Featured Archives - Page 37 of 42

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 […]

Boda Borg interactive quest sensation to occupy Sparks building

May 27, 2015 kyliegailgarcia 0

Enter a building with a maze of hallways and an array of doors. You have no idea what challenges lie behind each door and no instructions in regards to how to master these quests. This is the Swedish interactive quest sensation known as Boda Borg and, believe it or not, it is coming to Malden. Expected as early as this summer, Boda Borg will occupy the old Sparks department store building located on Pleasant Street in Malden. It will be a facility that houses about 18 quests, the first U.S. location. Ready to learn more about the challenges offered by Boda Borg? Take a look at this video of Neighborhood View reporter Kylie Garcia’s recent chat with Chad Ellis of Boda Borg.

Malden Square’s 480 Main offers posh city living

May 17, 2015 neighbormedia 0

The newest kid on the block? 480 Main, the apartment complex across from the Malden Public Library, opened its doors to Neighborhood View for a behind-the-scenes sneak peek. 480 Main offers city living at its best, replete with “sleek counter tops and cabinets, open floor plans, designer quality finishes, high ceilings and extraordinary telecommunications options in each home,” says Chris Todd from Priderock Capital Partners. Why did Priderock break ground here? “Malden is a great example of a city that is on the rise, re-making itself into a coveted, unique location with a presence and life independent of Boston for its residents but still readily accessible to all parts of the greater Boston area,” Todd continues. Of course, 480 Main was stymied a bit by the city’s snowiest February on record. “The past winter was certainly one of the most difficult times to build that we have seen in more than 20 years of developing in the Boston area,” Todd explains. “Nine feet of snow, limited access and weeks of freezing temperatures aren’t reasons to […]

Malden Sketch Group celebrates 20 years of sketching

May 15, 2015 sharonsantillo 0

When committees make decisions on the dispersal of grant money, there is always the hope that this little bit of money will lead to some greater good for the community. Who could ever have predicted that a little grant given to the Malden Sketch Group 20 years ago would have led to one of the longest lasting drawing groups in the whole Boston area? Nunzio Luca was there at the very beginning. Fred Seager, also one of the founders remembers, “I had a great deal of respect for him and consider him as a mentor. He was a much admired head of the Malden High School Art Department for years, and was a wonderful artist and good friend.” Nunzio and Fred decided to get a life drawing group together and they set out to find a space. “We were fortunate also to have the early support of the Malden Arts Council in the grant process, Niecie Degan and Nana Goldberg were facilitators of the cultural center building, an old fire station on Pearl Street. It […]

PHOTOS: Malden Public Library’s ‘Secrets in the Stacks’ event

May 13, 2015 art4muse 0

A lucky group of 20 Malden residents got a special tour of the Malden Public Library’s central stacks and rare books room as part of the 2015 Malden Reads event, “Secrets in the Stacks.” Malden Public Library’s director Dora St. Martin and assistant director Caron Guigli led the tour. Participants had a chance to see and learn and explore the vast collection of treasures the library stack! The tour started at the lower art gallery of the Converse Memorial building, were rare treasures were displayed for participants to see and explore. They were serious when they said . . . . . . attendees must be in good physical condition and be able to climb ladders! Our tour guide, “the librarian,” led us through the stacks, pointing out rare book dating back to 1885, the year the library was built, various tools and systems that had been used for the borrowing flow and creative materials used in library construction .,. the amazing glass floors. –Elena Martinez

MALDEN CHEFS: David Stein and Stock Pot Malden

April 27, 2015 paintedtulip88 0

Long-time Malden resident, David Stein, is as warm and colorful as his red-flowered pants. We spoke at the Polka Dot Commissary on Pearl Street where he described his life as a chef, entrepreneur, musician and partial owner of Stock Pot Malden. In 1976, David Stein was washing dishes in Mystic Seaport at Howard Johnson’s on the highway. “I liked the line cooks,” he remembers. “They were cool.” A year later he was working at his first cooking job, part-time, in the cafeteria where he attended college. He moved to Indiana and in the late 1970s, to the San Francisco bay area around the time when Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse, the first farm to market restaurant, and the California New American cuisine movement began to take off. By this time he had been a line cook in a steak restaurant while playing music with his wife, both semi-professional musicians, and had cooked at a few other jobs. He realized his passion for both cooking and music and that working as a cook allowed him to play the […]

Mayor Gary Christenson weighs in on ‘toughest winter ever’

April 24, 2015 whitedec 0

“Toughest winter ever,” said Mayor Gary Christenson, referring to the winter that would not quit. The snow started January 24 and kept on every weekend after that through the entire month of February and on into March. The snowfall kept getting higher, the temperatures lower and it felt like winter was just beginning instead of almost being on its way out. No doubt about it, it was a brutal. Mayor Gary Christenson of Malden along with Robert Knox, director of public works, broke it down for me. Having had 21 years with the DPW, Knox had pretty much seen it all. “There’s plenty of prep in advance of winter,” Knox shared. “Having made it this far and almost through January, the expectation was for a normal winter.” Knox explained that realistically the city is equipped t o handle a foot of snow. In the past, with at least a foot on the ground and more to follow, the DPW would try to start snow removal sooner rather than later. Historically, past storms were follow by […]

Warren Thorburn reflects on his Malden summer job from 1945

April 22, 2015 sharonsantillo 0

This is the time of year teenagers start thinking about summer jobs. What kind of jobs were available to teens in Malden seventy years ago? Warren Thorburn was just fifteen years old in the summer of 1945 when he took a job as a telegram delivery boy for the Malden office of Western Union. WWII in the Pacific was still raging, families were using ration stamps for food items and gasoline and the United States was just recovering from the Great Depression. There was no reliable or affordable long distance phone service then, and the only way to send a message quickly over any distance was by telegram using a system of electrical impulses and Morse Code. A base price of 10 words, and higher prices for additional words, kept most messages short not unlike texts and tweets today. Western Union had ads in all the big magazines of the day, such as Life and Look, urging people to send greetings or money by telegram. Warren lived with his family near Teele Square in Somerville. […]