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Follow the paper trail - The Boston Globe
Follow the paper trail
By Alex Beam, Globe Staff | August 18, 2009
Boston is awash in tourism “trails,’’ such as the Freedom Trail, the Women’s Heritage Trail, and so on. Just recently, Emerson College journalism professor Manny Paraschos created the Boston Journalism Trail, celebrating his contention that “Boston is the birthplace of American journalism.’’
It may well be. Our first newspaper, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, started publishing in 1690. Paraschos’s trail escorts us past the original site of America’s oldest continuously published English language Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Advocate, and of course along downtown’s Newspaper Row, once home to 13 newspapers, depending on who is counting.
Yet there is a reason that journalism history cannot be left to the professorate. Where, for instance, is Dave Farrell’s table at Anthony’s Pier 4, where the veteran Herald and Globe columnist held court? Or George Higgins’s spot at Locke-Ober, where the novelist (“The Friends of Eddie Coyle’’) and newspaperman always welcomed guests willing to pay a tab?
I would add a few more stops to the Journalism Trail, beginning perhaps . . .
At Howard Matheson’s house in Stoneham, just off Interstate 93, where Globe reporter Peter Gosselin knocked on the door in February 1985 and said: “I need to use a bathroom.’’ Gosselin relieved himself and then grilled Matheson on his career as head teller at Bank of Boston’s North End branch, the first step toward unveiling a complicated money-laundering scandal.
From Stoneham, we plunge into Cambridge, to the Harvard Square Theater, where, for good or ill, a young Brandeis graduate named Jon Landau wrote of a rocker he liked, a lot: “I have seen rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.’’
Now we take a short walk to 929 Massachusetts Ave., home to the famous Real Paper, which may have spawned more A-list journalistic talent than the Columbia Journalism School. Landau worked there, as did Joe Klein, David Ansen, Stephen Schiff, David Thomson, and
After 41 years of marriage, Yolanda hanging up her veil - BostonHerald.com
After 41 years of marriage, Yolanda hanging up her veil
Margery Eagan By Margery Eagan
Thursday, July 16, 2009 - Updated 4h ago
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Here’s the sad part: Thousands of local brides have experienced The Full Yolanda. But if you’re still a bride-to-be, you’re out of luck.
Yolanda Cellucci is closing her legendary Waltham bridal salon. No more white Lexus parked outside Yolanda’s trademark white salon with sweeping white staircase and all-white dressing rooms: carpets, walls, desks, chairs, lamps, couches and pedestals. There, the starry-eyed first see their dream dress - at last! - beaming back at them in a three-way-mirror.
“I love my brides,” says the still so glamorous, so thin and spike-heeled Yolanda, 74, wearing her signature off-the-shoulder blouse. “We wanted them to feel totally cared for.”
But Yolanda, after 41 years of fittings and frettings and prenuptial meltdowns, says she’d like time to relax. Besides, both the business - and the customer - have changed. And she’s had an anthropologist’s view of evolving social mores.
“With more girls now, first comes the baby carriage. Then love. Then marriage,” Yolanda says. Then re-marriage.
“That’s why we try to please every single bride. We want them to come back the second or third time.”
And they do, advancing from their fairy princess dress (picked out by mother) to their second marriage dress (decidedly sexier) to their third marriage ensemble. “Then they go for the gold,” Yolanda says, “knowing the new guy is going to pay.”
Years ago, brides typically came to shop with just mother or sister or a close friend. They came with perfect hosiery, underwear, maybe even little slips.
Today they come with tattoos, no slips, no hose and sometimes no underwear - just a thong. Now brides come with posses of friends, babies, bottles and double caffe lattes. Then one of the posse will put her feet up - wit
Fight to save Boston horse units reveals a social divide - The Boston Globe
Galloping into history?
Fight to save horse units reveals a social divide
By John C. Drake, Globe Staff | May 24, 2009
With their steady gaits and sleepy demeanor, the horses that clip and clop along the paths of the Public Garden, Boston Common, and other city parks would seem unlikely subjects of another debate over social class in Boston.
But a fight to save the city's horses from budget cuts has revealed a genuine divide. Well-to-do, mostly anonymous residents have emerged as patrons of the eight horses ridden by park rangers, pledging more than $200,000 in private funds to keep them from being disbanded and put up for adoption.
"They've been a longtime symbol in Boston," said Henry Lee, president of the Friends of the Public Garden, which has joined the effort to save the Park Ranger horses. "They would be very unfortunate to lose and very difficult to reestablish."
The 12 horses of the Police Department's mounted unit have drawn the attention of 2,000 people who signed an on-line petition. But have attracted no meaningful financial support, to the dismay of City Council members who are considering ways of restoring funding.
The disparity paints a glaring picture of how the whims of the wealthy can impact public services. The duties of the eight park rangers on horseback include posing for photographs, giving tourists directions, and enforcing park rules. The police horses, which need $600,000 to avoid the budget axe, have a much wider range of duties. They bear full police officers with authority to arrest drug dealers and muggers hiding in the bushes of the Back Bay Fens, for instance, or to step in to control crowds during unruly street celebrations of sports victories.
Members of the City Council have floated ways to keep the police horses, including a proposal to charge professional sports teams for their championship marches. But so far no solution has been found. Simply consolidating the units appears to be off the table, complicated by union issues (parks and police employees are in separate
Melee, stabbing outside court - The Boston Globe
Melee, stabbing outside court
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | May 15, 2009
Tensions between rival groups attending a murder trial in Suffolk Superior Court exploded yesterday as a young man was stabbed during a violent confrontation steps from the entrance to the Boston courthouse, in a plaza crowded with people, according to law enforcement officials.
At first it looked as if the group of about 10 men, ranging in age from about 15 to early 20s, were "horse playing" as they shoved each other, said Boston attorney Douglas I. Louison, who was standing near the group in Pemberton Square, waiting for a jury to return a verdict in a separate larceny trial.
"These kids started throwing punches like crazy," said Louison, adding that he saw a court officer frantically radioing for help, then a small army of court officers and police officers rushing to help.
A court officer told police that he saw 20-year-old Kevin Boyette stab a man in the back, according to a police report. The court officer, Michael Prairre, yelled "hey!" prompting Boyette to flee, with Prairre in pursuit, the report said.
Boyette fled through the courtyard and jumped from a 10-foot high wall onto the street below, according to the report.
Detective Russell Grant was walking toward the courthouse, according to the police report, when he saw Prairre chasing Boyette and heard him yell, "He just stabbed someone."
Grant and Prairre captured Boyette, of Roxbury, who has been charged with assault with intent to commit murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a dangerous weapon. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in Boston Municipal Court.
The victim, who was not identified by police, was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital and released. Law enforcement officials said he was uncooperative.
Prairre told police that Boyette had tried to enter the courthouse before the confrontation but fled when he was about to search him, according to the report.
Two law enforcement officials who requested anonymity said th
Man overlooked in Boston shooting dies - The Boston Globe
Man overlooked in shooting dies
Friends say search ended too soon
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | May 15, 2009
When the bullets started flying, Freddie Bing and a handful of others tore into the backyards along Wilcock Street, running furiously to avoid becoming yet more victims of crime on a Dorchester street.
After the shooters drove off, Bing's friends started shouting his name. When Boston police arrived moments later, they joined in. Together and apart, they searched the yard between 14 and 16-18 Wilcock St. They checked the yard between 16-18 and 20 Wilcock St.
And then they stopped, one backyard short of finding Bing.
The body of the 49-year-old was found at 6:45 a.m. yesterday, lying at the end of the paved driveway at 24 Wilcock St. He apparently died after a bullet cut into his leg. Police are awaiting autopsy results to determine the cause of death.
Boston police said they are still trying to establish whether there is a link between Bing's death and the 10:20 p.m. driveby shooting that friends said sent Bing running for his life.
But to Bing's friends and relatives, there is little doubt that the search - and Bing's life - ended too soon.
"We thought he got away," said Tito Jones, a lifelong Wilcock Street resident who heard the gunfire and whose family participated in the search for his longtime friend. "Everybody ran, so we thought Freddie ran and got away, too."
James Bing, the victim's younger brother, said his family was distressed at what they considered the brevity and incompleteness of the search, especially by trained law enforcement officers.
"They should have done a better job of making sure if somebody got shot or not," James Bing said yesterday. "I find it unbelievable. If we found him last night, he might have lived."
Jones and other residents described hearing what they believed were at least two weapons used during the shooting. The first two rounds came from a small-caliber weapon, they said, and were followed by numerous shots from a much more powerful weapon, possibl
Burger sellers on way out of new Fenway - The Boston Globe
Burger sellers on way out of new Fenway
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | May 14, 2009
Baseball and burger joints seem to go together, but that won't necessarily be the case near Fenway Park, where developers are moving to replace two fast-food restaurants with upscale mixed-use developments.
The Burger King and McDonald's restaurants on Boylston Street may soon be leveled to help further efforts to create an "urban village" with wide sidewalks, new retail stores, and possibly a hotel and residences.
Developer William P. McQuillan, president of Boylston Properties, said he has a long-term option to build on the Burger King site and is considering a hotel with retail space, among other possibilities. He said there are too few overnight accommodations for the neighborhood, which draws many visitors to nearby colleges and medical facilities.
"The Longwood Medical Area is about as thriving a commercial neighborhood as any you'll find anywhere in the country. And they've needed hotel rooms for a while now," McQuillan said.
He was part of the team that built the nearby Trilogy apartment and retail complex.
A short distance down the street, Abbey Group is expected to soon take control of the McDonald's property, through a land swap with the current owners, the Boston Red Sox.
The team has agreed to level the eatery as part of the deal, but Abbey Group has not said specifically what it plans to build there. Company officials did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
Abbey Group was behind the redevelopment of the former Sears, Roebuck and Co. building nearby. It's now the Landmark Center, a complex that's home to retailers, office tenants, movie theaters, and a health club.
In exchange for the McDonald's site, the Red Sox will gain control of a parking lot across from the ballpark at the corner of Van Ness Street and Yawkey Way. A spokeswoman for the team said the Van Ness site will continue to be used for parking in the near future but could eventually host development.
The redevelopment of the McDonald's
Waterfront site must open to public - The Boston Globe
Waterfront site must open to public
State fines owners of wharf building
By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff | May 13, 2009
It was a secret jewel along the waterfront, providing a picturesque view of Boston Harbor and the city's skyline. But according to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the historic building at 470 Atlantic Ave. and its public viewing space wasn't supposed to be a secret at all.
The department has fined the owner of the plush Independence Wharf building, at the corner of Seaport Boulevard, more than $21,000 and also issued a series of compliance orders for holding out from the public its grand view of Boston and its harbor, on the site of one the country's largest acts of civil defiance, the Boston Tea Party.
"A renewed commitment on their part is necessary to open this site up to the general public, in a way that provides a public benefit for the city, its residents and our visitors," Glenn Haas, assistant commissioner of the agency, said in a statement.
In addition to the fines, the owner of the building - Independence Wharf LLC - must open up 2,856 square feet of space on the ground floor of the building as a public accommodation. The owner must post proper signage designating the 14th floor, with its observation deck and indoor viewing area, as public space.
The company must also post proper signage outside the building along the Harborwalk encouraging public patronage of the ground floor and viewing deck.
"The current property owners recognize they have a responsibility to provide, and in fact encourage, the general public to access this historic Boston site," Haas said in a statement.
A spokesman for the building's management company, Cushman & Wakefield, said yesterday that management would not comment on the settlement. Independence Wharf LLC is based in Connecticut.
The orders were based on a 2001 license the state granted Independence Wharf LLC allowing it to operate office space at the 14-story structure, which is built on the waterfront. Under state law cove
Curley's Sorrow - The Boston Globe
Curley's Sorrow
When two men murdered his 10-year-old son, Bob Curley led the cries for vengeance -- and for the revival of the death penalty in the state. Much later, though, he'd have a surprising change of heart. In this exclusive excerpt from his new book, The Ride, Brian MacQuarrie follows this grieving father's journey from the nightmare's beginning, in East Cambridge, 1997, when young Jeffrey Curley disappeared.
By Brian MacQuarrie | May 10, 2009
Bob Curley rolled out of bed, tossed a glance toward the Boston skyline 3 miles away, and dressed for another day's work at the Cambridge Fire Department. There would be no dawdling for Bob, a broad-shouldered, good-looking man with thick brown hair, glinting blue eyes, and the no-nonsense look of this edgy neighborhood, where grit was as embedded in its men as in its cracked and crumbling sidewalks.
Bob hustled out the door at 6:45 a.m., only a quarter-hour after waking up and less than 2 miles from the firehouse, where he and another mechanic repaired and prepped the ladder, hose, and pumper trucks that raced through one of the most densely populated cities in the country.
The morning was October 1, 1997, a warm, Indian-summer Wednesday when New England was awash in a season-bridging spectacle of color.
Bob, at 42, commuted to work in Inman Square on a battered bicycle, coasting down a steep hill from his new home in East Somerville. At the bottom of the descent, Bob blocked out the jarring sound of heavy trucks bouncing in and out of gaping potholes and banked hard into a right-hand turn.
There, he entered an unsightly stretch of ungroomed growth pocked by jagged, uneven pavement, honking, impatient traffic, and a hilly warren of narrow one-way streets. Focusing on the pedals, not the panorama, he passed a grimy repair shop, a Brazilian church, the tired facade of Buddy's Diner, and half-organized graveyards for used auto parts, where old mufflers and piles of rusting radiators lay stacked against the neglected sides of sagging buildings.
Just after a
Amid chaos of trolley crash, the instincts of a firefighter kick in - The Boston Globe
Amid chaos, the instincts of a firefighter kick in
By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent | May 10, 2009
During the chaos of Friday night's subway crash, the actions of some passengers stood out as they bound wounds, calmed nerves, and even offered cab money to get the injured to hospitals, riders said.
"One guy, a firefighter, he was taking care of things, helping everybody," said passenger Laszlo Panajoth, 28, who joined others in expressing their thanks.
The firefighter, Kevin Carter, 41, a 20-year veteran of the North Reading Fire Department, said his evening started out smooth. He had a day off from work and a pair of free Red Sox tickets. His brother, Michael, came down from New Hampshire to go to the game with him.
But on the way to Fenway, they were on the Green Line trolley that was rammed from behind, resulting in 49 injuries, none life-threatening.
"We both ended up on the floor. All the lights went out." Carter, who is also an emergency medical technician, said in a phone interview late Friday night. "My brother hit his head on a pole and was bleeding."
Carter grabbed a jacket and wrapped it around his brother's head. Then he turned his attention to the other riders on the packed train.
"I told everybody to relax and asked who was hurt," he said.
One woman had a hip injury, and Carter said he placed her on the floor of the train, trying to make her comfortable.
It was an intense situation, Carter said, but his training helped center him, allowing him to aid others.
"As soon as I realized what was happening - I couldn't believe it happened. I was laying on the ground going 'you've got to be kidding me,' " he said.
When help came, Carter identified himself as a firefighter and helped passengers out before he "got out of the way" of the swarm of police officers, T workers, firefighters, and Boston EMS responders. He helped carry his brother up to the surface. Kevin Carter had also suffered bruises, so he and his brother were taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital and released that night.
Boston Fears Chasm if The Globe Disappears - NYTimes.com
In Boston, Paper’s Peril Hits a Nerve
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
BOSTON — When local bloggers rallied last week in an online forum about how to save the embattled Boston Globe, readers offered loads of sympathetic advice and surprisingly little of the “let ’em rot” attitude that has colored so much debate over the future of newspapers.
Ever since The New York Times Company threatened 11 days ago to sell or close The Globe unless it accepted deep cost cuts, Boston has been in a state of near shock.
Civic leaders and ordinary Bostonians alike — particularly those old enough to remember a pre-Internet age, before free access to news on the Web siphoned away so many of the paper’s readers — have spoken out about the central role of The Globe in the life of a region that cares deeply about local culture and local politics and fashions itself as the higher education capital of the nation.
“I’ve been surprised at how well people understand that this would not be the same city without it, and not as good a city,” said Paul Levy, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who organized the “blog rally” on The Globe. “It’s the only thing that can really hold institutions accountable.”
Mayor Thomas M. Menino agrees, despite his share of run-ins with the paper.
“I have disagreements with The Globe, but what’s good for Boston?” he said in an interview. “To have them not here would be a big hole in our life.”
There has been much hand-wringing in the last decade as one Boston institution after another has faded away or passed into the hands of out-of-towners.
BankBoston, John Hancock insurance and Gillette were swallowed by much bigger companies with faraway headquarters. A group of non-New Englanders bought the Red Sox baseball team — an organization close to a civic religion — with the Times Company, which already owned The Globe, as a junior partner.
In 2006, the Filene’s department store chain ceased to exist, and its owner, Federated Department Stores, turned some stores into the Macy’s banner — anoth
Globe could learn from Guild-ed Age of yore - BostonHerald.com
Globe could learn from Guild-ed Age of yore
By Tom Mashberg | Sunday, April 12, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Op-Ed
Last week I pulled out my files from negotiations in 2005 between The Boston Herald Co. and the Greater Boston Newspaper Guild, representing 300 people at the paper. I had to remind myself that dealings between labor and management at newspapers - in any union shop, really - don’t need to be bitter and ham-handed. Perhaps there are lessons for The Boston Globe as it copes with its financial cliffhanger.
The Herald was going through pressures the Globe faces. Our company needed to cut 25 percent of its news and commercial employees or face the inevitability of red ink and extinction.
It was quite a bomb. I was shop steward in the Herald newsroom at the time and was quoted in the Globe saying, “It’s shocking, frankly. Obviously, you can’t cut 35 people from your news staff and not have an impact on your product.”
Privately, my colleagues used more tabloidy language.
But bit by bit, from 2005 through 2007, we struggled as a team to make the terms work. There was pain - many people abandoned beloved careers in print, and many devoted trade- and craft-union employees saw their work disappear entirely. But the same goal was shared by union members and the front office: Provide decent buyouts for the departing, spread the pain of pay cuts across all ranks of labor and management, and act in good faith.
I remember feeling then that we were finding a common road through a cratered landscape, perhaps setting a model for other newspapers. The Herald had two major advantages: a local, private owner and publisher, Patrick J. Purcell, who took no orders from out-of-state masters; and a union staff accustomed to the harsh wages of survival.
Purcell understood the economics of the industry, and in time our staff learned them, too. A breakthrough came when the publisher agreed to let a select Guild committee review company books every three months. This eliminated a key concern: Members wanted t
Media Nation: EveryBlock in Boston
Monday, April 13, 2009
EveryBlock in Boston
The New York Times today has a too-brief story on hyperlocal Web sites that attempt to aggregate local news down to the neighborhood level. The focus is on EveryBlock, founded by the noted programmer-journalist Adrian Holovaty, best known for creating ChicagoCrime.org and the Washington Post's Congress Votes Database.
The EveryBlock site for Boston is down at the moment. (Noon update: Now up.) When I've checked it out in the past, it has struck me as intriguing, but not ready for prime time. Enter a zip code and you get a pastiche of blogger, media and government information that doesn't add up to a whole lot. But it's easy to imagine its growing into something pretty useful.
Posted by Dan Kennedy at 8:05 AM
Labels: Adrian Holovaty, media business, new media
2 comments:
Adam Gaffin said...
It's what cityofboston.gov should be, but frequently isn't. When it does come back up, compare the restaurant inspection listings on both sites.
April 13, 2009 9:39:00 AM EDT
Adrian Holovaty said...
Yeah, we were down for a short while this morning, for a reason unrelated to the NYTimes link -- it was a case of bad timing, unfortunately.
We're back up, though, so check us out again.
Adrian @ EveryBlock
Street sense vs. nonsense - The Boston Globe
Street sense vs. nonsense
By Kevin Cullen | April 6, 2009
A few years ago, in the early hours of a Saturday, a Boston cop named Greg Walsh was driving around the Theatre District on routine patrol.
Sometime around 4 a.m., he spied a couple of men standing in a doorway on Stuart Street, a block from where two months earlier police had shot dead a man moments after he had killed another guy.
Walsh recognized one of the men in the doorway as Paul Gomes, whose mug shot he had noticed on a bulletin board at the police station before his shift. Gomes was what the cops call an "impact player," a title earned from a prior drug arrest and a street rep in the Grove Hall section of Dorchester.
Walsh guessed that Gomes and the other fellow were not discussing the merits of the performance of "The Nutcracker" that had ended at the Wang Center six hours earlier.
It was an educated guess, because he is trained to observe certain things and he observed Gomes holding his right hand out, palm up. This is known as showing the product. When Walsh stopped and got out of his cruiser, he saw Gomes pop whatever he had in his hand into his mouth. This is known as swallowing the product.
Walsh patted Gomes down for a weapon, which seems an eminently reasonable thing to do.
The Supreme Judicial Court disagreed. Greg Walsh, a 5-to-1 majority found, was very, very disrespectful toward Paul Gomes and the Fourth Amendment.
You see, as Walsh patted Gomes down, five packets of crack cocaine fell out of Gomes's pants leg. This led Greg Walsh to place Gomes under arrest. When they brought him to the station, they found that Gomes, who at the time was approximately the size of the Tobin Bridge, had another 45 packets of rock tucked in the roll of fat that was his rather ample waistline.
But the state's highest court ruled that Walsh had no reason to pat Gomes down, so it's like those 50 packets of crack didn't exist. This, despite the fact that Gomes worked in a business where guns and drugs go together like franks and beans.
"In the c
Paris in Boston: Views of the City of Light from the City Upon a Hill - The Boston Globe
Paris in Boston: Views of the City of Light from the City Upon a Hill
April 5, 2009
By Jack Dzamba Jack Dzamba, 75 pp., $34.95
Paris, Hemingway wrote, is a "moveable feast" that stays with you no matter where you go. Photographer Jack Dzamba latched onto the idea and came to think of Boston in the same way. Suddenly, everywhere he looked, he saw intimations of Paris: the Cabot Building is reminiscent of Place des Voges, Genzyme headquarters at night recalls Notre Dame, and myriad hotels, restaurants, and shops, like Rouvalis Flowers on Beacon Hill (at left), exude an unmistakeable French flair. This book, with its moody black-and-white photographs of buildings and scenes, makes Dzamba's case for the link between the two great cities
Menino prods Filene's site developers - The Boston Globe
Comparing S.F. to Boston downtown is apples and oranges. Boston high end retail has decentralized, for better or worse, to the Back Bay, Pru and Copley Place. This is different than S.F. Chicago saw the same thing happen when retailers gravitated from State St. to the Michigan Ave (Magnificent Mile).
I agree, Downtown Crossing needs a shot in the arm. Its time for new blood at City Hall with better urban vision. Menino is stale. He's done well as the urban mechanic with day to day stuff, but Boston doesn't have the bold urban leadership and vision from City Hall these days compared to NYC, Chicago or S.F. in my opinion. I think the future of Downtown Crossing is more residential, more bars, more restaurants to keep it active around the clock. The architecture is incredible in downtown crossing, Hopefully the city doesn't squander these assets by demolishing buildings just for the sake of new bland developments repeating the mistakes made in some parts of the Combat Zone (see the whole in the ground that used to be the Gaiety Theater). Retail is important but better as one element of mixed used neighborhood. It will be hard to return to the 1950's when nearly all of Boston's big league shopping occured in downtown crossing.
4/3/2009 10:17 AM EDT
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for-real wrote:
ooooh, mumbles is proding...now something is sure to get done...give me a break... did he add a charge to the tax payers for his proding...
4/3/2009 10:32 AM EDT
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WinchesterG wrote:
rosern- you're right that these are the correct steps to be pursuing, although I'm not sure I'd agree that Downtown crossing is exactly the rich and lively place most people think of when they think of Boston.
There are plenty of areas of town (which also have problems - e.g. Fanieul Hall and their lessors being basically bankrupt) that attract people and tie different areas of the city together. Back bay shops, the commons, public garden and Fanieul Hall are all walkin
Globe union employees open to concessions, but want management cuts too - The Boston Globe
Union employees open to concessions, but demand management cuts as well
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | April 5, 2009
Some Boston Globe union workers were stunned to learn of the newspaper's threatened shutdown. To others, it was not a complete surprise, given the industry's mounting troubles. Some viewed it as a negotiating ploy, others as a serious threat.
But all of those interviewed said they are willing to accept pay cuts and other concessions to save New England's largest newspaper - as long as executives and managers make the same sacrifices.
"If management is willing to lead us, to take pay cuts and concessions, I'm sure the union would be willing,'' said Bob Sullivan, 56, who has worked as a mailer for 38 years. "We all want to keep our jobs. We all want to keep the Globe publishing.''
Officials from the Globe's owner, The New York Times Co., and the Globe declined to comment yesterday.
Last week, the Times Co. threatened to quickly shutter the money-losing newspaper unless its 13 unions agree to $20 million in concessions, including pay cuts, reduced company contributions to retirement and healthcare, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some 430 workers, according to union officials and others familiar with the matter. Management told union leaders last week that without serious cutbacks, the Globe is projected to lose $85 million this year, after a $50 million loss in 2008, according to a Globe employee who was briefed on the discussion.
The Globe and newspapers across the country have been hard hit by the recession, accelerating declines that began years ago as readers and advertisers migrated to the Internet.
The concessions will be negotiated separately with each union, according to union officials. Globe management will meet with individual unions this week to detail the concessions they are seeking from each one, said Ralph Giallanella, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 259, which represents about 200 drivers who deliver the newspaper.
The Globe has about 1
Threat to Globe triggers emotions - The Boston Globe
Threat to Globe triggers flood of feelings
Many worry, a few shrug, but most adamant that the city needs its major daily newspaper
By Maria Sacchetti and Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | April 5, 2009
Marcus Weiss of Newton stared in shock yesterday at the newspaper that has landed on his doorstep every day for 30 years. In Woburn, Ollie Gonsalves wondered who would stick up for the "little guy.'' In Cambridge, Mike Spartichino shrugged indifferently and rushed home with a box of doughnuts.
Yesterday, the region confronted the possibility that The Boston Globe might cease to exist, after publishing daily for 137 years. News that The New York Times Co. might shut down the biggest newspaper in New England if its unions don't swiftly agree to $20 million in cuts sent a shockwave throughout Greater Boston, sparking an outcry from places as disparate as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Johnny's Luncheonette in Newton Centre, and voices as varied as US Senator John F. Kerry and Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band. To some readers, such a loss seemed unimaginable, but others said the transformation from paper to the Internet is inevitable.
Losing the Globe is more than the shuttering of a company, readers said. It would be, they said, the loss of something essential to Massachusetts' very sense of itself - and one of the few forces for public accountability in the region. They recalled articles exposing corruption and waste in government and other institutions, and stories giving voice to those who otherwise would have no power at all.
"To someone like me who's very involved in civic life in the communities, it's unimaginable,'' said Paul S. Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, a major funder of nonprofit organizations in the state. He called the Globe the "civic glue'' that keeps the public together.
"Almost every leader in Boston -- in the public sector, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector -- reads The Boston Globe every day. It gives the community a shared sense of what the issues are, what the chal
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