2024 Olympics & Franklin Park

The US Olympics Committee tells us Boston is the sole US contender for the 2024 Olympic Games. Brookline Town Meeting voted no. Greater Boston's working class residents have grave doubts about the planned use of Franklin Park for equestrian and pentathlon competition. Franklin Park Coalition's Christine Poff warned that community access to the park will be restricted prior to and during the Games. Equestrian events can cause irreparable damage to our Park; not to mention the tons of shit which will drain through the Emerald Necklace into the Charles, the world famous Olmstead parks system of a pristine natural waterway, which we struggled so hard, with so much federal money, to clean up! Can you imagine sewage-quality water draining from Franklin Park through Jamaica Pond while the City of Boston is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars opening up the often flooded Fenway to become a marsh again? Makes no sense. Franklin Park has been the heart of our community for as long as any of us can remember. Do you want to skip annual Kite Day for the sake of 3 weeks of international playtime? Will the mile track at White Stadium ever be the same - or the Stadium itself? A new member of the anti-Olympic coalition said no on June 13 with a little graffiti and direct action. [New Olympics protest group forms]

Clean water in our lovely natural park system!
Community control of community planning!

- Quentin Davis

Mayor Walsh's Olympic Community Meeting
June 30 @ 6:30 PM ~ English High School
144 McBride Street, Jamaica Plain
Come with questions. Come with signs.
Come with friends.

Comentarios revelaron que muchas personas están dispuestas a considerar intercambiar los impactos de las Olimpíadas por mejoras al parque, pero también no confían en que la organización de licitación Boston 2024 cumpla sus promesas. - Encuesta: Muchos vecinos de Franklin Park se oponen a las Olimpíadas, Jamaica Plain Gazette

Hold the Date for Medicaid & Medicare

Medicare and Medicaid will be fifty years old on July 30th and we’re making plans both to celebrate and to struggle: to protect, to improve and to expand Medicare. Mass-Care, MNA, Massachusetts Senior Action Council and others will have a big cake at the State House on Thursday, July 30th, and Massachusetts Senior Action will also hold a party at its Dorchester office a week later on August 6th. On Saturday, August 1st, health activists from around the country will gather on the National Mall in DC for the Healthcare Justice March. We’ll have all the details in the July HJB newsletter.

State House Hearing July 1st to Bridge the Gap to Affordable Healthcare
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 @ 11 AM, Room B2, State House, Boston

On June 4th fifty Massachusetts Senior Action Council leaders came together to build senior power and strategize to pass our Bridge the Gap bill to lower healthcare costs for people 65 and over and prepare for the July 1 hearing before the Joint Commitee on Healthcare Finance. H.988 & H.989, S.646 & S.371. Please call 617-284-1234, info@MassSeniorAction.org to get more information.

Biolab Revelations & Action

USA Today published the results of an extensive investigation into the goings on in more than 200 Level 3 and Level 4 biolabs working with dangerous pathogens. Published on May 28th as Biolabs in Your Backyard, and brought to life via video, this report reveals so much more sloppiness than has hit the headlines in recent months. There is growing realization that the CDC itself fails to exercise proper oversight with its own labs, not to mention all these others. The Roxbury Safety Net and the Stop the Biolab Coalition have mobilized to try to put a moratorium in place until the Congressional and Pentagon investigative hearings into the CDC and NIH have been completed. Coalition delegations will be meeting with state and local officials in coming weeks to press their case. The Massachusetts Nurses Association board on June 18th sharpened its position on workplace and community preparedness, a supplement to the strong position opposing the BU Level 4 lab on Albany Street that it took ten years ago.

Stop the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline

While a slick advertising campaign tries to tell us that gas is the safe, clean alternative to coal and oil, residents across New England and beyond are rising up to stop a risky gas pipeline passing near their homes. To tell a different story, on June 14th, folks from West Roxbury linked arms with neighbors from Dedham and beyond, 100 strong, at the Stone Quarry site for the pipeline's proposed Metering and Regulation Station. Sign the petition to the mayor and city council. Stop the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline!

RoxComp: Sale Imminent

Published reports indicate that the sale of the Warren Street complex once known as Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center to Bridge Boston Charter School may be imminent. Income from the sale will likely not be enough to settle all outstanding debts, including back pay owed to scores of former employees, as well as lawyers’ fees, unpaid unemployment insurance premiums owed the Commonwealth and assorted claims by neighbors. Bottom line: No prospect for the return of competent care close to home.

What is Healthcare Justice?

• Access: Can you get the care you need?
• Affordability: Will you go bankrupt if you do?
• Quality: Will you survive your encounter?
• Equality: Do you meet special barriers to care?

Directory

For more information on health care as a right, not a commodity:

Mass-Care   Healthcare NOW!   Labor Campaign for Single Payer

To navigate the current system:

Boston Mayor’s HealthLine @ 617-534-5050

Health Care For All - Massachusetts
Consumer Health HelpLine @ 800-272-4232

Massachusetts Health Connector
Customer Support @ 877-623-6765

For more information, contact:

Quentin Davis @ 617-553-2949 or davisquestin@gmail.com
Sandy Eaton @ 617-510-6496 or sandyern@comcast.net

Health Justice for Boston is archived on Seachange Bulletin.
Sponsor: Health Justice for Boston