From December 2004 until December 2007, The Alewife newspaper covered the neighborhood of North Cambridge, Mass. It was a wonderful community of businesses, writers and photographers. The paper is no longer printed, but this Web site continues both as an archive and as an ongoing blog dedicated, mostly, to this humble little corner of the universe.
Today at or around 1 p.m. an off-duty Cambridge police officer, coming home from a detail said he observed what appeared to him to be a drug buy involving the driver of a blue Ford Escape on Rindge Avenue, near Russell Field.
The officer called the license plate number of a SUV, which turned out to be listed by the Boston Police as stolen, he said.
Alewife Photos by Neil W. McCabe
When the off-duty officer approached the transaction scene, the driver of the SUV took off initiating massive car chase, involving at least four city motorcyle police officers, four police cruisers and similiar committed assets from the Somerville Police.
Cambridge and Somerville police officers plied the streets of North Cambridge and Davis Square until 1:20 p.m. when the fleeing driver took his last turn down Thorndike
Street in Somerville--a dead end athwart the bicycle path linking Cameron Avenue with Meacham Road.
With both a Cambridge and a Somerville black and white directly behind him, the driver stopped at the bitter end of Thorndike and dashed down the bike path towards Davis Square.
On Meacham behind the MBTA station, he was apprenhended by Somerville police officers and taken away.
The Somerville News reports that Somerville Alderman-at-large Bruce Desmond has pulled nomination papers for Middlesex County Clerk of Courts challenging City Councilor Michael A. Sullivan to succeed Sullivan's retiring uncle Edward J. Sullivan.
It's a common story; parakeet flies out an open window or door.
Sadly, my little yellow bird Moth did just that a week ago.
Fortunately, it's also common for a tame bird to approach a human for food or company. It's encouraging: I know four people who have had a budgie, or parakeet, land next to them and been able to just scoop the bird up and start advertising for the original owner.
Knowing parakeets are nomadic - they come from large traveling flocks in Australia - I quickly gave up hope.
That evening Moth stayed close enough for me to talk with him four or five times, but when a group of sparrows took interest, he joined them and flew off at the first startling sound.
That night, I half-heartedly posted to craigslist' lost & found. Wow!
Almost instantly came emails from folks who work for various parrot rescue groups, since parakeets are small parrots.
Chris Greeley, from 911 Parrot Rescue, was terrifically helpful: he posted a lost alert and sent me a 20pg document loaded with helpful search info. He's even offered to help with the capture.
Armed with all of this encouragement and information, I've created the flyer, called all local Animal Control Offices.
From what I understand, 50% of lost birds are recovered through calls to the ACO, the MSPCA, the Animal Rescue League and even the police. I also contacted local vets, libraries and schools who generously posted my Missing flyer.
Surprise! A sighting the very next day. The call came from the home of former Somerville mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay. Her son Donald and his daughter spied Moth dining at their birdfeeder.
Since then, I've gotten several calls - some with sightings and some from very kind Somerville and Cambridge residents wanting to offer condolences. They wish me luck and put Moth in their prayers. What wonderful neighbors we have in this area!
FYI: Veterinarians strongly recommend trimming a bird's flight feathers to avoid these escapes.
However, to give my bird the best life possible, I've never done this. For the past seven years Moth's exercised both his wings and freedom soaring about my house - without ever approaching the door to the outside.
'Course, it only takes once.
So far, no luck. But I'll continue my search. Once a parakeet joins a flock of sparrows, he tends to stay very local - within 1.5 to 2 miles of home.
Moth is much missed not only by me, but by his mate Connie. I hope your readers will keep their eyes up to the skies for a little dash of yellow.
[This statement is printed as it was received.--Editor.]
On December 18, 2005, I was involved in a motor vehicle accident in Boston. My airbag deployed and I sustained a minor head injury. I was taken to the emergency room, where I was treated and released several hours later. The property damage, while regrettable, was minimal.
As is usually the case, the insurance companies are now processing claims and the system is working as it should. At the scene of the accident, I fully cooperated with police and emergency medical personnel. I was issued a citation for “Failing to Stop or Turn.” I accept responsibility for the accident and have already paid the $50 fine.
I understand that the Boston Police have decided not to seek charges but rather to put the matter before a Clerk Magistrate to determine whether the matter will proceed. I have apologized and continue to apologize for the accident, and look forward to resolving this matter at the hearing and putting this entire situation behind me and my family.
Boston Police detectives from the city's Area A March 20 requested a clerk's hearing in Boston Municipal Court in pursuit of charges against one of the drivers involved in the Dec. 18 accident with City Councilor Anthony D. Galluccio.
The charges against the defendant will be operating under the influence and disturbing the peace, said Officer Michael P. McCarthy of the Boston Police media relations unit.
At the April 28 hearing it will be determined if a criminal complaint will be issued, he said.
The detectives requested the hearing based on their investigation of the accident, which began Dec. 18 and concluded with the March 20 request, and was not a result of media attention to the case, he said.
The case was given the standard review, he said.
McCarthy said the defendant has been notified, but it department policy not to reveal the names of a defendant until he is charged.
Two Sullivans, Middlesex County Clerk of Courts Edward J. and City Councilor Michael A. , joined hundreds of Leone supportersThursday at the Hyatt Commander.
The elder Sullivan (right) is retiring and the younger is running to replace him. Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
The men lent their support to Hopkinton lawyer Gerald T. Leone Jr., the former assistant U.S. Attorney running for Middlesex County District Attorney.
Gerald T. Leone Jr. Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
Leone is facing State Sen.
Jarret T. Barrios, D, Cambridge, in the Democratic Primary to replace Martha Coakley, who is running for state attorney general.
Before the ballroom event, Coakley introduced Leone at the pre-event cocktail party on the hotel's 14th floor.
Haiti is not too unfamiliar with being in the spotlight. And it’s usually for something scandalous that is often infused with an undercurrent of negativity. With its political travails and social and economic unrest, the American news media just can’t seem to get enough of Haiti’s calamities. You must have heard the popular adage “No news is good news.”
Well it does not have to be true today, because, for a change, there’s good news about Haiti!
Most people have either heard of or know the world-renowned Dr. Paul Farmer personally. But to those of you who don’t know this miraculous and inspirational soul, you are in for a treat!
Responding to the planned razing of Marino's Restaurant for a condo development, neighbors met Wednesday to organize a campaign to de-zone the property.
The Marino's property current zoning is the result of a clerical error, but must be corrected by a seven vote super-majority of the city council, said Charles Teague, a member of the neighbors group.
City Councilor Anthony D. Galluccio met today with the high school girls varsity lacross team and its Head Coach Robert W. Kotz on the new field turf of Russell Field.
Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
The editor of The Alewife announced today the paper has joined the Inman News network, the country's leading real estate news service. "This partnership is just another step towards building a premier Real Estate Section," said Neil W. McCabe, the paper's editor.
Neil W. McCabe, the paper's editor
"When we launched this section in January, we promised both our readers and advertisers that it would be the 'go-to' place for real estate news and commentary," he said. "It is clearly that now."
"The news stories from Inman will supplement our real estate transcations from Banker & Tradesman, columns from David Wluka, the 2006 president of the Massachusetts Realtors Association and Wells Fargo mortgage consultants," he said.
The first news articles from Inman will appear in the April edition of the paper, he said.
The congressman for North Cambridge joined a movement exploring the impeachment of President George W. Bush.
"I recently signed on as a co-sponsor of H.Res. 635, which seeks to establish a select committee with subpoena power to investigate the Bush Administration's actions with respect to pre-war intelligence and the war in Iraq," said Rep. Michael E. Capuano, D, North Cambridge.
"The committee would then determine if grounds exist to pursue impeachment," he said.
Rep. Michael E. Capuano, D, North Cambridge
"This resolution creates a bipartisan investigative vehicle to ask questions and hopefully get answers, it does not simply call for impeachment," he said.
The congressman said he is moving cautiously. "I have resisted calls to support other resolutions that propose going farther because I do not think that they are reasonable."
This St. Patrick’s Day, the bagpiper playing at the Spirit Bar there will not only mark the Feast Day of Ireland’s patron saint, but will mark the beginning the pub’s high-traffic season.
“We are busiest from St. Patrick’s Day all the way through to November, or until the Red Sox stop playing,” said Christy Fitzsimons, who owns Spirit Bar at 2046 Massachusetts Ave., with his wife Donna.
Fitzsimons said in addition to the bagpiper, his St. Patrick’s Day fare will include a special menu of Irish favorites, such as the Irish breakfast, usually served only on weekends and the coin cannon, which is a dish made with mashed potatoes, onions and kale.
The beer will be flowing, too, he said. “We will go through five to six kegs of Guinness. Each keg is 16 gallons, so we will pour 500 to 600 pints of Guinness that day.”
One regular, Alan A. Brennan, of Porter Square, said every New Year’s he looks two dates to see what day they land on: his birthday and St. Patrick’s Day.
Brennan said an example of how he feels about the bar is that he came to Spirit to watch Games 4 and 5 between the Red Sox and Yankees in 2004, after he suffered through the 19 to 8 debacle of Game 3 in the stands of Fenway.
“This is the first place I have worked where the girls got along,” said Tara L. Cocchiarella, a Spirit waitress and chemical engineering major at Tufts University.
“Here all of the waitresses help each other out,” she said. “I think it is because most of the people here are students or this is their second of third job.”
“I think the reason every here, customers and employees, is because of the man Christy is,” said Justin L. Jewett, who tends bar one or two days per week.
“He is a fairly successful guy, yet he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty,” he said. “There is a sink behind the bar where we dump ice and straws and garnishes and he will be reaching in there cleaning it before I can get to it myself.”
“Besides, he is a thoroughly entertaining guy,” he said.
Somehow everyone picks up on Fitzsimon’s vibe, he said.
Under bright skies and occasional gusts of light snow flakes, two men joined forces Wednesday to stop State Sen. Jarett T. Barrios, D, Cambridge, in his quest for the Democratic nomination to replace outgoing Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley.
Flanked by 16 fellow legislators, State Rep. Michael E. Festa, D, Melrose, threw his support behind Hopkinton lawyer and former assistant U. S. attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr.'s campaign.
State Rep. Michael E. Festa, D, Melrose (left), making his endorsement of Hopkinton lawyer Gerald T. Leone (clapping) Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
The Melrose state representative said during the nine months he was a candidate himself for the office, he had come to realize that he Leone shared many of the same values.
Leone's opposition to the death penalty and willingness to speak out for fairness in the criminal justice system helped him make the decision, he said.
Festa, a former assistant Middlesex County district attorney, said his support of Leone, who is facing Barrios in the September primary, is based primarily on Leone's professional credentials. "It is more than a political office. It is a professional office."
The district attorney has to manage 200 professionals and Leone would command their respect, he said. "He will command the respect of the ones he leads."
Leone and Festa embrace before the endorsement announcement on the State House steps. Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
Gesturing to the legislators standing behind him, some of whom were also former prosecutors, Festa said together they were backing Leone because they trusted him to address critical issues in crime policy and because he is the most qualified man in the race.
"Dwell on that for a minute," he said.
There is no way he could support someone who did not have experience in the criminal justice system, he said.
Speaking after Festa, Leone said he grateful for the support of his former opponent. "We knew each other before the campaign and came to know each other better after the campaign."
He said he was looking forward to working with the legislators whom prosecutors rely on to provide the tools to make the system work.
Festa makes it stick.Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
Leone said he was a progressive public servant, but he was proud that his supporters represented every political position in the Democratic Party.
That support was based on the fact that he is the most qualified candidate, he said. "I am the candidate who knows the job and is running for the right reasons."
The archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston granted dispensation to Catholics for Friday, the feast day of the Boston See's patron saint, St. Patrick, who are observing the practice of no red meat on the Fridays of Lent.
Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe
"Let us witness to our love and imitation of Christ by special solicitude for the sick, the poor, the underprivileged, the imprisoned, the bed-ridden, the discouraged, the stranger, the lonely, and persons of other color, nationalities, or background than our own," said Cardinal-designate Sean P. O'Malley, the archbishop.
"A catalogue of not merely suggested but required good works under these headings is provided by our Blessed Lord Himself in His description of the Last Judgment," he said.
"This salutary word of the Lord is necessary for all the year, but should be heeded with double care during Lent," he said.
The hopkinton lawyer and former assistant U.S. attorney running for Middlesex County district attorney against State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios, D, Cambridge, will receive the endorsement of State Rep. Michael E. Festa, D, Melrose, who left the race in February.
The two men will make it official 3 p.m. today at the State House steps.
Around the corner is Saint Patrick’s Day; a day to show emerald pride as Irish everywhere gather with merriment to commemorate the patron saint of Ireland.
March 17, the day of celebration, falls on the day he died 1,545 years ago in A.D. 461 when he was 76 years old.
Saint Patrick was among the first missionary introducing Christianity into Ireland in A.D. 432. He was credited as the one who singularly exerted entrenched Catholicism into the Emerald Isle.
Ireland is sanguine with ancient stories of sword and song. Rich with history, it was a land where kerne marched, while gallows were erected over fields shimmering with shamrock.
It was St. Patrick who seized upon the idea of using the three-leaf clover in a clear analogy illustrating of the dogma of the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In time, Ireland even adapted the shamrock as her beloved national emblem.
As green as any field can be, this bucolic isle in the ocean is likened to a precious jewel. Located west of the United Kingdom, separated from it by St. George’s Channel and the Irish Sea. Resembling a basin rimmed with low Mountains; Ireland is half the size of Arkansas.
After St. Patrick laid the religious groundwork, Ireland is now over 92 percent Roman Catholic with a current estimated population nearing six million.
Romans who occupied nearby England for 400 years, inexplicably never sailed across the channel to conquer Ireland.
The Asian Community Development Corportation will sponsor its second annual Asian Comedy Night Thursday with a show, buffet and after-show cocktail party at Harvard Square's Hong Kong Restaurant.
The featured comics will include: Joe Wong, Sandy Asai and Eric Cheung.
Among the special guest will be Boston City Councilor Sam Yoon.
Doors open for the buffet at 6 p.m.. The show starts at 8 p.m.
Joe Wong
Tickets: $45, more information is available at (617) 482-2380 or visit the Web site: asiancdc.org
Yuki brings
her unique brand of rock and roll Sunday to Central Square's T.T. the Bear's Place.
The show starts at 10 p.m. and more information is available at (617) 492-BEAR.
"POEMS OF SURVIVAL" by Marc Widershien Poplar Editions 2006
There is much to admire and much to absorb from Widershien’s poetry collection, “Poems of Survival.” I may have quarreled a bit with its cover as it seemed too agit-prop, stark black vs. white, a baby in a womb that could be an anti-abortion shot, but after speaking with Marc, I learned he had the movie Space Odyssey 2001 in mind.
The initial poem reads like an evolutionary list, or a Zen koan: voices are born on crests/children float up in test tubes/gnosis/dawn shimmer/nuclear/hieroglyph. In fact, the book’s scope and patina of colors ranges well beyond the black and white of its face. Widershien believes as Joni Mitchell sings: “Every picture has its shadow and its source of light, blindness blindness and sight.”
For him the extreme polarity of views taken by some in the world is destructive, whereas a duality in nature with reasoning shades of grey, is what he sees and prefers to describe. The world is not an either/or proposition, though the themes of hope, survival and ultimate surrender do prevail, as in
“The Appearance II,”
“from the dark intangible inception
we exist in the first dawns of already vanishing days.”
For Marc knows, as in poetry, …” everything on the page is told once but over and over.” From Words, for Erik
There are many beautiful, even gorgeous rhetorical moments in this work, but what is very satisfying is the concrete place the earth has in it. Indeed we are, but are not just moon-children cast into space in fragile cocoons.
I sat in on a fascinating conversation recently with a bunch of biologists as they debated the merits of Intelligent Design. ID—a theistic alternative to strict evolutionary teaching—has, you’ll recall, been much in the news in the wake of a Kansas School board’s decision to include it in a high school science curriculum, a decision then overturned in court.
You’ll be shocked to learn that Intelligent Design wasn’t popular with these evolutionary biologists. But once that newsflash had passed there was a ton said that was extraordinarily interesting.
Dave Schmelzer
For instance, the biologist sitting next to me was horrified to report that something like sixty percent of Americans actually lobbied for teaching ID in schools even though only about two-thirds of these same people believed it to be true.
At or around 8 p.m. today, as a female driver pulled into the back parking lot of the Cambridge Common at 1667 Massachusetts Ave., another driver alerted her to the flames coming from her engine compartment, said Deputy Chief John Cotter of the city fire department.
When firefighters arrived, there were still flames coming from the car, he said.
The fire was put out in roughly one minute, he said.
The Winter Olympics were a truly remarkable spectacle occured in Torino, Italy. An unheralded ice hockey club from Switzerland knocked off, gasp, Canada in the preliminary rounds of Olympic competition.
Canada, the nation that gave ice hockey to the world, a nation that has won seven Olympic gold medals and an astounding nineteen world championships, was bested by a nation that is more known for wrist watches and chocolate than slap shots and checking. This has a familiar resonance for Canada’s neighbors to the south, the US of A.
Flashback to Indianapolis 2002, the FIBA (basketball’s international body) World Championships. The United States, a team composed of NBA all-stars, figured that the competition would merely be a jam-fest in which they would only half-heartedly engage in.
Losses to New Zealand, Argentina, and Yugoslavia later, the message had been served: the world is just as good, even better than the life-givers of hoops.
In that same fashion, the Canadians were upended by the Swiss 2-0. The Swiss team had three players in the employ of the NHL.
[David Wluka is the 2006 president of the Realtors Association of Massachusetts and the owner of Wluka Realty in Sharon. His column is a regular feature of the The Alewife Real Estate Section.]
Despite predictions of a housing slump, the residential real estate market in Massachusetts experienced another year of steady growth in 2005 as total sales of detached single-family homes and condominiums set a new record and median prices rose for a 12th consecutive year, according to data issued Feb. 15, by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
Attractive mortgage rates, a more plentiful supply of homes for sale, and more modest price appreciation have all helped to keep demand strong amidst rising energy prices and a weak job market this past year.
Once again, the local housing market has outperformed the expectations of many.
With mortgage rates relatively stable and a larger supply of homes to choose from, it’s been a good time to be house-hunting. Market conditions have become much more favorable to buyers in the past year.
Across much of the state, the largest gains in sales activity occurred in the condominium market where sales soared to a new all-time high in 2005, climbing 16.4 percent from 19,781 units sold in 2004 to 23,026 last year.
It’s the fourth consecutive year that condo sales have set a new annual sales volume record. Sales of detached single-family homes were historically strong this past year as well, but slid a modest 3.2 percent statewide, from a record 50,561 closings a year ago to 48,922 in 2005. Notably, the 2005 sales volume for detached homes ranks as the fourth highest on record in state history.
There are signs of moderation in the market however.
Specifically, the MAR report shows that sales of detached single-family homes fell 8.1 percent in the fourth quarter, declining from 12,171 homes sold in the final quarter of 2004 to 11,189 in the same three-month period this past year.
It’s the largest annual quarterly decline in home sales in nearly three years, dating back to the first quarter of 2003 when sales decreased 10.6 percent from the first quarter of 2002, and marks the third consecutive quarter that home sales have fallen in the Bay State from the same quarter the prior year.
The accelerated sales pace of recent years has all but ended and we’re returning to a more normal market.
The executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, announced March 3 that a congressional delegation representing Rep. Kendrick Meek, D, Fla., Rep. Artur Davis, D, Ala., Rep. William Jefferson, D. La., and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D, Miss., will participate in a Katrina Summit at Harvard Law School on Saturday 9:30 a.m. in the Ames Courtroom of Austin Hall.
"The Katrina Summit will allow us to examine the magnitude of the destruction of property and lives that occurred not only in New Orleans, but throughout the Gulf Region. Each of these Congressional representatives has been working around the clock to address the impact of Hurricane Katrina, and to create opportunities for those who lost their property to find ways to return," said Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., the center's executive director and the summit's organizer.
Ogletree found the Saturday School series in 1988, which was renamed the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice Lecture Series.
In addition to the four Congressional representatives, Dr. Calvin Butts III, Senior Pastor at Abyssinian Baptist Church and President of SUNY-Old Westbury, Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who has been instrumental in finding shelter for Katrina evacuees who are now in Massachusetts, and Rev. Richard Richardson, who serves as the coordinator of the Massachusetts response team addressing the needs of Katrina evacuees in Massachusetts, among others, will be participating in the Katrina Summit, he said.
Taking the first concrete step towards its merger with the Progressive Democrats of Cambridge, the city's local chapter of Democracy for America voted to approve the combination at its Wednesday meeting held at the Center for Democracy at 45 Mt. Auburn St.
The DFA will vote again in April, and if affirmative, the group will have done its part and the rest is up to the members of the PDC to make their own approval, said Shai Sachs, the leader of the DFA.
One member did abstain, but there were no negative votes, he said.
Sachs said he supports the merger because it will strengthen the local progressive community. "We share many of the same goals, and there is a fair amount of overlap in our memberships."
"Having two meetings is just too much more work," he said.
The two organizations have worked closely over the last year, said Jesse A. Gordon, a founding member of the PDC and a 2005 candidate for city council.
Gordon, a supporter of the merger, said the city council candidates forum co-sponsored by DFA and PDC was an example of how well the two groups work together.
There is some overlap in membership, but there are differences, he said.
The DFA, which grew out of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, temds to attract younger members, who are more focused on national or international issues. The PDC, which grew out of Robert Reich's campaign for governor, tends to focus on municipal and Massachusetts issues, he said.
No date has been set for the April meeting, Sachs said. It is going to be a joint meeting with the PDC and Sachs is waiting to hear back from them.
If all goes as planned, the two groups will be one single entity under the name Progressive Democrats of Cambridge, with the PDC assuming the role as local chapter with the national DFA, he said.
The North Cambridge Stabilization Committee will meet tonight at the North Cambridge Senior Center at 2050 Massachusetts Ave., from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The committee will discuss local development issues, including the new Hess gas station and the future of the Marino's restaurant site, and hear a presentation from Belmont attorney William N. Brownsberger, the only announced candidate to replace State Rep. Anne Paulsen, D, North Cambridge.
Two of the most important political organizations in the city, the Progressive Democrats of Cambridge and the local Democracy for America chapter, will meet tonight at 7:30 p.m. to discuss a possible merger at the Center for Democracy at 45 Mt. Auburn St.
In addition to the merger vote, candidate for Middlesex County District Attorney State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios, D, Cambridge, will address the meeting and answer questions.
The Haitian Catholic community of the left Our Lady of Pity Church when the it was shuttered in 2003. Their next home was Immaculate Conception Church at 45 Matignon Road, until that church was shuttered in 2005.
Now, they have settled in at St. John the Evangelist at 2254 Massachusetts Avenue.
Every Sunday, the community celebrates Mass at 4:30 p.m. in the Haitian Creole, said Father George Roy, a parochial vicar at St. John’s, who for seven years has had a special responsibility for the Haitian apostolate.
Father George Roy
“I like Father Roy because I have known him for years and since I am originally from Haiti I like the mass because it is in either French or French-Creole,” said Marquile Mureete from Medford.
Mureete said she has been has been active in the Haitian community for years and has followed Father Roy through several churches.
Despite the change of locations, there has not been a drop-off in attendance, she said. Fifteen to 20 congregants come to the church early to say the Rosary and by the time the service begins the pews are full.
“I was trying to find parking so by the time I parked most of the seats were taken,” said Lozama Thiogene from Malden.
The state representative from Melrose, who February withdrew from the Middlesex County District Attorney's race, met with Hopkinton attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr. to discuss his possible endorsement of Leone's campaign for the post.
"This race is very important to me," said State Rep. Michael E. Festa, D, who is seeking re-election for his seat in the Great and General Court.
Festa said he has known the other candidate in the race, State Sen. Jarret T. Barrios, D, Cambridge, for many years, but before making a decision about an endorsement he needed to become more familiar with Leone.
The is a chance Festa will not make any endorsement, but whatever he decides, he expects the decision before the end of March, Festa said.
At or around 3:30 p.m. on Massachuesetts Avenue in front of St.
James Church, at the intersection with Beech Street, city police arrested a drive of a black GMC SUV after the man gave officers a false name and address three times.
The driver, Daryl Greene, of 86 Pleasant St., was also charged with failure to wear a safety belt and an outstanding Cambridge Police arrest warrants.
The organization dedicated to promote positive child-care and train and support child-care professionals will host its 5th annual Caring for Babies Forum March 18 at the Peabody School.
The forum will be a day-long program of classes, workshops and a keynote address by Mary Foley, the project director at the Washington-based Children’s Dental Health Project, said Jennifer Coplon, PhD, the executive director of the Child Care Resource Center, the forum’s organizer. Foley’s address is titled “Oral Health for Families: A Team Approach.”
The goal of the forum is to help each child receive the best chance to
develop into a happy, productive adult. Workshops are designed for
parents, other family members, and caregivers to provide information
and raise community awareness about the critical importance of caring
for infants and toddlers.
Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves will also be on hand to help welcome participants and support forum’s mission.
“The forum is a free event for Cambridge and Somerville parents,
teachers and providers who care about and care for infants, toddlers,
birth to age three,” she said. Other topics will be related to health,
literacy, discipline and early child development.
CCRC was founded more than 30 years to advocate for child-care programs and bring additional services, training and education
The man, who in 1990, transformed a shuttered Fresh Pond Mall twin-screen cinema into one of highest grossing movie houses in the Boston-area is back to do it again.
After cleaning it up and replacing the carpets, he is going to bring back the complex’s signature two-story waterfall and everything he needs to do to re-create the its glory days, said Bill Hanney, president of the Entertainment Cinemas.
Bill Hanney, president of Entertainment Cinemas
Hanney closed on the purchase in the first week of February after it was closed by the AMC Theatres company Jan. 25, which acquired the cinema as part of its merger with Loews Cineplex, he said.
The building was first opened in 1965 by the now bankrupt General Cinemas, which used it as a consumer feedback laboratory, he said.
The only remnant of that period is the restroom behind the first floor snack bar because it was brand new when General Cinema closed its doors, he said.
General Cinemas would test new seats, snacks and interior decorations at the location before making decisions for the rest of the chain, he said.
A young movie-goer communes with a extra-large standing poster for "Ice Age 2," starring Denis Leary
Hanney said he came on the scene when he got a phone call from real estate agent, Rob Caruso.
“He said: ‘Take a look at this thing. Everyone else has passed on it.’”
The Cambridge Public schools will continue to be the entry point for the children of many first-generation immigrants for some time to come and the pressure on the Cambridge school system to meet this challenge is not going to decrease any time soon. At least, this is one of the conclusions I draw from the recent study released by the Boston-based Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
Here's a little background: MAPC is trying to understand what our region is going to look like in the next 25 years as part of their plan, MetroFuture, which is trying to develop regional solutions to regional problems. They started by asking: what happens if the current trends in housing, in population, in jobs, holds steady over the next quarter century? And this is what they found:
• Overall, people are moving out of Massachusetts to other states. However, Massachusetts is seeing strong international immigration into the state.
• The skill levels of international immigrants vary considerably, from the highly educated to people with little formal education.
• International immigrants, especially those who arrived more recently, tend to cluster in cities, In 2000, over half of the 600,000 people born in another country were found in one of eight cities: Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Quincy and Brockton.
• The job trends show that Cambridge will continue to grow as a place for work in one of the following areas: education and health services or professional and business services.
What does all this mean for Cambridge? It means that Cambridge will continue to grow as a white-collar town, with fewer opportunities for those who are not tapping into that part of the economy.
At the same time, Cambridge will continue to be a new home to
international immigrants...and while some of them will come here
specifically for the high-skilled, high wage jobs that exist here, many
of them will come with the hope of a new life but with few skills and
limited command of English.
The responsibility for educating the children of these immigrants with will fall largely to our public schools.
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHERN CONNECTICUT...ALL OF MASSACHUSETTS EXCEPT BERKSHIRE COUNTY... SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE...AND RHODE ISLAND.
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A SNOW ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FROM THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO TONIGHT...GENERALLY TO THE SOUTH OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE. AS FOR START TIMES...WE EXPECT THE SNOW TO START ACROSS CONNECTICUT IN THE MID MORNING REACHING THE CAPE AND ISLANDS BY AROUND NOON. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM BETWEEN 2 TO 6 INCHES. THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE FOUND ACROSS CONNECTICUT...THE SOUTH COAST...CAPE AND ISLANDS. PLEASE SEE OUR SNOW ADVISORY FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION. TO THE NORTH OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE...LITTLE IF ANY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY GALE FORCE WIND GUSTS ARE EXPECTED OVER THE OPEN WATERS FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT WITH STRONG COLD ADVECTION.
AN OCEAN STORM IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ON TUESDAY. AT THIS TIME...IT APPEARS THAT THE STORM WILL MISS US AS IT PASSES OUT TO SEA. HOWEVER...THIS STORM IS MORE THAN 5 DAYS AWAY AND A SUBTLE CHANGE IN THE ATMOSPHERE CAN BRING THE STORM CLOSER TO THE COAST.
.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO TONIGHT FOR SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 INCHES OR GREATER...AS WELL AS SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 INCH PER HOUR OR MORE.
[Doug, a North Cambridge resident, is a reverse mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Newton. He can be reached at (617) 552-5452 or douglas.fernald@wellsfargo.com. This article appears in the Real Estate Section of March's edition of The Alewife newspaper.]
Many older Americans facing retirement want to find a way to increase their monthly income. Today there are homeownership options that can help seniors optimize cash flow and promote peace of mind.
One option, a reverse mortgage, enables seniors to borrow against the equity in their home without repaying the debt for as long as they live there. That’s the “reverse” part of this kind of mortgage loan.
Instead of making monthly payments, you can opt to receive them.
The loan proceeds can be used for any purpose, and taken out as a lump sum payment, fixed monthly payment, line of credit or as a combination.
It’s exactly what the name implies. Reverse mortgages give senior homeowners an opportunity to secure financial independence.
[I would like to thank Roger Nicholson’s “Roger That” for inspiring this article. Soon, I will return to my duties as poetry editor. And if he wants to review some poems, Let it be. Whisper words of wisdom. Let it be…..
Lo Galluccio Ash Wednesday March 1, 2006]
I am walking back through the fierce cold now with what looks like a grey moth across my forehead, for it is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent for Christians. The Rector says it is a sign of mortality—the smudge of oil and ash-- and is our symbol of death in a sense, crossed by life.
I feel some despair and much hope during the service -- a group of 12 or so congregates in a half moon around the altar and the cross.
And during and afterwards, I can’t help thinking about my “sins” and about what a Woody Allen movie once deemed, “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” I am also thinking about a Peacock, the Kurdish Peacock, their religious icon embodying both good and evil, as I reflect darkly on the brutal and foolish war that now seems to threaten a Civil one in Iraq.
“It is as if the Anglicans bombed St. Peter’s Catholic and the next day they retaliated and bombed Christ Church on the Common,” I say to my mother as we are driving through my neighborhood. It is all I can do to imagine what a religious war in Cambridge would be like.
I remember my grandparents, both Welsh Presbyterian, who bravely were cremated, accepting with grace and wisdom the simple limits of our sensual lives. And I am thinking also, of a Catholic lover who once told me, as we were both engaged as actors at the Alley theatre in Houston, to “sin bravely, sin.”
Of course, we did. And I have. And there are times when these sins, these misdemeanors, seemed necessary, and I slipped by without intercession of the Devil’s real whips; disease, injury, imprisonment, death.
Oh I can tell you some stories…as we all can. For it is a day, I think, as Easter also –like the pink clouds through a blue dusk— approaches, to reflect on the gray shades of sin….
It astounds me now that I spent almost a year ducking the turnstile in New York City because I was poor and got away with it, until the day when I was caught on the way to a music studio uptown to record a dance-track. About five New York City police (under Guiliani’s reign) were standing against the wall across from the turnstiles and clearly saw me avoid the fare. In an instant, I knew I had been caught.
But what I didn’t realize is that without sufficient identification on me, I could be taken to jail for the price of $1.50 token. Oh yes, there was justice, in the form of an African-American female cop who seemed amused by my red leather hi top sneakers and my breathless plea: I have to get uptown…. And then, when I offered to show her my name and address on my checks, she scoffed, “Are you trying to bribe me?”
It was over. Handcuffed, three hours in the holding pen, fingerprinted and photographed…what saved me was doing some yoga to calm down and singing. The police seemed to enjoy that.
Almost 12 hours later I was escorted into night court, after being teased in the holding cell that I might do time or be put on probation, and a handsome Irish lawyer with a snazzy tie approaches me and simply gets all charge off. I had no past criminal record: it was a $1.50 token. But there is the cost of a misdemeanor and then I realized, also, why should I get away with riding the train for free when everybody else…of course.
There was the time I can barely remember, when a handsome patron of the bar I worked at during college, took me out on a date to the Top of the Hub and then let me drive recklessly tipsy and without a license back through the streets of Boston. I think this is the sin, or crime, for which I am most grateful to have escaped punishment.
"The revolution is here!” That is the familiar and often used tag line for those listening to the new "Howard Stern Show" radio program offered to subscribers of Sirius satellite radio.
I've been a big Howard Stern for the last 15 years ever since hearing him on WBCN for the first time back in 1992.
From the start I was awed by his brashness, his honesty, and his fearlessness to speak his mind at a time when the trend of soft fascism in the form of political correctness seemed to plague free thinkers every where.
After moving to Cambridge in 1991, I felt I was constantly being corrected and admonished by the pseudo intellectually elite. Words like "girl" needed to be substituted in certain circles by "pre-woman" "Black" wasn't OK, it had to "African American. And forget "American Indian" which is actually part of my genetic make up, I needed to start saying "Native American." I could barely open my mouth lest I be publicly shamed.
Racist, sexist, homophobic. All were labels being handed out in Cambridge in the early 90's as liberally as the Star of David in Germany circa 1933.
by Neil W. McCabe
Cameron Avenue with Meacham Road.
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