Good news: the Boston Public Market Association says its year-round market for Massachusetts-grown, made, hunted and fished food will open in June, 2014. Well, maybe not hunted, but you can see how that would fit in.

Earlier this year, after a lengthy, delayed process, the state designated the BPMA as occupants of the ground floor of the parking garage and empty state office building at the Haymarket T station between Congress Street and the Greenway, near the Haymarket pushcarts. Planning nerds call it Parcel 7.

The process was unnecessary because the space was intended for such a market from the start, and the non-profit Boston Public Market was the only group with the know-how to run such a thing. But some people complained the fix was in. Greg Bialecki, the state’s Secretary of the Housing and Economic Development, had been head of the BPMA for many years. Never mind that no one was profiting from this venture except Massachusetts farmers and fishers, who’ve had to wait longer to reap its benefits. Continue reading →

Who can remember which utility NStar provides and which utility National Grid provides? No one? That’s what I thought. Sometimes we long for yesteryear when Boston Edison and Boston Gas supplied exactly what they said they did.

But never mind that. Whoever supplies our electricity in the downtown never fails. (It turns out to be NStar in my household. I can’t be sure about yours.) I have lived on my street for 40 years. During that time, the electricity has never gone out, even during hurricanes. That’s because the lines supplying my house are buried. Continue reading →

Last year, on September 11, 2011, I was on a plane, just like I had been on September 11, 2001. I was uncomfortable. It wasn’t the plane or fear or the coincidence that I would be on a plane both on THE day and on its 10^th anniversary.

My discomfort grew from the way this terrible tragedy has been exploited by everyone from politicians, to the media, to many individuals who lost no one but enjoy being entertained by the intense feelings such an event can evoke.

Let me make one thing clear: if you lost someone dear to you on 9/11, you can grieve all you want. You can isolate yourself on that day’s anniversaries or you can join others to commemorate it. You are in a different category from the rest of us.

But the exploitation of that day by some Americans is disgusting. Continue reading →

There is still a lot of trash on the sidewalks from the move-ins, but soon those reliable trash collectors will do their job, some nice neighbor will do a little sweeping, a rain will arrive and wash away the sticky debris, and we’ll be back to normal.

But what is normal for permanent residents is new to the new arrivals, whether you are students, families or young single professionals sharing digs with people like them.

So here is a guide to behaving like a true Bostonian. Continue reading →