Dear Readers, U.S. Representative Niki Tsongas is retiring. Harvard President Drew Faust and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also are doing so. I’m following their lead. I’m retiring. This is the last Downtown View column I will write. I’ve enjoyed creating them. I’ve enjoyed interviewing the people who participate in Boston matters. I’ve enjoyed visiting Read More…
Sometimes I read recent books by Boston authors and describe them in this column. The following three books fit the Boston criteria, but vary widely in their subject matter. One of them might be just what you are looking for either for yourself or a holiday gift. The Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Read More…
You know it when you see it. For Lucas Cowan, public art curator for the Greenway, it is the bean, or, more formally, “Cloud Gate” by Anish Kapoor in Chicago’s Millennium Park. For Julie Burros, chief of arts and culture for the City of Boston, it is the 1971 Corita Kent painting on the big Read More…
The constitutional amendment that imposes a “millionaires’ tax” will likely be on our ballots in November, 2018, along with the candidates for governor and Congress. You probably already know that this amendment would levy an additional tax on any person or couple who makes more than a million dollars in a year. We all pay Read More…
As you could probably surmise by my name, I’m pretty white. One time at a political convention in Worcester, a man who must have considered himself ethnic compared to me, called me derisively, Karen Lord Taylor. I thought he was pathetic. After all, we were in the same political party, and most of us were Read More…
Boston is an odd city in many ways. We do have a lion and a unicorn, but our favorite icons are a grasshopper (Faneuil Hall) a cod (State House) and ducklings and swans (Public Garden). Those creatures might seem insignificant in some cities, but we’re going with what we’ve got. Amid sixteenth-to-nineteenth-century street patterns we Read More…
It’s a familiar story. Twenty-somethings enjoy living downtown. Then they have kids. After a couple of years they depart for the suburbs. They have good reasons. The schools are often better. The housing is cheaper. There is more space. Common practices and policies make it hard for families to stay in downtown Boston. Few new Read More…
For the past three weeks everyone has been busy. Neighborhood organizations are throwing welcome-back parties and holding meetings, confident that people are back in town. Kids gather again at bus stops. They carry backpacks and sports equipment, looking determined and full of anticipation for what their school day holds. The BPL has begun homework-helping sessions. Read More…
What makes small cities successful? I’ve asked that question as I’ve gotten to know Portsmouth, New Hampshire, over a couple of visits. If you’ve not been to this lovely, vibrant place less than an hour and a half from Boston up Route 1 and I-95, put in on your list. Its setting is divine, lying Read More…
It’s September. You’ve moved in either over the weekend or sometime this summer. You’ve not met many of your neighbors because long-time residents try to get out of town on moving days, since it can be hectic, noisy and hard to negotiate the sidewalks because they contain so much debris. No matter what ethnic group, Read More…
Karen is on vacation. Here is a column from February that you might enjoy again. Samuel Eliot Morison in The Maritime History of Massachusetts describes our state’s liabilities—tumbling, shallow, un-navigable rivers that could never compete with the mighty Hudson or the St. Lawrence; “long-lying snow,” making for a short growing season; shallow soil too close Read More…
Karen is taking a summer break. This column on a remarkable business incubator appeared last January. Take one old hot dog factory. Add two big kitchens, eight convection ovens, 12 food truck spaces, several 15-gallon mixers, a frying pan logo, a 1,800 square-foot refrigerator and 45 start-ups. Stir in $15 million of public money, tax Read More…