Politics: Surprised by Brown? No Way

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Am I surprised that Republican Scott Brown has won the special election for the Massachusetts senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy today? No way. It's typical of how the Massachusetts electorate behaves, if one really pays attention instead of making assumptions based on how it normally ends up voting--for the Democratic nominee.

The rest of the world doesn't understand Massachusetts, thinking of it (amongst other misperceptions) as an entire state politically resembling Berkeley, California, and thus a stronghold of the Democratic Party. I'm not sure that assessment even holds up in Massachusetts locales analogous to Berkeley like Cambridge and Amherst. Massachusetts is a very strange place politically; arguably one needs to live there to understand it. Having lived in the Boston area for eight years while trying to become politically active, I think I have a pretty good idea how things really work.

First of all, Massachusetts isn't so much a Democratic Party-loving state or even a liberal state so much as it is a one party state, with that one party being the Democrats. The history of how that came about deserves an explanation longer than this blog post, but the net effect is that there is arguably more diversity in ideology amongst Massachusetts Democrats than is typical around the nation, most particularly in social ideology--there have been a lot more pro-life Democrats holding local and statewide offices in Massachusetts than most outsiders would probably believe. In a one-party system where that one party effectively controls the state legislature and has some diversity in viewpoints, there is little incentive for politicians to run under other political party banners. As a result, people even in what would normally be considered conservative areas tend to elect Democrats. Democrats have generally held 70-90% of the seats in the state Senate and state House in the past quarter-century.

At the statewide level, though, the dynamic is a bit different. Republicans have been able to get elected to the Senate and governorship in Massachusetts. Between William Weld, Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift, and Mitt Romney, a Republican was the governor (or acting governor) of Massachusetts from 1991 to 2007, and Massachusetts sent Republican Edward Brooke to the Senate from 1967 to 1979. How can that be?

At the governorship level, it comes down to the open selfishness inherent in the Massachusetts electorate. Few will come out as say so, but much of Massachusetts politics revolves around not letting other people get a better deal than what the individual voter is getting. Government programs seem to go on forever in Massachusetts because as long as they don't represent a better deal for someone else, voters will allow them to persist. As soon as a voter thinks that someone else is getting a better deal (or "their deal" is taken away), then they get angry and try to get that deal removed. Politics works this way everywhere to some extent, but it is much more crassly and transparently practiced this way in Massachusetts.

A good way to try to accomplish this--protect the government programs that benefit oneself and put an end to programs that benefit others--is to elect a pork-oriented Democrat for local offices (including to the state House and Senate) and elect an anti-tax, small government Republican to the governorship. Hence, this equilibrium, however inefficient, was established and maintained for more than a decade.

As a final major element, it is not a coincidence that the famous "all politics is local" quote is attributed to Massachusetts representative Tip O'Neill. In Massachusetts, this adage rules more than any other. There is a famous painting in the Boston Public Library that shows a view west from Boston showing Worcester, Springfield, and then San Francisco with nothing else in between. Massachusetts voters don't vote for representatives based on national issues, even when they are hot (like health care), but on what that representative can do for the district. Remember the Big Dig? That was all about Massachusetts senators and representatives bringing home pork. Similarly, Thomas Menino has been mayor of Boston since 1993 in large part because he makes sure potholes--both literal and figurative--are fixed in the city's neighborhoods.

In the quotes from the public that voted for Scott Brown today, I heard elements of all of this. Some cited a "lack of checks and balances" at the national level with the Democrats controlling the Presidency and Congress, echoing the balance that Massachusetts had for many years with Republican governors. Some talked about health care reform "moving too quickly" or "being done in secret"--but what I heard there was classic selfish "why should I potentially pay for someone else get what I already have?" since Massachusetts already has essentially universal health care coverage; they're not overwhelmingly concerned about whether others get it. It's the same as the painting that doesn't see the rest of the United States before the Pacific Ocean.

What I didn't hear in any significant amount was criticism of President Obama or the Democratic Party in general. This looks like a classic Massachusetts election, and Martha Coakley (never a charismatic figure in my experience, even long ago) proved a hapless candidate out of touch with the locals, while Scott Brown proved a master campaigner, hitting all the right notes of being local, providing balance, and not promising what he would do for the country in general. He is to be congratulated for understanding Massachusetts politics and capitalizing on it--and he will be rewarded by being the state's new senator.

Politics: Jack E. Robinson III

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One of the interesting side stories brought up by the death of Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy was the bizarre candidacy of Jack E. Robinson III against him in 2000. Robinson was a businessman who could finance his own campaign. However, as an African-American and the son of a former president of the Boston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), on paper he looked like far from the average Republican, perhaps someone who might at least make a dent in the hold Kennedy had on the minority vote in the state.

Unfortunately, Robinson was not an average candidate in terms of his personal past as well. He tried to preemptively clear the air by releasing an 11-page personal history with his explanations of all of his potential shortcomings, from allegations of drinking and driving, carrying illegal weapons, sexual misconduct, and even plagiarism. The document caused Republican governor Paul Cellucci (later an ambassador to Canada) to drop support for Robinson before he had even been a declared candidate for a week.

Robinson took a call from WBUR radio reporter Toni Randolph to talk about Cellucci's action as he was driving a rented car in Boston on 21-March-2000. Admittedly, though, it was not Robinson but a 17-year old driver that was at fault as that teenager drove his car into the opposing lanes and collided with Robinson. The sounds of the collision could be heard on the radio, and then Robinson stated, "I just got in an accident... Boy, everything is happening to me. Cellucci is withdrawing his support, and people are sliding across the highway at me." The report filed by Randolph was aired on NPR's now-canceled Weekly Edition, and a low-fidelity audio file is still available (it was 2000--did you expect a high bit rate?).

In typical Massachusetts media fashion, Robinson was even accused of leaving the scene of the accident (even though it wasn't his fault) as he tried to find a safe place to park farther down the street. After that week, nobody took his candidacy seriously. In November, Libertarian Carla Howell would come within 30,000 votes of Robinson, with both of them mustering about one-sixth of the votes that went to Kennedy.

Robinson did not give up on politics following the loss to Kennedy in 2000, perhaps a bit too attached to the example of Mitt Romney, who had lost to Kennedy in 1994 and went on to win the Governorship in 2002. He ran for Secretary of the Commonwealth in 2004 and for the 9th district Congressional seat in 2006, losing soundly in each case with about a quarter of the vote. There were no car accidents to report in either of those races, however.

Politics: Yes, I Voted for Ted Kennedy

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Senator Edward Morris Kennedy died today at the age of 77 after a long fight with cancer. Once upon a time, I voted for Ted Kennedy. I was living in Massachusetts when he ran for re-election in 2000. Unlike 1994, when he faced Mitt Romney, Kennedy did not face significant opposition in 2000, and breezed to his seventh election to the Senate; my vote mattered little. He would be re-elected one more time in 2006.

Why did I vote for Ted Kennedy? Probably his only serious opponent that year was actually Libertarian Carla Howell; the Republican nominee, Jack E. Robinson III deserves an essay just describing his sometimes-pathetic antics. Yet, even if there had been powerful opposition, I would have voted for Kennedy anyway.

It wasn't because I was voting for the Kennedy legacy. Upon moving to Massachusetts, I wondered how often I would run into people that would vote for the senator and his family just because of the past. A few days after my arrival, I did hear a caller to a talk show on WBZ-AM express support "because I just think of everything [Kennedy's mother] Rose has been through and what this family has done for the country," but that was the only time I heard such a thing in eight years of living in the state. In fact, I would say it was far more common for people to disdain the younger Kennedys--but not Ted Kennedy.

People like me voted for Ted Kennedy because he actually did a good job of representing Massachusetts. While other politicians were also instrumental in procuring federal funds, Kennedy played his part in bringing home the bacon on such items as the Big Dig highway construction project or more funding for drug interdiction in Springfield. Even those on the right knew they were getting something from having Kennedy as their representative, and they were not inclined to vote against him.

People also just genuinely liked Ted Kennedy. He would show up at the hospital when ideological opponents were ailing. This underscored one of Kennedy's key traits--he may have been liberal, but he was not partisan (at least by modern standards). He understood how to reach out to all sides to get legislation passed. The list of Republicans that he worked closely with to pass various legislation reads like a who's who list of national Republicans in the post-Reagan era: Bob Dole, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, and even George W. Bush. The biggest symbolism of Kennedy's passing may be that of the death of bi-partisanship, as he was one of the few remaining masters.

I once saw the junior senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, have a beach ball thrown at his head at an "Earthfest" free concert along the Charles River as he worked his way through the crowd after giving an environmental speech. Nobody would have ever thrown a beach ball at Kennedy, even if they were diametrically opposed to him politically. He was too respected.

Yes, I voted for Ted Kennedy. There will be no more opportunities to vote for him, but one can hope there will be others in the Kennedy tradition to vote for someday. As he was known to say, "The dream shall never die."

Photos: Trip to Massachusetts, Spring 2009

CSX train Q427 from Ayer, Massachusetts to Selkirk, New York passed St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on 30 May 2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site features my recent trip to Massachusetts. Between 28 May 2009 and 2 June 2009, I managed to view scenery along the way, visit Worcester, Massachusetts' Union Station, spend a day viewing Pioneer Valley sights like the Quabbin Reservoir, Sugarloaf Mountain and Northampton with the Maserati family, explore the Keystone Arches Trail in the Berkshire Mountains, and see the State University of New York Albany campus with local resident Mark Johnson.

Heritage: Keystone Arch Bridges

Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited, powered by a P42DC locomotive built in 2001, crossed a Keystone Arch Bridge in Chester, Massachusetts completed one hundred sixty years earlier in 1841, on 1 June 2009

ALBANY, NEW YORK - Nestled in a somewhat remote part of the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts lies a series of engineering landmarks. The Keystone Arch Bridges of the Western Railroad, the oldest arched railroad bridges in the United States, still stand along the West Branch of the Westfield River, two of them part of a hiking trail, and one of them amazingly still in use on the CSX's Berkshire Subdivision mainline.

I became aware of these engineering gems when I first rode the Amtrak "Lake Shore Limited" route between Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York on a Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts Fall Foliage Flyer special in 2001. Two of the arched bridges are visible from the current line, which bypassed all but one of the Keystone Arch Bridges in a 1912 line relocation, and the history of the bridges figured prominently in the route guide.


The Keystone Arch Bridge "B" in Becket, Massachusetts, bypassed in a 1912 line relocation and now traversed by the Keystone Arch Bridges Trail, was viewed from Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited on 14 May 2008

The bridges were built as part of the Western Railroad, chartered in 1833 as part of an effort to connect Boston to the Hudson River to try to win back traffic that was headed to the ports around New York instead of Massachusetts Bay. The Western Railroad would be the longest (150 miles) and highest (crossing the Berkshires at an elevation of 1458 feet at Washington Summit) in the world when it opened in 1841. The eastern approach to the summit followed the west branch of the Westfield River, requiring a series of bridges especially around the West Branch Gorge. The Friends of the Keystone Arches web site describes how George Washington Whistler and Alexander Birnie surveyed and built the bridges to last, obviously quite successfully.


The West Branch of the Westfield River featured clear water 70 feet beneath the Keystone Arch Bridge "B" in Becket, Massachusetts on 1 June 2009

In 1870, the Western Railroad became part of the Boston and Albany, the name under which it would operate for most of the line's existence. The Boston and Albany was part of the New York Central system, and has since been part of Penn Central, Conrail, and today is part of CSX.


The Keystone Arch Bridge Trail crossed 1841-era Bridge "A" in Becket, Massachusetts on 1 June 2009

Since 2001, the Keystone Arch Bridges have been more accessible thanks to the Keystone Arch Bridges Trail. The 2.5 mile trail in Chester and Becket, Massachusetts parallels the Westfield River partially using the rights of way of the old Pontoonsic Turnpike horse-carriage route and the original Western Railroad. The highlight of the experience is walking over the "A" and "B" Keystone Arch Bridges with their views of the West Branch of the Westfield River far below; it's hard to believe that the robust bridges have stood for more than 170 years.


The view from Keystone Arch Bridge "A" in Becket, Massachusetts included this look down the west branch of the Westfield River toward the West Branch Gorge on 1 June 2009

The Keystone Arch Bridges Trail is accessible from Middlefield Road from Chester, Massachusetts. The sight of modern freight trains and Amtrak crossing the 1841-era "Double Arch" bridge in Chester, Massachusetts was a sight worth seeing in 2009.

Margin Notes: Scenter, Urban Decay, McCrepes

A sign at Yankee Candle in South Deerfield, Massachusetts declared itself the "Scenter of the Universe" on 31 May 2009

WARE, MASSACHUSETTS - Those familiar with Massachusetts' state capitol, Boston, know that it thinks of itself as the "Hub of the Universe," inspiring creative derision from the rest of the world. One of the better plays on that title was noted today at the Yankee Candle store in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. While "Scenter of the Universe" refers to the scented candles sold inside, the one-letter difference from "center" is hard to miss.

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The other sign outside Yankee Candle touts its Christmas store, and indeed I was impressed with the international Christmas traditions represented in the store. My favorite from visiting German holiday markets, Rauchermen or dolls that burn incense and appear to be smoking a pipe, were prominently featured, as well as a few things I hadn't heard of before. The best of these was the glass pickle ornament--with its green color, it is hard to find in a tree and thus the person who found it first in the morning would get a special gift. Apparently, this tradition died out early in the 20th century.

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Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited passed an old mill building in Worcester, Massachusetts that had been re-occupied sometime in the five years before 30 May 2009

I was concerned yesterday that I was going to find the city of Worcester, Massachusetts to look like it had died out early in the 20th century, as it had been showing signs of serious urban decay when I had last visited in 2004. I found a mixed bag; downtown looked terrible in many places, including the former Common Outlet mall that apparently closed in 2006 and now had only its parking lot in use. However, Union Station looked as good as ever since its 1999 rehabilitation and now featured the bus station as well as train service, and a western neighborhood that was starting to feel unsafe five years ago had actually been revitalized with new businesses.

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Rain started to fall on the Cultural Survival Bazaar in Amherst, Massachusetts on 31 May 2009

Unquestionably impressive was the Cultural Survival Bazaar held this weekend in Amherst, Massachusetts. The bazaars are held to fund programs to maintain the cultures of indigenous people around the world and feature very interesting crafts for sale from four continents. I really appreciated the Senegalese food I had for lunch and some of the stories told on stage by local Native Americans.

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I should have known better than to think that I would have a cultural experience with food at the McDonald's in Montreal, Quebec's Central Station on Friday morning. With little time during my layover, I decided to head for McDonald's, wondering if there would be a different menu in Quebec and became excited when I saw "McCrepes" listed. Thinking it would be something approaching the crepes sold on the street in Paris, I ordered one. Of course, it was an item right off the American menu--McGriddles (which I have never liked) are called McCrepes in Quebec.

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What exactly did this bumper sticker mean, found on a car in Northampton, Massachusetts on 31 May 2009?

The college town of Northampton, Massachusetts is always a cultural experience, yet sometimes not an easy one to explain. Progressive bumper stickers are expected, but there was at least one I didn't understand. What exactly is "Eat a Pizza with Satan" supposed to mean?

Transport: Ten Years After Conrail

The only former Conrail locomotive seen in Worcester, Massachusetts ten years after the Conrail break-up was CSX DASH8-40CW #7340, once Conrail #6148, on 30-May-2009

WARE, MASSACHUSETTS - Ten years ago on Monday, Conrail ceased to exist as we knew it. The once government-owned company created in 1976 to run a series of bankrupt railroads in the eastern, especially northeastern, United States, profitable since 1981 and privatized in 1987, was split up between its two main competitors in the east, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern.

Living in Boston at the time, Conrail was my local railroad, so while I had done little railfanning in Massachusetts at the time, I decided I needed to head out to see the last weekend of Conrail. While 1 June fell on a Tuesday in 1999, many fewer trains would run on Sunday and Memorial Day, so I picked 29 May 1999 as my first and last day-long Conrail experience. On the advice of other local railfans, I headed out to Worcester, Massachusetts and took in the action.


On the last weekend of Conrail, a SD80MAC led the Framingham, Massachusetts to Selkirk, New York train through Worcester, Massachusetts on 29 May 1999

I wasn't disappointed, with a nice parade of trains, a variety of locomotives from B23-7's to SD80MAC's, and quite a few railfans out for the experience. The day went so well that I decided to return to Worcester regularly to document any changes that new owner CSX would implement. Amongst other times, I returned three months later, six months year, one year later, two years later, and five years later, always on a Saturday to try to make any comparisons more meaningful. It seemed my duty, therefore, to show up again ten years later to again survey the changes.

Taken between any two of my visits, the changes in operating practice generally seemed rather subtle (except, perhaps, for the invasion of new CSX AC6000CW locomotives in 2001). Taken over the course of ten years, the changes seemed dramatic. Except for a few run-through units, all the locomotives in 1999 were in Conrail blue. In 2009, all the units were in a CSX paint scheme, and only one, a DASH8-40CW pictured above, was of Conrail heritage. In 1999, there were three eastbound intermodal (piggyback or container) trains noted passing through Worcester in daylight hours. In 2009, there was just one. Guilford (now Pan Am Railways) no longer ran an interchange train into East Worcester Yard; all interchange was taking place at Ayer. The overall freight train count was 16 in 1999 and just six in 2009.

Physically, except for a few old blue signs, it was hard to tell that the line had ever been Conrail and not always CSX (to say nothing of the Boston & Albany and the companies that came between it and Conrail). Operationally, the Conrail Boston Line dispatcher had become the CSX NA Dispatcher and a new call-in radio channel was in use, even if the dispatcher was still in Selkirk, New York. All of the train symbols had changed immediately after the merger and had been modified over the decade.


One of the few physical signs of the Boston Line's Conrail heritage still visible in Worcester, Massachusetts on 30 May 2009 were the white-on-blue signs marking "CP 45", a major junction in Worcester, 45 miles from Boston

Passenger service had changed over the ten years as well, with the "Bay State" Amtrak trains to New York via Springfield discontinued, Amtrak "Lake Shore Limited" schedule changes, the MBTA expanding its weekend round trips to Worcester from Boston, the re-opening of Union Station and the closing of the small former Amtrak station, and the coming of intercity buses to Union Station as an intermodal terminal.

It's the ability to make these kind of comparisons that justify my note-taking while railfanning. I have the notes to prove that a lot has changed in the past decade in Worcester, Massachusetts since the end of Conrail.

Photos: Boston Fourth of July, 2005

Boston mayor Thomas Menino and representatives of the US Military honored revolutionary leaders in the Granary Burial Ground in Boston, Massachusetts on 4-July-2005

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site again dives into the archives to feature the morning of the 4th of July, 2005 in Boston, Massachusetts. As occurs each year in Boston, a parade started at City Hall, honored revolutionary leaders buried in the Granary at their grave sites, continued to the Old State House for a reading of the Declaration of Independence, and then proceeded to Faneuil Hall for more speeches, finishing about the time the USS Constitution started its turnaround cruise to Fort Independence.

Politics: Reminder of Why to Avoid Massachusetts

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I'm not going to defend artist Shepard Fairey, or pass judgment on him either way. I don't know if he's criminally responsible for graffiti or not; I don't know if he's in violation of copyright or not. However, the news of his arrest in Boston while he was en-route to the opening of an exhibit featuring his works at the Institute for Contemporary Art reminded me why I want nothing to do with the mentality of people in the state of Massachusetts if I can avoid it for the rest of my life.

Shepard Fairey has become best known for the abstract image he created of Barack Obama in red, white and blue with the word "HOPE" below that eventually became an icon of the President's campaign. The image itself has created controversy, as the Associated Press claims that his use of one of their photographs as a starting point did not constitute fair use.

However, that legal situation may be the least of Fairey's concerns. Long before creating the "Hope" work, he was known for graffiti stencils including the word "obey" and Andre the Giant. Boston Police claim that they have evidence that, in 2000, he personally stenciled at least two locations in that city with graffiti, leading to charges that they used to arrest him last Friday.

Quite possibly, Fairey deserved to be arrested. However, as I listened to coverage of recent events on CBC Radio One's The Current this morning, I was mostly feeling glad that I didn't live in Massachusetts anymore.

This is how things work in Massachusetts. It's likely that Boston Police had other opportunities to arrest Fairey before the opening night of his exhibit, probably back as far as 2000. However, at that time, there was likely not public pressure on them to make the arrest, and they likely focused on things they considered more important. However, now that Fairey has become prominent and even a role model, resentment about his perceived hypocrisy has grown into anger that has likely been directed into pressure on the police department to arrest him. I doubt there's much fault to find with in the police department in this case, regardless of the eventual legal truths that will be revealed. It's the political climate that has changed since 2000 and has led to a prominent artist being arrested.

What happens in Massachusetts is that people take a dislike to someone (or a group), don't say much about it, then wait for an advantageous event that allows them to get the public on their side and take out their dislike in either the courts or the media, or both. It happens all the time. His rivals had been after Massport Executive Director Peter Blute for a long time, then set up the 1999 "booze cruise" (which the Boston Herald just happened to be around to photograph) to embarrass him into resigning. Politicians had wanted Amtrak out as contractor for commuter rail around Boston for months if not years before the death of a man by heart attack on a train allowed them to rally public support to get rid of Amtrak--and the change in operator has done nothing to prevent the same event from happening again, but they got their revenge on Amtrak. On a smaller scale, I've seen neighbors that disliked someone wait for a minor incident that amounted to an accident and then, as a group, all individually call city inspectors to create trouble for that person and put their renovations so far behind schedule that they ended up nearly bankrupt.

There are two things that always bothered me about these kinds of events. First of all, they are completely unconstructive. Rather than presenting a positive alternative to something that is going on, they try to drag down a person. Nothing positive ever comes out of these sequences, and whomever becomes the target can have their life ruined. More importantly, they don't deal with the root cause of the dislike. Those against Peter Blute were apparently mostly upset about his plans for a third runway--plans that Massport didn't drop when Blute was succeeded. Quality of service on commuter rail has gone down since Amtrak was replaced by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad by almost any standard, but I wouldn't blame that on the new contractor--the real problem is the equipment provided by the local agency.

If Fairey really committed criminal acts--and he may have--then he should have been arrested a long time ago, perhaps made to do restitution for any damage caused. It's so typical of Massachusetts for such an arrest to wait until it creates maximum damage to the person--and do nothing about vandalism, the real problem at the heart of the community resentment. It's really tiresome to see yet another unconstructive Massachusetts drama.

For all I know, somebody in the Boston area has some old grudge against me, and if I ever become prominent and pass through town, they'll find some way to cause serious trouble for me while I'm visiting. Considering how things work in that region, it would be almost be more surprising if someone weren't waiting for such a chance.