Tiananmen 2.0?

Thank you to Sam Yoon for having the political courage to take on the BRA.  Just walk around Downtown Crossing, and you can see how effective the BRA has been.  The Filene's Basement site is an embarrassment. Downtown Crossing should be a vibrant section of Boston, but it has been left stagnant and neglected.  We need an development organization that provides accountabilty to the people it serves.  Sam Yoon has the right idea.  The BRA has got to go.

Sounds like Sam is definitely going to win my vote for mayor. He's the only person doing anything at City Hall! It's about time to make Menino's cronies accountable to the public. I'm sick of the people of this city going unheard, it's time for change. It's about time Menino had a real challenge- come on Sam, keep bringing it on! The more I hear about this election, the more I lean towards Yoon. Good luck Sam, it's rare good ideas are heard at city hall!

This is a great idea by Yoon.  There are too many stalled and politicized development projects in this city.  I'm interested in a candidate for mayor who recognizes the need for long term vision and planning to make this city the greatest.  Sam's background as a community organizer and developer is also appealing - we need to include community input in development projects.  Getting rid of the BRA is a great first step. 

I think it's great that Councilor Yoon is standing up for community residents - no one else seems to be. For years the BRA has gotten away with carrying out development projects behind closed doors with no community input and no accountability. Our city has such unique neighborhoods, and those neighborhoods should should be a reflection of the residents who live in them, not of an outdated board of developers with only money on their minds!

I'm so pleased that Sam Yoon has come around!  Mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea has been recommending the elimination of the BRA, and its replacement by a city planning department, since 2005, when he and Sam Yoon were running for City Council.  In 2005 when I asked Sam if he'd support Councilor Felix Arroyo's Home Rule Petition to do it, he told me he would not -- because he figured it wouldn't be popular with the councilors and he didn't want to waste his political capital on it.  I asked him if this meant he would be making his decisions, if elected, based on a politician's calculus: "is it easy," rather than "is it right?"  No answer.  Now, it would be the honorable thing for Sam to acknowledge that this is an idea Kevin has been advocating for five years -- back before it became fashionable and politically safe -- and share the applause. Sam, go ahead, do what's right: Thank Kevin for leading the way in dealing with the BRA.  All us progressives have to stick together and build alliances for the betterment of the city, right? The next step, as I suggested to you last year, is for you to file to reverse that ridiculous Council vote of 2004, which perpetuated the BRA’s Urban Renewal Plans and stripped the Council of its oversight powers.  Those Plans and the powers they give the BRA have to end so that the Authority can be entirely eliminated. Then we can return all its money and billions of dollars worth of property to the City treasury it has been plundering for fifty years.  Will you do it, Sam?