Category Archives: Boston

Marijuana was made legal after the question was put to voters at the ballot box in 2016. Statewide 53.7% of the vote was in favor of legalization with 46.3% voting against “Question 4” as it came to be known. In the city of Boston even more of the electorate (67%) voted in favor of legalizing marijuana.

The current Mayor of Boston and Governor of Massachusetts did everything they could to slowdown and complicate the process for paving the way for businesses to open. However, on Monday, Boston will FINALLY have its first recreational marijuana shop.

Pure Oasis pot shop is located at 430 Blue Hill Avenue between Jones Hill and Eglston Square. Their daily hours of operation are between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Pure Oasis happens to also be the first applicant under the economic empowerment equity programs created by the commissio, which gives priority to applicants from areas disenfranchised by the war on drugs.

You can read more about Boston’s first marijuana dispensary for recreational use, here.

RentHop has shared their annual Boston T Rent Map, which focuses on MBTA subway stations. They have created an interactive version of this map that lets you select individual T stops to show median rents for 1 bedrooms nearby.

Obviously, the downtown neighborhoods are most expensive with most stops in downtown featuring rents in the $3,000 range for a one-bedroom unit, but as you move out of the city center rents drop. Below are some examples noted for each line as uncovered by RentHop.

• $1,247  btwn Aquarium ($3,397) and Maverick ($2,150) – Blue Line
• $1,100  btwn Back Bay ($3,600) and Mass Ave ($2,500) – Orange Line
• $900 btwn Broadway ($3,300) and Andrew ($2,400) – Orange Line
• $649  btwn Kendall/MIT ($3,149) and Central ($2,500) – Red Line
• $600  btwn Copley ($3,100) and Hynes ($2,500) – Green Line

The winter is more fun if you take advantage of the colder weather to engage in seasonal activities like ice skating (it doesn’t matter if you’re crap at it). Channel your inner Adam Rippon and make plans to go out and have some fun.

Below are five ice skating rinks that you can enjoy as well as some suggestions on where you can go after to warm up. 

Frog Pond Skating Rink at the Boston Common
$6 Admission || $12 rental fee
Warm up after by ordering a Hot Toddy at Yvonne’s

The Rink at 401 Park in The Fenway 
$10 Admission || $6 rental fee
Warm up after at the bar at TimeOut Boston

Snowport Winter Village in Seaport
$5 Admission || $5 rental fee
Warm up after with a decadent hot chocolate at Flour

Community Ice Skating in Kendall Square
$5 Admission || $8 rental fee
Warm up after with a double espresso at barismo

DCR Kelly Outdoor Rink in JP
Free Admission || $3 rental fee
Warm up after with a decadent hot chocolate at JP Licks

In what has become an unintentional tradition, each October I post this poem on my blog. It is one of my favorite poems and happens to be by the famous 20th century American poet, Robert Frost.

Nothing gold can stay was inspired by the fall foliage in New England and was written nearly 100 years ago, back in 1923.

Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Did you see the Boston Globe article, Southie’s line in the sand is at M Street Beach? I regularly go to M Street Beach and the ‘crackdown’ is an accurate description but pointless since its has had (and will continue to have) no impact.

The article says the increased presence of State troopers has come at the request of some Southie residents “who have raised concerns about the number of young people at the beach and the amount of alcohol they consume.” IMHO, this is just code for long time and mostly older residents upset with the changes they see taking place in their neighborhood. This former blue collar bastion of Irish-American families is increasingly a magnet for affluent 20 and 30 somethings. The nostalgic residents conveniently forget that the “good ol’ days” weren’t so great. The beaches in Southie overlooked the dirtiest harbor in the country and the beaches were filled with litter, including used needles and cigarette butts.

Watching the police patrolling M Street, it is hard to tell who is more unhappy; the people on the beach or the police who look uncomfortable wearing their polyester uniforms in the blazing sun. It is worth noting that in the years I’ve gone to M Street beach, I’ve not seen fights or disturbances attributed to drinking so the alarm raised by residents seems more peevish than reality.

So here’s my sincere ask to Mayor Marty Walsh and Governor Charlie Baker, can we please use these public funds more effectively? In lieu of paying for police to patrol our public beaches, acting like resident assistants in a dormitory, can we use those funds more effectively? I’m sure the MBTA could use the money.