Eastie's continued significance

Alvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia, was in the US last week to attend the opening session of the UN General Assembly. While in the States he took a side trip to Massachusetts and spoke to about 500 of his countrymen and countrywomen yesterday at East Boston High School.

The Globe described the event as a "town meeting" and said that Uribe (pictured during the playing of the Colombian national anthem) spoke for more than an hour. Most of the people who came out, the story says, expressed support of the conservative president, who has sharply reduced the violence in his country. There were some protesters outside and at least one angry questioner inside, as Uribe's law-enforcement crackdown has apparently gone hand-in-hand with human-rights violations.

The appearance of a South American president in our neighborhood reaffirms something I realized a couple years ago: East Boston is the New England capital for Latin American immigrants. This may be old news to some and surprising to others; I'm just saying it's interesting to me. The regional Salvadoran consulate is in Eastie, as is the New England Gallery of Latin American Art. Recent May Day and immigrants' rights marches have started or ended in Central Square.

I recently wrote a piece on the importance of East Boston to the Jewish immigration experience, and before that the Irish -- including the beginnings of the Kennedy clan -- came here to flee famine and build ships. Between the Jews and the Latinos, the Italians came and made the neighborhood their own. Today the significance of our little dollop of land continues.

A losing hand

The East Boston Times has an editorial on Page 4 of this week's paper that is long on praise for putting a casino in the neighborhood, but short on facts and logic. I don’t believe that it’s a good idea for the state and especially not for East Boston. From everything I’ve heard and read, most of the upside to legalizing casinos is wiped away by the numerous downsides.

***Hundreds of millions of dollars will be wagered, but most of that will go to casino owners and developers, many of them from out of state (like Suffolk Downs owner Richard Fields). This is yet another example of the rich getting richer. Whatever retail and food options a local casino provides could take money away from local small businesses. A study on introducing casino gambling to the state from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government said that “general merchandise earnings among businesses in a 50-mile radius … [of] commercial casinos reduced such earnings by 13 percent and Foxwoods-style Indian casinos did so by 57 percent.” So we’d be taking money from local business owners and giving it to millionaires.

***Millions of dollars in taxes will be generated, but much of that will be needed to pay for more police officers, redesigned roadways and other infrastructure adjustments. The study said that “the introduction of a commercial casino corresponds to a 21 percent increase in motor vehicle thefts and a 27 percent increase in robberies,” and that, “In Ledyard, Connecticut [the location of the Foxwoods casino] the total number of crimes increased 632 percent” from 1991 to 1998. To combat this, the study said, the “average police expenditures in the 16 largest recent casino counties increased …39 percent faster … across the states in which casinos were located.” The Times editorial says that the state lottery “will be affected a bit,” but remember that most of that money goes right to cities and towns, so whatever is lost will be cut from municipal budgets and put into the wallets of wealthy casino owners.

***Jobs are created when people are hired to build the casinos and then to staff them, but most of the long-term jobs are minimum-wage positions cleaning toilets, selling merchandise, dealing blackjack, etc. (Before praising multi-millionaire Richard Fields as a champion of labor, ask him why the jockeys at Suffolk Downs have no health care.) Sure, people will take those jobs, but let’s not make a future casino out to be a fountain of good-paying jobs. Also, according to the Harvard study, “Casinos could also reduce local employment (or at least redistribute jobs away from local businesses) if people come to a casino instead of patronizing local businesses.”

***A local casino would increase traffic. “Ledyard’s Planning Director calculated a 4-fold increase in traffic on roads in their jurisdiction since the casino opened,” says the Harvard study. McClellan Highway is congested at rush hour as it is, and vast numbers of cars would be headed toward Suffolk Downs if there were slots or a casino there. Some of those cars would spill onto local streets in order to avoid the highway. More traffic means more accidents; more accidents in East Boston means that our auto insurance rates go up. The Ted Williams Tunnel reduced the back-ups that we saw every day on neighborhood streets. Would we be inviting all of that back?

***The study also says that, “residents of communities near casinos were twice as likely to have pathological gambling problems” and “counties with casinos also experienced 10 percent increases in personal bankruptcies.” It’s not true that local residents who gamble at a nearby casino would have just spent that money on a trip to Connecticut. The study notes that, “the presence of a casino within 50 miles was associated … with an increase in average per-capita casino expenditures from $52 to $178.” People drop three times as much at a casino if it’s more convenient to get to. Also, the study points out, “Large quantities of cash may also attract organized crime, money laundering, and petty corruption.”

There seems to be little doubt that gaming in some form is coming to Massachusetts soon, as Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Bob DeLeo are all on board on the matter. Mayor Menino has also expressed support of a casino in East Boston (though strangely, not in Readville).

There may be more facts and opinions to review and discuss on this matter, and reasonable people can disagree, but the East Boston Times editorial takes an issue that is of major importance to this neighborhood and cavalierly dismisses the negative issues. The concerns raised by those opposed to legalized gaming in Massachusetts have merit and should be addressed seriously by the media and by those in power.

PE Day

Update (10:20):
District 1 City Councilor Sal LaMattina (73% of vote) easily tops challengers.

Update (9:35 pm):
Boston.com declares Menino and Flaherty winners.

Dude, where's my precinct?

I guess I hadn't remembered that Ward 1, Precinct 12 was moved to the Orient Heights Yacht Club so I pulled up in front of the old location -- the Heights library branch -- and saw no mob out front and thought it odd.

Anyway, I eventually made it to the right place and I cast the 253rd vote at about 4 p.m., which seems like a rather low turnout. We'll see if the evening rush significantly boosts the numbers.

Watch the numbers come in on the city's web site.

Kenneally for the Council

The city's preliminary election is tomorrow, when the field for mayor and city councilor will be winnowed down. For at-large city councilor there's one guy I'm rooting for and you may want to take a look at him as well: Andrew Kenneally.

Smart, qualified, enthusiastic -- Kenneally is just the kind of person I want to see on the council. He also seems like a really nice guy and, further, he lives here in East Boston. It'd be great to have a second local representative, after District 1 Councilor Sal LaMattina, at City Hall.

Check out Kenneally's web site, as he's got an interesting life story, and consider him when you head to the polls tomorrow.

A small price to pay

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wants to see a higher gas tax and he is right. I'm not saying that I would enjoy forking over more money at the pump, but less dependence on oil is good for the environment, for our health and for our national security.

Americans have long had the true costs of fuel subsidized and with global warming affecting us more, with our nation filled with overweight folks, and with the geopolitical machinations of the Middle East constantly pulling us in, we need to do what European nations have done for years: use higher gas taxes to raise money and discourage driving.

It may hurt a little, but sometimes we have to do what is best for the greater good. Our men and women in uniform and their families must not be the only ones who sacrifice for their countrymen. While I sit here comfortably and watch them on the news, I have no gripe if all I have to do is part with a few extra bucks.

Fools' gold

The revived movement for casino gambling in Massachusetts is about to make its big push and House Speaker Bob DeLeo yesterday aligned himself with Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray. With the big three on board it appears to be only a matter of time before they've sold out the Commonwealth. What a shame.

The Globe just did a story last week on how the Connecticut casinos have been hurt by the poor economy and Twin River in Rhode Island has filed for bankruptcy. Further -- and this point cannot be overstated -- most of the profits from a casino will go to out-of-state casino owners and investors. Whether the state's cut is enough to cover all of the improvements and services necessary and to recoup any fall in the lottery's intake is unclear.

But the state's leaders are plowing ahead, with plans for hearings in October and floor debate before the end of the year. The story said that Deleo believes "that slot machines could be installed quickly at the racetracks, bringing in new revenues, while giving casino companies more time to build resort casinos, which would create new construction jobs."

Former House Speaker Sal DiMasi stopped this from happening last year, but he's gone and it looks like the momentum is too much this time.

The Times is failing us

The East Boston Times political coverage this week is atrocious. I try not to constantly harp on the local weekly, but we are in election season and our neighborhood newspaper is NOT doing what it should: presenting the candidates and the issues so that voters can make informed decisions.

First, it is inexcusable that the Times has not mentioned this evening's mayoral debate at the East Boston Social Center. Clearly, the paper is completely in the tank for the incumbent, Tom Menino, who has decided to skip tonight's forum. Hey, that's his right, but how can the local weekly not mention that it is taking place? That is a misuse of the public trust.

Then, in a front-page "story" AND in an editorial-page piece, the Times dismisses the current controversy about deleted city emails that the Globe -- a real newspaper -- broke and has been following. "Ah, we all delete emails," is the Times' argument, ignoring that it is against the law for city employees to do so and that a state judge issued a court order last year ordering the city not to erase electronic communications. One would think that a newspaper would be on the side of those advocating transparency in government and the free flow of information.

And speaking of the front page story, one email that I received today described it as "an obituary about the other three candidates," and that's what it is. The same goes for the story on the District 1 City Council race. "[Christian] Kulikowski has made some good arguments," the Times says, "but with less than a week left...[he] is still virtually unknown to the voters [in East Boston]." Gee, why is he unknown in Eastie? And what are those good arguments? You wouldn't know from reading the local weekly. Kulikowski is running against incumbent Sal LaMattina, and we know that the Times cannot resist fawning all over any of our elected officials.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I personally know LaMattina, State Rep. Carlo Basile and State Sen. Anthony Petruccelli, and I do some work for the councilor. I think highly of each of them, but that doesn't mean I think they, or any elected official, should get a free pass from any media organization.)

As an intelligent, engaged citizenry, we need to demand more from the East Boston Times. We should expect objective reporting and coverage of events, people and issues based on how they interest and affect neighborhood residents, rather than the personal likes and dislikes of the newspaper. If we don't insist on this, then we deserve what is getting served up now.

Update (9/19): The Independent Newspaper Group, which owns The East Boston Times and eight other weeklies, has finally upgraded the Times web site, improving it and some of its other sites to the level that the readers of their Revere Journal have enjoyed for more than two years. It's not great, but stories are archived, the print edition can be viewed and comments seem to be allowed. I'm not sure when new issues are published online, but there does seem to be a delay between the printed and online versions.

Things that make you go, 'Hmmmm?'

***In a revelation that appears shocking, Margaret Thatcher, the commie fightin' British Tory PM of the 1980s often referred to as the "Iron Lady," apparently counseled Mikhail Gorbachev against breaking up the Soviet Union -- and Ronald Reagan agreed with her. This, recently released from Soviet files, is Thatcher speaking to Gorbachev in the fall of 1989:

The reunification of Germany is not in the interests of Britain and Western Europe. It might look different from public pronouncements, in official communiqué at Nato meetings, but it is not worth paying ones attention to it. We do not want a united Germany. This would have led to a change to post-war borders and we can not allow that because such development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.

In the same way, a destabilisation of Eastern Europe and breakdown of the Warsaw Pact are also not in our interests. Of course, internal changes are happening in all Eastern European countries, somewhere they are deeper than in others. However, we would prefer if those processes were entirely internal, we would not interfere in them or push the de-communisation of Eastern Europe. I can say that the President of the United States is of the same position. He sent me a telegram to Tokyo in which he asked me directly to tell you that the United States would not do anything that might put at risk the security of the Soviet Union or perceived by the Soviet society as danger. I am fulfilling his request.

***Former Bush Administration speechwriter Matt Latimer is publishing a book about his time in the White House. I suggest reading the excerpt published on the GQ web site. Here are a few lines that sum up Latimer's observations:

In 2007 I finally made it to the Bush White House as a presidential speechwriter. But it was not at all what I envisioned. It was less like Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing and more like The Office.

Eeeek. Can you imagine Michael Scott as president?

***Michelle Malkin is one of the most infuriating knuckleheads on the right and recently she engaged in the type of misrepresentation that she and her wacko cohorts typically use to debate real issues. When a crowd estimated at about 70,000 gathered to bash Obama last weekend -- as is their right -- Malkin estimated the crowd at 2 million, and other media outlets passed on the uber-inflated number.

And here is a round-up of the thought processes of the individuals who were part of the protest: the ten best signs. All I can say in response is, "Lincoln! thou should'st be living at this hour: America hath need of thee."

Who are you supporting for mayor?

We're just nine days from the preliminary election for mayor of Boston, and I haven't seen a poll on the race since May. (Have I just missed them?) The three opponents, I would assume, have gained some ground since then, but still it seems as though Tom Menino will get a solid majority in the Sept. 22 prelim. I'm also not going far out on a limb guessing that Michael Flaherty will make the cut over his City Council colleague Sam Yoon and businessman Kevin McCrea.

Today's Globe discusses one of the mayor's big weapons: city employees -- especially the neighborhood liaisons, who are extremely loyal to Menino and who work hard on his behalf.

I haven't completely decided who I'm voting for and I'd be interested in reading people's choices, and rationale, in the comments section. I hope to hear from you.