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A City of Quincy image
— Quincy Massachusetts News by Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary.
I shall fight her on the beaches, I shall fight her fight in the fields, …, I shall never surrender until the last tax dollar is spent. An old file photo
On Friday MassDEP announced its final approval of Chapter 91 permitting for the City of Boston to rebuild the Long Island Bridge and so wrapping a up rough week for Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch.
A very rough week.
Bonnie Heiple, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, issued a final decision this week to affirm the draft Chapter 91 permit approval the agency granted to the City of Boston in August 2023.
Ms. Heiple underscored that the week’s ruling is her “final decision.”
Heiple’s ruling underscored that “Quincy has failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence and the governing legal requirements that the draft license issued by the Department for the construction of proposed bridge replacement project was issued in violation of Chapter 91 and the authorizing regulations, ”as noted by Margaret Stolfawrote in the 77-page draft approval last fall that recommended granting the Chapter 91 approval of the City of Boston to rebuild the Long Island Bridge.
Chief of Staph Pinnochio Walkbacker
A Facebook image
Needless to say, City of Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch as well as his Chief of Staph Pinocchio Walkbacker then all but immediately announced that they would appeal this latest adverse decision against them in their long but so far invariably unsuccessful bid to stop the City of Boston from rebuilding the Long Island Bridge.
UPDATE: Mayor Koch talks trash after MassDEP’s ruling
Granted, while there are two remaining but all but perfunctory approvals needed by Boston from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and the United States Coast Guard, any further actions by the City of Quincy to continue to endeavor to delay things should best be viewed as akin to voiding one’s bladder into a high pressure system.
That and a further waste of local taxpayers’ money.so as placate NIMBYs on Squantum who do not care to see Boston reestablish its lawful right to but again access Long Island and which it wholly owns.
Granted, while further legal action by the City of Quincy may not rise to ending up found to be vexatious litigation and so open to the possibility for the City of Boston to seek punitive damages sanctions imposed upon the City Quincy and would so have to be paid by Quincy taxpayers, any further attempts to block the bridge are still all but as hopeless as was the pugnacious Black Knight’s failed attempt to stop King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail.
Needless to say, Mayor Koch’s ego is surely finding it galling to yet again be bested by the diminutive City of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
The diminutive Goliath Mayor Wu on a field trip to Long Island
A file photo
Further, at this point Koch is surely facing to eventually have to find funding on his own to pay for the inevitable upgrading the East Squantum Street causeway to weather ever-increasing high water events given ongoing climate change.
After all, at this point no way might the City of Boston care to kick in money as a gracious not mandated mitigation payment toward beefing up the local roadway that is the causeway given Mayor Koch’s arguably as well as chauvinistically long casting himself as David battling against the diminutive as well as currently pregnant Goliath that is Mayor MIchelle Wu.
What does Koch care about pissing away money (?) — it’s not his money. And he has no problem with squeezing taxpayers to pay for one boondoggle after another.
Not to worry the City of Quincy’s Law Department is on top of this case. Still waiting for their first victory under the solicitor.
Yes, he’s doing a bang-up job! A perfect record.
Funny, though, he did prevail in his quest to build his own apartment building on Sea St. despite considerable public sentiment against it.
The Ward 6 Councilor (a Koch rubber stamp guy) and Mayor Koch have spent money like drunken sailors on shore leave to keep Squantum from having to deal with the return of about 10 buses, a likely similar number of trucks, and a manageable number of cars passing by the 12 houses on Dorchester Street in Squantum daily.
Meanwhile, the rest of Quincy is plagued with traffic congestion. The people of Squantum need a shrink to deal with their terror over ten buses passing by on the edge of the island daily. The amount of money spent so far could have been used for much better issues or at least subsidize their therapy sessions.
I also continue to want to know how the money allocated for the huge raises is being spent since the council and the Mayor got caught by the State Ethics Commission! The money was allocated but how is it being spent?
Additionally, will someone tell Koch there is a statue for sale on eBay so he can satisfy his statue fetish for short money as well as let him know that Colonel Sanders and General Burkhalter also want bridges built and named for them too.
FYI: Amaxophobia is a recognized disorder. And as for fetishes, eBay is great way to save money for those with them — just the gently used dresses alone …
True that re dresses! See https://quincyquarry.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2020/03/quimby-ma-clean.jpg
Instead of stumbling through this expensive, quixotic misadventure, a deal might have been made to allow limited access to areas of Long Island for Quincy residents to enjoy activities such as fishing, or viewing the tall ships, or Boston fireworks. It might have been worth pursuing, but the Lord Mayor, in his infinite wisdom, thought his hostile, adversarial approach would prove to be beneficial. And so, here we are. Boston will prevail, Quincy is poorer for the effort and SOL. So it goes in the Q.
Boston finally secured that Mass DEP permit for the Long Island Bridge rebuild. Took long enough! It’s almost like watching someone try to put together IKEA furniture without the instructions—except the instructions in this case were environmental regulations, and the ‘missing Allen wrench’ was probably endless bureaucratic red tape.
But hey, congratulations to Boston for checking one box off the to-do list. Just 47 more steps to go before the bridge becomes anything more than a political talking point. Meanwhile, Quincy continues to fume over the whole thing like a neighbor who wasn’t invited to the block party. You’d think they were being asked to host the world’s largest tailgate instead of just managing some construction traffic.
Let’s not forget that this project is being sold as a miracle solution for addiction and homelessness. Here’s hoping it’s more than a shiny new bridge to nowhere, because if this thing doesn’t deliver, it might just become the most expensive boondoggle Boston’s ever seen—and that’s saying something.
Kelly, FYI: Quincy’s peerless mayor has to date seen close $450 million in taxpayer-funded money spent or to be spent to endeavor to revitalize Quincy Center.
So far, however, he has seen only around $150 million or thereabouts in new development with around the same pending “soon.”
So what that the mayor needs close to a billion three in new development and renovated existing real estate to make things work out financially.
For local taxpayers anyway whereas koched-up developers have already made out like bandits on their investments.
Kochonomics — you gotta love it!!!
Conversely, at least Boston will be able to better utilize Camp Harbor View to the benefit of inner city youth and provide a safe and scenic place for drug addicts to endeavor to kick their drug habits for around the same money once it is finally able to rebuild its bridge