Prop 8

I’m not really sure why people are so surprised it passed. An almost identical proposition, Prop 22 passed in 2000 with 61% of the vote. And in 2004, San Francisco began doing same-sex marriages and shortly thereafter the California Supreme Court put an end to it.

It disgusts me beyond belief…if California is supposedly a liberal state and a garbage prop like this gets passed, what hope is there for the majority of the country? How can something that discriminatory pass?

I’m ridiculously happy about Obama AND the Massachusetts ballot questions (No, Yes, Yes — it happened!) but this Prop 8 business infuriates me.

Right now I’ve never been prouder to be from Massachusetts.

Agony on Election Day

Today is moving in slow-mo. I feel beyond antsy! I seriously want to take some Tylenol PM so I can wake up and know the election results. I’ve had butterflies in my stomach since yesterday! As confident as I may feel about Obama winning, after the 2000 and 2004 elections, I cannot really relax.

Plus, there are some really interesting ballot questions here in MA (No, Yes, and Yes for me), and additionally I’m concerned that Prop 8 in CA will pass. (I lived in CA during Prop 22, which to my dismay passed and subsequently got me interested in politics.)

I think I need a glass of wine. I’m wound up. :-)

Yaaay!

Congratulations to Deval Patrick, the House, and the Senate! :-) I’m a happy camper.

And now for a Mitt Romney quote: “Being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts is a bit like being a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention.” [at a GOP audience in South Carolina last year]

Awww, Mitt. You’re such a card. I doubt you’ll be missed, though!

I really do try to avoid politics on this blog, but…

…this is absurd!!!

re: bananas being sold at Dunkin Donuts…“Liberals want to police our food, but not our streets.”

It appears to be the old “liberals are soft on crime” argument as well as the “liberals want to infringe on our freedom” argument…but I don’t get it. It’s just BANANAS at Dunkin Donuts.

Everybody’s a comedian, huh?

John McCain: [When asked how he would react to a Democratic takeover of the Senate in November's elections] “I think I’d just commit suicide. I don’t want to face that eventuality because I don’t think it’s going to happen.” Read more…

Quelle drôle, John.

Don’t forget to vote, folks! Important election this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m back!!

Sorry for neglecting my blog this week. On Wednesday I had laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis treatment at Mount Auburn Hospital. Today is the first day I’ve felt remotely human since the surgery. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this surgery will help a lot! My shoulders and stomach feel very sore and my tummy is so bloated from the surgery that it looks like I have a small beach ball under there!!

I have to say, that Mount Auburn is one of the nicest hospitals I’ve ever been to. When I awoke from the anesthesia, there was one nurse who was there JUST to help me. It made an otherwise scary time a lot easier to deal with. The nurses were all very caring and nurturing and they gave me confidence and appropriate attention. I was really satisfied with my experience there. I’ve mentioned this before, but I truly think that nurses are the unsung heroes of the medical industry. They have a hard, hard job…but to someone like me, they can really make a patient’s day a much better one!

I was given these socks in blue:

They are very comfortable and kept me from slipping on the kitchen floor once I got home.

I would also like to thank my friends and family, especially Matt who made trips to Whole Foods two days in a row to purchase macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes (my throat was really sore from the breathing tube so I could only eat soft things). He also bought me a container of Echo Farm Chocolate Pudding which was extremely tasty. Possibly the best store-bought pudding I’ve ever had! I also enjoyed the little cows on the container.

I’d also like to thank this little boy for keeping me company as I slept and/or groggily read and watched TV:

He was an excellent source of company.

I should be back to normal in a week or two, so never fear, I’ll be back to my witty self in no time.

MBTA Fare Hike? “Utter Madness!!”

Michael Dukakis said it best:

Gas prices are now $3 a gallon for regular. Yet, here in Massachusetts where we are blessed with what could be the best public transportation system in the country, we seem to be doing everything we can to drive people away from the T.

It is now clear, as it should have been at the time it happened, that tying the T to one penny on the sales tax as its principal revenue source was a terrible mistake. The T is a public service, just like our highways. It is a critically important piece of our metropolitan and state economy. It needs expansion, not contraction.

Dukakis also referred to the fare hike as “utter madness”.

The MBTA is in bad shape right now. I still think it’s better than BART, but the Bay Area is far more car-oriented than Greater Boston (especially inside 128), so it’s important that the MBTA improves before they hike the fares up.

I live in Newton, work in Waltham, and have a car. However, I don’t like to depend on my car

I haven’t rode on the blue or orange lines extensively, but I am fairly familiar with the red line. The red line is alright. The green line is dreadful. I can’t believe it even exists. It’s almost useless. I could walk along the B-line route faster than taking the trolley. The D-line is better than the B, but as I’ve complained previously, the entire green line system is antediluvian! It’s barely time effecient and coming from Newton it won’t even be more economical.

Right now, I can get to the Fenway stop for $3. With the proposed fare hike (eliminating free outbound rides from above-ground stops), it would cost about $5. If Matt and I wanted to take the T to the Fenway, it would cost us about $10. It would be quicker and not a whole lot more expensive for us to drive and park in a lot. I wouldn’t be so opposed to a fare hike if the service was better — but if it takes over a half hour of a wobbly trolley ride just to get to the Copley Square stop, that’s not efficiency. If I’m going to pay more for the T, I want to know that there are going to be significant improvements.

Here’s what I’d like to see:

1) Green line improvements. Frankly, I don’t know that they could even do much with the existing system. I wish they’d just start from scratch with the green line, although that’s not a realistic idea.

2) More frequent commuter rail service. I live a mile from Woodland but a 3 minute walk from a commuter rail station. If my company happens to move to Boston, I’d take the commuter rail because I can get downtown in about fifteen minutes. If I miss a train home, I could be stuck there for over an hour or take the green line home which would take over a half hour and then I’d have to walk a mile to get home or ask Matt to pick me up from the station. I don’t mind walking the mile, but if the weather is inclement or I’m exhausted from work, it’s not so much fun.

Other metropolitan commuter trains such as NJ Transit, MetroNorth, and CalTrain run pretty much hourly, even on the weekends — more during peak hours.

3) More buses. Buses are an easy solution. They don’t need specific tracks or anything and can go wherever cars go. I’d like to see more buses in Newton in general.

I think it would also be a great idea (but probably also unrealistic) to have bus routes connecting the end of different lines…sort of creating a circle. That way, if I wanted to take public transportation to Harvard Square from Woodland, I wouldn’t have to go inbound to Park Street and then outbound to Harvard Square.

4) Improvement of the triple digit “express” buses. These buses have so much potential to be great. When I lived in Watertown I wound up waiting over a half hour for the 504 to meet up with a friend near Copley Square and the bus never came. I gave the 504 two more chances and it either always showed up very late or didn’t show up at all. Once I got on the bus, it was very quick and by far the most efficient way to get certain places.

I now live near a 554 bus stop and its infrequency makes it useless. Same with the commuter rail, actually, which is why I tend to go to Woodland and take the green line in. However, if the fare hike happens I might start having to drive everywhere.

Other info:
Jason provides valuable info re: MBTA:

There needs to be a comprehensive and long-term transportation plan for the Commonwealth.

Exactly! So what IS the big plan for the T? Are things EVER going to improve?

MassMarrier believes that the MBTA should be free for all. While this might not be a reasonable solution at this time, an anonymous commenter offers an idea:

One possible way to ease in to this and avoid the challenge of rush hour is to start by making the T free only during off hours.

Of course, going immediately to full, free transit on the buses and subways would lead to big crowds attempting to use them, but, unless you actually get crowds so large they are physically dangerous, this is not such a bad problem. People unwilling to face such crowds will find alternative forms of transportation. All those interested in a less crowded system will start to advocate for more trains and buses. The system will have more stakeholders than ever, while air in the region will grow healthier, and regional waistlines will shrink as people walk and bike to their T-stops.

A relatively small increase in the gas tax could fully pay for this program. While it is never fun to think of expensive gas, the fact of life is that gas costs are rising. We can either add to the tax and spend some money trying to wean ourselves from the addiction, or we can do nothing and send all the money to Saudi Arabia, Exxon, etc.

Outraged Liberal says:

What executives have not done is ride the system. Red, Green, Blue, Orange. Silver or bus. That reality does not match the brochures. Schedules are a fantasy. Trains arrive one after the other, then nothing for 15 minutes, stacking up bodies on platforms like firewood. Until something approaching service is provided, commuters are better off paying outrageous gasoline prices.

For more T-related chatter, especially about the proposed fare increase, click here.

I was initally going to avoid writing about this, but the more I thought about it the more angry I got. I think as patrons of the MBTA, we need to be assured that big, impressive changes are in store for us after such a fare increase.

Waking up to WRKO

Matt insists on setting the clock radio to WRKO, the local radio station that features people like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh. I don’t know why Matt likes to wake up to that. He does enjoy pointing out the convoluted and faulty logic of those hosts, but I can’t tolerate it. Whenever I change the station, he changes it back to WRKO. It’s really difficult to wake up to such stupidity in the morning.

What I usually wake up to is the sound of a neo-Con kvetching about Massachusetts laws for one reason or another (Gay marriage? Gasp!) or arguing with someone who has called in to challenge their position.

This morning, I woke up to: “…and she gave birth to a normal, heterosexual child.” Uh. What?

I guess it could be worse. I could be waking up to Michael Savage. (Did you know his real name is Michael Weiner, he lives in San Francisco, and hung out with the likes of Allen Ginsberg in North Beach in the 70s?) But nevertheless, I wake up feeling like I’m being forced to read The Herald! Oh, the humanity!

Oh why, Matt, why? Why WRKO? Boston has a ton of great radio stations! For the love of God, WHY WRKO?!

Massachusetts Political and Government Trivia

-Massachusetts is the “most” Democratic of all the solid blue states.
-In 1972, Massachusetts was the only state carried by Democratic nominee George McGovern.
-Massachusetts is the only densely populated state to have an all-Democratic Congressional delegation. Hawaii and North Dakota also have all-Democratic delegations, but Massachusetts has more than 3 times amount of representatives in the House of Representatives than HI and ND combined.
-Massachusetts was the first state to outlaw slavery.
-Norfolk County is the birthplace of four presidents: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy, and *shudder* George Bush Senior.
-The birth control pill was invented at Clark University in Worcester. (OK, this isn’t necessarily political, but I’m sure it would enrage some of the really conservative types!)
-The first public elementary school in America, The Mather School, was founded in Dorchester in 1639.
-John Adams and John Quincy Adams are buried in the crypt at the United First Parish Church in Quincy.
-Massachusetts first began issuing drivers licenses & registration plates in June 1903.
-The 3rd Monday in April is a legal holiday in Massachusetts called Patriot’s Day.
-The first American public library founded in Boston 1653.
-Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts was the first black man elected to United States Senate by popular vote in 1966.
- Massachusetts gave John Kerry his largest margin of victory in the 2004 election.
- On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
- The infamous Big Dig was the biggest federal highway project ever approved, at the time.

Same as it ever was…

Charley over at The Blue Mass. Group wrote an article that horrified me, as a new homeowner.

Here’s an article from the NYTimes — front page of the Home and Garden section, no less — which discusses families (pretty darned affluent ones at that) having made lots of paper equity on their homes in the last few years, and no place to spend it when they outgrow or out-desire their current places. So maybe they make 100% profit on their investment, but find they still can’t afford an upgrade within their geographical areas.

YIKES.

Otherwise we may see the “Manhattanization” of entire markets like here and San Francisco, where folks pay higher and higher prices and hold lower and lower expectations because, well, they just have to live there. (After all, that’s me.)

You’re not alone, Charley.

After spending my entire life living with relatively easy access to a cool cities, I can’t imagine NOT being able to say, hop on the T and be around a ton of fantastic restaurants and entertainment options. But if things like this keep happening to cities like Manattan, San Francisco, and Boston…where would that leave people like Matt and I? We’ll end up living either faaarrr out in Metrowest (although, frankly, it could be worse) or to the boondocks of New Hampshire or something — yet still commute to Greater Boston. Or live right outside of Boston, as we do now, but never be able to get a bigger/better/nicer home.

Mama mia. These major cities are making it so that people who works their butts off (and make a decent living by national standards) will no longer be able to afford to live where they wish to. And it makes it even more difficult for people who work jobs in urban areas like waiting on tables, janitorial work, etc to continue living here.

Getrification has its ups and downs…one pro is that it makes streets safer and cleaner. But there are endless cons…like the fact that soon everyone will have to be a millionare to purchase property in a cool city.

Check out this interesting, albeit depressing, article re: the housing bubble & riskiest places to purchase a home.