The Boston Globe wrote an editorial about Brookliners, and as usual, got Brookline all wrong. The editorial, written by “Globe Staff”, accuses your town of price gouging because the Transportation Board voted to raise parking meter rates during Red Sox games to $10 per hour after two hours of $1 per hour. This anonymous employee of the Globe claims that Brookline is a “rich suburban town preying on people” based upon the Transportation Board’s decision which now goes to the Board of Selectmen for approval. The editorial claims the decision was unjustified without giving any evidence at all that its author even researched the issue. It goes on to claim that the only the winners here are the Brookline town coffers ( it actually said Transportation Board coffers but we get what he/she meant).
Question to all you Brookliners. Are you affluent? Our thoughts are that the answer to that question is no. It can be reasonably argued that the town is fiscally challenged given recent budget cuts. Brookline as a community is doing well compared to many areas of the country and we are certainly culturally wealthy, but sweeping generalizations about the financial situation of Brookline residents or their intentions is without merit.
The real question is how should Brookline handle meters rates given the concerns of traffic flow, available parking, local businesses, area residents and the town budget. The decision should be made by the Brookline community and not by anonymous writers from the Globe.
In the upcoming weeks, we will closely examine the local traffic and parking situation. We will try to provide you information based on our research and reporting and we promise to include our names with every article and editorial.
R. Harvey Bravman
Publisher
