By Colman Herman, contributing writer, CommonWealth magazine
My cover piece, “Freeloaders,” appearing in the winter issue of CommonWealth reports on how poorly the Department of Conservation and Recreation handles its leasing of the Commonwealth’s extensive property holdings. It is based largely on accessing copies of the actual leases themselves. But sad to say, what should have been an easy task turned out instead to be a public records nightmare.
I had previously written a piece for CommonWealth about the sweetheart deal the Sullivan’s hot dog stand has with DCR to occupy state property on Castle Island in South Boston, as well as the sweetheart deal Swan Boats, Inc. has with the city of Boston to operate the swan boats. It was a relatively easy chore to get the records I needed for that story. But my good fortune was about to run out. Continue reading ‘Long battle over request for records about Mass. property holdings’ »
