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Good books for gift giving

It’s December. Time for a holiday gift book roundup. Two recommendations are the works of Massachusetts authors whose books, no matter what the titles, are really about relationships.

No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Lessons for Young Adults, published by John Wiley & Sons, is downtown Boston author John Spooner’s follow-up to No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Letters to My Grandchildren.

Spooner’s day job is investment advisor. He has also written magazine and newspaper articles, a couple of novels, and a series of financial advice books over a long writing career.

This latest book is aimed at men and women just beginning their careers—the 22 to 32 year-olds who are more often associated with social media, technology and start-ups that capitalize on social media and technology.

But Spooner’s book has little to do with these millennial activities. Although its title explains that he will address money matters, the advice is not much about money either.

Instead Spooner advises young adults to cultivate good relationships, make time to listen to other people’s stories and operate with optimism. It’s all about a good life, rich in friends, family, co-workers, and the stable of helpers—doctors, lawyers, plumbers, car valets and waiters—who help you get through both good and bad times.

This is a personal book. He describes the loss of his beloved wife of 45 years to cancer, the loss of his father with whom he tussled as well as held dear, and the pleasure of spending time and getting advice himself from old camp friends, college roommates and new people he meets in activities he forces himself to participate in, even when he doesn’t want to be bothered.

Some of his stories, especially about lawyers, journalists and IRS agents, descend into stereotypes that are a bit curmudgeonly and surely don’t reflect his total experience, given what a good outlook he usually has. But these clichés also add to the reader’s understanding of the author—he has his prejudices too, like everyone else.

Moreover, the advice he gives is good not only for young adults but for older ones too. My favorites are about buying jewelry—don’t expect it to appreciate because it won’t. And join clubs early in your career before you make enemies—you will make enemies if you are doing your job, he says—and before those enemies can blackball you.

Anne Fadiman’s At Large and At Small is my second recommendation for holiday gift giving. Fadiman lives in Whately, Massachusetts, in the Pioneer Valley, with her husband, author George Howe Colt. This is not a new book. It was published in 2007. But that is a trouble with books—if you missed the review or you don’t have a reliable librarian or friend with good recommendations, you might never hear of the book again.

In this book of essays you will learn about the author’s marital bed, her fascination with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 17th century mail service in London, ice cream, catching butterflies and her family’s move from Manhattan to western Massachusetts. The author’s brother, their parents, her husband and their children appear again and again in a loving way.

She has the gift all writers want: her writing is so good that before you know it you are as interested in the minutia and trivia of a strange topic as she is. You can’t put the book down because each sentence about flag raising or the Arctic is so well crafted that a reader just keeps reading, as if he or she were sailing through the atmosphere in a glider.

Spooner’s book and Fadiman’s have commonalities. Even though short, Spooner’s book has an index, which is a nice touch. Fadiman’s has a list of sources from which she has quoted.

And they can be read in short intervals. So they could be part of an outdoor library in a park, lying on a shelf in a bathroom or placed beside a guest bed for a little literary pick-me-up before a good sleep.

Happy holiday shopping.

 

Giving thanks

You will probably be sitting around a table soon telling friends and family what you are thankful for.

We think about the big things—those friends and family members, the good food, good health, a satisfying job. We can easily forget other enjoyments, amenities and endeavors that enrich our lives.

I’m here to remind you of such enrichments.

For example, give thanks for the new 311. Punch that into your phone, and City Hall answers. You can report a missed trash bag, a street light that is out or a dangerous pothole. 311 is not 911, which is for emergencies. 311, though, keeps all those little city pieces functioning.

Now that I’ve mentioned it, let’s thank the trash pickup. It works. The trucks are clean considering what they handle. They come when they say they will. The guys are pretty neat in the pickup. What they leave behind is mostly the fault of lazy residents who deposit their trash the night before, leaving 12 dark hours for the rats to chew through the bags and strew the contents all over the sidewalk.

This is the time of year to be thankful for winterberry, that native New England holly flashing its bunched, small, neon-red fruits in the region’s marshes right now. Birds gobble up the drupes by mid-December when these shrubs become indistinguishable from the other bare branches you can see. Wade into the wetlands and harvest the berries, or buy them at florist shops. But be wary of poking them into your window box. The birds will swoop in for a feast, and you will be left with bare sticks.

I’m thankful for New England churches, not necessarily for their religion but for their architecture. Every small town has one marking its center, many built before the separation of church and state. Along with Cape Cod, Federal and Greek Revival-style houses, they create a sense of place that few other American regions can match. They embody Louis Sullivan’s directive that “form follows function.”

It is too bad Walter Gropius hadn’t seen them when he began his career in Germany, since their simple shapes, balanced features, clear volumes and modest ornamentation anticipated his theories by more than a century. Some Bauhaus or International Style buildings are fine, but those old Congregational churches comprise some of the world’s best simple architecture.

We also should thank the Registry of Motor Vehicles this year for not sweating the small stuff. It finally allowed Lindsay Miller to wear a spaghetti strainer on her head for her driver’s license photo. According to a report in the Boston Globe, Miller calls herself a “Pastafarian”—a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who, its followers say, might have created the world. While we’re at it, let’s be thankful for yet another religion based on magic and improbabilities. Whatever spins your dial, as one might say.

We should also be thankful for Police Commissioner William Evans. He won’t remember me, but I met him at Back Bay neighborhood meetings when he was District 4’s captain. He was straightforward, unruffled, sensible and articulate about policing matters. When he talks, as he did recently telling Bostonians the police were beefing up security at certain venues in response to the Paris mayhem, he commands respect and admiration. Lucky Bostonians.

We should be thankful for our parks, especially the newest one. The Greenway has come into its own, with trees, shrubs and perennials maturing nicely, a staff that calms neighbors rather than inflaming them, and lovable activities, attractions and art we.

I was skeptical about the airborne Echelman sculpture, since her similar works had appeared many times elsewhere. I was afraid it would be like those dreadful cows that surfaced in every city.

I was wrong. The aerial sculpture was fabulous. We should thank the owners of the buildings at 125 High Street, International Place and the Intercontinental Hotel, from which it hung, for being good sports.

Finally, we should give thanks for musicians. The night after President Kennedy was murdered, Leonard Bernstein assembled the New York Philharmonic for a television performance of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony. The music didn’t change the tragedy, but it reminded listeners that civilization’s beauty is bigger than some creepy guy with a gun.

After the massacres on November 13, a pianist set up his grand piano on a Paris street and played Imagine, confirming that the Beatles have made it into the classical musical canon.

It didn’t change things either, but the performance reminded listeners that there is a better world out there than eight pathetic murderers.

Christmas thanks

A tree is being cut down today in Nova Scotia with great fanfare. Soon it will travel by flat-bed truck to the Boston Common, where it will be erected, decorated and loved. Similar trees have occupied the Common or the Pru yearly since 1971.

A tribute to Americans’ Christian holiday, the tree’s journey is mostly because of a Jewish man, Abraham Ratshesky. This blending of countries and cultures is fitting at a time of year in which we should all be celebrating everyone’s way of marking the winter solstice.

Abraham Ratshesky was a co-founder of Boston’s U.S. Trust Company, a founder of Beth Israel Hospital and a Back Bay resident. He was appointed by President Herbert Hoover to serve as minister to what was then called Czecho-Slovakia. He still has family in the area. His great-nephew Alan Morse lives in Brookline.

In 1917 America and Canada were at war with Germany. Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the closest North American port to Europe, so it was busy.

Early in the morning of December 6, Massachusetts Gov. Samuel McCall received a short telegram. Something terrible had happened in Halifax, though it was unclear what that thing was, according to the Nova Scotian author Blair Beed. A Halifax survivor had run three miles to the only operating telegraph station to send the cryptic message.

Bostonians later pieced together the story. A few days earlier the French ship, the SS Mont Blanc, had been loaded with war munitions in New York. It stopped in Halifax in open ocean on December 5 because the port’s submarine nets had been lowered for the night, blocking the harbor. Early the next morning the ship proceeded through a narrow strait to the inner harbor while the Norwegian steamer, the SS Imo, loaded with relief supplies destined for Belgium, was leaving.

A tugboat impeded the Imo’s path, and in trying to get back on course, the steamer rammed the Mont Blanc. A small fire erupted on the Mont Blanc, and the crew abandoned ship.

As the Mont Blanc sloshed toward a pier, the fire grew, and the munitions exploded with such force that the ship’s anchor shaft was found three miles away.

It wasn’t just fire that destroyed the town. A blast wave tore down houses and tore up people, and a tidal wave drowned them.

Throughout that first day Gov. McCall tried through downed lines to reach Halifax by phone or telegram. When he couldn’t, he acted anyway. He commissioned Abraham Ratshesky to leave by train to do whatever needed to be done. Through a blizzard Ratshesky led a group of rescuers—doctors, nurses, Red Cross officials, railroad officials and journalists—without knowing what they would face. That train arrived on December 8 at 7 a.m. It was the first major help Halifax got.

When Ratshesky arrived, he found a city with neighborhoods completely destroyed. His entourage was met by Mr. C. A. Hayes, the general manager of the Canadian Government Railways, whose trains couldn’t get through from the west. When Mr. Hayes saw the Americans, he burst into tears. It was later estimated that more than 2,000 people died.

Ratshesky set up hospitals, organized a food supply, arranged for housing, and generally got things going. The people of Boston came through too. On the first day they learned what happened, Bostonians raised $100,000 for Halifax’s relief. That was at a time when $12 a week was the prevailing wage.

Massachusetts automobile dealers sent $25,000 worth of trucks, ten chauffeurs and gasoline. The state sent horses and carts, four ambulances and x-ray machines. Soon other American cities were sending help, but Boston, with a quick-thinking governor, an able organizer and the closest proximity, got there first. The help lasted for several years.

Ratshesky was able to leave by December 13 but the Red Cross stayed until January 5, 1918. When Gov. McCall finally paid a visit, he was honored with a degree from Dalhousie University, and a temporary housing block was named after him.

At Christmas in 1918, Halifax sent Boston a tree in gratitude for the city’s help. In 1971, the county’s Christmas tree producers revived the gift, and now Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources annually selects a spruce or fir from someone’s yard or field for shipment. The owner is asked to donate the tree, and the answer is usually a resounding “yes.”

The Boston Parks Department is responsible for the tree on this end. Ryan Woods, that department’s director of external affairs, said he spends most of the fall dealing with logistics around the event.

The tree arrives the Friday before Thanksgiving and is illuminated with celebration on December 3.

Nova Scotian poet Clark Hall long ago penned this acknowledgement of the help Bostonians gave to Haligonians:

 

When good old Boston heard the news,

She answered like a flash,

And sent us food and clothing

Likewise men and cash.

 

As soon as they received the news,

Without the least delay,

They got their cars in readiness

And started on their way.

 

God Bless our neighbours to the South,

God Bless them one and all

Who responded so magnificently

To humanity’s urgent call.

 

Where’er that spangled banner floats,

On water or on land,

You’ll always find them ready

To reach out a helping hand.

 

They sent us their trained nurses

With a brotherly, Christian will,

And in the medical line, the best

Of Massachusetts’ skill.

 

They attended to our cuts and torn

In an earnest, faithful manner,

Those ministering angels in our midst,

From beneath that starry banner.

 

We never shall forget them

Till we go to our grave.

And may the flag of freedom

Forever o’er them wave.

Reducing your carbon footprint

Let’s pretend. It is 2024. Senate bill 1747, An Act Combating Climate Change, passed the Massachusetts legislature and was signed by the governor in 2017. The bill made Massachusetts a leader in combating carbon emissions.

A couple who lives in downtown Boston spent $419.61 on natural gas fuel for heat and hot water in April of that year. That is about average for them for a month, since during winter they need more heat and, in warmer months, only hot water.

The bill for their fuel, however, is a bit higher. They also pay a carbon fee—$40 for every metric ton of carbon dioxide their fuel emits. In their case, for April, that amount is 1.65 metric tons of carbon dioxide, triggering a fee of $66. So their April bill is actually $485.61. Over 12 months, their household natural gas will emit over 11 metric tons of carbon dioxide, increasing their annual fuel bill by $446. That’s a lot of money for heat and hot water.

The couple doesn’t drive much because they live downtown, so their one car guzzled only 35.8 gallons of gasoline in March. Ordinarily they would have paid $2.41 per gallon at the pump, totaling $86.26. Again, this is about average for them.

But it is year seven after An Act Combating Climate Change passed. So for gasoline that month, they’ll pay an extra fee of 36 cents per gallon or $12.89, calculated at .009 metric tons per gallon, for the carbon dioxide their car emits. Yearly, the fee would cost them approximately $150.

That’s not the end of the story, however. Under this act, each person in their household will receive a rebate of $225. They will still be out of pocket for $146—money they’d like to save.

The obvious place for this couple to save money is not with their car—they don’t use it that much. But their heating and hot water bill is on the high side. They’ll figure out some way to save on heating costs, perhaps insulting pipes or walls, replacing leaky windows, maybe even replacing their furnace for a newer, less polluting one.

The result: not only does the couple save money in the future, but their consumption emits fewer pollutants. That means slowing down global warming. The polar bears survive.

State Sen. Michael Barrett sponsored this legislation after he ran in a contested primary in 2012. When he asked his future constituents what they wanted him to work on it was health care, the economy and climate change. “People were freaked out at the weather,” he said. The same message came from all income groups and every town.

“I wanted to find a game changer,” he said. “A carbon fee would get all of us in the game. It’s the single most effective thing a state government can do.”

How does he know if no state has tried it?

Look at what’s happened in British Columbia, he said. That province’s carbon fee began in 2008, increasing every year until 2012. BC’s fuel consumption per person has dropped by 16 percent, according to The Economist. Using less fossil fuel has not hurt BC’s job growth or its economy, proving wrong Republicans who make such claims in opposing such fees.

Proponents point out some things to consider in this legislation:

* The fee would start small and rise over a period of seven years to give householders time to adjust their practices and usage.

* Households will face a penalty if they use MORE fossil fuels, and they will enjoy a benefit if they use less. This motivates people to change their behavior.

* Low and moderate income families will NOT be burdened, since rebates will typically equal or be greater than the fee they pay.

* A formula will protect residents in rural areas, who must drive more than urbanites, from excessive fees.

* Most economists agree that a carbon fee is the most effective method to cut carbon pollution.

* State Sen. Marc Pacheco has also introduced a bill to put a price on carbon. It would set aside a small percentage of the fee to invest in clean energy.

* A carbon fee has been proposed in both Congress and the US Senate. It didn’t get far. But carbon fee legislation is now under consideration in 12 states or provinces.

* The fee requires no new bureaucracy, regulations or taxes, which could help it gain support from some Republicans, at least those who acknowledge climate change and the role fossil fuels play in the phenomenon.

Several Republicans already have come out in favor of it, including Greg Mankiw, a Harvard economics professor and a George W. Bush advisor. He claims that most economists agree with him.

It may be the cowardly way out—to let Canada experiment with new ideas before we try them. But taking this step with Barrett’s legislation or something like it, seems a good way to motivate all of us to change our behaviors. Stay tuned.

Scandal: city councilors took trips

Since this is election week, it seems appropriate to consider recent news about our city councilors. They have enjoyed overseas trips—Israel, Japan, Korea and Taiwan were mentioned.

Josh Zakim, Tito Jackson and Tim McCarthy met important local officials in Israel and also had a chance to “bathe in the relaxing and healthy sulfur springs at the Mineral Beach and float in the Dead Sea,” according to a Boston Globe news report. Matt O’Malley and Michelle Wu were also fingered as visiting foreign countries.

The report listed who paid for the trips. It wasn’t taxpayer money, heaven forbid. It was the Jewish Community Relations Council, the councilors’ campaign committees, the Taekwondo Foundation, Taipei’s Economic and Cultural Office in New York, the American Council of Young Political Leaders, the Japan Center for International Exchange and a US State Department grant. Pretty benign stuff.

So the question is: should city councilors take foreign trips?

Absolutely.

Furthermore, I’d like to see more public officials going abroad. Overseas trips ought to be a requirement of heads of departments at all levels of government. They need to see what the rest of the world is doing. In a small city up in the corner of a big country, Bostonians can get parochial awfully quickly.

It’s not just Bostonians who think they know it all. Too many Americans are ignorant of the rest of the world. In this island nation that borders on only two countries and two wide oceans, most of us have little experience outside the continent. American “exceptionalism” appears to mean we don’t have anything to learn from anyone else. Such attitudes hold us back. We stagnate. We don’t have a clue because we never leave home.

In 2014, for example, only six percent of Americans took a trip overseas, according to the US Department of Commerce. If you count Canada and Mexico, the percentage rises to seven. The second most frequented location was the Caribbean, probably meaning a resort or a cruise. I doubt we can count those trips as foreign.

Even fewer Americans probably travel abroad than the percentages indicate because some trips are taken by the same person more than once during the year.

It’s too expensive for many Americans to travel abroad since 43 percent of us don’t make enough money to pay federal income taxes, says businessinsider.com. We’re a poor nation.

Our work lives are also a barrier since Americans typically get less vacation time than the rest of the world.

Never leaving the US means we never learn that Turkey has fabulous highways —Turkey?—or that London and Paris have nailed public transit, or that congested Rome has increased business prosperity by banning cars from many historic streets.

Isolated here, we don’t learn that other countries build more affordable housing or have better mobile phone service. Staying here, watching the influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants, some Americans fear the English language is vanishing. Those worriers need to go to Indonesia to see signs in English posted next to those in the native language. Trips abroad would reassure them that English is alive and well throughout the world.

So here’s my plan. City councilors, keep taking those trips so you can learn how foreign cities solve their problems. And let’s extend those benefits to other public employees.

Let’s send Boston Public Works Commissioner Mike Dennehy to Berlin and Istanbul to learn how those cities keep clean.

Let’s get MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola and the new MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board over to London to see how a real public transportation system works.

Transport for London, for example, has tunneled 13 miles under that city to build the Crossrail line, connecting 40 rail and underground stations on a route that will ease congestion and enable riders to get to their destinations faster. Compare that effort to plodding Boston, which can’t manage to bore only one and a half miles of tunnel to connect North and South Stations.

While we’re at it, let’s get Mayor Walsh over to London. After his election, he took a well-deserved victory lap in the country of his ancestors. But when London’s mayor came to Boston, there were rumors Marty stiffed him. Who knows if it’s true. To get along in America, it helps to shed old country attitudes. Besides, Marty needs to see London’s traffic congestion pricing at work. And since one of his goals is to keep Bostonians happy, he should go on to Copenhagen, home of the world’s happiest people.

So if you are a public employee and you want to see how others do the job you’ve been handed, see me. I’ll go to bat for you if reporters get on your case.

Air rage

On August 6, a United Airlines passenger at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was arrested after he refused to turn off his cell phone and then punched another passenger.

On September 11, a 27-year-old man on a JetBlue flight stood up and urinated onto the passengers seated in front of him.

On September 14, a woman lost it on an American Airlines flight from Miami to Chicago. She hit a crew member and another passenger. She was arrested after the plane made an emergency landing in Indianapolis.

On October 18, a man on a Southwest Airline flight from Los Angeles tried to choke the woman in front of him because she reclined her seat.

I know just how those perpetrators feel. (Well, maybe not the guy who peed.) And I’m not blaming them. These are passengers so fed up with the airlines that they lose all sense. They may have had their victims, but they are victims themselves—victims of airline irresponsibility, greed and scorn for their customers.

Have you taken a flight recently? It is humiliating. No room for your belongings, since everyone pulls a carry-on so as to avoid the charges the airlines impose for checking a bag. No room for you either. A person with medium-length legs cannot fit comfortably into the three-person row. You can’t use your tray table to work on your laptop or rest your book. The seat in front of you is too close even if the person sitting in it never reclines.

If they recline? That’s when the discomfort grows so great that people start complaining with their fists.

Business class is not much better. With a husband who has endured many flights for his work, I can sometimes use his miles to fly business class, hoping for more comfort. It’s not to be had. The electronics, which work poorly in most airlines, have captured the space between the seats, so even business class seats are narrower. Some airlines promise sleep on overnight trips because business class seats lie down. But lie-down is a lie.

On a recent overnight Delta flight, the seats sloped and the space for your feet was so cramped you couldn’t turn over. I emerged with a bruise on one ankle from banging into the sides. My husband declared those seats were like coffins.

On an overnight Turkish Air flight the “lie-down” seats were so sloped that passengers spent all night sliding down and trying to push themselves up.

Last year British Airways had real lie-down seats. They were comfortable, and a passenger could actually sleep. But that might have been only on one kind of plane. I can’t guarantee they still have them.

So why aren’t passengers beating up the airlines instead of each other? Why aren’t we holding sit-ins? Mounting fly-ins? Why aren’t we blocking the doors to the jet ways until the airlines treat us with respect?

People are complaining more to the Department of Transportation, but it’s not about the discomfort and tight quarters, even though that’s what they’re fighting about on the planes themselves. DoT lists as the most frequent complaints canceled flights, lost baggage, ticketing mistakes, food or lack thereof, excessive charges or no refunds for missed flights or changing plans, and rude employees. Rude employees is probably understandable since ticket agents and flight attendants are on the front line putting up with so many disgruntled passengers.

According to an article in USA Today, American and United had the most complaints in the first half of this year and JetBlue had the least among the long-haul airlines.

A forum for complainers exists at www.airlinecomplaints.org, but there is no evidence it has any effect on either the airlines or those who regulate them.

One organization, however, says it has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to put a moratorium on seat-size changes and passenger space. Paul Hudson, the president of FlyersRights, which bills itself as the “largest non-profit airline consumer organization,” says overcrowding is second or third in the complaints it hears. Hudson believes minimum seat standards should take into account how long it takes passengers to get out of an airplane in an emergency. Crowding so many passengers into an airplane is “unsafe because airplanes are required to be able to be evacuated in 90 seconds with half the exits disabled,” he said. He also said the reason the FAA never hears complaints about overcrowding is that “they have no category for that.”

Hudson and I discussed rumors floating around about double-decking passengers, installing bicycle seats and how over-crowding contributes to passengers getting blood clots. It was all quite depressing.

For now, the best idea is, whenever possible, take the train.

Statistics

You probably already know that the United States has the third most land area, 9,629 square kilometers, of all the countries in the world. Russia is almost twice as large. Canada is a hair bigger with 9,985.

The Mississippi-Missouri river system is the fourth longest, behind the Nile, the Amazon and the Yangtze. Except for the Congo, the next six river systems are ones you’ve probably never heard of. The Irtysh, somewhere in Asia, is number 10.

Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world at 82 square kilometers, but the Caspian Sea is more than four times larger, covering 371 kilometers.

This information comes from The Economist’s 2015 Pocket World in Figures, mailed to subscribers annually.

Geography in this book is easy to understand. You know what it means. It will take longer to float down the Mississippi than it will the Irtysh, wherever it is, everything being equal.

But other statistics are unfathomable. What does it mean that China has the highest foreign debt, at $754 billion, while Russia has the second highest at $539.5 billion, and Iraq is 30th on the list with $60.2 billion? In the list of 46 countries that make this list measuring the “debt owed to non-residents and repaying in foreign currency,” no North American or Western European country’s name appears. Greece doesn’t even make the list, although Hungary, with $203.8 billion does. Is the ranking important for us to know?

The helpful booklet tells us that the fine, upright citizens of Denmark have the highest household debt as a percentage of disposable income than any other country’s citizens. The Danes? Profligate?

The Netherlands and Ireland are close behind. Citizens of the US are way down the list, at number 16. Should we be happy at our ranking, which is below many fine countries—Norway, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden? Maybe it means we’re not making as much as we could of our buying power.

Mozambique had 53.1 percent of all women in the work force in 2012, the highest of any nation. Some other countries on the list are Rwanda, Guadeloupe and Tajikistan. When many women work, it appears that their countries are poor.

Diabetes affects Saudi Arabians more than western countries. In fact a good number of countries with high rates of diabetes are also in the Middle East, as well as the Caribbean and South Pacific. Why?

Cancer affects poorer nations more than richer ones. Mongolia takes first place in deaths per 100,000 persons. You might surmise it is because poorer nations have less access to effective health care. You’d probably be right, but there may be other factors also.

HIV/AIDS ravages every country in Africa, but again, no western country is listed in the list of those most affected.

Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and New Zealand have the greatest number of cars per 1,000 persons. So the US is not the most car-obsessed nation in the world. That was a big surprise. But why Monaco? At 2.02 square kilometers or .78 square miles, you can walk the whole length of the country in less than an hour.

All the talk about Boston’s high office rents seems overblown when you see the figures in this book. London’s West End takes first place, with Hong Kong, Beijing, and Moscow close behind. Rio, New York, Mumbai and San Francisco’s downtown make the list of 18 cities. Boston is cheap in comparison and nowhere to be found. (Again, so much for some people’s hopes to be “world class,” which probably does mean high office rents.)

Corruption is perceived as lowest in Denmark and New Zealand. It is perceived as highest in Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia. The US is perceived as neither free of corruption or corrupt since it makes neither list.

The Economist suggests it is a good time to buy a house in France. Prices went down about 1.5 percent in 2013, the latest year for which they had figures. In the US, however, prices increased more than 13 percent.

While the US spent more than $600 billion for defense in 2013, almost six times more than China, which was next on the list, as a portion of the nation’s GDP it was low, at 3.7 percent, placing the US at number 15 after Afghanistan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Israel. Apparently geography is saving us.

Statistics like those The Economist provides are fascinating, puzzling and can become an obsession. So we have to read that magazine to find out what these numbers mean. Maybe getting you to subscribe is the whole reason behind this little book of figures.

More ideas

Last week this column offered ideas for improving life in Boston. Several brave souls suggested transportation improvements that would reduce traffic on Boston’s streets. They were happy to be identified.

Other suggestions came from people who did not want to be identified or who did not make it clear I could name them. So the sources of these suggestions will remain anonymous. I asked for serious or nutty suggestions, the stuff people dream about. Sometimes it is tough to get things done in this city, but there certainly is no shortage of ideas. Here are some interesting ones.

  • Here’s the first. It’s a picture. The rest of the ideas follow in no particular order.

Boston Long Wharf R60 shadow option B v1 (1)

  • The city should lease at no-cost or a low cost underutilized and underdeveloped city-owned properties to be turned into affordable housing, said one observer. Such sites might include existing police, fire and library sites. The lease would require developers to incorporate the old uses and upgrade them. An example is the 1980s office building at 125 High Street. A firehouse occupies its ground floor.

 

  • A mother-daughter team saw a need for subsidized housing for young people working for high-tech startups. “Young people’s careers are likely to be in small companies much more than earlier generations,” observed the mother. Those small companies often offer low base salaries, with the chance of a more substantial payoff if the company is successful. So the micro-apartments supposedly built to house this generation are unaffordable until (and if) they hit the jackpot.

The daughter thought that such housing would spur creativity and energize the inhabitants.

 

  • A man who works downtown would like to see more Boston streets become pedestrian zones that attract shoppers and strollers—at least for some days of the week throughout the summer. “Why not close down Newbury Street to traffic?” he asked. He would put out chairs and tables to make it even more appealing. He’d like to see merchants holding sidewalk sales on those days. He’d like live music. He clearly wants energy and activity.

 

  • A pedestrian advocate wants to create slow-zone neighborhoods with a top speed limit of 20 miles per hour throughout the city, much as New York City has done. She too would like to see streets closed, especially on either side of the Greenway on Sundays from April through November. She points to the closing of Memorial Drive, which hosts some events on Sundays, but also simply opens the street to playing, walking and biking.

She suggests that all Boston residents get the same pair of bright green or gold sneakers and wear them to signal how much we walk.

 

  • A North End resident’s pipe dreams are many: A systematic and extensive public transportation network, rather like that of the streetcar suburb days, and a downtown school, perhaps in “one of those mysterious public buildings like City Hall or the Lindemann Center.”

“My vote is the Lindemann, just because it has a pool,” she said. She’d also like a decrease in class size in Boston’s public schools, with a later start in the day for high schoolers, unless they choose an early morning elective.

She suggests imposing rent control in certain business districts to “give smaller merchants a chance.”

Finally, she wants the old Filene’s Basement to return.

 

  • One man who once lived in Portland, Oregon, believed Boston could profit from adapting some of that city’s practices.

He suggested that the city designate “village centers,” consisting of several block-square areas where residents can congregate, hang out and satisfy such basic needs as access to fresh, healthy food. To the extent possible, centers should be located so all Boston residents would be within a ten-to-fifteen minute walk. The anchor tenant for each center should be a branch public library consisting of ample seating, computers, free WiFi, a coffee shop, sandwich shop, child-care/play area, and books and magazines. The city should make sure there are sidewalks for easy pedestrian access to centers, and parking and vehicular traffic should be planned to maximize convenience for pedestrians and cyclists. “Part of the cost of the plan,” he said, “could be financed by substantially increased parking fees, including a charge for resident parking permits ranging from $200/year downtown to $20/year in outlying neighborhoods, and smart parking meters that charge fees based on time of day and location, ranging from $10 an hour in prime-time downtown locations, to $1 an hour elsewhere.”

 

There you have it, folks. Lots of ideas. If you want to send in yours, I’ll be happy to accept them.

Ideas

This seems to be an ideas era. It’s as if we need a fresh start, that we’ve run out of old ones, that surely there’s something we can do to make this old city come alive.

The biggest idea, the Olympics, didn’t do it, except for introducing us to Widett Circle, a large acreage everyone had forgotten. Mayor Walsh has been asking for ideas for a project he calls Imagine Boston 2030—you might be surprised to realize this is only 15 years away, as short a time it has been since Y2K, which was predicted to be the end of the universe, or at least computing, as we know it.

We will know more about the Mayor Walsh-inspired ideas after the community process concludes early this winter. UMass has instituted IDEAS Mass Boston, the ideas of which haven’t gotten a lot of play, but, hey, they’re only ideas.

So why not have some publicized ideas right now. Ideas are cheap. You don’t have to build infrastructure, make sure women and minorities are represented, include affordable housing, or go through zoning. We’ve been talking so much about ideas, I wanted to hear some. I figured it was going to be up to me to ask.

So I did. I contacted friends, public officials, civic observers and just plain folks. I asked them what their ideas were for making Boston a better place to live. Wacky, unrealistic, silly or fun was all okay, since sometimes really good ideas evolve from such way-out thoughts. Serious was okay too. Some idea people wanted to remain anonymous. Others said, what the heck, use my name, so in this column I am doing so.

The most common ideas involved transportation—a challenging arena in this traffic-clogged city.

Matt Conti, who runs the popular neighborhood news website, www.NorthEndWaterfront.com, was inspired by Venice, Italy. He would like a more extensive water transportation system in the harbor. “Right now,” he wrote in an email, “water taxis and ferries are point-to-point and not well used.” He predicts that a “roundabout loop” of small boats that could accommodate people hopping on and off from East Boston to Charlestown, the North End, downtown, Fort Point, the Seaport District and Southie, would be better used, especially if it were “regular, flexible and cheap.”

Those attributes are true for all public transportation.

State Rep. Jay Livingstone  also focused on water transportation. He likes an idea suggested by the Cambridge City Manager of developing a water taxi service between Boston and Cambridge with several stops along the river and into Boston Harbor.

Since we can’t add many more vehicles to our streets, these water routes might be an attractive option.

Jay also wanted a continuous bike and pedestrian path from the North End to Watertown on the Boston side of the Charles and from Charlestown to Watertown on the Cambridge side, with improved connections between Boston and Cambridge. Those connections would include a long hoped-for, but buried-under-design South Bank Bridge, which would get people safely across the train tracks at North Station.

While an underpass at the Anderson Bridge on JFK Street between Cambridge and Boston is now in the works, other bridges still prevent bikes and pedestrians from freely moving along the river in safety.

Jay said he was also pushing for a better pedestrian and bike crossing near the Museum of Science.

The transportation theme continued with both former Downtown North executive director Bob O’Brien and architect Brad Bellows thinking we don’t need a new idea.

We’ve got an old one, they said. The North-South Rail Link should have been constructed long ago, but there is no time like the present. They suggested this old idea long before Governors Dukakis and Weld met with Charlie Baker this summer. They pointed out that such a link would reduce commuter trips as well as traffic within Boston itself. They say this link would support expanded real estate development opportunities and economic growth.

They think Boston is way behind other cities in this kind of transportation planning. So even though their idea is not a new one, they say it is the most obvious idea that can be brought to fruition.

Next week, there will be other ideas—not all about transportation.

Your house? Think again.

It is September so my thoughts naturally turn to property rights.

It’s not so outlandish. In September, downtown Boston has many new permanent residents—new owners of houses, condominiums, lofts. Those new to downtown Boston may have to learn new attitudes toward their property.

You may be one of these new owners. You may have a deed to your property now. But it is likely that there have been many owners before you. And there will be many owners after you. You’re a part of a continuum. Your property is not all about you.

This is especially true if you live in one of Boston’s historic districts. If you want to change anything that can be seen from a public way, including new paint in the same color, you have to get permission from your neighborhood’s architectural commission at City Hall.

Small changes are easy. You submit an application and a staff member okays it if it is in keeping with the history of your building. If not, or if you are applying for more extensive changes, you have to appear before the architectural commission overseeing your neighborhood and gain their approval before the city will issue you a construction permit.

Novices complain about this. People whose mindset is “it’s my property, and I can do what I want,” will also complain. You wonder—why did people buy property in a historic district if they didn’t want a home that fits in and enjoys the historic district’s protections?

Because that is what these rules are about—protecting the historic nature of the environment. It keeps neighbors from erecting a huge television dish next to your house, as one of ours did in New Hampshire long ago. It keeps neighbors from building a monstrosity next to you. It keeps the value of your property from eroding.

A good example of the protections in action was the matter of a once-popular singer who bought a house in a 19th-century historic district in downtown Boston and proceeded to remove the original interior, replacing it with a southwestern theme.

Nothing could be done about the inside, which is not protected, but when she applied for a permit to change the entryway into something vaguely southwestern, the architectural commission said no. You might wonder why someone would buy property in a 19th-century New England neighborhood and want a southwestern theme, but then you would also remember that some people are crazy.

In any case, the singer departed, sold her house, and the new owners promptly restored all that she had destroyed inside. Even better, the value of the neighbors’ houses were not eroded by interrupting the pattern of entryways on the block. These things are important when houses are so close together.

Several historic neighborhoods in Boston have no protection against weirdnesses like this. The North End and Charlestown, the oldest neighborhoods in Boston, have no architectural protection for their buildings. On Soley Street in Charlestown a new owner tore down an old house. Maybe the replacement will fit in with the neighborhood. Maybe not.

Even the neighborhoods who do have protection sometimes lose. On Beacon Hill, a Chestnut Street owner got permission over neighbors’ objections to tear down a house he claimed was unstable, even though several other houses about to fall down have been saved. Years ago in the same neighborhood, the architectural commission denied permission for an owner to change the façade of his house. Mysteriously, one night the façade fell down. Hmm.

After living in a historic district for many years, I would have reservations about owning property in a place without those protections. Nearby owners with little knowledge about architecture or peculiar taste could affect my property’s value if they decided to “remuddle” their house, as an old house magazine used to call it.

Studies show that property in historic districts tends to be more desirable, to keep its value better than property elsewhere, and to provide a more pleasant environment in general. Giving up the chance to choose a favorite paint color seems a small price to pay for keeping a historic property appropriate for owners 100 years from now.