So, call me jealous since I live in the Back Bay and not Eastie, but I don’t get why it’s such a great thing that Mayor Marty Walsh has shaken down Mohegan Sun for $18 million a year to hand over to just one neighborhood for “improvements” when frankly, everyone in Greater Boston is going to be affected by a casino in either Revere or Everett.
It’s more of the bizarre tribalism fostered by all of Boston’s byzantine rules and regulations that divide our city by neighborhoods. Even the parking sticker system is an anachronism. You live in Eastie but you can’t park in the Back Bay for free? This is why the entire city of Boston should have been given a vote about casinos in the first place — all of our neighborhoods will feel the effects of a nearby casino — traffic alone will be a headache to anyone going anywhere near those structures.
Once Eastie uses its first $18 million — what does it plan to do with the next? Build a new MDC pool? Give the high school a face lift? Aren't these the kinds of things Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park would like to do, too? And by the way, when the agreement calls for “hiring preferences for local workers,” does that mean just East Boston residents? Or are people from Jamaica Plain not local? Keep in mind East Boston voters rejected putting a casino in their neighborhood, now they reap the benefits without the hassle? Like I said, call me jealous.
