22
June
2007
What’s up with the City of Boston? It seems that the mayor does not want city departments to have answering machines because he wants the city to be more personable. I’ve been trying for hours this morning to call someone I needed to talk to from my cell phone and no one answered. I finally had to go home and send an email so they could call me back. It seems this applies to all Boston departments including all the community centers (which I was trying to call) and even the fire department. Here’s the only blog entry I could find on the topic (it’s from 2005):
The fire department has no answering machine and no set time that they accept calls, or that they are in the office. So, it is a total luck of the draw to get a project completed. This is complete lunacy. I called up the mayor’s office and explained that we currently have some new technology known as an answering machine, and that I would be willing to buy one for the Fire Department if they’d accept it. I’m still waiting to hear back. The gentleman who was the inspector is incredibly nice, but he explained they are understaffed. Apparently, they aren’t allowed to use an answering machine.
Posted: Boston Issues
19
June
2007
According to my neighbor, who abuts the Taft Hill Municipal lot, there are at least seven individuals who park in the lot and then take the shuttle from the Roslindale Medical Center to the Boston Medical Center. He also knows that a previous tenant of the street now drives from Attleboro to the lot and then takes the commuter rail.
That’s just two more reasons to crack down on cars overstaying the two hour limit. For those of us squeezed on the residential streets by those avoiding tickets in the lot? We need resident only signs and stickers.
Posted: Roslindale Issues
1
June
2007
If you were looking for an excuse to get rid of your car, the excuse has come to Roslindale in the form of Zipcar. With all the discussion around town about parking, finally there’s an alternative for those who need a car sometime but not all the time. For those who live in the village with two or even three cars (I know who you are!), now is your chance to downsize, save some money, and reduce the car clutter in the village.
Note: Zipcar.com doesn’t realize yet that Roslindale is a separate neighborhood than JP. You’ll need to search for cars in Jamaica Plain to see the cars in Roslindale.
Posted: Environment, Roslindale Issues
1
June
2007
One of my fondest memories of elementary school was sitting at those small tables at lunchtime and opening up my lunch box to find a cup of boysenberry yogurt (Does anyone make this any more?). I would take the cup, turn it upside down on a plate, and with my fork, poke holes in the waxed paper bottom. Then, like a cup of custard or flan, I would pull the cup off to reveal a nice neat yogurt mound with those sweet purple berries oozing down the side.
Today, as the parent of a toddler, I wish for those paper yogurt cups for more than the enjoyment of opening them. Now whenever we eat yogurt, we must find a place to recycle those darn plastic cups. When plastic cups first came out, they had plastic tops. These, at least, could be reused. Today’s yogurt cups — plastic with foil tops — are useable only for starting plants from seed or mixing paint. In the yogurt industry’s attempt to use less plastic, they have inadvertently made their products more likely to be sent straight to the recycling, or worse, the landfill. A return to paper yogurt cups would mean an end to the growing pile of little plastic cup accumulating in my house and around the world. It would also mean the return of the joy of eating yogurt with the fruit on top!
Posted: Environment, Motherhood