ZUMIX thus far

Hello,

Welcome to my first field report. I have tried posting one of these before but the browser quit and I lost everything. Dial 9- wahh wahh for the wahmbulance!

Anyways, my main steez here at ZUMIX is helping to keep the organization running and more specifically to work with the radio station. I help in teaching youth programs (DJ training, journalism, etc.) and overseeing its general operation. In lieu of all this I have a press package put together and I am attempting to establish some kind of sponsorship for the station. For example x company gives ZUMIX x amount of dollars and based on the amount given we then run a spot promoting x company a certain number of times throughout the course of a day. This will hopefully expand listenership of the station as well as expose those already tuning in to the company by listening to the announcement and thus increasing their business. On a bigger scale this will ideally help to build the community which could be going through a lot of changes very soon.

If you are not already aware, Mass Pike authority is looking to raise the toll out of East Boston (there is no toll going in) from 3.50 to 7.00 as well as jacking up the Mass Pike toll to 2.00. This is resulting from ridiculous Big Dig debt that accumulated over the course of several years. An alternative to raising these tolls is increasing the gas tax in Massachusetts. Both are being seriously considered. If the toll out of Eastie is passed the neighborhood will change substantially. This means insane traffic on the truck route in Chelsea (easiest extra 10 min way to avoid the toll) and people moving out of this neighborhood because it is becoming even more far removed from downtown than it already is (i.e. no footbridge, no public trans past 12:30am, etc.)

A study was released over the summer with hard evidence that living closer to the airport makes you more susceptible to certain diseases (MS, cancer, etc.) This information is instilling fear into the people of East Boston making it less desirable to live in this community. I hope for the sake of this place that the toll is not increased. There is a strong community here and it would be unfortunate to see it crumble because of all this bureaucratic controlling legislation.