Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

A hidden tax on the poor

“Who is obligated to pay for the maintenance and renovation of state-owned facilities?”

That sounds like a no-brainer or a trick question. The obvious answer is the state agency which has been charged with oversight of that facility. One would expect that budget appropriations from tax revenues would pay for those obligations.

That is apparently not the case when the facility is located in Roxbury. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation has developed a bizarre “public-private partnership” to require citizens in selective communities to pay for capital improvements on recreational facilities.

According to the spokeswoman from the state Department of Environmental Affairs, this is a new concept that is being beta tested in Roxbury. She assures us that, “If this is successful, we’ll use it for a lot of our closed pools around the state.”

The DCR now owns 46 pools, but there are no plans to open six this summer. Pools in Chelsea, Brockton, Attleboro, South Hadley, Ludlow and Waltham are scheduled to remain closed. Most of those communities do not house the affluent. But perhaps if the residents there will put up the funds, the DCF might change their plans.

The strategy of the DCR in Roxbury is an appeal to the memory and reputation of the late Melnea Cass, for whom the swimming pool is named. Robert Parish, the former center for the championship Boston Celtics of the 1980s, urges Roxbury residents to contribute out of respect for Mrs. Cass’ “living legacy.” These advertisements are run regularly on WILD 1090 AM and 97.7 FM, stations programmed to reach the black community.

Even with an expected budget surplus of more than $300 million for this fiscal year, Gov. Mitt Romney apparently has limited plans to provide for summer recreation. His so-called “public-private partnership” is just a back door approach to privatization. Communities with limited resources are expected to do without.

The Metropolitan District Commission was originally responsible for environmental management and recreation in the greater Boston area. Republican governors, starting with William Weld, launched a sustained attack on the MDC, charging it with patronage, corruption and poor management. Their efforts to eliminate the MDC and absorb its responsibilities in the state Department of Environmental Management finally succeeded in July of 2003.

Critics of the move were concerned because management of the state forests was the major effort of the Department of Environmental Management. The MDC, on the other hand, was established in 1893 as the Metropolitan Park System. Its focus was always recreation.

At the time of the merger, among other facilities, the MDC was responsible for 53 playgrounds, 6 running paths, 20 skating rinks, 26 tennis courts, 15 spray pools and 17 swimming pools, one of which is the Cass Memorial Pool in Roxbury. The culture of the MDC was recreation. It appears that this culture has not been preserved now that the MDC has been buried as the Division of Urban Parks and Recreation within the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The MDC parks, pools and beaches have always been a summer resort for minorities and city residents who cannot afford a second home on the Cape or in the mountains. Charles Francis Adams and the original Metropolitan Park Commissioners wrote in 1893: “The summer – the period of heat and out-of-door life and enjoyment – is the season of the year when all feel the need of open air reservations; [once] the luxury of the rich, these then become the right, as well as the necessity, of the poor.”

Romney has ignored this precedent and has deprived the poor of such recreation unless they can pay as they go.