Who can remember which utility NStar provides and which utility National Grid provides? No one? That’s what I thought. Sometimes we long for yesteryear when Boston Edison and Boston Gas supplied exactly what they said they did. But never mind that. Whoever supplies our electricity in the downtown never fails. (It turns out to be Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
Have you been in a taxi this summer? In some cabs, you might have noticed the lack of air conditioning. Not that it was so good in any other summer, but with the window closed in the safety partition between the driver and the back seat passenger, you’ll be panting before you reach your destination. Read More…
The Greenway Conservancy is much maligned these days. Bloated salaries, ham-handed relationships with neighbors, advocates and meeting attendees, an aura of secrecy and a haughty attitude are some of the criticisms lobbed at this five-year-old organization charged with developing and maintaining the Rose Kennedy Greenway on top of the Big Dig. Maybe some of the Read More…
Something recently happened on Charles Street that was disconcerting. It appears to have worked out okay. I’ll tell you about it because it has to do with what makes a good neighborhood shopping district. It has a good ending—so far. I’m not naming most names because it doesn’t matter at this point. The sources for Read More…
Rachael Ringenberg takes her one-year-old daughter to the Esplanade as much as she can. They head for the Lee Memorial Wading Pool, across Storrow Drive from the signs, “If you lived here, you’d be home now.” Rachael says the Lee wading pool is ideal. It’s not as crowded and chaotic as the Frog Pond, which Read More…
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary has proposed giving up its parking lot on the Esplanade, rerouting Storrow Drive and its ramps, building an addition to its main building over the Charles Street extension and constructing a large parking lot underneath the Esplanade. Ambitious. There have been the usual complaints, anxieties, and turf battles. West Enders Read More…
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passes muster with the Constitution. Mitch McConnell and company have had their chance to sputter, spit and go spastic over Justice John Roberts’s betrayal. So summer can now begin. Summer, at least in the way New England celebrates it, is the season Read More…
A few weeks ago architecture in Boston was the topic of this column. It must have hit a nerve because many people wrote or phoned to say they also were concerned about the pedestrian nature of the architecture that has been Boston’s stock in trade for the past several years. So I’d like to introduce Read More…