Massachusetts

November 27, 2018November 20, 2018

Mooching Round South End Boston

My son has an apartment with a beautiful view from the 15th floor in a building that is in the neighborhood called “Ink Blot” that is part of the South End of Boston. It is a great place to stay because it is easy to catch the T and visit other parts of Boston and it a great neighborhood to mooch around.

This morning I took my time getting up and then I walked through the rain to Blackbird donut shop. These donuts are delicious. The chocolate cake donut was like a super good slice of chocolate cake. Alas, like many places in Boston, there is no where to sit. This is a city with sucky weather–rain, snow, cold wind, muggy hot–and yet many restaurants serve you food and offer no real space to consume it.

I needed to find a post office, so I set off toward the closest one and stopped at a Cafe Nero on my way and ate my donut with a cup of good, hot coffee. (They have decaf coffee on tap! Bonus points.) Then I began walking back toward SoWa art studios. My path took me past some public housing projects and the Holy Family Cathedral undergoing restoration. This is appears to be paid by the City of Boston!? Interesting. My church St. John’s Lutheran is having to pay more than $600,000 for a historically accurate roof and the City of Sacramento is giving us the opportunity to apply for a grant up to $25,000. Not saying one is right or wrong, just different.

I was ready for something hot to drink and a walking break from the cold rain. I remembered that the nonprofit More Than Words should have completed their remodel and reopened. Voila! The gorgeous retail space is open. It feels good to shop when you know that young people are also given the opportunity to learn life/work skills. Alas there is a reading room but no coffee. I made a contribution (haha) and then pressed on to Cuppa Coffee on Traveler Street. I was just about back to my son’s apartment building.

What a lovely morning, in spite of the wet cold weather.

November 22, 2018December 10, 2018

Fall Into Harvard Square

Oh how lovely to be out of the smoke choking the Sacramento Valley. Oh to be enjoying some rain.

I am visiting my son in Boston and it has been over 15 years since I’ve visited Cambridge, so while he worked at his office, Mid morning I rode the Red Line to Harvard Square. It was such a pleasure to walk 5 minutes from his South Boston apartment to the T-station. Then it was a 7 stops and about 30 minutes and a fraction of the cost of a Lyft ride.

I did a quick walk to stretch my legs to the old cemetery and Cambridge Commons. The brisk autumn air and orange and red leaves clinging to the tree branches were enjoyable in the light rain. As I walked back towards the Harvard yard a family of 5 asked where they might find something to eat. From the Commons they couldn’t see all of the restaurants or the Square a short walk away. I pointed them in the right direction and then we laughed when we realized we are all visiting from California.

I walked through the Harvard Yard and looked at the heart of the campus. It was chock full of tour groups. I was busy remembering my visit with my daughter Sarah when she was in middle school, and then the Gilmore Girls episode where they are visiting Harvard University (although I’m pretty sure it was filmed at Pomona College). I didn’t have much information so I mostly just gawked. I would have benefited from a more organized tour. I don’t want to take the spot of a potential student with one of the free campus tours offered by the University; however, there is also a self-guided tour you can utilize to learn more about the campus.

I made a beeline to Harvard Book Store, a robust independent bookstore. I also checked out the student center on Harvard Square while looking for a fountain soda. Students at Harvard only have healthy options. I ended up getting a slice of pizza at OTTO and then finding a fountain soda and a place to sit and rest for a minute.

One of my highlights, as a devoted gramma, was the Curious George children’s toy store. Upstairs they still have the sign for “Dewey, Cheatem and Howe” law firm made famous by NPR’s Car Talk guys.

It is only a few days before Thanksgiving so I wasn’t sure how many students to expect. Cambridge was buzzing with all sorts of people–groups of tourists, prospective students, grad students, groups of academics, and more. I weaved my way back across the yard to get a closer look at the Memorial Hall. The lobby was open but the theater and the freshman dining hall were closed. This is an awe-inspiring cathedral to higher learning with high timber ceilings and stained glass windows. The dining hall looked like the Hogwarts dining hall and I later learned that the filmmakers did use it as a model.

I started to make my way back to the train station. The train was much more crowded on the way to the Back Bay. I had to switch to the Green Line and was confused as to what stop I needed. When you are underground and there are no bars, you cannot ask Google. So I did it the old fashioned way: I asked for help from a kind young woman. She showed me how I could choose any of three lines to get to Hynes Center stop. I followed her ACROSS THE TRACKS. It felt so awkward but it was safe.

Boston is a charming city and a manageable size. I look forward to more adventures tomorrow.

June 29, 2018

More Than Words Inspires

I am visiting my son in Boston and he just moved to South End (between downtown and South Boston). It is a place in transition with new buildings going up on almost every block. Around the corner from him in the redbrick Medieval Manor a local nonprofit, More Than Words, is opening a new used bookstore. It is more than words/books as it provides job training and life skills to at risk youth in the neighborhood. Based on the Google listing I walked there expecting to go book shopping.

Unfortunately the old bookstore is closed so they can remodel and reopen later this summer with far more space, a coffee shop, and meeting space. Fortunately they were hosting an open house today so I was able to take a tour of their warehouse facility and learn more about their youth program.

It all begins with book donations from people in the greater Boston community. This is a community of readers and it looked like the quality of donations was a notch above what the Sacramento Library receives. Program participants are paid to sort the books, check the ISBN numbers for marketability, catalog the books into their tracking system, shelve the books, retrieve them as on-line orders come in, and ship them out.

They also have kiosks like the one at the local coffeeshop where people can select a book and pay a flat $4 via Venmo and start reading.

The new bookstore location (opening this summer) will give even more job training opportunities. Program participants are held accountable for showing up on time to work, not missing days of work, setting goals and achieving them, school attendance and more. They make a base salary of $108 a month and if they perform well they have opportunities to work more hours and earn more. There is also a clear path to earning more responsibility.

It is hugely inspiring. My son forwarded me a crowdfunding appeal later the same day and I was happy to make a contribution. I am happy to report that they exceeded both their goal of $50,000 and their stretch goal of $75,000.

Also in the neighborhood: Grab breakfast or lunch at Cuppa Coffee, the Aussie coffee shop around the corner on Traveler Street. Be sure to get the egg and cheese pie, or lamb pie, or other meat pies specially made to their recipes. There is also a Blue Bikes bikeshare kiosk on the same corner.