I remember as a youngster that my mother used an allegory to teach about perspective. She reminded me that a worm that is born in a barrel of horseradish and lives there for his whole life would think it was the sweetest place on earth! With that lesson in mind, I offer some interesting facts that I have learned from dear relatives who live in the Newton-esque suburbs of Detroit, Michigan.
I am not comparing apples and oranges. First of all, Michigan weather is comparable to Massachusetts weather. Their research and medical facilities are also on a par with ours. There are good, better and best school systems there that produce well-trained, creative and successful high school, college, and professional graduates that measure up, at an indistinguishable level, to those who study here. Comparable Michigan property taxes per square foot are lower, while at least some important services are clearly better there than in our home state.
First of all, not only are the streets routinely cleared of snow, all the sidewalks are likewise plowed by City “bombardiers” after each storm. Second, a family of 4 or a family of eight is offered only one garbage bin in Newton. To acquire more bins, one has to pay more. Need more bins in Michigan? Just ask and you get it. Third, and most important to me, is Michigan’s pandemic response which is head and shoulders above our State’s and City’s meager efforts. It is on that point that I wish to expound and grumble.
- If a Michigan resident needs or wants a Covid-19 test, his/her insurance is likely to cover the cost.
- That Michigan resident has the choice of many testing sites in the State.
- Testing in Michigan is done by many private “Urgent Care” centers at curbside. (To get the test, you stay in your car).
- Hospital systems in Michigan do not expect people to go inside their infectious, virus-laden indoor facilities, but offer curbside or “tented” or “sheltered” testing outdoors.
- Michigan residents have many choices as to which facility to use and there are many that have “drive-in” testing available.
Please don’t give me the snarly, snarky response that I should move to Michigan if it’s so great there. Please, just tell me why we should deserve the reputation that we live in the “Mecca” of barrels when it is filled to the brim with horseradish! To add to the allegory with a metaphor, I ask, “Is the Emperor naked?”
With hopes that your Christmas was Merry and that 2021 will turn the worms, I anticipate with interest reading your perspectives!
I’m confused by your assertion around COVID 19 testing.
Point 1: Free testing (paid for by the state) has been widely available throughout the pandemic at a number of sites.
Point 2: There are hundreds of testing sites in Massachusetts, including multiple locations in Newton and many more in adjacent towns.
Point 3: Testing in Massachusetts is (mostly) done by private urgent care centers at curbside, with no getting out of your car.
Point 4: It’s true, hospital systems in Massachusetts have chosen to mostly focus their resources on treating sick patients rather than swabbing the noses of passing motorists who spent the night in Rhode Island. I see this as an advantage not a detriment.
Point 5: Same. Plenty of places to get a COVID test in Massachusetts.
I would strongly urge the moderators of Village 14 to appropriately edit it down to factual and legitimate gripes: (1) that you don’t like to shovel your sidewalk; and, (2) that you have a lot of trash in your life that you would like the City to remove for free.
@Donald: Your information is incomplete. As an example, the testing site at Riverside offers PCR drive-in testing at $80/person (no insurance taken!). It is the only drive-in testing in this City. Thankfully, they do take appointments, but still have hour-long waiting lines.
Many “free” testing sites are indoor sites which are not as good for test seekers at high risk.
No Urgent Care centers offered outdoor testing (Some friends were searching high and low for them and that was well before the Christmas rush.
The hospitals do actually do Covid-19 testing. But inside their vermin filled walls!
The system is simply not working as well here as it appears to be in Michigan!
Furthermore, I WOULD like to have snow shoveling done by the City, paid for as a part of my taxes. That would be the safest condition for children who walk to school as well as for the elderly. I would pay a surcharge for that City service, allowing others to opt out if they so desired. Private plowing services are often unreliable.
The extra garbage can given in Michigan was just an extra perk that we might consider as fair per size of family!
I love Newton, too, but am embarrassed that we are not doing a better coordinated job this time! We could definitely do better.
As for your statement “I would strongly urge the moderators of Village 14 to appropriately edit it down to factual and legitimate gripes”: I have personally witnessed the frustration of several test seekers here and believe what has been reported to me from very reliable sources in Michigan. These are legitimate facts and gripes, not to be dismissed off-hand!
I believe all 5 points are true for Massachusetts just as they are for Michigan. What am I missing here?
Hi Newtoner: It is the “low-contact” outdoor testing with drive-through or curbside procedures available at multiple locations and with insurance accepted that is what is missing. Appointments being necessary as part of the overall plan, are important, too!
As an example, last week the free “outdoor” Chelsea testing site near the Police Station had long lines of people waiting in an outdoor line with no social distancing! My wise friends saw that and left!
Hi Newtoner: It is the “low-contact” outdoor testing with drive-through or curbside procedures available at multiple locations and with insurance accepted that is what is missing. Appointments being necessary as part of the overall plan, are important, too!
As an example, last week the free “outdoor” Chelsea testing site near the Police Station had long lines of people waiting in an outdoor line with no social distancing! My friends saw that and wisely chose to leave!
Sorry for the redundant response.
I just checked available tests at Project Beacon. The closest for tomorrow is in New Bedford:
Select a location to schedule your test.
NEARBY TESTING LOCATIONS
Hyde Park – City of Boston (EBNHC)
1432 Hyde Park Ave
Boston, MA 02136
No upcoming times are currently available for this location.
This is an observed RT-PCR test site.
Revere – Express COVID-19 Testing Site
31 Furlong Drive, Suffolk Downs
Revere, MA 02151
No upcoming times are currently available for this location.
This is an observed RT-PCR test site.
Framingham – Express COVID-19 Testing Site
484 Franklin St
Framingham, MA 01702
No upcoming times are currently available for this location.
This is an observed RT-PCR test site.
Lynn – Express COVID-19 Testing Site
398 Blossom St Exd
Lynn, MA 01905
Next Available Appointment:
Mon, Dec 28 at 1:40 pm EST
This is an observed RT-PCR test site.
New Bedford – Express COVID-19 Testing Site
532 Acushnet Ave
New Bedford, MA 02740
Next Available Appointment:
Sun, Dec 27 at 11:50 am EST
This is an observed RT-PCR test site.
@Sallee
I know it would be devastating to think that a Newtonite might have to go to *Watertown*, *Waltham*, or, heaven forbid, *West Roxbury* to have your specific testing needs met (must be drive thru, must be urgent care, must be 100% covered by insurance). But don’t worry, by definition, you don’t even have to get out of your car!!!
FWIW I’ve been tested every ~2 weeks at AFC Waltham since the Spring time (I work in a high exposure field) and have had a generally good experience (much better since they stopped the brain tickler). The Stop The Spread site in Framingham was actually better for a little while in the summer, but they consolidated to a more inconvenient (to me) location in ~October.
Also, as a positive aside, as far as we know, no homegrown armed militia is plotting to kidnap Charlie Baker and violently overthrow the state government.
So we’ve got that going for us.
@Donald: As Anatoly mentioned above, many of these sites don’t have available time slots. I also forgot to report that the Michigan sites offer professional hands-on, nose-tickling, swabbing. No self-swabbing for amateurs that might (even slightly) increase incidence of false negatives. The system just seems to be smoother there. Why, I wonder? I appreciate that you have had tests every few weeks for work, and I am grateful that you continue to be healthy, but if someone has a known exposure to a Covid-19 positive person, they might be a bit more concerned about availability of testing times at low-risk drive through sites.
Checked AFC Urgent Care Watertown. Next available through insurance January 3, self pay December 29.
@Donald: Yeah, that invasion of the Michigan State Capital was certainly off the charts. I didn’t say Michigan was perfect…that’s why I live here… just that they are running a smoother public health system. The coordination comes at the county level there. Maybe that’s the function we are missing here. And my friends looking for testing were willing to go to Providence, Chelsea, Waltham, Watertown, West Roxbury, Framingham, etc., but testing was not available for them. I’m not making this up! And I’m glad you found access. Does your company have a contract with the testing sites? Maybe that’s the difference?
@Sallee
Searching the State of Michigan site…I can find zero availability for anything in Ann Arbor (which I would argue is probably the best overall “proxy” Newton in Detroit).
I get tested only when I have known exposure to a COVID positive person. Which has been every couple of weeks since April. I understand the urgency of being tested and the stress involved. So far so good. AFC in Waltham is super easy. It’s not a self swab, they’ve just stopped pushing it all the way to the brain.
Also, FWIW, the “deaths above average” rate in MA this year is about 20% lower than in Michigan (on a per 100K residents basis).
I’m happy to be a critic. But my job gives me a ground-level view of the COVID response/testing (and now vaccination!) rollouts in about 30 states. Massachusetts has not been perfect, but it has been among the best. The big failure in Massachusetts (now on soapbox) has been in Skilled Nursing and Long Term Care facilities, where MassHealth’s long-term strategy to strangle that industry into consolidation made short-term effective response impossible. Outside of nursing homes, the Massachusetts response has been comparatively much better than most other states. It’s not perfect, but it’s the close to the best that can be done.
@Sallee
I will concede that the Christmas week (and Thanksgiving was actually worse) has been a pretty tough time to find an appointment. I would assume the situation is similar in Ann Arbor, and was eminently predictable given people’s unwillingness to sacrifice around the holidays. I avoided patient contact for two weeks before Christmas expressly so that I would not need to rush to get a test. The worst case scenario could mean waiting in line for hours…and I’m not up for that.
I’m sorry that your friend had a hard time finding a test that met their needs, but I’m certain that had nothing to do with living in Massachusetts versus living in Michigan.
You win, Donald. I’m tired and can’t debate any more tonight. I hope your stellar experiences are true for all local test seekers! And I hope I don’t need a test before I can get a vaccine!
By the way…Ann Arbor is not a proxy for Newton… Birmingham, West Bloomfield, Berkley, Royal Oak and Huntington Woods are a much closer demographic to Newton. And CVS and Walgreens offer convenient drive-through testing.
“Ann Arbor is not a proxy for Newton… Birmingham, West Bloomfield, Berkley, Royal Oak and Huntington Woods are a much closer demographic to Newton.”
Ann Arbor is a bit bigger – about 120,000 and also home to a nationally well regarded university (the enrollment gap between Michigan and BC actually covers almost the entire population gap).
Huntington Woods has a population of 6,000 people. Probably a nice comp for Waban.
One of the macro challenges I find with Newton is that the City is much larger than its residents tend to imagine it (due to the charm of the 13 villages?). Our population [size] is closer to Springfield’s than to Weston’s, and is actually materially larger than more urban cities like Somerville. Granted, years of restrictive zoning have created a socioeconomic demographic that looks more like Weston…but Newton has some big city challenges.
This is off-topic a bit, but why our mayor consistently uses “died WITH COVID-19” wording in her reports as opposed to the common “died FROM”?