Happenings

Cameraman catches the action at ASCD by Richard Campbell The ASCD held their annual conference called “Empower 18” at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center this past week, hosting thousands of educators from around the nation. Celebrating its seventy-fifth year, the organization has a multi-tiered mission to aid in the professional development of educators, promote curriculum development, healthy school environments, and advocate for educational equity. The sheer quantity and quality of the presenters, and the vast number of educational vendors, dominated the convention center for three days. Herein I hope to give you a snapshot to reveal the importance of this organization to the world of K-12 education. From the cogent opening remarks of Dr. Tommy Chang, Superintendent of the Boston Schools, to [...]

South Boston Online at the Parade! Photography by Richard Campbell Mayor Walsh with Congressman Lynch   Runners Relax ! Police Bagpipes   Police Lead Off. Pipes Marine Band City Councilor Ed Flynn and his wife Kristen. Guys having Fun. Marching On! Queens Bagpiper Queens University Playing Ayanna Pressley   Henning has the look! More Bagpipes! Air Force Kings of Horses Firefighters Music Man   Falun Daffa Steel Workers Union Tin Men Selfie with Fire Person Irish Lass

Above: Woods School of Irish Dance students are ready for the parade! By Rick Winterson You don’t need to be told that South Boston, Boston, and much of Eastern Massachusetts have been plagued with triple Northeasters that included heavy snows and gusts of hurricane-force winds. However, South Boston Online wants to assure you that the St. Patrick’s/ Evacuation Day Parade will step off from the staging area near Broadway Station at 1 p.m. this coming Sunday, March 18 – come rain or come shine. In other words – the Parade is ON, as planned! The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council (the SBAWVC) is the group that has been responsible for the Parade for the last 70 years. Every year under the SBAWVC’s stewardship, the [...]

 by Richard Campbell South Boston Online took a morning stroll to see the effects of the second North-Easter that fell wet and heavy and started melting almost as soon as the storm was over.  Nothing shows off the neighborhood homes and institutions like a clean blanket of snow. The streets were quiet, except for some school kids playing in the snow and a few ambitious South Bostonians shoveling.  We’re thinking it’s a good omen to get the snow over with before the parade happens! Oh, please, not more!     Backyard Garden View from Carson Beach The Heights Snow Crew at St. Monica's

Former Dorchester lawmaker introduced Collins at campaign kickoff. Former State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry has endorsed her longtime colleague and friend, state Rep. Nick Collins, to be her successor as Senator for the First Suffolk District. “Nick is someone that knows the beauty of our city,” Sen. Forry, who introduced Rep. Collins at his campaign kickoff last week at Florian Hall, said. “He knows that it is about connecting us. He understands the issues that connect us that whether you’re from Mattapan or South Boston … we stand together.” “We have worked together on so many issues and he will make a great senator,” she added. A Boston College graduate, Sen. Forry was born and raised in Dorchester. She served for eight years as the [...]

by Rick Winterson First, a brief backstory: “CPA” stands for “Community Preservation Act”, an act that the Massachusetts state legislature passed in 2000, seventeen years ago. Brief ly stated, this involved levying a 2% surcharge on existing property taxes, which would then be earmarked for funding preservation projects. “Community Preservation” was loosely defined; it included three general types of project – 1.- Historic, 2.- Parks & Open Space, and 3.- Affordable Housing. In the following year, 2001, the CPA’s 2% levy failed to pass in Boston. Fifteen years later in 2016, with the CPA surcharge being cut in half to 1%, the preservation levy passed, garnering an impressive 74% of the vote. As of now, Boston’s surcharge generated $20 million ($20,000,000) in preservation funds for [...]

By Richard Campbell This past Tuesday evening a packed meeting at District Hall in the Seaport featured a forum sponsored by Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center and Venture Café on the housing crisis in Boston. It was a rather spirited presentation by development representatives, housing planners, architects, and city officials from the mayor’s innovation lab. The forum explored Boston’s current housing crunch in considerable detail, to provide some possible solutions to the exploding housing shortage impacting community neighborhoods. This is a subject near and dear to Mayor Walsh’s policies for the future of Boston, as he has repeatedly made plans for ramping up more affordable housing in the city. Presenters touched on the the real estate building boom in the Seaport, the effects of student [...]