Remember the West End!

that so called STATE PANEL was nothing more than a set up from the get go with absolutely nothing either objective or impartial in it's make up. every one of those stooges on the panel had ties straight back to our blithering nitwit bagman mayor and the governor. in fact one of them bill linehan a do nothing say even less southie city council member is related by marriage to the rooney family. this whole TWO BILLION DOLLAR white elephant is unwanted by the taxpayers, but since when did the will of the people ever mean anything to these inept gutless, corrupted and coopted men and women. btw, casey ross in all his glory new about the makeup of this panel and chose to say or write squat while at least the heralds jerry kronenberg had the guts to inform his readers. if this is such a supposedly great deal than let private industry and the unions foot the bill. this should not be on the taxpayers. oh ya, one last little item. the multi-talented rooney family also happens to be very heavily involved in south boston real estate. mr. rooney why don't you also tell the txapayers what the reaction was when you tried to float this idea during your appearnce before the members of the rappaport institute. ma

Just how many hotel rooms are enough? Menino should not ever be a part of urban renewal, or determining w who the city does business with because he is incapable of making an intelligent decision. He has allowed the Filene's Basement fiasco, a hole in the ground for years now, to remain because of his lousy decision making abilities. Boston has built thousands of new hotel rooms over the years, and many are not used. It seems if the planning board wanted to add additional hotel rooms it should have been done when the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center was being built. How much land will be taken by "eminent domain"?

***********************The authority would need the Legislature to approve tax increases or other public funds to pay for the project. Funding discussions with state officials are still in the early stages, yet with the LAND-TAKING the authority would essentially be laying the groundwork for the larger expansion. "It's perfectly clear that the leadership of the convention center authority wants to expand," ..... "The issue has always been, what is the cost-benefit calculation here? Is this the best use of TAXPAYER DOLLARS, given that we're going to be in TIGHT FISCAL TIMES for the foreseeable future?"********************These people HAVE TO BE friends on EMPEROR MENINO. Taking land !!!! tax payer money!!!!!Cities across the country are filing bankruptcy, there are more people on welfare in this country than ever before and this group wants the TAXPAYER to foot this bill for HOTEL ROOMS. HOTEL ROOMS the average taxpayer COULD NOT AFFORD TO STAY IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This is insane. We are going under and BOSTON wants MORE DEBT.

There should have been some further information on this transaction included in this article. Will the MCCA resell the property to a private hotel developer? Will this transaction turn into a subsidy to a private company? If hotels are such an obvious and profitable need, why isn't it being left to the private sector to make this decision? I hope the Attorney General will keep a very hard eye on these transactions. Does the State Auditor have an oversight role to play? Will the Globe keep an eye on all these players BEFORE final decisions are made?

There is so much wrong with this "plan" its hard to begin listing its faults. Eminent domain is supposed to be an extremely limited state power reserved for imperative public needs. Nothing about the business of hosting conventions comes remotely close to meeting this first, constitutional, hurdle. Nothing in the article describes the recent "success" of the convention authority. Is it making any money? How much is it losing? What percentage of major conventions in the country does it attract today? The authority is making economic claims based on what, exactly? Its track record is atrocious for predicting business on any level over the last 40 years. What possible credibility can it have to further expand its budget absent a completely independent analysis (not yet another, hack, "report" by authority selected "experts")? This is yet another government boondoggle set to expand lucrative sinecures for the politically connected in Boston. An expansion of government for government employees, by government employees. The complete absence of any economic context in this article speaks to the fact that there is no economic justification for this specious, money grabbing, proposal. Would the Globe PLEASE provide SOME financial context here before even more tax monies are wasted?