What is your reaction to DNC road and rail closures?
In a move that is certain to create major headaches for Boston commuters, security officials have announced that Interstate 93 will be shut down in both directions for all four evenings of the Democratic National Convention in July, and North Station will be closed to all commuter rail and subway service. What is your reaction? Are these security precautions justified, or is the Secret Service going overboard? Do the benefits the convention will bring to the city make the inconveniences worthwhile?
Read the story: North Station, I-93 to be shut down during convention
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What make's Convenience for there party, more important than ours. Why should many be delayed for a select few.
Michael , Tewksbury
Ridiculous, other than paying taxes to fund their salary, health care and innumerable other perks, what exactly are we, the citizens these folks allegdly represent, getting out of the entire affair? If the location was so disruptive to our daily lives, why was it selected?
Bill , Reading
Closing North Station and I-93 will only lead to additional congested areas which, in turn, become potential terrorist targets. Always expect the unexpected in unexpected places.
Jay , Plymouth
This is outrageous. A half-brained idea hatched by the ever more out of touch Mayor Thomas "Mumbles" Menino. A man who has turned his back on the working class and is now turning his back on commuters that have a hard enough time getting to their measly paying jobs via a completely outdated commuter rail system through a train station that is woefully inadequate for the amount of people who pass through there every day. Was Romney playing politics when he asked to have the convention moved? Maybe so, but he actually had a practical idea that would have served his constituency a whole lot better than self centered Mumbles.
Steve, Arlington
Come on people, the DNC will bring the national spotlight to our great city! This is our time to showcase Boston and instead everyone is sitting around and complaining - and what are we complaining about...4 days! And in the middle of summer, what better time to take a few days off. If you can't stand the heat in July then get out of the city.
Jessica, Brighton
I know that I will be voting republican, these morons are concerned about no one but themselves, how are people supposed to get to work? maybe we can all claim unemployment for that week so the Dems can have their party??
jay, saugus
This is just another case of "BANNED IN BOSTON." There's no need to get your knickers in a twist! However, all I can say is . . . Kerry owes us one for this MAJOR inconvenience - Kerry better win the election, and remove that incompetent Right Wing Texan from the oval office!
The Pushy Sisters, Dunstable
Security is going overboard, AND the conference center is in the wrong place. Is a knapsack bomb on a train going to kill folks in the convention center? No way! This proves that security wants to annoy folks and look important to the media, not prevent huge tragedy. If you want to avoid a truck bomb problem, you cannot have your meetingplace right alongside a freeway. Moving the DNC is the only way of avoiding a truck bomb. They can protect a remote location, but not one in the middle of everything. Al Capone was at more risk on a busy street than in a remote cottage in Wisconsin. The DNC will serve no function other than a place for speeches, and drinking. Policy can be better developed by mail/email than in a huge hog-barn of overdressed politicos. If you want ot impress undecided voters with the fact that you can bring together tens of thousands of well-heeled folks, at a taxpayer-supported cost of hundreds of dollars each, the keep holding these 'events'. I think these things are wasteful anachronisms, and that fact should be the focus of network coverage, for both conventions this summer. If the media said "these are pigs at the trough" more than they said "this hero will save our country" National conventions would wither as mid-summer phenomena.
david , winnipeg
I feel that the precautions requested by the Secret Service are justified and that probably more precautions should be taken. However, I feel it is ludicrous and irresponsible to hold the convention at the Fleet Center when Boston has a new convention center, built at great expense to the taxpayers, in a better and more convenient location. This seems the perfect time to use the new convention center. Why was it built if the city doesn't want to use it for the biggest convention of all?
Avril , North End Boston
Typical liberal planning... have the DNC at the FleetCenter (or whatever it will be called by then) that requires endless and expensive overtime for the most highly paid police force in the country, completely inconvenience every single commuter and resident, require road closures and massive detours, create a Secret Service nightmare, force residents to change their vacation plans for a political party they may not even believe in, close the most traveled highway and train station in New England, and generally create a dangerous circus in the city of Boston. The forethought is truly amazing... What was wrong with the new World Trade Center?
Charles , Boston
