Boston Archives

PUBLIC RECORDS CRISIS DEEPENS

The case pertains to an investigation into the use of rodenticides by government agencies You have five days to agree to give us $22,000, or else … While this may sound like an extortion note from a B movie, it’s essentially a newly state sanctioned proper response to a public

MAYA SHAFFER May 2, 2022

A NEW AMERICAN PROJECT

In the nationwide bipartisan blitz to privatize public housing, Boston’s giving billions worth of benefits to some of America’s largest developers, financiers, and property management firms. Politicians are applauding, but for many residents caught in the transition, their housing future is unclear BY CHRIS FARAONE with research and reporting by

CHRIS FARAONE February 1, 2022

SPECIAL SEQUEL: DESACRALIZED

As another historic Black Boston institution is gentrified, a congregation displaced by condos reflects on this trend and what it means BY CLAIRE SADAR AND ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA [Read the first installment of this series] City churches were designed to be walkable and serve their immediate neighborhoods, but as historically working-class

CLAIRE SADAR AND ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA January 6, 2022

BATTLE: SGARS

Poisons used by Mass municipalities are killing more than just the rats they’re targeting. In practice, their controversial tactics may actually protect the rodent population. It was a sunny Friday morning in late July of this year when Jodi Sylvester, a wildlife photographer from central Massachusetts, drove into the Boston area to check

LAURA KIESEL December 16, 2021

MORE TICKETS, MORE TOWS, MORE FEES

Boston aims to beef up parking enforcement. We took a deep dive into the request for proposal to forecast their highly profitable plans. Boston officials are looking to upgrade the city’s massive parking enforcement management system, which brings in $60 million a year through more than a million parking tickets

DAN ATKINSON November 23, 2021

CHAIN REACTION

Coffee shop workers organize, inspire others Labor organizing in the Boston area has gotten a hip makeover. Two local coffee shop chains, Pavement & Darwin’s Ltd., have had their employees vote to form unions. These baristas have been the unlikely stars of the progressive left in Boston this past summer:

CHRIS HUES November 17, 2021

NATIVE AMERICANS, QUINCY EXTEND “OLIVE BRANCH” TO BOSTON

Photo by Doc Searls Mayor Wu’s promise of halting the construction of the Long Island Bridge generates cautious optimism Following a tumultuous and historic election, Boston’s new Mayor Michelle Wu will start off her term facing innumerable challenges as well as opportunities. With political fervor receding, anticipation is growing over

DYLAN J. HEARN November 17, 2021

FEATURE FOLLOWUP: REVISITING RECYCLING

It took decades for workers doing this dangerous job to get a living wage. But are their problems finally sorted out? For the first time ever, Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville are boosting the pay for the workers who sort their recyclables after resolving a decades-long stalemate with a regional company.

COLE ROSENGREN November 10, 2021

THE FLOOD: MASS HAS A RUNOFF PROBLEM. WHAT’S BEING DONE?

Thanks to stormwater pollution, Dirty Water’s more than just a theme song. It’s a way of life.

EMILEE KLEIN July 25, 2021

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: INSCRUTABLE SCHOOLS

How bureaucratic dysfunction prevents a reckoning with physical student restraint in Boston Public Schools

DANIEL DEFRAIA July 5, 2021