From the Desk of Thomas M. Menino
A report issued last week by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of more than 500 mayors that I co-chair with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, highlights the connection between weak gun laws and illegal gun trafficking among states. The report, Trace the Guns: the Link Between Gun Laws and Interstate Gun Trafficking, looks at data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and proves, beyond a doubt, that comprehensive gun trafficking laws are critical to preventing violent crime.
Mayor Menino Releases 2010 Health of Boston Report
Mortality rates continue to decline, fewer drug and alcohol deaths
Fewer Boston residents are dying of cancer, heart disease, injuries, and stroke, four of the five leading causes of death in the city, and Asian residents in Boston have the highest average life expectancy of any racial or ethnic group, according to the new Health of Boston report released today by Mayor Menino.
The 399-page report prepared by the Boston Public Health Commission contained plenty of good news about the health of Boston residents: Fewer substance abuse deaths, high rates of cancer screening, fewer teen pregnancies, fewer adults smokers and salmonella cases, and the near- disappearance of children in Boston with elevated lead levels.
But serious challenges remain. The report found that Boston’s black and Latino residents continue to experience higher levels of chronic disease, mortality, and poorer health outcomes compared to white residents. In 2008, the asthma hospitalization rate for black and Latino children was more than three times the rate for Asian children and four times the rate for white children. That same year, the diabetes hospitalization rate for black and Latino residents was about four times the rate for Asians and whites. For Boston’s black residents the health inequities begin early in life and persist throughout the individual’s lifespan: In 2008, the black infant mortality rate was more than four times the white infant mortality rate, and black residents had the shortest average life expectancy.
Boston City Council voted 9-4 to approve a new Rental Inspection Ordinance requiring apartment rental units to be inspected every five years including a $300 fine for problem properties and a “chronic offender registry.” The ordinance includes condominium properties but exempts buildings with 6 or fewer rental units as long as the building owner lives Read More…
The new Boston Gliders ads in the local paper are quite entertaining. Free Segway training for all "interseted" parties, a mini tour, some refreshments, so people can to learn more about their business because of "negative press involving many inacurate [!] 'facts' " and BG will welcome people "with open arms" and we should "Keep an eye out for the Segway Street Cleaning team."
Now that BG is afraid it is going to be forced to follow regulations for the safety of pedestrians, BG is pretending to suddenly want to be a good neighbor and care about the neighborhood. What a joke. They should get this year's "Too Little, Too Late" award. Their hypocrisy alone is astonishing.
A young woman who lives in the neighborhood went to the open house and blogged about it. It seemed as if she may have been the only one there. Allan Danley told her in the blog post that Boston Gliders had contributed $66,000 to neighborhood charities. I'd like to see the receipts on that!