Maybe you will....
"Demand soars for affordable housing in Boston area" by Katie Johnston, Globe Staff November 28, 2014
When a local nonprofit announced a lottery for a new batch of rental subsidy vouchers this month, applicants jammed the lobby — young and old, black and white, immigrant and Boston-born. Some were homeless families living in cramped motel rooms; others were single moms hoping to move their children to safer neighborhoods.
In the end, more than 10,000 people applied for just 73 slots.
I knew Boston had a housing problem, but those are haunting numbers.
Even the Globe is admitting the the wealth inequality has reached obscene levels.
Boston and much of the rest of Massachusetts are in the midst of an affordable housing shortage that shows few signs of abating. The rate of new housing production in Massachusetts is among the lowest in the country, with luxury units in the booming downtown and beyond expected to make up the vast majority of new apartments built in Boston in the next three years. One in four renters in the state spend at least half their household income on rent — considerably higher than the one-third recommended by financial specialists.
All this homelessness and poverty amongst gleaming glass skyscrapers and such wealth.
Housing subsidies have been slashed, shelters are over-capacity, and the homeless population is increasing faster than in any other state in the country, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. More than 21,000 Massachusetts residents are homeless, a 40 percent increase in the past seven years.
Another LEGACY of DEVAL PATRICK!
This at a time when they are (were?) going to give themselves pay raises (did!) while $330 million in midyear budget cuts are imposed during an alleged economic recovery -- all the while doling out nearly $80 million to profitable Hollywood.
I'm sure I could keep going and find more waste, fraud, and abuse; however, why bother? The money-eating machine of government subservient to certain intere$ts is right in front of your face!
Among them is Dineen Duro, 31, who has been living in the Days Hotel in Brighton with her young son for two years, one of nearly 5,000 families the state is housing in emergency shelters and motels. She estimates she has applied for about 50 kinds of housing assistance during that time.
Duro knows the odds of landing a rental voucher are long, but she’s hoping for “a little bit of normalcy.”
“This way, me and my son aren’t crammed into one tiny little room,” she said. “And this way I can actually cook dinner. There’s not much you can do with a microwave.”
Duro said she is in a daily substance abuse program to kick her painkiller habit, and hasn’t been able to find a job that fits into that schedule.
That's because others are holding down three of them.
She went to the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership office earlier this month wearing a red bandana over her hair, nose pierced and eyes dramatically lined to apply for one of the slots in the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program. The recipients, chosen by lottery, will be notified next week.
The state has 6,600 rental vouchers to help low-income families pay for apartments, a third of what it had in the early 1990s, due to budget cuts, according to Massachusetts housing officials. The number of vouchers has risen modestly over the last few years, but not nearly enough to keep up with demand.
Hey, you know who the leaders of this state are taking care of fir$t, right?
Residents awarded a voucher pay up to 40 percent of their income toward rent, and the voucher, which can be used only at lower-priced units, covers the rest. To qualify, a household must make less than 50 percent of the median income of Boston-area residents – below $42,350 a year for a three-person household. The average annual income of families who currently have vouchers: $13,000.
“The situation continues to worsen for families at the lowest income levels,” said Chris Norris, executive director of the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership. “Our fear is that if we don’t get more resources, the state rental voucher wait list will look like our Section 8 wait list, which is 11 years long.”
Section 8, a federal housing voucher program, limits monthly rent payments of low-income families to 30 percent of gross income. Last year, budget cuts eliminated more than 1,400 of the state’s Section 8 vouchers, making the shortage more acute.
But there is always money for Wall Street, the war machine, Israel, and well-connected corporations as well as their own $elfi$h interests.
Federal funds for building affordable housing in the state were also sliced in half last year. The Boston Housing Authority has a wait list of 40,000 households for 15,000 subsidized units.
If I didn't know better I would say this government doesn't give a $hit about you.
Massachusetts does more for low-income residents in need of housing than many other states, said Aaron Gornstein, the state’s undersecretary of Housing and Community Development. It is one of the only states that fund public housing, for instance, and has a program to preserve affordable units.
Never you mind what HUD said. Drink the state-shoveled koolaid in the form of pureed $hit.
Still, many families are struggling to keep a roof over their heads....
And the “crime rate is so high.”
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Related: Chelsea Housing Authority sues to recover lost cash
It will take more than a minute to look back at that.
Waltham housing inspector accused of abusing tenants
You were better off out on the streets.
City lays out shelter plan after Long Island Bridge closure
Permanently relocate homeless beds to Boston
A bridge to somewhere: Tales of Thanksgiving
Two die in apparent Nashua murder-suicide
For N.H. woman, a fall to homelessness
What is that, a new Olympic sport?
"Olympic proposal adds to worries at Boston food complex" by Callum Borchers, Globe Staff December 02, 2014
Though the site is barely a long javelin throw from Boston’s more celebrated business neighborhood, the Innovation District, meatpackers and fishmongers worry that their livelihood is now at risk because their jobs lack the cachet of tech entrepreneurs.
Take a look at the future!
You may have to wait a while, but the reward is worth it.
**********
Even though an Olympic stadium on their property is far from a sure thing, Marion Kaiser, chief executive of Aquanor Marketing Inc., a seafood wholesaler, and her neighbors are already gripped by a sense that powerful interests have seized control of their fate — again.
*********
The food market is a bustling industry in its own right. Every day, tens of thousands of pounds of meat, poultry, and seafood move through its warehouses, and chances are most restaurant patrons in Boston have dug into a ribeye steak or savored fresh lobster supplied by one of its vendors. It employs about 700 workers and anticipates that revenues in 2014 will approach $1 billion.
Though surrounded by other dowdy industrial sites, their second home is now hugely valuable; the assessed value alone of the three connected parcels owned by New Boston Food Market is $21 million.
The Olympics group, which calls itself Boston 2024, could make an offer for the property, but a sale would require unanimous approval of the cooperative’s 18 shareholders, said Jeffrey Corin, president of New Boston Food Market.
His snap assessment is that the shareholders would not be eager to sell.
As a private entity, the Olympics group lacks the authority to force out the wholesalers if they refuse to sell. However, the city could take the properties by eminent domain and allow Olympic organizers to build an arena there, as it did 45 years ago when it cleared the meatpackers out of Quincy Market.
Bo$ton tyranny in the birthplace of the American Revolution.
Related: Politicians, residents blast Quincy hospital closing
They were warned this would happen four years after private equity took control.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh said it is too early to discuss a land taking, with so many hurdles for Boston to clear to be named the Olympic host.
It's also illegal to seize land by eminent domain simply to promote commercial purposes.
The Boston 2024 committee includes some of the city’s most prominent business leaders, including construction magnate John Fish, Putnam Investments head Robert Reynolds, former Massachusetts economic development chief Dan O’Connell, and Bain Capital managing director and Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca....
Who really run the city.
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"Debate over bidding for Olympics resonating the loudest in Boston" by Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff December 05, 2014
Ask the average resident of Los Angeles about the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics, and you may get a shrug — bidding for the Summer Games is a routine part of life in Southern California, like sunshine and surfers off Malibu Beach.
“We’re a lot more worried about rain and drought in California right now,” said Michael Madrid, a California political consultant.
I wouldn't be.
Of the four US cities vying to host the 2024 Olympics, Boston — the city with the least recent history bidding for the Games — has seen the most intense public debate. An opposition group has formed and the city’s Olympic future has been the topic of ongoing commentary and argument on social media and the opinion pages of local newspapers.
“The noisiest city is Boston,” agreed Olympic site selection specialist Rob Livingstone, a Canadian who runs GamesBids.com, a website that tracks Olympic bids....
And I'm not hearing a thing.
--more--"
Related: Walsh replaces all Boston Licensing Board members
That will get things fired up!
"East Boston shooting ends with chase" by M.G. Lee, Globe Correspondent November 27, 2014
Dark red splotches clung to the concrete outside the apartment where the shooting happened. It was what happened after the shooting that proved even more startling. That’s when the teen said he saw men chasing someone down the street, to another complex at 800 Border St.
He described watching as those chasing the man caught him and held him over a ledge, demanding he drop his gun or they would let go.
“I guess he wouldn’t drop the gun because then they dropped him,” the teen said. “He tried to run, but he was all messed up.”
No suspects have been taken into custody, and the incident remained under investigation, Kenneally said.
Who Kenneally?
The projects on Border Street are designated as Section 8 low-income housing.
Like I said, you are better off on the streets.
--more--"
At least they are building you a new apartment complex.
Related: Two hurt in Dorchester, Roxbury shootings
"Boston lawmakers subpoena BU president; Brown failed to show at hearing on diversity" by Matt RocheleauGlobe Correspondent November 25, 2014
The Boston City Council, in a rare step, issued a subpoena Monday to Boston University president Robert Brown to compel him to appear at a hearing next week on employee and student diversity at local colleges.
The council said it acted after BU failed to comply with a request to send a representative to a hearing last month. If Brown fails to appear at the next meeting of the council’s Education Committee on Dec. 2, he could face arrest, according to state law.
It was the first time in recent memory the council has gone to such lengths in a dispute with a local college leader, although it has summoned others on a few occasions.
“We gave Boston University every opportunity to attend and to accommodate their schedule, and they blew us off,” Councilor Tito Jackson, the committee chairman, said. “The issue of diversity in higher education is a very serious topic.”
Yeah, racial and gender division is important because they can't tackle the elephant in the room: wealth inequality.
I'm not saying discrimination or sexual assault at school is unimportant; I'm just pointing out why the City Council thinks it's such an overwhelming concern.
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Related: BU fights City Council’s summons for president
City Council flexes its subpoena muscle
Boston City Council aims at the wrong target in its spat with BU
Almost as if they were behaving like bullies.
MBTA officials trumpet record ridership in October
For more frequent trains, T needs high-tech signal system
Green Line fare dispute sparks altercation
US pledges nearly $1b for Green Line extension
It's a “legal commitment, not just another project [they] want to do.”
Maybe so, and maybe it is a good thing if you can look past all the delays. My problem is it is being promoted on the front page of the mouthpiece, and thus I don't trust it.
At least all you kids will have something to ride:
"Boston’s young adults plentiful, influential — and often burdened; City adapts to assist its largest age group" by Catherine Cloutier, Globe Staff December 01, 2014
Today, Boston is home to the largest proportion of young adults of any major US city.
Not only is one of America’s oldest cities now decidedly young, but the new generation is exercising its influence.
Young adults make up about 45 percent of eligible voters and nearly half the city’s workforce.
Pffft!
They are an economic engine, adding $1 billion annually in goods and services to Boston.
That's what they $ee in you kids, and in all of us.
That’s according to the city’s ONEin3 initiative, which, according to its website, aims to connect Boston’s young adult population with resources related to housing, professional development, financial health, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement.
And they are shaping their neighborhoods, promoting enterprises such as Zipcar and Hubway, attracting companies through entrepreneurship and innovation, and advocating for an arts and late-night entertainment scene. The T now runs later on weekends; free wireless Internet is expanding.
Yeah, it's all for you!
*********
Like their peers across the country, members of Greater Boston’s millennial population face crippling student debt, a slowly recovering job market, and mounting expenses. But with a greater proportion of residents facing these problems than any other US city, Boston feels an exponential weight of these burdens.
This means more people here face daily sacrifices and decisions: shoebox apartments shared with roommates long into adulthood, long commutes or delayed car ownership, and in some cases, underemployment....
All in the midst of spectacular wealth, gleaming glass skyscrapers, economic recovery better than the rest of the country, etc, etc, etc.
But the area has traditionally struggled to retain them after graduation, said Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm.
In complete contradiction to what the Globe has told me all these years.
That might be changing. More 25- to 34-year-olds work in Boston than any other age group, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The unemployment rate for this age group is 7.4 percent, significantly lower than the citywide rate of 9.6 percent.
But some residents say jobs remain elusive.
“If you want to land a decent job, you’re going to have to pound the pavement every single day,” said Luke Stankowski, 30, who works in financial services and lives in Brighton. “Even then, it doesn’t always work out. You’ll have to settle for something below what you were expecting.”
Not if you are part of the 1%, or corporations making 60-year highs in profits.
Related: US hiring in Nov. is strongest in nearly three years
I no longer care to read endless government lies, sorry.
In recent years, technology companies, including Google and Facebook, have opened offices in the Boston area to tap the local talent pool. Others, such as RunKeeper and Care.com, were created by regional entrepreneurs.
That, in part, has led to Boston’s number two ranking in the country for technology employment in a report by commercial real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle; the area has more than 145,000 tech jobs. Since 2013, the industry has seen a 4.3 percent jump in the number of positions.
Related: H1-B Hijacking
Could that be why the job is so hard to find?
And Obama has now issued 5 million new work permits, too!
Technology startups disproportionately employ young workers and are drawn to locations with denser populations of young adults, according to a study on their hiring practices at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill....
Related: Homeless in Silicon Valley
Homeless told to clear out of Silicon Valley home
Crews break up homeless camp in Silicon Valley
At least you can stay on the beach.
This is Generation Boston.
See: The faces and stories of Generation Boston
Mayor fires food program chief as shakeup of staff continues
NEXT!
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Also see: Ex-police officer pleads guilty to lying to FBI
Homeland Security chief in Boston for anti-extremism effort
There are lone wolf terrorists among us.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Why we should relax about Boston’s Olympic bid
Because the terrorists are government created, funded, and directed?
Developer Joe Fallon follows his vision to reshape a waterfront
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Fallon's Friend
He no longer has that luxury.
