Results tagged “neighborhoods”

Upon realizing that large chunks of Boston neighborhoods were left unmapped by Google Street View, Bostonist e-mailed Google HQ to find out why. We received a fairly standard response that the neglected areas would be mapped soon: more ›

Bostonist just underwent a minor facelift that makes it easier to search the site, and you can adjust the home page to show even more stories. You will see tags along the bottom of each story. Instead of searching the site or going to a broad category, like "News: Mass," you can click on a tag and see all the stories associated with the tag. This feature is perfect for searches on what's going on... more ›

Imagine that you're stuck on the Green Line, wedged in between two people yammering away on their cell phones, and one of them is stinky. Each stop seems to last for an hour. When you reach your destination, you think to yourself, "I could have walked there in half the time." You were probably right. The Brookings Institution has declared Boston America's second-most walkable city, second only to DC, and Beacon Hill as one of... more ›

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the... more ›

--The DA's office announced earlier this week that it will expand its "Gun Court," which speeds up prosecution of gun-related crimes. Only cases from Dorchester, Roxbury, the South End, and parts of downtown were accelerated to gun court, but now cases from South Boston, East Boston, and Charlestown will go there as well. The DA's office press release touted its success rate: "Gun Court prosecutors have secured convictions in 85.1% of the viable cases handled... more ›

Boston city councilors Stephen Murphy and John Connolly aren't the only ones who have to learn how to get along. City councilor Chuck Turner, he of the stunning goatee, will also need to learn how to get along with Northeastern University, or vice versa depending which side you're on. Before the city council elections, Turner was angry with the school for not treating the neighborhood he represents with enough respect. He didn't mince words on... more ›

Street-cleaning day is dreadful on so many levels because it is all too easy to forget to move one's car. And then there are the annoying repetitive announcements that are boomed into homes: "You will be tagged and towed, you will be tagged and towed." more ›

Horrorville Haunted House 300 Somerville Ave, Union Square 6-10 p.m. on October 26, 27, and 28 (This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) $8 kids / $10 adults Whether you're a little kid trying to hang with the big kids, a big kid acting tough to hide your tears, or an adult who just loves to get freaked out, haunted houses are an essential part of the Halloween experience. Haunted house enthusiast Matthew Martino was disappointed that... more ›

After all the "enough is enough" blah-dee-blah from the city brass, people on the ground who have to deal with Boston crime every day are doing something about it. Pop Warner football coach Myron Stovell, who was shot in the leg this weekend by a teenage hothead with a gun, didn't let his injury stop him from attending a community meeting on the subject. The meeting included parents and children who were on Stovell's Boston... more ›

We've fretted over the fate of food delivery people before. Now, after the Globe's latest piece about the perils faced by food delivery people, we ask you to hug your pizza delivery guy today. Those people work hard for their money, and it's a risky gig. There have been 52 delivery-related robberies this year. The BPD blotter is often full of cases in which a food delivery guy gets held up for a free pizza... more ›

The turf wars aren't limited to Boston. The Globe reported on an internal fight within the Gloucester PD that should make you feel a little better about the BPD's petty tiffs. A lieutenant for the GPD accused police chief John Beaudette of "running into him stomach-first during a recent confrontation over the deployment of officers." We looked at the Globe's picture of Lieutenant Jerris Cook, along with ones the Gloucester Times took of chief Beaudette.... more ›

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom... more ›

Outside.in has been tracking local blog action for 3,500 neighborhoods in 60 cities across the country. They came out with the top ten blogging neighborhoods back in April. Newton and Watertown made that list (4 and 7, respectively.) Today Chris Reidy at the Globe posts up an item that Outside.in has named Boston the Bloggiest City in the nation. During March and April the Boston area chalked up 89 posts per 100,000 people (we're trying... more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the... more ›

So, Gawker started up this feature on "The Poors," in which they ruthlessly mock media encounters with those of us who don't have trust funds. Gawker might be interested in a recent front-page article by the Globe about the South Bay Center, the big ol' mall that is apparently a crossroads of class conflict. The form of Sarah Schweitzer's article isn't the problem. Well, maybe the fact that the Globe put a story about a... more ›

So many car insurance commercials on TV, so little relevance to Massachusetts drivers. This is the only state in the country where insurance rates are set by a government panel, which has worked out well for some folks (bad drivers and insurers willing to play ball) and not so well for other folks (good drivers in bad neighborhoods, big-time out-of-town companies). Now Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burns wants to shake things up, proposing a limited shift... more ›

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic... more ›

At first, Bill Linehan looked like an underdog to us since his opponent, Susan Passoni, won all the endorsements. However, he won the race last night, 53 percent to 46 percent. The Globe focused on how Linehan conducted a more old-school, door-to-door campaign and simply got out more supporters. It was also clear that the vote split along South End / South Boston lines. In the future, it would be nice to see the occasional... more ›

Whether you crave oil on canvas or innovative tissue box covers, all seven hills of Somerville are ready to meet your needs this weekend, when more than three hundred artists and craftspeople will throw open their doors to the public for the 9th annual Somerville Open Studios. The venues are as eclectic as the media, techniques, and ideas on display, ranging from humble apartments in tripledeckers to St. Ann's Parish Hall (#6 on the Open... more ›

Zooming in on the South End/Roxbury in Google Maps something interesting showed up: the gentrification line. The high resolution images are in their satellite database for all of Downtown and Back Bay. Most of the South End is included, but once you cross over Mass Ave, into what we generally accept as Roxbury, things aren't quite as clear, they aren't as green either. Back in January the Globe ran a piece called "Breaching Mass... more ›

Like New York City, we've got our newspaper of record. In NYC it's the Times, here it's the Globe. But neither are really any fun. The action happens on the pages of the tabs. The Herald gives us our daily dose of puns in the headlines and 108 point font to let us know what's really important. But our friends at Gothamist have pointed out that the New York Post may have one-upped the Herald... more ›

The Chiara Levin case has unleashed an outcry against the gun violence. People are fed up. Reverend Bruce Wall says he will post signs around the city warning tourists that they are not safe in Boston if the mayor doesn't act now and declare a state of emergency. Maybe that will get the mayor to stop talking about after-hours house parties and start talking about gangs and guns. The Herald quotes what Wall plans to... more ›

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend... more ›

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. more ›

Neighborhoods across the country get together this evening to celebrate their solidarity in participation of the National Night Out. A yearly cooperation between community police units, neighborhood watches, and members of the communities get together for block parties, candle light vigils, and many other activities. The Fenway Victory Gardens will be one of the community garden organizations getting together to participate in the National Night Out. They'll be illuminating the gardens with candles or flashlights to show their support for a safe and drug-free neighborhood. The muddy river as it runs through the Back Bay Fens is a known spot for some less than credible activities, and recently a community garden supporter and Bostonist reader snapped the picture of the needle in the garden you see here. It was sent to us with a plea to support their drive to make the Fenway Victory Gardens a safer place – the area around the parks has recently seen an increase in criminal activity as noted on the BPDNews blog with an accompanying graphic. more ›

Reading in the Herald yesterday about the second random dog attack in Brockton in a week, Bostonist came across this sentence: "Ellis [the dog owner], who state law holds liable for the attack provided Talis [the victim] was not trespassing or abusing Deuce [the dog], had not been cited as of yesterday." This made us wonder: What are the laws concerning dog bites here in the Commonwealth? more ›

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wielding and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. more ›

We’re almost positive that most days we can get from Harvard Station to Central Square faster than the Red Line can make it. We’re not even going to talk about where and how often you can beat the Green Line at its own game, inbound or outbound. We’ve proven on more than one occasion that we can travel faster than the 39 Bus between James’ Gate and Sweet Finnish in JP (it usually overtakes us... more ›

When our friend from N.Y.C. visited a few weeks ago, she told us about a shocking problem that plagues Manhattan every spring season: a lack of Cadbury Creme Eggs. Now, we scoffed at our friend and told her she must be mistaken, especially since the Creme Egg is synonomous with Easter nowadays. But she insisted that she has her cousin in the Midwest ship them out to her so she too can celebrate with an Egg here and there. Bostonist forgot all about this Creme Egg problem until we read our snark of the day over at Gawker and saw that a reader wrote them looking for answers about the disappearing Cadbury Creme Eggs: more ›

Bostonist spent a long weekend with our friends at Seattlest in their fair city. It was our first trip out to the Pacific Northwest’s very own city of neighborhoods. We were looking for similarities with Boston when we were there. The obvious similarity hangs high above their downtown: we’ve got the Citgo Sign, they’ve got the Pepsi Sign. Unlike our Citgo, their Pepsi changes the neon every time the Pepsi logo changes, we were told it’s not always big neon. We took in the sights and hopped on the Monorail. Ok, we didn’t. And just when we thought the T was bad we learn that the two historic cement tracks tracing a short length from Seattle Center to the heart of Downtown haven’t been carrying the monorail since they met collided at the “pinch point.” Progress has since been hampered on the monorail expansion project. more ›