Editorial

  The fledgling farmer’s market on West Broadway is a very nice start, but let’s face reality: it is time to grow and change. Before the start of spring, South Bostonians should mobilize to support the second stage of a South Boston Farmer’s Market, in preparation for a new future. When we consider the number of viable future locations in South Boston, with all the projects proposed in real estate and development, the choice initially looks too complex to make a simple healthy move. But why should we move the market to prepare for a better future? The big reasons for advocating this new beginning for a larger farmer’s market in a different location are pretty clear. First: the current market is too small to [...]

By Richard Campbell One of the mysteries of the current day health care scene is the role of advertising in big pharma. By some estimates Americans spend over 300 billion dollars a year on prescription drugs. It’s big business. It was pointed out by Ana Swanson of the Washington Post, that the research firm Global Data did a study that showed in 2013, 9 out of 10 of the biggest pharmaceutical companies spent more on advertising than on research. If this is true, the level of corporate hucksterism has reached an all-time high in that industry. In the late nineties when restrictions were lifted on advertising prescription drugs, the flood gates were opened. We see the results today. One might ask what these often embarrassing, [...]

  Water is by far the most valuable resource needed to sustain life. You can live without natural gas, oil, even electricity; but you won’t last long without fresh water. From this perspective it is they pretty surprising how much we take drinking water for granted- as we do clean water in the Boston Harbor. While water departments in many other states and cities (ie Detroit, Michigan), have hit the news with scandals, even our biggest disasters seem small by comparison. Behind the scenes one of the very best dimes ever spent by Massachusetts residents is the tax dollars that go to support the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and The Massachusetts Clean Water Trust. Perhaps the most recent sewer accident early this month in Nantucket, [...]

By Richard Campbell One of the things we try to do at South Boston Online is search out free events for citizens of the town to attend. Boston is blessed with some of the best cultural organiza­tions in the world, though the price tag for attendance has gone up over the years. While the effort to make culture available freely to students is appreciated, it has not gone un­noticed that in the past decade op­tions for the budget challenged have shrunk considerably. For students of the Boston Public Schools, there are numerous free programs. So BPS students: why suffer from cabin fe­ver when you can visit one of these great organizations for free! The Museum of Fine Arts, which was founded as a museum for [...]

By Richard Campbell While members of the community give the South Boston Branch Library positive ratings on service, and in general the atmosphere of the library is welcoming, we hold the position that the library facilities of the South Boston Branch are in need of major improvement. It is very hard to ignore the fact that in South Boston, the branch library is the only truly open public meeting space, and its design is entirely inadequate to that task. The small footprint of the library, with its weak design and technology infrastructure make it a rudimentary building that was adequate in the early post World War II period that simply cannot be afforded the gradualist approach in order to meet 21st century library standards. The [...]

By Richard Campbell It has been well over a year (June 2016) since the developer Oranmore Enterprises dropped the deal with the Archdiocese of Boston to develop the Gate of Heaven School, presumably in favor of some group renting the space for educational or community purposes. In absence of deep pockets or imagination, local groups definitely need some help untangling an intractable situation. This is a building that should find a hybrid purpose in order to engage significant philanthropic support. For that to happen, nostalgic aspirations must be supplanted by a clear institutional mission. The Gate of Heaven School presents so many opportunities for a creative architect, if only the stakeholders can find a real mission for the property. Instead of it viewing it as [...]

  by Richard Campbell It is time for Boston’s innovators to get on board with high speed rail in New England. For years the con­cept of a truly new infrastructure to connect Boston to Washington has languished. Three hours and forty minutes to go from Boston to New York is not exactly high speed- that’s about 70 miles per hour. Outside of this embarrassing “high speed” figure, we have very little rail connecting us to western Massachusetts, and a major highway “problem”. Massachusetts state Senator Eric Lesser backed a bill study of an east-west expansion project, but it was vetoed by Char­lie Baker. I understand wanting to tighten our belts, but bucking against high speed rail is costing the city and the surrounding areas with [...]