Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Southfield- The Funny Place
I thought it was funny the other day when, while out for a walk, I noticed the padlocked gate leading into the old South Weymouth Air Base and the signs reading “no trespassing”. What was funny is that this gate, located off of Union Street, has been open for as long as I can remember, probably since the air base was built in the 1940’s. The children there would use this gate and pathway to walk to the school on Union Street in South Weymouth. Now, probably for liability reasons, the government has decided to prevent access. After all, we don’t want children getting hurt on the never used play structures, or vandalizing the freshly painted, but sparsely occupied living quarters there. What is equally funny is how the government used to pay the Town Of Weymouth money to send children living at the air base to Weymouth schools, and now, they pay that money to contractors to maintain a piece of property where almost nobody occupies. The funny ghost town that was once the Naval Air Station has become a sanctuary for deer and coyote.
It’s also kind of funny that since the air base closed in 1997, nothing has been done there. Early on there was discussion about building a big mall there, but that didn’t fly, no pun intended. Since around 2003 there has been a couple of “entities”, for lack of a better term, operating there. One is Tri Town Development and the other is LNR. They have been having meetings there since that time, discussing important topics such as how to make money and to name the place “Southfield”. LNR recently paid Tri Town money based on the tax rate they set for themselves, or was it the other way around? I’m not sure. Now, I hear that Tri-Town has purchased the land back from LNR. Does that mean they’ll be paying taxes back to LNR? I’m even more confused. Meanwhile of course, the surrounding communities are barely scraping by, laying off school teachers and firefighters and trying to figure out how to raise revenue for their towns.
It’s not like they haven’t done anything at all over there. There are a couple of nice new roads with street lights and a bike path, and I hear that the pipes and wires are in the ground, and they’re ready to start erecting other stuff, like buildings. I guess they call that “infrastructure”. So, after 14 years the infrastructure is ready, but the building boom just hasn’t taken off yet, no pun intended.
Another funny thing happened there not too long ago. They had a big “groundbreaking ceremony” at the air base, I mean Southfield. It appears they’re finally moving ahead with another expensive road. I guess they must have decided they need more infrastructure. The good news is that construction will be starting in 3 weeks and 10,000 jobs might open up. Naturally those jobs will all be taken by union construction workers from out of town but hey, they might buy lunch in Weymouth, who knows? Funny thing is, I remember they said a movie studio was going to be built last fall but that project never got off the ground, no pun intended. They’re saying it could still happen.
The newspapers keep mentioning a golf course too. I’ve been waiting to play golf there for the past 10 years. That’s the funny part. By the time anyone tees off at the air base, I mean Southfield, I’ll have wings; no pun intended.
This article was posted by Stanley Ramon on August 18, 2010
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