Another misinformed non-resident writes about Revere Beach

All anyone has to do is walk the beach to find out there's a problem, which doesn't exist in Nahant, Lynn or other DCR run property. It's funny, the state runs the beach and the MBTA, and yet Revere pols are being chastised for them not taking action. Whose job is it anyway? Sometimes it's so crowded on the sidewalk you have a hard time passing the bandstand area. If these kids were there for the beach, they'd be on it, instead of hanging around the sidewalk or sitting in their car w/their stereo systems booming. And it doesn't stop as a 1 day deal, just wait until the summer is on us and you'll find it on a daily basis.

Last week, a mass text message prompted thousands of Boston teens to skip school and descend upon Revere Beach, stopping traffic, bearing weapons and occasionally shoplifting. In response, the Revere City Council requested that metal detectors be installed in the Revere Blue Line Station, so that gun/knife wielders don't converge upon the scenic landscape of trash and hypodermic needles. The cash-strapped MBTA said no.

Chill Out, Revere

Judging by their wildly over-the-top rhetoric some Revere officials want to prepare a defense of Revere Beach to rival D-Day.

And who are they defending this strip of sand from?

Why, none other than Boston public school kids on an unauthorized break from classes!

“Now that they’ve gotten a taste of Revere Beach, I’m afraid they’re going to come often,” Councilor Charles J. Patch said at a hearing on Monday.

“What descended on that beach on April 28 makes the Blizzard of ’78 pale by comparison,” said Councilor George V. Colella.

Right, the Blizzard of ’78 - when the beach nearly washed away, 2,000 Revere residents took shelter at the high school, 3,000 homes were damaged and the tidal surge nearly swept residents and rescue workers out to sea. No hyperbole there!

Granted, the scene at Revere Beach on April 28 was enormously troubling to a city that was unaware and unprepared for an onslaught of thousands of young people - some of them, yes, bent on mayhem.

More than 2,800 Boston high school students were absent that day, an increase from a typical Tuesday, and there were six arrests of Boston juveniles in Revere, according to state police. Witnesses described shoplifting and fights and traffic was snarled for hours.

But a call by Revere officials for the nearly-bankrupt MBTA to install metal detectors at the Revere Beach T station to scan every beach-goer for weapons is laughably excessive. Would there be a special allowance for beach chairs and baby carriages?

Yes, times are tight, and city officials see in this unusual incident an opportunity to secure more funding in the state budget for beach patrols. And surely law enforcement ought to take this incident seriously, but there is every indication that they have. Revere officials ought to take a deep breath before calling out the National Guard.

Boston Herald