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December 24, 2022 0

Air Monitoring in Chinatown: Next Steps from MassDEP

Should you go for a run today? If you live in Chinatown, you may want to stick to the treadmill. The neighborhood is strangled by major highways and roads, and every day thousands of automobiles pump harmful pollutants into the air. Over the years, studies from Tufts University School of Medicine have measured high levels of ultrafine particles in Chinatown. In 2019 the area received the dubious distinction of having the worst air quality in the state. Low air quality […]

December 23, 2022 0

Violent Crimes in Quincy Raise Bias Concerns Among Some Activists, Academics

by Sonia Cavazos

North Quincy resident Brian Kenney stood before the court on December 14 and received his sentence for assaulting, robbing, and hospitalizing Vietnam War veteran Liem Tran over a year ago. Kenney, 35, pleaded guilty to the crime earlier this year and was initially charged along with his wife, Angelina Kenney, 39, in March of last year. He was sentenced to three to five years in prison, along with three years of probation thereafter. During that probationary period Kenney will have […]

December 23, 2022 0

Malden Celebrates Passage of Transliteration Law

by DongDong Yang

Officials, voters, and community groups celebrated passage of Malden transliteration law on December 15, 2022. It marked a significant step towards ensuring full access to the ballot box for Chinese-speaking voters with low English proficiency. According to a 2021 American Community Survey, 22% of Malden households speak an Asian or Pacific Island language at home. About 40% of these households are considered to have limited-English speaking proficiency. Officials included Malden Mayor Gary Christenson, Massachusetts Senator Jason Lewis, Massachusetts State Representative […]

December 15, 2022 0

Asian American Elderly: Facing Poverty and Loneliness

by Aili Liu

People over the age of 50 who live alone are now one of the fastest-growing demographics in the nation. Up from 15 million in 2000, this demographic bloated to nearly 26 million this year. The causes may be connected to the changing perceptions around family and gender which resulted in high divorce and never-married rates in this generation. There were more women in the Baby Boomer generation who entered the workforce than ever before. There was also an emphasis on […]

December 14, 2022 0

COVID-19 Update

by Aili Liu

You may still remember the omicron surge last winter. As the temperature drops, experts warn us of another winter wave of COVID. While COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. have stayed relatively low since September, with about 37,000 new cases per day, it is hard to forget that more than 1 million Americans have died since the beginning of the pandemic. COVID-19 is still very present. The omicron subvariants have waned away, but the subvariant BA.5, dominant through October, […]

December 13, 2022 0

Opinion: Affirmative Action and Asian American Admissions

by Lydia Lowe

Some 45 years ago, I was a young Asian American college student in California, who worked with Chicano and Black students statewide to protest the first major attack on minority admissions. This grew out of a lawsuit by a rejected white applicant to UC Davis named Allan Bakke, who charged that he had suffered “reverse discrimination.” In 1978, so many Asian American college students realized that an attack on affirmative admissions programs would be a setback for Asian Americans that […]

December 12, 2022 0

New Developments in Chinatown

by Sonia Cavazos

Chinatown and downtown Boston will be going through massive changes as the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) moves forward with preparing for construction in and around the area. Some plans are currently under review and others have been approved and are slated to be underway, with the overall project set to end in the summer of 2023. Assistant Director of Communications for BPDA Brittany Comak, along with the Interim Director of Planning Kennan Rhyne, met with this reporter to […]

December 12, 2022 0

The Impact of Our Daily Carbon Footprint

by Kristen Si

People have plenty keeping them busy on their morning commutes to work or school. One topic likely on the top of their minds is their daily contribution to global warming – a looming issue taking center stage in recent decades for its widespread impact on the environment. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 27% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States are due to transportation – a good proportion of which comes from everyday morning commutes. […]

December 11, 2022 0

Sticker Shock for Eversource and Nationalgrid Customers

by Yiwei Zhao

The two major utilities in our area that deliver heating to our homes are Eversource and Nationalgrid. They purchase energy from different suppliers. Homes in New England are primarily heated by natural gas or by electricity that is generated by natural gas. Both companies have announced major increases in home heating costs this winter as demand skyrockets in cold weather. Prices are going up on both the delivery and the supply side. Eversource has requested the state Public Utilities Regulatory […]

December 10, 2022 0

Betting on an Alternative: How Boston is Helping to Alleviate the Problem of Gambling in the Asian-American Community

by Yiwei Zhao

Gambling has long been a problem in Asian American communities. A 2019 report by UMass Boston researchers, funded by the state and led by Institute for Asian American Studies researcher Dr. Carolyn Wong, featured interviews with approximately two dozen low-wage workers and retirees from Chinatown’s food and service industries. Recurring themes in their narratives revolved around “isolated lives in linguistically isolated neighborhoods,” a sameness to their jobs, and seemingly no healthier or more easily accessible alternatives for stress relief than […]

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