I am a former North Ender born and raised there. My entire family is either still living there or in the surrounding suburbs (and none of them are opposing anything). My grandparents came to the North End 100 years ago and quickly bought their own building where they lived all their lives. Luckily, I was Read More…
Commentaries
Starbucks Does Not Belong In Our Doorway
Little Italy is a symbol of Italian culture and flavor, no different than many neighborhoods in Boston. Look at neighboring Chinatown, people flock there and here for the same reason: to taste a little Italian or Chinese food and feel the culture, not to sip a cup of coffee from a place its residents will Read More…
Downtown Journal: Mayors and Me
Downtown Journal An occasional column about city life When I first moved to Boston, I lived on Beacon Hill with two roommates from college. We lived on Grove Street, right up the Hill from Massachusetts General Hospital. We had a fairly large apartment in which we all had our own bedrooms — if you counted Read More…
Remembering Joe LaFauci
By Joe Sarno Few are left who remember Joe, but those that are still around who knew him will never forget him. He was a giant of a man, both physically and intellectually. He was a willing and most capable teacher of math, Latin, Greek, history, religion, opera and current events and everything else, it Read More…
Downtown Journal: Where the Wild Things Are
Downtown Journal An occasional column about city life by Monica Collins As the sun rises over the Boston Harbor, you will find me and my dog walking on the waterfront lawn I call “Amos’ Green Space.” I dub it thusly because Amos Hostetter, the proprietor of the Pilot House whose Barr Foundation funds many Boston Read More…
A Shtetl in the City, Part 3, “A Vanished World”
This is the third installation of Nicholas Dello Russo’s “A Shtetl in the City”, following part one and part two. There has always been a Jewish presence in the North End. Jews were probably living here since Colonial times, but the height of Jewish immigration to Boston was from about 1870 to 1920 when Eastern Read More…
Reflections of Baseball Past
Spring is finally here in Boston and by the time you are reading this, Opening Day for Major League Baseball will be a memory. The thing I like about the start of a baseball season is the hope it brings. We can dream of a pennant or even maybe a World Series Championship. I am Read More…
How Can Massachusetts Take Action on Gun Violence? Downtown Progressives Forum Monday, April 30
By Lisa Green, North End mom and Co-Chair of Downtown Progressives. How Can Massachusetts Take Action on Gun Violence? A group will host a forum at the Nazzaro Center on Monday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m. Living here in deep-blue Massachusetts, we can sometimes feel like the debates about gun control that take place around the country after tragedies Read More…
Downtown Journal: The Tourists Are Coming, The Tourists Are Coming!
Welcome to Downtown Journal! An occasional column about city life by Monica Collins Don’t get me wrong. I think tourists are indigenous to the North End/Waterfront. And like other indigenous creatures – seagulls, rabbits, rats and pigeons — I accept them as part of our environment and who we are. Kind of. I draw the Read More…
EXTINCTION EVENTS AND AIRBNB: There Goes the Neighborhood
Commentary by Thomas F. Schiavoni A recent tidal wave of short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb are flooding Boston’s housing market and stirring up intense debate over legislation proposed by the Mayor’s Office. The North End and adjacent neighborhoods are nearing the tipping point of an ‘extinction event’. Earth scientists use this term to Read More…
North End Roof Gardens
Living in Boston’s North End in the 50s and 60s with its winding narrow streets and alleyways, it was always amazing to see so much greenery growing on fire escapes and on our flat patio rooftops. Besides laundry lines on fire escapes, there were hundreds of potted plants and herbs to be growing in the Read More…
Life on the Corner: Lenny the Clam
The North End of seventy five years ago was a very different place than it is today and, like many inner city neighborhoods, it had its secrets and kept them closely guarded. North Enders protected their own, sometimes to a fault, and in the daily struggle to make a few bucks and put food on Read More…