Local Politics

Latest Articles

Back in the saddle again

Phillipe returns! Plus, road rage and the hell of war
Phillipe, who gave up his decades-long co-authorship of this column several months back, made a shocking and unannounced return last week ...
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 11, 2011

Thomas Menino plans to run for mayor of Boston yet again

Tom Menino's final term as mayor? Don't bet on it.

Here He Goes Again
Mark this down: Tom Menino, already the longest-serving mayor in Boston history, will run for re-election in 2013.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 27, 2011

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
A year and a half into the Age of Obama, we are learning a lesson we should have figured out long ago — that repression, once in place, is rarely rolled back all the way, and that liberals no less than conservatives are reluctant to give up power.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2010

Homophobe to headline Boston's GospelFest

Gay Old Time Dept.
Donnie McClurkin is one of gospel music's biggest stars. But McClurkin has also drawn fire for his homophobic sermons. Which makes him a curious choice to headline a City of Boston–produced event here later this summer, the annual GospelFest on City Hall Plaza.
By NOAH SCHAFFER | June 29, 2010

Just hold it

Portland loves its tourists, so why won't we give them relief?
To Portlanders, they're a familiar sight: out-of-town victims potty-dancing around town, pained expressions on their faces, one sip away from having polished off an iced coffee the size of a small child.
By ANGELIQUE CARSON | June 16, 2010

Menino's money problems

Letters to the Boston editor, June 18, 2010
David S. Bernstein’s article on the mayor’s feud with the firefighters and allegations that the city’s coffers are bigger than Mayor Tom Menino lets on is one of the only thoughtful treatments of this contract dispute to appear in the media.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | June 16, 2010

The Battle of Mission Hill

Town-versus-gown tempers are boiling over near the Northeastern campus, as residents charge the giant school with 'death by incrementalism'
Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 15, 2010

Boston pols bail on Bank of America

Locovore Banking Dept.
In this time of political stridency, where everything is either red or blue, Boston City Councilors have found a potential purple issue that everyone can stand behind, be they radical lefties or Fox News worshippers.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 14, 2010

Oil, oil, everywhere

BP’s latest eco-crime; City Council Pres. Mike Ross does the right thing; Scott Brown disappoints
It is not enough that British Petroleum’s wounded oil well in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico continues to bleed millions of gallons of viscous crude oil, killing marshes that could offer protection from future hurricanes, destroying habitats for migrating birds, fouling coastal commercial-fishing grounds.
By EDITORIAL | May 26, 2010

Bragdon vs. Trevorrow, Greens, District 120

Primary 2010
Charles Bragdon and Anna Trevorrow vie in the East End legislative race
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 19, 2010

Boston tucks away a $125 million windfall

More for Moneybags?
As debate continues over the city’s finances — and whether the city of Boston can afford firefighters’ raises, branch libraries, community-center staffing, and other costs in tight times — the city is planning to quietly tuck away a one-time windfall of more than $125 million.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 24, 2010

‘There are no rules’

The 11th-hour change
On April 19, the Globe first reported that arbitrators had awarded the Boston firefighters union a 19-percent raise. By the next morning, both the Globe and the Herald were citing Menino administration figures of a $74 million cost.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 12, 2010

Mayor-Select Marie?

Some think that Tom Menino is anointing Marie St. Fleur as his successor, but he might just be serving himself
Tom Menino, just a few months into an unprecedented fifth term as Boston’s mayor, has raised eyebrows by hiring State Representative Marie St. Fleur of Dorchester to the newly created, $120,000-a-year position of chief of advocacy and strategic investment.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 05, 2010

Shaking up the school system

The Reformer
Rhode Island education commissioner Deborah Gist’s take-charge style could make a winner of a state that often seems destined to fail. But critics say her free-market approach won’t work.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 21, 2010

Election attracting urine stains

Drama queens and vampire squids
For those who have felt that the entertainment value of Our Little Towne’s mayoral elections has been in serious decline since the Bud-I’s extended stay in New Jersey, look no further than the RIFuture blog.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | April 21, 2010

The first Latino mayor?

Angel Taveras’s moment suddenly arrives
Until recently, to talk about Angel Taveras was to talk about the future.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 15, 2010

Joe Paolino weighs a different kind of mayoral run

The Independent
It had been rumored for some time.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 14, 2010

Unsexy Appeal

Letters to the Boston editor, April 9, 2010
The annual “Unsexiest Men” survey (April 2) panders to and cultivates negative, cheap-shot male bashing.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 07, 2010

Lynch’s left flank

The Southie Congressman may have pushed progressives too far this time.
US Representative Stephen Lynch has held Massachusetts’s ninth congressional district since 2001 — a fact that has irritated the state’s liberals ever since.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 02, 2010

Murph’s Last Grasp?

Can Stephen Murphy rally his troops one last time, or is this stab at higher office his last?
The ever-restless Stephen Murphy is at it again, running anew for state treasurer — just a few months after voters re-elected him to the Boston City Council.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 24, 2010

Donkeys kicking Timilty

Governor's Council
As if Democrats don't have enough problems with attacks from tea-bagging circus clowns, now one local pol is being targeted by fellow donkeys.
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 17, 2010

Should non-citizens vote?

Government Reform
We Americans know we don't like taxation without representation in our democracy, but should we allow participation without naturalization?
By JEFF INGLIS | February 17, 2010

Baldacci, Dems raise broad-based taxes

What Promise? Dept.
Despite numerous repeated claims that he and his party will not raise "broad-based taxes" while attempting to solve Maine's decade-old budget disaster, Democratic governor John Baldacci and legislative Democrats have done exactly that, and are now expanding those efforts by increasing an additional tax that hits many Mainers.
By JEFF INGLIS | February 17, 2010

What now?

Kennedy's exit rewrites the political game book.
Representative Patrick J. Kennedy's campaigns were always about something far larger than Rhode Island's First Congressional District, which snakes from Burrillville down through the Blackstone Valley and into Newport.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 17, 2010

The war over peace

A decade after the 'Boston Miracle,' violent crime has again overtaken parts of the city. Can the miracle makers create a new peace?
In the early infancy of this five-week-old year, Boston has been rocked by four homicides and 10 non-fatal shootings. By the time this goes to print, there may well be more.
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 05, 2010

Review: Petition

A modern tragedy based on unchanging conflict
This distressing documentary explores a netherworld of individuals who have come to Beijing from all over China hoping that their grievances against their local governments will be heard.
By CHRIS FUJIWARA | January 26, 2010

Starting to clear Maine’s broadband backlog

Mapping the Internet
The biggest obstacle between Mainers and more, better, faster broadband Internet access is actually a very basic one: there's a lack of information about what kind of Internet service is already available where.
By JEFF INGLIS | January 27, 2010

Aftershock

More than 1500 miles from the epicenter of the Haitian quake, its effects rippled through Boston's teeming Haitian community
From the second that the Richter scale registered at 7.0 in Haiti, a desperate grief rippled through Hyde Park, Dorchester, and other corners of this region, which is home to the third-largest Haitian population in America.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2010

What’s next for Cicilline?

After a couple of tough years — and some jabs from Buddy — how bright is his political future?
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline rode into office seven years ago as the fresh-faced anti-Buddy. Bleach for a soiled City Hall.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 21, 2010

Green school. Red light?

At-large City Councilor John Connolly sets his sights on creating multi-million-dollar environmental academy.
Little girls and boys frolic on swing sets whittled from recycled beech wood.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 06, 2010