A small, vocal group of parents with children at the Mission Hill School have been waging a campaign to derail the BPS administration’s plan to relocate the school to Jamaica Plain.

I am writing in opposition to their campaign and in support of the relocation plan as proposed by Dr. Johnson.

Opposition to the move boils down to concern that it will be detrimental to some families who currently have children at the school. While true, that one factor should not outweigh all others in the decision-making process.

When all factors are taken into consideration, it is clear that repurposing some BPS school buildings is necessary and serves the long-term best interests of the city and its students. Given that some relocations are necessary and inevitable, if it’s not the Mission Hill families who are forced to deal with that, it will just be some other school’s families instead.

Dr. Johnson and the BPS administration obviously want to do the right thing; they have no incentive to move schools without good reason or spend money that does not need to be spent. Furthermore, they have access to more and better information than BPS parents. Finally, while BPS parents understandably and reasonably focus on what is best for their own children, Dr. Johnson is in a position to see with more clarity what is best for all BPS children.

Until recently, I was hoping to sit on the sidelines of this debate, because I did not want to stand in opposition to other well-meaning BPS parents. However, their campaign has gotten louder and louder, and in my opinion more and more disingenuous, and I feel that I can no longer remain silent.

Please do not allow the narrow interests of a small group of people to block a plan which will benefit the city greatly.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

I also sent the above letter to Mark Ciommo (my city councillor) and the at-large city councillors, as well as to the school committee, and a slightly edited variant of it to Superintendent Johnson herself.

For background information, see the Boston Public Schools web page about the 2012 facilities plan. It’s about a heck of a lot more than just moving the Fenway High School and Mission Hill School.

Occasionally, however, the nutcases crawl out of the woodwork. Most recently, one PJ Szufnarowski sent an email message to the list warning us all that “Boston is being sprayed with a myriad of substances, on a regular basis, from the air.”

Now, let me fill you in, in case you’re not familiar with this particular loony-toon conspiracy theory.

Airplane exhaust is sometimes visible in the sky as contrails. Over the years, a number of crazies have concluded that rather than these being water vapor, they are actually chemicals being sprayed into the air for secret, nefarious purposes (controlling the weather, drugging the population, etc.). This chemtrail conspiracy theory has been debunked over and over again, and of course the people who espouse this theory do not have any evidence that withstands any sort of scrutiny. Nevertheless, the theory continues to be promulgated by people who are either extremely gullible, or incapable of understanding basic science, or both. Needless to say, to them, anyone who denies the existence of chemtrails is either in denial or part of the conspiracy.

When Ms. Szufnarowski sent her message to the AB2006 list, there were two responses: one from a man who identified himself as an air force meteorologist from 1958-1962 who sent a link to the Wikipedia article about contrails, and one from me saying, “I think we can do without absurd conspiracy theories on this mailing list. Thanks,” and including a link to the Wikipedia article about the conspiracy theory.

Ms. Szufnarowski responded to me:

Johnathan [sic] it is not a conspiracy, just look up and you will see it.  Your own eyes are your best witness.  Today again same thing, Boston skies were blue at  8 a.m. and I have watched them be sprayed all morning.  Now (12:30 p.m.) the sun is shinning through a completely white translucent cover.

She is apparently unfamiliar with the concept that being able to see something with your eyes is not the same as being able to identify its chemical composition or understand its cause.

She is also apparently unfamiliar with the concept of “clouds.”

And then there’s the whole “I’m too stupid to spell your name correctly even though I’ve got it right here in front of me” thing. *sigh*

My message back to her was short and to the point: “You are a nutcase. Do not email me again. Thank you.”

Needless to say, she did email me again, and managed, in her five-word response, to illustrate that her grasp of English grammar is about as firm as her grasp on science: “You are in seriously [sic] denial.”

I suppose gullibility and an inability to distinguish truth from fiction might actually be beneficial for an artist like Ms. Szufnarowski.

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It’s a spoof mocking the Mayor’s demand for teachers to work a longer school day.

Hey, BPS teachers… The teachers at my children’s private school work longer hours than you, with worse benefits than you, for less money than you. They do a wonderful job of educating every single student, unlike the BPS, which deprives many (most?) of its students of a quality education. You’re being paid a salary, which means you’re supposed to work the job, not the hours. So do me a favor: STFU and do the job you’re being paid to do. Thank you.

Executive summary: Work on my jacket, which I was told would be finished in two weeks, was not done over three months later, and in fact was never fully done. I was never called about the status of the work. I was lied to several times about when the work would be finished. I demanded the return of my jacket twice in person and was refused each time. In the end, I was able to get my jacket back only by threatening to sue for triple damages, at which point Gregory finally returned my jacket; to his credit, he refunded my deposit in full and actually did some of the requested work, albeit with mediocre quality.

On October 24, 2011, I brought my leather jacket, which needed some repairs, to Gregory’s, after he was recommended to me for leather work by another downtown Boston tailor. Gregory recommended also cleaning and dying it and treating it with water repellant, for which he would use an outside service. He said the total cost would be about $250 (not unreasonable for a nice leather jacket) and it would be done in a couple of weeks. He also said he’d call me when my jacket was ready to be picked up.

The timing of the work was important, because I wanted to wear the jacket this winter.

I paid a $100 deposit and left the jacket with Gregory. Here’s my claim check (with my phone number distorted to protect my privacy):

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Over a month later, he hadn’t called, so I called him to find out what was going on. He claimed that the service he had tried to use to clean, dye and treat my jacket had “gone bankrupt,” but that he had found another service and my jacket would be finished in another couple of weeks.

Another month later, Gregory once again hadn’t called, so I visited his shop in person on January 4, 2012 to get back my jacket, finished or not, and my deposit. He said he could not return my jacket because it was supposedly out of his shop being cleaned, dyed and treated. He swore to me that the work would be finished “without fail” by Friday, January 6, and took down my phone number again so he could call to let me know when it was finished. To be clear, I informed Gregory clearly and explicitly during this visit that if the jacket was not going to be ready on January 6, I wanted it and my deposit back immediately, and he emphatically insisted that it would be finished on that date.

Once again, he never called. I visited his store again in person on January 20 and demanded the return of my jacket. He once again refused to return it. The same day, I sent the shop the following letter via certified mail:

According to the postal service, Gregory received my letter on January 24. I received the following response on February 11. I have obscured Gregory’s name in this letter because he does not choose to associate it directly with his business in any way I’ve seen, and I see no need to “out” him.

Letter from Gregory's Lawyer

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I have to admire Mr. Kenney for his impressive “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit” posture. His claim that it was unclear from my letter exactly what Chapter 93a violations I was alleging was particularly amusing. Oh, I don’t know, how about lying repeatedly to a customer and refusing to return the customer’s property when asked to do so?

Gregory insisted emphatically on January 4 that my jacket would be finished on January 6. He did, in fact, guarantee that completion date. If this ever went to trial, he would have to perjure himself on the stand to claim otherwise, and let me tell you, if it’s my word against his, there’s nothing here that makes him look particularly trustworthy and much that does the opposite.

Aside from that, Gregory told me on two different occasions that he could not return my jacket to me because it was out being cleaned, dyed and treated, and yet when the jacket was finally returned to me, none of those things had been done to it. What explanation would Gregory offer in court for why he did not return my jacket to me when I demanded it?

In short, there is little doubt that I would have prevailed had the case gone to court. Having said that, I had no desire to waste my time and energy dealing with a small-claims lawsuit, so I sent Mr. Kenney the following response via email:

Negotiation of the details ensued, and my jacket was delivered to me at my work address today, February 15, almost four months after I handed it to Gregory. It has not been cleaned, dyed or treated, and the work that Gregory did on it was of mediocre quality and not what we had discussed. In particular, although I specifically asked him to replace the worn-out elastic loops, he instead re-stitched the worn-out loops in place.

In summary, Gregory of Gregory’s Fine Tailoring does mediocre work (at least some of the time), has no compunctions about lying to customers when it suits him, and can’t be relied upon to complete promised work in anything like a reasonable amount of time.

• They fixed the duct opening which their subcontractor made too small, and replaced the screw in the duct cover that was damaged when I had to unscrew the cover from its frame because the frame was wedged to tightly into the too-small opening.
• They fixed the air leaking from the furnace manifold.
• At their expense, they replaced the whole-house humidifier that was wasting a huge amount of water, with a Humid-a-Mist humidifier that doesn’t.

The fact that they addressed these issues, as well as the manner in which they went about doing so, suggests to me that they really are trying to do right by their customers, or at least what they perceive as doing right by their customers. Having said that, there are some caveats deserving of mention with the repairs listed above:

• The frame of the aforementioned duct cover is still irreparably bent from having been jammed into the too-small opening, but I didn’t really expect them to fix that and didn’t press the issue.
• Surely a huge air leak in the furnace manifold is something they should have noticed and addressed when they were installing the system.
• They programmed the thermostat for the new humidifier incorrectly when they installed it, such that it was humidifying the house in the summer when the furnace wasn’t running (bad both because of the wasted water and because who wants their house humidified in the summer?). They did come back and fix this when I complained, but this is a rookie mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

Furthermore, some of the issues I mentioned in my previous postings still remain, e.g., their inability to process a simple credit-card change for many months, and their offer to replace a toilet handle, a 15-minute job involving a $5 part, for the absurdly high price of $238.

Given all I’ve experienced with them, here’s my take on Winters Plumbing:

1. They try to do quality work, but they don’t always succeed.
2. Their rates are high.
3. If you are an educated consumer and you know how to stand up for yourself, then they will address any issues with their work that you bring to their attention. If, on the other hand, you just leave everything to them and don’t pay attention to what they’re doing, the odds are pretty good that they’ll screw something up.

In a nutshell, Honda Village lied to us when we bought our car, lied to us after the fact, ignored our complaints, sent us (and others) intentionally misleading junk mail and refused to stop when asked, sent us lots of spam and refused to stop when asked, and did mediocre auto-body work for us which took multiple attempts to get right (this last point was Village Collision, another business within the Village Automotive Group umbrella of which Honda Village is a part).

Nevertheless, Honda Village is where we bought our Honda Odyssey minivan, and they are the closest Honda dealership to our house, so when we need service done that is warranty- or recall-related and/or inexpensive and hard enough for them to screw up, we take our van there. Or so I thought.

A number of months ago, I brought our van to Honda Village for some simple service or recall or something; I forget the details. After looking up our van in the computer, the associate informed me that I had to speak to the service department manager about something. I went into the manager’s office, where he informed me that Honda Village would not service my vehicle.

Honda Village has never apologized for any of the things I complained to them about. They have never acknowledged doing anything wrong, unless you consider it an “apology” when they paid me the refund I demanded for the warranty which they convinced me to purchase by outright lying to me about its coverage (fraud!).

Their response to my legitimate complaints was not to acknowledge them and try to improve. No, their response has been to continue on with business as usual and refuse to serve me.

Judge for yourself whether this is a business which deserves your patronage.

P.S. I just realized that I never got around to posting what happened after my last letter to Honda Village’s lawyer. So, for those who are curious… Their lawyer sent back a response asserting that the precedents on which I was relying were out-of-date, and citing a newer precedent which he claimed precluded my filing a Chapter 93a claim against Honda Village. After reviewing that newer precedent, I thought he was probably right, and in any case didn’t have any more time to waste on it, so I dropped it.

My wife and I have used them numerous times for many different services, including routine maintenance (e.g., oil and filter), auto-body work, repairing a broken automatic minivan door, and tire repair and replacement.

In all cases they have been friendly, responsive, and affordable and have delivered high-quality work on time.

Here are two examples of how great they are:

1. We needed a couple of body panels repaired and repainted after someone borrowing our minivan ran it into the side of his garage door (d’oh!). Stadium Auto Body said that all of the damaged panels would have to be replaced and gave us an estimate of $2,400. A-Z repaired the existing panels — no replacement parts needed — for only $860. While they were at it, they detailed the interior of the minivan at no extra charge!

2. Herb Chambers Honda said it would cost $400 to fix one of our automatic minivan doors, which was repeatedly sticking when we tried to open or close it. A-Z did the repair for only $169.

In all of our dealings with A-Z, it has felt like they were being completely honest and up-front with us. Not once have we gotten that unpleasant feeling, so common with car-repair places, that they were trying to jack up the price of a repair or sell us something we didn’t need. In short, these guys are great, and we heartily recommend them!

Dear Gov. Patrick (via Fax), Rep. Honan, Rep. Brownsberger, Mayor Menino, and members of the Boston City Council,

I am writing to you all in incensed opposition to the abhorrent plan currently under discussion to close the MBTA’s budget gap by decimating Massachusetts public transportation.

The T’s budget gap is structural, resulting from the Big Dig debt thrust upon it several years ago, coupled with sales tax revenue that was supposed to increase but flattened instead. Drastic cuts in service won’t actually solve the structural issue, they’ll merely postpone it. They are not the answer.

The idea some people seem to have that public transportation should pay for itself is simply absurd. Public transportation is an essential public service, like roads, bridges, police, fire departments, and schools. Do the Commonwealth’s roads and bridges pay for their own maintenance?

I ride the 501 express bus from my neighborhood in Brighton to and from my job downtown nearly every day. No matter what time of day I commute, the bus is full or nearly full. Eliminating this particular route will cause many T riders to start driving to work instead of taking the bus, increasing pollution, traffic, and road maintenance costs. It will also make Brighton a far less attractive and stable neighborhood and damage property values, since easy access is to downtown is a huge plus for professionals looking for a place to live.

Every one of the more than 100 other routes whose elimination is under discussion serves many people whose lives and communities would be similarly impacted by the elimination of their route. This proposal isn’t an answer; it’s a disaster.

The right way to solve the T’s budget woes is actually quite obvious:

• The Legislature should compare how much the T was projected to receive from the 20% cut of sales tax revenue vs. how much it actually received, and pay off that much of the T’s debt, including any debt servicing interest paid on it over the years, from the state’s general fund or rainy day fund.

• The T should raise its fares to make them comparable to fares charged in other cities and should raise them regularly moving forward to keep up with inflation. Some of the fares charged by the T are absurdly low. For example, I pay $89 per month to ride the 501 bus every day, whereas if I drove to work I’d pay a minimum of $265 for parking, not to mention possibly needing to buy and insure a car, as well as paying for gas and increased maintenance. I suspect the T could easily charge 50% more than it’s charging now for the 501 and other express buses and keep most of their riders. I know I’d pay it.

• Other sources of revenue, such as income or sales taxes or even state highway and bridge tolls, should be used to offset any remaining budget gap on a year-by-year basis. To make this politically feasible, the Legislature needs to change the conversation by first educating itself, and then educating the public through a massive public opinion campaign, about the fact that a good public transportation system actually saves the Commonwealth and its citizens money, creates jobs, reduces traffic, protects the environment, and reduces our country’s dependence on foreign oil.

I love living in Boston. However, the parochial mentality which so often seems to dominate how things are done around here frequently prompts me to wonder if I live in a minor town with pretensions of being a major city. Destroying our public transportation system would reinforce that image in many people’s minds. Please don’t let this happen.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

CC: fareproposal@mbta.com

Speaking as a religious Jew, I can assure you that I do not find it “inclusive” or “welcoming” for you to call the tree you’re lighting today a “holiday tree”.

If it were my choice, there would be no religious symbols of any sort on public property. But since that’s never going to happen, at the very least the symbols that are erected to recognize various people’s religious observances should actually recognize those observances, not water them down and engage in ludicrous newspeak to imply they’re something they’re not.

The only December holiday that involves a tree is Christmas. Please call it what it is and stop pandering to a class of people that don’t actually exist. Nobody who’s offended by Christmas trees on public property is mollified by calling them something different.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

To the editor:

Herman Cain was forced out of the campaign by his immoral acts and lies about them, not by liberal ideologues as Joe Fitzgerald claims. Cain’s plummeting poll numbers came from conservatives who might have actually voted for him.

It’s true that other politicians, on both sides of the aisle, have dallied, gotten caught, and emerged with little damage. The difference is not their politics or their race, but rather their reaction to exposure. It’s obvious that Cain is lying through his teeth, and as usual, the coverup was worse than the crime.

As is befitting in an America which is increasingly post-racial, Cain was judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens