Screen capture via Wayback Machine.
BPD News, up since at least 2006 with a URL that was splashed on every Boston police cruiser, is no more. The city today switched on police.boston.gov, which is all mobile-friendly and stuff and which de-emphasizes arrest reports, BOLOs and crime stats in favor of a more 21st-century feeling series of pages about the department itself. Don't worry, the old BPDnews news is still there, but you'll have to click to get to it.
The mayor's office is now accepting applications from people who want to fill the remainder of Lorena Lopera's term on the Boston School Committee, which runs through the end of the year.
Lopera recently resigned her seat on the committee, the only school committee in the state that is appointed, rather than elected.
View of downtown Boston today from Wright's Tower in the Middlesex Fells in Medford. Photo by Tastesred.
State air monitors in Roxbury, Dorchester, Chinatown and Chelsea are currently showing levels of pollutants in the area that are "unhealthy for sensitive groups:" carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and "fine particles" in Roxbury; carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and fine particles in Dorchester; fine particles in Chinatown and Chelsea.
If you're five to seven miles outside of downtown Boston, the city appears to be lost in haze.
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this image. See it larger.
The Boston Water and Sewer Commission says it plans to start levying a new "stormwater charge" next year to expand and improve the city's current 600-mile, 30,000-catchbasin storm-runoff network, both to reduce the amount of contaminants that flow into our rivers and Boston Harbor and to handle greater surges from increasingly heavy rainfall spurred by climate change. Read more.
Heavy rain and flooding, though, are more likely, the NWS says. There's a flood watch posted for 2 a.m. through late night Sunday.
The city hasn't forgotten to pick up leaves and other yard waste of late, it's shifted collection from alternate trash days to every Saturday in July and August, due to traffic issues caused by the two-month shutdown of the Sumner Tunnel for repairs.
The city, which composts much of the yard waste at a city yard on American Legion Highway, says the regular schedule will return in September.
Scott wonders:
Are there still any travel agents left in Boston who plan and book vacation trips for individuals, tickets, hotels, itineraries, etc.?
Milk Street Cafe, on its eponymous street downtown, next week starts a kosher-food delivery service. KoshBurger will serve up kosher burgers (both original meat and Impossible burgers), fries, various chickeny things and dairy-free shakes, 5 to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, with delivery by your preferred delivery service to "the Boston area and surrounding towns."
Kippah tip Michael B.
Boston today announced plans to expand its EV charge network beyond municipal parking lots to include streetside chargers that would let even apartment dwellers consider replacing their gas-powered cars with electric models - to meet an ultimate city goal of having chargers within a ten-minute walk of every Boston resident. Read more.
At-large City Councilor Michael Flaherty of South Boston announced today this year will be his last on the council. Read more.
The Library of Congress has this map by Oliver Herford, possibly dating to 1919, in its collection.
Of course, it's not the only map showing the Hub of the Universe's proper position. Read more.
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger. Also note what appears to be a cop on a quadcycle: Read more.
The Bay State Banner lists the City Council races that could have contested races this fall, including the four at-large seats and Districts 3 (Dorchester), 5 (Hyde Park, Mattapan and Roslindale), 6 (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, part of Mission Hill) and 7 (Roxbury).
The East Boston Times-Free Press reports on the BPL's plans for the money left it by Howard Cooper, who died in 2022 in San Francisco but who grew up in Dorchester, went to BPS schools and was a regular visitor to the Copley Square central library as a teenager.
Three groups that charge the way the city of Boston hires companies for city business discriminates against minority-owned firms today sued the Department of Justice after, they say, it refused to investigate their complaint. Read more.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
