I figured I’d have to dig deep to find material for this occasional collection of good news stories since it’s been a desolate year. Conflict, pandemics, chaos, greed – that’s just Donald Trump’s transition team. But then I trained my mind to get closer to home, and I immediately cheered up. There are many reasons to love Greater Boston: intellectual vitality, natural and built beauty, respect for facts and history, and a tolerant spirit. Here are some local nuggets that may have escaped wider notice:
▪ Butterflies are free. Somerville has evolved this year Pollinator action plan To help restore habitat for these beneficial urban beauties. Working with landscape architects, designers and scientists, Somerville’s Department of Open Space and Urban Forestry created a pollinator garden outside City Hall; Green corridors have been designated for each ward; He made recommendations for simple things residents can do in their backyards. Pollinators (including moths and bees as well as butterflies) are in sharp decline, but even small interventions can help offset the effects of habitat loss and climate change. The business plan is educational, inspiring and free for anyone, so why not decide to rethink your garden in 2025?
▪ What is saved. In a city where “the great man on a horse” describes many of our memorials, Boston is multi-year old Project “Monument Removal”. Offers a new way of thinking. Through a $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture is commissioning artists to create temporary public works that shift the conversation about what a community chooses to commemorate. One of my personal favorites from 2024 was “” by Kate FarringtonFuture monument “To the Trees of the Public Garden,” a walking tour that invited visitors to write odes to the linden trees and redwoods that adorn the nation’s first public botanical garden. We save what we value, so why not memorialize the natural world?
▪ Our blue ribbon. Forty years ago, Boston Harbor was a stinking swamp of pollution surrounded by a sea of cheap parking. But when a $4 billion public investment in waterfront cleanup transformed the city’s backyard into a proud new front yard, a group of bold activists took on special interests who wanted to keep the masses out, taking advantage of centuries-old laws to ensure the public’s protection. access. Now Boston The Harborwalk extends for 43 miles From Dorchester to East Boston, it is only 3 miles from completion as a continuous, uninterrupted strip. The next 40 years will bring their own challenges: protecting these precious assets from storms and rising sea levels, and making them more welcoming and literally accessible. But now let’s celebrate how Boston has shaken off its “dirty water” reputation. (I still love the song, though!)
▪ A room for people, part one Building homes that ordinary families in Greater Boston can afford can seem like a fruitless task. But Somerville recently came up with a solution Eliminate minimum parking requirements For new residential development citywide. Parking, especially underground, can add tens of thousands of dollars to construction costs for each new housing unit. In a place like Somerville, where 70 percent of the land is within a half-mile of public transportation, it’s easy to see that not every homeowner needs or wants a car.
▪ A room for people, part two Last week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against Boston Mayor Michelle Wu by a group of aggrieved North End restaurateurs who claimed fees imposed by the city to allow outdoor dining in this crowded neighborhood violated their constitutional rights. Think what you will about the political clout of a North End restaurant, or the cannoli at Modern Pastry, but Judge Leo Sorokin’s ruling that the complaining restaurateurs don’t have “The fundamental right to use public streets for private gain.” It is a vocal defense of the entire public domain against commercial encroachment.
▪ Local hero. On Christmas Day, “Totally Anonymous,” about Bob Dylan’s seismic conversion to electric rock, opened in theaters at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, with Timothée Chalamet playing the itinerant poet. The trailer looks great, but Boston also has bragging rights because the movie is based on Book 2015 “Dylan is going electric!” By Elijah Wald, a popular historian of popular fame around these parts (including decades of writing a world music column for the Boston Globe). The book, and now the film, commemorate a defining moment in American culture and remind us that times are constantly changing. Congratulations, Elijah!
▪ The great world revolves. We have already lived through the longest and darkest night of the year (and I don’t mean November 5th). Like good pagans everywhere, I celebrate the return of the light. As of today, we have already gained 1 minute and 22 seconds from the minimum daylight of 9 hours and 4 minutes on December 21. And things will get brighter; You just have to believe.
Renee Loth’s column appears regularly in the Globe.
