December 20, 2024 • 40 mins
With the deadline looming for 130 MBTA communities, Dan discussed the controversial zoning law going into effect next year. Brendan Wild, a Marshfield resident joined Dan.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBSY, Boston's news
radio home NCALL.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I hope you have a great time off on. Tonight
is my last night for the broadcast year, and I
wish you and yours a very merry Christmas, Happy hon
happy coons, and whatever you and your family celebrate. I
hope it's a great twenty twenty five for you. It's
been a pleasure working with you for the entirety of
twenty twenty four and we will meet again on the
other side of the new year. Good evening, everybody, and
(00:29):
welcome on in. I'm Dan Ray, the host of night Side,
and I will be here all the way until midnight.
We have a very special show for you tonight. We
have topic coming up in the first hour that I
think affects one hundred and seventy seven communities here in
eastern Massachusetts. We've talked about it before, and that is
the so called MBTA Communities Act, which the state is
(00:50):
trying to dictate and override the zoning provisions in one
hundred and seventy seven community is going to be talking
with Brendan Wilde of Marshfield. Voters in Marshfield this week
restated this strong opposition to participating in this situation, this
law that's being imposed upon them. If you are aware
of it, stay with us. If you not, will explain it,
(01:12):
and then you can tell us what you think of it,
simple as that. Coming up at nine o'clock tonight, an
extraordinary story about a local businessman who literally is putting
his life on the line to protect his business and
getting very little support from the city to which he
pays a lot of property taxes, commercial property taxes. Will
(01:33):
explain all of that. This is something that needs to
be focused on. And then tonight, the last two hours
of my broadcast year, we do our annual This will
be the twelfth annual Night Side Charity Combine, in which
we will introduce you to about twenty actually precisely twenty
great charities of all stripes, of all sorts, big, small,
(01:54):
well known, less well known, and they'll explain what their
mission is and how they accomplish that mission, and perhaps
what help you might be able to provide them, either
as a volunteer if it particularly piqued your interest, or
as someone who would like to contribute. As we move
toward the end of the year, people like to make
contributions to charities. There can be some tax benefit to
(02:15):
most people who do that. If you idemis your tax
deductions come April. You know what I'm talking about. So
we'll get to all of that. It's really a full
show tonight, and we're going to start it off by
talking about the MBTA Communities Act. This was past back.
I guess was think whether it's twenty twenty one or
(02:36):
twenty twenty, it's been on the books for a while.
It's met with a lot of resistance from communities, probably
foremost in that fight. You have a Wakefield has been
opposed to it for a long time, Shrewsbury, Milton, Massachusetts,
and most importantly for us tonight, Marshfield with us as
Brendan Wilde Brendan welcome back Tonight's side. Brendan was with
(02:57):
us last spring. The community of Marshfield, a town meeting
on April twenty second, chose not to adopt the MBTA
Communities Act, but that didn't discourage the heads of the
folks up on Beacon Hill and their minions and in
(03:21):
the town of Marshfield, and they put it on the
ballot this week. Brendan, it's been a long fight but
you're still standing. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I'm doing very well, Dan, thank you for having me on.
So it has been a long fight, and I just
wanted to say it wasn't on the ballot, it was
another town meeting. I don't know if this was the
special town meeting and the April one was the annual
or vice.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Versa, but okay, okay, So either way, it was a
vote of the citizenry.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yes, correct, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
In both instances people had to show up at town
hall or at a high school and cast their vote.
So in April this was voted down two eighty nine
to one sixty nine. It's a pretty good margin, not
quite two to one. And then on Monday night it
was shot down with greater numbers, shot down four eighteen
(04:16):
to two twenty one.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Why are the leaders of Marshfield not happy or not
satisfied to listen to how their their residents, their taxpayers,
their voters are feel on this issue. What's going on?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So, if my memory serves me correct, the April meeting
was a special town meeting that they implemented knowing that
if we didn't pass it in April, they would still
have this annual town meeting in December. Wow, okay, so
I kind of understand their strategy with that. The problem
here is nothing changed on our end terms of how
(05:00):
we would approach the bill. We were asked to show
up a second time to vote for the exact, same
identical thing. None of our concerns were addressed. So I
think that's why the townspeople, you know, showed up and
spoke again. This is we already told you once you're
(05:22):
not going to get lucky with us doing our Christmas
shopping on a Monday night. You know, the townspeople showed
out and like you said, it was better the second
time around.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You folks in Marshfield. Also back in the spring, I
think you have a three member board of Selectment and
every third year or every year, one of those members
are up for re election. And you ousted an incumbent.
Your forces ousted an incumbent. So now you're going to
(05:53):
probably have another election dealing with another incumbent who has
been going against the wishes of the people in Marshfield
next spring. Let's take a couple of steps back, and
let's for people. There's a lot of people who don't
understand what's going on here. So let's just try to
explain this as best I understand it. There are one
(06:16):
hundred and seventy seven or so communities in eastern Massachusetts
that either have MBTA service or their town is an
abutted to a butter to a town that has MBTA
service or is adjacent to the butter. So it covers
most of eastern Massachusetts. And the nexus that they're trying
(06:39):
to establish is because there's MBTA service, we want more
people living in those towns. Is that the underlying theory
of why they're pushing this, why Beacon Hill, Charlie Baker
and now more Heay have been pushing this as strongly
as they as they have, That is.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
How most of the citizens of the state and interpret it,
I believe. So, okay, we can we can go off
on a tangent on how the MBTA runs.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
They're they're doing as well as they can uh and
and and their improvements being made in the m b
t A. That's fine. But the point is that the
zoning in a community as to what type of the
community what it wants to be, whether it's a suburban
community or an urban community or a rural community. That's
(07:31):
what's called local zoning laws. Correct.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So, for example, if you live in if you live
in a rural community and you don't want a strip
mall in your community, and you do not want commercial
activity in your community, it has to get past the
zoning laws of your town. Pretty simple. It's it's the
most elementary purpose of a local community. Other than than that,
(08:03):
I don't know what purpose a local community has to
even form if they're not going to sort of maintain
some sort of semblance of what the community is intended
to be right or wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I can't disagree with that. Why bother having town government
if you're not going to let us govern?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, okay, So my second question is, there's no suggestion
that I have heard from anywhere, from anywhere, that any
Massachusetts community has deprived any citizen of their constitutional right
to live in a community. I mean, we're not talking
about some sort of redlining from the nineteen sixties or
(08:47):
seventies where people of different backgrounds couldn't get mortgages from
certain banks in certain areas of communities. There's no constitutional provision.
This is not a piece of civil rights legislation in
any shape or form. That's as I understand that. If
I'm wrong, please correct me.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Now. I understand it as you do. I think it's
a it's a screen for more housing and nothing more.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah. No, I mean, look, developers and politicians have good relationships.
Developers support politicians, and sometimes developers need the ability to
build more property. And there's a whole bunch of places
where things can be built here in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
(09:39):
I just see this as as such an overreach of
state government imposing on local communities how those local communities
will govern themselves. I wish I could see it somehow differently,
but I just that's it's to me, it's it's it's
the most obvious abuse of state authority that I can
(10:02):
ever imagine, for no purpose, no purpose at all.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I agree with you there, and I would also like
to bring up I think one of one of the
argument of argument arguments that their side has is adding
housing will bring the cost of housing down. I don't.
I don't see that happening. Look at cars on a
(10:29):
car dealer shop, look at iPhones, the endless supply of
these things. The price is the price, the cost to
build a house, the costs for the lots those things
aren't going down. So to just throw up a bunch
of high rise apartments, it's not going to bring prices down, it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Might be question so here, So here's my question. If
if you have bought a house in Marshfield that let's
say you paid a half a million dollars for a
couple of years ago. By infusing more housing into Marshfield,
(11:05):
how can that not bring down the cost of housing?
How can not that bring down the property value of
the properties that are there now? Because obviously it becomes
more common if if you've got a whole bunch of
housing in a town like Marshfield. Isn't that basic? I think,
(11:28):
supplying to me of economics.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
It is. But but you're talking about bringing the property
value down. The property values will drop, but the affordability
is what I'm talking about. Or a coastal community. Coastal
communities cost more to live in than landlocked communities. There's
there's lots of factors that play that. I'm not saying.
(11:51):
I do think property values do plumit the more you
saturated town with they do more, and the residents traffic,
all those things. But but to to say that adding
will will make everything affordable, that's that's where I hang
my hat. I do not believe that.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, it's going to make I think it's going to
make the the value of whatever these are rental units
or condominium units or whatever they are. You're going to
have an infusion of people, which means you're going to
have a more demand on your school system, there's going
to be more demand on police activities. All it's going
to do is increase the size, increase increase the density
(12:36):
of the community. So a town like Marshfield, which I
don't know if I would call it, I kind of
call it ex suburban, meaning in which it's not your
suburban town like Braintree or Milton just next to Boston,
but it's far enough away so it's it's it's not suburban,
but it's not rural. And that's why I use the
term x suburban suburbia. You know, you're living far enough
(12:58):
away from the city, may be working in the city, whatever,
but you've chosen that lifestyle to live there. And I
don't understand why anybody in Marshfield or in any one
of these communities would vote in favor of this. The
only reason that people are voting in favor of it
is because the state has threatened to withhold grants, taxpayer
funded grants to Marshfield. That's my belief.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
It's it's not a belief, it's the truth.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
All right, Let's pause on that. I want to talk
about that. I want to talk about that, the threats
that have been posed, that have been imposed on you
and upon other communities, on all one hundred and seventy
seven communities, either comply with our dictate or we will
penalize you. That's what Beacon Hill is saying. We'll be back.
My guest from Marshfield is Brendan wild who has been
(13:45):
standing firm in that community, as that community has stood
firm against the NBTA Communities Act. Back on Nightside right
after this. If you'd like to join us, the only
lines we have open right now are six point seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty. We will get to all of our callers
who are there, I promise, And if you're dialing now,
and if you have a different point of view, feel
free to join the conversation.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Back on night Side now, back to Dan Ray live
from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
We're talking with Brendan Wilde. He is a resident at
Marshfield and he's opposed to the MVTA Communities Act. Brendan,
what threats are. This is the state directing towards you.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
So, yes, I'm with you. It's been h grants, grants
that are not already ear marked. These are grants that
we may or may not get, but they're not they're
not grants that we've already signed up for that we
already have coming to them. So the point being whether
(14:51):
or not we were going to get them is a mystery.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah. So basically they're threatening you that if they're saying,
do this and you'll get the grants. If you don't
do it, you won't get the grants. That's correct, And
that's that those grants are funded not by Mara Healey
or by Charlie Baker. They're funded by taxpayers people who
live in Marshfield and in other cities and towns in Massachusetts.
(15:18):
It just to me is is an absolute abuse of
authority to make you to force you to do something.
You know, again, you're not doing anything illegal here. All
they're saying is you're going to do it our way.
We will impose our point of view on and the
people in Marshfield are saying no. So I still under
say why anyone in Marshall would vote yes for it.
(15:39):
Let's do this, Let's get some phone calls. Okay, I'm
gonna go start it off, Brendan, if you're ready, Let's
go to Kerry and Milton. Milton is also very much
opposed to this. Carrie, welcome first is our night side.
Thank you all with Brendan.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Wild Hi Dan, Hi, Brendon, can you guys hear me?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Okay here you find go right ahead?
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Okay, great. So to thein one of the things, as
you said, which I agree one hundred percent, is this
is government overreach, right, And Brendan said something which is
totally my sentiment is if we have town by laws
and planning boards and zoning you know sort of, what
(16:17):
is the purpose if the big government on Beacon Hill
is going to try to you know, bigfoot you and
say yeah, well but this is what we expect. In
my opinion, it is government overreach. And I think one
thing end to me, which I thought was even more fantastic.
His victory on Monday happened to be the two hundred
(16:38):
and fifty first anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. So
I mean that was the resistance movement against government overreach,
and I think in Marshfields and here milt In that
has been our concerns if you know about some of
this zoning. And as you rightly pointed out, Marshield is
much further away from you know, these of the hub,
(17:01):
meaning Boston, so it is not it is not urban
at all, and it is like you said, it's kind
of ex suburban if you will, if I got your
word correctly.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, ex urbia is it is sort of a little
it's kind of out there. It's a in a further ring,
but it's where people have chosen to live and they
like whatever the lifestyle is. I know Marshfield a little bit.
They have some you know, commercial place places there where
people can get lunch and get breakfast and dinners and
all of that. But you know, they want Marshfield to
(17:35):
be Marshfield and to infuse whatever How many units of
housing would Marshfield be compelled to build if this were
to have passed in Marshfield, Brendan, did they ever give
you a specific number?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
They did? I don't have it right in front of me,
but it was over a thousand some.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Of the documents. I think it had been fifteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
They said for Marshfield, what about meltit carry?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
What are they demanding for Milton? How much? How many units?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
It's more like two thousand of Milton.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Okay, No, I'll tell you if I could just go ahead,
could I.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Just interject really quick? So the town Planning Board, I
do want to give them credit, the town Planning Board.
The spot that they put this in Marshfield wouldn't have
allowed for the fifteen hundred that they wanted it would have.
It would have only allowed for three hundred extra units. Whatever,
whatever it was, it was a good spot to put
(18:36):
it in. So we were really given the best possible
option from our town planner. The no vote was a
no vote to the state.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah. I will tell you this, if if you guys
had voted yes on the three hundred, they're becoming at
you a year from now, for another three hundred, and
the year after that, for another three hundred, they just stop.
They just stop. And anybody who thought, well, we fed
the beast and they're going to be happy, No, they're not. No,
They're they're not simple simple at Kerry Kerry, are you folks?
(19:10):
In Milton. You you're still fighting.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
It too, right, We are, indeed, yes, if you know
that States sued us to Originally, it was the last
December that our elected town meeting, we have a representative
town meeting who did not represent us very well. They
hoped to accept the edicts from Beacon Hill to build this,
(19:32):
you know, significant amount of housing in our town. And
to the contrast to what Brendan just mentioned about the
town planners of Marshfield, the place where they did suggest
creating this overlay district, if they as they called it
here in Milton, they might have called it the sam
and Marshfield was already quite congested, but the thing Dan
(19:52):
so many of us were very unhappy about that, and
so we gathered pretty quickly in short order because we
needed to do it pretty quickly, gather enough signatures to
get a referendum ballot question, which we had on. It
was this casual for February thirteenth, but a snowstorm like
what seems to be happening right now pushed us out
(20:14):
a day. So for me anyway, and many people have Milton,
it was the best Valentine's Day gift ever because on
February fourteenth, much more. A huge number of people turned
out for our vote, many more than even a typical
more than the town election, more than even a presidential
election usually. So it was a big number. And I
think the numbers in Marshfield showing the second vote for them,
(20:37):
it said they did not forget about it. And even
more people, it seems if you look at the ratio
there came out for on Monday, on the anniversary as
the tea party to say this, which great.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Keep up the fight, Carrie and Milton, you got you
have an example here in Marshfield. They're holding strong. Thanks Gerry,
appreciate you called Mary.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Thanks Merry Christmas. Everybody, all right, have a great night.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Good night. We take a quick break. Here's the news
in the bottom of the hour. Back with my guests
Brendan Wilde, a town resident in Marshfield who is very
much involved in the fight against the implementation of the
forceful implementation of the MBTA Communities Act, with Ray on.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Let's get back to the phones. My guest is Brendan
wild He's from Marshfield. I just don't understand. I know
that people say there's a housing shortage. I get it.
But there's more people leaving Massachusetts now that are coming in.
So it seems to me that that housing shortage might
be disappearing as a result of again the crazy tax
(21:46):
policies in this state. Let's go to Bob and Wakefield. Bob,
welcome next to Nightside. I know Wakefield. He says, good, Bob,
how you doing. Say ahead to Brendan White.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Hey, Brendan, congratulations, good for you. It's a big fight
out there. But this is actually ridiculous. Just a little
update on where this thing came from. Dan. This was
a Charlie Baker's Economic Economic Development Bill h fifty two fifty.
It came up for a vote January sixth, twenty twenty one,
(22:17):
in the closing hours of the twenty nineteen twenty twenty
two legislation session. The bill passed the House one hundred
and forty three to four at four am in the morning,
and cleared the Senate forty to zero at four fifteen.
They did this thing in the middle of the night.
Right at the tail end, this bill was buried. It
(22:37):
was literally this little this little show was buried in
a two hundred page bill. It was just three paragraphs
and this was all done in the middle of the night.
So we've been fighting this in Wakefield, you know, and
it's absolutely insane. So going just a little little update
in Wakefield. At the Springtown meeting group of us, we
(22:59):
actually put uh, we opposed this this sole side show
that was put together by the Planning Board, which which
was for some reason or other, was actually in favor
of this, uh for our town, which is ridiculous. But anyway,
we won by twenty three votes dowd. It was two
thirty to two hundred and seventy excuse me, two hundred
and seven. Uh. And it wasn't good enough of the town.
(23:19):
So the Selectman which is now town which is now
called the now town Council, they weren't happy, uh, And
so they brought it back in the fall, and they
stacked the town meeting and they in the town meeting.
By the way, it was eight o'clock on a Saturday morning,
that's what they did. And believe it or not, they
had all their buddies in there, and uh, we lost it.
It was three oh nine to two four, So five
(23:42):
hundred people showed up at eight o'clock in the morning
on a Saturday for this thing. Or because they couldn't
They just couldn't handle you know, you know, us winning
this thing.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
And tell me what that comes down to. It shows
that democracy is a farce in your town. It would
be as if a hypothetically, let's assume that the Democrats
on November fifth said we don't like the result of
the the election of Donald Trump on November fifth, We're
going to rerun the presidential election on December eleventh. Yeah,
(24:12):
and that and that time Kamal Harris wins. There, see,
we want it so now, I mean this is you
have a vote, and you live or you die with
the vote. You don't keep just bringing it back, you know,
in another form or another version to slam it through
a town. I hope that you guys in Wakefield get
together and straighten out your town government.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Well, we're going to have to bring it back again
because I don't want one square inch of our town
to be controlled by the state. There's there's they have
absolutely no no, there is absolutely nothing that that we're
going to get out of this whole thing. It's an
unfunded mandate. Our school schools are screwed up, right, And
I brought it up to town me. I told these guys,
I don't know how how many ways they don't understand it.
(24:54):
Our schools are completely full. We're going to have to
build another elementary school or two. The they want to
add another two thousand housing units in Wakefield. We've already
got a thousand units that are under construction, permitted, or
are currently currently going into occupancy. And this is absolutely insane.
It's unsustainable. This is absolutely insane. But they're following a trend.
(25:16):
Dam this is going across the entire country. Uh, you know,
this is nothing new for Massachusetts. This is just this
is they've they've screwed up the middle cities. Uh, you know,
and now they want to Now now they're coming after
the suburbs. They're actually they're going after the single family zoning.
They they they absolutely are there there. It's an attack
on the single family's owning. That's exactly what this is.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Well, there's there's also interest here. I mean, you know,
the developers, builders and.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
All of them were tell me about it, you know, Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Okay, I mean that's you know, follow the money, follow
the money.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I did. I did. Bankers and tradesmen. Uh they're they're
they're they're the big guys. From Boston here and uh,
and they were they they were giddy about this and
I've got I don't have it right in front of
my hands here, but yeah, they were really happy about
I was quoted in that you know that they could
build literally you could tear down a little single family
house in one of these districts and you can you
could build a three story building with parking on the
(26:13):
first level and uh, two apartments on the second level,
two apartments on the third level, and oh, by the way,
and a rooftop deck. That's that it's baked into this thing,
and you could, you know, and they were so happy
with this thing, and you know, I've got it was
absolutely insane.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well it'll change, it'll change communities forever, Bob, I got pat. Okay, Yeah,
when I say change, I mean ruin. I'm just I'm using,
you know, a kind term. Thanks Bob, I got to
keep running here. Okay, thank you. So we go to
Brian in Shrewsbury. Brian, your next another community, Brian, go
right ahead. Okay, I got Brian on two lines here.
(26:55):
I think let me try Brian here. We had the
same thing last night, Rob, Brian and Shrewsbury Brian, are
you there?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I am here, Okay, got you some.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Reason you were showing up on two lines. Go ahead, Brian,
You're next on nights.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Compatriots of mine. We filed a referendum in Shrewsbury that
similar to Milton, the town meeting members voted in a
small town meeting, special town meeting. We really just hit
the amount of people that needed to show up for
a quorum, you know, they voted for this MBTA zone
(27:32):
and we had a short amount of time in just
like Milton, we got referendums Thanksgiving week we were out
in the freezing cold in our town. We got eighteen
hundred signatures which was enough to get certified and we
have a referendum now on the ballot here in Shrewsbury.
We did run into the select Board making sure to
fast track that'll that that you know, referendum election as
(27:56):
soon as possible, so we will have it in the
beginning of February. February third, I think is the date.
It's the first Tuesday in February.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Can be posted on that and let's have you on
a couple of weeks ahead of time and talk about it.
I still don't know anyone who can explain to me
what the benefits are to towns like Milton, Wakefield, Shrewsbury.
I don't. I'm just or Marshfield. What's the benefit?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
You know that the town bureaucrats, the people that run
these towns, they're more afraid of the state. So the
reason that they pushed the election, the referendum forward, has
nothing to do with what we the people think about
overbuilding in town, and we have a lot of overbuilding.
Their answer is solely, it's the law, and we took
(28:46):
an oath to uphold the law, and so we just
have to do whatever they tell us to do, which
is a ridiculous argument because you actually are supposed to
represent the people of the town and the town is
saying we don't like this. But that's the and Dan,
it's primarily fear. It's fear. Are these grants. You know,
they've they've they've gotten on the they've gotten on that
(29:06):
drip of the grants. They can't get off, so they're
a little addicted, and now now they're afraid, you know,
and that's generally where it is. I'm one of our
select board members actually works in Andrea Campbell's office, you know,
who's obviously threatening to sue everybody and has Sude Milton,
you know, the Attorney General, so you know, we you know,
(29:28):
they're obviously connected and they want this. I think they
want this because more housing means more money, means more power,
right even in towns people love that power.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Wow, well, just amazing. Uh, it is amazing that all
of this has has transpired on everyone's noses and very
few people in some of these communities realize what's going on.
They're going to work every day, you know, they're commuting
forty five minutes or an hour to get to work
or more, spending forty hours fifty hours a week working,
come home with the weekends, and all they want to
(30:01):
do is watch the Patriots or something like that, and
they're unaware of what's going on around them. And I'm
hoping that by doing shows like this with you, with
Brendan and others, we can sort of be the modern
day Paul Revere's Paul Reverers of the world and let
people know what the heck's going on.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So true, people don't actually know, you know, the average
person has no idea this is happening in their towns.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Most of them not a clue, not a clue. And
at the end of the day, when when they when
the value of their their property goes down because simply
there's more housing, cheaper housing in the town, and they're
going to say, gee, you know, I paid half a
million dollars for this house, so I thought I'd be
able to make seven hundred, you know, get seven hundred thousand.
I have hold it for five years or ten years,
(30:44):
and the most they can possibly get is, you know,
four point fifty. A lot of people don't realize there's
an economic impact as well.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Thank you as much as always. Thank you my friend
who talks.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
To appreciate it, right, you bet you?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
All right, Brenda, let's stay one more segment here, I
gotta take quick break. We got Yanna in Marshfield, Greg
and Shrewsbury coming up. And if anyone else wants to
try to get in six one, seven thirty, the only
lines that are open coming back on night.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Side Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window
World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
We get a lot of calls. Let's keep rolling on
this very quickly, folks. We want to ask you to
push it. I know even wait in a long time.
But let's go to Vanna in Marshfield. YadA, excuse me,
YadA in Marshfield.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
Ahead, YadA, Hey Dan, Merry Christmas. Happy everything got.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Back at you real quick.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Just for the record, we have our annual sound meeting
in April. Our specialty is usually in October, so I
think this one was an extra special anyway, that being said,
I am curious if the original legislation which you did
say was for signed by Charlie Breaker, if it da
(31:58):
included these penalties of you know, if you don't do this,
we're going to take you know, deny your grand funding.
And the gentleman who said that they you know, we're
addicted to the drip of grand funding. In the case
of Marshfield, it's our sea walls and it's to the
sum of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So I don't know the answer. Let me let me
see we have, Brendan.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
But I have which is.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Hold. Yeah, I want to try to get an answer
for your question. First of all, Brendan, do you know
if that was in the original legislation has that been
added as an emolument At.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
This point, I honestly cannot answer that. And I would
also say I think Janna would have a better better
grasp on that than me.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
Okay, So then my other point is I mean, I
just said like I'm curious. I'm curious to know. I
don't know the answer, but I would like to say
that I wish that all the people in Marshfield who
fought this, and all the people all over the state
who are fighting this, would fight Massachusetts Chapter forty B,
(33:06):
which is forcing communities all over the state to how
to developers who can override our local zoning laws and
build whatever the heck they want.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
You know what, do me a favor, Yana. It's late
in the show. I wish you called earlier. You send
me some materials on that. Rob will give you my
direct number and we can do something on that when
I get back after January.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
On January first heard of Okay, it sounds good to me.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Okay, Rob will give you my direct line and you
can call me and send me an email. Give Yanna
Rob my email and my direct line. Thank you, Yanam.
Let me go next to Greg and Shrewsbury. Greg, want
to get you and a couple of others in go
right ahead?
Speaker 6 (33:52):
Yeah, Hey, Dan, how's it going? Yeah, one thing I
just wanted to highlight as just the incessant on the grands.
Grants were in the original bill, just to answer that
question on the legislation, but they are specific. But what
the state has done now is now they're using this
big umbrella and they're stating that you have to be
compliant with Massachusetts law to be eligible with a whole
(34:15):
bunch of other grants. So they're using that very broad
right definition and say, well three A is a law.
So now we're going to include nineteen I think now
with the housing the other economic bond bill. Now with
housing bill, there's like another twenty six grants they're trying
to throw in increase the size of the stick. Oh yeah,
the stick is getting bigger and bigger because there's so
(34:35):
many towns who are fighting back and saying no. And
that's what I really enjoyed about this whole process, especially
with Shrewsbury and O'Brien was not talking about our referendum,
but we got those best practices from Milton because we
were talking to the communities. We're communicating with other towns
their strength and numbers in the communities, and I think
more and more people need to do this for other
initiatives throughout the state, because you're not alone. And I
(34:58):
think we as residents and and those residents of the
Commonwealth should gang together a lot more and come up
with other ways to fight as a larger group and
not just look at ourselves as whether I'm from Winthrop
or I'm oh, yeah, Cruse bearing because we don't do
that enough. We just don't see it enough, because people
will just get too stuck in their own day.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
In unity, there is strength, and at this point you
have the goliath of the state of Massachusetts coming down
individually on one hundred and seventy seven cities in towns.
I hope you'll keep in contact with me on this,
Greg because you provided an answer to Yada's question. It
doesn't surprise me that answer. It sounds makes a lot
(35:36):
of sense. All it is. It's a throut. It's really
the equivalent of extortion by the state against the cities
and towns saying we're going to withhold from you funds
that you should have a right to have unless you.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Comply exactly, and then all these local select board members
and they don't want to. They really are fear based leaders.
And we see fear based leadership all across not only
the Commonwealth but even fetterally. And you know, we got
to have some stronger leaders, you know, that are that
are representing us as we the people, because that is
really what's left us. And if one thing we can
do in the new year, right, I think is is
(36:09):
remember how we were founded here in Massachusetts and go
back to those times and not be based on fear
and do what we want as people and and lead
ourselves and not rely on others.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
I could agree with you more. Greg. Thanks a great call,
really great call. Let's talk soon. Okay, thank you much
appreciate going to try to get to everybody in here.
We'll see what we can do. Alex, you've called very late,
You've got a little time, go ahead, Alex.
Speaker 7 (36:31):
Yes, yes, letically claim so. In my view, the state
of Massachusetts has a lot of resources to solve the
housing prot opium. And so my question is why is
the state of Massachusetts it gives so many so much
subsidized houses to immigrants co prodoxically illegal or who came
from temporary visa for example from Ukraine, oh who came
(36:53):
from sports such ship and sports mast provide housing for.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Okay, than I think that's an interesting point. Maybe that's
what's behind all of this. Although the law did pass,
and again the waiting hours of the legislative section I
believe in in twenty twenty, and that was really before
the immigration crisis has blown up. But your instincts are
absolutely true, Alex. We're limited funds and we have to
(37:21):
help people here in Massachusetts. Alex, I gotta keep going.
I got a couple more like to try to get
him in. Okay, Oh great, thanks you, thank you for calling, Alex.
Appreciate it very much. Let me go next to Tracy
and Gloucester. Tracy, you're next on nights Side with my
guest Brendan Wild of Marshall.
Speaker 8 (37:36):
Go ahead, Tracy, Hi, Dan, thank you so much for
doing this and for keeping this subject on the front lines.
I'm in Gloucester and we're a city. Most of the
people we've been talking to are in the towns and
they have town meetings. We have a city council of
nine members, and two of them were told to recuse
(37:59):
them selves from the vote because they live in the districts,
which that would bothers me too. I mean, we're no
longer a neighborhood or award. We're now districts. But two
of the city council members were told to rechoose themselves.
So the rest of the city council voted seven to
zero four three A.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And they first of all, they should not have been
forced to recuse themselves. In my opinion, this their residents
and their representatives leadership.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
That's right.
Speaker 8 (38:32):
They own property and they would have benefited from it
was the excuse. But all the other councilors live in
the other wards, so you know they live on the outskirts.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
What you got to do. What you got to do, Tracy,
is elect other representatives. If you don't feel your.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Counselors positively, positively.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Absolutely get out there one go ahead. You got to
be quick with no.
Speaker 8 (38:58):
I was the city council for two weeks. I was
a city coastlor for two years. I won by two votes,
three votes, but one was in question, you know, because
they recount run again. Come on, okay, just just listen.
Though I've lived here in my house for sixty five years,
I run the city council and they moved the ward
(39:19):
lines on me. So they moved he districted me out
of my wood it's called Jerry Mandry Tracy.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I am fine, out of time. I wish you had
called early, you said, a fascinating caller.
Speaker 8 (39:31):
Yes, I will call again and.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Do something with you. All right, thank you. I appreciate it,
my pleasure. I appreciate you call. Have a great weekend. Okay.
To the callers in the line, wish you called earlier. Brendan,
keep up the fight in Marshfield and anything we can
do to help you out, please let me know.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Okay, absolutely, that sounds good. Dan, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Again. I know it's tough fighting city Hall and it's
really tough fighting the state House, but you'll win eventually
because I think the merits of the argument only on
your side of this case. So hang with it. And
if you live in Marshfield, please support Brendan. And if
you live in the other communities, look at what's going
on and understand that you're being extorted by the state.
(40:17):
You're a Simples. They're putting a gun to your head.
Thank you, Brendan. Merry Christmas. Yuh god. Okay, thanks, Brendan,
appreciate it. All right, we get back go talk about
another side of this coin. Here in Massachusetts, crime serious
crime that is not being prosecuted properly. We'll explain it all
(40:39):
right after the nine o'clock news
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBSY, Boston's news
radio home NCALL.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I hope you have a great time off on. Tonight
is my last night for the broadcast year, and I
wish you and yours a very merry Christmas, Happy hon
happy coons, and whatever you and your family celebrate. I
hope it's a great twenty twenty five for you. It's
been a pleasure working with you for the entirety of
twenty twenty four and we will meet again on the
other side of the new year. Good evening, everybody, and
(00:29):
welcome on in. I'm Dan Ray, the host of night Side,
and I will be here all the way until midnight.
We have a very special show for you tonight. We
have topic coming up in the first hour that I
think affects one hundred and seventy seven communities here in
eastern Massachusetts. We've talked about it before, and that is
the so called MBTA Communities Act, which the state is
(00:50):
trying to dictate and override the zoning provisions in one
hundred and seventy seven community is going to be talking
with Brendan Wilde of Marshfield. Voters in Marshfield this week
restated this strong opposition to participating in this situation, this
law that's being imposed upon them. If you are aware
of it, stay with us. If you not, will explain it,
(01:12):
and then you can tell us what you think of it,
simple as that. Coming up at nine o'clock tonight, an
extraordinary story about a local businessman who literally is putting
his life on the line to protect his business and
getting very little support from the city to which he
pays a lot of property taxes, commercial property taxes. Will
(01:33):
explain all of that. This is something that needs to
be focused on. And then tonight, the last two hours
of my broadcast year, we do our annual This will
be the twelfth annual Night Side Charity Combine, in which
we will introduce you to about twenty actually precisely twenty
great charities of all stripes, of all sorts, big, small,
(01:54):
well known, less well known, and they'll explain what their
mission is and how they accomplish that mission, and perhaps
what help you might be able to provide them, either
as a volunteer if it particularly piqued your interest, or
as someone who would like to contribute. As we move
toward the end of the year, people like to make
contributions to charities. There can be some tax benefit to
(02:15):
most people who do that. If you idemis your tax
deductions come April. You know what I'm talking about. So
we'll get to all of that. It's really a full
show tonight, and we're going to start it off by
talking about the MBTA Communities Act. This was past back.
I guess was think whether it's twenty twenty one or
(02:36):
twenty twenty, it's been on the books for a while.
It's met with a lot of resistance from communities, probably
foremost in that fight. You have a Wakefield has been
opposed to it for a long time, Shrewsbury, Milton, Massachusetts,
and most importantly for us tonight, Marshfield with us as
Brendan Wilde Brendan welcome back Tonight's side. Brendan was with
(02:57):
us last spring. The community of Marshfield, a town meeting
on April twenty second, chose not to adopt the MBTA
Communities Act, but that didn't discourage the heads of the
folks up on Beacon Hill and their minions and in
(03:21):
the town of Marshfield, and they put it on the
ballot this week. Brendan, it's been a long fight but
you're still standing. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I'm doing very well, Dan, thank you for having me on.
So it has been a long fight, and I just
wanted to say it wasn't on the ballot, it was
another town meeting. I don't know if this was the
special town meeting and the April one was the annual
or vice.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Versa, but okay, okay, So either way, it was a
vote of the citizenry.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yes, correct, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
In both instances people had to show up at town
hall or at a high school and cast their vote.
So in April this was voted down two eighty nine
to one sixty nine. It's a pretty good margin, not
quite two to one. And then on Monday night it
was shot down with greater numbers, shot down four eighteen
(04:16):
to two twenty one.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Why are the leaders of Marshfield not happy or not
satisfied to listen to how their their residents, their taxpayers,
their voters are feel on this issue. What's going on?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So, if my memory serves me correct, the April meeting
was a special town meeting that they implemented knowing that
if we didn't pass it in April, they would still
have this annual town meeting in December. Wow, okay, so
I kind of understand their strategy with that. The problem
here is nothing changed on our end terms of how
(05:00):
we would approach the bill. We were asked to show
up a second time to vote for the exact, same
identical thing. None of our concerns were addressed. So I
think that's why the townspeople, you know, showed up and
spoke again. This is we already told you once you're
(05:22):
not going to get lucky with us doing our Christmas
shopping on a Monday night. You know, the townspeople showed
out and like you said, it was better the second
time around.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You folks in Marshfield. Also back in the spring, I
think you have a three member board of Selectment and
every third year or every year, one of those members
are up for re election. And you ousted an incumbent.
Your forces ousted an incumbent. So now you're going to
(05:53):
probably have another election dealing with another incumbent who has
been going against the wishes of the people in Marshfield
next spring. Let's take a couple of steps back, and
let's for people. There's a lot of people who don't
understand what's going on here. So let's just try to
explain this as best I understand it. There are one
(06:16):
hundred and seventy seven or so communities in eastern Massachusetts
that either have MBTA service or their town is an
abutted to a butter to a town that has MBTA
service or is adjacent to the butter. So it covers
most of eastern Massachusetts. And the nexus that they're trying
(06:39):
to establish is because there's MBTA service, we want more
people living in those towns. Is that the underlying theory
of why they're pushing this, why Beacon Hill, Charlie Baker
and now more Heay have been pushing this as strongly
as they as they have, That is.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
How most of the citizens of the state and interpret it,
I believe. So, okay, we can we can go off
on a tangent on how the MBTA runs.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
They're they're doing as well as they can uh and
and and their improvements being made in the m b
t A. That's fine. But the point is that the
zoning in a community as to what type of the
community what it wants to be, whether it's a suburban
community or an urban community or a rural community. That's
(07:31):
what's called local zoning laws. Correct.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So, for example, if you live in if you live
in a rural community and you don't want a strip
mall in your community, and you do not want commercial
activity in your community, it has to get past the
zoning laws of your town. Pretty simple. It's it's the
most elementary purpose of a local community. Other than than that,
(08:03):
I don't know what purpose a local community has to
even form if they're not going to sort of maintain
some sort of semblance of what the community is intended
to be right or wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I can't disagree with that. Why bother having town government
if you're not going to let us govern?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, okay, So my second question is, there's no suggestion
that I have heard from anywhere, from anywhere, that any
Massachusetts community has deprived any citizen of their constitutional right
to live in a community. I mean, we're not talking
about some sort of redlining from the nineteen sixties or
(08:47):
seventies where people of different backgrounds couldn't get mortgages from
certain banks in certain areas of communities. There's no constitutional provision.
This is not a piece of civil rights legislation in
any shape or form. That's as I understand that. If
I'm wrong, please correct me.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Now. I understand it as you do. I think it's
a it's a screen for more housing and nothing more.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah. No, I mean, look, developers and politicians have good relationships.
Developers support politicians, and sometimes developers need the ability to
build more property. And there's a whole bunch of places
where things can be built here in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
(09:39):
I just see this as as such an overreach of
state government imposing on local communities how those local communities
will govern themselves. I wish I could see it somehow differently,
but I just that's it's to me, it's it's it's
the most obvious abuse of state authority that I can
(10:02):
ever imagine, for no purpose, no purpose at all.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I agree with you there, and I would also like
to bring up I think one of one of the
argument of argument arguments that their side has is adding
housing will bring the cost of housing down. I don't.
I don't see that happening. Look at cars on a
(10:29):
car dealer shop, look at iPhones, the endless supply of
these things. The price is the price, the cost to
build a house, the costs for the lots those things
aren't going down. So to just throw up a bunch
of high rise apartments, it's not going to bring prices down, it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Might be question so here, So here's my question. If
if you have bought a house in Marshfield that let's
say you paid a half a million dollars for a
couple of years ago. By infusing more housing into Marshfield,
(11:05):
how can that not bring down the cost of housing?
How can not that bring down the property value of
the properties that are there now? Because obviously it becomes
more common if if you've got a whole bunch of
housing in a town like Marshfield. Isn't that basic? I think,
(11:28):
supplying to me of economics.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
It is. But but you're talking about bringing the property
value down. The property values will drop, but the affordability
is what I'm talking about. Or a coastal community. Coastal
communities cost more to live in than landlocked communities. There's
there's lots of factors that play that. I'm not saying.
(11:51):
I do think property values do plumit the more you
saturated town with they do more, and the residents traffic,
all those things. But but to to say that adding
will will make everything affordable, that's that's where I hang
my hat. I do not believe that.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, it's going to make I think it's going to
make the the value of whatever these are rental units
or condominium units or whatever they are. You're going to
have an infusion of people, which means you're going to
have a more demand on your school system, there's going
to be more demand on police activities. All it's going
to do is increase the size, increase increase the density
(12:36):
of the community. So a town like Marshfield, which I
don't know if I would call it, I kind of
call it ex suburban, meaning in which it's not your
suburban town like Braintree or Milton just next to Boston,
but it's far enough away so it's it's it's not suburban,
but it's not rural. And that's why I use the
term x suburban suburbia. You know, you're living far enough
(12:58):
away from the city, may be working in the city, whatever,
but you've chosen that lifestyle to live there. And I
don't understand why anybody in Marshfield or in any one
of these communities would vote in favor of this. The
only reason that people are voting in favor of it
is because the state has threatened to withhold grants, taxpayer
funded grants to Marshfield. That's my belief.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
It's it's not a belief, it's the truth.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
All right, Let's pause on that. I want to talk
about that. I want to talk about that, the threats
that have been posed, that have been imposed on you
and upon other communities, on all one hundred and seventy
seven communities, either comply with our dictate or we will
penalize you. That's what Beacon Hill is saying. We'll be back.
My guest from Marshfield is Brendan wild who has been
(13:45):
standing firm in that community, as that community has stood
firm against the NBTA Communities Act. Back on Nightside right
after this. If you'd like to join us, the only
lines we have open right now are six point seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty. We will get to all of our callers
who are there, I promise, And if you're dialing now,
and if you have a different point of view, feel
free to join the conversation.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Back on night Side now, back to Dan Ray live
from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
We're talking with Brendan Wilde. He is a resident at
Marshfield and he's opposed to the MVTA Communities Act. Brendan,
what threats are. This is the state directing towards you.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
So, yes, I'm with you. It's been h grants, grants
that are not already ear marked. These are grants that
we may or may not get, but they're not they're
not grants that we've already signed up for that we
already have coming to them. So the point being whether
(14:51):
or not we were going to get them is a mystery.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah. So basically they're threatening you that if they're saying,
do this and you'll get the grants. If you don't
do it, you won't get the grants. That's correct, And
that's that those grants are funded not by Mara Healey
or by Charlie Baker. They're funded by taxpayers people who
live in Marshfield and in other cities and towns in Massachusetts.
(15:18):
It just to me is is an absolute abuse of
authority to make you to force you to do something.
You know, again, you're not doing anything illegal here. All
they're saying is you're going to do it our way.
We will impose our point of view on and the
people in Marshfield are saying no. So I still under
say why anyone in Marshall would vote yes for it.
(15:39):
Let's do this, Let's get some phone calls. Okay, I'm
gonna go start it off, Brendan, if you're ready, Let's
go to Kerry and Milton. Milton is also very much
opposed to this. Carrie, welcome first is our night side.
Thank you all with Brendan.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Wild Hi Dan, Hi, Brendon, can you guys hear me?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Okay here you find go right ahead?
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Okay, great. So to thein one of the things, as
you said, which I agree one hundred percent, is this
is government overreach, right, And Brendan said something which is
totally my sentiment is if we have town by laws
and planning boards and zoning you know sort of, what
(16:17):
is the purpose if the big government on Beacon Hill
is going to try to you know, bigfoot you and
say yeah, well but this is what we expect. In
my opinion, it is government overreach. And I think one
thing end to me, which I thought was even more fantastic.
His victory on Monday happened to be the two hundred
(16:38):
and fifty first anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. So
I mean that was the resistance movement against government overreach,
and I think in Marshfields and here milt In that
has been our concerns if you know about some of
this zoning. And as you rightly pointed out, Marshield is
much further away from you know, these of the hub,
(17:01):
meaning Boston, so it is not it is not urban
at all, and it is like you said, it's kind
of ex suburban if you will, if I got your
word correctly.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, ex urbia is it is sort of a little
it's kind of out there. It's a in a further ring,
but it's where people have chosen to live and they
like whatever the lifestyle is. I know Marshfield a little bit.
They have some you know, commercial place places there where
people can get lunch and get breakfast and dinners and
all of that. But you know, they want Marshfield to
(17:35):
be Marshfield and to infuse whatever How many units of
housing would Marshfield be compelled to build if this were
to have passed in Marshfield, Brendan, did they ever give
you a specific number?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
They did? I don't have it right in front of me,
but it was over a thousand some.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Of the documents. I think it had been fifteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
They said for Marshfield, what about meltit carry?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
What are they demanding for Milton? How much? How many units?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
It's more like two thousand of Milton.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Okay, No, I'll tell you if I could just go ahead,
could I.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Just interject really quick? So the town Planning Board, I
do want to give them credit, the town Planning Board.
The spot that they put this in Marshfield wouldn't have
allowed for the fifteen hundred that they wanted it would have.
It would have only allowed for three hundred extra units. Whatever,
whatever it was, it was a good spot to put
(18:36):
it in. So we were really given the best possible
option from our town planner. The no vote was a
no vote to the state.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah. I will tell you this, if if you guys
had voted yes on the three hundred, they're becoming at
you a year from now, for another three hundred, and
the year after that, for another three hundred, they just stop.
They just stop. And anybody who thought, well, we fed
the beast and they're going to be happy, No, they're not. No,
They're they're not simple simple at Kerry Kerry, are you folks?
(19:10):
In Milton. You you're still fighting.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
It too, right, We are, indeed, yes, if you know
that States sued us to Originally, it was the last
December that our elected town meeting, we have a representative
town meeting who did not represent us very well. They
hoped to accept the edicts from Beacon Hill to build this,
(19:32):
you know, significant amount of housing in our town. And
to the contrast to what Brendan just mentioned about the
town planners of Marshfield, the place where they did suggest
creating this overlay district, if they as they called it
here in Milton, they might have called it the sam
and Marshfield was already quite congested, but the thing Dan
(19:52):
so many of us were very unhappy about that, and
so we gathered pretty quickly in short order because we
needed to do it pretty quickly, gather enough signatures to
get a referendum ballot question, which we had on. It
was this casual for February thirteenth, but a snowstorm like
what seems to be happening right now pushed us out
(20:14):
a day. So for me anyway, and many people have Milton,
it was the best Valentine's Day gift ever because on
February fourteenth, much more. A huge number of people turned
out for our vote, many more than even a typical
more than the town election, more than even a presidential
election usually. So it was a big number. And I
think the numbers in Marshfield showing the second vote for them,
(20:37):
it said they did not forget about it. And even
more people, it seems if you look at the ratio
there came out for on Monday, on the anniversary as
the tea party to say this, which great.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Keep up the fight, Carrie and Milton, you got you
have an example here in Marshfield. They're holding strong. Thanks Gerry,
appreciate you called Mary.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Thanks Merry Christmas. Everybody, all right, have a great night.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Good night. We take a quick break. Here's the news
in the bottom of the hour. Back with my guests
Brendan Wilde, a town resident in Marshfield who is very
much involved in the fight against the implementation of the
forceful implementation of the MBTA Communities Act, with Ray on.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Let's get back to the phones. My guest is Brendan
wild He's from Marshfield. I just don't understand. I know
that people say there's a housing shortage. I get it.
But there's more people leaving Massachusetts now that are coming in.
So it seems to me that that housing shortage might
be disappearing as a result of again the crazy tax
(21:46):
policies in this state. Let's go to Bob and Wakefield. Bob,
welcome next to Nightside. I know Wakefield. He says, good, Bob,
how you doing. Say ahead to Brendan White.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Hey, Brendan, congratulations, good for you. It's a big fight
out there. But this is actually ridiculous. Just a little
update on where this thing came from. Dan. This was
a Charlie Baker's Economic Economic Development Bill h fifty two fifty.
It came up for a vote January sixth, twenty twenty one,
(22:17):
in the closing hours of the twenty nineteen twenty twenty
two legislation session. The bill passed the House one hundred
and forty three to four at four am in the morning,
and cleared the Senate forty to zero at four fifteen.
They did this thing in the middle of the night.
Right at the tail end, this bill was buried. It
(22:37):
was literally this little this little show was buried in
a two hundred page bill. It was just three paragraphs
and this was all done in the middle of the night.
So we've been fighting this in Wakefield, you know, and
it's absolutely insane. So going just a little little update
in Wakefield. At the Springtown meeting group of us, we
(22:59):
actually put uh, we opposed this this sole side show
that was put together by the Planning Board, which which
was for some reason or other, was actually in favor
of this, uh for our town, which is ridiculous. But anyway,
we won by twenty three votes dowd. It was two
thirty to two hundred and seventy excuse me, two hundred
and seven. Uh. And it wasn't good enough of the town.
(23:19):
So the Selectman which is now town which is now
called the now town Council, they weren't happy, uh, And
so they brought it back in the fall, and they
stacked the town meeting and they in the town meeting.
By the way, it was eight o'clock on a Saturday morning,
that's what they did. And believe it or not, they
had all their buddies in there, and uh, we lost it.
It was three oh nine to two four, So five
(23:42):
hundred people showed up at eight o'clock in the morning
on a Saturday for this thing. Or because they couldn't
They just couldn't handle you know, you know, us winning
this thing.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
And tell me what that comes down to. It shows
that democracy is a farce in your town. It would
be as if a hypothetically, let's assume that the Democrats
on November fifth said we don't like the result of
the the election of Donald Trump on November fifth, We're
going to rerun the presidential election on December eleventh. Yeah,
(24:12):
and that and that time Kamal Harris wins. There, see,
we want it so now, I mean this is you
have a vote, and you live or you die with
the vote. You don't keep just bringing it back, you know,
in another form or another version to slam it through
a town. I hope that you guys in Wakefield get
together and straighten out your town government.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Well, we're going to have to bring it back again
because I don't want one square inch of our town
to be controlled by the state. There's there's they have
absolutely no no, there is absolutely nothing that that we're
going to get out of this whole thing. It's an
unfunded mandate. Our school schools are screwed up, right, And
I brought it up to town me. I told these guys,
I don't know how how many ways they don't understand it.
(24:54):
Our schools are completely full. We're going to have to
build another elementary school or two. The they want to
add another two thousand housing units in Wakefield. We've already
got a thousand units that are under construction, permitted, or
are currently currently going into occupancy. And this is absolutely insane.
It's unsustainable. This is absolutely insane. But they're following a trend.
(25:16):
Dam this is going across the entire country. Uh, you know,
this is nothing new for Massachusetts. This is just this
is they've they've screwed up the middle cities. Uh, you know,
and now they want to Now now they're coming after
the suburbs. They're actually they're going after the single family zoning.
They they they absolutely are there there. It's an attack
on the single family's owning. That's exactly what this is.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Well, there's there's also interest here. I mean, you know,
the developers, builders and.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
All of them were tell me about it, you know, Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Okay, I mean that's you know, follow the money, follow
the money.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I did. I did. Bankers and tradesmen. Uh they're they're
they're they're the big guys. From Boston here and uh,
and they were they they were giddy about this and
I've got I don't have it right in front of
my hands here, but yeah, they were really happy about
I was quoted in that you know that they could
build literally you could tear down a little single family
house in one of these districts and you can you
could build a three story building with parking on the
(26:13):
first level and uh, two apartments on the second level,
two apartments on the third level, and oh, by the way,
and a rooftop deck. That's that it's baked into this thing,
and you could, you know, and they were so happy
with this thing, and you know, I've got it was
absolutely insane.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well it'll change, it'll change communities forever, Bob, I got pat. Okay, Yeah,
when I say change, I mean ruin. I'm just I'm using,
you know, a kind term. Thanks Bob, I got to
keep running here. Okay, thank you. So we go to
Brian in Shrewsbury. Brian, your next another community, Brian, go
right ahead. Okay, I got Brian on two lines here.
(26:55):
I think let me try Brian here. We had the
same thing last night, Rob, Brian and Shrewsbury Brian, are
you there?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I am here, Okay, got you some.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Reason you were showing up on two lines. Go ahead, Brian,
You're next on nights.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Compatriots of mine. We filed a referendum in Shrewsbury that
similar to Milton, the town meeting members voted in a
small town meeting, special town meeting. We really just hit
the amount of people that needed to show up for
a quorum, you know, they voted for this MBTA zone
(27:32):
and we had a short amount of time in just
like Milton, we got referendums Thanksgiving week we were out
in the freezing cold in our town. We got eighteen
hundred signatures which was enough to get certified and we
have a referendum now on the ballot here in Shrewsbury.
We did run into the select Board making sure to
fast track that'll that that you know, referendum election as
(27:56):
soon as possible, so we will have it in the
beginning of February. February third, I think is the date.
It's the first Tuesday in February.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Can be posted on that and let's have you on
a couple of weeks ahead of time and talk about it.
I still don't know anyone who can explain to me
what the benefits are to towns like Milton, Wakefield, Shrewsbury.
I don't. I'm just or Marshfield. What's the benefit?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
You know that the town bureaucrats, the people that run
these towns, they're more afraid of the state. So the
reason that they pushed the election, the referendum forward, has
nothing to do with what we the people think about
overbuilding in town, and we have a lot of overbuilding.
Their answer is solely, it's the law, and we took
(28:46):
an oath to uphold the law, and so we just
have to do whatever they tell us to do, which
is a ridiculous argument because you actually are supposed to
represent the people of the town and the town is
saying we don't like this. But that's the and Dan,
it's primarily fear. It's fear. Are these grants. You know,
they've they've they've gotten on the they've gotten on that
(29:06):
drip of the grants. They can't get off, so they're
a little addicted, and now now they're afraid, you know,
and that's generally where it is. I'm one of our
select board members actually works in Andrea Campbell's office, you know,
who's obviously threatening to sue everybody and has Sude Milton,
you know, the Attorney General, so you know, we you know,
(29:28):
they're obviously connected and they want this. I think they
want this because more housing means more money, means more power,
right even in towns people love that power.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Wow, well, just amazing. Uh, it is amazing that all
of this has has transpired on everyone's noses and very
few people in some of these communities realize what's going on.
They're going to work every day, you know, they're commuting
forty five minutes or an hour to get to work
or more, spending forty hours fifty hours a week working,
come home with the weekends, and all they want to
(30:01):
do is watch the Patriots or something like that, and
they're unaware of what's going on around them. And I'm
hoping that by doing shows like this with you, with
Brendan and others, we can sort of be the modern
day Paul Revere's Paul Reverers of the world and let
people know what the heck's going on.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So true, people don't actually know, you know, the average
person has no idea this is happening in their towns.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Most of them not a clue, not a clue. And
at the end of the day, when when they when
the value of their their property goes down because simply
there's more housing, cheaper housing in the town, and they're
going to say, gee, you know, I paid half a
million dollars for this house, so I thought I'd be
able to make seven hundred, you know, get seven hundred thousand.
I have hold it for five years or ten years,
(30:44):
and the most they can possibly get is, you know,
four point fifty. A lot of people don't realize there's
an economic impact as well.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Thank you as much as always. Thank you my friend
who talks.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
To appreciate it, right, you bet you?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
All right, Brenda, let's stay one more segment here, I
gotta take quick break. We got Yanna in Marshfield, Greg
and Shrewsbury coming up. And if anyone else wants to
try to get in six one, seven thirty, the only
lines that are open coming back on night.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Side Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window
World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
We get a lot of calls. Let's keep rolling on
this very quickly, folks. We want to ask you to
push it. I know even wait in a long time.
But let's go to Vanna in Marshfield. YadA, excuse me,
YadA in Marshfield.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
Ahead, YadA, Hey Dan, Merry Christmas. Happy everything got.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Back at you real quick.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Just for the record, we have our annual sound meeting
in April. Our specialty is usually in October, so I
think this one was an extra special anyway, that being said,
I am curious if the original legislation which you did
say was for signed by Charlie Breaker, if it da
(31:58):
included these penalties of you know, if you don't do this,
we're going to take you know, deny your grand funding.
And the gentleman who said that they you know, we're
addicted to the drip of grand funding. In the case
of Marshfield, it's our sea walls and it's to the
sum of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So I don't know the answer. Let me let me
see we have, Brendan.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
But I have which is.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Hold. Yeah, I want to try to get an answer
for your question. First of all, Brendan, do you know
if that was in the original legislation has that been
added as an emolument At.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
This point, I honestly cannot answer that. And I would
also say I think Janna would have a better better
grasp on that than me.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
Okay, So then my other point is I mean, I
just said like I'm curious. I'm curious to know. I
don't know the answer, but I would like to say
that I wish that all the people in Marshfield who
fought this, and all the people all over the state
who are fighting this, would fight Massachusetts Chapter forty B,
(33:06):
which is forcing communities all over the state to how
to developers who can override our local zoning laws and
build whatever the heck they want.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
You know what, do me a favor, Yana. It's late
in the show. I wish you called earlier. You send
me some materials on that. Rob will give you my
direct number and we can do something on that when
I get back after January.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
On January first heard of Okay, it sounds good to me.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Okay, Rob will give you my direct line and you
can call me and send me an email. Give Yanna
Rob my email and my direct line. Thank you, Yanam.
Let me go next to Greg and Shrewsbury. Greg, want
to get you and a couple of others in go
right ahead?
Speaker 6 (33:52):
Yeah, Hey, Dan, how's it going? Yeah, one thing I
just wanted to highlight as just the incessant on the grands.
Grants were in the original bill, just to answer that
question on the legislation, but they are specific. But what
the state has done now is now they're using this
big umbrella and they're stating that you have to be
compliant with Massachusetts law to be eligible with a whole
(34:15):
bunch of other grants. So they're using that very broad
right definition and say, well three A is a law.
So now we're going to include nineteen I think now
with the housing the other economic bond bill. Now with
housing bill, there's like another twenty six grants they're trying
to throw in increase the size of the stick. Oh yeah,
the stick is getting bigger and bigger because there's so
(34:35):
many towns who are fighting back and saying no. And
that's what I really enjoyed about this whole process, especially
with Shrewsbury and O'Brien was not talking about our referendum,
but we got those best practices from Milton because we
were talking to the communities. We're communicating with other towns
their strength and numbers in the communities, and I think
more and more people need to do this for other
initiatives throughout the state, because you're not alone. And I
(34:58):
think we as residents and and those residents of the
Commonwealth should gang together a lot more and come up
with other ways to fight as a larger group and
not just look at ourselves as whether I'm from Winthrop
or I'm oh, yeah, Cruse bearing because we don't do
that enough. We just don't see it enough, because people
will just get too stuck in their own day.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
In unity, there is strength, and at this point you
have the goliath of the state of Massachusetts coming down
individually on one hundred and seventy seven cities in towns.
I hope you'll keep in contact with me on this,
Greg because you provided an answer to Yada's question. It
doesn't surprise me that answer. It sounds makes a lot
(35:36):
of sense. All it is. It's a throut. It's really
the equivalent of extortion by the state against the cities
and towns saying we're going to withhold from you funds
that you should have a right to have unless you.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Comply exactly, and then all these local select board members
and they don't want to. They really are fear based leaders.
And we see fear based leadership all across not only
the Commonwealth but even fetterally. And you know, we got
to have some stronger leaders, you know, that are that
are representing us as we the people, because that is
really what's left us. And if one thing we can
do in the new year, right, I think is is
(36:09):
remember how we were founded here in Massachusetts and go
back to those times and not be based on fear
and do what we want as people and and lead
ourselves and not rely on others.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
I could agree with you more. Greg. Thanks a great call,
really great call. Let's talk soon. Okay, thank you much
appreciate going to try to get to everybody in here.
We'll see what we can do. Alex, you've called very late,
You've got a little time, go ahead, Alex.
Speaker 7 (36:31):
Yes, yes, letically claim so. In my view, the state
of Massachusetts has a lot of resources to solve the
housing prot opium. And so my question is why is
the state of Massachusetts it gives so many so much
subsidized houses to immigrants co prodoxically illegal or who came
from temporary visa for example from Ukraine, oh who came
(36:53):
from sports such ship and sports mast provide housing for.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Okay, than I think that's an interesting point. Maybe that's
what's behind all of this. Although the law did pass,
and again the waiting hours of the legislative section I
believe in in twenty twenty, and that was really before
the immigration crisis has blown up. But your instincts are
absolutely true, Alex. We're limited funds and we have to
(37:21):
help people here in Massachusetts. Alex, I gotta keep going.
I got a couple more like to try to get
him in. Okay, Oh great, thanks you, thank you for calling, Alex.
Appreciate it very much. Let me go next to Tracy
and Gloucester. Tracy, you're next on nights Side with my
guest Brendan Wild of Marshall.
Speaker 8 (37:36):
Go ahead, Tracy, Hi, Dan, thank you so much for
doing this and for keeping this subject on the front lines.
I'm in Gloucester and we're a city. Most of the
people we've been talking to are in the towns and
they have town meetings. We have a city council of
nine members, and two of them were told to recuse
(37:59):
them selves from the vote because they live in the districts,
which that would bothers me too. I mean, we're no
longer a neighborhood or award. We're now districts. But two
of the city council members were told to rechoose themselves.
So the rest of the city council voted seven to
zero four three A.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And they first of all, they should not have been
forced to recuse themselves. In my opinion, this their residents
and their representatives leadership.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
That's right.
Speaker 8 (38:32):
They own property and they would have benefited from it
was the excuse. But all the other councilors live in
the other wards, so you know they live on the outskirts.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
What you got to do. What you got to do, Tracy,
is elect other representatives. If you don't feel your.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Counselors positively, positively.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Absolutely get out there one go ahead. You got to
be quick with no.
Speaker 8 (38:58):
I was the city council for two weeks. I was
a city coastlor for two years. I won by two votes,
three votes, but one was in question, you know, because
they recount run again. Come on, okay, just just listen.
Though I've lived here in my house for sixty five years,
I run the city council and they moved the ward
(39:19):
lines on me. So they moved he districted me out
of my wood it's called Jerry Mandry Tracy.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I am fine, out of time. I wish you had
called early, you said, a fascinating caller.
Speaker 8 (39:31):
Yes, I will call again and.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Do something with you. All right, thank you. I appreciate it,
my pleasure. I appreciate you call. Have a great weekend. Okay.
To the callers in the line, wish you called earlier. Brendan,
keep up the fight in Marshfield and anything we can
do to help you out, please let me know.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Okay, absolutely, that sounds good. Dan, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Again. I know it's tough fighting city Hall and it's
really tough fighting the state House, but you'll win eventually
because I think the merits of the argument only on
your side of this case. So hang with it. And
if you live in Marshfield, please support Brendan. And if
you live in the other communities, look at what's going
on and understand that you're being extorted by the state.
(40:17):
You're a Simples. They're putting a gun to your head.
Thank you, Brendan. Merry Christmas. Yuh god. Okay, thanks, Brendan,
appreciate it. All right, we get back go talk about
another side of this coin. Here in Massachusetts, crime serious
crime that is not being prosecuted properly. We'll explain it all
(40:39):
right after the nine o'clock news
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