Two weeks ago, our State Senator, Lydia Edwards, set out very clearly her position regarding the controversial MBTA Communities Act and its impact upon our town in an Op-Ed that appeared in the Sun-Transcript on March 28. (Sen. Edwards’s Op-Ed is posted on our web site, dated March 30.).
In our view, Senator Edwards made clear, in no uncertain terms, her view that this law is unfair to our town. She wrote:
“I was shocked at the suggested target of over 800 units for Winthrop. My first thought was ‘Where will they go, who will pay for it, and how did they get that number?’….As your senator, I intend to lead with the town council…My promise is to fight for Winthrop. I think, after a healthy back-and-forth with the town council and state legislators, our unit count may reduce to one to two hundred units, if that…To place an unfunded mandate on any town, with a threat to defund us if we are not compliant, is wrong. We expect to be acknowledged for our hard work, supported as we go forward, and respected throughout the entire process. I intend to fight for all of these things, as well as a reduction in our unit requirements.”
Our own view of the MBTA Communities Act is this: We at the Sun-Transcript have been around for a while (long before most of those who are speaking out against this law were born). Winthrop has a long history of standing up to powerful state authorities — particularly Massport, the MDC, and the MWRA, among others — and we (and our former long-time publisher, Andrew P. Quigley) were in the vanguard of all of those epic battles dating back to the 1950s.
Winthropites always have had a fighting spirit (which admittedly sometimes can be a bit over the top, including ourselves, on occasion) and that spirit is evident today in our fight against these absurd mandates — given that Winthrop is the second-smallest town area-wise and among the most-densely populated communities in the state — of the MBTA Communities Act.
However, as Mr. Quigley often wrote, “We must be able to disagree without being disagreeable.” In addition, we should keep in mind that our quarrel is with the state, not among each other.
We feel that the position set out by Senator Edwards in her Op-Ed two weeks shows that she clearly is on our side on this issue and any effort to suggest otherwise simply is not accurate. We know we join with our fellow residents is acknowledging Senator Edwards’s support for our townspeople’s position and we are confident that the state authorities eventually will modify the requirements for Winthrop to a far-more realistic goal.