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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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, Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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 Read More…
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, Read More…