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Unhealthy development - Sprawl development
Boston Globe ^ | January 20, 2003 | staff

Posted on 01/20/2003 2:55:58 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

Edited on 04/13/2004 2:08:59 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

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1 posted on 01/20/2003 2:55:58 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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2 posted on 01/20/2003 2:57:03 AM PST by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Support Free Republic
Too good to miss: Boston Globe- It's the readers' turn to speak out - By Christine Chinlund, the Ombudsman, 1/20/2003 [Full Text] AMONG THE MANY complaints logged in the last week was one from a Chelmsford woman unhappy with, of all things, the Ombudsman column. Whatever happened, she asked, to letting readers speak for themselves, with ''quotes from actual people?''

No problem, Mrs. Dunn. Here is an unvarnished sampling of some of the critiques sent in recently.

It's called a... what?

Stephen Krensky of Lexington was reading the Jan. 9 review of the Avril Lavigne concert at the Orpheum when he was stopped by the description of what the young audience was wearing: ''skinny ties, wifebeaters, loose trousers, and pin-straight hair.'' Wifebeater? For those who don't know, it's like a tank top or muscle shirt, only more hip.

''What bothered me is it conveys a certain acceptability for the term,'' said Krensky, a writer who lives in Lexington. ''It's not OK for the Globe to be sanctioning this - I don't care how hip the term is.''

Ombud note: Krensky's comment prompted in-house discussion about the role of a newspaper in echoing words that - accepted as they may be in pop culture - are rooted in stereotype or born of a misplaced glibness. In general, the Globe steers clear of such phrases, preferring, say, ''boom box'' to ''ghetto blaster.'' In the case of ''wifebeater,'' the post-publication consensus seems to be that, from now on, the phrase is best reserved for articles on domestic violence.

Check the label

Reader Ed Duzenberry objected to the labels assigned various partisans in a Jan. 9 article on nominations to the US Court of Appeals. The piece refers to White House nominees Charles Pickering of Mississippi and Priscilla Owen of Texas as ''conservative'' judges, notes Duzenberry, but refers to Senators Charles Schumer and Edward Kennedy, two critics of the nominations, as ''just plain Democrats'' rather than as, say, ''liberal'' Democrats.

''Let's see some balance here,'' he wrote.

Ombud note: It's a good reminder that such labels should be applied with political parity in mind.

___________________________________________________________

Speaking of the Kennedys

Stories on the Kennedy family are almost certain to bring a response, and the Jan. 5 Globe magazine cover story on the senior senator from Massachusetts was no exception. Reader complaints, and some Weblog chatter, focused on two sentences: ''If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age.''

''Has your newspaper yet apologized to both the Kopechne family and the American public for the unimaginable insult of having her comforted by her murderer?'' demanded reader Brady Westwater.

Ombud note: The point made by writer Charles P. Pierce, while misunderstood or unappreciated by some readers, was brutally ironic: that Kennedy's work on behalf of the elderly has enhanced benefits for the nation's senior citizens - and Kopechne would have become one of them.

_______________________________________________________

Headed the wrong way?

The headline on Page A12 last Tuesday - ''Two Palestinians are killed by Israelis in Gaza bus attack'' - brought new complaints about Middle East coverage.

''That headline so doesn't indicate what the story is about,'' said one reader. Indeed, what that headline does not make clear is that the Palestinians, not the Israelis, were the ones doing the attacking when shot by Israeli soldiers.

Ombud note: While headline writing on deadline is one of the toughest jobs at the paper, headlines about the Middle East cannot afford to be ambiguous; it will almost always be seen as intentional unfairness.

Too much

Finally, the Globe's reporting of a recent death prompted a cry of ''Shame!'' from reader Anna Reel. The background: In a Jan. 4 story in City & Region, authorities identified the nude body of a 33-year-old woman found in a cranberry bog in Halifax. A day later, the Globe noted in passing that identification had been aided by matching her fingerprints with those in a ''database of convicts.'' The following day, a third story focused on the woman's ''extensive criminal record'' including 12 arrests for prostitution and two for trespassing and theft.

''Was there any need in reporting her every transgression for the last three years?'' Reel asked. ''It served no purpose other than the public humiliation of the grieving family.'' The story, she added, ''seemed to take lurid journalism to a new height.''

Ombud note: The woman's past will certainly be relevant if the death is ruled a murder, but not if she died of natural causes or suicide. (Examiners found no trauma to the body; the toxicology report is pending.) Although late word of a suspect in the case made a murder declaration seem more likely, the noncompetitive nature of this story, unlike many, would have made it easy to hold the criminal history until its relevance was clear.

The ombudsman represents the readers. Her opinions and conclusions are her own. [End]

Phone 617-929-3020 or, to leave a message, 929-3022. Our e-mail address is ombud@globe.com.

This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 1/20/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

3 posted on 01/20/2003 3:05:13 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
As recently as 1969, 69 percent of all children walked to school.

When did the lefties begin forced busing for "integration"? Kids walked to neighborhood school until these social engineers started meddling. Now, they bitch about a problem of their own making. Typical.

4 posted on 01/20/2003 4:43:07 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Sprawl is another "Al Goreism". It's herd them back into the city and make them live where we decide is best for them. People flee to the surburbs because of bad schools, crime and high taxes. Being able to own property and use that property as you like is a basic American right. It's all about control.

Boston has one of the largest commuter train and subway systems in the country, yet the roads are clogged every day.
Most commuter train stops has parking for $1 or $2.50 a day and there is frequent service to outlying cities as far away as Worcester and Providence, RI. It ain't gonna happen, but billons of taxpayer monies will be spent trying.
5 posted on 01/20/2003 4:46:12 AM PST by OBone (Support our boys in uniform)
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To: Myrddin
Kids walked to neighborhood school until these social engineers started meddling.

Bump!

6 posted on 01/20/2003 4:48:24 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: OBone
Sprawl is another "Al Goreism". It's herd them back into the city and make them live where we decide is best for them.

Bump!

7 posted on 01/20/2003 4:48:51 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Ironic in that 1969 was just before "forced busing" became the rule dejure in Boston.

School Committees were declared racist due to their pattern of locating schools within existing local neighborhoods, in other words, neghborhood schools, because that fostered a de facto segregation in the school system (since the neighborhoods themselves were typically either white or black, e,g, South Boston veresus Roxbury).

So the judicial answer was to (a) bus students out of their neighborhoods (short-term solution) and (b) locate new schools on the perimeter of adjoining neighborhoods.

This is not "news" to the Globe, since they advocated this. So -- the 'critique' of the unintended effect they isolate here -- obesity -- is stated in an intentionally "oblique" relative to the circumstances of its causation. And hence you see the Globe's capacity for self-criticism -- its non-existant.

8 posted on 01/20/2003 4:54:43 AM PST by WL-law
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The Globe is so terribly concerned with our health. Of course, the best thing you can do to safeguard your own health is to not read the Globe. Anyone with an ounce of sense, who was to take this article seriously, would experience a fifteen point rise in his blood pressure.
Luckily, most Americans continue to aspire to a free standing home of their own, with some ground around it. So the lefts dream of squeezing us back into worker's housing, huddled around the mill (read State school) will not succeed.
Notice that it IS the government's business (active) that we walk and ride bikes more. But it is NOT the government's business (passive) that our children are safe walking to and from school. The world turned upside down.
9 posted on 01/20/2003 4:58:14 AM PST by ricpic
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To: WL-law
It's different when it's your ox being gored: In Newton, worries grow over schools*** ''I want every child to have the opportunity to be included,'' said Madeline Aucoin, a former special education aide and parent of three children in Newton schools. ''But I think there's a line being crossed, and I think there are students included in our school system today that I think should be in special programs. I feel it takes away from the education of other children.''

Other reasons for the unrest are the recent public debates between Young and conservative parents, who say the district is pushing a liberal agenda in the classroom. Two residents sued the system for not following a state law requiring American flags in every classroom. And a handful of parents have pulled their children out of Newton schools, disturbed at what they call premature - and open - discussions of sexuality.***

Study: Schools Resegregating by Race***BOSTON (AP) - Almost 50 years after state-sponsored school segregation was outlawed, public schools are becoming increasingly divided by race, even as minority populations increase nationwide, according to a new report.***

10 posted on 01/20/2003 5:11:16 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: ricpic
Of course, the best thing you can do to safeguard your own health is to not read the Globe.

LOL

11 posted on 01/20/2003 5:11:58 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
All people need to do is check the sex offender lists on the internet and they can see why it's foolish to let their kids walk to school.
12 posted on 01/20/2003 5:48:57 AM PST by FITZ
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To: FITZ
Too bad recess has been pushed aside from the student day. Too much to teach....environmentalism, sex-ed, etc.
13 posted on 01/20/2003 5:52:08 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Myrddin
Now, they bitch about a problem of their own making. Typical.

You mean like 'Swimmer' Kennedy complaining about HMOs and the 40% administative costs in health care on Stephie's show yesterday morning?

14 posted on 01/20/2003 5:53:42 AM PST by StriperSniper (Start heating the TAR, I'll go get the FEATHERS.)
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To: WL-law
So the judicial answer was to (a) bus students out of their neighborhoods (short-term solution) and (b) locate new schools on the perimeter of adjoining neighborhoods.

The (b) solution causes violence in those schools, as rival groups and gangs fight to establish turf.

15 posted on 01/20/2003 6:22:24 AM PST by savedbygrace (Jesus is Lord)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
We must herd the serfs into smaller areas! They are too hard to control when they spread out!
16 posted on 01/20/2003 6:31:06 AM PST by eno_
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Definition of sprawl: Whichever house was built after mine.
17 posted on 01/20/2003 6:32:49 AM PST by NYpeanut
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To: Myrddin; Cincinatus' Wife
"As recently as 1969, 69 percent of all children walked to school.

When did the lefties begin forced busing for "integration"? Kids walked to neighborhood school until these social engineers started meddling.

My daughter will never walk to school - not because I enjoy driving her, but because I fear for her being grabbed by some pervert. No neighborhood is safe anymore. No mention of this little societal change since the 60's......

18 posted on 01/20/2003 6:36:17 AM PST by SW6906
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To: NYpeanut
Let's give this some additional thought. It not really about sprawl its about the free market and choices. Communities typically don't allow dense develepment even though a sizable segment of the population would prefer it. Suburban government planners have subverted the natural market for this housing style. It just like someone in the government saying everyone must drive a single type of car - or excluding SUV's when many people want to buy them.
19 posted on 01/20/2003 6:39:06 AM PST by wewereright
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To: wewereright
I've found that for most of these leftists the real issue is aesthetics. They don't like sprawl because it offends their urban, or in most cases, urban wannabe sensibilities. It's a catchphrase with little or no scientific basis.
20 posted on 01/20/2003 6:56:57 AM PST by jayef
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