I remember reading Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery when I was ten or twelve years old. It’s a great story that cleverly foreshadows danger, building to the unexpected climax and conclusion: the “winner” of the lottery is stoned to death in a small town ritual to ensure a good harvest.
In Boston, we have our own annual ritual [...]
From the category archives:
Urbanism
We bought a house in Rozzie, and we finally move this Friday. It was not an easy choice to leave the town of Westwood where I’ve been active in several town boards, developed many friendships, and started our oldest daughter in the school system. (And authored the Westwood Blog for the past 3 years.) It [...]
I’m not sure what starting me thinking about New York City again, but yesterday, somewhat impulsively–but with a little planning–I decided to visit. By myself. Cheaply. Without a concrete plan, I did a lot and spent just a little over $100.
I’ve been to NYC about half a dozen times. As a freshman at MIT, I [...]
Yesterday, Patch (the hyper local news publisher funded by America Online) launched a Westwood, Massachusetts site–the 11th town so far in Massachusetts. I met the editor and am impressed that they are making an effort to cover the news in this town of 15,000–potentially filling the void left when the Daily News Transcript stopped being [...]
Here is a short video of some serious critical cycling mass in Copenhagen, Denmark…
I’m wrapping up a final list of bike racks for our town to obtain through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Regional Bike Parking Program. Today is the deadline to order bike racks which are then reimbursed by this program. Our town [...]
Every horrific death of a cyclist leads to rounds of recriminations and a brief “coming together” of the cyclist community to draw attention to how, in the battle between car and bike, bike (and biker) always loses. In Toronto this summer, a prominent politician (former Attorny General of Ontario, Michael Bryant) engaged in an altercation [...]
Over the years I’ve lived here, I’ve developed more and more respect for our Mayor, Tom Menino. Now it turns out he’s discovered cycling and goes for an early morning ride in the Hyde Park neighborhood every day. That can only be good news for those of us who brave the potholes and insane drivers [...]
I’ve been listening to the bikescape podcast for a couple of years, and I finally managed to listen to last months podcast on Portland, OR. It really made me want to visit. Then, I watched the video on the bikescape website and it made me want to move there!
I’ve known Portland is a great place [...]
Boston is currently conducting a “bike summit” to brainstorm ideas for making the city more bike friendly. I attended a public session today at city hall about bikes and economic development. I wish I could report that the session itself was worthwhile, but I think we only scratched the surface of what is possible. However, [...]
Following the Boston Bike Summit last October, the city has created a program, Boston Bikes, and is working to improve cycling in the city. I’ve been receiving emails from Nicole Freedman, Director of the City’s Bike Programs that are encouraging:
This year, the city will recognize all businesses that complete some bike friendly requirements with Boston [...]