PAGE 1 THE BOSTON SUN If you are looking to get in contactAUG withUST our 20, staff 2020 INJUNCTION FILED TO STOP THE or any info related to the Boston Sun please call 781-485-0588 or contact us via email. CLOSING OF TUBMAN HOUSE, PAGE 13 Email addresses are listed on the editorial page. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY SERVING BACK BAY - SOUTH END - FENWAY - KENMORE Poll Power: Women’s suffrage celebrates 100 years, with caveats By Seth Daniel doing the right thing. Harry Burn was a very young It was a note from mom that state representative at the time in changed the landscape for women Tennessee from a very small town, to get the right to vote 100 years and it was his mother’s note that ago this week on Aug. 18, and 100 changed his mind. years later it has led to a lot of vic- “It didn’t look like Tennessee At the Boston Women’s Memorial on the Comm tories and a lot of sobering realities was going to approve the amend- Ave Mall, there is a constant reminder of those too. ment,” said Karen Price of the women who fought for equality in all things – The caveat, of course – and one League of Women Voters in Mas- including voting. Pictured here is Lucy Stone, that must be stated, is that African sachusetts. “He came in wearing a long-time advocate of suffrage for women. American women did not win the a red rose, which meant he was While a leading voice in Women’s Rights issues right to vote 100 years ago, but against it. When on the floor, he in the late 1800s, she died nearly 30 years rather not until the 1960s Voting did find a note from his mother. It before some women won the right to vote. The Rights Act. basically told him to do the right 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th That said, the milestone was cel- thing and he did and ended up Amendment occurred this week on Aug. 18. ebrated in a muted way this week voting for it. It ended up being the due to COVID-19 restrictions, but deciding vote when he changed his Aug. 18, 1920 was the day that mind because it prevailed by one cleared the way for the largest sin- vote.” gle increase in voting in American Price said the Ratification Day history – known as Ratification would have been a major celebra- GARDENING DURING A PANDEMIC: Day. And it did come down to one tion for the League, which was vote by Tennessee state legislator Fenway Victory Gardens members work whose mother shamed him into (WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE, Pg. 11) together to make growing season a success By Lauren Bennett how this year’s growing season cancelled,” she said. “People were TIDYING UP FRANKLIN SQUARE fared at the Victory Gardens. reassured about that, as they were Gardening is always a popular Bertolozzi said that many looking to use their gardens and activity in the City of Boston, but changes were made to the usual really have it as a space where it became all the rage this summer protocol this year because of the they could get out and enjoy the because of its outdoor, social-dis- virus, but the gardens were still outdoors and not worry about the tancing friendly nature. very successful. concerns.” The Sun spoke with Fenway “Early on in the season, we She said that certain new pro- Garden Society president Eliza- let gardeners know that the gar- beth Bertolozzi for an update on dening season wasn’t going to be (FENWAY VICTORY GARDENS, Pg. 5) Fenway Porchfest organizers produce music video in lieu of event’s cancellation this year By Dan Murphy eventually settling on the idea of Development Corporation), has producing a music video to show- sponsored Fenway Porchfest since Once it became clear that Fen- case the neighborhood’s musicians its inception in 2018. “All the part- way Porchfest couldn’t proceed as instead. ners we had reached out to were usual for the third consecutive year “Initially we had thought it willing to participate, and so were this summer due to the pandemic, would have been possible to have the musicians, but as July came its organizers refused to simply the event,” said Marie Fukuda, near, we realized it couldn’t move State Rep. Jon Santiago and Toni Crothall of the Friends of Franklin cave in and cancel the eagerly a board member of the Fenway ahead as planned. But we still Square got to work cleaning up Franklin Square in the South End awaited live concert event. So they Civic Association, which togeth- wanted to have the event and do last week during one of the Tidy Up Tuesday events. Clean ups in the began exploring other options for er with the Fenway Alliance and Squares have continued through the summer with COVID-19 precau- carrying on the tradition before the Fenway CDC (Community tions. (PORCHFEST, Pg. 10) PAGE 2 THE BOSTON SUN AUGUST 20, 2020 editorial SAVE THE U.S. POST OFFICE The unprecedented efforts to undermine the operations of the U.S. Postal Service by President Donald Trump and the Republicans are not even a thinly-veiled attempt to make sure that mail-in voting in the November election during this unprecedented pandemic will fail. Trump’s suggestion that mail-in voting can easily be manipulated, or “rigged,” is absurd on its face. Five states, including Washington, Oregon, and Utah, have been conducting their elections for years by mailed-in ballots -- and they have been doing so without a hitch or any hint of manipulation. However, even if we take Trump at his word that he is trying to “reform” the Post Office, why did he wait to do so until more than halfway through his fourth year in office and appoint as the Postmaster General a millionaire hack campaign donor who has absolutely zero experience in the mail delivery industry? The U.S. Postal Service from its inception has been a national treasure that other nations have tried to emulate. We hope that the Congress is able to come together to save our Postal Service, an institution that lit- GUEST OP-ED erally is a lifeline for millions of Americans and provides a tremendous service for the entire country. Pine Street Out! By George Stergios and Bob Minnocci, homeless shelter and the Engage- Because we opposed the intru- NEW STIMULUS BILL IS Worcester Square Area Neighborhood ment Center as temporary but sion of the Pine Street Inn into Mass Association now cedes they are permanent. & Cass and oppose any extension DESPERATELY NEEDED When the pandemic struck, the of its 12-month emergency lease, Three weeks ago, Pine Street BMC’s old East Newton Pavil- we will be shamed as NIMBYs, As we all have learned by now, the so-called Executive Order (if any Inn leased the Roundhouse Suites ion was requisitioned as an isola- but there is more than one kind of of it is even legal) recently issued by President Donald Trump two weeks and added another 180 homeless tion and treatment center for the NIMBY. Those of you reading this ago amounts to all talk and no action. people to the Mass & Cass area, homeless and a “Comfort Zone” who live outside of the South End, where there are hundreds already was opened in the Woods-Mullens Lower Roxbury, and Roxbury are It does not stop any evictions of tenants anywhere in the country. living in shelters, hundreds living parking lot to provide washing the true NIMBYs, NOTHING The extra $400 per week of unemployment benefits (on top of on the streets, and hundreds vis- and toilet facilities, and just a little IN MY BACK YARD, no matter whatever an unemployed person may be receiving from the usual unem- iting every day. Some are here to bit of distancing, to those living on what the emergency. When we say ployment stipend) is subject to each state kicking in $100 of the $400. get the addiction services that their the street. not in my back yard, we do not Given that every state already is facing huge budget deficits because of Boston neighborhoods and Mas- The mother of all these emer- mean nothing in our back yard, sachusetts towns refuse to provide, gencies was the opening of the because almost everything is in the pandemic, the Executive Order amounts to what in the private sector and some are here to participate Ahope needle exchange on 774 our backyard. We have 55 percent is referred-to as a poison pill. in New England’s largest open-air Albany St. in 2013, which the of the homeless beds in Boston, As for the temporary elimination of the Social Security tax -- which is drug market. Menino Administration did with- 1,300 daily visits for methadone, only paid by employed persons -- that sum will have to be repaid in the Because of the COVID-19 out informing the neighborhoods. the only brick-and-mortar needle future by each taxpayer and business. So what good is that? emergency, Pine Street needs more It hands out most of the 2,000 nee- exchange, Health Care for the space to spread out is clients, and dles a day that the City gives away, Homeless, the BMC Emergency The moratorium on interest on student loans may be able to go into since, according to it, no one else many of which end up in our gar- Room, Rosie’s Place, and more.