http://www.boston.com/real-estate/community/2014/08/05/the-smartest-towns-mass/3bLvfPlGyLvLvvWLa5nqjM/pictures.html
Gee, is anyone surprised that Melrose is not on this list? Not even close!
Here instead of smart we have smarta$$es who think that unpacking the Almighty Rubrics and Smarta$$ Goals substitutes for an education system. Yup, Exemplary if you listened to our "education expert" and his evaluation of his employee, CT. That right there says it all. And Melrose has reelected this SOB HOW many times? When is enough enough?
Enough already. Go move to one of those listed smart towns.
It's only "enough" if you want to keep your head buried in the proverbial sand!
So why are you staying here?
I know that you do not like the way schools are run, but let's not compare us to Wellesley, Brookline, Northampton, etc.
It's not just the schools, though that's a huge negative. It is the attitude of the majority of the elected officials and many of the paid ones. The dysfunction now prevails in nearly every department.
Dumb parents = Dumb kids
The apples do not fall far from the tree.
The biggest leading indcator of a childs academic performance is parents education level and family income. The public school system in Melrose clearly has problems. The debate at this point is whether or not the current administration can fix the problems or at least improve the situation. What is often ignored on this site is that there are many, many students in each grade level excelling in the Melrose Public School system. My guess is these families have similar characteristics. The parents are well educated, focused on their kids education and have a healthy family income...the majority of the "smartest cities" have a much higher percentage of families in those categories. Melrose has many issues in the school system, not the least is a large percentage of families who don't care what their kids are doing in school or on the weekends, and these families are dragging the averages in Melrose down. You don't see this in Reading, Winchester, Belmont, Lexington, etc. so while you are skewering Melrose Schools on this site take a look in the mirror. Do you and your spouse have a college degree, are you gainfully employed in well paying career, do you inist your kids school work comes first and demand good grades in school, adequate test preperation and a focus on getting into a good college? If you do, your kids will be fine in Melrose. Like Dr. Frued said, the apples don't fall far from the tree, and often the loudest whiners have put in the least effort. It all starts at home. My guess is with the exploding real estate values there is an influx of well educated parents with high expectations replacing the dead beats and over the next 5+ years with some solid effort on the adminstrations behalf these two factors will lead to improvement in the school system
It's a fallacy to think "your kids will be fine in Melrose," even if they do all the right things. They might be okay, but they will certainly be at a disadvantage next to students from communities that have a much more consistent and well-run school system, along with a parent population that consistently demands more--from themselves, from their children, and most certainly from their public school system--than too many in Melrose now do. These students will not be on the same par as those who were educated consistently and learned good habits all the way through their education, their athletics, their other extracurriculars. They might get into some good schools and some will certainly excel. But saying "they will be fine," is a an untrue generalization.
Used to be that Melrose was a good buy compared to those other towns because you got more house for your buck and you were closer to Boston. The schools were pretty good and most importantly, it was a caring community.
No longer a better bang for the buck. Look at the attitude of those on this string: Love it no matter what, or leave. Forget improvement or addressing problems.
If you are not already here because of house, family, other connections, do your kids a favor and don't come to Melrose until things drastically change.
Sorry, this is the phoniest of metrics.
The credentialed careers of Barack Obama and Sandra Sotomayor in juxtaposition to those uncredentialed ones of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs tell us all we need to know about those degrees.
Yes, somewhat agree (Justice Sotomayor is someone of worth, I believe) agree, Real Facts. Such silliness as US News and these kinds of polls are mostly all superficial non-science and anything but meaningful. However the entry did seed a few intelligent comments, which ultimately is what one might hope for with such a message board. Otherwise we're only left with the idiocy and hate-mongerers like Vuvu.
This board does serve a valuable function in a community where reliable sources of real news have been overtaken by the mayor, his ghost-writer B, and the realtors who rule him/them. As flawed as it is, it provides a place where some of the truth bubbles to the surface and where citizens can discover they are not as alone in their perception of things as the administration would have you believe. So filtering out the useless non-data of these metrics and heading to the gist of the conversations does tend to let the iron curtain get pulled back a bit. Too bad more won't step up in a more active way, though, because until that happens, this bantering is about all the progress the community is likely to see.
These quotes are priceless:
"reliable sources of real news have been overtaken by the mayor, his ghost-writer B, and the realtors who rule him/them...does tend to let the iron curtain get pulled back a bit"
Totalitarian Melrose. Xi Jinping and Putin are turning green with envy over Rob Dolan's regime. Do you realize how stupid the dozen or so of you lunatics appear to the saner part of Melrose that reads this board for pure entertainment.
While some might say if you don't like leave...most people look at these posts and believe you fools are too weak and do not have the courage of your convictions to create change. And the whining at the school committee meetings and the rantings on these pages don't count. Take on the establishment in a political election and win. Rob Dolan did it. He was a nobody alderman in Melrose running with the wrong crowd when he got elected. The hand picked successor to the establishment lost.
You fools can replace the realtors and rule the new mayor, you can pull back the iron curtain. All you need is a pair of b@lls and the courage of your convictions...and one candidate to run for Mayor that really believes they can do a better job than Rob Dolan.
Come on people. Rise up. Show us what you have under the hood.
Hey Robbie (aka Priceless),
Get back on your meds or at least go swig a few more. You are getting a bit strident and obvious there.
And if you think you won all by your lonesome, from a "nobody" alderman, you have a short memory. Daddy put you there, with a lot of help from people like DB, whom you later sold down the river like you do to anyone you perceive is no longer of use to you. Daddy's not there to keep you in line now, and you don't have any grown-up big-boy filters of your own, so you spew your nasty stuff and hope that you can keep getting away with it. Not so much now. Too many of us know your routine. You are done, regardless of who runs or doesn't run. You've lost the respect of many of your former rock-solid support, and you did that all by yourself, with your juvenile behavior, bad decisions and never-ending vendettas. Even if you have the job you don't have the respect, and you know it, too. That's why you get more nasty, more desperate, more obvious in your ugliness. You don't do your job anywhere near as well as you think you do, and a lot of the credit for your success these days is due to the work of others, not you. You're spending far too much time bar-hopping with your pal, J, and it's fried your brain. Such a dedicated family man you are. Not.
Find something else to do because your political days are numbered. May not be this year or next, but one way or the other, you've burned way too many bridges.
Dr. Who, thats the most delusional rant to ever appear on MM. Dolan beat the party insider and then crushed the next stooge they put up...and no one has had the b@lls to run against him since. Put your money where your mouth is. Dolan will remain Mayor if this City until he decides its time to move on. There has never been a more productive Mayor in the history of Melrose...and morons like yo think that the voting public will cast him out of office because you think he' s a bully and not a nice guy. Grow up. just because you really, really want it to be true, and may even believe your BS, doesn't make it so. Please, rally your troops. Send a candidate to the election. Go convince Conn or Mederios that you are right and the public will rally behind them. Should be easy pickings if what you say is true.
That's what happens when he only listens to his appointed Yes-Men/Women. If he had any smarts, he'd surround himself with those who will tell him the actual truth, not the fantasy he wants to believe in which he's always the hero. That's what his father used to do with him, and it made a big difference having a voice that kept him balanced. Not any more, unfortunately.
And just like so many politicians who were once effective but overstayed their welcome, he may sit in that office for quite a while still until this community wakes up and gets mad enough to start fixing itself. But even if he stays, he has lost a huge amount of the respect he once commanded. He can't bully people into respecting him, no matter what he does. He can't win back good will when he's mistreated so many. He can continue to sit there and abuse his power, while he maneuvers himself (and maybe his cronies this time) another 26% raise. He may even get it. There are lots of dumb people around here. But his days of being widely respected and even liked are over. He has to pander to the new parents because they are the only ones who haven't yet been trashed by him or whose kids haven't yet experienced the full awfulness of the schools. Pretty sad all around because there's no doubt the guy is talented and has done a lot of good.
This last bunch of posts pretty much hits the nail on the head, and it's a terrible shame. RD started out as an idealistic guy with a lot of big ideas and what seemed to be a real interest in doing good things, many of which he's actually achieved. He didn't do this alone, of course, and one of his downfalls is his failure to understand or remember that (which the true greats NEVER forget, always finding a way to be gracious even when they've been hurt). He has a bad habit of turning on some of the very people who helped him get where he is, kicking them to the curb and really brutalizing them after he's done with them and they've served his purpose. He thinks he gets away with this because he does this, like most cowards, behind their backs, trash-talking them every way to Sunday. He often accompanies this with either his ranting or his snickering, either way demonstrating his lack of maturity, ethics, or common decency. He also demonstrates his tunnel vision because he somehow believes (or doesn't care) that those he's trashing won't get wind of it, and he unabashedly even tries to use them again afterwards, thinking he's way smarter than they are. What he doesn't get is that some step up and do good things for him not because of him but because (unlike him) they do actually care about making things better, and they're willing to put up with abuse in order to get something good done. More often than not, though, those who are trash-talked and mistreated just move on and put their philanthropic efforts elsewhere after giving up on RD and his schemes. That's sad for everyone because a lot of good people have lost faith or worse, gotten cynical.
No the days of this guy generating confidence and good will are long past. He may continue strong-arming and snickering his way to further power, but many now know he's lost his way when it comes to having any heart or remembrance of basic decency.
Did all you clowns just pile out of the little clown car, or it just one clown that can't stop with the rant. The crowd that agrees with your position could hold a meeting in that little clown car. Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. Show some proof. Your just one of the typical Melrose haters that doesn't like who's in charge for whatever personal reason you have. Nobody cares. The voters are looking at:
1) Balanced budgets, stable finances and well run departments
2) Non-stop infrastructure improvements for his entire tenure
3) Phenomenal services offers in the City like parks & recreation, Mt. Hood, Library, Senior Center, Veteran's offices all the way down the list.
4) Highest Bond Rating ever
5) Smart economic development
6) Unbelievable downtown
7) Exploding Real Estate pricies
etc, etc, etc...
Those are all facts. Go ahead and give his department heads credit. They deserve, and he put them there. That's how well run government works.
It's the same stuff any potential competition is looking at and nobody will run against him. PERIOD. The guy is unbeatable and it ****** you off. So you go on with your daily rants about how he's a bully, and nobody likes him, and his daddy got him there, and he's losing credibility. Its all a figment of your delusional imagination. His competition knows it, and the voters know it. Go talk to Conn and Monica and see if they will run against him. No f*cking chance. You got the guy you despise at the top of the ladder for a long, long, long time.
Long live King Robbie.
Hey Clowns,
Seems like a nerve was struck. Just a bit defensive, are we? Well, lots to be defensive about.
Not really Frank.
Here is some advice that the successful people who get things done know, and the bozo brigade never seems to understand. In politics your opinion doesn't matter. Neither does mine. Everybody thinks they are right. The republicans, the democrats, the Israeli's, Palestinians, and on and on it goes. The other guy is always wrong. In a landslide election 6 out of 10 people feel one way and the other 4 feel another. The swing is less than two people. The Melrose Messages whiners have been running the hot air on this website for years. You are being called out. Do something about your opinions. Stop the whining. Dolan wins. He gets things done, and he gets his way because he did something about it. Your opinion doesn't matter because you don't matter. Your opinion and a dollar won't even get you a bus ride. It is worthless. This City needs a contested Mayors race. If the bozo's on this site are correct the City is waiting to surge behind a new candidate and sweep Dolan out of office...So do it already. Please. Lets have some fun next fall.