June 2015 - Neighborhood View

Featured

Negotiations continue to secure funding for Housing Families and Youth Harbor

June 30, 2015 karengarden 0

Laura Rosi, director of housing and advocacy for Housing Families, Inc. (HFI) of Malden presented the increased need for funding to the legislators at the State House on June 2. Rosi was accompanied by Kelly Irving, case manager, Rhonda Dunn and Clarissa Thomas, recipients of assistance from HFI. Joining were Sam Margolius, of Youth Harbor, and Cyril Fonrose, who was helped by Youth Harbor. Youth Harbor assists homeless, unaccompanied high school students with housing and individual life skills in order to become self-sufficient. There has been a request for $2 million put into the budget. Margolius thanked Senator Lewis for the support. Youth Harbor has not had public funding before. For the record, there are an estimated 5,000 homeless, unaccompanied high school students in Massachusetts. Fonrose told his story of being left on his own as a teenager. He was in Malden High School and was referred to Margolilus, the high school representative of Youth Harbor. Margolius was able to help Fonrose get housing and assisted him with college admissions. The group first met with […]

Ferryway students Skype chat with Malden Reads author

June 29, 2015 annedr 0

In J.D. Salinger’s classic young adult novel “A Catcher in the Rye,” the protagonist Holden Caufield notes “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. Then he laments wryly, “That doesn’t happen much, though.” Well it did at the Ferryway School! Fifth grade students read “Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library” by Chris Grabenstein, one of this year’s Malden Reads companion books. The book was a hit with the readers. On June 17, a select group came for an afterschool Skype chat with the author from his home in New York City. They got to “meet” Mr. Grabenstein via a projected image on a smartboard and ask him questions. Students prepared their questions ahead of time and the students each took turns asking them. They asked about the author’s writing process, where he got his ideas, how he came up with the […]

End of an era as Malden’s historic Ruderman’s building is torn down

June 22, 2015 thatandtheotter 4

Michael Young stands at the podium in the moments before the bidding begins at the Antique Co-op and Auction House on Eastern Avenue on May 23. As he speaks into the microphone the crowd before him goes silent, “At this very moment the old Ruderman’s is getting torn down,” says Young. “Head on down there this afternoon for a commemorative brick – it’s the end of an era.” After years of vacancy the Ruderman’s building at 42 Ferry St. has indeed been torn down. The last business to lease the space left in 2011. For years the building has stood with locked doors and newspaper lined windows, its fate uncertain. A CVS will be constructed where the old Ruderman’s once stood. CVS currently operates in three distinct locations in Malden: Pleasant Street, Eastern Avenue and Broadway. Neither an exact date for start of construction nor a projected open date for the location have been publicly announced. There has been neither confirmation nor denial of speculation that this CVS may serve as a replacement for the […]

FOOGI boasts 10 years of successful plant swaps

June 19, 2015 art4muse 0

On Saturday, June 13th Friends of Oak Grove, also known as FOOGI, held their annual community plant swap at the Malden Community Garden on the Malden bike path Now on its 10th year, the event was well attended by “old timers” as well as a new “crop” of Maldonian gardeners. People from the neighborhood showed up ready to share from their gardens, anything from small herbs to ready to plant pear, peach and fig trees. FOOGI’s mission statement includes turning neighbors into friends and organizing community activities. –Elena Martinez

“Touching Experience” showcases art inspired by the visually impaired

June 19, 2015 Ose Schwab 0

What does an art exhibit that considers the visually impaired look like? If the Touching Experience exhibition is any indication, it looks like a celebration among friends who discover through art what is possible for others. A few artists in Malden and the surrounding area offer this multimedia exhibition of touchable art through June. Held at the Beebe Estate Gallery in Melrose, a Touching Experience is a combination exhibit of touchable art and works produced by artists with some vision loss, and a performance series intended to appeal to everyone, including individuals with little or no sight. Touching Experience comes as a response to a friend’s journey going blind. Alyce Underhill, Georgetown artist and founder of the project, describes a day three years ago, when guitar maker and musician friend Joe LeBlanc comes to her photo exhibit. “He stands three inches away from the image. Even then, he has to ask his wife to describe what she sees,” she emotes. “That is so wrong.” “By not offering enough accessible art, we’ve cut people with vision […]

Friends of the Malden River rally for a clean up

June 17, 2015 karenbuckmalden 0

On June 4, over 60 residents and city officials of the tri-city area came to the Macarrio Room of the Malden Public Library to show their support for the Malden River. The Friends of Malden River petitioned Honeywell Inc. to inform the public of their corporate history (through Allied Chemical and Dye) with the river, their recent cleanup work, and their future intentions for 378 Commercial St. in Malden. Why summon Honeywell to Malden? EkOngKar Singh Khalsa, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, comments that Honeywell doesn’t own the property: “But … owns the problem.” The Friends of the Malden River, a grassroots community advocacy group, utilized Massachusetts laws in order to create transparency in regards to toxic chemical monitoring for Honeywell’s site, 378 Commercial St. This location has been dubbed as one of the most contaminated sites on the Malden River. Honeywell, Inc. is obligated by the law to publicly present their past, present and future plans to monitor this polluted site. The draft Public Involvement Plan was presented by Honeywell representatives […]

Community supported agriculture? Get those hands dirty

June 10, 2015 bzoe2015 0

JUST FOOD PLEASE CSA (community supported agriculture) is a relatively new phenomenon in the U.S. introduced in the early to mid-1980s. Thanks to the introduction by Robyn Van En at Indian Line Farm in S. Egremonot, MA, the CSA concept in North America was born. WHAT IS A CSA? In Massachusetts nearly every town has a CSA community that consists of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes the community’s farm. Typically, members, often called “share holders” of the farm pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm and the farmer’s salary. Also, the share holders share the risks as well; poor harvests due to bad weather, pests and the like. The big picture promises better produce and selection with farm to table choices that have not spent their lives in box cars and gassed beyond consumptive value. The partnership between farmer and consumer gained much support throughout those first years with Indian Line Farm season featuring a small apple orchard operation. The following years introduced […]

MALDEN’S CHEFS: David Stein and Stock Pot Malden, Part 2

June 7, 2015 escorsello 0

While David Stein was creating his business at Triangle, Inc., Francis Gouillart, academic, business consultant, and co-author of “The Power of Co-Creation” and his group of angel investors were exploring Malden as a possible city to put the theory of co-creation to work on a local level. “Co-creation is a management initiative, or form of economic strategy, that brings different parties together (for instance a company and a group of customers) in order to jointly produce a mutually valued outcome.” As a blue-collar city and the second most ethnically diverse in Massachusetts, Malden fit the criteria as a community they wanted to work with. Their goal was to try a social experiment by empowering people, especially women and minorities, through food service, by reaching out to Malden food businesses and supporting them by encouraging, coaching, and investing in start-up businesses as equity partners, hiring from the community and supporting community growth in food service. Gouillart and his group had heard of Stein and were interested in working with him. When they finally met, they found […]