Ah, spring. A time when scowling New Englanders start to shed their jaundiced skin and their winterized flabby bellies thinking ahead to Cape Cod and the North Shore. But for those of us in East Boston, warm weather brings something else besides sunshine and smiles:
Trash.
Many of you have heard me complain about Stadium Park, the picturesque but problematic green space that abuts my condominum that cost taxpayers $14 million to rehab - one of the many Big Dig contracts doled out to companies that then dropped the ball.
Last summer, I called Barletta Construction, the company who pulled in the $14-million contract, on the carpet for failing to actually live up to their contract, making the park a virtual no-man's land where expensive lights stayed dark. Back then, the park was an unpatrolled nightmare because the city didn't want to take it over until Barletta fixed the problems. Massport did not want it either, despite their presence in Bremen Street Park, which is attached to the Stadium and separated only by a fence. As a result, four women were sexually attacked in what investigators believe was a gang-initiation that targeted white women for assault.
Now the park is patrolled around-the-clock by Boston Police. The lights are on. But because the city has not officially taken it over and Massport is still staying away, trash is piling up. Especially on the brand-new soccer field which looks like a garbage dump after the all-night games.
In typical Massachusetts fashion, they turned the lights on - and now leave them on all night. Which means Spanish soccer fanatics are screaming, littering and urinating on the field until all hours of the morning. As the temperatures get warmer, it will only get worse.
What is the solution -- besides using the field as a way to root out illegal immigrants? Well, we all know its tought to put criminals behind bars in this state with liberal judges preferring to dole out community service sentences. How about if those community service sentences are actually performed by perps.
I would be happy to see those very perps picking up trash in the public parks, especially after discovering from a City Hall source that Mayor Thomas M. Menino is using tax dollars to hire teenagers to clean public spaces.
Save the cash and use the perps.
