The Mystic River, which flows from the Mystic Lakes in Arlington through Medford, Somerville, Everett, Charlestown and Chelsea to Boston Harbor, is one of the great urban rivers of New England. The river and the watershed that feeds it, served as an epicenter of early activity from which sprung early settlement and economic activity in the colonies: mills, shipyards, villages. Unfortunately, settlement and industrial activity have not been as kind to the watershed.
As the watershed developed, fields were replaced with parking lots, footpaths with highways, pastoral riverbanks with polluting industrial activity and shipyards with oil storage facilities. All these have contributed to the decline of the watershed and water quality in the Mystic River.
It is now time to restore this watershed, to make it a place that once again provides opportunity for activity—both recreational and industrial—that benefits its citizens with a clean and healthy natural environment.
In April of 2007, EPA New England issued a Report Card on the Mystic, giving the River a grade of D for water quality. The River was meeting water quality bacterial standards for swimming just 52% of the time and boating standards 67% of the time. At the same time it issued its grade, EPA launched an effort aimed at improving water quality in the Mystic watershed. EPA will employ strategies it has found useful in its efforts to restore other urban rivers and it will find new ones with the help of the watershed’s many involved citizens.
When most people are asked to name the location of the Digital Age, the first place which comes to mind is Silicon Valley. While Silicon Valley has certainly played a key role in the Digital Age, its birthplace was 3,000 miles East within a circumferential highway around Boston named Route 128.
The original analog and early digital computers were built by companies during the 1950s which set up operations in the Greater Boston area. Major companies located in the broader Route 128 area included Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, Thermo ElectronCorporation, AnalogDevices, Computervision, GTE, Polaroid, Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems, EMC Corporation, and Raytheon.
Continue reading Route 128: Birthplace of the Digital Age
BOSTON – Wednesday, February 10, 2010 – Building on his continued efforts to foster job creation and economic growth in the Commonwealth, Governor Deval Patrick today filed legislation to help small businesses hire new workers and reduce the cost of doing business.
The Governor’s legislation provides tax credits for businesses that create new jobs, eases healthcare and unemployment insurance costs for employers and creates a new organization dedicated to providing businesses with the financial capital and resources they need to grow.
Continue reading Governor of the state of Massachusetts Announces Plan to Support Small Businesses and Create Jobs
Basic information
Boston is the capital and the largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the U.S. Since it’s the largest city in New England and the economic and cultural center of the region, it is sometimes regarded as the unofficial Capital of New England.
Boston has estimated population of around 609 000 and Greater Boston metropolitan area, which anchor the city, has a population of 4,5 million.
The city is very well known as the site of the America’s first public school-Boston Latin School (1635) and the first subway system in the United States (1897).
It is interesting and quite unique in U.S. that Boston has a nickname The Walking City because here pedestrian commutes play a larger role than in comparably populated cities. Due to factors such as the compactness of the city and large student population, 13 % of the population commutes by foot, making it the highest percentage of pedestrian commutes in the country out of the major American cities.
Boston has the population density of 12 166 people per square mile, only New York City, San Francisco and Chicago have a greater population density than Boston.
White Americans make up 56,3 % of Boston’s population, Blacks or African American 23,5 %, and Asian Americans 8,3 %, the rest of population belongs to other races. Continue reading Boston
