Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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From The Tractor Seat Nov 20
By Fred Steele (Road Scribes of America) As we scan the headlines of the news from day to day we often see stories that we believe have no connection to our lives only to discover they were defining moments that changed all our lives. Yesterday is a day we might not recognize as a catalyst…
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Poetry By Carolyn Gregory
ARM IN ARM (for Oscar Wilde) Oscar, I would have lovedto have a date with youon Valentine’s Day.We would have walkedarm in arm in Dublin,dressed like dandies. Your wit would have floored meas you picked on the cell phone junkiesand girls in stilettos.You might have pointed out a boyor two with promise. You talked about…
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Spare Change News
On Thanksgiving 2021, dozens of people gathered near the intersection of Baoston’s “Mass and Cass” in the area often referred to as “Methadone Mile.” They carried with them 230 bags packed with socks, gloves, and other supplies to be distributed to the area’s unhoused people — on the street, local shelters, and the New England…
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Thanksgiving, My Wife’s Surgery and Two Books
By Marc D. Goldfinger It was a strange Thanksgiving. The day before the holiday I had to get Mary Esther, my wife, to the hospital by 7 a.m. Originally the operation she needed on her back was scheduled for 2 p.m. but the early person canceled so that moved us up in the queue. It…
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A CLARION CALL.
“How about a mother who allows her family to deteriorate, to have no food, to sleep in boxes and in subway stations? Their children would be removed from them immediately, so today we are here to say, we are removing you from the care of our citizens.” That boys and girls were the words spoken…
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MICHELLE WU BEATS BPD TO BECOME FIRST WOMAN AND PERSON OF COLOR ELECTED MAYOR OF BOSTON
by Chris Faraone Dig Boston With 100% of the votes from all 255 precincts counted in the City of Boston, the still unofficial but decisive winner of the mayoral race is Councilor Michelle Wu. Her opponent, Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, conceded Tuesday evening. As even those who paid little attention to the race are likely aware, this…
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HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Last month, I read with huge disappointment that the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy seemed to be all in on Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkin’s inhumane proposal (in this writer’s opinion) to put those who are dealing with substance abuse and homelessness into an empty detention facility. I call it inhumane because the plan was…
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ANOTHER UNENVIABLE ANNUAL RECORD FOR GLOBAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
by Alison Kentish Inter Press Service As the international community gathers for COP26 widely considered the most important climate conference since the 2015 gathering which resulted in the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is reporting that despite global hits in trade and travel by the COVID-19 pandemic, the concentration of greenhouse gases in…
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Federal workers protest government shutdown
Senator Ed Markey gives a speech about standing with the people to end the shutdown. Dozens of federal employees rallied at Boston’s Post Office Square in protest of the government shutdown on Friday Jan. 11, the first day that thousands of federal workers did not receive their paychecks. In December, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously…
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Point in time count 2017
At last year’s point in time count—the city’s annual homeless census where groups of volunteers physically count the homeless folks they see in the streets—Mayor Marty Walsh had recently announced the City of Boston functionally ended veteran homelessness. This year, to a crowd of 400 volunteers, he announced that two-and-a-half years of housing first initiatives…
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Timeline: The chain of events that brought chaos to Boston’s Schools
Photos: StanleyFormanphotos.com, Pulitzer Prize 1977, “The Soiling of Old Glory” The Decision (1954–1974) On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional. On May 31, 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court raised the urgency of desegregation in the Brown II ruling by ordering that…
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Jerome Winegar: The rise and fall of South Boston High School
Jerome C. Winegar sat at his desk in St. Paul, Minnesota when his phone rang. He was weeks away from taking over as headmaster of South Boston High School. It was Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity, and he had specific instructions for Winegar. “Mr. Winegar, I don’t care, whatever you say you need. I’m going…
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Charles Willie: A life’s work tearing apart educational inequity, starting in Boston
Charles Willie stepped into the crowded city bus, paid his fare and walked past all the white people in the front. It was 1943 in Dallas and Willie had to make his way to the back of the bus with the rest of the black passengers. Dressed in peg-leg trousers, high-top shoes and a straw…
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Raymond Flynn: The South Boston insider who struggled to keep his alma mater open and ascended to political prominence
During four days of violence in October 1979, bands of boycotting high school students roamed the streets of Downtown Crossing, attacking and intimidating black workers and students. One of the groups had just chased away some black youths near the Common. Two black teens, Allen Moore, 19, and Denise Smith, 16, were having lunch nearby…
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Nathalie Hills: The Charlestown High Student who became responsible for her own education
Photo: InSaphoWeTrust Nathalie Hills sat on a cold bus seat bound for Charlestown High School in fall of 1979. The bus crossed over the Charlestown Bridge, revealing a crowd that had gathered to greet the students from the South End. Boston Police officers formed a protective barrier around the bus. Parents and children lined the…
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Theodore Landsmark: The beating that turned a son of Harlem into a prominent voice that led Boston out of the busing era
Photo: StanleyFormanphotos.com, Pulitzer Prize 1977, “The Soiling of Old Glory” Theodore Landsmark was used to being the only black person in the room by the time he was an undergraduate at Yale University’s Davenport College in the winter of 1968. But he was unprepared to confront the blatant racism he heard in a seminar room.…
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The Project: About The Avoidable Crisis
Photo: StanleyFormanphotos.com, Pulitzer Prize 1977, “The Soiling of Old Glory” The Avoidable Crisis is a project conducted by the Emerson College Journalism Department. Three journalism students, one recent graduate and two faculty members researched Boston’s busing crisis during Summer 2014. Over a three month period, the team examined 5,000 documents, including articles, books and reports.…
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Gov. Baker announces $5 Million investment Targeting Chronically High Unemployment
Photo: Massachusetts National Guard New initiatives to fight chronic unemployment will be included in the proposed FY 2017 budget, Governor Charlie Baker’s office said recently. Baker and Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Ronald L. Walker II, who is also a member of the governor’s task force on persons facing chronically higher rates of unemployment,…
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For Comedy King Sweeney, Poverty Is No Joke
Very rarely do you come across an entertainer who doesn’t want to talk about some current project, their career, what got them started in the industry or some other topic referring to their time in the spotlight. And with someone like Steve Sweeney, the crowned “King of Boston Comedy,” you know there’s a lot to…
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During federal deportation raids, Bostonians rally for immigrant rights
As the U.S. government conducted nationwide raids on undocumented immigrant families, Bostonians gathered at the State House steps on January 7 to show solidarity and denounce the country’s mass deportation efforts. The night also marked the Feast Day of the Epiphany, an important feast day in Latin American countries celebrating the arrival of the Three…
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Barry Crimmins: Boston comedy legend talks about social activism and homelessness
Photo: Dennis Brennan Barry Crimmins has built a career off of not caring. But not in a bad way, by any stroke of imagination. He does care. The Boston comedy pioneer has cemented his name in comedy history with his upfront, no-holds-barred brand of political satire, his tireless social activism and, just recently, being the…
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Every Day with Morrie: Mitch Albom on charity and writing
Author Mitch Albom has been a household name in the writing business for over 30 years, and for good reason. Starting out as a sports writer in his early 20s after graduating from Columbia’s School of Business, Albom has since published sports-themed books including “Fab Five” and “Bo.” He has also published four collections of…
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Report warns Boston at risk of housing deficit
The costs of building new housing in the Boston area have gotten so high that the city is at risk of a “permanent housing deficit,” says a new report from researchers at Northeastern University. “This year’s report emphasizes that we are in or near a period of crisis over the cost and availability of housing…
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Watertown Student Raises “Cards 4 a Cause”
Photo: Zengzheng Wang Earlier this month, about 40 people and a fluffy off-white dog gathered in a chestnut house in Watertown scattered with homemade treats and drinks to help launch Cards4ACause. The intimate setting was reflective of what 14-year-old Watertown High School freshman Joanna Munson-Palomba said she wanted her organization to stand for. “This is…
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FALL ARTS GUIDE: Art, movies, music and theater
When the leaves turn, this city comes back to life. Find your arts adventure in this modest smattering of excuses to hit the town come fall, from pop art and photography to Mozart and Tolstoy and everything in between. FINE ART In the Steps of the Master August 29, 2015–February 15, 2016 Museum of Fine…
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KEN BURNS EFFECT: Filmmaker reflects on The Civil War series, social equality
It’s hard to have a conversation about American history in today’s world without referencing at least one of Ken Burns’ documentaries. From National Parks to Baseball to The Roosevelts to The Civil War (the latter celebrates its 25th anniversary this month with a re-broadcasting of the groundbreaking series), it’s undeniable that Ken Burns has cemented…
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FRANK TALK: Frank Turner talks fame and volunteering
He’s traveled the world, playing to sold out crowds everywhere from bars and nightclubs like the Paradise Rock Club to full-fledged stadiums like Wembley in London. And for Frank Turner, who visits Boston’s House of Blues on September 25 and 26, it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon. From very early on, the…
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BON VOYAGE: Vincent Flanagan leaves Homeless Empowerment Project
“Arguing and advocating are something that are part of my being,” begins Vincent Flanagan, outgoing executive director of the Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP). Flanagan, who has held the position since May 2012, announced last month that he would be leaving. The Homeless Empowerment Project is the nonprofit which publishes Spare Change News. Flanagan, soft-spoken but…
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GAMES OVER: Boston Olympics opponents reflect on the fight
On the same day the USOC announced that they decided to pull the bid for the Boston 2024 Olympics Games, No Boston 2024, a grassroots organization sent the public a newsletter, entitled “We won! But the fight continues.” “We were fighting the Olympics because we wanted a Boston that works for all residents, a city…
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AIRPORT REFORM: Workers at Logan demand union rights, fair conditions
As of June 17, over 100 airport workers are on strike protesting the working conditions of two of Logan Airport’s biggest contractors, G2 Secure Staff and ReadyJet. Protesters began picketing at East Boston Memorial Park as early as early as 5 a.m., holding a press conference at 7:30 a.m., just steps away from the Logan…
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FAMILY HOMELESSNESS: Census results show rise in homeless families
The Boston Public Health Commission recently released the findings of its 35th annual homeless census, which tracks the homeless population in the city of Boston. The census found an unsettlingly large increase in the amount of homeless families: the number grew a full 25 percent, up from 1,234 households last year to 1,543 this year.…
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CELEBRATING ALTMAN: Harvard Film Archive spearheads a retrospective of Robert Altman
In an age when multimillionaire matinee idols like Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are trumpeted as Hollywood mavericks, the career of the late director Robert Altman may call for stronger words. Today’s profit-minded artist-moguls might just call him crazy. Even in the ‘70s, that golden age of maverick Hollywood, Altman baffled fans and disturbed the…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: Celebrating what exactly?
By the time you read this, the Fourth of July will have already passed and we will all be bracing for those dreary dog days of summer. I will do the usual on the fourth: cookouts, partying, blah, blah, blah. It all seems so routine. Going through the motions because we’re taught that we should…
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LAST WORD: Marc D. Goldfinger
This week’s Last Word features an interview with Marc D. Goldfinger, Spare Change News’ resident writer and poet and the newspaper’s poetry editor for the last ten years. With the help of the poet Lee Varon, Goldfinger is currently putting together a poetry anthology featuring work published in Spare Change News over the years. Writing…
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SUPREME DECISION: Worcester’s anti-panhandling ordinance slammed
The Supreme Court struck back at Worcester’s anti-panhandling ordinance, declaring that it was impossible to enforce it and that it should be reconsidered back in federal court. The ordinance—which was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in Worcester and was originally upheld on appeal—was…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Sleepless in Seattle
When I flew from Boston to Seattle last week as a delegate for the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) summit, I was expecting rain. No showers to report. Not a drop. However, the outpouring of support for Spare Change News from street paper editors and staffers from across the globe was inspiring. We reclaimed…
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LAST WORD: Jerry Harrell
Jerry Harrell is one of Spare Change News’ “old guard.” Alongside Algia Benjamin and James Shearer, he was among the original lineup of vendors who sold the first issue of the newspaper in May 1992. The cover of that issue—a photograph of a man selling catnip for $2 a bag—embodies what the newspaper is all about:…
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VENDOR VOICES: When I was homeless
For me, the 1980s was a time of creativity, a lot of stress and homelessness. I left Boston after six years and went on to complete my associates’ degree at a suburban Long Island college. Once I got back to New York, I registered with a temporary employment agency and worked in my first full-time…
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WHAT ARE YOU?: Transgender women face risks in gendered shelters
By Sabrina Caserta Laze Ma coats her eyes with dark liner, adding a few sparkles for fun. She dabs her lips with plum gloss and picks out her favorite dress. Even though she’s been chronically homeless for six years, she’ll do everything in her power not to look it. “I used to wear towels on…
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OLYMPIC DISPLACEMENT: Boston 2024 opponents discuss the games' history of displacement
If history does in fact repeat itself, Boston’s herculean efforts to host the Olympics in 2024 will result in pushing out the city’s “undesirables,” including a “not in our backyard” attitude toward the growing homeless population. Opponents of Boston’s Olympics bid hosted a panel to discuss the games’ history of displacement and whether Boston could…
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MISS CONGENIALITY: Katya's alter ego talks stardom, Olympics
When Boston won the bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Brian McCook’s now famous drag alter ego Katya planned an old-school Russian boycott. “I’m so torn about it,” says McCook, who was in the top five out of 14 performers featured on the current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. “While I would love to physically…
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SEX TRADE: CEASE Boston combats local sex trafficking
A sex trafficker, a pimp, will go to the mall in search of a group of girls. When he finds one, he’ll scan the group to see which girl he perceives has the lowest self-esteem. For this, he’ll rely on analyzing their body language. He won’t go for the conventionally attractive one or the least…
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GREAT DONATION: Sixth-graders donate cereal to Pine Street Inn
Have you ever heard of someone wanting or needing 407 boxes of cereal? Well, that’s exactly what we, sixth graders at Pierce School in Brookline, collected in our cereal drive for the Pine Street Inn, an organization that works to provide shelter for homeless men and women. At Pierce School, we would usually collect toiletries…
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HOMEWARD BOUND: Housing chief and adovcates demand more funding
At a Boston City Council budget hearing on May 5, the mayor’s chief of housing and local advocates called for increased funds to the housing budget—albeit in different ways. Councilors first heard from Sheila Dillon, Boston’s chief of housing and director of the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND). Dillon, on behalf of Boston Mayor Marty…
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Beatrice Bell is SCN's vendor/writer of the year
When I first met Spare Change News reporter and vendor Beatrice Bell, she was standing across from the mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, holding her recording device in front of the newly elected politician’s face. It was the opening of the rush-job Southampton Street shelter and she, along with a team of Spare Change News…
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SOBER GRID: A smartphone app for the recovery community
It’s the day after Sober Grid was released and the new geo-social mobile app’s headquarters in Boston’s Back Bay is abuzz with excitement. “You wouldn’t believe the response we’ve had so far,” emotes Beau Mann, the 33-year-old creator of Sober Grid. “We’ve already had a few thousand downloads and the responses are through the roof.”…
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YANKOVIC'S GREATEST HITS: Top 10 parody song countdown
From his memorable nerd anthems to his onslaught of food parodies, here are our favorite “Weird” Al singles spanning three decades: 1. Eat It, 1984. Best Line: “Get yourself an egg and beat it.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI 2. Like A Surgeon, 1985. Best Line: “It’s a fact … I’m a quack. The disgrace of the AMA.”…
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Y2Y SHELTER: Youth shelter coming to Harvard Square
Y2Y Harvard Square recently unveiled plans to open the nation’s first student-run shelter for young adults aged 18 to 24 at 3 Church Street. This new overnight youth shelter is scheduled to open on November 1 at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church. The shelter will house 20 youths per night, seven nights a week,…
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HOMELESS MOBILIZR: Group connects the homeless with Internet access
In Harvard Square, the paths of the smartest students in the world cross every day the paths of those who spend day and night trying to find a place to stay safe and warm. “One thing that I was immediately struck by was the volume of homelessness on the street,” says Cindy Yang, a student…
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JIMMY TINGLE: Local comedian is no joke
Jimmy Tingle, much beloved comedian, is a like a favorite son in Cambridge. He has enjoyed a large local and national following for several decades. In fact, he grew up and continues to live in Cambridge. He has long been interested in issues of social justice and is known for his humorous political commentary. Remember 60…
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CONTORTIONIST'S NIGHTMARE: Author Joe Putignano recounts his heart-breaking journey
PHOTO BY SCOTT MARRS Joe Putignano, a 38-year-old native of Brockton, Raynham and Bridgewater, is a former competitive gymnast who began the sport at the age of nine. He trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and later competed in the Junior Olympic National Championships at age 16. He performed in a long-running…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: Why the bridge to Long Island blew up
When Victory Program, which runs a variety of types of care for addicts in different stages of recovery, took out a mortgage on a building on Boston’s Long Island, they had no idea that the bridge leading to their drug recovery program would be demolished without warning. So now Victory Program must pay a mortgage…
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JAMES SHEARER: Six months … really?
As I write this, I’ve just returned from a rally at Boston’s City Hall with my compadres from the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee. For those of you who don’t know, the committee was formed in October by a group of homeless and formerly homeless activists in response to the closing of Long Island Shelter in…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Never give up
When I first met author Joe Putignano, he was two years sober and headlining in the touring production of Cirque du Soleil’s Totem. In the show, he was known as Crystal Man and, after he heard me share at a 12-step meeting, he walked up to me with a sweet, almost shy grin. “You’re writing…
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EDITOR’S NOTE: God shots
Looking back at the issues I’ve produced as the editor-in-chief of Spare Change News, I’m surprised by the nuggets of wisdom hidden within the profiles of our vendors and other homeless men and women featured in the pages of our bi-weekly newspaper. I call them “God shots”—those moments of clarity that leap from the page…
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OUT OF AFRICA: Local spearheads Pamoja Project film
Hopkinton native Audrey Emerson speaks with a confidence and determination that belies her young age. She also exudes an unbridled enthusiasm that’s both inspiring and reflective of her youth. Emerson attended the Walnut Hill School in Natick and is currently a sophomore at the University of Southern California, majoring in critical film studies. Yet she…
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NO FAIRY TALE: MassMouth’s executive director says there is hope to end homelessness
Norah Dooley, the accomplished storyteller, author and executive director of MassMouth, has entertained us with her intricate and heartwarming tales for 28 years now. In addition, Dooley has worked as a passionate social activist, bringing awareness and support to Boston’s large homeless community. Even to a career storyteller, she acknowledges that homelessness is anything but…
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Emotional wounds
My mother was 15 when she met my biological father at a swimming pool in Florida. They married soon after and she moved us to his home in Chicago when I was a baby. He drank a lot and my mother thought she could somehow change him. She was wrong. My father was older than…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: Does it really matter?
Another old female friend of mine passed away last week from a drug overdose. Homeless and, as far as I know, alone, she was young—in her early 50s—and a good woman, but I’m not going to bore you with her story, how she lived and how she died. The reason why? Because it won’t change…
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AMANDA PALMER: From Harvard Square busker to international phenom
From Harvard Square busker to international crowdsourcing phenomenon, Amanda Palmer launches a new creative project after writing a best-selling book. Here’s an exclusive interview with Amanda Palmer who started her ride to fame as a busker in Harvard Square. Palmer was the Eight Foot Woman covered in white who stood upon a stool in front…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: After the Storm
A few days after “snowmageddon,” Cambridge’s Harvard Square is slowly getting back to normal. Jon Denning, one of Spare Change News’ younger vendors, greets me as I pass his usual spot in front of Qdoba. He’s smiling. “Man, it’s not so bad tonight,” he says, alluding to the below-zero temperatures he’s endured for the past…
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CENSUS SHOCKER: Walsh spearheads efforts to count the city’s unsheltered
Mayor Martin J. Walsh and over 300 volunteers took to the streets of Boston for the 35th Annual Homeless Census on Thursday, Feb. 25. Alongside the Boston mayor were city officials like Boston Public Health Commission Director Huy Nguyen, Emergency Shelter Commission Director Jim Greene, Chief of Health and Human Services Chief Felix Arroyo, Commonwealth…
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CARD CHARITY: Eighth grader offers help to the homeless
Joanna Munson-Palomba, like most Boston commuters, notices panhandlers on the streets daily. She has a round-trip commute of three hours, which takes her through Harvard Square. Five days a week, she takes the Red Line to Downtown Crossing and the Orange Line to Jamaica Plain. She wants to make a difference for some of Boston’s…
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RISE ABOVE: ArtLifting project empowers Boston's homeless
Jeffrey Powers, an undeniably talented artist whose work has been shown in galleries on Newbury Street, was also homeless for nearly four years in Boston, living in shelters and on the street where he found places to keep as warm as possible during the frigid winter months. Powers is also a former Spare Change News…
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C.O.P.E. HOPE: Group uses social media to mobilize acts of kindness
It was Easter Sunday, 2014, and Joan Bennett was driving through Rockland when she saw a young man holding a sign that read: “I just need enough money to buy a tent.” Bennett approached the man, who introduced himself as Joey. He told her that he suffers from mental illness, lives in the woods and…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Valentine's Day
It’s the Thursday night before Valentine’s Day and, as I walk home from my office at Spare Change News, I witness an assault of a young, homeless woman in front of the Harvard Square “T” station entrance. She’s clutching a red suitcase and has a bruise on her face. It looks like she’s trying to…
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UNSHELTERED DANGERS: Where do Boston's homeless go and is it safe?
A group of six takes up an isolated corner of South Station’s food court, on the second floor, talking loudly, joking and keeping warm. The group takes up two tables, four men, two women. All six are homeless and unsheltered. One couple in the group has a tall wire caddy filled with trash bags. Despite…
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BOSTON 2024: Mayor addresses Olympics and homeless-related issues
Citizens voiced concerns, hopes, supports and opposing opinions at the first public meeting for Boston 2024 last Thursday. Among the concerns many citizens have about Boston hosting the Olympics were future treatment of the homeless and the availability of affordable housing. Cleve Rae, a homeless member of the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee, raised two concerns:…
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WICKED SMART: Amy Poehler receives the 2015 Woman of the Year award
For hellraiser Amy Poehler, there’s no place like home. Well, kinda sorta. “When I was growing up in Burlington, Harvard University used to be a group of buildings we threw rocks at on our way to a real job,” she muses on stage while receiving the 2015 Hasty Pudding Award from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals…
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LOVE LESSONS: Warm centers open in Boston and Cambridge
Nine round tables are strewn across the hardwood floor at First Church Cambridge, with a pitcher of water in the center of each and a couple of people at each table—mostly men this early afternoon—enjoying warm soup prepared by a local restaurant. The room is quiet at first, but as more people walk in off…
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WARM INTENTIONS: BostonWarm @ Old South Church
This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a new co-ed day shelter called BostonWarm opened in Copley Square at Old South Church. Located three doors down from the historic church’s main entrance on Dartmouth and Beacon streets, the day center is located in the church’s lower level club room. It’s a warm, safe haven for homeless…
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EXCLUSIVE: Boston’s Long Island slotted for Olympic shooting range
The Boston 2024 Olympic committee hopes to use Long Island for an Olympic shooting event, should Boston win its bid to host the Summer Games. The event would feature a 57-acre venue that could seat 7,000 spectators. The proposed idea and many other Olympic plans were revealed when Boston 2024 made its bid documents publicly…
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FORGOTTEN WOMEN? Southampton Street shelter will be a men's-only facility
The new shelter on Southampton Street in Boston’s South End, built over a two-and-a-half-week period, is located less than a five minute walk from the Woods-Mullen Shelter and the Barbara McInnis House. City leaders came together to prepare the transportation sign building located at 112 Southampton St. The new shelter will house 100 homeless men.…
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GIMME SHELTER: Mayor Walsh unveils Southampton Street shelter
Three months after the Long Island bridge was closed, the city has a new location for a long-term shelter. Located at 112 Southampton St. in the South End, the new facility operates in what used to be a sign store for the transportation department. The two-floor building is not fully finished or operational yet, but…
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Remembering Menino: The Former Mayor’s Legacy on Social Justice
The late Mayor Tom Menino’s impact on the city of Boston was easy to see after his death on the morning of Oct. 30. Thousands visited his casket in Fanuiel Hall on Saturday, Nov. 2, and thousands more lined the route of his funeral procession the next day. As the oft-repeated statistic claims, more than…
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BPD’s Race Problem: In the Wake of Ferguson, Local Activists Are Targeting Alleged Abuses at the Boston Police Department
Citizens, community leaders and activists gathered outside the Boston Police Station at 1 Schroeder Pl. on Thursday, 9 October 2014 to rally against racially biased policing. The event came one day after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts released a new report that found racial bias in police-civilian street encounters, and nearly two…
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Shining a Light on Boston Public Housing
On the afternoon of 1 Oct. 2002, a resident of Back of the Hill Apartments in Jamaica Plain called a federal low-income housing hotline to report unacceptable conditions in the complex. “Caller has a complaint that there has not been an exterminator in the building in nine months,” the hotline operator jotted down in the…
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Angry, Young and Poor: Our Look at the World of Traveler Kids
Victor sits alongside his girlfriend, Tab, and their friend Levi on a sidewalk in Allston. A “Born to Die” tattoo snakes up his neck, and the letters A-C-A-B decorate his knuckles. “All cops are bastards,” he explains. He wears an open, camouflage-green vest with no shirt, his skin blackened from dirt collected along the road.…
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Overcoming Addiction: How One Woman Found Sobriety in Cooking
Sue wore a gray sweater and her hair was pulled back in a Red Sox cap. In her Boston accent she said it was the same outfit she wore a year and a half ago when she was released from prison. In her bag she saved some blue flowers that she brought home from her…
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Waste Not, Want Not: Food Recovery Grows Out of Massachusetts’ Waste Ban
In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that America generated 36 million tons of food waste and 96 percent of that food went directly to landfills or incinerators. In the same year, the EPA also reported that 14.9 percent of homes in the US did not know where their next meal would come from. Instead…
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Priced Out: Development Drives Rising Rents in Union Square
It’s 7:30 on a sticky Tuesday morning in mid-June. The bus is packed with teenagers studying for exams and finishing homework. Windows are cracked and hot air blows in, moving the stagnant air. Droopy-eyed professionals move aside as the bus approaches School St., allowing students to exit the bus and start their day, alleviating the…
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Nowhere to Go: Youth Aging Out of Foster Care Struggle to Find Stability
Esohe Omo rolled the stroller holding her 18-month-old daughter, Sindy, through the doorstep of the Young Adult Resource Network (YARN) building in Dorchester. She visits YARN every week to meet up with some friends and fellow foster youth to eat some dinner or ask the life coaches for help finding a place to stay. “I…
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To Protect and Serve? Police Militarization from "Urban Shield" Has Boston Residents Worried
Faneuil Hall was full of tourists, the smell of food and the sound of a street performer drumming on buckets. A circus tent was set up just outside City Hall Plaza, the sounds of the announcer and the cheering audience filling the typically empty plaza. No one – not the tourists, not the street performers,…
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Assault: The Beating of a Homeless Man in Allston is Part of a Nationwide Trend
ALLSTON, Mass.— On January 26 at 2 a.m., two men – C. J. Parsons and Anthony Varrichione – allegedly assaulted a homeless man named Michael Hudson in front of a house on Allston St., where the two men were at a party. According to witnesses, Hudson had been asking for money After telling him to…
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Infrastructure Inequality: The Battle to Fix the Long Island Bridge
Outside of Woods-Mullen Shelter, just down the street from Boston Medical Center, sits a large, cage-like structure. A fence runs down the middle, creating two chain-link hallways. On a windy Boston afternoon, people in hoodies, sweatpants, ball caps and shades gather there, some huddled together, others standing and talking or smoking, many clinging to the…
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What Is Massachusetts’ Future? Activists Push Governor Patrick to Define His Climate Legacy
Last month, 350 Massachusetts, a statewide affiliate of the international environmental justice organization 350.org, announced that they were going to co-sponsor an environmental forum with gubernatorial candidates at Faneuil Hall. When the day came, volunteers from all over the Commonwealth gathered near Quincy Market. Erica Sunders from Worcester was one of them. “I’ve been concerned…
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Shackled at Birth: Massachusetts’ Mistreatment of Pregnant Prisoners
A month after Governor Patrick signed a 90-day ban prohibiting the practice of shackling pregnant inmates in jails and prisons, the Massachusetts House and Senate have moved forward in passing S.2012, the Anti-Shackling bill. It still awaited the governor’s approval and signature as of press time. Corrections officials are already banned from shackling pregnant inmates…
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America’s Segregated Healthcare System
It has been almost 149 years since the American Civil War ended, and although progress has been made in the land of the free and the home of the brave, secession still has a peculiar way of revealing itself. The United for a Fair Economy’s (UFE) 11th annual State of the Dream report, entitled “Healthcare…
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Evicted with Six Months to Live
On Thanksgiving Day weekend, Fanchon Fetters came home from the hospital, having been just diagnosed with breast cancer. She found a warning on her bed for missing a meeting with her case manager, Verna Johnson. On December 18, she received a notice of termination from the program that provided her with housing at Heading Home,…
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Turning Up the Heat on Coal Power in Massachusetts
SOMERSET, Mass.—Henry David Thoreau, that famous son of Massachusetts, famously wrote, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.” Climate activists across the commonwealth have been taking those words to heart. On 7 January 2013,…
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Trayvon Martin and America's Justice Gap
ROXBURY, Mass.—Less than 24 hours after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, hundreds of Boston residents rallied in Dudley Square to seek justice for the slain teen. As mothers wrapped their arms around their sons, youth held makeshift signs, and men wore hoodies, they chanted in unison: “The people united will never be…
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Central Square, Cambridge, MA
“The form of a city changes faster than the heart of a mortal.”– Baudelaire The streets teem with activity. There is a giant hole where the building filled with many small businesses, owned by individuals, flourished. There was a clothing store over 90 years old, a breakfast place where one whose pockets contained only a few…
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13 Ways of Looking At Death
1. I drive down Highway 80 and gaze at the landmarks you enjoyed when you were still alive. 2. The farm outside of St David, with grazing, tufted llamas behind a chain-link fence. 3. The roadside yucca tree that declined with each passing. It began lopsided, as if slightly drunk, but slumped more each month,…
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Childhood Realities
I’m 76 now and things look different to me. First of all, I don’t run up and down stairways anymore. I trudge the steps. When I do the laundry, I have to climb down 26 steps and then back up the same 26 steps. But that isn’t the major change. I have clear memories of…
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Are we going to be able to vaccinate everyone, especially those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19?
Rupal Ramesh Shah People experiencing homelessness often have difficulty accessing basic medical services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed several guidelines to ensure the unhoused are prioritized during vaccine implementation. One of them is to work with Continuum of Care Programs, which promote community-wide efforts to end homelessness and address…
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