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Politics

Brookline voters expected to gobble up new 'I Voted' stickers

By adamg - 10/23/24 - 3:53 pm
Brookline voter stickers feature a turkey

People who vote in Brookline this year - whether at early voting locations or at their normal polls on Election Day - won't be getting those hum-drum little oval "I Voted" stickers that voters in certain neighboring communities can expect. In a statement, Town Clerk Ben Kaufman said:

These stickers were made to increase attention to elections and help drive voter engagement. Any chance we have to talk to voters and encourage them to make their voices heard in our elections is an opportunity we will take.

Tearing down Mass and Cass encampment only spread its problems into surrounding neighborhoods, residents, business owners say

By adamg - 10/22/24 - 4:19 pm
Domingos DaRosa makes a point

Domingos DaRosa makes a point.

In the year since city police and public-works crews cleared out a growing encampment of homeless people and drug users on Atkinson Street, Mass and Cass has seen a significant decrease in crime and quality-of-life problems, officials from Boston's police and public-health departments told city councilors at a hearing by the council's committee on public safety and criminal justice. Read more.

Wu, business leaders reach compromise on possible property-tax increase

By adamg - 10/20/24 - 2:49 pm

Scott Van Vorhis reports a possible deal between Mayor Wu and the heads of area businesses and local commercial property owners on a plan that would let Boston temporarily increase taxes on commercial property to minimize the amount city homeowners would see their bills go up because of the Covid-related decline in property values downtown - just by a smaller amount than Wu had originally proposed. The move still needs the approval of the legislature and governor.

Supporters of the Shah never die, they just become Magats and wave flags around in Coolidge Corner

By adamg - 10/13/24 - 5:29 pm

Trumpies in Coolidge Corner

A correspondent forwards this video of some Trump supporters in Brookline's Coolidge Corner today, waving, among other things, the flag Iran used until the Shah was overthrown in 1979, as the Orange One blares about how he'll ban vaccinations in schools and suppress transgender athletes, in one of the places least likely to vote for him - in 2020, Biden defeated tfg 87-11 in Brookline.

South Shore hamlet might have to buy a bigger spotlight

By adamg - 10/12/24 - 7:32 pm

On Friday, some guy began using a spotlight to show the Trump logo on the town water tower. The town responds it's not putting up with nonsense like that so now town DPW workers have wheeled in a bright white spotlight of their own to try to blank out the Trump message - and the town attorney is getting ready to dun the guy $100 a day until he quits.

Town Administrator Lisa Green says the town is looking at buying a more powerful spotlight: Read more.

Harvard Yard closed to the public after vandalism of John Harvard statue, administration building

By adamg - 10/10/24 - 12:13 pm

Harvard acted to bar outsiders from the Yard after somebody, apparently not affiliated with the university, vandalized the statue and the building with red paint as a protest against Israeli actions in Gaza, the Crimson reports.

Several Brighton intersections to get automated pedestrian-crossing signals for Jewish sabbath

By adamg - 10/2/24 - 10:23 am

City Councilor Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) reports that BTD has ajusted traffic lights at several Brighton intersections to automatically signal time for pedestrians to cross between 7 p.m. on Friday and 7 p.m. on Saturday - so that observant Jewish pedestrians don't have to press buttons at the intersections on their sabbath.

The new automated pedestrian-crossing lights start this Friday at: Read more.

Finally: An answer to a question posed by the New York Times in 2022

By adamg - 9/26/24 - 8:15 pm
NY Times headline in 2022: Does the Democratic Party Want Swagger? Or Does It Want Michelle Wu?

Eric Adams and Michelle Wu both won election in 2021. About a year later, the New York Times posed the question of which leadership style Democrats wanted. Given events of the past couple days, you think the Times would ever ask that again? Read more.

Boston Haitian-Americans to Trump and Vance: Shut your lying mouths

By adamg - 9/25/24 - 12:38 pm
Haitians on the Common with signs supporting the community

Boston Haitians and supporters gathered at the Embrace on Boston Common yesterday to support Haitians under attack in Springfield, OH. Ron Newman took some photos. Read more.

Rhapsody by Wu

By adamg - 9/21/24 - 10:30 pm
Michelle Wu playing the piano at Symphony Hall

Our own Ron Newman took in the BSO's free Concert for the City, which featured Mayor Wu performing a piano solo of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Before the main event, the Pops Gospel Choir performed.

Councilors demand answers from the Postal Service over crappy mail delivery on Mission Hill

By adamg - 9/19/24 - 10:22 am

Three Boston city councilors yesterday called for a hearing to ask local postal officials why mail service has plummeted like a rock, in particular on Mission Hill in particular, but also across the city. Read more.

Republicans once again try to dehumanize Haitians through slander

By adamg - 9/16/24 - 2:59 pm

Dorchester Reporter publishers Bill and Linda Dorcena Forry (she was the first Haitian-American to be elected a Massachusetts state senator) state the obvious in a city with a large Haitian community.

Zoning Commission head learned he'd been fired only when he didn't get an agenda for an upcoming meeting and he tried to find out why

By adamg - 9/16/24 - 9:32 am

Scott Van Voorhis reports on the end of Jay Hurley's long tenure as chairman of the Boston Zoning Commission following the commission's defeat of a Wu proposal for tougher climate-change/emissions rules for new construction in Boston. Read more.

Perennial homophobic, immigrant-hating candidate is running again

By adamg - 9/15/24 - 9:14 am

Smith reports on a minivan turned sound truck roaming around the South End last night, "imploring me to vote for Roy Owens in November." Read more.

Veterans group organized to back a Flynn for Mayor bid

By adamg - 9/12/24 - 9:33 am

Politico reports a group of "veterans across Massachusetts" has started work to convince City Councilor Ed Flynn, and a Navy vet himself, to run for mayor next year. It has an official PR spokesman, who now has his own PR firm but who, Politico notes, is "an alum" of Regan Communications, which is run, of course, by George Regan, who wants to "save our city" from those dreaded left-wingers like Michelle Wu.

Erin Murphy to stay a Boston city councilor

By adamg - 9/3/24 - 11:08 pm

Lisa Kashinsky reports Democratic voters in Suffolk County have picked Allison Cartwright, who has actual legal and managerial experience, as the next Suffolk County clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court. Read more.

Legislators agree on plan for 225 new liquor licenses for Boston - most restricted to specific neighorhoods

By adamg - 9/3/24 - 10:55 pm

The State House News Service reports House and Senate negotiators have drafted a plan to give Boston a new bunch of liquor licenses. Read more.

State should be ashamed of itself, but since it isn't, it's up to Dorchester residents, healthcare experts to figure out how to replace Carney Hospital

By adamg - 9/3/24 - 11:24 am

Bill Walczak, who once served as president of Carney Hospital, explains - and notes that a private company stationed an ambulance at the now closed hospital over the weekend, because people who needed ER care kept driving up.

Healey won't pull a Walsh

By adamg - 9/3/24 - 11:21 am

CommonWealth Beacon reports Gov. Healey wants to stay governor rather than take a position in a future Harris administration.

Why Suffolk County voters elect a clerk for the state's highest court

By adamg - 9/2/24 - 6:21 pm

CommonWealth Beacon answers the local political question of the year: Why is one of the Supreme Judicial Court's two clerks elected by voters in Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop?

It's a fascinating historical story involving voter anger over the way the SJC back in the day refused to stand in the way of a fugitive slave being re-captured in Boston to be sent back into slavery down south in 1850. Doesn't explain why the post is still elected, but then again, this is Massachusetts, where if we did something once, we are often compelled to do it forever and ever.

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