Economy
To Help The Hungry, Community Fridges Spread Across Boston
About a dozen refrigerators offering free food have popped up on sidewalks throughout Boston’s neighborhoods, the latest in Mattapan. The free-standing appliances are part of a national trend of volunteers acquiring a donated refrigerator, finding a host willing to share electricity and recruiting other volunteers to clean and stock the fridge. The food is available…
Read MoreFitchburg Sees A Flurry Of New Small Businesses Amid Pandemic
There’s a new bodega in downtown Fitchburg, stocked with a colorful array of hot chocolate and chips and beans that come special from Central America. Owner Carmen Mejía de Guzmán and her husband moved to Fitchburg from Chelsea in the summer of 2019. They could afford to buy a house here — but there was…
Read MoreRopeless Fishing Shows Promise, But There’s a Catch: Financial, Safety, Technology Challenges
The lobster industry could be getting a new sound. On a cold January morning, a lobster trap sitting on a table at a manufacturing facility in Wareham is rhythmically beeping. Two final beeps have a special meaning. “So that’s the release confirmation,” explained Rob Morris, who sells acoustic release systems for the underwater technology company…
Read MoreIs ‘Ropeless’ Fishing the Solution to End Fatal Entanglements for Endangered Whales?
Rob Martin has been fishing from the Sandwich Marina for 29 years off his boat, Resolve. “It’s only 40 feet. It was big when I first got it and now it seems small,” he said, while warming up inside his boat’s cabin on a cold January morning. Over the last few decades, Martin, 56, has…
Read More‘Time To Cut Losses’: Inside The Final Days Of A Boston Restaurant
In a lot of ways, it felt like a typical morning at The Kitchen Cafe. Customers trickled in and out. Music bounced off the walls decorated with chalkboards and Banksy prints. And the air was filled with a comforting clatter: crackling bacon on the flat top grill, the squeal of steam from the espresso machine, the thump of…
Read MoreA Third Of Maine Student Loan Borrowers Could Have Their Debt Eliminated Under Plan Floated By Biden
A significant number of Mainers with outstanding student loans could see some major relief under a proposal that newly inaugurated President Joe Biden will reportedly make to cancel thousands in federal student loan debt for each person, among other efforts. In addition to planning an executive order to “pause” federal student loan collection through September,…
Read MoreEarly Indications Suggest Far Fewer Rural Maine Students Looking To Attend College
Between remote and hybrid classes, the pandemic has drastically altered education for high schoolers this fall and left many students and parents frustrated and dissatisfied. And those feelings could be having a major impact on how many students — particularly those from rural Maine — may choose to go on to college. As the school…
Read MoreImmigrant Woman Starts Food Pantry In Her Home To Help Undocumented Families
Early in the pandemic, Xiomy De la Cruz was working at a fast food restaurant, but her work hours were cut back. She is a Peruvian refugee single mother with two children and another on the way. Like many families, she found herself in various pantry lines to make ends meet. “So I said to…
Read MoreDespite Eviction Ban, Some Landlords Pressure Tenants To Leave Amid Pandemic
When Marvin Moreno lost his job at a fish processing plant last spring, he knew he’d have to scramble to pay rent on the East Boston apartment he shared with his wife. He should have been OK for a while. That’s because a statewide ban on evictions was in place, to protect tenants like Moreno…
Read MoreBlack Business Owner In Hartford Seeks Change For Community
Howard K. Hill wants to bring the economic, social and cultural vibrancy back to Hartford’s Barbour Street. On a hot summer day, the funeral home owner may have been the only person dressed in a full suit strolling down a street peppered with closed businesses, dilapidated housing and streets in need of a serious cleanup.…
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