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Cambridge RMV branch to close
Posted on July 3, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under Business, Economy | 2 Comments
The Registry of Motor Vehicles announced it will close the Cambridgeside Galleria (Express) branch as part of a way to “restructure and modernize” the agency. “The shift from leasing high-cost private office space to rent-free government buildings will save the RMV an estimated $1.7 million dollars a year and will help to minimize the impact on staffing,” according to a press release.
Maya Rudolph has dinner in Harvard Square
Posted on July 3, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under Hungry, harvard square | Leave a Comment
We hear, through a tweet, that Saturday Night Live alum Maya Rudolph (who can be seen in the below video clip playing Nuni), her husband Paul Thomas Anderson and daughter Pearl had dinner last night at Upstairs on the Square.
Audio SpeakOut: Chronicle gets schooled in grammar
Posted on July 2, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under Newspapering | 1 Comment
Before you head into the weekend, we’re leaving you with an audio SpeakOut:
Apologies about the grammar mistake, but we’re glad people still read us this closely.
Who took out papers for City Council, School Committee?
Posted on July 2, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
As of 2 p.m. today, the following people took out nomination papers for City Council and School Committee:
Edward J. Sullivan, 40 Ellery St.
E. Denise Simmons, 188 Harvard St.
Charles J. Marquardt, 10 Rogers St., No. 1120
David P. Maher, 120 Appleton St.
Philip R. Fenstermacher, 11 Garden St.
Neal Leavitt, 86 Highland Ave., Apt. 39
Minka van Benzelman, 20 Essex St.
Larry Ward, 372 Broadway (shown above, courtesy campaign manager Jonathan Janik)
Silvia P. Glick, 188 Auburn St.
Timothy J. Toomey Jr., 88 Sixth St.
Sylvia Barnes, 196 Harvey St.
Kenneth Reeves, 340 Harvard St.
James M. Williamson, 1000 Jackson Place, Apt. 45
Mark F. Flanagan, 21 Brookline St., Apt. 209
Benjamin Leland Cheung, 101 Hampshire St., No. 1
Sam Seidel, 48 Maple Ave.
Tom Stohlman, 19 Channing St.
Marjorie Decker, 201 Walden St.
Henrietta Davis, 120 Chestnut St.
Alfred B. Fantini, 4 Canal Park, Unit 203
Alan Steinert Jr., 993 Memorial Drive, No. 203
M. Kevin Moore, 242 Western Ave.
The rain is making people shed their clothes in Harvard Square
Posted on July 2, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under General | 1 Comment
As I made my way up the escalator of the Harvard Square T station yesterday afternoon, I encountered a man who had shed his clothing, except for his green shorts. The man was dancing around and whipping a towel. I didn’t want to get too close to the guy, fearing I would be whipped by the towel. So I bring you a faraway photo of a semi-naked guy whipping a towel in the middle of the square.
Casablanca restaurant muralist/’White Rabbit’ cartoonist dies
Posted on July 2, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under Artsy | Leave a Comment
From the Somerville Journal’s Audi Guha:
Former Cambridge resident and Somerville Journal cartoonist David Omar White died Friday.
Omar, who once taught cartooning at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, was a colorful character and well-known artist. Longtime Highland Avenue resident, you probably saw him cruising down the street in his electric wheelchair, rain or snow.
He was gracious enough to draw cartoons for the Journal for about a year after we stopped being able to afford one. He wasn’t happy about not being paid but he felt too strongly about having cartoons in a newspaper that he offered anyway. If you are not familiar with his cartoons, perhaps you’ve seen his mural in Harvard Square’s Casablanca Restaurant!
During the American Depression he traveled in box cars, sometimes sleeping in jail cells. He was injured in World War II and confined to a wheelchair but never stopped sketching.
He won many awards and artistic grants, and has taught and lectured extensively. He was most famous for creating the political cartoon strip White Rabbit that ran in several alternative Boston newspapers.
We, at the Journal, miss him zooming in here and will always remember him fondly.
Cambridge’s CombinatoRx merges with Canadian co.
Posted on July 2, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under Business | Leave a Comment
Cambridge-based CombinatoRx announced it would merge with Canadian company Neuromed, the Herald reports.
Who wants to run for City Council (highlights edition)
Posted on July 1, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under City politics, General, Politics | 4 Comments
Wait… what’s the smell? Oh, yeah, it’s local politics beginning to heat up. So, because we like politics and people in general, we thought it would be fun to see who pulled nomination papers for City Council and School Committee. So we sent intern David Sabia down to the Election Commission office to see who’s contemplating a run this season. David created highlights of each candidate with a little quote so you can get a feeling for who’s running and why without reading a really long story.
- Incumbents who pulled papers included this morning: Mayor Denise Simmons and David Maher.
- Candidates who ran last election: Edward Sullivan.
- Newbies who pulled papers included:
Charles Marquardt
· Registered Republican
· Preparing for year as an adjunct accounting and financial literacy professor at BU.
· Wants to focus on “financial issues that could potentially jeopardize the city’s ability to keep promises to taxpayers and employees.”
· “There are serious issues [in Cambridge] that warrant consideration, but aren’t getting serious discussion.”
Neal Leavitt, 35
· An ethics professor at BU
· Campaigned for Obama in November: “I enjoy being in politics. That experience [campaigning for Obama] brought me the extra step to decide to run for City Council.”
· Sees the budget as “the biggest concern.”
· “In this prolonged downturn, it’s going to be important to keep services and personnel.”
· A “doorchecker” at Harvard University (“doorchecker” refers to person working security at library, looking in bags, protecting the library’s collection, etc…)
· Calls his political affiliation “eclectic left”
· Sees himself as voice for low-wage workers that are potential targets for outsourcing.
· Believes there has been “increasing insularity” by the city government.
· When he began involvement in local politics, was “content to participate from gallery.” Now, he says, “council increasingly restrictive in rules and have caused participation to dwindle.”
· Wants to “open up and extend the process.” Hopes to re-introduce public activism in local politics and increased government transparency.
Minka van Beuzekom, 48
· Epidemologist
· Done much volunteer work with groups such as Area Four Neighborhood Coalition (Co-leader), Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET), and Cambridge Community Garden (coordinator)
· Focus on environmental and neighborhood issues such as noise/litter reduction, green building standards, and rodent control.
· “I want to make sure City Council is fully representing the people of Cambridge. Right now they’ve done well, but it could be better.”
· Also focused on sustainability, which she sees as “positioned to be legacy of city.”
· Believes quality of life in Cambridge is “good, but could be better.”
Abe Lincoln wears a helmet, takes the Red Line
Posted on July 1, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under City life, The T | Leave a Comment
It’s not everyday you run into a guy who looks like Abe Lincoln, wearing a helmet with a skull on it and clipping his nails with the help of a manicure kit. I did on the Red Line.
What’s a reporter with no wallet, the worst luck, and a dead car to do?
Posted on July 1, 2009 by Jillian Fennimore
Filed Under Business, Just ranting... | Leave a Comment
Big thanks to the nice man at APA Automotive Transmissions on Pleasant Street for walking in the rain, lugging his jump-starter kit to revive my hunk o’ junk car that died along Western Avenue this morning. Guess that’s what I get for driving a gas-guzzling SUV through the streets of Cambridge.
I owe ya one, buddy.
This week’s Chronicle
Posted on July 1, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
Cambridge resident might moon walk soon (literally)
Posted on July 1, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
The Huntsville (Ala.) Times reports Kathleen Rubins was recently named an astronaut.
Rubins, 30, attended Space Camp in 1990. She will soon leave her job as a principal investigator and fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology to begin her astronaut training.
Rubins said she was 12 when she attended Space Camp. While her friends were reading Tiger Beat magazine, she was reading Sky and Telescope.
“I’ve always been interested in science and exploring our world, from microbes to the solar system,” Rubins said.
Who’s considering a City Council run?
Posted on July 1, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under City politics, Politics | Leave a Comment
Today’s the day that people can take out papers to run for City Council and School Committee. So far, our intern, David Sabia, has spotted two: Charles Marquardt and David Maher (shown in photo at left).
Getting touristy in Harvard Square
Posted on June 30, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under City life | Leave a Comment
You know you’re in Harvard Square when future people start posing with tourist folk:
Why you won’t be able to help catch this robber
Posted on June 30, 2009 by David Harris
Filed Under Cops/crime, General | Leave a Comment
The long tradition of police reporting dictates that we provide you with accurate accounts from police reports and the police log from the Cambridge Police Department. Said reporting includes something that we all take for granted: a description of suspects.
Which brings me to the recent unarmed robbery at the Holiday Inn Express. We’ve got basic details about what happened, but Cambridge Police won’t release any information about the description of the robber — even though this crime is a relatively minor one. Now, this has happened before in cases of shootings and murder, where police haven’t released details for reasons of public safety, but even those details come out soon after — because people like more information, especially when violence has experienced an uptick around town. And those details can actually help police solve crimes.
So today we tried to get information about the robber from Cambridge PD, but experienced a roadblock. CPD spokesman Frank Pasquarello blamed the department’s legal adviser, Kelly Downes. Downes explained it this way in an e-mail, blaming the lack of details on both witness safety and difficulty in catching suspects after the description has been put in the paper or on our Web site:
We frequently withhold witness statements, including descriptions of suspects at large, because of concerns about witness safety. There are occasions when suspects might being able to identify who has provided law enforcement with information about them from the description in the narrative. Witness intimidation is a significant concern in general. Also, if suspects become aware that they have been specifically and well-identified (through reading the Chronicle or other news) they could make themselves harder for police to track down and apprehend.
I asked Downes what triggered this blackout of information in this specific case. “Not trying to be mysterious,” she replied, “but I don’t feel comfortable answering that question.”
Note to Cambridge PD: sometimes being mysterious isn’t such a good thing.
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