Regarding “Mayor Menino’s moving day venom smacks of hypocrisy” (September 3, pg. 11). If I were the mayor and I read the article, I wouldn’t care what students think. Hell, they aren’t going to do anything about it. Students must first do something that will get the city’s attention, and you aren’t going to get any attention until you hurt the city where it counts most — its big, fat wallet.
Now I know what you may be thinking: how are we going to do that without hurting the small business owners around the Boston area who are not responsible for the mayor’s arrogance? There is a simple but tried and tested method to this: boycott the public transportation system.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of students who ride the “T” everyday, though they can easily walk the same distance. By walking instead of using the “T”, you are making useless a system that the city relies on for money and costs the city regardless of whether people are riding, while still not affecting the general business population of your local community. No matter the size of the city’s losses, it will definitely get the mayor’s attention.
In order to get results, you must first be willing to make some sacrifices. However, this is not the only thing that the student body can do. We must get out there and make local business owners, who are dependent on our business, aware of this mistreatment by the mayor’s office. There must be an active campaign against this “bullying”. We must have the community as an ally, which will also help in getting the attention of the mayor’s office. No longer would they be able to just roll right over students without fear of repercussions.
Once the student body shows they are active and become a force within the community, the city will have no choice but to address college students’ concerns. The absolute key is to actually get active and involved. You can whine and complain all you want but, until you actually do something about it, you won’t get any respect from the community or the city.
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