Nonfiction Night: Horse Barbie at the Brighton Branch Library!

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Brighton Branch Library

In June, the Brighton Branch's nonfiction book club will discuss Geena Rocero's memoir, Horse Barbie. Print copies available at the Brighton Branch front desk, while supplies last.

Please note that we'll be meeting at 6:30 PM on June 26, the fourth Thursday of the month (instead of the third)! All BPL locations will be closed in observance of Juneteenth on June 19.

About the book:

As a young femme in 1990s Manila, Geena Rocero heard, “Bakla, bakla!,” a taunt aimed at her feminine sway, whenever she left the tiny universe of her eskinita. Eventually, she found her place in trans pageants, the Philippines’ informal national sport. When her competitors mocked her as a “horse Barbie” due to her statuesque physique, tumbling hair, long neck, and dark skin, she leaned into the epithet. By seventeen, she was the Philippines’ highest-earning trans pageant queen.

A year later, Geena moved to the United States where she could change her name and gender marker on her documents. But legal recognition didn’t mean safety. In order to survive, Geena went stealth and hid her trans identity, gaining one type of freedom at the expense of another. For a while, it worked. She became an in-demand model. But as her star rose, her sense of self eroded. She craved acceptance as her authentic self yet had to remain vigilant in order to protect her dream career. The high-stakes double life finally forced Geena to decide herself if she wanted to reclaim the power of Horse Barbie once and for all: radiant, head held high, and unabashedly herself.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

We're Bringing EV Charging to Your Community!

Take a Quick Survey: https://form.jotform.com/250996373121156

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Charles River Regional Chamber

Veteran Boston politician eyes Newton City Hall

A few weeks ago, I (sort of) joked in this newsletter that if Josh Kraft really wanted to be mayor, he should have stayed and ran in Newton (where he lived for most of his adult life) rather than running in Boston, where he’s only lived since 2023.

On the other hand, long time Boston politician Brian Golden could soon be headed to Newton City Hall.

Allston-born and bred, Golden represented Boston as a state representative from 1999 to 2004 before running the Boston Planning & Development Agency (formerly the BRA) under Mayors Menino and Walsh.

But now Golden is running for Newton City Council.

He hopes to fill the Ward 7 At Large seat being vacated by Marc Laredo, who is running for mayor with no serious competition.  

Golden has owned a home in Newton since 2006, something that caused a bit of a kerfuffle a few years ago. His old campaign account reportedly has $27.6K in cash on hand, which should be more than enough given that, so far, he’s unopposed.

Golden does not have a campaign website yet, so we don’t know much about his platform.

But the fact that Golden brings considerable expertise with economic development and working with employers and developers should make him great addition to a council that’s sadly lacking that knowledge now.

[David Strati]

Brian is a very intelligent and a very qualified candidate. Also a very good guy. Hope he wins. 

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[Andreae Downs]

Since he’s so far unopposed and has more $$ in his campaign account than most candidates can dream of, i expect he will

Typed with two thumbs

On Jun 27, 2025, at 11:56 AM, David Strati <da...@uniformsforamerica.com> wrote:



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[Executive Director]

Newton would be lucky to have Brian Golden!

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Brighton Main Streets

358 Washington Street

Brighton, MA 02135
617-779-9200

dire...@brightonmainstreets.org

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Amid housing crisis, Boston’s building boom has gone cold. How much of that is due to Mayor Wu? (Andrew Brinker and Catherine Carlock, Boston Globe: June 30, 2025)

While developers critique new affordable housing rules, big economic forces are more to blame for slowdown.

Is Boston's housing construction dip caused by city policy?

Just a few years ago, Boston’s skyline was dotted with cranes, the visual manifestation of a building boom reshaping the city.

Today, those cranes are all but gone. And construction, particularly of new housing, has fallen sharply. Amid a shortage that has driven rents skyward and pushed some residents from the city, less new housing began construction in 2023 and 2024 than in any year since 2011, city data show. Nationally, Boston is building fewer homes than many other peer cities, including Seattle and Washington, D.C.

It is a difficult reality for Mayor Michelle Wu, who, as a candidate, made tackling the city’s housing crisis a top priority. Four years later, development has slowed, and rents have gone up by roughly 12 percent.

Wu’s detractors point to her housing policies as the root cause of the slowdown — specifically, her affordable housing requirements. But what’s happening in Boston cannot be solely blamed on city policy changes. Indeed, broad shifts in the economics of homebuilding, such as inflation, higher interest rates, and even rising insurance costs, have dampened construction nearly everywhere in the years since the pandemic.

“There has been very little development under Mayor Wu, but she’s been dealt a horrible hand,” said Adam Guren, an associate professor of economics at Boston University. “Could the mayor be pulling more levers to try to get housing built? Sure. But is the reason we’re not building a lot in Boston because she hasn’t pulled those levers? I don’t believe so.”

On the campaign trail and in the mayor’s office, Wu has presented herself as something of a foil to her predecessor, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and the “build, build, build” approach that fueled a market-rate building boom at the end of his term.

While Wu has embraced rezoning efforts to spark new construction and offered generous subsidies to convert obsolete office buildings into apartments, she has consistently prioritized housing for lower- and middle-income residents. She has pushed — unsuccessfully — for a version of rent control and a tax on high-dollar real estate sales, and invested a large chunk of the city’s federal pandemic funds in affordable housing, with some 5,455 income-restricted units completed or under construction between 2022 and 2024.

But it is rules requiring more affordable units in new development, along with Wu’s embrace of green energy codes that can drive up construction costs, that Wu’s critics point to as a major cause of the slowdown — at least one the city can control.

Whatever the reason, new construction has fallen off a cliff during the last few years.

Housing construction held relatively steady between 2013 and 2022, with an average of 4,247 units started annually, according to city data. And there was a surge in permitting near the end of Walsh’s administration, with the Boston Planning & Development Agency board, now the Boston Planning Department, approving 6,900 units in 2019, 9,800 in 2020, and 6,858 in 2021.

But over the last two years, new construction has dropped precipitously, with just 2,358 units breaking ground in 2023, a 46 percent drop from the previous year, and 2,389 units starting in 2024.

Wu’s administration prefers to cite the number of units in the city’s approved development “pipeline” — some 32,147 homes that have been permitted but not yet broken ground. But that number includes megaprojects permitted under Walsh’s administration, including 6,400 units at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, and big mixed-use projects like Dorchester Bay City, where housing would be balanced with lab space, which faces financing challenges of its own. One-off, midsize apartment buildings these days are few and far between.

Bruce Percelay, founder of multifamily developer The Mount Vernon Co., said his firm has a six-story, 117-unit apartment building on Leo Birmingham Parkway in Allston permitted and ready to go — but the firm can’t make financing work to start construction.

Materials costs for multifamily buildings have jumped more than 40 percent since the start of 2020. Interest rates on construction loans have soared. And the investors who typically finance housing developments now demand higher returns, meaning projects need to make a bigger profit to get built at all. It is not uncommon for apartment towers in Boston to cost $1 million a unit these days.

Another factor: Wu’s move in late 2022 to increase the city’s affordable housing requirement — the share of units in most new buildings that must be set aside at below-market rates — from 13 percent to 17 percent, with 3 percent more held for Section 8 voucher holders. The change took effect in October.

Developers loudly protested this change to the Inclusionary Development Policy, and today, many of them blame the increase, at least in part, for the slowdown in new buildings.

“I have repeatedly expressed to City Hall that 20 percent of nothing is nothing,” said Percelay, “If they reduced the affordable requirement to 10 percent, they would get far more units produced than by asking for 20 percent, which produces zero.”

Wu’s opponent in this fall’s election, Josh Kraft, has assailed the mayor over the issue and proposed lowering the IDP back to 13 percent — a return to the way housing was built under Walsh. He has said the change would unlock the majority of stalled projects in the city. His campaign said he would set a goal of creating between 5,000 and 7,000 units annually.

“In my conversations with a broad cross-section of people involved in the Boston housing ecosystem, including housing advocates, developers, construction firms, union officials, and firms that finance projects, everyone believes that Mayor Wu’s policies — not the economic conditions — are the primary driver in slowing down housing production,” Kraft said.

The Wu administration rejects the notion that the steeper affordable housing requirement is responsible for the slowdown. They also point out that many of the projects that are struggling to secure financing were permitted under the previous, lower IDP rules.

“We’re in a unique economic moment,” said Boston Housing Chief Sheila Dillon. “Cities across the country are struggling to build housing right now; it’s not something that’s unique to Boston. The notion that these financial challenges are made locally is just not accurate.”

For their part, housing economists said that pinning the housing construction downturn on the IDP is an oversimplification.

While requiring more affordable housing does reduce a developer’s profit margins on some of their units, they said, the higher costs of building and borrowing have much more to do with a project’s bottom line.

“That is a far greater cost burden than the inclusionary requirement,” said Guren, the BU economist, who has studied building costs in the city. “You might see a few projects on the margins start to move if you reduce the affordable housing requirement. But my feeling is that the majority of the projects that are stuck are stuck because their numbers are way off.”

Another big factor: The increased returns that investors — insurance companies, pension funds, and banks — who finance housing development are seeking now. Higher interest rates mean those investors can make money in less-risky ways than building housing, so to finance a project, they have been demanding a higher return.

That has pushed some developers to suburban sites, where they can build at a lower cost.

Boston-based Marcus Partners, for instance, broke ground this month on a 304-unit project in North Attleboro. It’s a four-story wood-frame building, far cheaper per unit than the taller steel and concrete structures typically required in downtown Boston, said Levi Reilly, the firm’s head of development. Land costs less in North Attleboro, too, and the project landed $3.9 million in state infrastructure funding, all of which bolstered its bottom line.

“The bar for investment just got raised everywhere, and that’s not unique to Boston or Massachusetts or New England,” said Reilly. “It’s across the country. The bar got raised high.”

Still, while Boston remains slow, multifamily construction is happening faster in other big cities. Boston permitted less housing per 1,000 people in 2024 than 16 other peer cities, including Raleigh, Denver, and Detroit, research from the Boston Planning Department shows.

And numerous studies have shown that higher affordable housing requirements reduce housing production, said Andrew Mikula, a senior housing fellow at the Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank. Just over the river in Cambridge, for example, developers blame the city’s 20 percent affordability requirement for grinding development to a near halt in recent years.

“Policymakers in Boston and elsewhere shouldn’t use those macroeconomic concerns as excuses not to address our housing challenges,” said Mikula.

Housing economics aside, Wu ran on making Boston more affordable for people who live here, including longtime residents in lower-income enclaves in Roxbury and Dorchester, where rents and home prices have climbed quickly.

Many community activists have long called for a higher IDP, and they said Wu’s effort represents a commitment to those residents who felt left behind — and even squeezed out — by the Walsh-era market-rate building boom.

“We have been asking for affordable housing to be a priority for years, and Mayor Wu has made good on that,” said Armani White, executive director of advocacy group Reclaim Roxbury. “Good housing policy is not just about what’s good for developers.”

Dillon, who has led city housing efforts under four mayors, said she expects Boston’s development pipeline to begin moving quickly if the market turns around. And the city has $110 million in a new Housing Accelerator Fund Wu created to help advance projects that are paused because of financing constraints. As they select recipients, the city is focused on boosting projects with considerable affordable housing.

“When you talk to residents, the number one thing they say is that we need more affordable housing in this city,” Dillon said. “We are doing everything we can to deliver that.”

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Housing work begins at former Allston CVS (Grant Welker, Boston Business Journal: July 1, 2025)

Work is underway on a 206-unit residential development on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston that’ll replace a former CVS store.

Site work at 1270 Commonwealth Ave. began last month. Tocci, the Woburn based construction manager, said it plans to begin construction of the new building by the end of the year, with a summer 2027 completion date.

The project will be the second Allston development in a row for Tocci, which earlier this year completed a two-building project a mile away at 1515 Comm. Ave., which includes 252 units.

The 189,000-square-foot project at 1270 Comm. Ave. first went to Boston officials for permitting approval in 2022 and was approved the next year. It is planned to include ground-floor retail space.

The former CVS is being redeveloped in a partnership between the developer Hines and the project’s main investor, Benenson Capital Partners. Houston based Hines is also building a multi-building development over South Station that’ll include a 51-story mixed-use tower.

The Comm. Ave. development is the latest so-called infill project in Allston, in which denser developer replaces older, often lower scale uses. But most of the neighborhood's growth is taking place along formerly industrial properties including two that opened last year just south of the Massachusetts Turnpike: the 165-unit Alder at Allston Yards and the 147-unit project The Indie.

Harvard has a series of projects underway at its Allston campus: a new American Repertory Theater, an adjacent residential tower, and the Enterprise Research Campus, whose first phase includes lab buildings, a hotel and a conference center.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

449 Cambridge Street Notice of Project Change (NPC) filed on Monday, June 30, 2025

The following project description has been provided by the development team:

On behalf of ExCorde Capital, we respectfully submit this Notice of Project Change (NPC) for the mixed-use development located at 445–449 Cambridge Street in Brighton. Since the original BPDA approval of the 152-unit development in 2024, the proponent has acquired the adjacent property at 445 Cambridge Street, formerly an active auto body repair shop. This acquisition has allowed the proponent to consolidate and reconfigure the development into a unified, more efficient proposal that delivers greater public benefits and streamlined operations entirely onsite.

I. Overview of the Approved Project

The originally approved development consisted of 152 residential units split between two parcels: 2 Emery Road and 449 Cambridge Street. That plan included 18 onsite IDP units (plus 8 artist units), approximately 1,890 square feet of retail, 76 parking spaces, and a mix of indoor and outdoor amenities.

II. Summary of Proposed Changes

The revised project consolidates the entire development into a single, contiguous site spanning 445–449 Cambridge Street. This updated proposal now includes:

• Total Residential Units: 200 (an increase of 48 units)

• IDP Units: 29 units (an increase of 3 units maintaining a >17% net square footage for affordable housing commitment)

• IDP Artist Units: 8 units (unchanged)

• Retail Space: 2,100 square feet (increased from 1,890 sf)

• Indoor Amenity Space: 5,751 square feet (up from 4,004 sf)

• Outdoor Amenity Space: 7,200 square feet (up from 3,113 sf)

• Artist Space: 2,000 square feet (up from 1,568 sf)

• Parking Spaces: 63 spaces (reduced but now fully onsite)

Project Website: https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/449-cambridge-street

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

knockin' on your screen door

Unbound Visual Arts
Indigo Conat-Naar and Ezri Horne
July 6 - August 10, 2025
Opening Reception: Sunday, July 13th from 2-4pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, July 27th from 3-4pm

https://www.unboundvisualarts.org/knockin-on-your-screen-door/?mc_cid=d7f9c7dea2&mc_eid=fe49736b95

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Spring 2025 Grant Recipients

For the Spring 2025 cycle of the Allston Brighton/Boston College Community Fund a total of $42,178 was distributed to the following 16 organizations:

• Allston Brighton Food Pantry: Beautifying Green Space in Brighton Center
• Allston Brighton Little League, Inc: 2025 Skill and Development Expenses
  
• Allston Brighton Yoga Collective: Spring/Summer 2025
  
• Brazilian Women's Group: SEmergency Food Assistance for Immigrant Families in Allston-Brighton
• Brazilian Worker Center, Inc: Immigrant Youth Leadership Development in the Allston Brighton Area
  
• Brighton High School.: Supporting Our Newest Community Members this Winter at BHS
  
• Brighton Branch - Boston Public Library: Intergenerational Gardening Club & Serenity Garden Support & Beautification
• Community Rowing, Inc: Youth Summer Rowing Programs
  
• Economic Mobility Pathways, Inc. (EMPath): Community Beautification & Reflection Garden Project 
  
• Penniman Road Community Garden: Procurement of Tools & Materials to Support Healthy Gardens
• Road to the Right Track: Summer Events
  
• Shaloh House School: School Vegetable Garden & Micro-Farm Educational Programming
  
• Spark a Life with Art: The All-Brighton Creative Collective - A Creative Workshop Series
• The Common Room, Inc.: Scholarship for Supporting Social, Recreational & Cultural Experiences
• The Fishing Academy, Inc: 21st Season Summer Support
• The Women's Table, Sisters of St. Joseph, Boston: Supportive Circles
• West End House Camp, Inc: Project Camp 2025
• West End House Girls Camp: Camper Scholarships

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Let the yearlong celebration begin!

America250
https://america250.org/

MA250
https://massachusetts250.org/

Boston250

https://www.boston.gov/boston-250

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

 

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Brighton Branch Library

We're so excited for storyteller Anna Adler to join us this upcoming Monday for a storytelling session! This interactive session is sure to get kids clapping and moving along to stories from all over while also learning about the long tradition of oral storytelling.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Boston JerkFest Caribbean Foodie Festival

Tickets at https://2025bostonjerkfest.eventbrite.com

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Allston/Brighton Neighborhood Concert: Zion Rodman (With Full Band)

Boston Parks and Recreation Department

Tuesday, July 8, 2025 @ 7:00 pm

Parks and Recreation is hosting live concerts in neighborhoods throughout Boston. Neighborhood concerts are made possible by the generosity of Bank of America.

All ParkARTS neighborhood performances are free of charge.

ABOUT Zion Rodman

Buttery bass-driven bumpers topped by a smoothly crooning voice, Zion's songs go down like sweet barrel-aged bourbon.

Zion Rodman is a Boston-based multi-instrumental singer-songwriter in the indie rock/alt-country space. He grew up in Cape Cod where he played around since the age of 15 and eventually moved to Boston then Chicago then back to Boston.

His most recent album “Whatever Happens” was recorded in Chicago and released in 2020. His upcoming EP “The Lives I’ve Kept” is set to release in November of 2024, and plans to record another full-length record in 2025 is in the works.

Zion currently lives in Boston with his fiancé and their two cats. 

Smith Playground

235 Western Ave, Allston

Email Contact: pa...@boston.gov

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Federal funding for I-90 Allston project in jeopardy (Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Beacon: July 7, 2025)

New law rescinds grant program; Healey administration seeking clarification

Elevated Massachusetts Turnpike between BU and Charles River with Soldiers Field Road at grade.

The bend in the Turnpike at the top of the picture would be straightened if the broader project

I-90 Allston interchange project is pursued. Credit: Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

THE MASSIVE PACKAGE of tax and spending cuts President Trump signed into law on July 4 contains a provision that eliminates a federal transportation grant program that set aside $335 million last year for the nearly $2 billion I-90 Allston highway project in Boston. 

The provision rescinds “the unobligated balances” of the roughly $3 billion Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant program, which included funding for a project that aims to straighten and lower to ground level the Massachusetts Turnpike as it passes between Boston University and the Charles River. The Massachusetts project, complete with a new MBTA station, would pave the way for Harvard University to construct a new neighborhood on its holdings in the area and help knit together a portion of Boston that had been severed by construction of the turnpike in the 1950s and 1960s. 

State transportation officials issued a statement confirming the federal funding program is being eliminated but said they are still awaiting clarification on what exactly that will mean for the I-90 Allston initiative. 

“Every single American relies on transportation. It is essential for quality of life and for the success of our economy. That is why it makes no sense that President Trump and Congressional Republicans just cut billions of dollars in transportation funding, including the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program,” said the statement, issued by a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. “MassDOT is awaiting clarification from the US Department of Transportation and assessing what impact this will have on the $335 million grant we received for the Allston Multimodal Project.” 

The statement went on to say that the state “project team will continue its work on the environmental documents and design for the project. MassDOT will stay in communication with project partners and stakeholders as we learn more.” 

The federal grant represents about 17 percent of the total project’s cost. Under the federal program, the funds would only be “obligated” once environmental and regulatory hurdles are cleared. A deadline of September 30, 2026, was set for those approvals. 

Officials at the Federal Highway Administration could not be reached for comment. 

Tom Ryan, senior advisor on policy, government, and community affairs at A Better City, a business-backed organization that has lobbied aggressively for the project, said the federal setback isn’t a death knell for the project. 

“It’s a piece of the puzzle. It’s not the entire funding,” he said of the federal grant. 

But the federal funding was widely considered a key piece of the I-90 Allston puzzle and state, and local officials lobbied the Biden administration aggressively for the money. Even after it was awarded, state officials, worried about what a Trump victory could mean for the funding, tried without success to convince federal officials to let them spend a good portion of the money immediately. 

The change in administration and the Republican takeover of Congress changed the political equation dramatically. Funding for the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program was provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, which became a target of the Trump administration budget cutters. The grant program also had two other strikes against it – equity, a taboo word in the Trump administration, was included in the program’s title, and the I-90 Allston project was a high priority of both Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration and Harvard University, both of which have come under fire from the president and his administration. 

The I-90 Allston project has been talked about for more than a decade and gained significant traction with the federal award in March 2024 and a total of $300 million in funding commitments from the city of Boston, Harvard, and Boston University.  

Officials at Harvard and the city of Boston did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Boston Parks and Recreation Department

Due to expected weather, tonight's event at Smith Playground is canceled.

[Paul Creighton]

Latest news out of Washington

Don't despair;  Allston North and Allston South have not been united since the Railroad was built though here 200 hundred years ago.

Harvard acquired this outdated railroad/transportation land a few years ago.  Now we will see what the Harvard Real Estate wing can conjure up. They have been here (North America) almost 400 years and their record is unmatched.

Now everybody with a dog in this fight will have to work to ensure that the University "does the right thing".  We have a grand opportunity to fashion the area's future.

Fair Harvard has been camped on our side of the River since Washington Allston came up here from the family plantation in South Carolina around 1800 in order to attend the College.  Like a lot of college kids he fell in love and stayed.

People with vision and perspective knew that they were biding their time until they made their move to finish acquiring our side. 

Now that the Cambridge side is all full up, and the creek is rising,  they want the high ground which we hold for the moment.

The Harvard Institution runs on a different time clock. They will be here long after President Trump and the rest of us have left the Stadium, Inshallah.

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Allston Civic Association (ACA)

 

Congratulations to John Woods, Executive Director, Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation (ABCDC) for being selected for this year’s Joseph M. Smith Community Service Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

The award seeks to recognize a member of the Allston Brighton community who has devoted his or her life for the benefit of the community or its institutions.

 

Celebrating 45 years of service to our community, the ABCDC strives to create a vibrant neighborhood where people of many incomes, races, and genders can live and work.

 

John is proud to share this award with his staff, Board of Directors, volunteers, sponsors, donors and community partners for the incredible body of work accomplished to date.

 

2025: John Woods

2024: Ed Kotomori

2023: Paula Alexander

2022: Bruce Houghton

2021: Leonard (Lenny) W. Kelliher

2020: Bob Pessek

2019: Rita M. DiGesse & Thomas M. Lally 

2018: Paul Berkeley

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Gardner Pilot Academy
30 Athol St, Allston
First Day of Meal Service: 7/8/2025
Last Day of Meal Service: 8/8/2025
Days of Operation: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri
Meals Served: Breakfast, Lunch
Breakfast Start Time: 9:00 am
Breakfast End Time: 9:30 am
Lunch Start Time: 1:00 pm
Lunch End Time: 1:30 pm
Meal Sponsor: BPS

BCYF Jackson Mann Community Center
40 Armington St, Allston
First Day of Meal Service: 7/7/2025
Last Day of Meal Service: 8/29/2025
Days of Operation: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri
Meals Served: Lunch
Lunch Start Time: 11:00 am
Lunch End Time: 1:30 pm
Meal Sponsor: YMCA

Oak Square YMCA Center
615 Washington St, Brighton
First Day of Meal Service: 6/30/2025
Last Day of Meal Service: 8/1/2025
Days of Operation: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri
Meals Served: Lunch
Lunch Start Time: 12:00 pm
Lunch End Time: 1:00 pm
Meal Sponsor: YMCA

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Boston Parks and Recreation Department

Friday, July 11, 2025

🎨 Arts & Crafts Workshop, Portsmouth Street Playground in Allston/Brighton from 10am to 12pm
✨ Puppet Show at Portsmouth Street Playground in Allston/Brighton at 11am

For more information visit www.boston.gov/arts-crafts-workshops

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Honan Allston Branch Library

Flower Pot Decorating

Registration Required!

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Charles River Jazz Festival

This family-friendly, FREE event features local art and food vendors, a beer garden, Boston-based and world-renowned music acts, and more.

Please register in advance:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-charles-river-jazz-festival-tickets-1244007583169

We recommend arriving early to secure a good spot, as we expect the event to reach capacity. For those who are able, we kindly suggest a $20 donation to support the sound!

Your support helps us keep the festival free to the public, ensures musicians are paid fairly, and helps cover production costs. We appreciate your help in making this celebration of music possible.

Note: Registration does not guarantee entry—admission is strictly first-come, first-served.

Riverstage at Herter Park
1175 Soldiers Field Road
Brighton, MA 02135
FREE Parking

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Let’s talk about the families that leave Boston (The Editorial Board, Boston Globe: July 10, 2025)

Lamenting the flight of families to the suburbs used to be code for lamenting the loss of white families. But now those families are multiracial. The city needs to keep more of them here.

Opinion | Boston mayoral race: Where did all the kids go?

When so many families choose to raise their kids elsewhere, the city is not the whole community

it should be.Illustrations by John Daly; photo by John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Here’s a number that Josh Kraft and Michelle Wu should focus on in the Boston mayor’s race: 15.2 percent.

That’s the percentage of Boston residents who are under 18, according to the census. It’s a low number. The statewide figure is 19.2 percent. The country as a whole is 21.7 percent.

What that means is that Boston simply has fewer school-age children, as a percentage of the population, than the communities that surround us.

You can see the effects in the schools, where long-term falling enrollment has led to painful downsizing, despite the fact that the city itself has been growing in population. You can see it in the city’s newer apartment buildings, full of studios and one bedrooms.

And you can see it if you visit neighboring communities, where children tend to make up a much higher share of the population. In Needham, 28 percent of residents are below 18. In Canton, it’s 22.2 percent. In Milton, it’s 25.7 percent. In Chelsea, it’s 24.5 percent.

Boston is a thriving city in many respects. But when so many families choose to raise their kids elsewhere, the city is not the whole community it should be.

A decade ago, an article in Commonwealth magazine captured that larger, less tangible impact on the city’s soul. Fewer Scout groups. Fewer Little League teams. Fewer of “all of those other bedrock institutions that cement neighborhoods and create a sense of community.”

Some of the decline in the child population is well outside Boston’s control. For families that just want a bigger yard, there’s probably not much Boston can do to compete with the suburbs.

Still, Boston’s demographics aren’t inevitable or intrinsic to big cities. As the mayoral race heats up, voters are hearing a lot about bike lanes, White Stadium, and the candidates’ fund-raising. That’s all well and good. But the city has bigger challenges, and opportunities.

Over the next few weeks, the Globe editorial board will be posing some of the questions we wish local politicians spent more time discussing — and more energy solving. Start with this one: How can Boston become more family friendly?

There was a time, not too long ago, when lamenting the departure of families from Boston was code for lamenting the loss of white families. That may be one of the reasons the slow bleed of families to the suburbs still tends to be talked about gingerly, if at all.

But it’s now a much more widespread trend. The city has been losing Black residents, too. Boston Public Schools’ Black enrollment is half what it was two decades ago — though some of those students have gone to charter or parochial schools, rather than outside the city completely.

Public schools play a huge role in pushing people out of the city. Not surprisingly, the disparities between the demographics in Boston and the suburbs pick up after age 5: for kids under age 5, Boston and Needham, for instance, are almost the same. Boston is specifically losing school-age children.

What would make BPS more appealing to those parents? In local politics, the debate about schools tends to nibble around the edges of the issue, or on peripheral questions like the selection process for the school committee.

The candidates ought to be laser-focused on what is actually happening inside Boston’s classrooms, and whether the quality of instruction is as good as it could be and hallways are as safe as they should be.

Schools are not the only factor, though.

Boston is a safe city, judged by crime statistics, but that’s not the only kind of safety that matters. Can your kids cross the street without being menaced by a reckless driver? Are playing fields covered in used needles?

Housing stock also plays a role. Here, there are two schools of thought. Should the city encourage construction of more new family housing (meaning two bedrooms or more) — or are smaller apartments better, because their lower rents are more likely to lure younger people who are now living in group houses, thus freeing up those houses for families?

Price matters, too. Boston has programs to encourage subsidized and income-restricted housing for very poor families, and the market provides plenty of high-end units. How can the city encourage, and then retain, housing for families in the middle?

Wu, herself a parent to young children, and Kraft, the former CEO of the Boys and Girls Club — one of the biggest youth-oriented programs in the city — seem almost uniquely well suited to grapple with these questions.

And, to be fair, they have started. Wu created an office of early childhood in an effort to boost childcare access, and introduced a program to give families free access to some of Boston’s museums on selected days. She’s started the difficult task of closing or consolidating underutilized schools, which should yield long-term gains.

Kraft, in his philanthropic career, opened a new Boys and Girls Club location in Mattapan and boosted by thousands the number of children served by this organization. As a candidate, he’s stressed the connection between public safety and keeping families in the city, arguing that open drug use and other crimes can make families feel unsafe.

How to address those problems would be a debate worth having anyway, but the pandemic made it even more urgent that Boston develop strategies to hold onto more families.

It might have been possible, a decade ago, to shrug off the loss of families because there were countervailing incentives that kept people here. When many workers had to come downtown five days a week, that was one reason to live close to transit. When commercial real estate was thriving, it meant residential property taxes were low — another plus homeowners had to weigh against the lure of higher-tax suburbs.

But the vast increase in working from home that started during the pandemic has changed the city in ways that are still playing out. In practical terms, it’s hollowing out the downtown tax base, which is likely to lead to property tax hikes for homeowners.

It’s also changed the equation for some workers — office workers can suddenly live almost anywhere. It’s much less of a sacrifice to live further away from downtown for a family contemplating whether to stay in Boston or move to Randolph or Dedham.

The city should have a strategy to keep them — just as it should try to hold on teachers, cops, nurses, and restaurant workers who may not be able to Zoom into work, but will still feel the tug of the suburbs if their taxes go up too much, their schools aren’t good enough, or they’re tired of seeing open drug use and locked-up shampoo at CVS.

Boston is not in an “urban doom loop” — it’s not experiencing the mass exodus some urban analysts feared would occur after the pandemic. That’s because it’s still a desirable place to live for enough people to keep those one-bedroom apartments full.

But a city should be a city for everyone — including families with children. A city that’s so disproportionately made up of working-age adults can be safe and solvent. It can be well managed, environmentally responsible, and all the other things the candidates like to talk about.

But it can’t really call itself a full community.

[partslar...@aol.com]

Policies by Boston politicians that discouraged the long-term resident to remain in Boston neighborhoods has been a point of concern since the Mayoral reign of Marty Walsh. Mayor Wu simply doubled down on being sure the middle class and families are not part of the demographics. 

Now you are learning what the rest of the nation understands. Multicultural citizens are no different than white citizens and do not want to live within a forced socialist agenda. 

When Boston includes family sized apartments with parking in their developments, encourages small private property ownership, improves public schools and stops penalizing businesses then maybe the families will come back.

For what it is worth,

Michael dePierro

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

288 Washington Street Abutters Meeting

Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services

Monday, July 14, 2025, 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Proposal: “Taco Bell” seeking a common victualler license at location with proposed hours of 8 a.m. to 3 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

The purpose of this meeting is to get community input and listen to the resident's positions on this proposal. This is a virtual meeting via Zoom. 

Meeting ID: 857 6219 0213

Please note: The City does not represent the occupant(s)/developer(s)/attorney(s)/applicant(s).

Email Contact: Sigurgeir Jonson (sigurgei...@boston.gov) 

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Battle Over Boston Bike Lanes Intensifies and Hits Mayor’s Race (Sri Taylor and Greg Ryan, Bloomberg: July 13, 2025)

(Bloomberg) -- Construction mogul Jay Cashman says Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s bike lane overhaul is such a disaster that he’s willing to spend as much as $1 million to force the city to redo them.

Wu, who is seeking reelection this year, has added about 15 miles of bike lanes in a push to make it easier for cyclists to get around the notoriously labyrinthine city and inspire more Bostonians to commute to work this way. But Cashman, along with other residents, business owners and neighborhood groups, says the revamp was too hasty and ignored critics’ concerns, which range from safety risks, loss of parking spaces, more congested street traffic and slower response times for emergency vehicles.

“This problem is unfolding in front of us and unless somebody does something, it’s going to get worse,” said Cashman, who launched Pedal Safe Boston, an advocacy group pushing for an overhaul of the new system. He spent $100,000 to draw up a petition for a state ballot question that, if it moves forward, would impose new bike lane planning rules. He’s also backing a proposal from Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn to establish a commission to consider removing or altering Wu’s bike lanes and set new rules for them going forward.

Boston isn’t the first city to face pushback over bike lanes. Just across the Charles River, a cycling expansion in Cambridge — home to Harvard University — has sparked a similarly bitter back and forth. Toronto, Houston and New York’s Queens borough are among the other places mired in bike lane controversy. But in Boston, the battle has become a proxy for a broader debate in this election year over influence, access and whose voices matter most when determining the future of the city. 

Josh Kraft, the son of billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, is challenging Wu in the Nov. 4 mayoral election, seeking to become the first person in 76 years to unseat an incumbent in Boston. He’s seized on the bike lane rollout as an example of how Wu doesn’t listen to criticism and is out of touch with the business community. Advertisements and text messages from the super political action committee supporting his campaign have called the bike lanes a “disaster” and proof that Wu’s ideas “only make things worse” for the city. 

“Bike lanes have really impacted not just small business, all business,” Kraft said in an interview. He’s called for a pause in construction of bike lanes and the potential removal of the ones that he says create the most headaches, including those on Boylston Street in Boston’s commercial core and on Centre Street in the more residential West Roxbury neighborhood. 

“We really need to take the time to study how they impact business and figure out where to put them,” he said. 

Flynn says he wants to schedule a hearing on his proposal for a bike lane review commission sometime this summer but has gotten pushback from Boston city council colleagues who don’t want to consider an overhaul until after the mayoral and council races this fall.

Boston is also grappling with the mounting pressures of federal funding cuts on its vaunted research and higher education ecosystem, a deepening spiral in office building valuations and increased immigration enforcement. But when it comes to local elections, it’s often the day-to-day concerns — from affordability to commutes and housing — that carry the most weight for voters.

Nearly half of registered Boston voters think the city has too many bike lanes, while 35% say there are enough and 17% say there are too few, according to a February survey by Emerson College. Kraft supporters are far more likely to oppose Boston’s bike lane expansion than those backing Wu, the survey found.

“I’m not against bike lanes, but they’ve got to be put in in an efficient way where they don’t take away from the streets,” said Omar South, a barber-shop owner who joined Kraft at a recent event on the issue. “When you start taking away from businesses and creating more traffic, then it’s a problem.”

Safety Improvement

Earlier this year, Wu announced small tweaks to bike lane designs in some parts of the city in response to criticism. Her administration has also signaled recently that the reconfiguration of the Blue Hill Avenue thoroughfare in the Mattapan neighborhood may not include bike lanes after all. 

Still, Wu has defended and continued to advocate for the expansion. Additional bike lanes have made roadways safer, even as they have spurred more residents to ride their bikes, Wu said last month at a business forum in Boston. Crashes have declined by 51% on streets where bikers and drivers are now separated by posts or other barriers, according to a city analysis.

Wu compared the city’s new bike lanes to a family rearranging living-room furniture to meet its changing needs.

“Once you move it around, it’s always going to feel very weird, because you are so used to how it was before,” she said at the event. “Sometimes you just need to live in it a little bit to see if that actually works.”

Advocates say bike lanes can actually boost store traffic as cyclists take breaks and that criticism over a lack of public engagement is misleading. City officials say they held more than 50 public meetings on roadway projects last year.

“Insisting on absolutely complete, rigorous data is just a way of stalling it,” said David Wean, a member of the Boston Cyclists Union, a group advocating for better bike infrastructure in the city.

Parking Problems

Wean acknowledged imperfections in Boston’s bike lane network, including points where a lane will end abruptly and throw bikers into the middle of car traffic. But much of the infrastructure built to date has made streets safer, he says. He pointed to the addition of bike lanes and other road changes on Centre Street in West Roxbury after a pedestrian was killed crossing the street in 2019. There have been no fatalities since then, he said.

Critics say they also want fewer accidents but that the haphazard design of Boston’s bike lanes has increased safety risks and come at the expense of local businesses. Wu’s effort to modify some of the bike lanes comes too late and doesn’t go far enough, says Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president and executive director of the Back Bay Association. What was once a business-friendly area has become a hazard for storefronts and delivery trucks, she said. Bike lanes “basically drove a stake into the functionality of the whole neighborhood.”

Over in Brighton, revenue has declined 40% year-over-year at Big Daddy’s Pizza and Sub Shop after bike lanes went up along Western Avenue in late 2024, according to owner Richie Singh. Some of his best customers were slapped with $100 parking violations for blocking the bike lane, Singh said. They haven’t been back since. He’s upset by what he sees as the city’s lack of response to his entreaties for help, though officials said this spring that they would seek to open up more curbside parking in the neighborhood.

The hit to his business is all the more frustrating, Singh said, because of the dearth of bikers he sees whizzing by his windows.

Each week, “I work six days, sometimes I work seven days,” Singh said. While he’s at the restaurant, “I see two, three bikes at the most, no more than that.”

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

"dial M for Murder"

Brighton Branch Library

Monday, July 14, 2025, 3:00 pm - 4:45 pm

Description

Start your week off with a movie! Our July selection is Dial M for Murder, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings.

Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Rated PG. English subtitles.

About the movie:

Academy Award winners Grace Kelly and Ray Milland star with Robert Cummings in one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest thrillers. When playboy tennis pro Tony Wendice discovers his rich wife, Margot, is having an affair with handsome American Mark Hallidy, he devises an ingenious plot to murder her. But when his scheme takes an unexpected, deadly twist, Tony improvises––implicating Margot for first degree murder in this classic spellbinder.

Suitable for: All Adults, Older Adults, Young Adults (Ages 20-34)

40 Academy Hill Rd, Brighton

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Honan-Allston Branch Library

The Poop Museum covers the serious science of poop and pooping and is delivered with the silliness that you might imagine with a program about poop for children. It is the perfect combination of fun and fascinating facts - kids will never forget what they learn about poop!

[sandi castleman]

does the library have the Thomas Crapper book. "flushed with pride?"

Get Outlook for Android

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From: allstonbr...@googlegroups.com <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2025 1:16:01 PM
To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>; AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>; Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [AB2006] The Poop Museum at the Honan-Allston Branch Library!

 

Honan-Allston Branch Library

The Poop Museum covers the serious science of poop and pooping and is delivered with the silliness that you might imagine with a program about poop for children. It is the perfect combination of fun and fascinating facts - kids will never forget what they learn about poop!

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Drone Art Show Boston

Friday, July 18 & Saturday, July 19, 2025

Ohiri Field, Harvard University

95 N Harvard, St, Allston

https://thedroneartshow.com/boston/

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Honan Allston Branch Library

Paint Your Own Reading Buddy
Wednesday, July 16, 2025, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Description

Have you ever wanted a reading buddy? Now you can design one of your own!

Select your buddy, then paint it in whatever design you choose.

Recommended for ages 5 and up. Limited to 12 attendees.

This program is not intended for large groups. Preschools and daycares, please contact Miss Caroline to arrange a visit just for your class.

Suitable for: Children (Ages 6-12)

Address: 300 North Harvard St, Allston
Contact: C. Richardson

Email: crich...@bpl.org

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Massachusetts is 2025’s Most Improved State for Business boosted by financial independence from D.C. (Scott Cohn, CNBC: July 11, 2025)

Key Points

• Massachusetts staged a turnaround in CNBC’s state competitiveness rankings in 2025, jumping 18 places after falling 23 spots in 2024

• The state is less dependent than most across the U.S. on federal funding, a new metric that helped improve its Economy ranking as President Trump oversees big cuts across the country.

• But Massachusetts still has serious competitive issues. Costs are high, and federal grant cuts threaten to curtail research and innovation.

For 400 years, the spirit of independence has served the people of Massachusetts well. In 2025, it helped the state achieve a turnaround of sorts in CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business study.

The Bay State is America’s most improved state in this year’s rankings, rising 18 spots to No. 20 overall, after staging the biggest drop — falling 23 places — last year. Massachusetts was able to make that U-turn thanks to its relative independence from Washington. With federal budget cuts looming, this year’s CNBC study considered their potential impact on each state’s economy.

Economy is the most important category in 2025, and Massachusetts improved its ranking in the category to No. 15, from No. 40 last year.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, federal funds comprised 30% of Massachusetts government spending last fiscal year. That made Massachusetts the 14th least dependent state on Washington (Wyoming was the least dependent at 19%; Louisiana was the most at 50%). In addition, Massachusetts’ federal workforce of about 25,000 people makes up only about half a percent of its total workforce, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. That makes the state’s federal workforce the eighth-smallest in the country relative to the total.

“We tackle hard problems in Massachusetts. Hard stuff. Wicked hard stuff sometimes,” Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in her State of the Commonwealth speech in January.

She pointed to $1.5 billion in state funding for child care to make up for federal cuts after the pandemic.

“We were the only state to fully replace federal support that went away,” she said.

Massachusetts still lags the nation in access to affordable child care, according to Child Care Aware of America, but it improved its performance this year, helping the state to an eighth-place finish in the Quality of Life category.

Harvard vs. Trump, innovation at risk

But independence only goes so far, even in Massachusetts. The state is the third-largest recipient of federal health and science research grants, after New York and California. The Trump administration has taken aim at those grants nationwide, but nowhere more directly than in Massachusetts.

Since April, the Trump administration has moved to freeze $3.2 billion in grants to Harvard University and to terminate another $100 million in federal contracts with the 389-year-old institution, accusing the university of liberal bias and of harboring antisemitism. The school has sued to block the cuts, citing the First Amendment, and the university’s own efforts to curtail antisemitism on campus.

But Christopher Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council — a business organization that has been advocating for the state’s tech industry since 1977 — said Harvard is not the only institution threatened by the federal cuts.

“We do have a large number of research institutions that are critically important to generating and contributing to our innovation economy here,” he told CNBC. “Everyone’s feeling the pinch,” he added.

In May, the University of Massachusetts directed department heads to develop budget scenarios that include 3% and 5% cuts. As of mid-June, the university said it had already received $29 million less in federal research awards than at the same time a year earlier.

To blunt some of the impact of the cuts, the university established a matching fund that it says has committed more than $700,000 toward salaries and research funding that would otherwise be cut. But that money is a drop in the bucket, with the university normally receiving $180 million a year in federal research support, including $44 million in so-called “indirect” funding for facilities and administration that the administration has sought to sharply reduce.

Budget pressures, high costs

“Unfortunately, the commonwealth is really not in a position to play the role of savior as perhaps it could if it had been managing its state budget more appropriately,” Anderson said.

Anderson said that 15 years of what he called “unsustainable” growth in state spending have hobbled Massachusetts at the worst possible time.

“At exactly the time when the federal government is cutting back, we find ourselves unable to invest quickly or effectively in the key economic development projects that are driven by powerful innovations like artificial intelligence,” he said.

Anderson also pointed to the Mass Leads Act, signed into law by Gov. Healey last year, which the High Technology Council supported. The four-year economic development bill purports to include hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for life science, climate technology, and artificial intelligence.

While the law sets a goal of $4 billion for economic development, Anderson said only $251 million of that is currently funded due to state borrowing caps.

“It doesn’t allow Massachusetts to keep up,” he said.

An analysis by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics found Massachusetts roughly in the middle of the pack when it comes to state support for research and development, ranking 22nd in 2023.

While Massachusetts improved its overall ranking in the CNBC study, it still has some serious issues beyond its budget pressures.

It is the second-most-expensive state to do business in, behind Hawaii. Wage costs are the highest in the nation; utility costs are the third highest. And the state ranks No. 42 for Business Friendliness, with a heavy regulatory hand.

Anderson said the long-term solution to the state’s competitive issues might be to take that independent streak a bit further, encouraging research institutions to work more closely with the private sector rather than relying on state support.

“This could be the beginning of a new era of collaboration between private sector companies and these institutions,” he said.

Overall

20

State

Massachusetts

Economy

15

Infra-Structure

35

Workforce

23

Cost of Doing Business

49

Business Friendliness

42

Quality of Life

8

Technology & Innovation

4

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Education, Access to Capital and Cost of Living rankings added below.

---

From: Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 9:17 AM

To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>; AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>; Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Massachusetts is 2025’s Most Improved State for Business boosted by financial independence from D.C.

 

Education

2

Access to Capital

5

Cost of Living

43

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Brighton Branch Library

This week, our nonfiction book club will discuss Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. Print copies available at the Brighton Branch front desk, while supplies last.
Thursday, July 17, 6:30 - 7:30 PM at the Brighton Branch.
Nonfiction Night reads nonfiction across a wide variety of subjects. No registration required, you're welcome to drop in. We also welcome readers who decided not to or weren't able to finish the book –– as long as you're okay with spoilers!
***
About the book:
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it.
Patrick Radden Keefe uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with.
#boston #bookclubs

[Chandler R]

I am so glad the Globe put this forward as a key issue in the race for mayor.  My wife and I have genuinely struggled to stay in the city, especially after our kids were born. Schools were the biggest challenge.  We watched dozens of our friends with young children flee to the suburbs as soon as they hit school age.  We hang on because cities are great places to raise kids.  

Last weekend, my brother and his young family were visiting from suburban California.  We took them on a tour of lower Allston: down to Artisani Park, then past the playgrounds and ball fields of Smith Field to Sloane's for dinner.  We pointed out the new ART under construction, then picked up some milk at Trader Joe's on the way home.  My brother couldn't believe it: every stop on that walk would have been a car trip back in the CA suburbs.

Cities have old and young, rich and poor, immigrant and local-born, and growing up among that mix teaches our children that every person they meet deserves their respect. Cities are environmentally friendly, culturally and intellectually stimulating, and have great career prospects.  Look at London or Edinburgh or Berlin or Vienna -- it's perfectly possible to sustain thriving cities.   We just have to make a sharp break with the clumsy bureaucracy and the divisive accusations that keep us from working together effectively.  

I hope one of these two candidates comes up with a real set of plans to allow Boston families to thrive.  I don't know if emphasizing family issues wins votes, but it will certainly help secure Boston's future.

Chandler

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/414803076.856527.1752372732252%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Benjamin Marshall]

One ought to strongly disagree with the theory that Boston housing does not fit families.   The problem is actually the opposite: most Boston housing is designed for families over 85% of households are 3 people or less.   

By creating more small units we can work to match the housing stock with the population.  The large units aren't going anywhere,  but more small households will choose smaller units opening up the larger units for the larger households. 

Ben Marshall, Personal Email Account

c. 617.817.4915

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-marshall-4a7368211

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/CA%2BLFj%2BzdGir56q89F8D8d3iL0OQzcnMJokWJoH8cmDrPj3wxuQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Planning Department - City of Boston

We want to hear from you as we expand our network of parks, plazas, and outdoor spaces!

Spaces For You is a collaborative and proactive effort by the City of Boston to co-create, enhance, and celebrate spaces that foster joy, belonging, and well-being for all residents. The project aims to bridge the gap between community needs and city resources, knitting together public and privately generated open spaces to create vibrant social places for all.

Please take the anonymous survey to share your experiences and thoughts on Boston’s public outdoor spaces: https://form.typeform.com/to/EFeP6Zsr

Visit bostonplans.org/spacesforyou for details.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Due to structural concerns at 221 Mount Auburn Street (Riverview Condominium Building), the City of Cambridge will close segments of Mount Auburn Street and Sparks Street starting Saturday, July 19. Multiple detours and traffic changes will be in place to maintain the closure, which may last through the end of 2025.

The streets and sidewalks immediately surrounding 221 Mt. Auburn Street, at the corner of Mt. Auburn Street and Sparks Street, will be closed to all traffic including vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Access will be maintained for direct abutters.

[Andrew Fischer]

Eva

No one is suggesting anyone force anyone to small apartments. Young singles prefer the amenities of new small units because of the amenities. If you build it they will come.

Andrew Fischer
21Bartlett Crescent 
Brookline, Ma 02446
617-293-8304
andrewm...@gmail.com

On Jul 16, 2025, at 9:46 PM, 'Eva Webster' via Cleveland Circle Community <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Ben & Chandler - you can’t force the people who live with roommates in free-standing houses into small apartments in new construction buildings.  New housing (even small units) is more expansive to rent than what those people pay when they rent apartments in older homes and split rent with roommates.

 

Also, many of the renters who live in free-standing houses LIKE having a porch and/or a yard (it allows them to see greenery outside their windows) and they enjoy access to a basement or attic for storage, not to mention parking. Those homes are also more pet-friendly than a small apartment in a new building. When the dog barks in an apartment building, many more people are disturbed.

 

Additionally, the landlords who own free-standing houses and rent them out to multiple tenants are not likely to invest in renovating those homes in ways that would appeal to families -- and they will continue to charge rents that are too high for most families.

 

Lastly, not all families want to live in free-standing houses – because if both parents work, they don’t have time to take care of the property, and it’s costly to hire maintenance and repair people all the time.  They would rather have a larger apartment with a terrace or a private balcony (which developers in A-B rarely build for studios or 1-bedrooms).

 

I think that constructing lots of buildings in A-B with small units is a mistake. Each of those buildings should have a mix of units of different sizes, including large ones that could be rented (or bought) by families, or leased to roommates who need to split high rent to be able to afford it.

 

On 7/16/25, 9:00 PM, "cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com on behalf of chand...@gmail.com" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com on behalf of chand...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Ben, that’s a very good point. Our lower Allston neighborhood has many houses that would be perfect for families but are occupied by 5+ renters at a time. I’m sure those folks would rather be in smaller groups (or solo) in modern apartments. I think The Link, for example, is very successful, and would like to see more buildings like it on the outskirts of traditional residential neighborhoods, leaving the older housing stock for families.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 16, 2025, at 20:44, Benjamin Marshall <benjam...@gmail.com> wrote:



One ought to strongly disagree with the theory that Boston housing does not fit families.   The problem is actually the opposite: most Boston housing is designed for families over 85% of households are 3 people or less.   

 

By creating more small units we can work to match the housing stock with the population.  The large units aren't going anywhere,  but more small households will choose smaller units opening up the larger units for the larger households. 

 

Ben Marshall, Personal Email Account

c. 617.817.4915

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-marshall-4a7368211

 

On Wed, Jul 16, 2025, 11:17 AM Chandler R <chand...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am so glad the Globe put this forward as a key issue in the race for mayor.  My wife and I have genuinely struggled to stay in the city, especially after our kids were born. Schools were the biggest challenge.  We watched dozens of our friends with young children flee to the suburbs as soon as they hit school age.  We hang on because cities are great places to raise kids.  

 

Last weekend, my brother and his young family were visiting from suburban California.  We took them on a tour of lower Allston: down to Artisani Park, then past the playgrounds and ball fields of Smith Field to Sloane's for dinner.  We pointed out the new ART under construction, then picked up some milk at Trader Joe's on the way home.  My brother couldn't believe it: every stop on that walk would have been a car trip back in the CA suburbs.

 

Cities have old and young, rich and poor, immigrant and local-born, and growing up among that mix teaches our children that every person they meet deserves their respect. Cities are environmentally friendly, culturally and intellectually stimulating, and have great career prospects.  Look at London or Edinburgh or Berlin or Vienna -- it's perfectly possible to sustain thriving cities.   We just have to make a sharp break with the clumsy bureaucracy and the divisive accusations that keep us from working together effectively.  

 

I hope one of these two candidates comes up with a real set of plans to allow Boston families to thrive.  I don't know if emphasizing family issues wins votes, but it will certainly help secure Boston's future.

 

Chandler

 

On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 10:13 PM 'partslar...@aol.com' via Cleveland Circle Community <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Policies by Boston politicians that discouraged the long-term resident to remain in Boston neighborhoods has been a point of concern since the Mayoral reign of Marty Walsh. Mayor Wu simply doubled down on being sure the middle class and families are not part of the demographics. 

 

Now you are learning what the rest of the nation understands. Multicultural citizens are no different than white citizens and do not want to live within a forced socialist agenda. 

 

When Boston includes family sized apartments with parking in their developments, encourages small private property ownership, improves public schools and stops penalizing businesses then maybe the families will come back.

 

For what it is worth,

 

Michael dePierro

 

On Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 08:11:20 PM EDT, Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com> wrote: 

Let’s talk about the families that leave Boston (The Editorial Board, Boston Globe: July 10, 2025)

 

Lamenting the flight of families to the suburbs used to be code for lamenting the loss of white families. But now those families are multiracial. The city needs to keep more of them here.

 

Opinion | Boston mayoral race: Where did all the kids go?

 

<GlobeA.jpg>

When so many families choose to raise their kids elsewhere, the city is not the whole community

it should be.Illustrations by John Daly; photo by John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

 

Here’s a number that Josh Kraft and Michelle Wu should focus on in the Boston mayor’s race: 15.2 percent.

 

That’s the percentage of Boston residents who are under 18, according to the census. It’s a low number. The statewide figure is 19.2 percent. The country as a whole is 21.7 percent.

 

What that means is that Boston simply has fewer school-age children, as a percentage of the population, than the communities that surround us.

 

You can see the effects in the schools, where long-term falling enrollment has led to painful downsizing, despite the fact that the city itself has been growing in population. You can see it in the city’s newer apartment buildings, full of studios and one bedrooms.

 

And you can see it if you visit neighboring communities, where children tend to make up a much higher share of the population. In Needham, 28 percent of residents are below 18. In Canton, it’s 22.2 percent. In Milton, it’s 25.7 percent. In Chelsea, it’s 24.5 percent.

 

Boston is a thriving city in many respects. But when so many families choose to raise their kids elsewhere, the city is not the whole community it should be.

 

A decade ago, an article in Commonwealth magazine captured that larger, less tangible impact on the city’s soul. Fewer Scout groups. Fewer Little League teams. Fewer of “all of those other bedrock institutions that cement neighborhoods and create a sense of community.”

 

Some of the decline in the child population is well outside Boston’s control. For families that just want a bigger yard, there’s probably not much Boston can do to compete with the suburbs.

 

Still, Boston’s demographics aren’t inevitable or intrinsic to big cities. As the mayoral race heats up, voters are hearing a lot about bike lanes, White Stadium, and the candidates’ fund-raising. That’s all well and good. But the city has bigger challenges, and opportunities.

 

Over the next few weeks, the Globe editorial board will be posing some of the questions we wish local politicians spent more time discussing — and more energy solving. Start with this one: How can Boston become more family friendly?

 

There was a time, not too long ago, when lamenting the departure of families from Boston was code for lamenting the loss of white families. That may be one of the reasons the slow bleed of families to the suburbs still tends to be talked about gingerly, if at all.

 

But it’s now a much more widespread trend. The city has been losing Black residents, too. Boston Public Schools’ Black enrollment is half what it was two decades ago — though some of those students have gone to charter or parochial schools, rather than outside the city completely.

 

<Screenshot_12-7-2025_19265_www.bostonglobe.com.jpeg>

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/CAOYP-yNy6DKkXSAmhvotErh%2BtebkR%2BKeoxuHjAG8bZbNZW8-BA%40mail.gmail.com.

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[chand...@gmail.com]

Ben, that’s a very good point. Our lower Allston neighborhood has many houses that would be perfect for families but are occupied by 5+ renters at a time. I’m sure those folks would rather be in smaller groups (or solo) in modern apartments. I think The Link, for example, is very successful, and would like to see more buildings like it on the outskirts of traditional residential neighborhoods, leaving the older housing stock for families.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 16, 2025, at 20:44, Benjamin Marshall <benjam...@gmail.com> wrote:



One ought to strongly disagree with the theory that Boston housing does not fit families.   The problem is actually the opposite: most Boston housing is designed for families over 85% of households are 3 people or less.   

By creating more small units we can work to match the housing stock with the population.  The large units aren't going anywhere,  but more small households will choose smaller units opening up the larger units for the larger households. 

Ben Marshall, Personal Email Account

c. 617.817.4915

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-marshall-4a7368211

On Wed, Jul 16, 2025, 11:17 AM Chandler R <chand...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am so glad the Globe put this forward as a key issue in the race for mayor.  My wife and I have genuinely struggled to stay in the city, especially after our kids were born. Schools were the biggest challenge.  We watched dozens of our friends with young children flee to the suburbs as soon as they hit school age.  We hang on because cities are great places to raise kids.  

Last weekend, my brother and his young family were visiting from suburban California.  We took them on a tour of lower Allston: down to Artisani Park, then past the playgrounds and ball fields of Smith Field to Sloane's for dinner.  We pointed out the new ART under construction, then picked up some milk at Trader Joe's on the way home.  My brother couldn't believe it: every stop on that walk would have been a car trip back in the CA suburbs.

Cities have old and young, rich and poor, immigrant and local-born, and growing up among that mix teaches our children that every person they meet deserves their respect. Cities are environmentally friendly, culturally and intellectually stimulating, and have great career prospects.  Look at London or Edinburgh or Berlin or Vienna -- it's perfectly possible to sustain thriving cities.   We just have to make a sharp break with the clumsy bureaucracy and the divisive accusations that keep us from working together effectively.  

I hope one of these two candidates comes up with a real set of plans to allow Boston families to thrive.  I don't know if emphasizing family issues wins votes, but it will certainly help secure Boston's future.

Chandler

On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 10:13 PM 'partslar...@aol.com' via Cleveland Circle Community <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Policies by Boston politicians that discouraged the long-term resident to remain in Boston neighborhoods has been a point of concern since the Mayoral reign of Marty Walsh. Mayor Wu simply doubled down on being sure the middle class and families are not part of the demographics. 

Now you are learning what the rest of the nation understands. Multicultural citizens are no different than white citizens and do not want to live within a forced socialist agenda. 

When Boston includes family sized apartments with parking in their developments, encourages small private property ownership, improves public schools and stops penalizing businesses then maybe the families will come back.

For what it is worth,

Michael dePierro

On Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 08:11:20 PM EDT, Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com> wrote:

Let’s talk about the families that leave Boston (The Editorial Board, Boston Globe: July 10, 2025)

Lamenting the flight of families to the suburbs used to be code for lamenting the loss of white families. But now those families are multiracial. The city needs to keep more of them here.

Opinion | Boston mayoral race: Where did all the kids go?

<GlobeA.jpg>

When so many families choose to raise their kids elsewhere, the city is not the whole community

it should be.Illustrations by John Daly; photo by John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Here’s a number that Josh Kraft and Michelle Wu should focus on in the Boston mayor’s race: 15.2 percent.

That’s the percentage of Boston residents who are under 18, according to the census. It’s a low number. The statewide figure is 19.2 percent. The country as a whole is 21.7 percent.

What that means is that Boston simply has fewer school-age children, as a percentage of the population, than the communities that surround us.

You can see the effects in the schools, where long-term falling enrollment has led to painful downsizing, despite the fact that the city itself has been growing in population. You can see it in the city’s newer apartment buildings, full of studios and one bedrooms.

And you can see it if you visit neighboring communities, where children tend to make up a much higher share of the population. In Needham, 28 percent of residents are below 18. In Canton, it’s 22.2 percent. In Milton, it’s 25.7 percent. In Chelsea, it’s 24.5 percent.

Boston is a thriving city in many respects. But when so many families choose to raise their kids elsewhere, the city is not the whole community it should be.

A decade ago, an article in Commonwealth magazine captured that larger, less tangible impact on the city’s soul. Fewer Scout groups. Fewer Little League teams. Fewer of “all of those other bedrock institutions that cement neighborhoods and create a sense of community.”

Some of the decline in the child population is well outside Boston’s control. For families that just want a bigger yard, there’s probably not much Boston can do to compete with the suburbs.

Still, Boston’s demographics aren’t inevitable or intrinsic to big cities. As the mayoral race heats up, voters are hearing a lot about bike lanes, White Stadium, and the candidates’ fund-raising. That’s all well and good. But the city has bigger challenges, and opportunities.

Over the next few weeks, the Globe editorial board will be posing some of the questions we wish local politicians spent more time discussing — and more energy solving. Start with this one: How can Boston become more family friendly?

There was a time, not too long ago, when lamenting the departure of families from Boston was code for lamenting the loss of white families. That may be one of the reasons the slow bleed of families to the suburbs still tends to be talked about gingerly, if at all.

But it’s now a much more widespread trend. The city has been losing Black residents, too. Boston Public Schools’ Black enrollment is half what it was two decades ago — though some of those students have gone to charter or parochial schools, rather than outside the city completely.

<Screenshot_12-7-2025_19265_www.bostonglobe.com.jpeg>

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/CAOYP-yNy6DKkXSAmhvotErh%2BtebkR%2BKeoxuHjAG8bZbNZW8-BA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Eva Webster]

Ben & Chandler - you can’t force the people who live with roommates in free-standing houses into small apartments in new construction buildings.  New housing (even small units) is more expansive to rent than what those people pay when they rent apartments in older homes and split rent with roommates.

 

Also, many of the renters who live in free-standing houses LIKE having a porch and/or a yard (it allows them to see greenery outside their windows) and they enjoy access to a basement or attic for storage, not to mention parking. Those homes are also more pet-friendly than a small apartment in a new building. When the dog barks in an apartment building, many more people are disturbed.

 

Additionally, the landlords who own free-standing houses and rent them out to multiple tenants are not likely to invest in renovating those homes in ways that would appeal to families -- and they will continue to charge rents that are too high for most families.

 

Lastly, not all families want to live in free-standing houses – because if both parents work, they don’t have time to take care of the property, and it’s costly to hire maintenance and repair people all the time.  They would rather have a larger apartment with a terrace or a private balcony (which developers in A-B rarely build for studios or 1-bedrooms).

 

I think that constructing lots of buildings in A-B with small units is a mistake. Each of those buildings should have a mix of units of different sizes, including large ones that could be rented (or bought) by families, or leased to roommates who need to split high rent to be able to afford it.

 

On 7/16/25, 9:00 PM, "cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com on behalf of chand...@gmail.com" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com on behalf of chand...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/80AF9617-2145-468B-B647-A9F28F608C57%40gmail.com.

[Eva Webster]

On 7/16/25, 10:04 PM, "Andrew Fischer" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com on behalf of andrewm...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Eva

 

No one is suggesting anyone force anyone to small apartments. Young singles prefer the amenities of new small units because of the amenities. If you build it they will come.

 

Andrew, what makes you, Ben and Chandler think that the young people who are happy to rent in free-standing houses would all move to new studios or one-bedroom apartments in newly constructed buildings?

 

We have had many such buildings built in A-B in recent years, and free-standing rental houses remain popular among childless young renters.

 

I can’t prove it, but I have a gut feeling there are many new apartments that sit vacant, but not many free-standing houses remain unoccupied (unless they’re awaiting a renovation).

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/A1B44ED9-4C42-4063-8D25-3F74CED8D03A%40gmail.com.

[Michael DeMarco]

Eva is spot on here with regards to rents.  The cheapest seats in A/B are older 3-4+ bedroom properties where multiple people split the rent.  If one prefers to live alone, the cheapest option is studio apartments in 1920s era buildings (that my was set up near Cleveland Circle).  New construction and larger 1 beds and studios with more amenities are more expensive.

The real elephant in the room with regards to families with small children is MA's Lead Paint Laws.  By law landlords must spend five/six figures deleading rental units if small children will be living there.  Even after spending all of that money, the landlord is still liable if a child gets lead poisoning.  So why would landlords go through this!?  They don't.  Of course landlords and real estate broker/salespeople will vehemently deny this all day, but its real.  Just talk to any family with small children who has looked for rental housing in units built before 1978.  Now they are usually not told this directly, but lets just say they never really get chosen as tenants.  Everyone knows why, wink, wink, nothing to see here.

So you can build all the new units you want, but until/unless the lead paint law changes, there will be virtually no families with small children moving into older rental housing stock.  

Mike

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/05DCCB57-B942-4B7F-9D80-4463A626E888%40comcast.net.

[Michael DeMarco]

You are welcome Chandler.  The MA Lead Law does not prevent a family from buying or living in a house/condo with lead paint.  Sellers do not have to delead.  Sellers and real estate brokers selling homes older than 1978 do have to include a disclosure that due to the age of house there might be lead.  Pretty standard with all of the old housing stock around here.

Now lets say that family with small children decides to move and wants to rent their house out.  If tenants with children under the age of six move in, the landlord MUST delead.  Under MA law the landlord can't refuse to rent to the family because of the expense of deleading.  The state takes these discrimination claims very seriously.  So there is the law on paper, and then there is the reality of how it plays out.  Of course the landlord doesn't have to go through the expense of deleading if a tenant without children under the age of six is chosen.

This is why the vast majority of families with young children are in owned homes/condo units in Boston and not rentals.   

  

On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 10:05 AM <chand...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mike, that’s so interesting about the lead paint laws. Thanks for explaining that. But that wouldn’t keep a family from buying a single-family house if it came on the market, right? Or do sellers have to delead before selling?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 17, 2025, at 09:56, Michael DeMarco <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/CALov9Pq9hYpVEmRt-d9zgc7fHdmugkTWiaF_Q0KSpqqav1swBQ%40mail.gmail.com.

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

---

From: Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com>

Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 9:36 PM

To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>; AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>; Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Mt Auburn-Sparks Street Detour Map!

 

City of Cambridge

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Project Update

Veronica B Smith Multi Services Senior Center Renovation Project ($14.8 million)

Projected Start Date: March 2026
Project Duration: 6 - 12 Months

1. Replace the roof
2. Replace the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system
3. Install a new sprinkler system
4. Replace all the wiring
5. Improve accessibility of the front entrance to bring it up to the latest Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) code
6. Add a basement-level room (opposite elevators) for new electrical services (this will not encroach on the current ‘public’ space)
7. On lower-level site of the Brighton Allston Historical Society (BAHS) museum, replace ceiling and ductwork.

Given the building has to be totally vacated during construction, city officials are looking for an alternative location for the senior center. Any ideas?

BAHS is looking for space to store the contents of the Heritage Museum. Any ideas?

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

BLUEbikes Expansion in Allston Brighton

Here are some of the new stations that will be installed in the coming weeks (pending final permits).

Allston/Brighton:

Chestnut Hill Ave at Winship St
Reservoir Rd at Beacon St
Cambridge St at Warren St
Walbridge St at Comm Ave
Ringer Park - Webley St at Armington St
North Harvard St at Harvard Way
Gardner St at Harvard Ave
Gardner St at Alcorn St
39 Brighton Ave
Market St at Mapleton St
Washington St at Mina Way

Faneuil St at Bothwell Rd

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Boston’s schools don’t have to be mediocre (The Editorial Board, Boston Globe: July 17, 2025)

Voters should press the mayoral candidates to debate detailed solutions to the district’s major problems.

Boston’s schools don’t have to be mediocre - The Boston Globe

There are deeply rooted reasons why schools, despite being the biggest single operating department

in the budget and the most important city service, tend to be oddly absent from mayoral races

in Boston. Illustrations by John Daly; photo by Erin Clark/Globe Staff

To every parent and every voter in Boston: It doesn’t have to be this way.

The city’s schools don’t have to be mediocre. The school assignment system doesn’t have to be so confusing. Bilingual education doesn’t have to be inadequate. Buses don’t have to run late. Chronic absenteeism doesn’t have to be the norm in so many high schools. Student safety doesn’t have to be a question mark.

The person who can change those narratives — who can turn Boston’s schools into places families move to, not from — is the mayor.

After all, the mayor controls the schools, because she appoints all the School Committee members. The buck truly stops at City Hall.

Yet, with a mayoral election heating up, the quality of education in Boston Public Schools is shaping up to be at best a secondary issue in the race.

That’s despite the fact that the state education commissioner sought to designate BPS as underperforming in 2022, confirming the deep and systemic problems that many parents already sensed.

In a poll conducted last year, most parents gave the district a B or C ; only 22 percent gave it an A. One third of BPS students attend a school that the state has designated as one of the worst-performing in the state.

So why isn’t education at the top of the mayoral agenda?

There are deeply rooted reasons why schools, despite being the biggest single operating department in the budget and the most important city service, tend to be oddly absent from mayoral races in Boston.

First, perhaps, is history: Until 1991, Boston had an elected School Committee so mayors could legitimately claim that the schools weren’t under their purview. A few years later, former mayor Tom Menino made news when he asked voters to “judge me harshly” if he failed to improve the schools — partly because it sounded like such a radical departure from previous mayors who had dodged responsibility for public education.

That was more than 30 years ago, though, and neither Menino nor any of his successors have ever in fact been judged harshly for the schools.

Then there’s the demographic reality that the number of voters who have a direct connection to the district has decreased, because there are fewer students in schools than there were a generation ago.

Boston’s population is about 650,000 and there are about 48,000 kids enrolled in BPS, meaning about 1 in 14 residents are BPS students. In 1980, Boston’s population was 560,000 people and 85,000 were students, meaning 1 in 7 residents were students. If there are no kids in your life attending BPS, then bike lanes may indeed feel like a more pressing issue.

There’s also sheer political calculation: It’s not lost on anyone that when former city councilor John Connolly tried to run as an education candidate in 2013, he lost. “There’s a disturbing culture in Boston politics where politicians believe that you can’t win on schools and it can only be a divisive issue,” he later told a Globe columnist.

Finally, as this editorial board put it in the last mayoral election, there’s also undeniably a sense of fatalism in Boston — a feeling that five decades after the busing crisis, schools are an intractable mess and no politician can really fix them.

That, at least, is a problem voters can end: by getting into the habit of demanding more.

We can’t afford to be defeatist. Especially in a post-pandemic world, in which many white collar workers can live anywhere, Boston needs schools that are good enough to hold on to residents and produce students who can succeed at college or in careers — and not just those able to land a seat at an exam school.

In public debates, the candidates should be pressed on how, or if, they would change the school assignment system. How, specifically, they would change the admission process for the city’s exams schools. Whether they think the city’s new inclusive classrooms are working or whether that approach needs changes. What changes they would seek to school bus service to make it more reliable and less expensive.

How would they bring the third of students who regularly miss school back into the classroom? What would they do to stop fistfights (and worse) in the schools? Would they ban cell phones during the whole school day and if so, how would they enforce bans? How would they turn the downsizing of the schools — an inevitability, considering long-term enrollment declines — into an opportunity to make the remaining schools better?

When she first ran for mayor four years ago, Mayor Michelle Wu had a lot to say about school buildings — she promised a “Green New Deal” for dilapidated school facilities — and relatively little about what happens inside them, reflecting the kind of play-it-safe mentality Connolly described.

Her record in office is more encouraging: Wu has started the painful, but overdue process of shrinking the physical size of the district. She hired an impressive superintendent, Mary Skipper. She hammered out an agreement with the state that committed the district to a list of improvements, many of which the city has fulfilled. Chronic absenteeism is abating in Boston — as it is statewide — though at some high schools more than half of students still regularly miss class.

But violence in the schools — and disturbing allegations that teachers are pressured not to report it — is a serious problem. Pandemic learning loss remains a shameful scar on a whole generation of kids who were deprived of a full education.

Her main opponent, Josh Kraft, has called for more high-dosage tutoring (something the city has started doing on a small scale) to boost literacy rates, pushing for a hybrid School Committee in which some members are elected, and splitting the superintendent’s job into two positions, one focused on facilities and the other on academics. As the former leader of the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, he has experience helping at-risk youth, and says he wants to deepen partnerships between the schools and community groups like the one he once led.

Those ideas should get a full airing. So should Wu’s record.

But families should make sure to tell the candidates their ideas and their concerns, too, and their priorities. The part we all can play in making the schools better is to demand more — to insist that B or C isn’t good enough, and that we won’t accept buck-passing from mayors.

Four years ago, this editorial board said that “failing schools must be the focus of the next Boston mayoral race.” They weren’t then. But if anything, the need for attention on the city’s classrooms is more urgent than ever.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Hello Everyone,

I have been told there was a typo regarding the estimated cost of the project.

The estimated cost of the project should be $4.8 million and not $14.8 million as stated below.

Tony

---

From: Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com>

Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2025 5:26 PM

To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>; AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>; Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Veronica B Smith Multi Services Senior Center Renovation Project Update

 

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Brighton Branch Library

Join The Food Group THIS Saturday July 19 from 2-3 PM to discuss and share recipes from East by Meera Sodha. East features 120 vegan and vegetarian recipes from across East Asia and Southeast Asia. Try some recipes and bring in your favorites to share. Or just bring your appetite! No registration required. Copies available at the front desk.

[Barbara Parmenter]

This is excellent! The new stations give us a lot more access. And with some of the bikes being e-bikes, it makes things much easier for us older folks. Plus it's an inexpensive way to have access to an e-bike.

Reminder that City of Boston residents can get an introductory  year-long membership for $60. And there's a limited income membership plan as well. See the city's BlueBikes site to apply. https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/bluebikes

And the Allston-Brighton Health Collaborative has been running monthly beginners BlueBikes Rides by the Charles River to teach people how to use the system. I went on the last ride and it was really great to learn and fun to meet other beginning cyclists! Looks like they are full up for tomorrow's beginners ride, but check them out for future rides.

Glad to have more stations here!

Barbara Parmenter 

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Hello Everyone,

Boston Transportation Department

"Our mission is to plan, build, maintain, and operate our streets in a manner that increases access to opportunities, promotes safety and resilience, and fosters the highest quality of life for everyone living, working, and visiting our City."

Unfortunately, the Boston Transportation Department has been picking winners and losers.

Complete Streets are streets for everyone.

"Complete Streets is an approach that integrates people and place in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of our transportation networks.

This helps to ensure streets are safe for people of all ages and abilities, including the most vulnerable users, that they balance the needs of different modes, and support local land uses, economies, cultures, and natural environments.

Complete Streets are intended to benefit all users equitably, particularly vulnerable users and the most underinvested and underserved communities. Complete Streets are built on the premise that transportation choices should be safe, convenient, reliable, affordable, accessible, and timely regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, income, gender identity, immigration status, age, ability, languages spoken, or level of access to a personal vehicle."

We must level the playing field but in so doing, policymakers must employ good urban planning principles rather than succumbing to political priorities that achieve immediate gains over long term sustainability and community well-being.  

Tony

Boston’s broken sidewalks are a challenge for people with mobility aids (Emily Spatz, Boston Globe: July 13, 2025)

Boston's sidewalks pose accessibility challenges

Casandra Xavier, who is visually impaired and uses a cane when walking, stood for a portrait outside her home on

Fulton Street in Boston. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

Jake Haendel never thought much about how hard it is to get around in Boston until 2017, when he was diagnosed with a brain disease that left him reliant on a motorized scooter. Haendel now notices mobility challenges right in the open, scattered across miles of Boston sidewalks.

“This is the same city I used to go around, and now it’s like a light switch has been turned on and I just notice that stuff everywhere,” Haendel said.

Four years after Boston settled a lawsuit intended to improve sidewalk accessibility, the city has come up short — every year, since — of the 1,630 curb ramp repairs it agreed to make, city data shows. Although progress is being made, the closest it came to meeting its obligation was in 2022, when Boston, a centuries-old city that wasn’t built with modern accessibility in mind, repaired 1,586 ramps. It’s averaged about 1,300 repairs a year.

Beyond curb ramps, Boston’s sidewalks are also not easy for everyone to maneuver.

According to a Globe review of city data, of the roughly 5,700 reports of sidewalk defects made to 311 in 2024, some of which are closed immediately because they are duplicates, more than two-thirds of those requests remained open as of June.

A dozen mobility aid users recently interviewed by the Globe, including Haendel, said they notice every day the lagging progress and the challenges that still remain: cracks and bumps in sidewalks, missing bricks, and uneven, narrow pathways.

For wheelchair users, these issues can mean traveling in the street, which leads to increased risk of dying in a traffic accident. For those who are visually impaired, broken sidewalks can result in broken canes. Some said a larger issue is being able to access the sidewalks in the first place.

“People sometimes wonder why people in wheelchairs are riding on the street; they say they shouldn’t be on the street. And [broken sidewalks] are often the reason — because you can’t [ride] on the sidewalks. At all,” said Carol Steinberg, who lives in Jamaica Plain and uses a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis.

Kristen McCosh, disability commissioner and ADA Title II coordinator for Boston, said the city is “extremely committed” to fulfilling its goal of making all street intersections accessible by 2030. In previous years, the city ran into issues such as staff shortages and delays because of bad weather during Boston’s construction season, which runs from April 15 to Nov. 15, she said.

“I completely understand the frustration that residents and visitors to the city feel, and it’s hard to convey the fact that we are working on these issues,” McCosh said.

Accessibility advocates got so fed up that they sued the city in 2018. The four plaintiffs — all individuals with mobility disabilities — argued that less than half of Boston’s 23,000 curb ramps met federal disability access requirements.

But since then, Boston has on average renovated 1,310 curb cuts per year. It installed 1,586 ramps in 2022, followed by 1,025 in 2023 and 1,321 in 2024.

The 2021 settlement requires the city to upgrade curb ramps as it builds new sidewalks or resurfaces roadways and to prioritize corners near certain areas, including government facilities, schools, and medical facilities. But while sidewalks wait for reconstruction, requests for fixes pile up.

Julia Campbell, Boston’s deputy chief of streets, said keeping up with the status of 311 requests is a “challenge,” and while her team tries to close them out when defects are repaired, they may “miss some here and there.”

According to the city, it has an estimated sidewalk repair backlog of $800 million.

A few months before the 2018 lawsuit, a city report showed that sidewalk conditions were worse in the city’s poorest neighborhoods: About 65 percent in Roxbury and Dorchester were graded as either in fair or poor condition, while 68 percent in Back Bay and downtown were assessed to be in good condition.

In response, Boston launched in 2018 the StreetCaster program, which was designed to make sidewalk repairs more equitable by identifying those most in need of repair. But that program has since been phased out and its concepts absorbed into other departments, said Campbell, Boston’s head of streets. The city’s approach remains the same, she said, and it uses data and community input to decide where to focus repairs.

Many neighborhoods have old, narrow brick pathways, and regular freeze-thaw winter cycles make keeping up with repairs difficult, the city said. The city also doesn’t own every public way — some are owned by state agencies or private entities — and reconstructing entire sidewalks takes more money and time than doing simple repairs, McCosh said.

Out of its 1,600 miles of sidewalks, over 16 miles were repaired or reconstructed in 2024, said Chris Coakley, a city of Boston spokesperson. In 2025, the city is executing six sidewalk repair contracts and intends to surpass the 2024 figure “pending any inclement weather or unforeseen construction delays,” Coakley said.

Chris Hoeh often has to travel on the roads when the sidewalks are blocked or unable to be accessed. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

Michael Muehe, former Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator for the City of Cambridge and a wheelchair user, said most people who use mobility devices will have different experiences with Boston’s sidewalks depending on what mobility tool they use.

“What most of us have in common is that there are lots of obstacles that come up just trying to navigate where you’re trying to go in the city, whether it’s going up to the corner store or a few blocks away to a restaurant or doctor’s office,” said Muehe, the lead plaintiff in the 2018 lawsuit.

McCosh said the Disabilities Commission works closely with Public Works to mitigate future sidewalk breakage once repairs are made. For example, the city is considering using pervious pavers — concrete bricks designed to allow rainwater to pass through them — around trees so roots don’t grow upward and break the sidewalks.

Casandra Xavier, a disability advocate who lives in the North End and is deaf-blind, said she notices sidewalks in poor condition “every day.” Often, her white cane, a mobility aid used by people who are visually impaired, will get stuck in the cracks or holes in the sidewalk and sometimes break. A broken tip leaves the cane unusable, meaning Xavier always carries an extra cane and cane tips on her so she doesn’t become stranded.

To avoid breakage, Xavier prefers to use her cane in a method called constant contact, where the user swipes the cane left to right without lifting it off the ground. But she’s had to switch to using the two-point touch method because of the sidewalks, which means the cane is lifted off the ground between taps.

“That gives less tactile feedback on the ground, which then causes room for more accidents,” Xavier said.

Casandra Xavier is visually impaired and uses a cane when walking. She said the poor condition of the city’s sidewalks,

including cobblestone, brick, and granite, make it difficult for people with disabilities to navigate. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

Most people who spoke to the Globe noted that sidewalk conditions differ in each neighborhood. Niki Kuchipudi, a wheelchair user who lives in Allston, said the sidewalks in her area are generally accessible, but she avoids traveling downtown or to the North End because of the many historic cobblestone streets in those areas.

After the 2018 study showed inequality in sidewalk conditions across the city, Boston stopped using solely 311 requests to determine where sidewalk repairs are needed. It now uses factors like social vulnerability and foot traffic to determine projects for each year.

Advocates said the issue boils down to people being able to live autonomously.

“There are some places where I can’t even get my power chair over the way the sidewalk is,” Chris Hoeh, a wheelchair user, said. “You should be able to move around the city independently.”

This most walkable of cities trips up when it comes to fixing sidewalks (The Editorial Board, Boston Globe: July 18, 2025)

Complaints mount as Boston faces an $800 million repair backlog.

Opinion | Complaints mount as Boston faces an $800 million backlog

Casandra Xavier, who is visually impaired and uses a cane when walking, navigated Richmond Street while walking

home from work, in Boston on March 21.Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

Narrow tree-lined streets and quaint brick sidewalks are part of what makes Boston charming and special. That is, until a loose brick, gaping pothole, or a crack that looks like it was leftover from the last ice age brings a pedestrian crashing to the ground.

Those who use wheelchairs or have mobility issues and use canes or walkers are particularly at risk. But Boston’s notoriously uneven sidewalks are in their own way the great leveler — felling children and their grandparents alike, wreaking havoc with anyone pushing a stroller.

Complaints about sidewalk defects account for some 5,700 reports to the city’s 311 center each year. The city’s previously wretched record of making or keeping in good repair handicapped accessible curb ramps resulted in a court-ordered consent decree in 2021 that gives the city until 2030 to complete compliance. And city officials estimate the price tag for dealing with the sidewalk repair backlog is some $800 million.

A world-class city is only as good as its infrastructure. And there are those who question the city’s priorities with its construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of bike lanes even as the backlog of sidewalk complaints lingers.

“Every neighborhood should have nice smooth streets and sidewalks. Why are we so far behind?” City Councilor Erin Murphy asked in an interview with the editorial board. “What other things have become priorities? Bike lanes? Free bus lanes? White Stadium?”

Murphy filed an order for a council hearing on the sidewalk issue in April after getting a pile of messages from angry constituents about unanswered 311 complaints about hazardous sidewalks. The hearing is scheduled for July 22, and when she announced that on her Facebook page, it generated even more complaints.

Like this one from Kristen Sweeney Berry of Roslindale, whose husband uses a wheelchair. “Boston’s sidewalks aren’t just inconvenient — they’re often impassable and frequently violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Cracked pavement, missing curb cuts, and blocked pathways don’t just inconvenience residents — they exclude an entire community from full participation in city life.”

Ruthie Burton complained that repeated 311 requests about sidewalks in the Tommy’s Rock section of Roxbury have gone unanswered.

In fact, the city acknowledges that of the 5,700 reports of sidewalk defects made in 2024, some of which were closed immediately because they were duplicates, more than two-thirds remained open as of June.

At the time a lawsuit was filed by disability advocates on behalf of four Boston plaintiffs in 2018, they alleged that fewer than half of the city’s 23,000 curb ramps met federal disability access standards. And while the city agreed in 2021 to install or upgrade 1,630 curb ramps a year, only in 2022 did it come close with 1,586. In subsequent years it has averaged 1,310 repairs a year.

Then, of course, once a pedestrian has navigated the cracked sidewalk and the deteriorated curb ramp, there’s the pothole that awaits the unwary traveler — or, nearly as bad, the patchwork of asphalt that defies navigation. Sure, some of those unnavigable nightmares are in neighborhoods, but some are also in the heart of the city, including along the Freedom Trail.

The asphalt hodgepodge lurking at the corner of Tremont and School streets is an obvious one. And Murphy said she is still nursing a sore knee from an unfortunate encounter with a pothole in the Blackstone Block Historic District right near City Hall.

All three — sidewalks, curbs, and potholes — are sure to become issues in the mayoral election — right up there with, and not unrelated to, bike lanes.

Mayor Michelle Wu’s chief rival, Josh Kraft, who has already vowed a moratorium on bike lanes pending further study, is expected to address those hot-button issues in a “back to basics” transportation plan he’s expected to release Friday. He is expected to propose a dedicated pothole response team operating separately from the existing 311 reporting system. And he’s promising a “Step Up Boston” initiative to prioritize repairing and modernizing sidewalks and tackling those overdue curb ramps, prioritizing high-need areas, and disclosing all of that on a publicly available dashboard.

The city does have a Case Relationship Management system — which is a fancy way of saying it has categories of sidewalk defects depending on whether it represents an immediate safety hazard (requiring an immediate patch) or just needs a minor repair — or is a candidate for full reconstruction. In the latter category, the city has signed six contracts this year totaling $18 million — four for concrete repairs, one for brick sidewalks in the South End, and one for a combination of both.

And it has budgeted some $55 million in its five-year Capital Plan for sidewalk and ramp reconstruction to “enhance walkability, meet ADA standards, and create a safer, more inclusive public right-of-way.” When it comes to bike lanes, it’s not either-or: The city can have bike lanes and safe sidewalks, but that would be an easier case for the mayor to make if the city started meeting its commitments on sidewalks.

Boston has always ranked high among the nation’s most walkable cities, which generally means there are plenty of amenities in walking distance. But when the sidewalks pose a hazard to all — disabled and able-bodied alike — that makes a mockery of “walkability.”

Sure, Boston has winters that are rough on infrastructure and a construction and repair season that is shortened by those sometimes long winters. But faulty sidewalks are a scourge that has spared no neighborhood. And while, according to a Globe analysis, Dorchester and the South End top the list of neighborhoods with the largest number of complaints, no part of the city is spared. A salon owner on toney Newbury Street says she can’t even keep count of how many people have tripped and fallen in that one block of storefronts.

The city has acknowledged the scope of the problem — and an $800 million backlog is no small problem. If people keep filing 311 complaints but don’t seem to get results — well that’s a real problem and it cries out for more than a website and excuses.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Allston I-90 Multimodal Project Task Force meeting

MassDOT

Tuesday, July 22, 2025, 6:00 pm 8:00 pm

Register for this meeting 

On Tuesday, July 22, MassDOT is holding a hybrid (in-person/ online) I-90 Allston Multimodal Project Task Force Meeting. This meeting is open to the public.

If you’d like to attend virtually, please use the link to register via Zoom.

MassDOT Board Room, 2nd Floor

10 Park Plaza

Boston, MA 02215

__________________________________

Congress pulls the plug on $327 million in federal funding for Allston megaproject. So what’s next? (Jon Chesto, Boston Globe: July 18, 2025)

Congress pulls plug on $327 million in federal funding for Allston megaproject

The BU Bridge over the Charles River, the elevated section of the Massachusetts Turnpike, and the Beacon Park Yard

in Allston, as seen from View Boston, the viewing platform on the upper floors of the Prudential Tower. Lane Turner/Globe Staff

The news out of Washington earlier this month was bad: Nearly $335 million would be lost for a megaproject in Allston that would straighten out the Mass. Pike through Boston’s northwest corner, build a major new train-and-bus hub, and open up dozens of empty acres for development.

Two weeks after Congress approved the cut, confirmation arrived from federal highway officials that nearly all of the Allston award promised last year would be rescinded (aside from an already-obligated $8 million). That meant $327 million in grant money would be wiped out.

So what’s next for the long-discussed Allston Multimodal Project? From Beacon Hill to City Hall to the neighborhood itself, supporters all seem as energized as ever in making this mini-Big Dig come to life — even in the face of such a big setback. That said, the megaproject may end up looking quite different (i.e., less-mega) without any significant federal funds to help with the hefty $2 billion price tag, because state officials now plan to reevaluate its scope.

This funding cut wasn’t much of a surprise. The Trump administration is on the warpath to clear out any “equity” related programs left over from President Biden. And Republicans in Congress were eager for savings to help make a bevy of tax cuts permanent in their “Big Beautiful Bill.” So a target had been on this funding source, known as the Neighborhood Access and Equity grant program, for months.

It still hurt to see what’s left of this infrastructure program — nearly $2.5 billion awarded but still unspent, per national nonprofit Smart Growth America’s accounting — now zeroed out entirely in that giant budget bill.

The MassDOT brass already had to make do with two-thirds of the federal grant funds they had initially hoped for — a shortfall that Governor Maura Healey highlighted in January. Now, there will be more scrambling at Ten Park Plaza.

So now, it’s time for a backup plan. MassDOT will take two important steps to readjust. They’ll embark on an in-depth cost analysis, in part to understand recent impacts from tariffs and inflation such as steel costs. That study would be paired with an independent engineering analysis about how to maximize the project’s transportation benefits with the remaining available funding sources.

These are logical next steps, and now they’re likely necessary for the project’s survival.

So what kind of funding gap are we talking about? That’s still not entirely clear.

When asked for a breakdown of where the $2 billion would come from, state officials offered elements from the original federal grant application, including $200 million in toll revenue and $100 million from the city of Boston. Harvard University, which owns most of the old Beacon Park Yard land that would be opened up, would kick in $90 million, while Boston University, whose campus is next door, would contribute $10 million. Harvard and the city of Boston would also provide another $100 million, to be collected from future development there.

Earlier this year, the Healey administration said it would ask the Legislature for approval to use $615 million in borrowed funds for the Allston project, collected through bonds based on the better-than-expected money flow from the so-called millionaires tax, also known as Fair Share funds.

That only gets MassDOT halfway there. In its federal grant application, the state agency signaled it would borrow another $470 million from a federal highway loan program known as TIFIA. It’s unclear, though, exactly how much would be available, though US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has decided to increase the maximum amount in financing available to many projects.

Project advocates hope the Healey administration can pick up more of the slack — maybe through a TIFIA loan, for example, or more Fair Share funds. State officials aren’t entertaining this idea right now, at least not openly. Instead, the word is out that it might be time to get more frugal.

Tensions have simmered in Allston for years around just how long it’s taken MassDOT to get this far in the planning. It was Governor Deval Patrick, after all, who first promised this new transit hub, dubbed West Station, alongside the turnpike realignment, 11 years ago. Back then, both projects’ price tags were a fraction of what they are today.

Plans got waylaid during Governor Charlie Baker’s administration over the so-called “throat” area, a narrow band of land between the train tracks and the Charles River. MassDOT finally settled on keeping all highway lanes on the ground through the area, in part to make it easier to develop on decks above them.

By the time MassDOT landed the $335 million federal grant in March of last year, Healey was governor and Joe Biden was in the White House. Healey said then that she hoped for a 2027 groundbreaking; her transportation secretary ,Monica Tibbits-Nutt, hoped environmental permitting could be done within a year. The former goal just became much tougher to achieve. The latter, now impossible.

Healey hired transportation veteran Luisa Paiewonsky last year, to shepherd the Allston project (along with the hoped-for new bridges over the Cape Cod Canal). Toward that end, Paiewonsky has held monthly task force meetings to update the community and solicit feedback.

Lately, the big debate has been over layover. The plans call for four tracks to park trains at West Station, to accommodate future cross-state service, despite a promise there wouldn’t be any. Allston neighbors prefer trains to be parked elsewhere, as does Mayor Michelle Wu. Harvard doesn’t want layover, either, and has drawn up preliminary designs for housing to show how its land could be put to better use.

All eyes are on Widett Circle, a 24-acre industrial area just south of downtown that the MBTA acquired two years ago. However, the T says it needs all the space for its own layover tracks, as soon as possible, because of an existing shortage and plans to expand the commuter rail fleet. The T plans to build the first six tracks by 2028, to support electric trains coming to the Fairmount line, and the other 20 would go in over the following seven years.

MassDOT is working with the Wu administration to find a new spot that could work for layover —the public works yard next to Widett, perhaps? For now, it remains a disliked part of the state’s Allston plans.

Other issues remain up in the air: what to do about a temporary closing of the train bridge over the Charles, for example, and how to lessen the project’s impact on the river itself.

And when the task force reconvenes on Tuesday, everyone involved faces the most important of unresolved issues: how to pay for it all.

[chand...@gmail.com]

Mike, that’s so interesting about the lead paint laws. Thanks for explaining that. But that wouldn’t keep a family from buying a single-family house if it came on the market, right? Or do sellers have to delead before selling?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 17, 2025, at 09:56, Michael DeMarco <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/CALov9Pq9hYpVEmRt-d9zgc7fHdmugkTWiaF_Q0KSpqqav1swBQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Noreen Hurley]

Any possibility of using the Mt. St Joseph site?  It appears empty.  There is ample parking and it is on a bus route.  

 

Noreen Hurley

Boston, Massachusetts

---

 

Phone: 617-510-6716

nhu...@earthlink.net

www.linkedin/in/noreenhurley

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Jul 17, 2025 5:26 PM
To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>, AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>, Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Brighton Allston Community Coalition] Veronica B Smith Multi Services Senior Center Renovation Project Update

 

 

Project Update

Veronica B Smith Multi Services Senior Center Renovation Project ($14.8 million)

Projected Start Date: March 2026
Project Duration: 6 - 12 Months

1. Replace the roof
2. Replace the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system
3. Install a new sprinkler system
4. Replace all the wiring
5. Improve accessibility of the front entrance to bring it up to the latest Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) code
6. Add a basement-level room (opposite elevators) for new electrical services (this will not encroach on the current ‘public’ space)
7. On lower-level site of the Brighton Allston Historical Society (BAHS) museum, replace ceiling and ductwork.

Given the building has to be totally vacated during construction, city officials are looking for an alternative location for the senior center. Any ideas?

BAHS is looking for space to store the contents of the Heritage Museum. Any ideas?

 

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[Kathy Markham]

Another brilliantly dumb idea.

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[Bob Feldman]

Regarding this proposed $14.8 million "renovation" project, which individuals or Boston city officials decided that for "6 - 12 months" this building's senior center and the Brighton-Alston Historical Society's Heritage Museum are to be totally shut down? And who decided that the Veronica B. Smith Multi-Services Senior Center building's roof, HVAC system, wiring, sprinkler system, front entrance, and basement electrical service and ceiling actually need to be "replaced," rather than just repaired by means of a less costly use of public funds?

Also, according to a March 2, 2007 Allston-Brighton Tab article, in 2006 "the management of the Veronica Smith Center offered PERMANENT SPACE in two of its basement rooms" for the Brighton-Alston Heritage Museum.

So, given the apparent possession by the Brighton-Allston Historical Society of a possible equitable easement with respect to the Veronica Smith Senior Center building's basement, it would seem that involvement by the Brighton-Allston Historical Society in any City of Boston decision-making process, related to whether or not a proposed $14.8 million "renovation" is actually needed, prior to both the senior center and the museum being shut down for 6 to 12 months, might be required?

https://www.bahistory.org/Newspapers/News_ABTab_20070302.pdf

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[Michael Dorgan]

Tony:

I am not sure what your point is.  Sounds like we are under a consent decree to repair the sidewalks and we are very far behind the agreed plan.  Are you advocating to prioritize funding for this as we were taken to court and are under the supervision of the court to ensure remediation is complete?  If not, are you advocating that we continue to fail to meet the obligations we accepted under the court order and prioritize other activities such as bike lanes instead? Basically disregard the court and hope that they don't escalate and turn to fines or State Control. to get accessible sidewalks?  

Where do politics enter the discussion? Sounds like a budget constraint and prioritization decision is required.  

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

First Substantial Zoning Changes to Modernize Development Review Move Forward

Planning Department advances RFP for Citywide Needs Assessment

The Planning Department this month recommended approval of several planning and zoning actions, and four new development projects to the BPDA Board. All were approved. The planning actions include zoning amendments to modernize our development review process - the most substantive set of changes to Article 80 since it was first adopted in 1996, an RFP for a Citywide Needs Assessment to guide short and long term planning for family-friendly communities that meet the needs of residents, and a comprehensive action plan to stabilize residents, businesses and cultural assets. The newly approved development projects represent approximately 354,120 square feet (SF), will create 309 new residential units, including 67 units that are designated income-restricted, and will support approximately 337 construction jobs and 23 permanent jobs. The plans and projects advanced today will help make Boston a more resilient, affordable, and equitable city.

Planning & Zoning

First zoning amendments to Article 80 of the zoning code move forward as part of Development Review Modernization efforts

Staff advanced a set of amendments to Article 80 of the zoning code (and other related Articles) to improve the predictability and consistency of the development review process and lay the groundwork for future reforms. These zoning amendments are an important step in the implementation of the Article 80 Modernization Action Plan, which was released last year. These zoning amendments will: change the thresholds and procedures for the Boston Civic Design Commission (BCDC) review; make it easier to renovate existing buildings including sustainability upgrades and conversions; modernize communication methods with the public; align the zoning code with existing best practices and improve coordination between departments. 

Increasing the trigger for BCDC review from 100,000 SF to 200,000 SF will require fewer projects to go through BCDC review and will allow the Commission to focus their time and expertise where it is most valuable. By changing the procedures for “substantial rehabilitation,” projects undergoing interior renovations will no longer be required to undergo a lengthy review, making it easier for building owners to reinvest in existing buildings, and for institutions to upgrade aging facilities. The new zoning will also replace print noticing and physical copy distribution requirements with website updates and real-time email notifications, reflecting the current best practice. In addition, the new zoning will reassign primary responsibility for reviewing and approving Transportation Access Plan Agreements (TAPA) from the Transportation Department to the Planning Department. 

Combined with operational changes, the zoning amendments approved today are a first step in ensuring that post-Board design review is consistent and coordinated across City Departments. Together, these changes lead us toward a zoning code that is easier to use, consistent with existing practice, and set up for future reform. The changes will be considered by the Zoning Commission next month. RFP approved for Citywide Needs Assessment 

The Board authorized the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Citywide Needs Assessment focused on public facilities and essential services to proactively address the City’s growth and make Boston a home for everyone. The Needs Assessment will focus on: growing the city’s population, including adding more families, increasing housing affordability, increasing access to city services and open space, creating economic opportunities and growth, preparing for climate change, and improving mobility citywide. The Board previously authorized an RFP for a Citywide Land Use Needs Assessment, with an emphasis on future land use planning. While land use needs remain important, the Planning Department has shifted the scope of this initiative to include and prioritize specific needs that make a community livable and family friendly. It will also identify citywide capital and mitigation priorities that can be implemented through short- and long-term planning. 

Anti-displacement action plan, A Place to Thrive, adopted

The Board adopted A Place to Thrive, which is a comprehensive anti-displacement action plan that lays out a two-year plan for City departments to help stabilize residents, small businesses, and cultural organizations that may face direct or economic displacement. This final plan incorporates feedback from residents and business owners following a 45-day comment period which began in March. The comprehensive draft action plan received broad support detailed by approximately 400 stakeholders that engaged with the plan, many of which were local organizations that represent a wide range of constituents. The final plan reaffirms the administration’s continued support for rent stabilization and the bridge subsidy program, among other state legislation. In addition, the plan now includes a citywide effort to explore new supports for elderly renters. The plan also clarifies and acknowledges the many interconnected efforts currently underway to improve the development review and permitting processes to get more housing online faster. The City will continue to adapt and evolve these tools and initiatives as circumstances and needs change for residents and business owners. The Wu Administration is committed to executing A Place to Thrive over a two-year period and providing a public progress update in a year.

Last updated: July 18, 2025

Published by: Planning

[David Strati]

I see both sides of the argument. But also know Kraft would continue to push over development of Boston. 

Dave

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2025, at 10:40 AM, Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com> wrote:



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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Unbound Visual Arts

Fronteriza, Dani J. Elizalde, and Leo Martinez!

We're hosting a little noise show with sets by musicians Dani J. Elizalde, Leo Martinez, and Fronteriza (duo by Elizalde and Martinez)

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/performance-fronteriza-dani-j-elizalde-and-leo-martinez-registration-1486327618919

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Kevin M. Carragee]

To All:

Tony, I agree with Michael that your post did not make clear your position on a range of issues.

Cordially,

Kevin

---

From: 'Michael Dorgan' via BACC <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2025 10:29 PM
To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>; AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>; Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Brighton Allston Community Coalition] Another Example of Politics Getting in the Way of Good Public Policy!

 

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

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[Barbara Parmenter]

It would have been helpful if the Globe included some actual budget numbers and info about cost distribution across all the various projects, and which ones they think should be given less priority and which given higher priority, and how to make the numbers work. It insinuates that if bike lanes went away, we would magically have money for sidewalks which is clearly not the case. Here's the actual budget plan for the Streets Cabinet. You can see that bike lanes are relatively moderate compared to lots of the other road maintenance, repaving, and modernization projects, and they are part of important road safety improvements. As someone who was temporarily disabled by a broken wrist the first half of this year and couldn't drive or ride a bike, the bike lanes make me feel a whole lot safer when I'm walking on our sidewalks. And that's not just my perception - as Christine Varriale pointed out in a different post, safety has increased in Boston since the initial bike lanes were installed. That mirrors results in other places - bike lanes increase safety for all road users. And I see the Boston Public Works working on streets and sidewalks as well: part of South Hobart Street just got repaved last week (yay!), and accessible curbs came last year to our section of Faneuil Street. 

The Allston Brighton Health Collaborative ran monthly mobility audits to look at sidewalk accessibility, crossings, etc, and reported these to BTD. It was a great way to meet neighbors, learn about issues, and be pro-active in helping improve conditions. I'm not sure if they will be starting those again. I was glad to see an Allston resident quoted in the Boston Globe article that for them in their wheelchair, accessibility was pretty good in Allston. Definitely not the case in the hillier parts of Brighton where sidewalks are more narrow and more prone to tree root disruption.

Re stopping illegal parking at bus stops, the Massachusetts legislature recently allowed automated camera enforcement at bus stops and bus lanes for stationary vehicle violations (parked cars) and the MBTA will be starting that at some point in the near future as I understand. So there's hope.

Living in a 400-year old city is always going to be one big maintenance project as we and our infrastructure ages and gets new patches and investments, and we can always be smarter than we are about it. But I'd rather live here than anywhere else - it's a great community (even when we disagree!).

Barbara Parmenter

Brighton

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

The article and editorial further illustrates that those in a position of authority in pursuit of an "equitable multimodal transportation policy" are in fact practicing a zero-sum game where little if any planning is being done to ensure proper integration of the transportation modes into a cohesive system.

Right now, seniors, people with disabilities, families with small children and small businesses are bearing the brunt of a policy thar imposes punitive outcomes that impact their quality of life. 

Walking, cycling, public transit and driving can work well together if the framework is one of accessibility and efficiency rather than one of political expediency.  

Tony

---

From: bacommunit...@googlegroups.com <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kevin M. Carragee <kcar...@suffolk.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2025 12:56 PM

To: cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>; AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>; Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Brighton Allston Community Coalition] Another Example of Politics Getting in the Way of Good Public Policy!

 

[Andrew Fischer]

Well said, Tony.

Thank you.

Andrew Fischer
21Bartlett Crescent 
Brookline, Ma 02446
617-293-8304
andrewm...@gmail.com

Jake Haendel never thought much about how hard it is to get around in Boston until 2017, when he wasdiagnosed with a brain disease that left him reliant on a motorized scooter. Haendel now notices mobility challenges right in the open, scattered across miles of Boston sidewalks.

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[Lisa Weber]

Our damaged and broken sidewalks are a major barrier to accessibility.   I have met several people who use wheeled mobility devices who have moved out of Brighton due to the condition of our sidewalks.  

We can certainly plan for future improvements but we should not put on hold the repairs to our current system to do so.  

In service

Lisa 

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[Eva Webster]

On Jul 21, 2025, at 4:06 PM, Anthony D'Isidoro <anthony...@msn.com> wrote:

 

Walking, cycling, public transit and driving can work well together if the framework is one of accessibility and efficiency rather than one of political expediency.  

 

On 7/21/25, 4:58 PM, "Andrew Fischer" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com on behalf of andrewm...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Well said, Tony.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Andrew, you have made it clear many times that you’re a part of the cyclists’ lobby. That lobby has been very successful by engaging politically in order to achieve its objectives. We see the results everywhere.

 

As we all know, the losers in this game have been pedestrians and drivers in Boston because their needs have been largely neglected or entirely ignored (as the terrible conditions in Cleveland Circle, or example, perfectly illustrate).

 

The City has limited resources to spend on traffic improvements and sidewalk & road maintenance (and now, we learned, there is an $800 million backlog, while money is very tight).  So why has a disproportionate amount of limited resources been allocated to the mode of transportation that is used by the smallest segment of street/road users?

 

We also know that citizens who have been calling for ensuring efficiency of vehicular traffic and availability of parking (the latter is especially important to families, seniors, and people who live in free-standing homes) have been routinely silenced – thanks to the efforts by the cyclists’ lobby.

 

So while Tony’s statement makes sense, I’m puzzled by you concurring with it – because I have never heard you acknowledged that human beings who drive also have needs that should not be routinely disregarded.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cleveland-circle-community/119CBEAE-4582-44BA-BECD-C5DEF9EEF67A%40gmail.com.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Coolidge at the Speedway
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 @ Sundown
The big screen is back at The Speedway and Coolidge Corner Theatre is bringing out your favorite throwbacks for good times all summer. This month we're showing Mean Girls on July 23rd at 8ish!
525 Western Ave, Brighton

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Early this morning we lost a hero among us.

Bill Margolin has passed away.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Bryna.

In June, Bill traveled to the West End House Camp in Maine for the summer. As many of us know, Bill has spent summers "at camp" for more than the past 30 years. Unfortunately, Bill experienced a health challenge that led to his being admitted to Maine Medical Center in Portland on July 3.

Funeral Arrangements are pending.

Rest in peace my friend. Your inspiration is profound and everlasting.

Bill Margolin, who began as a West End House Camp camper in the 1950s, followed by many years as a counselor, has been the full-time Executive Director of West End House Camp since 1973, in addition to serving on the Board of Directors for the Club here in Allston. No one has been involved longer with the West End organization than Bill! He grew up in Boston and is a graduate of Boston Latin School and Bowdoin College. Bill lived in Randolph, MA with his wife Bryna Leeder.

He has served in prominent roles with Kiwanis Club of Allston-Brighton, the Allston-Brighton Boards of Trade, the Allston-Brighton Chamber of Commerce and numerous other civic organizations.

Bill has dedicated his life to helping others, and the West End House and West End House Camp are very special places to him.

Bill recently celebrated his 80th birthday.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Brighton Branch Library

This Thursday July 24th, drop off plant clippings, seedlings, or fully grown house plants to the Branch to find a new home. Miniature terracotta pots will be provided for repotting. Donating a plant is not required to take one home. Register by calling the branch at 617-782-6032, in person at the front desk, or by emailing librarian Matt at mswe...@bpl.org.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Faneuil Branch Library

Ziploc Bag Ice Cream
Thursday, July 24, 2025, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Description

Did you know you can make delicious homemade ice cream using only ice and ziploc bags?

We'll show you how and you'll get to eat the ice cream too!

Best for ages 5-10.

Suitable for: Children (Ages 0-5), Children (Ages 6-12)

419 Faneuil St, Brighton

Phone: (617) 782-6705

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

William "Bill" Margolin

To view livestream of funeral service click here

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of William “Bill” Margolin, 80, of Randolph, Massachusetts.

Bill is survived by his loving and devoted wife, Bryna Leeder, his brother, Malcolm, of Berkeley, California and his nephews, Ruben and Jake Margolin and his niece Sadie Costello.

Bill was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Max and Rose Margolin in 1945. He grew up in West Roxbury. He was a proud alumnus of the Boston Latin School (Class of 1963) and Bowdoin College (Class of 1967). He served with distinction in the United States Army from 1966-1970.

Following college and his military service, Bill dedicated his life’s work to helping others and served as a passionate and inspirational friend, counselor, leader and mentor for generations of young people. He spent more than three decades as the Director of The West End House Boys & Girls Club in Allston, Massachusetts and West End House Camp in Parsonsfield, Maine. His affiliation with the organization began as a 13-year-old in 1958. His love for West End House was evident in everything he did, and his impact will be felt for generations to come.

He was an active and beloved member of the Allston-Brighton community, where he was a leader and benefactor to many civic organizations, including the Allston Board of Trade, the Allston-Brighton Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis Club. He participated in many civic events and served on various committees benefiting the Allston-Brighton neighborhood. Bill was also active in the community in Parsonsfield, Maine, where he was a dedicated member of the Long Pond Association.

Bill was a talented writer and public speaker, and his friends enjoyed his great sense of humor and storytelling ability. He was an avid collector, chess player, historian, and proud grammarian. He was a frequent participant in collector shows and fairs. He was the founder, publisher, and editor of Collectors Classified Magazine, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Bill’s largest and most meaningful collection was that of his friends, whom he gathered throughout his life by living his faith with kindness to others. His compassion and genuine friendship will be missed by all. If you met him, he became your friend.

During the past few years, Bill looked forward to his weekly singing group, The Tremble Clefs.  He recently lobbied the Massachusetts House of Representatives to issue a proclamation honoring the chorus. The legislature congratulated the singers for “their dedication to music, wellness and community and for fostering creativity and connection among individuals living with Parkinson’s.”

Funeral service will be held 10:30 am, Thursday, July 24, 2025 at Temple Sinai of Sharon, 25 Canton St., Sharon, MA. Burial will follow at Temple Emanuel Memorial Park, 490 North St., Randolph, MA. Donations in Bill’s memory may be made to the Margolin Family Scholarship at The West End House at 105 Allston Street, Allston, MA 02134 or to the West End House Boys Camp c/o Jessica Paquette PO Box 474 Chocorua NH, 03817 or via  Venmo: @WestEndHouse-Camp.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Charles River Community Health

Free HIV Rapid Testing

HIV Facts

HIV FACTS vs MYTHS

- MYTH: HIV testing is painful and complicated
- FACT: Our rapid test is just a simple 20-minute oral swab – no needles, no pain!
- MYTH: You can tell if someone has HIV by looking at them
- FACT: HIV has no “look” – many people live normal, healthy lives with HIV
- MYTH: HIV testing takes days for results
- FACT: Get your results in just 20 minutes with our rapid testing!
- MYTH: HIV is a death sentence
- FACT: With proper treatment, people with HIV can live long, healthy lives
- MYTH: Only certain groups get HIV
- FACT: HIV can affect anyone – that’s why testing is important for everyone

Get tested July 24th, 9 AM-12:00 PM at Charles River Community Health, Brighton , 617-208-1676

Knowledge = Power. Get tested, stay informed!

#HIVFacts #MythBusters #FreeHIVTesting #Brighton #July24 #KnowYourStatus

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Boston needs to talk about housing for the middle class (The Editorial Board, Boston Globe: July 24, 2025)

A strong body of evidence suggests the city is becoming a place for the rich, who can afford the city’s exorbitant prices, and the poor, who qualify for subsidies. What about everyone else?

Opinion | Boston needs to talk about housing for the middle class

There’s a strong body of evidence the city is becoming one of the wealthy and the poor — with a diminishing middle class,

squeezed out in large part by rising home prices. Illustrations by John Daly; photo by David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Boston’s housing crisis isn’t a new problem and it isn’t unique to the capital city. But until the law of supply and demand is repealed, it will continue to be at the center of every mayoral agenda — and every mayoral race, including the current one.

Sure, there’s a crisis largely because people want to live here and work here. With all of its quirks — or maybe because of them — Boston is a vibrant, exciting place to live.

But there’s a strong body of evidence the city is becoming one belonging either to the wealthy who can afford the city’s exorbitant prices or the poor who qualify for income-restricted housing or rental subsidies — with a diminishing middle class squeezed out in large part by rising home prices.

“The number of middle-income households living in the city of Boston decreased by 15,000 between 1990 and 2018, while the number of low- and high-income households increased substantially over the same period," the Bipartisan Policy Center reported in 2023.

How to change that trajectory needs to be front and center in the mayor’s race.

Housing, after all, is arguably the weakest point in Mayor Michelle Wu’s record as mayor. Production of new housing in 2023 and 2024 was the weakest since 2011. Some of that slowdown may indeed be due to economic forces outside Wu’s control, but on her watch the city has also set requirements that some developers say are so unrealistic they’ve stalled construction.

Challenger Josh Kraft, eager to capitalize on frustration over housing, has offered a different vision, borrowing from the “abundance agenda” that’s popular with Democratic policy wonks these days. He’s calling to relax requirements on developers to spur construction.

Which is to say that when it comes to housing, there are clear differences between the candidates, and voters deserve a thoughtful airing of the trade-offs that both candidate’s visions would involve.

What kind of a city we will have hangs in the balance. As home prices have escalated — the average home value in Boston has risen to $804,000 from $500,000 in 2018 — so too has the salary which potential homeowners must earn to afford that house. The average salary needed by a couple with two children to “live comfortably” in Boston has now hit $320,000, among the highest in the nation.

The mayor has said all the right things. “To be a home for everyone, we must be the best city for families, and there’s more work to do,” Wu said in her State of the City address earlier this year. “We are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to building, preserving, and reimagining housing all over our city.”

But it’s unclear whether the signature housing policy of her first term has helped or hurt.

The Wu administration has required developers to include more housing reserved for people with low incomes, with rents or sale prices set at below-market levels. That seems like a worthy goal. The problem, though, is that it can easily backfire. Projects that may have been economically viable under the old requirements, which called for 13 percent of housing to be income-restricted, might no longer make financial sense at 20 percent. Twenty percent of nothing, as developers are fond of pointing out, is nothing.

And as Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney warned, it doesn’t take much to derail housing developments: “The higher the standards, the more difficult it becomes to build more housing.”

That is a mantra now picked up by Kraft, who told the editorial board that the 26,000 housing units currently permitted by the city’s planning agency, but not yet under construction, were rendered not financially viable by that shift, proposing to return the requirement to 13 percent, the level it had been under former mayor Marty Walsh.

Wu called the accusation “factually incorrect” and told the editorial board that many of those stuck-in-the-pipeline projects weren’t even subject to the new inclusionary zoning requirements. Some, such as the development of ten thousand units planned for the old Suffolk Downs site, simply hit a wall caused by high interest rates and rising construction costs.

Yet two things can be true at the same time: Wu’s affordability requirements could be deterring new housing, while economic conditions could be hindering projects that were already in the pipeline. How to set requirements — and when to change them as economic conditions change — are an important debate for the city and its mayoral candidates to have.

At any percentage, though, there’s a danger in over-relying on inclusionary development as the linchpin of the city’s housing policy, because by their nature mandates can aggravate the city’s missing-middle problem. That’s because new market-rate housing has to be even more expensive to cover the cost of the income-restricted units (often euphemistically referred to as “affordable housing”).

There’s an economic argument that even creation of high-end housing helps the middle class, because those pricey new condos sop up demand from high earners who would otherwise be bidding up the prices of existing family housing. And that’s true to an extent. But the city also needs policies aimed squarely at new housing for the middle tier, too.

Wu can rightly boast some other measures that take steps in that direction.

One answer with the potential to create 200 to 300 new housing opportunities a year, for instance, is Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) or so-called granny flats — small buildings adjacent or adjoining existing housing structures. They can be an alternative for housing relatives or renters. A new state law and new encouragement at the city level, including expansion of the ADU Financial Assistance Program, are intended to jump-start the idea.

In 2023, former planning chief James Arthur Jemison told the editorial board that in all of 2022 the city permitted only 31 accessory dwelling units. Since the city issued its ADU Guidebook last November it has already received 30 new applications.

Wu also got a $110 million Housing Accelerator Fund through the City Council late last year that provides grants for worthy housing programs. Its first recipient was the Bunker Hill Redevelopment in Charlestown, a public-private partnership with Leggat McCall Properties that got underway in 2020. The multiphase development will replace an aging housing project and create public housing, along with income-restricted and market-rate housing. (The state is also a partner in the venture.)

Separately, a small ($600,000 budgeted to start) co-purchasing pilot program is aimed at encouraging working families to join together to invest in a multifamily building with small interest-deferred loans to go toward a down payment. The program went live in May and has had one applicant thus far.

Wu’s administration has also continued the slow slog of bringing the city’s zoning code into the 21st century, while putting its own vacant land to good use. Following a citywide land audit, Boston has identified 150 parcels of city-owned property — from single lots to wide swaths of parking lots — that it has been making available to developers in phases to provide income-restricted home ownership opportunities. The city is also kicking in $60 million in pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act to help first-time home buyers.

But on the other side of the ledger, there have been numerous instances when private, market-rate housing is on the line and the city, with its lengthy community review process, just can’t get out of its own way.

Witness what was once the 270-unit Crane Ledge Woods apartment complex proposed for Hyde Park, now reduced to some 200 units and the subject of a recent lawsuit in which a superior court judge ruled against the city’s planning agency for overstepping its bounds and needlessly delaying action on the project.

Then there’s the long-running saga of the incredible shrinking 766 Summer Street project on the old Boston Edison Power Plant site that began life in 2017 with a plan for 1,588 housing units in eight residential buildings. Now its developers are looking to build just 600 housing units, beginning — with some luck with financing and city permitting — by next year.

It’s a familiar story of obstruction and delay, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. One of the silver linings of Democrats’ national losses in 2024 is that it has led to welcome introspection and debate about how blue states and cities govern themselves. It seems to have occurred to Democrats that when voters look at solidly Democratic places like Boston and see such high prices, it doesn’t exactly help the brand.

The mayor’s race should be an opportunity for Boston to participate in that introspection. It’s not only a matter of improving the Democratic Party’s image: The plain truth is that over the decades, Boston (and the rest of the metro region) has failed to allow enough housing, and now residents — and would-be residents — are suffering the consequences.

There are worse problems to have than being in a city people would love to live and work in. But making room for all kinds of people — rich and poor and those in the vast middle — is key to keeping it the vibrant place that it is. It’s a given that candidates will talk about housing, because rising prices have made the issue impossible to ignore. What the city has done to date hasn’t worked. Voters are looking to the candidates for ideas that will.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Artist Talk Ezri Horne and Indigo Conat-Naar
Moderated by Jessica Hernandez
Unbound Visual Arts
Sunday, July 27, 2025 @ 3:00 pm
Hear from sculptors Ezri Horne and Indigo Conat-Naar regarding their works in our current exhibition, knockin' on your screen door.

Artist Talk RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/knockin-on-your-screen-door-artist-talk-registration-1445348037889

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Hello Everyone,

Obviously, we must have exceeded our BCYF programming budget again!

Tony

[Paul R. Dixon]

👎

On Jul 25, 2025, at 1:45 PM, Anthony D'Isidoro <Anthony...@msn.com> wrote:



Hello Everyone,

Obviously, we must have exceeded our BCYF programming budget again!

Tony

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[Anthony D'Isidoro]

City Kids

🎓 The City Kids Scholarship is now open! 📚
We’re awarding 20 students from Boston with $1,000 each to help cover tuition, books, and other college expenses for the upcoming school year.
✅ Must be enrolled full-time in college
📅 Applications close August 1st
📢 Awardees announced by August 15th
The City Kids Scholarship provides financial support to underserved students from urban areas in and around Boston who are pursuing higher education. Our goal is to break down financial barriers and open doors to academic success. If you or someone you know could benefit from this opportunity, please share!

Don't miss this opportunity to invest in your future — apply now through the link: https://www.cityrealtyboston.com/citykids-scholarship-form

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Dana-Farber's Mammography Van
Wed Jul 30th 7:00am - 3:15pm
Charles River Community Health (Brighton), 495 Western Ave, Boston, MA 02135, USA

The van provides digital screening mammography to the women of Greater Boston. To learn more or schedule an appointment, please call us at (617) 632-1974 or visit www.dana-farber.org/mammographyvan.

Unable to make one of the scheduled van dates? Come in for your mammogram at Dana-Farber's Mammography Suite at Whittier Street Health Center. Call (617) 989-3200 for more information.

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Celebrate 2025 National Night Out!

Directions & Parking

You can get to Smith Playground in Allston by taking the Route 66 bus route to the N Harvard St @ Western Ave, and the 70 and 86 bus routes to the Western Ave @ Riverdale St. You can find off-street parking near Smith Playground at the 280 Western Parking Garage on Western Avenue. (Refer to Event Parking Signage)

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Shrinky Dinks Making

Honan Allston Branch Library

Wednesday, July 30, 2025 @ 3:00 pm

Join us for a crafty afternoon as we make our own unique art with shrinky dinks: the incredible shrinking plastic!

For kids ages 7 - 12.

300 N Harvard St, Allston

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

17 Bradbury Streets Abutters Meeting

Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services

Wednesday, July 30, 2025, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Proposal: To erect a new three-story building with three residential units and three exterior parking spaces. Project proposes to share driveway of 15 Bradbury Street.

The purpose of this meeting is to get community input and listen to the resident's positions on this proposal. This is a virtual meeting via Zoom. 

Meeting ID: 870 9968 0071

Please note, the City does not represent the occupant(s)/developer(s)/attorney(s)/applicant(s). 

Email Contact: Sigurgeir Jonson (sigurgei...@boston.gov)

Property Owner: Daniel Ustayev 

15 Bradbury Street, Allston, MA 02134
 

17 Bradbury  Street (2201368000)   

Property Type: Residential Land    

Owner Occupied: N/A
Lot Size: 39.20’ X 89.03' X 57.91' X 82.22' = 4,125 sf
Living Area: N/A
Year Built: N/A
Zoning SubDistrict: 3F-4000 (Three-Family Residential)   

Sale Date: 6/26/2018
Sale Price: $81,000
Grantor: James A. Bernhard and Karl A. Bernhard       

Grantee: Daniel Ustayev

(Please note: The city’s deed restriction limiting development of the site has been removed – Suffolk County Registry of Deeds Book 59311 Page 261 3/15/2018)

 

[Anthony D'Isidoro]