News

by Rick Winterson      By now, you’ll have heard that a decision has been made concerning the Gate of Heaven School building, on East Fourth Street next to the Church.  It is to be completely demolished. The demolition will begin this coming spring, and will be completed later in this year of 2018.  Most of the “footprint” now occupied by the school building and the parking area around it will be turned into a larger, income-generating parking lot with nearly 100 spaces.  Certain decorative elements (the finials) from the school building will be preserved by emplacing them alongside the west wall of the Gate of Heaven Church.  With appropriate plantings and landscaping, this will form a sort of “memorial walkway”. This is the culmination [...]

by the Roving Reporter      Your Roving Reporter took a trip to see his grandchildren in England during the “first to the seventh Days of Christmas”.  The trip began with the traditional English Boxing Day dinner and celebration on December 26.  Boxing Day originated as a way to reward servants who worked serving their masters on Christmas Day itself.  These servants got December 26 off, which they spent with their own families.  They were each given a “box” for their families that contained money, warm clothes, or even gourmet food.  In the 1800s, English merchants would often do something similar for their business employees. The English weather, notably milder than here in Boston, was actually springlike.  A day’s walk was a pleasure, especially inside [...]

by Rick Winterson      The recent snowstorm was quite a storm – no doubt about that.  It combined three serious and forceful conditions at more or less exactly the same time. The intensity of the snowfall was remarkable – up to three inches of fall per hour on Thursday afternoon, which created essentially white-out conditions.  This continued into Friday morning before sunrise. In addition, temperatures took a dive, beginning (oddly enough) as the storm was ending and culminating on Sunday morning with a record of -5 degrees (F) below zero, even though the sun had just risen.  Because of the stiff north wind, wind-chill factors dove to -15 degrees (F) below zero – a treacherous level. Furthermore, the high tides, about an hour after [...]

by Rick Winterson   All of the neighborhoods in the more residential areas of South Boston have civic organizations that look out for key issues and the well-being of their residents, as well as fostering social, “good neighbor” activities in their areas.  There are seven of these civic organizations; they generally meet monthly. It is January of 2018.  South Boston Online plans on covering certain of these civic meetings early in the year, and then reporting on those issues that might have interest for all of South Boston during 2018.  The CPNA (City Point Neighborhood Association) met last night – Tuesday, January 09.  Two key issues, both dealing with zoning, were prime topics of discussion. The first issue involved the actual application to City Point [...]

By Mayor Martin J. Walsh   Too many of us are tied to the opioid crisis, whether we are struggling ourselves, or we see and experience the struggle right alongside our coworkers, friends, and family. This is an epidemic and no one -- no matter where you live, your education, your job, your income -- is immune. That’s why it’s so important that we rally together as a city to support each other and rebuild the Long Island Bridge.   Long Island once played a prominent role in Boston’s recovery landscape and it will once again. This year we will launch the process of rebuilding Long Island Bridge in order to create, on the Island, the comprehensive, long-term addiction recovery campus that our city and [...]

By Richard Campbell   After the overview of museums in Boston I decided to cross the river to Cambridge to give science geek nation a glimpse at the MIT Museum’s current exhibits, which span from engineering, big data, to robotics, early modern photography, the hologram room, and a short history of the Polaroid camera. For students engaged in serious cabin fever this is a pretty cheap way (10 bucks) to explore vast worlds of science.   First stop was the main exhibit on Gestural Engineering. What is that? I thought you’d never ask! They are more or less engineer projects that evoke emotions through movement. This quirky kind of kinetic sculptures by Arthur Ganson are Tim Burton like mechanical machines that appear to have minds [...]

   “FPTC” is the acronym for the “Fort Point Theatre Channel”, which has arrived at its Tenth Anniversary.  You are invited to join us in celebrating this landmark year by coming to FPTC’s Tenth Anniversary gala Thursday evening, January 11, from 5 to 8 p.m.  The party will be at 15 Channel Center in Fort Point (one block off A Street).  And you know what?  It’s blessedly free.    Everyone is most welcome.  See you there!   by Rick Winterson      Ten years ago, Mark Warhol and Marc Miller co-founded the Fort Point Theatre Channel, usually abbreviated to “FPTC”.  Mark Warhol is a well-regarded contemporary composer, who resides in Gloucester.  Marc Miller was a theater major at MIT and has worked on numerous freelance [...]