Boston Archives

EIGHT ISN’T ENOUGH

A Somerville Housing Needs Assessment report notes that the majority of units at risk of losing their affordability are located in Union Square (pictured), as increased gentrification due to the anticipated extension of the Green Line to the neighborhood has caused spikes in the cost of property | Photo by

LAURA KIESEL April 26, 2017

GEORGE IS READY

The first installment of Rolling Along as Long as It Lasts, a series of profiles and interviews from inside the Massachusetts Department of Correction. George McGrath has been inside Massachusetts prisons for a very long time, due to his being convicted as the getaway driver in a Jamaica Plain drugstore

ARNIE KING April 10, 2017

THE OUTSIDERS

Kicked out of home and misunderstood by social service providers, homeless LGBTQ youth often have nowhere to turn Author’s Note: The central character in this story, Liniște, asked that she be referred to by a pseudonym for safety reasons. I met Liniște in September and spent five months following her

MIKE DESOCIO March 8, 2017

HOW TO FIND A DECENT PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST GROUP

Photo by Chris Faraone February 6, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS So you went to one of the recent big anti-Trump actions, and you want to become a progressive activist. Not just vote every year or two. Great. But there are dozens of major left activist organizations and hundreds of

JASON PRAMAS February 6, 2017

POWER STRUGGLE

Regulators infuriate activists with announcement that power plant will stay open About 300 residents of Cape Cod and the South Shore packed into the ballroom of Hotel 1620 in Plymouth last Tuesday, hoping to finally get some answers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about the future of the beleaguered operation

MIRIAM WASSER February 6, 2017

A QUESTION OF STRATEGY: WILL WOMEN’S MARCH LEADERS HELP BUILD A DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT OR JUST PUT THE DEMS BACK IN POWER?

Photo by Scott Murry January 24, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The Boston Women’s March for America was a tremendous success by any metric. Likely the largest political demonstration in the city’s history, its estimated 175,000 attendees made it big enough to dwarf even many national demonstrations of the last

JASON PRAMAS January 24, 2017

SNUBWAY

This may help explain why you’ve had so much trouble renting and returning public bikes in Boston By most measures, the Hubway bike-share program has had a very successful fifth year. It celebrated its 5 millionth ride and expanded deep into East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, and Roxbury. But Hubway’s growth has

NOAH SCHAFFER December 12, 2016

50 YEARS OF YEAST AND LOVE

An oral history of Haley House AS TOLD TO THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM If hungry people had to count on seasonal compassion, the poor would likely starve but for the holidays. The government only assists so much; in Boston, for example, it’s been two years since the closing of

CHRIS FARAONE November 22, 2016

PIN THE SALE ON THE DONKEY

How BINJ kicked off the cold months with a reader engagement carnival Three months ago, the team at the BINJ decided to throw our most ambitious event yet. In the past we’ve had fundraisers at watering holes, hosted community panels on various topics, and set up pop-up newsroomsacross Boston and Cambridge — and for our second

BINJ ONLINE November 14, 2016

FIGHT WHERE YOU STAND: ORGANIZING FOR DEMOCRACY ON THE JOB CAN SPARK A MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY NATIONWIDE

IWW Demonstration. New York (1914) October 13, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS In a month featuring a couple of significant labor actions in the Boston area—the Harvard University dining hall workers strike for better pay and benefits, and the Boston Carmen’s Union’s recent civil disobedience action against privatization at the

JASON PRAMAS October 13, 2016