Monday, January 26, 2009

Toll tiff on Hill

The organization Stop the Pike Hike put out a press release late this afternoon that said its leader was verbally abused by a pair of elected officials from East Boston earlier today.

Members of the group were apparently invited to a meeting at the State House this morning by state Rep. Carlo Basile and state Sen. Anthony Petruccelli "to discuss a solution to the problem" of proposed toll increases on the Massachusetts Turnpike and the harbor tunnels. Then, the press release says:

Within a few minutes into the meeting, the two elected officials began to berate the founder of the group and their own constituent Michael Kelleher by cursing at him regarding his tone of voice.

There’s nothing more specific about the incident, but the statement says that because of the “lack of professionalism” shown by the elected officials, Stop the Pike Hike is “more determined than ever” to block toll increases. They are calling for a boycott of the Pike and tunnels beginning Feb. 2.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can take the elected officials out of east boston but you can not take the east boston out of the state officials, "hey how ya doin, forget about it" embarressing

Anonymous said...

If true, I find even more strange that this organization would share what appears to have been a private, off the record type moment with the community's elected officials. Apparently Stop the Pike doesn't need their help as of course they got this toll thing all squared away - don't they? Remind me again what policy role and regulation making authority these nitwits have? Oh that's right - none. What a joke this organization is becoming - If I were Rep. Basil or Sen. Petroccelli I wouldn't give them the time of day - never mind a private meeting in my office.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the Pike Hike Guys weren't willing to grease the palms of the elected "officials" ala Wilkerson style and they got mad?

Anonymous said...

Will we get to read the entire press release in the East Boston Time-Free Press?

Anonymous said...

Jimbo

I know you screen commentary on this blog. Please use some of your moderator discretion for the post at 9:47 am. The innuendo that either Anthony or Carlo are on the "take" over this issue is so baseless and without merit it borders on libel. Making such a remark about two hard working elected officials, who actually have been working on a plan to address the real issues facing transportation in the Commonwealth tells me that it comes from none other than that organization. Unfortunately, the same cant be said for those who think dressing up like chickens or engaging in headline grabbing gimmicks is somehow going to solve the Commonwealth's problems. Isn't that kid Andy Kennealy part of that group? Wow, nice group to be associating with as he kicks off that at large campaign - nothing like alienating the base!

Jim said...

The comment at 9:47 is clearly satire and not an allegation.

Anonymous said...

what no post about John Updike.

- Pizza Man

Anonymous said...

The whole point in raising tolls to $8 is that massport and the goverment want to expand logan airport, by raising the tolls on fixed income residents , it will drain their pockets therefore they will put up their houses for sale, but these houses will not sell even at significant reduced market value prices, this is an advantage to massport, massport will buy these homes in bulk, this is their tactic , remember wood island park, how about the historic home on neptune st that massport bought for 450000, rumor has it they want the salesians on paris st, massport and the government want east boston in their pockets, every square in of it.

Anonymous said...

Hey someone mentioned Andy Kenneally in their post. That kid had done nothing but good things for East Boston. His heart is always in the right place. I read yesterday in the EB Free Press that he resigned from the org after the press release went out without his authorization. He said the org, which started out with good intentions, had lost its focus. I believe him. He just wants to help the community and I hope he is running for city council because he would be great!

Anonymous said...

I think Andy would be great too...but this is a question of judgment. If the group lost focus, what took him so long to resign? It is convenient to distance yourself from the group when a brewing controversy blows up - but it takes someone with foresight not to get involved in the first place or get out before an errant press release gets sent out with your name on it! I think Andrew has what it takes to be a good City Councilor, but he needs to realize that good City Council candidates don't need to be involved in every cuase (this means you too Sal LaMattina!)

Anonymous said...

I cannot find a valid reason to fault Sal for wanting to help his constituents with the toll issue. This time, I believe he had the best intentions for doing what he could for the neighborhood. Why was it wrong for him to pursue the hearing route and being present at the rally while, at the same time, our other elected officials were pursuing other avenues to solve the same problem? The way I look at it, we had three individuals doing what they could, individually and collectively, to help East Boston residents and businesses from becoming unduly burdened by the financial woes of the Turnpike Authority. I would rather have all our elected representatives doing something as opposed to any of them giving tacit approval to any agency's plan to impact negatively East Boston's well-being. Furthermore, it has never helped this community to appear as a divided entity before these agencies. Whenever that occurs, only the agencies win.

Finally, it was very apparent at the Eccu rally that there was a Republican party agenda on display. It also appeared to be just another opportunity for WTKK to get ratings for its programs and its hosts.

Just a few observations.

Anonymous said...

10:08, I think you need to take it easy. You are asking what took Kenneally so long to distance himself from the group – the group has only been around for a few months. I don’t think this is a matter of judgment at all. It’s not like Kenneally has joined the KKK and then realized that it was a bad idea when they started burning crosses. The Stop The Pike Hike group was formed to prevent a ridiculous increase in tolls and had the support of many people, his neighborhood, and certainly myself. At no point was or is this group some radically extreme group where people should be calling others judgment into question. Its time to move on.

Anonymous said...

What is the big gripe with the Stop the Pike Hike people that should make a wannabe politician shy away (aside from the fact that it sounds like they somehow pissed off other policitian). I know they backed off the original boycott which seems reasonable (too reasonable for me). I can imagine they may have become more upset after seeing our state elected officials doing (from what I see) very little to address the issue. So what is it that I don't know?