Boston, Build Now, Collect Taxes Later. We’ll See…

A rant…

At the Davis Square ‘T’ Station I rush to catch the Red Line into Boston. The turnstile slowly reads the chip embedded somewhere in my paper ticket. “Card Is Empty”.

As I’m trying to refill it, a ‘T’ worker (I passed on the escalator running down) walks past me and says it can’t be refilled. The machine gives me a new ticket. As I run for the train she yells, “See the station agent about getting a plastic card.” I ponder that as the train leaves the station without me.

Years ago one could do that — get a refillable plastic transit card — but for the past few years one has to travel to the Downtown Crossing MBTA office to get one — and even then, I’ve heard, they don’t always have them. Maybe she said it ironically.

The companies who make the cards aren’t working. The station agents aren’t working. But I see them. They’re there. We all see them. They see us. We’re all in on it. No one gives a flying f-.

Somehow the money and paychecks will keep coming.

New England was once the seat of the Puritan work ethic. Today, it’s the center of liberal entitlement (some red meat for my conservative readers). Everyone shows up to work on time and then does f-all.

From Park Street I’ll want to take the Green Line, ‘D’ or ‘E’ branch to Haymarket. When I get up to the tracks most of the maps haven’t been updated to where Green Line now extends into Somerville. They were planning it for decades and have been building it for years and now that most of it is done — still, they haven’t replaced the maps in one of the main train stations in Boston.

Outside, it’s right in front of us, tons of new construction on infrastructure barely walkable by zombies.

When the train comes it says “Tufts/Medford” but doesn’t read ‘D’ or ‘E’. I later learn it’s the ‘E’ train. When I get on, the automated voice says “Next stop Park Street”. Of course, we just left Park Street so whoever works on the computer messaging system isn’t shortening their lunch to fix anything.

When I get to Haymarket there is water everywhere in the station. Above the station is a new skyscraper being built. Somehow the developer has hundreds of millions to build the towering metal, glass and plastic piece of crap. No one in government is going to pry their eyes away from their Instagram account to tax the developer enough to fix the ceilings in the station below them.

The developers get to pay later. What could go wrong?!

As I’ve written before, New England believes it will escape the next recession because the Great Financial Crisis was but a pin-prick. I don’t see it. I see a massive over-investment in commercial lab space and more vertical living space than the infrastructure can support.

The Asians are no longer paying top dollar for local colleges. Or buying up real estate. There’s no plan get more realistic about New England’s future. It’s full steam ahead to a station with old maps, flooded platforms and glitchy computer systems.

The Boston area is one of the most beautiful cities in America. Too bad greed has taken over. There is no real sense of purpose. Or identity. I’m not against new development. Far from it. But not at the expense of what makes the area worth living in, in the first place.