Thursday, August 20, 2009

Times appears to miss mark

I was surprised to see, on the front page of this week's East Boston Times, a story with the headline "Red-Blue Line connector appears to be on the fast track." While I have been hoping for years that the state would extend the Blue Line past Bowdoin to the Red Line's Charles/MGH station, recent media coverage has reached the opposite conclusion than that of the Times.

On July 23, Noah Bierman -- the Globe's transportation beat reporter -- wrote a story that said:
The state set aside $29 million last week to design a subway tunnel under downtown Boston that planners concede they cannot afford to build -- either now or any time in the next two decades.
The story goes on to say:
Even many of the project’s key supporters, who lent a political boost to a settlement three years ago, have become a little less ardent, noting that the economy is forcing tough decisions.
and
In the end, the sides did not agree to actually build the project, only that the state would complete design and engineering by 2011.
and
The 20-year planning document approved preliminarily last week sets aside no money to build the tunnel through 2030.
A Globe editorial on Aug. 16 said:
While the state slashes health programs amid plunging revenues, it expects to spend $29 million to design a connection downtown between the Red Line and the Blue Line - never mind that the money to build the $300 million project won’t come through anytime soon.
The Times story, however, says that the project "is on the fast track," noting that "the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction held another meeting of a project working group..." There is no indication of who was at the meeting and not a single person is quoted in the story. In fact, there is no attribution ("according to") in the story at all.

Maybe the Times has an inside scoop on the project, but I'm afraid that's not the case.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps John Lynds ,an avid reader of this blog will write in and explain this apparent contradiction

John said...

Jim, I agreee. I read the Times story yesterday and thought that there was some new development. After reading the Globe awhile back I was left with the impression that this was pretty much a dead deal. Let's hope the Times has the inside scoop as the connector would be great for Eastie.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding me !

They didn't even do a story on the fact that at 2:40 p.m. last Saturday a man walked in C.V.S.in Central Square,and pulled out a gun,and robbed the two cashiers.

That after he left there he pistol whipped a guy at Saratoga,and Meridian,and robbed him also.

Its not a news paper any more,its an advertisement,similar to the Super saver coupons you get in the mail.

I guess John Lynds was to busy ,since he seems to headline every single story in the paper.

Ya Right!

Madam Margie said...

Thanks for posting this. When I saw the headline the other day I assumed there was some new news, and when reading the article I was confused that there didn't seem to be anything new.

I also noticed there were some contradictions in the story about Burger King. The Licensing Board did or did not grant a license to Burger King? The article contradicted itself and I was left wondering what exactly the status is.

Jim said...

I also found that story a bit confusing. The Licensing Board originally rejected the application to open a Burger King in Maverick Square, but eventually reversed that position, and it is now under construction.

Anonymous said...

They also didn't report the brutal Murder at 75 Marion Street about 3-4 weekends ago.

As far as Burger King goes,here are some facts
1- He was Zoned 100% correct
2-Sal L ,John F,etc all went against it not once but twice,and got it denied,as they did with Dominos.
3-The Licensing Board then was forced to have another hearing after over 1000 people in the area signed a petition for it.
4-the people who were against it ,I promise will be at the ribbon cutting,John Lynds will write a pussy cat story about waht good then did (nothing)

Please lets not forget the Times also wrote brutal articles aginst it ,again only doing what they are told by the Menino Machine.

It looks great,it will be great,and its about time that dilapated eyesore was developed.

He is spending close to 300,000.to build it,please tell me what restaurant opened in the last 5 years in Eastie that invested that much,instead of a couple of cans of paint,illegal work,without permits etc.

Good Luck Mr White

Hey has anyone from the Times replied yet about how many papers they print each week,and where they are printed. I see this all over the blog,but never see a reply.