Hey. Come here. I wanna tell you a story. At the Holy Name/Catholic Memorial dances I attended in my youth I never "grinded" with any boys. After one of the HN/CM dances I did find $211 on the ground when I went to buy some gum at White Hen Pantry. Westie continues its tradition of giving with this all-ages poetry contest courtesy of Friends of the West Roxbury Branch Library.
Nancy Rabinowitz, reporter for Wicked Local Roslindale and the West Roxbury Transcript, wrote a terrific analysis about all the political action that took place at Holy Name Parish on Tuesday November 5, 2013. Holy Name Parish, the home of four precincts (Ward 20, Precinct 6, 7, 19, and 20) had over three thousand voters cast ballots on Tuesday.
To read, click here.
The Boston Licensing Board today voted to let Deep Ellum, 477 Cambridge St., stay open until 2 a.m. - both inside and, during nice weather, on its patio.
The restaurant/bar had previously been limited to 1 a.m. inside and 10 p.m. outside. At a hearing yesterday, Deep Ellum presented petitions signed by 1,500 people in favor of the added time.
Promising myself I'd explore Boston in ways I haven't previously, I marched myself to West Roxbury for the Ward 20 caucuses. In the process, I ate some tasty donuts and witnessed a side of Boston I'd only read about in history books.
Passing the threshold from semi-dreary grey daylight to the inside of the West Roxbury Pub brought with it a number of surprises, none of which should have actually been surprising. First was the sheer number of people. There had to be a hundred people crammed into this little function room. At the sign-in desk, I was questioned by a trio of pleasant, preened ladies who needed to know my precinct. I didn’t know what it was, and they were kind enough to look it up for me. While waiting, I was pushed and pressed back and forth by the deluge of democrats coming through the door. Finally, I was given the precinct number and instructed by a friendly middle-aged woman in a red suit who seemed to know what was going on that I was to sign in, take a ballot for female delegates, and move along.
You can have your say about how Stephen Lynch's bad votes hurt our community here: http://www.stephenlynchsbadvotes.com/
News by neighborhood being discussed on Universal Hub, this past week.
Channel 5 posts photos of a duck and her ducklings crossing the street at Centre and Alaric today.
Summer is coming. Time for football – signups.
The local Pop Warner Football leagues are already in process of signing up youth for the fall season in their respective neighborhoods. Pop Warner has programs for youth football players and cheerleaders in multiple age categories. The Pop Warner program in West Roxbury recently changed its name to the “Parkway Falcons” and is now accommodating youth in West Roxbury, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.
Natural flood control in action this afternoon along the Charles River near Milliennium Park in West Roxbury.
Part of the reason you're not hearing much about flooding along the Charles is simply because a lot more rain fell up near the Merrimack than around the Charles. But part of it might also have to do with a decision made by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970s.
Until the '70s, the federal and state governments used classic engineering techniques to try to reduce flooding in the Charles - they built a dam at the mouth and some mega-pumps to pump water from the river into the harbor. And the Corps came up with a $100-million proposal to build levees and flood-control dams along the middle Charles. But the Corps abandoned that plan in favor of something more unusual: It began buying up or acquiring easements to some 8,100 acres of low-lying riverbank land from the Medfield/Millis line to the Dedham/Boston line - and then just let the land sit there.
The idea was that the various parcels of land would act as giant natural sponges during floods, absorbing vast amounts of water quickly, then releasing it slowly as the river receded. And it seems to work. During heavy rain (or the spring thaw), the Medfield/Millis border becomes a large lake - but since nobody lives on the Corps land, nobody has to be evacuated, either. You can see similar flood control in action from the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury - or even across from the northbound side of Rte. 128 just past Great Plain Avenue.
Acquiring the land cost $10 million - or 10% of what the government had originally expected to spend on manmade structures.
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