If you rezone for Smart Growth, the state gives funds for the new kids. That’s what we did in Easthampton. Beyond that, the child population of the state is declining, so an increase in enrollment is really the last thing most communities should worry about.

That makes a lot of sense. A good deal of research has been done on the existing casinos in MA and one finding is that it’s mostly local/regional patrons who drive there and then drive home. There was a thought at one time that a ton of tourists would come from all around to gamble in MA. What they’ve been more effective at is recapturing the spending of people who would have otherwise traveled out of state to gamble.

This could be a completely legitimate and appropriate use of force, but I’m interested if we ever hear more about it. This news story looks like they basically reprinted the press release from the police with zero additional investigation. That might be fine, but in a lot of high-profile police killings in recent years, the original press releases have a lot of inaccurate or omitted information. At the minimum, I would be really interested to know what the weapon in question was.

You might want to consider reaching out to the police chief where this person lives. That’s who ultimately makes the call, and if you have information that they might miss, that would probably be the most direct way to share it.

Gotta say, I’m a little surprised by the sponsors.

I think it’s a big generalization to say that all rural people are hostile towards government. I would challenge you to look at town-level election results in MA and back that statement up. What I do think it is fair to say is that it is more difficult to deliver government services in rural areas, and rural people understand this. The police response time for the farm where I grew up is about 20 minutes, so when my mom thought she heard footsteps outside her window, she didn’t call the cops. She called the bikers down the street, who were there almost immediately. Turned out to be nothing but the point is, you get used to the idea that certain sorts of government services (public safety, public transit, water/sewer, etc.) might not be available. That said, I think there are areas where the government could take actions that would really benefit rural people, but they won’t take those actions unless they understand those communities.

I have to say I’m a little surprised to see a few comments on here getting upvoted. As a little perspective, I am a lifelong resident of Western MA, and I’ve spent my adult life working in public policy, including 6 years in elected office. Nobody out here is suggesting that the people of rural MA be given more votes in the legislature, or anything like that. But the truth is that there are a lot of people in key decision-making positions who have huge blind spots when it comes to some of the communities outside of 495.

This really isn’t some zero sum game where anything that comes to the rural parts of MA has to come at the expense of Metro Boston. It’s just a matter of making sure that people who make public policy understand the unique needs of all Massachusetts’ communities. And right now, I can tell you, a lot of people straight up don’t. They don’t understand how delivering services to vulnerable people is different when you have zero public transit. They don’t understand the first thing about agricultural economies. They don’t understand the ways that having an aging, declining population leads to a different kind of housing crisis than what they have out East.

If your opinion is basically “fuck those dumb hicks”, then the status quo is great. But there are a lot of people who are actually tasked with providing government services to all of the Commonwealth’s citizens, and in a lot of cases, they would be doing a better job providing those services to to rural communities if there were people from rural communities at the table voicing their needs.

And to folks saying that the legislative delegation from those communities is enough, to me, that just suggests that you don’t pay attention to state house politics. The MA state house is one of the most top-heavy, least transparent legislative institutions in the country. It is not a place where honest public servants go to discuss the needs of their constituents. And unless your rep and senator are part of the leadership, they don’t have a tremendous amount of contact with the decision makers in the executive branch, which is what this editorial is actually about.

I ended up at a gathering of local elected officials from Western MA last year. Some representatives from the state were there, and they discussed a bunch of government initiatives to help with technology, infrastructure, etc. As the officials asked questions, it became clear that in nearly every case, their communities either weren’t eligible for the funds, or they didn’t have the administrative resources to even apply. These folks from the state drove 2-3 hours to present on this stuff, which they presumably would not have done if they understood this. But I seriously doubt a single thing has changed since then.

I don’t think it’s about having equal representation. I think it’s about making sure that certain communities aren’t invisible to the people in power. Nobody is suggesting they get extra votes in the legislature.

You seem to have mistaken the state house for a coherent and functional democratic institution.

I’m out in Western MA, so my accent is a little bit closer to American Standard, but there definitely are at least two regional dialects out here. My parents moved here before I was born, so I can sort of code shift in or out of it depending on who I’m talking to/how drunk I am.

It’s the four Western countries.

You can carry a standard folding knife, and I do from time to time, mostly for utility purposes. That said, I will always pass on the advice I got once in a martial arts class. If you’re going to carry a knife, you better be prepared to use it (and end a human life as a result) and you better know how to use it, because otherwise you might have it taken away from you, and then your assailant has a knife.

I usually end up holding a sign outside my polling place, so I figure I might as well do it then anyway. I live in Easthampton where the whole thing is run very well so it’s not like it’s a long wait or anything. And I like running into my neighbors.

Well no but, to OP’s point, by the time that the median wage is $1,000,000/yr, they likely will have adjusted a few times.

I actually didn’t know that part. That’s helpful.

I just want to point out that the way you “questioned the truth” is to say “Watch all the #Karen ‘s get triggered below”. What is this apparently unassailable information that you’ve put out here?

Ok, but other states were doing this before this. I was aware that I was going to have to get a RealID before I was at all confident that this law would pass.

Do you think RealID would not have happened in MA if it hadn't been for this law?

Wow, what a brave and insightful post. I was planning to uphold a law that was passed with the support of both the ACLU and law enforcement, which in other states has resulted in safer roads, but maybe I need to reconsider my position in light of this analysis.

How about just some cool shapes and colors? Flags with overly complex symbology on them are harder to incorporate into use in regular life. I feel like whenever I’m in Texas or Colorado or Ohio I see their flags worked into all sorts of stuff. Nobody does that in MA because in addition to being racist, the flag is ugly and overly complicated. I honestly hated it before I understood anything about its history or the meaning of the symbols.

As someone who has worked in municipal government, it is, in my opinion, the best motto of all time. Anything beyond that is bullshit.