Since the Cambridge Republican City Committee closed its blog to public view, (after I was criticized for not including a link to it) I thought I would copy the text of Fred Baker's post to this forum.
I did not edit the following in any way. I copied the text to a word processing document, and then copied it below.
Fred Baker
View profile
More options Jul 8, 2:46 pm
From: "Fred Baker"
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 14:46:43 -0400 (EDT)
Local: Tues, Jul 8 2008 2:46 pm
Subject: Re: [Cambridge-GOP] new RIGHT VIEW column: "The Contract with Cambridge"
Reply | Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
Nice column, Michael, but I wish you would have included some
other really necessary changes:
* End affirmative action in all city hiring considerations.
* End all contracts with Teachers' Unions.
* Eliminate the Department of Traffic and Parking and rip up
every parking meter citywide.
* Make resident parking stickers free and stop requiring nearly a urine
sample to get one, especially for long-time residents of the City.
* Reduce street sweeping to every OTHER month without the towing penalty.
* Cut city budget by 50%, including disposal of the Dance Complex,
Cambridge Multicultural Arts center and Dept. of Human Service Programs.
* Cut property taxes by a proportional amount for each property owner
based on the amount saved by budget cuts.
* Allow rent escrowing.
* Get rid of Proportional Representation (PR) voting in municipal elections.
Top nine council candidates win, top six on School Committee.
Councilors continue to decide among themselves who will be the Mayor,
who continues to be a weak Mayor in a Plan E government (City Manager).
* Stop the $500+ of free food at all City Council meetings!!
* Cut City Councilors' salary to $15k/year, meetings max. once every other
week except Summer (when they meet no more than once).
* Cut School Committee members' salaries to same as City Councilors.
* Take a sledgehammer to the statue of Vellucci in Inman Square, replace
it with one of Ronald Reagan and rename the park for him: the REAL
architect of positive change for this country in the 2nd half of the
20th century.
* Stop blocking off the streets of East Cambridge to traffic during
the 4th of July evening and allow people to both park and drive
through there. Hey, you're not forced to live there if you don't
like it.
* Revoke all Sister City relationships.
* Start a Home Rule petition to allow restaurants to decide THEMSELVES
if they will have smoking in their OWN establishments, superseding
state law.
* Repudiate the Community Preservation Act.
* End bilingual education in the schools and BLOW UP the Amigos School
as a symbolic act in doing so, complete with a lever to push and
dynamite at the ready, with a nice ceremony complete with a band
and balloons.
* Institute absolute school choice (no lotteries or set-asides).
* Cut public housing to include elderly/infirm housing only.
* Stop requiring business licenses for most types of companies to
set up in Cambridge.
* Nearly eliminate the License Commission and abolish fees to
have radios, televisions, dart boards and certain types of food
in bars and restaurants.
* Ticket people aggressively who put old chairs and card tables with
three legs missing in the street to "save" a parking space they
just shoveled out (or didn't) after a snowstorm because they
feel entitled to it.
To readers who do that: knock it off, you don't own that space --
it's city property. And no argument or opinion can change that.
* And so much more ... just wait until I get started!
To all the liberals, Rockefeller/1970s Republicans, greens and
moonbats who might be in our ranks: I can only HOPE I've pissed
you off. The above is all positive and necessary change for
Cambridge. Without it, residents like me just keep hating on
the city and continue hiding our residency among non-Cambridge
friends. This place has made me SO ashamed to live here, I'll
probably be gone inside of a year from now, with Cambridge and
myself both happy for the change. Cambridge is NOT the real America.
Since the Cambridge Republican City Committee closed its blog to public view, (after I was criticized for not including a link to it) I thought I would copy the text of Fred Baker's post to this forum.
I did not edit the following in any way. I copied the text to a word processing document, and then copied it below.
Fred Baker
View profile
More options Jul 8, 2:46 pm
From: "Fred Baker"
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 14:46:43 -0400 (EDT)
Local: Tues, Jul 8 2008 2:46 pm
Subject: Re: [Cambridge-GOP] new RIGHT VIEW column: "The Contract with Cambridge"
Reply | Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
Nice column, Michael, but I wish you would have included some
other really necessary changes:
* End affirmative action in all city hiring considerations.
* End all contracts with Teachers' Unions.
* Eliminate the Department of Traffic and Parking and rip up
every parking meter citywide.
* Make resident parking stickers free and stop requiring nearly a urine
sample to get one, especially for long-time residents of the City.
* Reduce street sweeping to every OTHER month without the towing penalty.
* Cut city budget by 50%, including disposal of the Dance Complex,
Cambridge Multicultural Arts center and Dept. of Human Service Programs.
* Cut property taxes by a proportional amount for each property owner
based on the amount saved by budget cuts.
* Allow rent escrowing.
* Get rid of Proportional Representation (PR) voting in municipal elections.
Top nine council candidates win, top six on School Committee.
Councilors continue to decide among themselves who will be the Mayor,
who continues to be a weak Mayor in a Plan E government (City Manager).
* Stop the $500+ of free food at all City Council meetings!!
* Cut City Councilors' salary to $15k/year, meetings max. once every other
week except Summer (when they meet no more than once).
* Cut School Committee members' salaries to same as City Councilors.
* Take a sledgehammer to the statue of Vellucci in Inman Square, replace
it with one of Ronald Reagan and rename the park for him: the REAL
architect of positive change for this country in the 2nd half of the
20th century.
* Stop blocking off the streets of East Cambridge to traffic during
the 4th of July evening and allow people to both park and drive
through there. Hey, you're not forced to live there if you don't
like it.
* Revoke all Sister City relationships.
* Start a Home Rule petition to allow restaurants to decide THEMSELVES
if they will have smoking in their OWN establishments, superseding
state law.
* Repudiate the Community Preservation Act.
* End bilingual education in the schools and BLOW UP the Amigos School
as a symbolic act in doing so, complete with a lever to push and
dynamite at the ready, with a nice ceremony complete with a band
and balloons.
* Institute absolute school choice (no lotteries or set-asides).
* Cut public housing to include elderly/infirm housing only.
* Stop requiring business licenses for most types of companies to
set up in Cambridge.
* Nearly eliminate the License Commission and abolish fees to
have radios, televisions, dart boards and certain types of food
in bars and restaurants.
* Ticket people aggressively who put old chairs and card tables with
three legs missing in the street to "save" a parking space they
just shoveled out (or didn't) after a snowstorm because they
feel entitled to it.
To readers who do that: knock it off, you don't own that space --
it's city property. And no argument or opinion can change that.
* And so much more ... just wait until I get started!
To all the liberals, Rockefeller/1970s Republicans, greens and
moonbats who might be in our ranks: I can only HOPE I've pissed
you off. The above is all positive and necessary change for
Cambridge. Without it, residents like me just keep hating on
the city and continue hiding our residency among non-Cambridge
friends. This place has made me SO ashamed to live here, I'll
probably be gone inside of a year from now, with Cambridge and
myself both happy for the change. Cambridge is NOT the real America.
-Fred Baker,
the former Chairman.