Category: Opinion
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: Run 'em outta town
From a distance, I’ve been watching the city of Cambridge dealing with the homeless community. It seems that the city council has been thinking of new ways to deal with an issue that has become a lot more difficult, especially with the opioid crisis, which has become more than just a minor annoyance. The area…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: Don't forget
It has been one year since the Long Island shelter debacle. For those of you who don’t remember, the shelter was hastily shut down after it was discovered that the bridge—which was used to carry the homeless to the island on buses—was deemed unsafe by the state and was condemned. So why am I calling…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: Fear the Walking Dead
I’m a big fan of the show The Walking Dead on AMC. Of course, I’m not the only one; this show has more watchers than any other show in history. So it’s big news that a new spin-off story has started on AMC called Fear The Walking Dead. It’s the back-story for The Walking Dead.…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: It's about homelessness, stupid
A little over a couple of weeks ago, a homeless man who was sleeping in a subway station in South Boston was beaten and urinated on by two brothers who were drunk and returning from a Red Sox game. When they were caught by the police, one of the brothers made a remark that Donald…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: At the speed of life
I was late to graduation, just like I was late for everything. Flying down the right hand lane on South Livingston Avenue, doing close to 90 miles an hour with my 1958 Plymouth Belvedere convertible top down when I heard a police car hit the wailers and saw the lights in my rear view mirror.…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: These lives matter, too
On the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown being gunned down in Ferguson, a friend asked me if I was going to the protest in Harvard Square. I somewhat reluctantly said no. When asked why, I didn’t want to get into it. I simply said I was tired and really needed to go home. I just…
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DIRECTOR'S NOTE: Homeless Bill of Rights
Vincent Flanagan, the outgoing executive director of the Homeless Empowerment Project which publishes Spare Change News, testified in favor of the Homeless Bill of Rights last week. Here’s an excerpt from his plea to the assembly at the Massachusetts State House: Our safety net has a huge hole in it. Trying to survive on what…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: How not to go missing
I was reading an article in the Boston Globe about a homeless man that the police found. Well, actually, they found his legs first. They had been severed from his body and were lying by a Connecticut train station. From DNA testing they found out that the man’s name was Ray Roberson. They’ve found what…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: Oh hell yeah
On a rare morning last week when I had nothing to do I hastily caught a press conference by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Let’s cut to the chase. “If committing to signing the (host city) agreement is what’s required to move forward, then Boston is no longer pursuing the 2024 Olympics and Paralympic games,” Walsh…
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: Changes In Life
I sit at my desk looking around my office and I have to feel gratitude. It’s 2015 and just 21 years ago I was strung out on heroin and didn’t know where I was going to lay my head at night. In the last issue of Spare Change News was an article about me as…