A billboard dispute in South Boston is proof that people can look at the same image and see something very different. The billboard carried this message: “States that legalized marijuana had 25% fewer opioid-related deaths.” The ad was paid for by Weedmaps, a California-based company that runs a website guide to medical marijuana dispensaries. […]
Urban Affairs
Posted inThe Download
Galvin throws shade on Millennium tower deal
Long ago, Beacon Hill insiders used to call then-Rep. William Galvin the Prince of Darkness because of his penchant for intrigue and political machinations. But now Galvin is coming to be known as the Lord of Light, the guy championing sunshine, not shadows, on Boston Common. As secretary of state and the overseer of the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Haven for city teens in peril
There are the periodic public squabbles that break out over who is doing what to quell violence in Boston neighborhoods and who is bears responsibility for stopping the cycle of retaliatory attacks that often make bad situations worse. Such was the case earlier this week with finger pointing over the Sunday shooting of a […]
Posted inThe Download
Guns, gangs, and toddlers
There is often very little daylight between victims and victimizers in the mayhem caused by gang-fueled gun violence. Sometimes that is the case figuratively, with today’s target of a gang shooting becoming tomorrow’s gun-wielding retaliatory marksman. But it can also be true in a literal sense, as Saturday’s shooting of a Roxbury 2-year-old lays bare. […]
Posted inEconomy
A Springfield revival?
Photographs by Mark Morelli SPRINGFIELD MAYOR DOMENIC SARNO remembers the day after Thanksgiving in 2012. The sky was clear and the temperature unseasonably warm. The mayor was at the city’s downtown museum complex for an event kicking off the start of the holiday season, and earlier he had attended the annual Parade of the Big […]
Posted inThe Download
Worcester nixes sanctioned homeless camp
Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. on Monday ruled out any type of sanctioned camp for homeless people in the city, saying the issue “does not lend itself to one-size-fits-all solutions.” The issue of a sanctioned homeless camp first surfaced last week at a city council committee hearing, where Dr. Matilde Castiel, Worcester’s health and […]
Posted inThe Download
Keeping a tab on student homelessness
It’s the kind of effort few newspapers have the time, space, or resources to make an investment in pursuing, but it’s an important issue that needs to be put before readers and policymakers. It’s a multi-story, multimedia look at the heartrending problem of educating homeless students — some 4,000 in Boston alone, nearly 1 in […]
Posted inOpinion
Brutalist buildings need some TLC
NESTLED BETWEEN BOSTON’S WEST END AND GOVERNMENT CENTER are two state-owned fortresses of brutalist architecture: the Hurley and Lindemann buildings. The structures are solid, but lacking. Outside staircases are fenced off as falling hazards. The walls have no insulation. The windows are single pane. Multiple unwelcoming entrances make it hard to find the right way […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Two cheers for a charter school’s “Got to Go” list?
Pushing unruly kids out of high-performing “no-excuses” urban charter schools isn’t exactly something that draws praise. Indeed, the typical reaction is quite the opposite, with harsh condemnation for the idea that such schools may squeeze out difficult kids. But a few education policy types think we ought to think twice before being so fast to […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Biking and driving on the streets of Boston
Cyclists are some of the most passionate advocates that the Bay State’s transportation sector has ever seen. Thanks to the pressure of bike advocates, bike lanes have been carved out along major thoroughfares such as metro Boston’s Massachusetts Avenue and major transportation projects like the Green Line Extension include considerations for cyclists. Yet the mix of […]