NorthEndWaterfront.com
News & Views for Boston's North End & Waterfront Community
Spring is definitely here so downtown residents’ inclinations turn to gardening. Digging in dirt, planting flowers, doing a bit of pruning and scooping up the winter’s detritus, all on a sunny day, is satisfying after hugging the fire all winter. Back Bay’s magnolias and Beacon Hill’s pears are gone, but they provided weeks of enjoyment [...]
The Cape will suffer an economic downturn this summer. Fewer people can take a vacation. The reason: it seems that half the citizens of Boston are running for office. They must stay in the city and campaign. This is occurring just when we thought we could come up for air after the 2012 campaign in [...]
By now, you’ve probably heard of Arkansas State Representative Nate Bell who tweeted “I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine?” By now, you’ve also heard the answer: “none.” I called Nate Bell and left a message on his voicemail. I [...]
For the last three weeks this column has featured the three Democratic candidates for the 8th Suffolk District state representative seat Marty Walz left in January. There have been new developments. One candidate, Nils Tracy, dropped out. And the elusive reported Republican candidate found me. So I can introduce you to him too. Victor Navarro, [...]
Three Democrats are running for state representative in the Eighth Suffolk District, which includes the Back Bay, the West End, most of Beacon Hill and Cambridgeport. A Republican is supposed to be running, but we haven’t unearthed him yet. Nomination papers are due April 16 so we’ll know for sure at that point. This column [...]
Last week in an effort to help you become familiar with candidates in a special election, this column described Jay Livingstone, who is running for state representative in the Eighth Suffolk District, the position Marty Walz left vacant when she resigned in late January to take a job with Planned Parenthood. Josh Dawson, 30, is [...]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the profound fatigue that last fall’s presidential and senatorial election brought on. How could we face another round of debates, accusations and ads that two special elections were bound to produce? As I was trying to shed the dismal feelings, Jay Livingstone called me up. Dismal feelings gone. [...]
Most neighborhoods have iconic trees. The Back Bay has its magnolias. Beacon Hill blossoms with Callery pear trees in late April. The North End’s favorite trees are the lindens and locusts along the Prado, slated this spring for pruning. Charlestown has variety, with especially good gingkos. Downtown residents get pretty agitated about trees. When city [...]
Oh, to be in Boston, now that March is here. Because it will be cleaner. The cars will be towed. Those big mechanical sweepers will chug down our streets, and winter’s flotsam and jetsam will be sucked up and taken away starting this week, a whole month earlier than the traditional starting date. This is [...]
Recently I attended a meeting focused on how Americans could reduce their carbon footprint by re-arranging their neighborhoods. (And it’s not only I who am drawn to such nerdy topics—the room was full.) The speaker talked about sufficient density, public transportation, sidewalks, intersections, easy access between home and work—in other words, all the advantages we [...]
Urban designer Julie Campoli has a new book out called “Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Form.” It’s not about Boston neighborhoods. It’s about sections of spread-out cities such as Denver, Alexandria and Albuquerque. Still, the book explores features Bostonians will recognize. Typically, these neighborhoods thrived in the early 20th century, then declined after World [...]
What a storm. What a wonderful storm. When we moved to downtown Boston years ago, we didn’t do it for the walkability, the neighborliness or the convenience of living in a place where the electricity stays on when a blizzard bears down. I’m not sure now why we moved here, except I knew that if [...]
Some of you probably went to the Mayor’s State of the City address last week. Some of you, like me, watched it on television. There was lots of blather about the standing ovation and the probability that Menino will run for office once again. Maybe he will. Few candidates could prevail over him, given the [...]
Consider the rat—specifically the Norway rat, which doesn’t come from Norway. It is brownish gray and as long as 16 inches. During its year-long lifespan a female can produce up to five litters of seven babies, although litters can be as large as 14. It has excellent sight and hearing and an acute sense of [...]
Many Bostonians at this time of year are tired of cold and darkness. I don’t share that affliction. I like winter’s atmosphere, albeit with a nice fire to keep me cozy. But because it is cold and dark we read, listen to the radio and watch television more than in the summer, and sometimes the [...]
The Boston Public Schools have an illustrious history. In 1635, Boston Latin became the first public school in America. The Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill was the first public school building in the nation built for African American children. The Boston Public Schools also have an embarrassing history. The lowest point was in 1974. [...]
Have you heard the news? In late November Governor Patrick signed off on a plan to make Massachusetts highways look like Times Square. He must have decided that trees, rolling meadows and a granite road cut or two just didn’t send the right message in the souped-up, electronic world we now live in. The Times [...]
The problems I hear most about are bikes. I get emails. People stop me in the street. People complain at neighborhood meetings. I bet you hear the same complaints even if you don’t write a newspaper column. Bikes shoot through intersections against the light. They weave in and out of traffic so drivers can’t see [...]
It’s Christmas week. For many, it is hectic, so you might not read this column until Christmas Day is over and you’re dealing with boxes, the wrapping paper that can’t be saved, and the instructions that came with the Lego sets the kids have already assembled. So don’t you think it is a good time [...]
What about that royal baby? I’m sure I speak for all of downtown Boston when I say we’re over the moon with joy. I’m hoping he or she looks more like Kate than Will. And one wonders, if the future monarch of Great Britain can now be the heir-to-the-throne’s first-born girl, why can’t a lowly [...]
We’ve got an old bridge over the Fort Point Channel. It’s going to be decorated for the next few years with flowers in boxes. Why is this important? Let’s place it first. It is the Northern Avenue Bridge connecting Northern Avenue where it passes between the Moakley Courthouse and the Barking Crab in the Seaport [...]
Just when you think life in our fair city can’t get any weirder, you hear about something even more weird. According to a friend of mine who happened to be out walking early one Friday morning on Charles Street, the trash haulers might have a nice little business on the side. Two guys with Capitol [...]
I’m worried. It’s about a surface parking lot. It seems silly to worry about a parking lot, but that’s the way it is. Maybe it will turn out okay, but things have a way of getting out of hand. Let’s hope I’m wrong. This parking lot lies on the Esplanade near Charles Circle. That location [...]
After Hurricane Sandy, bruising presidential and senatorial campaigns that lasted far too long, and a continuing hospital watch over Mayor Menino, fatigued Bostonians needed a good sex scandal. Our prayers were answered, courtesy of CIA director David Petraeus, General John R. Allen, the financially-challenged Tampa twins, and biographer and upper-arm specialist Paula Broadwell. Of course, [...]
If you live in downtown Boston, you’re already living a green life. You probably walk more than you drive. About half of us don’t even own a car. Most likely, you’re living in an old building. That’s the greenest place to live since someone has repaired and restored the building rather than tearing it down [...]
So I’m sitting in front of the fireplace on a rainy day listening on my husband’s iPad to Paul McCartney singing “Yesterday.” I’m reading Michael Ondaatje’s “The Cat’s Table.” I’m thinking that “Yesterday” might be one of the world’s finest songs. I’m thinking Paul McCartney is a prodigious talent in a great big field of [...]
Matt Conti alerted me to this. More about Matt later, but for now, consider what he found. Zillow.com is a real estate web site that appears to be growing in influence. It is filled with listings, but also celebrity real estate gossip and assessments of real estate industry health across the country. Recently it rated [...]
When should a principle be disregarded? When the principle stands in the way of a good neighborhood. A case in point has developed on Beacon Hill. The Park Street School, which, typically in contradictory Boston, is located on Brimmer Street, wants to buy the adjacent house at 124 Chestnut Street and attach it to the [...]
Gambling news recently has been all about casinos. This focus will likely go on for several more years as developers duke it out over the three locations. Forgotten in all of this has been the Massachusetts Lottery, which, over the 40 years it has been in operation, has churned out almost $91 billion in sales, [...]
Ah, the Greenway. That wonderful replacement for that awful highway. Ah, the Greenway Conservancy. That wonderful idea that has turned awful at times. But there is a ray of hope. A change for the better? Shared goals developed by formerly antagonistic players? Everybody on the same page? We’ll see. Cooperation between Conservancy staff and horticultural [...]
A large banner advertisement hangs in the window at the Charles/MGH T station. These are beautiful windows. Why is this big ad there? $$$$$. First, I heard a 72-year old woman complain about this ad. Then a 10-year-old boy pointed it out, saying it was too big. It is hard to see from some angles, [...]
Good news: the Boston Public Market Association says its year-round market for Massachusetts-grown, made, hunted and fished food will open in June, 2014. Well, maybe not hunted, but you can see how that would fit in. Earlier this year, after a lengthy, delayed process, the state designated the BPMA as occupants of the ground floor [...]
Last year, on September 11, 2011, I was on a plane, just like I had been on September 11, 2001. I was uncomfortable. It wasn’t the plane or fear or the coincidence that I would be on a plane both on THE day and on its 10th anniversary. My discomfort grew from the way this [...]
There is still a lot of trash on the sidewalks from the move-ins, but soon those reliable trash collectors will do their job, some nice neighbor will do a little sweeping, a rain will arrive and wash away the sticky debris, and we’ll be back to normal. But what is normal for permanent residents is [...]
The summer is over, and I bet you didn’t finish all the books you intended to read during this most lovely of seasons. I’m here to relieve your guilt. Most book reviews tell you what you should read. But some books are not all they are cracked up to be. I’ve read a few books [...]
The hysterics are back. This time it’s the mural on the Greenway that two Brazilian brothers painted on a ventilation building. To hear the moral outrage folks, it’s not just questionable art, it’s anti-American, terrorist-derived, anti-Christian, you name it, but name it only in extremes. Get over it. It’s a painting. But hysteria is now [...]