The Globe takes a look at the coming $300 million Longfellow Bridge renovation – and expansion of sidewalks and bikes lanes. The story is accompanied by a terrific graphic.
The two competing visions for the post-renovation Longfellow have more in common than all the loud arguing suggests: They both strive to make walking and biking across [...]

Mothers Against Debt is a group of concerned mothers who are fed up with reckless government spending and massive national debt.
File Under: Fiscal child abuse.

From today’s Boston Herald: Film celebrates long history of Hub department store. A one-hour documentary about the original Filene’s Basement in Boston’s Downtown Crossing will premiere this spring. More than five years in the making, the film recounts the now-closed Basement’s history and stories of its workers and shoppers – including, “60 Minutes” newsman [...]

What do unemployed architects and designers do with their time after losing their jobs?
They dream up design ideas on how to beautify, challenge and improve Boston, through the “SHIFTBoston competition.”
The official winner of the competition also happens to be our favorite idea: “Turning an abandoned subway tunnel under Tremont Street into an underground theater and [...]

My girlfriend is really into Santa Clause, and it actually scares me.

May all the young ones this morning be as happy as these two kids.
We tried to find a video of kids opening a Christmas present to find a Red Ryder BB Gun. All we could find was a boy getting one on his birthday. But the effect is the same: Pure joy.
From everyone at [...]

More bad news on the local economy. The Boston Herald reports about a 20+ year old architectural company fighting for survival as a result of the downturn in the real estate and construction sectors.
Excerpts for the Boston Herald:
Cubellis, one of Boston’s largest architectural and design firms, was fighting for its survival yesterday …
Once employing more [...]

The recession is already difficult to live through, but it may also have everlasting effects.
Cemeteries are having trouble expanding because of the high cost of real estate and a drop in revenues as strapped families increasingly turn to cheaper cremations.
Communities struggling with budget deficits have also had to curtail spending on public cemeteries, [...]

From internet128.com:
Boston’s 2008 population is listed as 625,000, about 12,000-16,000 more than the usual federal population estimates for the city, and about 35,000 more than in 2000. Yet it’s less than the 630,000 that City Hall claims in a challenge to the official census bureau’s 2008 estimate of Boston’s population.
But here’s the kicker: The so-called [...]

From the Boston Globe:
Massachusetts shed more than 9,000 jobs that month (September), the most since April. Other data, such as plunging state tax collections, also suggested the economy was weakening. Meanwhile, Massachusetts wasn’t getting much of a boost from stimulus programs such as “cash for clunkers,’’ which offered owners of old cars and trucks cash [...]