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    Councilor asks Boston to name racism ‘a public health crisis’

    Ricardo Arroyo addresses the Boston City Council. Photo by Jordan Frias Concerned about racism and inequity in Boston, freshman city councilor Ricardo Arroyo is calling for an independent office to assess how city officials can play a role in reducing racism and its impacts on communities of color.Arroyo, the chairman of the council’s Committee on…

    Councilor asks Boston to name racism ‘a public health crisis’

    Ricardo Arroyo addresses the Boston City Council. Photo by Jordan Frias Concerned about racism and inequity in Boston, freshman city councilor Ricardo Arroyo is calling for an independent office to assess how city officials can play a role in reducing racism and its impacts on communities of color.Arroyo, the chairman of the council’s Committee on…

    As coronavirus spreads, homeless people are vulnerable

    Massachusetts and the United States overall are ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic, and homeless people stand to bear the brunt of this lack of preparedness. Many homeless people have pre-existing health conditions, and public health officials in Massachusetts have not set up places for homeless people to wash their hands, or to isolate themselves…

    Refugees sleeping rough on outskirts of EU

    Usually, seeing homeless people is no reason for joy. But in Budapest it is – last year, head of state Viktor Orbán and his right-wing national government passed a law criminalising homeless people for sleeping rough. They are given three warnings and then imprisoned. Thankfully, the law is not enforced everywhere. The criminalisation of homeless…

    Councilor asks Boston to name racism ‘a public health crisis’

    Ricardo Arroyo addresses the Boston City Council. Photo by Jordan Frias Concerned about racism and inequity in Boston, freshman city councilor Ricardo Arroyo is calling for an independent office to assess how city officials can play a role in reducing racism and its impacts on communities of color.Arroyo, the chairman of the council’s Committee on…

    Boston to make case for new Long Island bridge to Quincy

    The City of Boston is hoping to convey that rebuilding a bridge to Long Island is the best option for accessing and reopening a recovery campus for addicts during a meeting on Tuesday, May 7,  in Quincy. The public meeting, being held at the Kennedy Center facility for the Quincy Council on Aging at 7…

    Austin expels homeless from under bridge, promises them giant tent

    Austin, Texas – The City of Austin plans to erect a giant tent to accommodate roughly 300 homeless people who were evicted from their roadside homes as winter approaches. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the displacement of the City of Austin’s homeless population from their homes under bridges in the city, using the state’s ownership…

    Horace Seldon: Fighting Injustice, Celebrating Civil Disobedience

    Horace Seldon was happily lying on his back, waving his hands and feet in the air the first time Shay Stewart-Bouley saw him. Shay was just starting out as Executive Director of Community Change, Inc., the anti-racism non-profit Horace founded in 1968, and she was at the organization’s forty-fifth anniversary party. It also happened to…

    Arts & Culture

    Book Review: Long Bright Mirror

    “Long Bright Mirror” by Liz Moore, is a book that is both frightening and warm, about two sisters in Philadelphia who have been slammed by the opiate crisis. Mickey or Michaela, the older sister has become a police officer who regularly patrols the 24th District called Kensington. Her younger sister, Kacey, a heroin addict, is…

    Book Review: Long Bright Mirror

    “Long Bright Mirror” by Liz Moore, is a book that is both frightening and warm, about two sisters in Philadelphia who have been slammed by the opiate crisis. Mickey or Michaela, the older sister has become a police officer who regularly patrols the 24th District called Kensington. Her younger sister, Kacey, a heroin addict, is…

    Champion of the Underdog: An Interview With Dolly Parton

    “As a writer, I have to leave my heart open,” Dolly Parton begins. “That’s why I have always said I never could harden my heart, even against hurt or anything. Because as a writer, if you harden your heart, you’re not going to feel all that emotion you need to feel, and you won’t be…

    ‘Friends’ Star Inspired to Action by Friend’s Homelessness

    David Schwimmer, former star of “Friends,” turned his artistic talent to telling stories that highlight the struggle of homeless people after discovering that his friend had been living on Skid Row, hiding his homelessness even from those who knew him best. Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “I had a friend who was homeless for two…

    Movie Review: The Rhythm Section

    I apologize if this review screams at you to not see this movie, but my job here is to tell you whether or not a movie is worth seeing, and that means not every review will radiate positivity.So, here we go.Reed Morano (The Handmaid’s Tale) directs The Rhythm Section with Blake Lively, starring as Stephanie…

    Columns

    Is Boston truly ready for Coronavirus?

    Just the other day I was at one of the busiest malls in the Boston area, it was a nice warm pre-spring day, the kind of day you look forward to after a long New England winter. Instead of being packed to the gills like it would usually be on a day like this, the…

    Bizarre Boston: Raising Hell at Harvard

    When I think about college students raising hell, I picture kegs of beer, red plastic Solo cups and loud music. Oh, and maybe a beer funnel or two. In my mind, the phrase “raising hell” is just a metaphor for having a wild time. However, maybe it’s not always just a metaphor. For some Harvard…

    Running on Empty Part 2: Doctor Shopping and Crowbar Dodging

    The pharmacist had grey hair and his glasses rested down on a bump in the middle of his nose.  The woman working the counter came over and I handed her the scripts. She asked me for my address and wrote it on the scripts.  I hated when they did that if they didn’t cash them…

    LAST WORD: Christina Sukghian Houle

    About a month ago, an artist called Christina Sukhgian Houle dropped into the Spare Change News’ headquarters to meet with some of the vendors. Christina has joined forces with the newspaper’s co-founder, James Shearer, with the goal of making a documentary on homelessness in the Boston area. Christina is a relatively recent transplant to Greater…

    Is Boston truly ready for Coronavirus?

    Just the other day I was at one of the busiest malls in the Boston area, it was a nice warm pre-spring day, the kind of day you look forward to after a long New England winter. Instead of being packed to the gills like it would usually be on a day like this, the…

    ‘I Always Came Back’: A Story of Survival

    “Hey, baby!” Linda Burston, with an illuminating smile and wide eyes, greets every woman who comes through the doors of Women’s Lunch Place. They always know when Linda is in the room; even among the clink clank of dishes being piled high, the scraping of metal fork against ceramic plate, the hum of conversation among dozens of…

    The Avoidable Crisis

    Stanley Forman: 40 Years After the Soiling of Old Glory

    The photo was chilling. Before a crowd of onlookers, a white man appears to be attempting to stab a black man with the tip of a flagpole. “It really showed racism,” said photographer Stanley Forman 40 years after he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning snapshot of an anti-busing protest that had turned violent. “It was whites…

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