So said Boston Mayor Tom Mennino, commenting on the draconian traffic prohibitions planned for the DNC convention center this summer.
The plan is to close Interstate 93, which runs through Boston, every afternoon for a week. Other feeder roads near the FleetCenter (where the convention center will be held) will also be closed starting at 4PM. Mayor Mennino has signed off on this, stating:
Lifestyles will change, but in the long run, we will be better for it. Look at the city's economic future. This will be great for the city of Boston.
This is a fascinating look into the mindset of a politician. The effect of these traffic restrictions will likely be to more or less shut down Boston for the week of the convention, and the resultant traffic jams will lead to thousands of hours of lost productivity while people sit in their cars fuming. The Boston economy will suffer immensely from this shutdown.
But yet, we should all be willing to sacrifice for the future like Mayor Menino. Because this convention will improve Boston's economic future...how? By raising Boston's 'national profile'? By encouraging future political conventions that might require similar city lockdowns? I confess that I just can't see how exactly this convention will really benefit Boston that much 'in the long run'.
In the long run, business owners in Boston will indeed change how they run their businesses based on these types of lockdowns and support from local politicians. Business owners will move out of Boston to suburbs or to other cities where the local government understands that meeting the needs of businesses, not the needs of politicians, is the best way to ensure their community's economic future.
Posted by Stephen Bronstein at May 20, 2004 11:00 AM