"The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." - H. L. Mencken. "One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them." - Thomas Sowell. - Join search for truth learn to recognize it when you encounter it. See also enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com youtube.com/user/roybercaw [Editor: Roy Bercaw]
One percent of the world's population (including developers), has more wealth than the remaining 99 percent. Make the affordable housing requirement 99 percent. The useless eaters can interact with a member of the one percent developer class, or maybe a part of her. Alternatively the city council can and should eliminate rent in Cambridge. Mandating landlords to provide high quality of life property to parasites for free is a popular idea whose time has come. While Cambridge remains a sanctuary city, encouraging illegal aliens to live here, a shortage of free housing will grow larger. Eliminating rent will permit more illegal aliens and compassionate valedictorian refugees to live in the world class academic elitist Cambridge and enjoy its fruity fruits. Poor white Americans can find some other place to live.
[From article]
For rent: brand new one-bedroom apartments in the shadow of downtown Dallas, a short walk from one of the city’s trendiest areas. On-site concierge. Successful applicants will be homeless, mentally ill and possess criminal records.
These are strange-sounding tenant requirements, but The Cottages at Hickory Crossing is an unusual kind of project. It is a “housing first” strategy: find the homeless a permanent place of their own before trying to solve their problems, rather than the other way around.
The fifty 400sq ft units are set to open in April in north Texas. Despite its bucolic name, Hickory Crossing is wedged between freeways a mile from the city’s high-rises, with railroad tracks, warehouses and the nightlife of the Deep Ellum district close by. One of the nonprofits that has raised the funds for the multimillion dollar project, CitySquare, has an Opportunity Center across the road offering a variety of services for low-income Dallas residents.
“In order to live across the street you have to be chronically homeless, disabled, with some presenting mental health issue, typically drugs or alcohol, and you have to have a criminal background. If you haven’t been in jail you can’t stay in our houses,” says Larry James, CitySquare’s CEO.
The process of selecting tenants is under way. It began by identifying the 300 most expensive homeless people in the county, based on their cost to city services such as the health and prison systems.
The Cottages at Hickory Crossing
“We will have 50 of the most expensive homeless persons. The average cost per person on this list of 300 to the county alone, not counting the city or nonprofit organisations, is over $40,000 a year to stay outside. We’re going to provide a gated community with security, seven day a week mental health services, really good housing – platinum LEED certified – every house has a bedroom scaled to queen-sized furniture, a living room, kitchen and a bath, a nice front porch. Less than $15,000 a year is what it costs to provide that kind of housing,” James says.
All for a rent of 30% of the tenant’s monthly income – whether it is $1,000 or $10. The only requirement? “Be a good tenant,” James says. That means no criminal or disruptive behaviour; but no pressure on residents to immediately go sober if they are addicted to alcohol, for example. Help will be on hand when they are ready.
“I’ve heard stories of people getting ‘housing first’ and sleeping with the door open because it’s such a massive shift, it took months or even a year for them to be able to shut and lock the door,” says Jonathan Grace, a pastor who works with the homeless in Dallas.
Other models for housing that focus on mental illness and alcoholism have been credited with reducing chronic homelessness in Utah by 91% and have been tried in cities including Seattle, Los Angeles and New York.
[. . .]
Some 40% of homeless adults in Dallas are severely mentally ill.
[. . .]
The sprawling homeless encampment beneath a freeway overpass grew to be so large that it encompassed hundreds of tents and distinct neighbourhoods: the alcoholics, the drug users, the young people, clustered on a dusty patch of wasteland close to the shimmering glass skyscrapers of downtown and a giant billboard advertising a banana-yellow Ford Mustang. Clothes hung on a metal fence, pigeons pecked at the ground and portable toilets stood in a corner near a truck providing medical services.
[. . .]
James believes the cottages could promote a more enlightened approach to homelessness in Texas, one that emphasizes trust, time and collaboration. “People given resources and opportunities typically work hard to solve their own problems. We just don’t respect that enough,” he says.
'Housing first': Dallas's new strategy for the city's most costly homeless people
Selection process for tenants is under way as project seeks to provide permanent place to live before solving issues such as mental health, drugs or alcohol Tom Dart in Dallas, Texas @Tom_Dart
Sunday 20 March 2016 08.00 EDT
In 1970s, in Cambridge and Boston, roommate ads often included prohibiting Republicans. Is this why Trump became a housing developer?
[From article]
A landlord in Grand Junction is not breaking the law by refusing to lease an apartment to anyone who supports Donald Trump for president. According to The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Mark Holmes is renting out a two-bedroom apartment on Main Street, but he refuses to rent to anyone who supports Trump.[. . .]
“That has nothing to do with the Fair Housing Act,” HUD spokesman Jerry Brown told The Daily Sentinel. “But that seems to be a first, and it’s original.”
“He’s preaching hate and he’s preaching … a lot of venom, spit and vinegar. And I live in the top part of the house,” Holmes said. “I don’t want anybody that even thinks that Donald Trump can be a good president to live in my home.”
After 1995 demise of rent control developers in Cambridge work toward the goal of transforming Cambridge from a working class city to an elitist academic enclave. This is one more project in support of that goal. Remarkable how many limousine liberals chant "Affordable housing" but support elitist transformations. More feel good rhetoric? All comments are from property owners. Any renters left in Cambridge?
Cambridge developer hopes to transform historical building into boutique hotel
By Natalie Handy
nhandy (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Feb. 9, 2016 at 9:20 AM
Updated Feb 9, 2016 at 9:21 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle
[From article]
Whatever you think about his political views or crazy campaign, Trump doesn’t get enough credit for being a transformative planner who is in love with the city.
No matter how many times they watch “Taxi Driver,” younger New Yorkers and older ones who arrived recently have no idea of what the city was actually like in the mid-1970s through the mid-’90s. Notwithstanding Studio 54 and a short-lived Wall Street boom, the metropolis was reeling. Rampant street crime, AIDS, corporate flight and physical decay brought confidence to an all-time low.
Trump waded into a landscape of empty Fifth Avenue storefronts, the dust-bowl mugging ground that was Central Park and a Wall Street area seemingly on its last legs as companies moved out.
[. . .]
Trump himself is largely to blame for being a prophet without honor in his home city. He grew weary of the risky, time-consuming development grind and started selling his name to just about any developer willing to sign a check. The result was horrible projects like the Trump Soho Hotel which he neither built nor owns.
His disastrous foray into Atlantic City casinos — Why, Donald? — his tacky promotion of China-made shirts and ties among other goofy ventures further cheapened his name.
Curious arguments by omniscient politicians. Earlier the argument was Inspectional Services could not enforce current laws, but new laws would be enforced. Now the issue is flooding? Harvard University took three residential units off the market contrary to their promise due to frequent flooding. Last week my kitchen sink drain backed up with dirt blocking the drain. This is another example of lack of critical thinking by Cambridge Councilors. Increased population density does not improve quality of life. What are they thinking?
New York City's Most Exclusive Building, 1 West 72nd Street
During my brief period as a celebrity in New York City I went to a party there once. The elevator was luxurious. If rumors are true my current building is the first one which had an elevator in Cambridge, MA.
[From article]
the iconic structure, built in 1884 and designed by architect Henry Hardenbergh, the man behind the Plaza and the original Waldorf-Astoria.
[. . .]
Celebrities from Lauren Bacall to Leonard Bernstein have called it home. It was immortalized in the seminal horror movie “Rosemary’s Baby,” and, of course, John Lennon’s assassination at its gates 35 years ago has made the building a tourist Mecca to this day. (His widow, Yoko Ono, still lives on the seventh floor.)
[. . .]
A crafted Native American sculpture on the facade of the Dakota.
Photo: Ken Grant
The most expensive unit ever sold went for a whopping $27.5 million. In 2014, art collector Ydessa Hendeles bought the three-bedroom pad — with 100 feet of Central Park frontage — from hedge funder Bruce Barnes.Modal Trigger
The very same apartment likely went for around $150,000 in 1971,
[. . .]
Among the celebrities who’ve lived in the Dakota: John Madden, “Grey Gardens” filmmaker Albert Maysles, Connie Chung and Maury Povich, Boris Karloff, and Judy Garland. (Among those reportedly turned down by the co-op board: Cher, Billy Joel, Madonna and Judd Apatow.)
[. . .]
For its debut in 1884, developer Clark and architect Hardenbergh kitted out the Dakota with technology that was cutting-edge for the area, including electricity. It was one of the first residential building to have elevators
[From article]
A new Manhattan mom jumped to her death from a sixth-floor window early Monday despite a desperate attempt by her Columbia University grad-student husband to stop her, police sources told The Post.
Jiyunu Kim, 33, who gave birth just four months ago, broke free from her husband’s grasp and jumped out the window of their apartment at 414 W. 120th St. in Morningside Heights at about 5 a.m., the sources said.
She landed in a small courtyard, with the window screen falling nearby.
“I woke up at about 5 a.m. and heard a crash. Then I heard a door slamming and someone taking off running. I heard screaming in Mandarin or Cantonese,” said a resident who refused to provide her name.
A police source said Kim lived in the apartment with her husband, Donghan Kim, 27, who attends Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Not discussed in this report is the concept of eminent domain, where the city takes possession of land for public purposes. Declare a housing emergency, noting thousands of migrants arriving from the Middle East (the geographic area, not the restaurant), Africa, Mexico and China. Take Harvard University's law school quadrangle and renovate for housing. Build 20 stories of affordable housing on what Harvard calls, the science center plaza (city owned land), and then twin 50 story housing edifices on Cambridge Common. Voila. Ipso facto builto.
In this interview, media darling (regularly cited in local papers and on public television), and City Councilor Nadeem Mazem, indicates he suffers from a common syndrome of Cambridge politicians. He says, " everyone knows it [minimum wage] should be $15 an hour." Really? Everyone? How does he know that? He adds, "everyone [in the Boston area] secretly feels in their gut that this just isn’t going to happen," Again. How does he know what people feel? Especially if it is a secret? He's not the only one who speaks for others, with or without their permission. In a recent interview published in the Cambridge Chronicle, City Councilor Carlone does the same thing. See at this link. http://enoughroom.blogspot.com/2015/08/cambridge-ma-city-councilor-speaks-for.html
They are not the only ones. Former City Councilor Jim Braude used to do the same thing when he was a councilor. He also did it on his radio show. I asked in a phone call why he did that. It did not stop him. He continues to speak for others. Now he does a local PBS television show and continues the tradition. He added an upgrade. He has three guests for a seven minute segment. That allows for the four of them including the host less than two minutes each to discuss complex issues. In order to extend the time he asks a question of his guests and then cuts them off saying, "I got it." Meaning he is so smart he knows what the guest is going to say. Can he read minds? Is that why he speaks for others? Can the other city councilors also read minds? Returning to this interview, Councilor Mazem refers to "high value construction that buoys our economy and empowers our local government to do incredible things for education." If that's true why are the educational results of all that money so disappointing? He adds, "we have academic powerhouses, we have everything we need to empower the upper middle class and above." He does not mention teachers unions and other government unions. Public policy is hindered by these unions and none of the politicians speak about them except to boast that they negotiated with the unions for the city. Why is that? Do politicians fear criticizing unions? Those academic powerhouses are focused properly on educating their students and doing research. What does public school education have to do with that? Is academic excellence of the universities supposed to rub off on the city's students? He suggests a problem without discussing it when he says, "we also have 45 percent of our public school kids on free and reduced
lunch, which means that their parents are living around the poverty
line." Oh? Cambridge has a large high income population. Why are so many of their children attending private schools? Is there a problem unmentioned with the city's public schools? Showing off his knowledge of economics Mazem makes a remarkable comment. "if you financially benefit the wealthy, they will save it, but if you
put dollars in the pockets of people who are working or middle class,
they will spend it at local businesses. It happens right away." How does he know that? Wealthy people invest their money. Poor people have access to the internet and purchase items online anywhere in the world. The Council provided access to the internet for all Cambridge citizens defeating their campaign to buy local. Indeed they hire out of town consultants to make their decisions. What is up with that? Once the Council bought a book as a present for the City Manager. At a public meeting Mayor Reeves boasted that was purchased at Barnes and Nobles. The final perplexing comment has to do with a proposed experiment of councilors living on $10 a day. Homeless people live on less. Free food is served at venues seven days a week in and around Cambridge. Free clothing, furniture and more. One can get free mental health services too. Some homeless persons abuse the system and pretend to be ill and call emergency services, which provides free rides to hospitals with a free overnight stay with meals. Why not address some solvable problems instead of reinventing the wheel, grandstanding for journalists. The more things change, the more they stay the same imitating Washington DC.
[From article]
I watched, and I think everyone knows it should be $15 an hour, but I also think that everyone [in the Boston area] secretly feels in their gut that this just isn’t going to happen,
[. . .]
We have 105,000 people in this city [Cambridge], but we have an unbelievable amount of extremely high value construction that buoys our economy and empowers our local government to do incredible things for education. But how could we not take care of a very basic wage right? We have commercial development, we have academic powerhouses, we have everything we need to empower the upper middle class and above.
[. . .]
We want to house as many people as possible who need it, housing is a human right, but we also have 45 percent of our public school kids on free and reduced lunch, which means that their parents are living around the poverty line.
[. . .]
the fact is that if you financially benefit the wealthy, they will save it, but if you put dollars in the pockets of people who are working or middle class, they will spend it at local businesses. It happens right away.
[. . .]
We’re also going to do a challenge where councilors and others try to live on the current minimum wage. At the end of the day, the lesson will be that none of us really can live on $10 a day.
A look inside Donald Trump’s penthouse at Trump Park Avenue, which just sold for $21 million. Evan Joseph Images
[From article]
Located on the 24th floor of the 32-story 502 Park Ave., this floor-through unit — which Trump never lived in — has five bedrooms and 7½ bathrooms.
Sweet features include 10-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, three exposures in the great room, a windowed chef’s kitchen with butler’s pantry, and two walk-in closets in the master suite. Want more? The unit also boasts custom moldings, marbled bathrooms with Watermark fixtures, a library and a media room.
A sprawling oasis in Manhattan's premier prewar condominium! This exceptional 6,192-square-foot penthouse residence with a private elevator is an incredible light-filled space with 5 bedrooms, 7 and a half baths, floor-to-ceiling windows that showcase wonderful views and impeccable attention to detail at every turn. Among the wealth of luxurious highlights are solid oak quarter sawn floors, handcrafted Italian brass doorknobs, custom moldings, stylish spa-like Fior de Pesco marble baths with bowed white wood cabinetry and Watermark chrome nickel fixtures, 12-month individually-operated climate control, and a sleek gourmet windowed chef's kitchen with a butler's pantry, white marble floors, stainless steel GE Profile appliances, fluted glass-paneled white wood cabinetry, marble countertops, mirrored backsplash and an undermount cast iron sink. Host formal gatherings in the breathtaking great room with triple exposures that is privately located opposite from the bedroom wing of the home. Relax with a good book or favorite movie in the separate library and den/media room. Retire to the large master suite with a separate study, his and hers baths and 2 walk-in closets located at the far end of this incredible home.A landmarked architectural wonder on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Trump Park Avenue is idyllically situated near Central Park, Manhattan's best cultural destinations and premier dining and schools. Residents enjoy a level of service that exceeds every expectation, with your daily needs tended to by an attentive professional staff. World-class amenities includes a 24-hour doorman, concierge, daily maid and laundry service, hotel and valet services, hotel and valet services, live-in resident manager and state-of-the-art fitness center.
* * *
The exclusive property in Chelsea boasts seven bedrooms and looks out over the River Thames and Battersea Park opposite.
[From article] He once joked about doing a 'job swap' with Boris Johnson and has referred to London as his 'second home'. Now Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York, has purchased an historic riverside mansion once owned by George Eliot. Mr Bloomberg splashed out £17million on the seven-bedroom property in the exclusive Cheyne Walk in Chelsea.[. . .] As well as its rich artistic heritage, the 5,000 sq ft property boats an impressive literary history. The novelist Mary Ann Evans - better known as George Eliot - lived in the house until her death in 1880. The seven-bedroom mansion also includes a large garden, vaults, a lift, original parquet floors, panelling and intricate cornice work, murals and marble fireplaces.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg buys £17m seven-bed Thames-side mansion once owned by 'George Eliot'
Michael Bloomberg, billionaire ex-mayor of New York, bought historic riverside mansion in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea
He purchased the Grade-II listed building dating back from 1715 and once owned by George Eliot for £17million
He beat off three other bidders to land the mansion, which overlooks the Thames, for £1m more than its asking price
By THOMAS BURROWS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 06:04 EST, 27 July 2015 | UPDATED: 07:58 EST, 27 July 2015
Posted July 18, 2015 8:09 PM ET; Last updated July 20, 2015 8:14 PM ET
Considering how secure data bases are this will also make it extremely easy to fake data. As for statistics as if it wasn't bad enough. In the words of Mark Twain, "There are lies. Damn lies. And then there are statistics." Place these numbers in the hands of spin doctors, lawyers and politicians and it will be more deception, more lies and more abuses of white people. Why not just ban white people?
[From article] If you happened to be a born white conservative, you were always a natural “racist” to the race-obsessed Obama. The only difference now is that he’s managed to make it official. [. . .] The Obama administration is profiling the entire population in a rigid new world where people will be catalogued as racists—not because they really are but all because their government tagged them that way. It’s a system where innocence of the charge doesn’t count.
http://canadafreepress.com/article/73861
Obama’s secret database forces ‘racist’ smear on innocent citizens By Judi McLeod
July 19, 2015
* * *
[From article]
A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.”
Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.
This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make “disparate impact” cases against: banks that don’t make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don’t offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds.
[. . .]
The granddaddy of them all is the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing database, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development rolled out earlier this month to racially balance the nation, ZIP code by ZIP code. It will map every US neighborhood by four racial groups — white, Asian, black or African-American, and Hispanic/Latino — and publish “geospatial data” pinpointing racial imbalances.
The agency proposes using nonwhite populations of 50% or higher as the threshold for classifying segregated areas.
[. . .]
Through its mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection project, the Education Department is gathering information on student suspensions and expulsions, by race, from every public school district in the country. Districts that show disparities in discipline will be targeted for reform.
Those that don’t comply will be punished. Several already have been forced to revise their discipline policies, which has led to violent disruptions in classrooms.
[. . .]
Even if no one has complained about discrimination, even if there is no other evidence of racism, the numbers themselves will “prove” that things are unfair.
Does it matter that this consulting organization resides on the MIT campus? Is this another instance of for profit endeavors on tax exempt property? Who said the money is on Wall Street? Here's one more "consultant" giving city officials expensive advice. What do the politicians provide to taxpayers for the salaries (about $100,000 per year now) they get? Are they in the business of middle men hiring organizations to make decisions for them? If taxpayer funds spent on consultants were instead used to house persons without homes, or to create affordable housing would the quality of life improve in the city? What role does the Massachusetts legislature play in establishing guidelines for increasing affordable housing? Has the City Council ever defined what they mean when they use the word "diversity?"
[From article]
Linkage Fees are the amount of money corporate developers pay the city to help preserve and create affordable housing. For over a decade, the fee has remained close to $4.80 per square foot. Following our recommendations, the fee will be raised to $12, with a $1 increase over the next three years, ultimately tripling the amount of money developers must pay the city toward affordable housing.
[. . .]
These recommendations were reached following a study completed by Karl F. Seidman Consulting Services, who recommended that fees be increased to $10-$12 per square foot.
[. . .]
Cambridge’s diversity is its strength. If we are going to maintain that diversity, we must do everything we can to create and protect as much affordable housing as possible.
Guest column: Significant victory for affordable housing in Cambridge
By Denise Simmons, Dennis Benzan and Marc McGovern
Posted Jul. 15, 2015 at 9:54 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle
Enthusiasm is good, how about some focus? Advocates suggest "bringing in experts and the public." What makes an expert? People employed at non profits who provide services to people without homes? Another says, “We need finely-tuned data.” which is collected frequently. Re-inventing the wheel is fun, but wastes time. Another wants to know "which types of homelessness are the most prevalent." Is diversity the issue? Still another asks, what "barriers prohibit the homeless from getting housing." Where are the experts? US Congressional and state legislative committees studied this issue, wrote legislation and provided funding. Every couple of years the Cambridge City Council (and many other city councils) assembles an army to write the ten year plan to end homelessness. University researchers study the issue and write articles and books about it. There are enough plans and studies wasting time, money and good will. Use the money and resources to put people into homes. Put fugitives into their proper places too. Stop stalling. Oh, is the open border contributing to the unending supply of homeless persons?
Cambridge takes holistic approach in helping the homeless
By Amy Saltzman asaltzman (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Jul. 1, 2015 at 7:57 AM
Updated at 12:16 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle
Concerns about landlords displacing tenants for renovations belongs with the state legislature. Maybe a home rule petition from the City Council, or protesters at landlord homes paid by George Soros, would solve problem. Property owners who fail to clear sidewalks after snow storms often find it is cheaper to pay fines than to clear the snow. It is usually the same property owners each year who do not clear paths for pedestrians.
[From article]
Of all the financial threats facing Americans of retirement age — outliving savings, falling for scams, paying for long-term care — housing isn't supposed to be one. But after a home-price collapse, the worst recession since the 1930s and some calamitous decisions to turn homes into cash machines, millions of them are straining to make house payments.
The consequences can be severe. Retirees who use retirement money to pay housing costs can face disaster if their health deteriorates or their savings run short. They're more likely to need help from the government, charities or their children. Or they must keep working deep into retirement.
[. . .]
They say they shouldn't have qualified for a loan that big. They alleged in an unsuccessful lawsuit against two mortgage firms and a title company that "someone" without their knowledge had inflated Lowe's income on the loan application to get the mortgage approved. (A court ruled in 2013 that "a reasonably prudent person" should have spotted "the alleged wrongdoing" in the application in 2005.)
It is perplexing in extremely progressive Cambridge, loud voices oppose change. No longer a working class factory and college town, the people's republic is now an academic enclave. Like New York City rich people want to live here. They do not like having too many poor people nearby. Does Harvard University have any influence on what the city government does? With a Planning Board that approves projects, the city needs an approval board to make city-wide development plans. What role does state law play in restricting affordable housing?
LETTER: Kendall Square sprawl is taking over with Mass+Main
Posted May. 18, 2015 at 3:54 PM
Updated May 18, 2015 at 3:56 PM
To the editor:
Marilee Meyer, Dana Street
Editor’s note: This is an open letter to the Cambridge City Council.
This article fails to recognize the effect of Newton's first two laws of motion, on people moving. First law: a body at rest will remain at rest unless an external force acts on it. Second law: a body in motion will continue in motion in a straight line unless an external force acts on it. How many people who do not move have not had any external forces on them? How many with external forces moved? That would provide facts to explain the market and allow for planning and investment.
Mr. Boyes-Watson laments difficulty with permit process for new housing. Is it the need to get permits at all, that is a problem, or only some of the process? He does not explain. He does not suggest that any part of the process is corrupt, or can be ignored with due consideration. He does not mention why developers want to build in Cambridge with all of the problems getting permits. Do the high prices of real estate have anything to do with it? Is building in Cambridge a good investment? Is blaming "we in the community" for "loading up housing construction with more and more obligations and fighting each project that is proposed" misguided blame? How much influence do "we in the community" have over decisions by the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals?
Are official requirements too high for low income housing? Shoddy construction, no heat and hot water would lower costs and allow more poor people to live in the city. Allowing flop houses for single room occupancy would get rid of, or at least mitigate the homeless problem. Standards are too high. Look at places like the Sudan, Jordanian and Syrian refugee camps, Gaza, asylum seekers in Italy, for low cost housing of millions who are refugees. The same standards could be used in Cambridge to increase housing and to reduce the homeless problem. Look at the large tent Harvard University erected on city owned land on the overpass near the Fire Department headquarters, which Harvard calls Science Plaza. A great place for low cost housing near a major transit hub. 20 stories of low income housing would go well there. Then there is Cambridge Common where a fifty story building could easily be built, even closer to major transportation and shopping.
[From article]
I can categorically state that it is hard, very hard, to obtain permits to build housing. In my opinion is far too hard, in fact so hard that despite the strong desire of developers to invest in housing in the city not enough new housing is being permitted and built here. This throttling of new housing supply means that well-to-do, moderate-income and low-income folks are all competing for what is a too limited, too static resource.
[. . .]
This is a problem of not permitting enough housing, period. Every unit is very expensive to get permitted and built, so the new housing is, inevitably expensive.
[. . .]
It is disingenuous to suggest we are powerless to slow the rise of housing costs in Cambridge. Those who have control can and should address the rise in housing costs by permitting more housing to be built. We in the community cannot behave like Marie Antoinette and bemoan rising housing costs while loading up housing construction with more and more obligations and fighting each project that is proposed. It is hypocrisy.
You can send me an email at rb662 (at) columbia.edu
US Federal Debt July 2, 2016 $19,385,011,022,974.42.
The estimated population of the United States is 323,268,727 so each citizen's share of this debt is $59,965.62. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.42 billion per day since September 30, 2012!
"Sarchasm:" the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn't get it. (Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)" Washington Post August 2, 1998, Style.
George Washington (1732-1799) "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent -- it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
John Adams (1735-1826) Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
Thomas Sowell (1930 -) "One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them."
Noam Chomsky (1928 -) “If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all” (Guardian (UK), Nov.23, 1992)
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) "Chance favors the prepared mind."
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) "To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting."
Jodie Foster (1962 - ) "Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from."
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970 )"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." "The fundamental cause of trouble in the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Frank Leahy (1907-1973) "Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity."
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road."
James Michael Curley (1874-1958) “Never complain, never explain.”
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939 ) "The reason for so much bad science is not that talent is rare, not at all; what is rare is character."
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) “I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.” "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
Andre Gide: (1869-1951) "Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again." "Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
A woman responding to a threat from Cuban-backed terrorists in El Salvador, 1982 “You can kill me, you can kill my family, kill my neighbors, but you can’t kill us all.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (1945- ) "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear."
Dorothy Thompson (1894-1961) "Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) "Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable."
Lady Marguerite Gardiner (1789-1849) "There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world."
Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)"Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty." "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
Will Rogers: (1879-1938) "When people start taking the comedian seriously and the politician as a joke, everything changes." "This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900-1965) "My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular." [Under this definition, Cambridge Massacchusetts, and the state of Massachusetts are not free societies. ed.]
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
Maria Bartiromo (1967 -) "My [commencement 2011] speech at St. John's [University, New York] three themes: work hard, no shortcuts, love what you do, and always do the right thing."
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists ... it is real ... it is possible ... it's yours."
Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) "Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) "The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone."
Dr. Seuss (1904-1991, Theodor Seuss Geisel) "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda) "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Howie Carr (1952- Boston Herald Columnist, WRKO Radio Talk Show Host) "The [MA] courts are more corrupt than the legislature." (November 18, 2010, 6:15 PM on his radio show.)
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) "In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."
William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.
Voltaire (François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) "Common sense is not so common." "Doubt is not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one." "Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."
Martha Coakley (1953 - Democrat, MA Attorney General, 2010) "In Massachusetts, technically, it is not illegal to be illegal."
Deval Patrick (1956 - Democrat, MA Governor, 2010) "I am not a politician."
Michael Bloomberg (1942 - Democrat, Republican, Independent 3-Term Mayor of New York City and Billionaire) "Last time I checked, the pharmaceutical industry doesn't make a lot of money."
George W. Bush (1946 - ) "Intentions get overwhelmed by perceptions."
John Tudor "Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology."
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) "There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character." "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." "No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes she were not." "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." "It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull." "Democracy is the theory that people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." "Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage."
Michel de Montaigne: (1533-1592) "The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness."
Aldous Huxley: (1894-1963) "I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself."
T. S. Eliot: (1888-1965) Half the harm that is done in this world Is due to people who want to feel important They don’t mean to do harm But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle To think well of themselves."
Burt Prelutsky, (1940- Columnist) "Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with a Muslim building a nuclear bomb in Iran."
Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) "An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less."
Henry Kissinger: (1923 - ) "In this world it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, but to be a friend is fatal."
Socrates: (469BC-399BC) "He is the richest who is content with the least."
Leo Tolstoy: (1828-1910) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." "Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly." "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."
P.J. O'Rourke (A Parliament of Whores) "Imagine if all of life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza. Every pair of pants, even those in a Brooks Brothers suit, would be stone-washed denim. Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And - since women are a majority of the population- we'd all be married to Mel Gibson."
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
Orson Welles (as Harry Lime in The Third Man, 1949) "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace -- and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Tacitus: (c. 56 AD-c. 117) "The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates."
Ralph Waldo Emerson: (1803-1882) "Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing."
Doug Hoffman: (2009 Conservative Party Candidate for US Rep. NY 23rd District) "Congress fiddles while our economy burns. They lack common sense."
Rich Lowry: (On ObamaCare) "A shimmering mirage of wishful thinking and willful dishonesty."
President Obama (as he loses public support.) "We cannot wait any longer [. . .] There comes a time to remember the fierce urgency of right now."
Rush Limbaugh: (On first hour of his show broadcast October 23, 2009) Obama "is delusional." He's "seriously dangerous." He's "insane." Reacting to Obama's comments that the US Constitution is an obstacle to "redistribution of wealth." Obama also referred to "the so called founders."
Marek Edelman, leader of Warsaw Ghetto uprising. (1919?-2009) "Man is evil, by nature man is a beast. People have to be educated from childhood, from kindergarten, that there should be no hatred."
Adis Medunjanin (24 in January 2010, Queens, NY man accused of training with al Qaeda): "We love death more than you love life."
Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009): "Do we operate under a system of equal justice or one for the average citizen and one for the high and mighty?"
Robert Novak: (1931-2009) “Always love your country — but never trust your government!
Calvin Coolidge: (1872-1933) “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Dead Pool: "Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody's got one."
Lyndon Johnson: (1908-1973) “The difference between liberals and cannibals is that cannibals don’t eat their friends and family members.”
Margaret Thatcher: (1925 - 2013) "The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of others people's money."
John Adams: (1735-1826) "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Abraham Lincoln: (1809-1865) "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Thomas Jefferson: (1743-1826) "Merchants have no country." “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
James Madison: (1751-1836) “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
Mark Twain: (1835-1910) "Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing often and for the same reason." "It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you think you know for sure that just ain't so." "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." "Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions." "Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
Maggie Gallagher: (1960 - ) "Politicians can pass a bill saying a chicken is a duck and that doesn't make it true. Truth matters."
Humpty Dumpty (In Alice in Wonderland) "When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to. No more no less."
Groucho Marx: (Julius Henry, 1890-1977) "Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read."
United States Constitutionhttp://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html
FACTS ARE STUBBORN:
John Adams: Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
Aldous Huxley: Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Thomas Fuller: Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.
Obama Lost the Debate on Health Care:Unable to counter widespread concerns of citizens about his health care plans, Obama supporters conduct intense vitriolic attacks on critics. Obama has no rational arguments, and hopes to discredit his critics by character assassination. They are not just racists now they are greedy racists and hate mongers. Maybe that will work. Ya think? Obama-Biden: Stupid is as stupid does. Biden: "We misread how bad the economy was."
Obama: [Correcting Biden]"We had incomplete information." So the US Congress voted for and the President signed a $787 billion stimulus bill without having read it, and with incomplete information? And they say others are stupid? Hello? Then Congress voted for a 1,000+ page "cap and trade" bill that none of them read.
Bloomberg: Daschle says, "Health care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them," while former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm says seniors have "a duty to die." If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that the President, Senators and Congressmen have their own special gold plated health care plan which is guaranteed the remainder of their lives and they are not subject to this new law if they pass it. Reverse the dangerous direction of the Obama administration and its allies.
Obama, The Un-Truman: David McCullough, in his biography of Harry Truman, "Truman" says on page 217, "Harry cared little more for other [than Huey Long] celebrated 'speechifiers' in the Senate. Admittedly fearful of making a speech himself, he seemed to resent particularly those who could and who made their reputations that way. They were the 'egotistical boys' whose specialty was talk." Obama admitted that he can make a speech but that he was incapable of doing anything in the Senate. Where did he gets his special powers during the campaign?
Obama's Mantra: He keeps repeating, "I won the election." He expects all Americans to support what HE wants. "I won," is how Obama implements the post-partisan unification of America. What a guy! See also Rich Lowry's "Sorry, O: 'I won' Won't Cover this," New York Post, February 6, 2009, page 27. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02062009/postopinion/opedcolumnists sorry__o__i_won_wont_cover_this_153839.htm
MIDDLESEX DA: We're too busy to address crimes less than murder. On Thursday June 25, 2009 Marian Ryan, who works for the Middlesex District Attorney in MA, returned my call from the previous day. She heads the unit for abuse of elders and abuse of persons with disabilities. She told me, "We've had four murders this month." That was to explain why she was unable to address 35 years of police abuses of a citizen with a disability now an elder. She said that a police officer making a threat did not rise to the level of a crime. She did not have time or resources to address abuses by the City Manager and the Police Commissioner of Cambridge, and the Harvard University campus police. It was no concern that using police to harass a person with a disability may be the reason for the four murders. MA Civil Rights statute and possession of illegal firearms are felonies, but not murder. Misallocation of resources is easily apparent. If the police focused on criminals instead of harassing elders with disabilities there might be less violent crime. But who was I to argue.
Cambridge Censorship: In October 2009 City Council Candidate Kathy Podgers complained to Attorney Bill August, long term president of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, that her posts to the neighborhood discussion lists were not appearing. Then Bob LaTremouille added his similar complaints. When I chimed in that my posts did n0t appear for many months Bill August accused me of libel. I said he ignored my complaints about censorship. For a lawyer he does not read very well. On one occasion in 2007 I sent a letter via Fedex from one part of Cambridge to another. I used Fedex because of frequent tampering with my mail by USPS employees. Mail was withheld by USPS employees, and some mail was intercepted and never got to where I sent it. The letter sent by Fedex never arrived either. Their tracking system ended before it was delivered. I wrote to the President of Fedex. He sent me a check for $25 to compensate me. What good is money if you can't send a letter from one part of a city to another? In June 2009 I sent a letter to a US Government agency complaining about a mobbed up police officer who was protecting criminals who harass me each day. Two days after I sent the letter the police detective appeared at a market as I shopped. He used a young woman as bait to try to have me arrested. In June 2009 someone opened a YouTube account solely to publish a comment attacking me personally. This is a frequent experience of an ongoing character assassination campaign by criminals and their police associates. A Harvard University attorney told me not to make complaints to their real estate offices but to the office of the General Counsel. The lawyer assigned was trying to deceive me. On June 6, 2009 I noticed a threat from a police officer as a comment under one of my videos posted on YouTube July 7, 2008. The video shows a Cambridge police patrol car parked in a bus stop. The officer was having dinner nearby not on an emergency call. Every day since I complained to the Attorney General about the threat Cambridge police or Harvard campus police follow me and try to provoke me. The Attorney General is married to a supervising Cambridge police officer. I learned on June 15, 2009 that the FBI was investigating me again. In May 2009, my comments on the Boston Herald web pages (a public accommodation) were removed allegedly due to violations of guidelines. When I complained one was restored. Interns referred me to a staff writer when three of my comments about the shooting death at a Harvard dorm were removed. Someone unknown to me posted a picture of a man from the city in my YouTube profile. That means that someone is tampering with my YouTube account. That is a felony under US law. On or about December 12, 2008 my name was removed from two neighborhood discussion lists--Riverside and Cambridgeport. My attempts to be put back on were ignored by the former President of the Riverside neighborhood, Larry Adkins. Cambridgeport moderators opened my new access in February 2009. In May 2009 I received messages from the list but was unable to post messages. Last year I was unable to receive or post messages to the Porter Square neighborhood discussion list. No notice there either. They began a new list this year and I now get messages. But I was the target of personal attacks on the Porter Square list, the Cambridgeport discussions and on the Cambridge Chronicle web pages. An FBI informant who maintains a web site about the City of Cambridge ridicules me and others who he believes have disabilities. My account with YouTube (more than 250 videos posted) was shut in August 2008 and my appeals of Fair Use Doctrine were ignored. On April 15, 2009 my YouTube account was re-opened. Emily Rooney, host of the PBS news show, Greater Boston threatened to have me banned from Boston. Cambridge City Councilor and Harvard lawyer, Brian Murphy, who resigned in February 2009 to take a six-figure job with the state used council rules to silence my expression. These are rules that the Council created but ignore at every meeting. An email account I used specially for discussion lists was shut down with no notice and no reason or warning given. My several emails inquiring why have been ignored. That account was re-opened on February 10, 2009. Google Video flagged and blocked four uploaded episodes of a cable access TV show I produced and hosted on CCTV. When I appealed their decision, they agreed to put it back up. But as of this date one remains blocked. In February 2009 a long term producer of documentaries at CCTV told me "There is no such thing as Free Speech." That was the second time someone in Cambridge said that to me.
