It is an odd time for the city of Springfield. There is yet another mayoral election of debatable competitiveness at a time when so much is amiss with our city. The Council race, already troublingly low-key, has been polluted by disqualifying behavior. At the same
…Everybody else is getting one, so why not? But seriously…The Springfield City Council thus far is the only organ of city government containing the conflagration spreading throughout city government without getting singed. The fires have raged at Pearl Street as l’affaire de Bigda and the
Some time ago the Massachusetts Department of Transportation—or simply MassDOT—announced plans to replace an aging viaduct east of the former Allston Turnpike tolls in Boston. The agency will bring the Pike to ground and elevate the adjoining Soldier Fields Road. That decision was widely praised.
With his passing, George Herbert Walker Bush takes with him a bit of a different America. It is easy to shorthand him as the last of a certain part of politics, as has been done with John McCain. Much has been made of Bush being
About five years ago this blog urged residents of our city, Springfield, to vote with their whole hearts, their whole minds, and their whole souls on the casino subject. Our preferred outcome lost, but the point was to call our fellow residents to speak at
There are only a handful of legislative races with general elections this year in the Pioneer Valley. There are so few it hardly feels unfortunate that we were unable cobble together our election guide for the general. Most of what races there are feel uncompetitive
Many states lay claim to inventing America. Few get as close to that being true as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Not every pivotal event in American history happened in our state, but it is not an overstatement to suggest that revolutions—political, cultural, technological—common start here.
We face a critical moment in our country and our commonwealth has a role to play in it. As pervasive as the daily national news grind can seem, it can also seem distant and irrelevant. That could not be any less true. Here in the
The ballot questions on Bay Staters’ ballots this cycle are somewhat unlike those of previous years. They are technical, complex, but also critical. They could decide how healthcare is delivered, but these questions could also come to define whether Massachusetts has truly evolved into an
From the moment of her first election, Elizabeth Warren was to stand astride history. By beating incumbent Republican Scott Brown in that bruising 2012 campaign, she became the first woman to represent the commonwealth in the Senate. Yet, Warren did so in spectacular fashion, replacing