Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch outflanked in an MBTA attack by a decorated ex-marine combat veteran

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

“Closed”
A Quincy Quarry News file photo
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A dogged reporter at the Boston tabloid was able to be the one to finally flush Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch out of his spider hole underneath Quincy’s City Hall to defend the indefensible Charlie Foxtrot that is the MBTA.

After all, seeking such comments from Mayor Koch is only appropriate as not only is the massive, if not also outsized, development in Quincy in recent years predicated upon his monomaniacal obsession with the Transportation Oriented Development redevelopment ethos, Koch has also been the Chair of the MBTA Advisory Board for over a decade as well as is the senior member of the MBTA’s Board of Directors.

Mayor Annoyed
An old Facebook image

The reporter surely ambushed interviewed Mayor Koch as Koch’s gobsmackingly inane even for him comments clearly indicate that he had not been provided with cue cards or at least prepared talking points per his usual pre-fight coaching by his handlers before speaking with anyone outside of mostly male yes peeps of La Kocha Nostra.

Specifically, Mayor Koch took umbrage with House of Representative Seth Moulton (Salem/Massachusetts Sixth District) most understandably calling for a complete overhaul of the MBTA in the wake of the Federal Transportation Administration’s scathing final review of the T.

“The MBTA needs top-to-bottom changes that affect everything from hiring to vision and culture,” said Moulton,

Added Moulton, “If we only fix the immediate maintenance and safety concerns, we will be right back here with the same problems in four or five years. 

Long suffering strap hangers and roof riders
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“It is still hard to understand why the system is failing at the most basic maintenance measures when our peers across the globe are able to keep their own (public transit, ed.) systems updated and running safely,” said Moulton, who further challenged the MBTA to develop a detailed plan so as endeavor to effect transformative changes “… extending far beyond the necessary catch-up repairs.”

As a former combat military officer, Moulton very much understands with the importance of effective teamwork, adhering to standard operating procedures as well as best practices when it comes to achieving successful missions. 

Additionally, as he was a marine, he is thus very familiar with having to make do with the equipment available as opposed to what one might wish to have.

Further, Moulton concurrently overcame any lingering impact of his time at the Harvard Business School by not opting to focus on capital spending as the solution to what all ails the T as well as in spite of the fact that he is also a member of the known to be on occasion free-spending Democratic Party.

Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch, however, stepped into it in ways that reminded the Quincy Quarry News newsroom of Russia’s blown away failed drive on Kiev earlier this year.

Piled higher and deeper
Image via the San Jose Mercury News

Per the opening non sequitur of a deflection cited by the tabloid, Mayor Koch blurted out that the MBTA is facing the need to hire roughly two thousand new employees during what is a tight labor market.

How this is long ongoing problem is all that much of an out of the blue problem is further undercut by the facts that – among innumerable other things obvious – during Koch’s fifteen-year tenure he has overseen the hiring of roughly as many people to feed at the City of Quincy’s trough as well as significantly managed to do so by hiring family and friends.

Further, Koch also managed to concurrently go with almost entirely non-minority hires within what is the at least close to minority majority community that is Quincy.

Support for Koch dropping to the ground?
An old Facebook photo

Then again, such koched-up hires do come with the implicit expectation of votes on election day – including the votes of extended family members of the hacked-up hires at election time, campaign sign holding and such during campaign season, and be one of Mayor Koch’s steady streams of campaign fund “donations.”

Conversely, however, the T’s employee needs are wide-ranging as to where they can both be hired and are then assigned.

Then again, essentially all positions at the MBTA, even those relatedly modest jobs, have germane educational and/or experiential expectations as compared with the City of Quincy’s aforementioned short list of core criteria.

Even so, Mayor Koch then failed to heed The First Rule of Holes by then popping off by stating that “… if the lawmaker (Moulton) was that concerned, he would be working to develop an immigration policy to enable the T to better address its staffing shortages – a major issue identified in the report.”

The seat of the United States Congress
A congress.com image

Pose a basis as to just how current US immigration policy is causing the T problems to hire needed personnel, however, was not noted.

The vertically-challenged Mayor Koch then stepped even further in the deep end of the bovine byproduct of a feedlot with the following: “(The problems at the T, ed.) didn’t happen overnight and the solution is not going to happen overnight.  It’s going to take some time.  I think that’s worth reminding people that, you know, we’re dealing with an MBTA that for decades was neglected with capital monies, and we’re seeing systemic failures over the last couple of years because of that.”

To this Quincy Quarry News can only properly note the following. 

• Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch has been the Chair of the MBTA Advisory for eleven years.
• The MBTA has supposedly been focusing on fixing its problems since the T ended up stuck in the snow and worse during the Winter of 2015.
• Mayor Koch is also the senior member of the MBTA’s Board of Directors.

A City on the Move hits the crapper?
An iconic Quincy Quarry News image

Then again, Mayor Koch’s plans to see a New Quincy Center have been ongoing for a dozen years but have only seen roughly a bit over half or so in the way of new private investment in the center of the north of $300 million Koch has spent in the way of tax dollars on mostly municipal infrastructure in Quincy Center in the hope that sufficient development might actually come to Quincy – absent also factoring in the massive incentives, Koch has had out to favored developers, that is – and so help cover the over a billion dollars in local muni bond debt that Koch has inflicted upon local taxpayers during his time in office.

After all, if Mayor Koch is known for anything, it is for spending stupendous amounts of money profligately as well as typically on self-aggrandizing local “Edifice Complexes.” 

Not seen in most of 176 MBTA communities …
A Quincy Quarry PhotoShop Phun Team graph

At the same time, however, still no word from Mayor Koch as regards his promise made a year ago to visit all of 176 cities and towns serviced by the MBTA by the end of last February upon the event of his being named to MBTA’s Board of Directors over a year ago. 

Then again, it is not like Mayor Koch is known for living up to deadlines or holding to budgets.

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Source: Congressman, Quincy Mayor spar about reforming the MBTA in wake of federal report

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