First, a Dianne Wilkerson refresher: she represented the Second Suffolk District from 1993 to 2008. The Second Suffolk includes Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and parts of Mattapan, Dorchester, Mission Hill, and Chinatown. In 2008, she was charged with accepting bribes for liquor licensing and a development project in Roxbury. Wilkerson served three and a half years of jail time for bribery, and was released from federal prison in September 2013. Since then, she's largely stayed out of the media spotlight.
We reached out to Wilkerson on Under the Radar because she knows a lot about the politics at play when it comes to two major stories in Boston right now: who's to blame when it comes to the MBTA's many problems; and the questions we should be asking about Boston's Olympic bid.
Bay Windows and South End News co-publisher Sue O'Connell sat in the host seat for Callie Crossley this week on Under the Radar. Listen to her conversation with Wilkerson above. Hear the full show on 89.7FM WGBH on Sunday at 6PM.
(02:30) On displacement during the Olympics:
The bigger concern for an Olympic size event is, given the history of what happens with cities that have hosted, is that people will be gone forever. And certainly in London, it was a major issue. Something along the lines of 90,000, 100,000 people were arrested. So, from the public servant side of me, my concern is how do you prevent that?
(05:55) On public funding vs. private funding for the Olympics:
Massachusetts, we do something- I think we do play cute with this whole concept of public funding. The reality is is that there isn't a sports team in our beloved sports town that hasn't been the major beneficiary of the public largesse. Is anyone going to argue that we have not completely rebuilt the infrastructure in Kenmore Square around Fenway Park?...
(11:30) On MBTA problems:
I think that there's a lot of things that go into this mix. Number 1: Because we are the capitol city, we get the best and the worst of both worlds. And by that I mean, we have a population of about 500,000 people which triples every day for the million people who come into Boston (...) who expect our roads to be clear, don't want to see traffic, don't want to deal with crime, don't want to have any inconvenience, don't like to sit and wait, and they want to have a beautiful view- and so they complain about how we run the city all the time- they want the city to be kept for their convenience, but they don't want to pay for it.
(17:20) Homeless people, ethnic minorities, poor people are especially vulnerable- probably the most vulnerable population- with any discussion about hosting an Olympics. And for Boston it's an added problem because the cost of housing has escalated and skyrocketed.
(18:02) What I know is that the likelihood of them being able to survive an Olympics without some lazer focused attention on the next 10 years is pretty slim. And so, I'm very concerned about that piece. What are the employment opportunities? What are the opportunities for women-owned businesses? For minority businesses? (...) If we can use this next 10 years to focus on that effort, where we are putting more people in Boston in a position to get in the game, through real meaningful employment opportunities, then we have a shot. (...) Otherwise, we're going to be going down that same road that we saw in London, that we saw in Atlanta is that if people get displaced from our capitol city there isn't anywhere else to go. We've learned that from Long Island.
