Speaker 1: It's nice Sime with Dan Ray on Z Boston Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, them a little bit of fun here. Actually
Speaker 2: it's fun, but it's also serious. If you live in Somerville,
Speaker 2: they are charging people who have not shoveled their sidewalk.
Speaker 2: They're finding people and according to one report I think
Speaker 2: this is from Channel seven News, they have handed out
Speaker 2: already eight hundred and ninety four tickets since November, the
Speaker 2: vast majority of them obviously in the last few weeks.
Speaker 2: Really frustrating, really frustrating in my opinion, And they actually
Speaker 2: encourage a fellow residents to call and snitch on their neighbors.
Speaker 2: My neighbor does at every sidewalk shovel call three to
Speaker 2: one one. Let's keep rolling here if you'd like to
Speaker 2: join the conversation. I think it's it's really un American
Speaker 2: in my opinion. It's like, first, first of all, you
Speaker 2: don't own the sidewalk. The city owns the sidewalk, or
Speaker 2: the town owns the sidewalk in most communities says they
Speaker 2: owned the sidewalk, they should take care of it. If
Speaker 2: you're kind enough to shovel it, that's fine. But if
Speaker 2: you're not able to shovel it if you're someone who's
Speaker 2: a senior citizen, or someone the disability or someone who
Speaker 2: is just frankly, you know, house bound. Are you going
Speaker 2: to find that person? Angela Knewton Angelo, what's your thought
Speaker 2: on this?
Speaker 3: I agree with everything you say. Dan, I got quite
Speaker 3: a bit of say, you know, do you remember you
Speaker 3: ever remember the kids the sidewalk being shoveled when you
Speaker 3: walk to school?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah I did. Yeah. I think the sidewalks got shoveled.
Speaker 2: Not always, but there were plenty of days when you
Speaker 2: had to, you know, walk in the street to avoid
Speaker 2: the snow. I mean, yeah, I don't think it was
Speaker 2: I don't think it's ever been universal. What was your recollection?
Speaker 3: Well, I had a big issue with this over the
Speaker 3: city of Newton. I said, when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: I never saw a city side walks shovels. I always
Speaker 3: had a walk on the street. And I says, you know,
Speaker 3: you want us to shovel the sidewalks to the sidewalk
Speaker 3: belongs to you, guys, Well, if we have to shovel,
Speaker 3: a should belong to walk. And I saw elderly people. Okay,
Speaker 3: you're walking on the sidewalk and the people leave their
Speaker 3: cars overhanging the sidewalk, and I said, you know, those
Speaker 3: people had to turn around, walk all the way back
Speaker 3: to the next driveway that was opening, and had to
Speaker 3: walk out to the street. And then I says, we
Speaker 3: pay enough tax in the city of Newton. What's the
Speaker 3: city of Newton doing with all equipment?
Speaker 2: Oh well, well, I happen to agree with you that
Speaker 2: taxes are high in Newton. Is probably one of the
Speaker 2: highest real estate taxes in any city in the country,
Speaker 2: never mind Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I said to him, I says, well, he says, well,
Speaker 3: it's costing enough the money. And I said, you know
Speaker 3: why it's costing you guys money. I'll tell you right
Speaker 3: now why, Because I see it. The guys that using
Speaker 3: the sidewalk flows, they're not They're they're careless. I always
Speaker 3: see him going by. They're ripping up people's lawns. They're
Speaker 3: not seeing on the sidewalk where they should be. Of course,
Speaker 3: it is costing them money. And the and the sidewalks
Speaker 3: all the tree roots lift in the sidewalk and the
Speaker 3: expect people to walk on that. One ding, my sister
Speaker 3: was walking on the city sidewalk and the tree rooms
Speaker 3: step up the sidewalk, and she went for quick talk,
Speaker 3: believe it, and we argued about the city about it,
Speaker 3: and they never did anything about it. And he says,
Speaker 3: you always jumping on us, and what about everybody else?
Speaker 3: And you want us to shovel sidewalks, And how's anybody's
Speaker 3: buzzle to walk a side down the sidewalk when somebody
Speaker 3: keeps it back end or the cow out on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2: No, I got your points, Angel, you made good points,
Speaker 2: good arguments, and I appreciate you hearing from you as always.
Speaker 2: And oh it's I don't know if you ever gotten
Speaker 2: a ticket, but they're eight hundred and ninety four of
Speaker 2: some of the residents who have been given a ticket
Speaker 2: since November, and I think that's pretty unfair. I think
Speaker 2: they look.
Speaker 3: You know, thet's snow that we have four years ago,
Speaker 3: remember us snow that we have four years Okay. I
Speaker 3: was out two days straight, two days straight, and I
Speaker 3: didn't come home until the third day, and I found
Speaker 3: a ticket on my door. I had an argument with
Speaker 3: the city. I said, you put a ticket on my
Speaker 3: door and not three days I'll blow the snow, and
Speaker 3: you guys expect me to shovel my walk. Oh, if
Speaker 3: you don't do it twenty four hours, we're gonna find you.
Speaker 3: I says, no, that's not right, that's not Oh. I
Speaker 3: haven't been talked about this.
Speaker 2: I bet you did.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: I bet you did. Hey, Thanks, Angelo, appreciate you call.
Speaker 2: We'll talk soon. Thanks, buddy, appreciate it. Good.
Speaker 3: Okay, Dan, thank you my father. Good easy, bybye.
Speaker 2: Get it off your chest. And that's that is what
Speaker 2: you gotta do. Angelo. Let's go to John and Hanover.
Speaker 2: John and Hanover you next time nights. I go right ahead, Hey, Dan, Oya,
Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm good. What's your thought on this?
Speaker 5: So do you remember a band called the Kingston Trio?
Speaker 2: Of course they do. Yeah, everybody remembers the Kings, Charlie
Speaker 2: and the nbtwo.
Speaker 5: Right exactly what I just had an obscure reference.
Speaker 3: Boy.
Speaker 5: I chimed into the broadcast by about fifteen minutes ago
Speaker 5: about the four or five collars back and the way
Speaker 5: that he was griping and you were talking about how
Speaker 5: to just see us as bank accounts. It just seemed
Speaker 5: to really fit that song, even though it was written
Speaker 5: what forty years ago.
Speaker 2: More than that, I'll bet you it's more like sixty
Speaker 2: years ago. I think that was circ in nineteen sixties
Speaker 2: or so someone else there. We got plenty of music
Speaker 2: officionados who will call me up and tell me exactly
Speaker 2: what it was written. But I'm guessing sixty or sixty one.
Speaker 2: I might even be able to find it as we're
Speaker 2: talking here. But yeah, they look at us as ATMs.
Speaker 5: That was one of my dad's favorites. I grew up
Speaker 5: listening to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they look at us citizens as as ATMs. I
Speaker 2: you know, it's like, do you go to the store now.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's like this in handover, but
Speaker 2: you got to pay five cents or die for a bag?
Speaker 2: You buying groceries like that.
Speaker 5: So both of my parents they just went to assisted living.
Speaker 5: I inherited their house here. I still have my apartment
Speaker 5: up in Medford, right on Boston Have, and they have
Speaker 5: the same stuff going on up there with the bags
Speaker 5: and then the sidewalks. As you guys were talking about,
Speaker 5: there's no way their ADA compliant. I got a roommate
Speaker 5: up there, and I walk his dog every now and then,
Speaker 5: and if you're not watching your feet, you're gonna trip
Speaker 5: it up on your face. And I have no mobility problems,
Speaker 5: so I can't imagine trying to run a piece of
Speaker 5: equipment over that to clear it or anything like that.
Speaker 5: But having us by the way they charged the way.
Speaker 6: I just checked you.
Speaker 2: Sorry, hold on, I just checked this out. The MTA
Speaker 2: song Charlie and the MTA was written in nineteen forty.
Speaker 5: Nine, so my dad was a year old when they
Speaker 5: wrote that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now when they made it popular, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It appears in the Kingston Trio album in nineteen fifty nine,
Speaker 2: so I was pretty close, they said in nineteen sixty.
Speaker 2: But it was written by some people. Jacquelyn Stein and
Speaker 2: best Best Hawes have no idea who they are in
Speaker 2: nineteen forty nine. That's seventy five years ago.
Speaker 5: So yeah, maybe his father liked it. I never met
Speaker 5: the guy. He was drafted in a World War Two
Speaker 5: at thirty eight years old. Believe that. Wow, well the
Speaker 5: different guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was a different time. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I just think we got it as citizens. I mean,
Speaker 2: you look at this, eight hundred and ninety four tickets
Speaker 2: have been written. You live in a place like Somerville,
Speaker 2: and you know, look, Somerville is not the the Eden
Speaker 2: of the Northeast. It's not the Ruba of the Northeast.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a nice city, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: but it's got its problems, and you would think that
Speaker 2: they would have more things that they could worry about
Speaker 2: than whether or not there's a few days in the
Speaker 2: winter time when some people's sidewalks aren't shoveled properly.
Speaker 5: Almost seems like a cash grab because the people in charge,
Speaker 5: and some of them know that there's a good percentage
Speaker 5: of those homes that are occupied by tough kids. Tough
Speaker 5: kids and they're paying rent, so they're not going to
Speaker 5: be shoveling sidewalks. They're going to expect property management to
Speaker 5: take care of that. But property management will expect a
Speaker 5: city to handle the sidewalks. So it does seem like
Speaker 5: way well I know that, but.
Speaker 2: I got to tell I mean, if if it's a
Speaker 2: rental unit, uh and someone owns it and it's a
Speaker 2: you know, a dormitory or a frat house, I think
Speaker 2: that I'm not concerned about the person who owns that
Speaker 2: rental unit. I'm concerned about the elderly couple that's holding
Speaker 2: on and you know, they're living on a fixed income,
Speaker 2: and maybe one of them is dealing with a medical condition,
Speaker 2: maybe they both are, and they have to go out
Speaker 2: and shovel a sidewalk I mean, or maybe pay kids
Speaker 2: to do that for them. I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 2: not like the old days with you know, most people
Speaker 2: lived in a neighborhood and you knew the people on
Speaker 2: the on the street who were elderly. Now you live
Speaker 2: in a neighborhood, you don't even know who's on the street.
Speaker 2: It's the whole country has changed, and it hasn't changed,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, for the better. In that in that
Speaker 2: guard and the city looks at at all of these people,
Speaker 2: as they say, people like you and me as atm
Speaker 2: so they'll get you for this. They nickel and dime
Speaker 2: you at this at the supermarket, and they they do
Speaker 2: more than nickel and dimea when they hit you with
Speaker 2: a hundred or a three hundred dollars fine for not
Speaker 2: I mean, it's impossible that storm came in. There's been
Speaker 2: a series of storms. It's not like you had four
Speaker 2: inches of snow, nice light, fuff, fluffy snow and no, no,
Speaker 2: it was ice and rain and freezing frozen, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like the frozen tundra. I don't know,
Speaker 2: that's just I just think that these people who who
Speaker 2: who decide to make their career in government, the so
Speaker 2: called public servants, that a lot of them, once they
Speaker 2: get in there, they they never get blown out. You know.
Speaker 2: People in the private sector lose their jobs all the time.
Speaker 2: And we're seeing what's going on in Washington. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about that maybe a little bit later on tonight.
Speaker 5: Johnson got the town manag here. The property tax on
Speaker 5: this house is more than I pay for the apartment
Speaker 5: up in Medtrid. Just a tax, and you can't drink
Speaker 5: the town water here, and they're charging us to use
Speaker 5: the dump now, which has been free for thirty years,
Speaker 5: while raising the property tax. And we just had an It's.
Speaker 2: Another revenue stream, another revenue stream.
Speaker 5: They get you, they get you tax department, the new
Speaker 5: mall fifteen years a tax defertment. But they're taking away
Speaker 5: services from the elderly and raising the property fact.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I think Hanover is similar to other communities,
Speaker 2: and they wonder why people are leaving Massachusetts by the droves.
Speaker 5: Eventually, Great belt Web is running that town. He worked
Speaker 5: on Beacon Hill for Francis Galvin for a while, their
Speaker 5: budget is balanced. They're like the only town in the
Speaker 5: Cell show that has no override vote. So he seems
Speaker 5: like an impressive guy. They're lucky to have.
Speaker 6: Him, whoever he is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that they voted against the MBTA Communities
Speaker 2: Act also the standing Firm against that, which is something
Speaker 2: that also I think the integrity of communities. They're trying
Speaker 2: to take away local the rights for local zoning. They
Speaker 2: want to impose on different communities, every community, you know,
Speaker 2: obligations to build more multi family housing. And they're not
Speaker 2: accusing the communities of being discriminatory. They're just saying, we
Speaker 2: need more, we need a more of tax base, and
Speaker 2: we need more properties. And of course the developers work
Speaker 2: with the politicians. They contribute to the politicians campaigns, and
Speaker 2: the politicians say, well, let's force these towns to accept
Speaker 2: more developments, and the developers like that. It's Massachusetts is
Speaker 2: a weird state, man. It's it's it's it's always been
Speaker 2: a little weird and it's getting weirder. Thanks, John, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you Thanks for calling. You've called before, this's your
Speaker 2: first time calling.
Speaker 5: No, I've called a couple of times.
Speaker 2: Give me a favorite keep calling. I enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2: Talk to you soon. Thank you. We will take a break.
Speaker 2: I got a little bit of open lines here for
Speaker 2: your six one seven, two, five four ten thirty. Also
Speaker 2: six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. I do
Speaker 2: we will change to another topic, but I want to
Speaker 2: give everybody a chance if you want to talk now
Speaker 2: about what's going on in Somerville and maybe what's going
Speaker 2: on in your community in terms of the obligation to
Speaker 2: UH to shovel your sidewalk at risk of being fined
Speaker 2: anywhere from one hundred and three hundred dollars and they've
Speaker 2: fined eight hundred. They've written eight hundred and ninety four tickets. Boy,
Speaker 2: there might there must be some guy in some of
Speaker 2: it who's really proud about that. You know, I've written
Speaker 2: eight hundred and ninety four tickets and I've I'm more
Speaker 2: than kept my keep as a as a ticket writer
Speaker 2: here in Somerville. I mean, is that what is that
Speaker 2: what life in Massachusetts has come down to? I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think that this past storm there should have been exception.
Speaker 2: This is not your normal set of snowstorms. These were
Speaker 2: little rapid snowstorms. You couldn't eavenly get out and shovel.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Night's side right after this. Feel
Speaker 2: free to join the conversation. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
Speaker 2: thirty six, one seven nine.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Into World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on w b Z the news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to the calls. We go going to go
Speaker 2: to Mario in Wilmington. Mario and Wilmington. You were next
Speaker 2: on Nightside, Mario, go right.
Speaker 6: Ahead, Yes, I agree totally. What has happened in somer Old.
Speaker 6: That is fine. A lot of these property owners don't
Speaker 6: live there. They don't have any regard for their neighbors,
Speaker 6: in the tenants themselves in avenue, regard for if you're
Speaker 6: not shoveling, you need to get a fine. A lot
Speaker 6: of times they're getting away with it because it's not
Speaker 6: a lot of snow. This time there's been a lot
Speaker 6: of snow, and out of the laziness of them not
Speaker 6: doing it. Now they're getting banged up. Good. A lot
Speaker 6: of people have to walk to and prompts kids going
Speaker 6: to school, et cetera. You're not clearing your sidewalk, you
Speaker 6: need to be fine.
Speaker 2: Look, well, you know we can we get disagreed? Let
Speaker 2: me ask you, is that the situation in Wilmington.
Speaker 6: We're a different story real wide, and we're some and
Speaker 6: we do our sidewalks.
Speaker 2: Your I'm just curious, Mario, is your side is your
Speaker 2: sidewalk shoveled?
Speaker 6: Yes, my side shovel.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you, Yeah, let me I just look.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm trying to do is actually have
Speaker 2: a conversation with you, Mary, So work with me, if
Speaker 2: you would, how much how much sidewalk space? How much
Speaker 2: sidewalk do you have in front of your house?
Speaker 6: Why do you need to get technical about that?
Speaker 2: I don't think it's technical. I'm asking you a question.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to trying to If you want to
Speaker 2: make a speech, man, go ahead. I'll give you thirty
Speaker 2: seconds to make a speech. Go ahead.
Speaker 6: Green is happening. There are a lot of property owners
Speaker 6: that don't care, don't do nothing, same thing with you.
Speaker 6: Don't think their management is doing it and they're skipping it.
Speaker 6: So fine, be any questions.
Speaker 2: You get another fifteen seconds for your speech. Go ahead.
Speaker 2: You got fifteen more seconds if you wanted.
Speaker 6: He was the fifteen seconds per question.
Speaker 2: Now you know what, Mario I'm not going to ask
Speaker 2: you a question. You got five seconds left for your speech.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 6: I will agree that elderly should get speech.
Speaker 2: Is over. Thanks very much, Mario. You know it's funny.
Speaker 2: What I don't understand is people call a talk show
Speaker 2: and he's angry, which is fine. I like angry callers.
Speaker 2: Angry Mario, we have a speech. I was gonna ask
Speaker 2: him how much sidewalk did he have? I asked him
Speaker 2: they have the sidewalk requirement in Wilmington. No, because we're
Speaker 2: different than Somerville. Really, anyway, let's see what Bernie in
Speaker 2: New Hampshire has to say. Hey, Bernie, how are you tonight?
Speaker 7: Hey, I'm well Dan, how are you good?
Speaker 2: I'm sure we can have a conversation better than the
Speaker 2: conversation I attempted to have with Mario.
Speaker 7: Go ahead, Yeah, no, that was great. I grew up
Speaker 7: in Mats moved up to New Hampshire maybe twenty five
Speaker 7: years ago, but I grew up in that spot man,
Speaker 7: Thank you, thank you. My wife grew up in Quincy,
Speaker 7: so we were both city kids.
Speaker 4: She was so sure.
Speaker 5: I was not sure.
Speaker 7: And you know, like you said, going to school and
Speaker 7: people shoveled their sidewalks. If they didn't, you walked around it,
Speaker 7: you dealt with it. But you know, I just want
Speaker 7: to put this together with one blurb I heard earlier
Speaker 7: on your station, and they said that they're gonna they
Speaker 7: want to get the utility companies to lower the costs
Speaker 7: of the utilities because it's kind of such a bad
Speaker 7: winter to save people money and then they can raise
Speaker 7: it in the summer. And now some of them saying, well,
Speaker 7: we're going to tax you even more. Like, how come
Speaker 7: the legislature is it saying, hey, let's take care of
Speaker 7: these people. Let's not tax some more in a hard winter.
Speaker 2: Well, because because the leggislature doesn't really care. I mean,
Speaker 2: we have a you have a legislature in New Hampshire
Speaker 2: that's pretty fairly balanced. Sometimes the Democrats have the legislature,
Speaker 2: sometimes the Republicans, and it's also up there. I think
Speaker 2: your members of the legislature, I think they've paid the
Speaker 2: princely some of one hundred dollars a year to serve
Speaker 2: as really to serve as members of the legislature. Here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, you got a legislature with one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty members, one hundred and twenty or so are Democratic
Speaker 2: or maybe more the majority of Republicans, And they hand
Speaker 2: out the chairmanships of these committees which do not meet
Speaker 2: particularly frequently. And these people are making six figures as
Speaker 2: state reps here in Massachusetts, and for them it's a business,
Speaker 2: and in order to keep the business going, they're not
Speaker 2: interested in helping residents and communities and all these Somerville
Speaker 2: they have their full time employees, Boston has their full
Speaker 2: time employees. They look at people like you and me
Speaker 2: as as I say ATMs, you know, just hit us
Speaker 2: for money, whatever they can do if it snows and
Speaker 2: they don't shovel this storm down here has been tough,
Speaker 2: really tough. And any person who is older over the
Speaker 2: age of forty five, they shouldn't be out trying to
Speaker 2: shovel this snow because this is nasty ice. In case
Speaker 2: encrusted snow, it's dangerous. But in Somerville they've handed out
Speaker 2: eight hundred and seventy four tickets. Good for them, Good
Speaker 2: for them they have They've shown beer citizens who's boss.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 7: And I understand that I work in mass I work
Speaker 7: in mass I work between sixty and eighty hours a week,
Speaker 7: and I get the privilege to pay Massachusetts taxes, you
Speaker 7: know which is great for me or great for them?
Speaker 9: Man?
Speaker 7: And h I go home and I go home.
Speaker 3: I worked.
Speaker 7: I worked very long hours and a lot of times
Speaker 7: my wife will do the Uh my son's gone now,
Speaker 7: as you well know, he's gone away and h whole
Speaker 7: camp and my wife and I told her, do not
Speaker 7: touch the driveways. We've been getting a white butty snow.
Speaker 7: It's so cold, and I'll do it the next.
Speaker 4: Morning and all.
Speaker 7: But you know, I, like you said, when when when it?
Speaker 7: When it's wet and heavy, I'm sixty four years old,
Speaker 7: I do it. But you know what it's I can't
Speaker 7: see these elderly people. And why are you finding like people?
Speaker 7: You know a lot of these people have been in
Speaker 7: Somerville all the way life and you're finding them instead
Speaker 7: of helping them. Well, why not help them?
Speaker 2: Well that's why people like you are leaving Massachusetts. It's
Speaker 2: as simple as that. A lot of people can't afford
Speaker 2: to leave, but they're leaving. Bernie is always great to
Speaker 2: hear you. Please give our best to your son as
Speaker 2: he completes, you know, his his basic training in the military,
Speaker 2: and thank him for the service he's providing. And thank
Speaker 2: you and your wife for producing such a fine young man.
Speaker 2: And we'll talk again.
Speaker 7: Okay, all right, thank you sir, have a good night.
Speaker 2: YouTube Bernie, here comes the news at the bottom of
Speaker 2: the hour. Like to continue on this, uh, if you
Speaker 2: want to have a conversation, fine, if you you know,
Speaker 2: Mario didn't seem to be inclined to a conversation, but
Speaker 2: I gave him thirty seconds to make a speech. That's fine.
Speaker 2: Feel free if you want to. If you want thirty
Speaker 2: seconds to make a speech, you can call. If you
Speaker 2: want to have a conversation, which I prefer six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Talking about finding people in Somerville for not shoveling the sidewalk,
Speaker 2: this particular storm should be an exception to that rule,
Speaker 2: because this particular series of storms has laid down snow
Speaker 2: on people's sidewalks. There was no opportunity to shovel. If
Speaker 2: you if you've if you've lived through these storms, not
Speaker 2: big storms, but there's three or four inches of ice
Speaker 2: out there. It's not gonna go until the temperature gets
Speaker 2: up around forty you know. There you can you can
Speaker 2: be a little more reasonable than that. People are uh again,
Speaker 2: politicians of Summerville. They're politicians. They they just they love
Speaker 2: to impose rules and find other people. Back on Nightside
Speaker 2: right after this, you're on night.
Speaker 1: Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: We've been talking for a little while about this ticket
Speaker 2: snow shoveling obligation in Somerville. Now again, for those of
Speaker 2: you in the Boston area who know the type of
Speaker 2: storm we have, just the storms we have just endured,
Speaker 2: they have been frequent, quite intense. They've dumped water, they've
Speaker 2: dumped sleet, they've dumped freezing rain, they've dumped snow, they've
Speaker 2: dumped any of a number of things in combination thereof,
Speaker 2: all of which have been augmented by really deep freezing temperare.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to change topics at eleven o'clock and
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about the struggle that people have
Speaker 2: now flying and how much baggage is on planes and
Speaker 2: the overhead bins. We're going to change that no later
Speaker 2: than eleven. So if you want to get in on
Speaker 2: the Somerville story, you want to dial right now six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
Speaker 2: thirty six, seven, nine three one ten thirty. I have
Speaker 2: a lot of sympathy for people in Somerville or in
Speaker 2: any community where they obligate you to shovel city sidewalks
Speaker 2: that are about your home. That's the problem. It's a
Speaker 2: it's Somerville property, it's not your property. It happens to
Speaker 2: be the sidewalk in front of your home. And putting
Speaker 2: aside whether that obligation should be imposed or not, the
Speaker 2: primary question in my mind is that in this particular
Speaker 2: set of storms that we've dealt with here in February,
Speaker 2: it's totally unfair to try to impose that on people.
Speaker 2: If they can do it, great, but to find them
Speaker 2: because they weren't able to get out there after a
Speaker 2: zero temperature night where everything has frozen up, that's just
Speaker 2: not fair. You can agree or disagree. And if you
Speaker 2: agree with Mario that somehow somer Fields citizens are I
Speaker 2: guess slackers and not doing that, I mean, Mario, I'm
Speaker 2: beginning to think might actually be like a of a
Speaker 2: Somerfield city councilor. But I wish Mario had stuck with
Speaker 2: us a little long. It would have been fun to
Speaker 2: have a conversation with him. Six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six, one, seven, nine, three, one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Jump on board. Now let me go next to Doreen
Speaker 2: and Chelsea. Hey, Doreen, how are you?
Speaker 8: How are you?
Speaker 9: I agree with you, Dan, it's an odd fear here.
Speaker 9: It is Everett has it formerly from Everett. Yeah, And
Speaker 9: a friend of mine he had a snow blower. He
Speaker 9: had occurrent. He did it all up to the conner
Speaker 9: for the neighbors of his streets, and then he knew.
Speaker 9: And then when he walked down to the variety store
Speaker 9: in the corner, he fell because the store didn't come
Speaker 9: out and shovel at all.
Speaker 2: So he was out. He was out trying to help
Speaker 2: people with his show.
Speaker 6: Blows people years.
Speaker 9: So they did it him and his brother. And so
Speaker 9: then when he he knew the whole block, you know,
Speaker 9: the side of the street. And then when he walked
Speaker 9: to the store, the person that owns the store, he
Speaker 9: wanted to get some cream, you know, for coffee, and
Speaker 9: he flipped right out in front of the door. He
Speaker 9: didn't do anything at all, and he fell. I said, well,
Speaker 9: what did you do? I'm lucky I got up myself.
Speaker 9: It was dangerous with the eyes.
Speaker 2: I said, here's my question, dormy. That's an interesting story.
Speaker 2: But apply that to Somerville if you lived in Somerville.
Speaker 6: And yes, I know, yes I used property.
Speaker 2: In Somerville, and they were coming around writing tickets to
Speaker 2: you saying that you didn't. I'm talking about this particular
Speaker 2: storm fines.
Speaker 9: Serious fine, j Yeah, they have the fines and ever too.
Speaker 9: All the cities question they shouldn't find them, They shouldn't
Speaker 9: find them.
Speaker 2: Good for you, okay, I agree with you.
Speaker 9: I agree with you. They shouldn't. It's an elderly and
Speaker 9: they get fined. You know, it was cold, they can't
Speaker 9: go out, and you know, the city used to have
Speaker 9: those little tractors and they have to come out and
Speaker 9: do the sidewalks. Now I live in Chelsea, they have
Speaker 9: a little tractor. They beautifully plow where I live in Chelsea.
Speaker 9: I live in Admiral's Hill, okay, And and they they
Speaker 9: make sure that the packing lot and everybody that comes
Speaker 9: out they all shovel their cass and then they go
Speaker 9: with the plow. They have the big plows up the street.
Speaker 9: They go all around the hill up here because it's
Speaker 9: a kind of private, you know, and they do a
Speaker 9: beautiful job.
Speaker 3: That's it all.
Speaker 2: Right, well, well, good good for you, Doreen, and I
Speaker 2: appreciate you taking the time to call. I got to
Speaker 2: keep rolling here to get to some other callers as well.
Speaker 2: Thanks Dorian. Stay safe and stay warm.
Speaker 6: Okay, thanks, all right you too, bye bye bye bye, all.
Speaker 2: Right, good night. Let me go next to James and
Speaker 2: Hyde Park. James, welcome, How are you? Is there an
Speaker 2: obligation for you in Hyde Park to shovel the sidewalk
Speaker 2: in front of your house?
Speaker 4: Yes, it is. I've been here now to Slarue forty
Speaker 4: five years, but now I'm seeing you and I have
Speaker 4: a side walk that's approxingly approximately seventy five yards long.
Speaker 2: Seventy five yards what was seventy five yards? That's that's
Speaker 2: almost the length of the foot Paul Field that you're
Speaker 2: let stadium. You must have a big that's a huge sidewalk. James.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm blessed to be here, to which I love.
Speaker 4: But of what's getting me too also with this is
Speaker 4: my property tax is going up in the sidewalk belonged
Speaker 4: to the city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the sidewalk does belong to the city. You
Speaker 2: don't own the sidewalk maybe next to your house? Yeah,
Speaker 2: So let me ask you. You said you're seventy five.
Speaker 2: I hope you're not still getting out there shoveling that sidewalk,
Speaker 2: are you.
Speaker 4: No, No, no, no, My sidewalk is seventy five yards. No,
Speaker 4: I'm eighty five now, so you're not shoveling. You have
Speaker 4: an anniversary coming up next month. We'll be married sixty years.
Speaker 2: Wow, congratulations. Your wife must be a saint, James, James, James,
Speaker 2: your wife, Your wife must be a saint. Right here,
Speaker 2: I said your wife must be a saint. I'm only
Speaker 2: dsing your James. Please.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I have some good neighbors. They do help
Speaker 4: me out good.
Speaker 2: That's great. That's good. That's what's that's what's living in
Speaker 2: in a good community is all about. What do you
Speaker 2: think about the fact that in Somerville they find people.
Speaker 2: This last storm was nasty. I will bet James, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna bet you that your sidewalk is not shoveled tonight. Uh.
Speaker 4: Well, our street is very good. People are doing very
Speaker 4: good over here on our street. But in some of
Speaker 4: you I'm listening to that, I think it's as is
Speaker 4: really as you are.
Speaker 6: The city can't sit give us some help.
Speaker 4: Even on clown outside, but it would be nice. Will
Speaker 4: submit that.
Speaker 2: You should run for city council. That's what you should do. James,
Speaker 2: you got some time? What are you? I assume at
Speaker 2: eighty five, I assume it eighty five. You're retired, right?
Speaker 4: Oh, yes, I'm gonna retired boss and school bus driver
Speaker 4: twenty years now.
Speaker 2: You've been retired twenty years, so you get out at
Speaker 2: sixty five. Good for you, James. You deserve it. You
Speaker 2: deserve it. That's good cook. Thanks so much for calling.
Speaker 2: Have I had the pleasure of you calling before? Is
Speaker 2: this your first time?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yes, I have. I listened to you.
Speaker 2: Well, James, you keep listening, keep calling, and someday I'll
Speaker 2: preps will bump into each other in the streets. Okay.
Speaker 2: I grew up in Reedville, so I know the I
Speaker 2: know High Park pretty well. I played a lot of
Speaker 2: sports as a kid.
Speaker 9: Uh in Hyark you did?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Do you live near ross Field or Kelly Field or between?
Speaker 4: I'm between Blake Street in what have it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: I know that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Okay? Sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely, you're off. You're not
Speaker 2: far from River Street.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: All right, James, great talking with you, man. Be well,
Speaker 2: stay well. Okay, you sound great.
Speaker 4: Okay, God bless you me right back at.
Speaker 2: You, James, have a great one six one seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty. I got wide open lines there, and
Speaker 2: we are going to turn this off. We're gonna go
Speaker 2: to a different topic at eleven, but I'd love to
Speaker 2: get a couple more calls in here. We're talking about
Speaker 2: Somerville snow shoveling obligation where they are now starting to well,
Speaker 2: I guess they've been doing it for a while. They
Speaker 2: have fined, they've written eight hundred and seventy four tickets
Speaker 2: on residents of Somerville for not shoveling their sidewalks. Now,
Speaker 2: this last series of storms, I don't think anyone sidewalk
Speaker 2: could have been shoveled. And if they did get out
Speaker 2: there and shoveled at you know, two o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 2: God bless them. Good for them, but for them to
Speaker 2: start finding people who weren't out there at two o'clock
Speaker 2: because overnight these storms came. They tended to be night storms.
Speaker 2: They froze overnight, and you there's nothing you could do
Speaker 2: the next morning. Back on night Side six one seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty. Love to hear from you or we
Speaker 2: got one line at six one, seven, nine, three thirty.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Back we go. We're gonna go to Kathy in Boston.
Speaker 2: Good evening, Kathy, Welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 8: How are you, Hi, Hi, Jan, Nice to talk to you.
Speaker 8: You know, i'd like to say, I'd like to say
Speaker 8: that I think you're offering a nice perspective to the
Speaker 8: like you said, is there extenuating circumstances who have had
Speaker 8: mild winters in the last four years and now for
Speaker 8: them to have a very punitive approach to whatever the
Speaker 8: circumstances of people that just out aware that they probably
Speaker 8: they would be nice for their neighbors if they wouldn't
Speaker 8: clear there the driveway, et cetera. But the other thing
Speaker 8: I wanted to say is on your on your news breaks,
Speaker 8: Woo is talking about the climate crisis.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 8: I hope she's not trying to insinuate that because we
Speaker 8: have ice that it's a crisis in Boston.
Speaker 2: I have no idea that woman.
Speaker 8: Let's say that, you know, don't let a good ice
Speaker 8: do them go to waste?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I agree with you totally. Look, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Whenever we don't have snow or as much snow as normal,
Speaker 2: it's because of climate change. Now that we're having a little,
Speaker 2: you know, a few weeks here of some tough snowstorms,
Speaker 2: it's climate change. Everything's climate change. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 8: I hate to tell you. I was down of South Boston.
Speaker 8: It was a Carson Beach today and there was some freezing.
Speaker 8: There's freezing of the harbor. I think, should I be worried?
Speaker 8: Should I be worried?
Speaker 2: Well, no, I think you and rational. You and I
Speaker 2: have both rational human beings. Yes, yes, the Earth has
Speaker 2: been around. I had someone on the other night and
Speaker 2: they said it was a scientist and he was saying
Speaker 2: that I thought the Earth's been around five billion years,
Speaker 2: and he said it's maybe more like eight billion years.
Speaker 2: He was talking about the center of the Earth was
Speaker 2: changing a little bit, the formation was changing. And I
Speaker 2: guess this happens very regularly, you know, and we get
Speaker 2: cool bat cold snaps and water snaps, and yes, you know,
Speaker 2: everyone wants to look at the last ten years and say,
Speaker 2: oh my god, you know we had you know, we
Speaker 2: we went from a huge snowstorm winter of ten years
Speaker 2: ago and then we had some winters where we had
Speaker 2: very little snow, so that it is changing. No, it's
Speaker 2: it's you know, it's like some years the Red Sox
Speaker 2: do well, some years they don't well. And eventually I
Speaker 2: can believe it out.
Speaker 8: And people always in this area used to used to
Speaker 8: skate in ponds before everything got regulated. It's really okay,
Speaker 8: We're all going to be okay.
Speaker 2: We used to stay. When I grew up in Reedville
Speaker 2: as a kid, we had an area which was called
Speaker 2: the swamp and it's it's where the stopping shop warehouse
Speaker 2: was eventually built of the ponts at Valley Parkway, and
Speaker 2: you'd go over there and there were no nets, there
Speaker 2: were no boards, and you'd be out there in the
Speaker 2: middle of the ice, and every once in a while
Speaker 2: you heard Stoctor Creek and it'd be like, oh.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Either that in front of either that am in front
Speaker 2: of the house. We played street hockey one or the other.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know, Kathy, whereabouts in Boston
Speaker 2: are you by the way, if I could ask.
Speaker 8: A south end south end?
Speaker 2: Oh well, yeah, lovely section. I hope you can get
Speaker 2: mass and cast square away and that other. Yes, there's
Speaker 2: another building over there that has become sort of an
Speaker 2: indoor mass and cast if you get my drift.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yep, we've got problems. Well, it's pretty one
Speaker 8: except on trash days and all the trash garrol the
Speaker 8: trash bags are out because we don't have trash bends.
Speaker 8: We have to keep we have to keep the rats going.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, someone has.
Speaker 8: To Yep, we do. We have to thank you, Okay, Kathy,
Speaker 8: thank you guys, thank you Dan Well.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. I'm wanting to call more often though, Kathy,
Speaker 2: I don't hear your voice as often as I would like. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you so much, thank you, good night now, Bill
Speaker 2: and Randolph. Bill, you may get the final word this hour.
Speaker 2: How are you, Billy?
Speaker 10: Fine? Dane. Nice to hear you. Listen, first time call him,
Speaker 10: but a long time.
Speaker 7: Listen.
Speaker 2: I've had a couple of first half dollars that night.
Speaker 7: Bus.
Speaker 2: The round of applause. Larry Glick, remember Larry Glick used
Speaker 2: to be able to, I don't know, do all sorts
Speaker 2: of crazy things with people, shoot people off the air
Speaker 2: and all that. The most I can do is give
Speaker 2: you a round of applause. So welcome to night Side. Right.
Speaker 10: Thanks brother. The sum of the filled thing has really
Speaker 10: got me.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 10: I live in Randolf. They plow the sidewalks here. Uh yeah,
Speaker 10: And one thing I wanted to bring up that storm.
Speaker 10: Uh there was so much rain you couldn't go out
Speaker 10: and shovel and it froze the rain coming down.
Speaker 2: I was well, I was out on Sunday afternoon with
Speaker 2: the rain, and the clothes I had was soaked. And
Speaker 2: I have got a lot of ice that had built up,
Speaker 2: and I was out there chopping ice, trying to move ice.
Speaker 2: And then I get a little water coming down, and
Speaker 2: then eventually it just refroze.
Speaker 10: I mean exactly.
Speaker 2: Yes, someone come by and plow. I had some I
Speaker 2: put seeing down. I had some sort of salt. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was a tough storm. And if I'm someone in
Speaker 2: Somerville who owns a home and I'm you know, a
Speaker 2: little older, and maybe I'm not as strong as I
Speaker 2: used to be twenty years ago, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: particularly if I'm I'm somebody who's alone, right, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to go out there and risk my life to
Speaker 2: shovel the sidewalk because it was like an ice. It's
Speaker 2: like shoveling the rink, the ice rink at Boston Garden.
Speaker 2: You can't do it.
Speaker 10: You're absolutely right in the water. Just kept calming in common.
Speaker 10: It's like I was out there. I'm seventy three, and
Speaker 10: I can I can still do this. I'm a lucky
Speaker 10: guy because I know.
Speaker 2: I hear you. I'm in that rage too, by the way,
Speaker 2: And I was out there. But the clothes that I
Speaker 2: had on, headline, heavy coat and a hoodie and gloves,
Speaker 2: all the clothes that I wore, I was soaked in
Speaker 2: to my skin. Some of that. Some of that clothes,
Speaker 2: I literally hung them up. Didn't drive until like Tuesday.
Speaker 10: Yeah. Absolutely. But what I wanted to say is that
Speaker 10: guy writing all those tickets. Oh no, that's not good,
Speaker 10: not good. No, I don't like that at all.
Speaker 2: I really know, one hundred and seventy four tickets. A
Speaker 2: lot of these cities and these so called public servants,
Speaker 2: they want to get into your pockets either they want
Speaker 2: to tax you, they want to find you. They want
Speaker 2: to write tickets for everything. They look at us like
Speaker 2: human atm machines. Simple.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Well, Dan, I got to say, you and me,
Speaker 10: we had a great time growing up. I think things
Speaker 10: were pretty normal, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I don't know. Hopefully kids are having a
Speaker 2: good time now. The bottom line is we've gone in
Speaker 2: a lot of bad directions, and I know that we're
Speaker 2: doing some corrections here. We talked earlier this week about
Speaker 2: a couple of times about the amount of debt that
Speaker 2: these young people who are listening to the show tonight,
Speaker 2: they're going to have to pay off this debt because
Speaker 2: our generation, the baby boomer generation, we're exiting stage left here,
Speaker 2: you know, and we're the only thing we're leaving them
Speaker 2: with is a lot of debt, which is a he
Speaker 2: a heck of an imposition. Bill, thanks so much for
Speaker 2: your first time call. You did a great job. I'm
Speaker 2: looking forward to Bill's second time call.
Speaker 10: Okay, yeah, then, but listening here for years, man, you're
Speaker 10: the man.
Speaker 2: You're the man.
Speaker 9: Brother.
Speaker 2: Thanks, I appreciate it. Thanks, Billy, talk soon. You have
Speaker 2: a good one. Good night night, good night. When we
Speaker 2: get back, I'm gonna change topics, gonna talk about another
Speaker 2: topic that I think a lot of people can identify
Speaker 2: that and that is the battle over the airplane baggage
Speaker 2: beIN you know, the up above stuff where you're supposed
Speaker 2: to maybe put a few little light things. No, it's
Speaker 2: out of control. We'll be back after the eleven o'clock
Speaker 2: news on night Side