the-envelope calculation.  Everybody knows that software comes in version numbers, 1, 2, 3.  Windows is at 7.  Mac is at 10.  The highest level of function we need is a bulletin board option that offers a synthesized voice channel of the text information that goes into the system.  There are issues with audio since we broadcast TIC Network and we would have to sort those out.  If I recall, their bulletin board software is 4.8.  It isn’t a simple update that they can give to us in version 4.8.3.  It may be a version 5 or even a 6.  They may even have to put another category of (meta)data in there.

We have enough to do with them in getting our new computer to convert DVD’s into their system, without this.

I had the idea of taking the text data they already provide to get a voice along with the visual announcements.  It’s technically feasible for me to do it.  But it’s probably not smart for me to do this.  It’s not a good project for SATV to undertake right now.

Jack:  SATV was the only station to do this originally in 2000-2001. 

Is there anything the commission or the SATV board can do to contact the software vendor to ask them to support this?

Dave Moisan:   You can contact Tightrope.  I have contacted them on more than one occasion.  I would tell them this is an important area for them to look at.  With time, this could be easier for them to do.  It’s never the final word with this sort of software;  there is always something new we want.

Keep writing.

We have the individual pieces, oftentimes, but getting all these many components to fit together.  No one makes everything and oftentimes, no one makes the one thing you need.

Jack:  My hope is that we can somehow get across to them the importance of such a system.  And two, the feedback they may get knowing that there are people in their market who appreciate these features.

David G.:  You can contact Tightrope.  They’re very responsible.

Jack:  If we can keep the pressure up.  If new technology can come about that would make it possible to do these things, it would be good.

Andy:  Why is this so difficult.  Why don’t we have volunteers?  Why not a blank screen with voiceovers?

David G.:  Andy and I have discussed this.  We try to make our channel serve as many of the audience as possible.  A blank screen with audio would use up our resource.

I have a couple of ideas I’ve brought up to Andy:  Is it possible to use our software to output text announcements for people to read?  Or is it possible to get announcements to TIC Network to read?

Andy:  I’ve talked with Ron Bersani of TIC Network and I can see what they can do to help us.

David G.:  We could take selected announcements and read those.  Announcements that won’t expire for a few weeks.  Perhaps not every week, but every other week.  I think if I can get other staff involved, we might get something going, even if it’s only part-time.

Andy:  How can I help?

Jack:  Here’s my suggestion.  Ron Bersani and TIC would be something to explore.  Then your other idea of announcements every other week.

Andy:  It would be nice to come up with something. Salem has had its audible bulletin board on longer than in many other communities.  It’s not only for the blind, but it also benefits those who are multitasking and not able to pay attention to the screen.

Dave G.:  It will be up to Dave M. and Andy and me to figure out the easiest way to proceed.  I definitely want to speak with Mr. Bersani.  If that doesn’t work out, we’ll work on the other thing.

SATV is supportive of the disability community and of the Commission.  I’ll come back in a month.

Jack:  I have a guest next month;  come back in November.  If you can get some letters from the SATV board and the Mayor’s office to send to Tightrope to support this effort, it would be good.

I’ll leave you four to work out a meeting and I will thank Dave Gauthier for showing up.

Tavern in the Square (Old Business)

Jack:  Several of you have gone on a site visit of Tavern in the Square.  There’s a site plan in your packet.  We have a major problem.

As everyone knows, Tavern in the Square wants to establish outdoor seating outside the restaurant in the grass and the trees, at the corner of Washington and New Derby Sts.

Between that area and the restaurant, there’s a sidewalk that runs parallel to the building along Washington St.  To get their liquor license, they need to be able to have contiguous seating between the restaurant and the seating area, this is a state regulation.

The problem that the Commission runs into, that I have personally run into, is that when they block the sidewalk, you don’t have a direct path of travel.  Under the ADA regulations, there’s not a lot about this.  I have written to the MOD asking them to look at this.

If this were Hamilton or Wenham, Danvers or Peabody, it might not be a big deal but with a world-class city with thousands of tourists from all over the world, to put a barrier and obstacle with outdoor seating is a big deal.  They’re not the only ones who do this;  Rockafellas does, and Puleo’s does.  It’s like a maze!

Jean Levesque:  Are they saying the tables have to be on the sidewalk?

Jack:  To comply with state liquor laws, there has to be contiguous seating.  If you notice on the plans, if that sidewalk is blocked, there is another sidewalk that goes out and around.  My contention is that that route is not a direct path of travel and takes one away from the buildings.

Jean:  It’s not wide.

Jack:  No, it’s not.   Andy might attest to how difficult or challenging it may be to take that route.

Andy:  It might be difficult for those unfamiliar to Salem.

Mike S.:  The City Council wants to invite the Commission and others to speak about the impact that this would take.

Jack:  Personally, I will make clear, I am not against outdoor seating.  It would be an asset, particularly to this city, but this represents a barrier.  We talked about Rockafellas, and Essex St., some years ago.  We need a clear vision where we don’t block the direct path of travel, and that is up Washington St.

We also run the risk, I’ve said a thousand times, of someone coming in and filing a complaint about the path of travel and that could cost the city.

Andy:  We talked about this before:  Crossing Front St., from the bank, would be to go straight, and follow the walkway parallel to the building?

Jack:  You would take a right from Derby to Washington St, go straight and cross Front St.

Andy:  I’m trying to envision this:  The new path, is it ADA compliant? 

Jack:  It is physically ADA compliant;  the sidewalk is wide enough, the slope is right, etc.  The part that is not compliant is that the [alternate path around the bus shelter] is not the direct path of travel.

Andy:  I prefer the direct route.  People from all over the place come to Salem and talk about Salem, if you come to the lunchroom of the Carroll Center.  Someone who is blind and a cane user can run into serious difficulties.  They could get sighted assistance, but lots can happen.

Jack:  Talking about people in motorized chairs, canes, moms with carriages.  [Dave Martel:  emergency personnel]

Jean Harrison:  What about the incline at the corner?

Jack:  They’re taking the curbing out and grading it to level [at the corner.]

As I understand from Councilor Sosnowski, the Commission will be formally asked to attend a meeting about this sometime in the future.  I’ll let people know as soon as I get the invitation.

Jean L.:  As Councilor Sosnowski says, that comes under the jurisdiction of the SRA.   There’ll be 20-22 tables that’ll be serviced from the restaurant when it’s open.  Will the sidewalks be closed?

Jack:  Yes, the sidewalk will be closed to the public per state law.  Issue is that when the sidewalk is blocked, there is not a direct path of travel.

Jean L.:  The sidewalk becomes part of the restaurant when it is in use?

Jack:  Yes.  Mike, does that become technically the property of the restaurant when it’s open?

Mike S.:  That’s never been determined.

Charlie:  Is that sidewalk to belong to the restaurant year round?

Mike S.:  I’m not comfortable with handing them city property to get a liquor license.

Jack:  Not necessarily to defend Tavern in the Square, but they are the only ones to go through the paperwork to do this.  Others have just thrown their tables out on the sidewalk.  I give them credit.

Andy:  We went to some other licensing board meetings with another restaurant and I had trouble walking through there.  It’s still there.  There are quite a few incidents I have made known to the board, but they’re still there.

Jack:  Was there an ordinance on outdoor seating?

Mike S.:  There was a jurisdictional war over this that was not decided.

Jack:  I’ll let everyone know.

David M.:  Brief comment;  I’m not going to get into what Tavern in the Square is doing specifically, but I took pictures at the site.  I came there from the north.  There’s another restaurant on the corner of Front.  There’s a bottleneck there where you can go straight up Washington, or take a right to the bus shelter.  There’s another intersection on the sidewalk further down where they will block off.

I miss the direct path of travel, but there’s a lot of street furniture on that stretch of Washington St.  A lot of people are coming and going from  Front St., and the other bottleneck further down at New Derby.  Tavern in the Square could do everything right, but there’s still a bottleneck.  We know well Front St. is a perennial problem.  They have to fit in to our downtown and that’s the real problem

Salem Willows Bathrooms (Old Business)

Jack:  The bathrooms at the Salem Willows were vandalized.  A portapotty was torched, and an excursion boat was broken into.

Jean S.:  The new bathrooms were a great improvement.

Jack:  Jean Harrison and I have noted the toilet paper holders are too far from the toilets.  We hope this is fixed when the vandalism is fixed.

Market Basket T Stop (old business)

Jack:  Jason and I have been working on having the T stop at Market Basket directly.  We are hopeful this will happen before the first snow

Project Lifesaver

Andy:  We’ve gotten $450 towards Project Lifesaver.  We are going to the Rotary Club to close our funding gap.  Once done, John Jodoin of the Salem Police Dept. will write a letter of intent to the company.  And training will be arranged.  We have money from Dominion and the Trust Board, and we are closer.

Charlie:  What do they need?

Andy:  $1200.  There are more calls I need to make

Four First St.

I talked to Tom St. Pierre about this, and to Jason, and we are keeping on top of the situation

Jean L.:  Was a letter sent to the company?

Jack:  Yes

David Martel:  I have been keeping people in my complex updated.

Salem Common Playground

Jack:  There was a request of $30,000 towards the Salem Common Playground?

Mike S.:  This is not from the city, part of it came from the Salem Common Neighborhood Association.  This was just a formality;  it’s a done deal.

Jack:  I’ve looked at the regulations.  The only regulation regarding accessible playgrounds is path of travel;  you must be able to get to them.  But there’s nothing about the equipment itself.

I’ve talked with Tom St. Pierre about this and I have suggested that 25% of the play area, one or two pieces, should be made accessible to the disabled.

Accessible structures do tend to be safer for children than regular playground structures.  We want to get Parents United to go for it on that basis.

MAAB Bypass Road (old business)

Jack:  You have a packet about the bypass road bike path issue.  The interesting part is, this decision is coming from the counsel at MassHighway and not by the project manager.  Hopefully this will get resolved.

Sober House (old business)

Jack:  The MAAB has taken jurisdiction of this matter and ordered any tenants in the second floor to move out (he wasn’t supposed to have tenants, but advertised on Craigslist.)  The owner now wants to make this into a single family house.  We have to look very closely at the letter of the law.  There are two businesses on the first floor that are not accessible, which the MAAB has also taken jurisdiction on..  I talked to Tom St. Pierre and not heard from him.  There was a fine hearing last month and the owner was given one month to comply.  They won’t give him a break the next time.  The building department is keeping a very close watch.

Lyceum Renovations

They didn’t trigger the 30% rule and they didn’t trigger the $100,000 amount.  The only work was on the first floor and the only change was to rebuild the ramp in the rear of the building.  They asked for a variance for the front door.  I suggested they get a portable ramp for the front door and an automatic door opener.  The variance was accepted.  The Lyceum doesn’t have to follow our recommendations but they were strongly suggested to.  It will open this week and I will check them out myself.  They’ve been very cooperative.

Market Basket Parking Lot HP Spaces

Jack:  The MAAB has been getting complaints about water puddling in the handicapped spaces.  Someone complained to the MAAB and I have been in touch with their real estate person who assures me they will repave and set the pitch so that water trains off.

Formal Interpretation of  CMR 521-22.2

Jack:  Tom St. Pierre asked us to interpret the required width of sidewalks based on the problems we had at Marlborough Road.

This is very timely as I just got the completed project plans for the Bridge St. reconstruction project.

Jack:  The width is 48 inches for compliance.   The absolute minimum width is 36 inches.  This does not include the width of the curbstone itself.

Mike S.:  That’s a very important point.

Rt. 107 Highland Ave. (new business)

Jack:  There are finally audible signals at Wal-Mart. Charlie and Andy can elaborate:

Charlie:  We went down there to check the timing.  One thing we found is the crosswalks are not straight.  One curbstone is offset from the one across the street.

Andy:  That’s ok if the audible beacons are located at the curbstones and they are at a reasonable volume level.  This is Highland Ave.

We had a problem with Ravenna Ave.:  There were a lot of complaints with the audible signals so they turned them down.  That’s a waste of taxpayer money and does no one any good.  Jack, can you write a letter to MassHighway asking that the audible signals be turned up in volume?

Andy:  Most of Highland Ave. is not residential.

Andy:  The ones by Wal-Mart have a tactile strip, and you can get to them, but the locator beacons aren’t loud enough.  The state department has trouble with the levels.  I talked with Sue Cranney (you remember Sue?)  She suggested writing Dave Knowlton.

Jack:  I talked with him this morning.  He suggested talking with Don Giardi about the levels.  The road does belong to the state, but it, like the T station, it’s not clear on exactly who is responsible.

We were going to ask Tom Muxie to come out and check the pole placements and the walk buttons on the poles.  Regulations only say the poles be “reasonably placed”.

Charlie:  Tom’s in a wheelchair so he’ll be able to tell us if he can reach the buttons on the pole.

If I get stuck on Highland Ave., there’s no way in God’s green Earth, I’m going to be able to cross the street with traffic.

Jack:  When you hit the button to cross the street, the law says you have the time and right of way to cross no matter how long it takes.

Andy: There’s a law against robbing banks, too.

Hawthorne Hotel Parking Lot (new business)

Jack:  The hotel is restriping their lot.  A suggestion was made, a great one I thought, that they lay a stripe down marking the sidewalk area.  They did so and I give them a lot of praise.  There was a letter from the community praising them for doing that.

But something not so good:  At their other lot at Essex and Union St. (across the street from the hotel), there isn’t a curb cut at the sidewalk.  There’s a curbstone and a phone pole.  You can’t use the sidewalk unless you go around.  I can’t imagine why they did this.  I alerted Jason to this and like the leech I am I will hang on him until this is fixed.

Talking Books Demonstration (other business)

Andy:  Couple of toys I have.  First thing I have, is two different reading devices.  The first one is from National Library Services, free to the blind and print-handicapped.  These replace the old cassette machines.  These use cartridges.  The cartridges plug in and there are voice prompts.

There are braille symbols on the buttons and buttons for bookmarks, playback, fast forward, speed and volume.   A pause button, a backup (rewind) button,  keep your finger on it and it goes to the next chapter.

It has a very good voice.  Only problem is there are only 50 books, though there are more every time.  National Library Services has a download service for computer users.

The book reader has a slot for a flash card, and a remote controller for people who need alternate controls.

There is a headphone jack as well.  Any questions?

Jack:  They’ve come very quickly.  I talked with Andy about his and signed up on a waiting list and got it right away!

Andy:  This device is free.  They’re phasing out cassettes.

The next device is the Victor Reader.  This is not free. It’s smaller and you may not hear it as well in this demonstration.  It works like a computer;  it connects to your computer with a USB port and you transfer files to it like a flash drive.

You get the books in ZIP files and they’re specially encoded;  you can’t play the files in an MP3 player.  You hit buttons on the keypad—1,4, 6—to get individual folders to play.  [sound of Reader reading a chapter.)

You can buy books from Audible.com to work with this;  pretty much anything.  Some books are read by the author, others not.  You can also set bookmarks and highlights;  you can list bookmarks.

Jack:  Big question.  How much?

Andy:  $325.  This is life changing.  It has headphones.  It has a 1” external speaker which sounds great.  You can download podcasts.  You can download a Braille file and it will be transcribed to voice.

You can hit a key—7—and something to search for and it will search through your text book or Braille book for the terms.

[inaudible]:  How do we get the free reader?

Andy:  Call the Perkins Library, 1-617-924-3434 and get an application to join the library service and get one of these machines.  Just keep in mind that the inventory of books is very low, it’s a new system.

The Victor machine is made by Humanware, a Canadian company.  1-800-722-3393.  This is one of the best investments I ever made!  You can also take customized notes, on say a textbook.  I can literally put a thousand books on there and search them.

Jean L.:  Any charges for the books?

Andy:  National Library Service books are free.  Downloaded books from them are also free and don’t need to be returned.  You can put as many books as you want on an SD card.

Another device to demo:  This is a thing I think is very valuable for the average person:  Sierra Systems KeyRinger.    This is a key locator.  Nothing better.  $20 for a pair.  Push the button, and the other end, attached to my keys, will beep for 30 seconds until I shut it off.

I have a big yard.  I use these on my deck.  It’s saved me hours going on my deck.  It’s fun when there are three or four of these going off all at once.

This is great for any blind person who needs a locator.  One end could go on the fridge, and the other end on your keys, your remote, etc.

$20 and call 1-800-776-4888.

It’s weather resistant;  I’ve had it in the rain.  It’s advertised as being able to be run over by a truck;  someone dropped one in a field in the rain.  They found it and it worked.

Andy:  Questions?

Jack:  Ever take the sailing course again?  No?  We’ll see you taking the sailing course again with Maureen.

Jack:  Next meeting is October 20th.  There will be community meetings on the city’s five year plans.  I have invited Jane Guy to come.

I cannot be there;  there is a statewide transportation conference that I have been invited to, so Charlie will chair the next October meeting.

Charlie:  Anything to do with the RIDE?

Jack:  Yes, this will be part of the meeting.

Mike S.:  What about the tourist trolleys?  Are they accessible?

Jack:  I did witness the Salem Trolley pick up two disabled individuals.  They got on board and hopefully had a good trip.

Thanks very much and see you in October.