Heritage Road Revisited

By Michael Jonas 0 Comments May 9, 2006

In a Billerica subdivision, making it in the middle class is still a full-time job JOHN AND LAURA PETERS ended up on Heritage Road in much the same way many others have landed on this quiet street of split-level ranch homes in a Billerica subdivision. After dreaming big, they came down to earth. The street(...)

Politics

Statistically Significant

By Robert David Sullivan Demographics, State Government 0 Comments May 9, 2006

Illustrations By Travis Foster GLOBAL SOUL MATES We usually compare Massachusetts with other states, but there’s a whole world out there to search for possible doppelgangers. According to the 2006 World Almanac, Massachusetts matches up almost exactly with Paraguay for total population (about 6.4 million), El Salvador for population density (820 people per square mile),(...)

Politics

Upscale Medway teeters on the brink of financial ruin

By Ray Hainer Municipal Government 0 Comments May 9, 2006

Medway On a Monday night in late February, several hundred residents of this small town on Interstate 495 gathered in the high school auditorium for what was said to be the first-ever “State of the Town” meeting. As everyone already knew by then, the state of the town was not good. Two-thirds into the 2006(...)

Politics

Meet Jim McGovern: congressional class of 96 and godfather of Worcester politics

By Shawn Zeller 0 Comments May 9, 2006

bald and bespectacled, he doesn’t exactly look like power in pinstripes as he moves though the Capitol. Still, after 10 years in Congress, Jim McGovern is increasingly taking on the aura of a certified Massachusetts powerbroker, even if he’s quick to deny it. “That’s not the way I see myself,” says the 46-year-old congressman from(...)

Politics

Rereading CommonWealth

By Robert Keough Media and Journalism 0 Comments May 9, 2006

Spring 2006 ORIGINALLY, I PLANNED to treat the 10th anniversary of the magazine as an excuse to re-read – and, I must confess, when it comes to some older issues and articles, read for the first time – the collected works of CommonWealth. But as deadline approached, it became evident that wasn’t going to happen.(...)

Politics

CW comes of age

By Ian Bowles Media and Journalism 0 Comments May 9, 2006

Spring 2006 Winston Churchill said, “History will be kind to me because I intend to write it.” In much the same vein, I intend, on the occasion of CommonWealth’s 10th anniversary issue, to say a few admittedly biased words of praise for the magazine I am proud to publish, and especially the team that puts(...)

Politics

Constituent service

By Robert David Sullivan Demographics, Municipal Government 0 Comments May 9, 2006

one effect of the ongoing shift in population from city to suburb is that more and more town selectmen in Massachusetts have constituencies that dwarf that of city councilors. The Bay State’s largest town, Framingham (population 65,598), has regular town meetings but is otherwise governed by five selectmen,or one for every 13,000 residents. That’s a(...)

Politics

Paul La Camera takes WBUR local

By Dan Kennedy Media and Journalism 0 Comments May 9, 2006

some 50 staff members of WBUR Radio have crowded into the third-floor cafeteria for a lunchtime event with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick. They settle into chairs or stand around the periphery, balancing sandwiches, chips, and soda. Bob Oakes, the station’s morning anchor, is the moderator. Turning to the candidate, Oakes says, “I’d like to(...)

Education

Grading the graders

By Robert David Sullivan Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments May 9, 2006

massachusetts is about as good as it gets when it comes to setting standards for public school teachers and holding schools accountable for outcomes, according to Quality Counts 2006, the latest annual report compiled by Education Week. The report’s editors gave the Bay State an “A” in those areas, the same grade as last year,(...)

Arts and Culture/ Uncategorized

Mayflower presents the Plymouth story as tragedy

By William M Fowler Jr 0 Comments May 9, 2006

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and WarBy Nathaniel PhilbrickNew York, Viking Press, 480 pages Winter 2006 beneath the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, tucked away safely in the State Library, lies one of the great treasures of America: the manuscript diary of William Bradford. In words simple and eloquent, Bradford, leader of(...)