And some Boston-style stonewalling for a chaser!
Though it's set in Boston, it sounds exactly like an ethnic identity politics/multi-culturalism story straight out of South Florida, where crony capitalism still flourishes in many places under the guise of land development and its so-called regulation.
More proof of that has come within the past 24 hours, per an advisory board's decision in Miami-Dade County to expand the Urban Development Boundary in western Miami-Dade, so that it's now possible there might be development less than three miles from Everglades National Park.
Even though there's years worth of housing inventory on the local market.
More urban sprawl -just what this area doesn't need more of.
(The Miami-Dade County Commission votes on formally adopting this on Dec. 18th.
See Matthew Haggman's excellent story in the Herald at: http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/752455.html
Battle looms on development push to the edge of the Everglades
Fireworks are expected at the first hearing on a controversial proposal to move the Urban Development Boundary to build a town on West Miami-Dade farmland.)
As to Bernstein's article, I especially like the fact that a group continuing to be paid by the City of Boston while continuing to NOT perform the duties they're contracted for, isn't even the most controversial aspect of the story.
As you'll see, that's the least of the problems!
A lesser reporter would've missed the forest for the trees, but Bernstein captures the whole sad mess and adroitly connects the dots in a compelling way.When transferring the land for the mosque, the BRA credited the ISB with close to $200,000 toward the purchase price, in exchange for an agreement to maintain the adjacent Clarence "Jeep" Jones Park — named after the BRA's chairman — and the White Play Space.
The 10-year agreement took effect in February 2003. In effect, the city has been paying the ISB $1600 a month for the job — which, even Kaleem concedes,
it has not been doing.
Boston Phoenix
Menino's mosque
The bizarre story behind the construction of Boston's most controversial building
By David S. Bernstein
November 19, 2008
Most locals concede that getting anything of substance accomplished in Boston is a Herculean task. Residents have all but embraced the principle of civic inaction with a perverse kind of local pride. In the end, who you know is probably more important than what you are trying to do. And there is no doubt that little is accomplished without the approval and support of the mayor, Thomas M. Menino.
So it is with the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) near the intersection of Tremont Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Better known as the Roxbury mosque, the ISBCC has been in the works for more than 20 years. A few weeks ago it finally opened its doors for prayer — five years late, millions over budget, and still far from complete.
See the rest of the story at: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/72356-Meninos-mosque/
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