Deval Patrick keeps searching for revenue solutions to his spending problem, and, as usual, he is not afraid to trample the rights of citizens to do so.
-Medford GOP
19 localities receiving ads have little power to say no
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
The MBTA, desperate to raise money, will auction off space for 60 new billboards along highways in Eastern Massachusetts, in what officials are calling the largest single introduction of new billboard sites in state history.
The jumbo advertisements, expected to earn the agency about $6 million a year, will be grouped in 32 locations in 19 cities and towns that have little or no control over their placement.
"At Wellington station? You've got to be kidding," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, when a reporter told him about a plan to erect two billboards back-to-back in his city. "No one wants someone just coming into their community and saying 'Hey, here's where it's going. Like it or lump it.' "
The new billboards, announced yesterday as the agency tries to stave off a fare increase, are part of an ongoing program launched last month, when workers began installing 20 new signs at 10 locations along interstates in Boston, Somerville, and Westwood. By the middle of next year, the MBTA expects to have more than tripled the number of supersize "bulletin" billboards than it had at the beginning of this year.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency is exercising its special right, affirmed last year by the Supreme Judicial Court, to put up ads on its property without local zoning review. In their ruling, the judges said that the T, in fact, had a responsibility to try to minimize fare hikes by leasing ad space.
The value of these advertisements stems not only from their high visibility but also because companies would not otherwise be able to erect signs in many of these cities and towns if local officials had their say. None of the officials reached yesterday were aware of the MBTA's plans.
"What's a billboard? We don't allow them," said Buzz Stapczynski, town manager of Andover, where the MBTA plans to install four new signs on either side of Interstate 495.
Stapczynski called it another example of the state stepping on the rights of cities and towns.
-Medford GOP
19 localities receiving ads have little power to say no
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
The MBTA, desperate to raise money, will auction off space for 60 new billboards along highways in Eastern Massachusetts, in what officials are calling the largest single introduction of new billboard sites in state history.
The jumbo advertisements, expected to earn the agency about $6 million a year, will be grouped in 32 locations in 19 cities and towns that have little or no control over their placement.
"At Wellington station? You've got to be kidding," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, when a reporter told him about a plan to erect two billboards back-to-back in his city. "No one wants someone just coming into their community and saying 'Hey, here's where it's going. Like it or lump it.' "
The new billboards, announced yesterday as the agency tries to stave off a fare increase, are part of an ongoing program launched last month, when workers began installing 20 new signs at 10 locations along interstates in Boston, Somerville, and Westwood. By the middle of next year, the MBTA expects to have more than tripled the number of supersize "bulletin" billboards than it had at the beginning of this year.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency is exercising its special right, affirmed last year by the Supreme Judicial Court, to put up ads on its property without local zoning review. In their ruling, the judges said that the T, in fact, had a responsibility to try to minimize fare hikes by leasing ad space.
The value of these advertisements stems not only from their high visibility but also because companies would not otherwise be able to erect signs in many of these cities and towns if local officials had their say. None of the officials reached yesterday were aware of the MBTA's plans.
"What's a billboard? We don't allow them," said Buzz Stapczynski, town manager of Andover, where the MBTA plans to install four new signs on either side of Interstate 495.
Stapczynski called it another example of the state stepping on the rights of cities and towns.
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