Boston, MA
Kate England, NU grad, named Boston’s first director of green infrastructure
Northeastern College graduate Kate England is making environmental historical past as the town of Boston’s first director of inexperienced infrastructure.
The appointment introduced just lately by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will give England a number one position in constructing and sustaining ecologically pleasant and sustainable approaches to stormwater diversion and to the eradication of city “warmth islands” which can be extra prevalent in low-income neighborhoods.
“Inexperienced infrastructure goes hand in hand with local weather resilience,” says England, who graduated from Northeastern in 2008 with a double main in political science and worldwide affairs.
The creation of a inexperienced infrastructure director for the town of Boston is a part of Wu’s dedication to a Inexperienced New Deal, in response to a press launch from the mayor’s workplace.
“It exhibits (inexperienced infrastructure) isn’t just a small a part of what we do” however an integral a part of Boston’s strategy to constructing and sustaining stormwater methods, roads, sidewalks, parks and different city areas, England says.
It’s more and more widespread for cities to embed inexperienced infrastructure personnel of their water and sewer departments, however appointing a inexperienced infrastructure director to a key metropolis position “is actually distinctive and particular,” she says.
Photograph by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern College
Wu says that she is worked up for England’s “imaginative and prescient and management,” saying in a press launch that these qualities are particularly necessary as Boston faces rising sea ranges and temperatures.
England says her curiosity in environmental coverage was piqued when she took a category on the science behind local weather change at Northeastern.
“I liked that class,” she says.
The girl who insists she didn’t hear the phrase “stormwater” till she went to varsity ended up within the desert exploring meals propagation as a part of a Dialogues of Civilization alternate in Egypt.
England additionally participated in a Dialogues of Civilization alternate in Geneva, Switzerland, the place she labored with the U.N. Environmental Program and discovered what different international locations have been doing to mitigate the affect of local weather change.
She says it was a time when many within the U.S. have been calling local weather change a fable.
“I had lots of actually nice alternatives at Northeastern,” says England, who got here to the Boston campus from a smaller school her sophomore 12 months.
After commencement, an internship with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy morphed right into a full-time job.
England says she liked engaged on drainage and ecology points on the conservancy, nevertheless it appeared each time she proposed an answer to an issue somebody identified she had no technical experience within the space.
“I stated, ‘Positive, I’ll return and get my technical stuff,’” she says.
After incomes her grasp’s diploma in environmental research and dealing as a marketing consultant for a number of years, England went to work for the Boston Water and Sewer Fee (BWSC). Most just lately she was employed as a statewide planner for the Massachusetts Division of Conservation and Recreation.
In her new position at Metropolis Corridor, England will reactivate a inexperienced infrastructure working group she was concerned with at BWSC and assess the wants of residents of Chinatown, East Boston, Mattapan and Roxbury for improved flood management, air high quality and tree canopies.
“Boston’s no totally different from every other main metropolis,” says England, who resides in Hyde Park. She says decrease earnings city areas have fewer bushes and extra hardscape—buildings made from concrete, asphalt and steel.
“The historic strategy to stormwater is to place it in a catch basin and put it in a pipe. It’s known as grey infrastructure,” England says. Then the water is discharged right into a water physique such because the Charles River or Boston Harbor.
However grey infrastructure isn’t any match for the erosive drive of nature. As storms intensify and sea ranges rise, flooding more and more plagues the low-lying areas of Boston and different main cities.
Inexperienced infrastructure takes one other strategy, England says. Stormwater is redirected to constructed wetlands and rain gardens, low areas planted with native vegetation and soil combined with sand, or to bioswales which can be a bigger model of rain gardens.
Rain gardens are simple to plant beside sidewalks and metropolis streets, says England, who additionally helps new tree planting strategies that maximize the roots’ use of rain and stormwater.
England is already passing these classes on to the youthful era, having labored with the Charles River Watershed and Boston public faculties to develop a inexperienced training program that meets state curriculum pointers for the town’s fifth and seventh grade college students.
The older college students are requested to evaluate the situation of their schoolyard, which oftentimes resembles a car parking zone, England says.
They’re divided into 4 teams and requested to give you paved, vegetative, mixture or freeform options to such points as cracks within the pavement and erosion.
“It’s a extremely enjoyable unit. I want I had it once I was in class,” England says. “Nature is best at stormwater administration than we’re.”
For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.
The Boston Red Sox hive mind doesn’t always come to a perfect agreement on what they want the team to do. That is, of course, unless David Ortiz is asking for it.
A three-time World Series champion, Hall of Famer, and one of the most clutch players of all time, Ortiz is unquestionably on the Red Sox’s all-time Mount Rushmore. Even though he retired in 2016, he’s still closely woven into the fabric of the organization.
Ortiz sees what we all do: this Red Sox team is close to being ready to contend for the playoffs, but there’s one key ingredient missing. He made his feelings known about what he hopes the front office does between now and Opening Day to address that issue.
On Saturday, Ortiz relayed a simple message to the Red Sox: spend whatever it takes to get one more big bat.
“There’s still some guys out there that we can still go for, and I think we have a really good front office,” Ortiz said in an appearance on NESN. “To put a good lineup together nowadays is not that difficult. What you got to do is just make it rain, and you can go pick a few guys. Now pitching, on the other hand, is the toughest thing to put together.
“We got pitching. Pitching can always stop good offenses. The playoff is a playoff pitching (staff) we got right now. We line up a couple of thunders in the lineup to help (Rafael Devers) and the rest of them boys — one good bat would do.”
Ortiz and NESN host Tom Caron both strongly hinted at the end of the interview who that big bat could be: former Houston Astros All-Star Alex Bregman. Manager Alex Cora also signaled earlier in the day that Bregman would be a great fit in Boston.
Bregman isn’t quite Ortiz, but he does have one thing on him: the career record for OPS at Fenway Park. He has a wild 1.245 mark in 98 plate appearances in Boston throughout his career.
When David Ortiz asks for something, the Red Sox would usually be wise to follow through. And it seems he wants Bregman. Will that move the needle in the suites at Fenway?
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The snow showers come from a weakening system approaching from the Great Lakes that tapped into some of the moisture from a strong storm passing south of New England.
The region was spared the worst precipitation of the storm thanks to persistent sub-freezing temperatures earlier this week, which pushed it south toward its current location off the coast of North Carolina, Nocera said. New England’s light snowfall is on the northern fringes of the storm.
Nocera added that this weekend’s “decorative snow” will not significantly impact ground travel.
The Massachusetts Port Authority issued a travel advisory for flight delays at Boston Logan International Airport. According to the flight tracking website Flight Aware, as of around 1:00 p.m. 212 flights were delayed at Boston Logan and another 15 were cancelled.
Margo Griffin, a teaching associate at the University of Cambridge in England, was initially worried about driving through the snow on her way to get coffee in Cambridge, but said the view from the Charles River was worth the trek.
“I thought it might be a problem, but I just decided to go ahead with the plan, and I’m enjoying walking through the snow,” Griffin said.
Other Boston-area residents who spoke to the Globe Saturday morning were happy to wake up to the winter scene on Saturday.
“I am feeling wonderful about the snow. I haven’t seen it in a long time,” said Barbara Delollis, a communications lead at Harvard Business School.
Delollis already made snow day plans.
“We want to go out and have some fun in the snow, and take a lot of pictures and just remember this moment, because we don’t know how much more snowfall we’re going to see in the Boston area anymore with climate change,” Delollis said.
Talia, a Cambridge resident, said that the snow had no effect on her plans to attend synagogue with her two-year-old son Saturday morning.
“It feels nice and seasonal, which is cool because climate change is terrifying,” she said.
Snowstorms can still occur, despite warming temperatures from climate change, Nocera said. Although Saturday’s snowfall cannot guarantee heavy snow this winter, there is a slightly higher chance of snow towards the end of the month as cold temperatures ease.
Materials from previous Globe stories were used in this report.
The second-ranked Boston College men’s hockey team suffered its first home loss of the season, falling to Merrimack by a score of 5-2 in Hockey East action on Friday night at Kelley Rink. The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second, but the Warriors scored the next five. BC falls to 12-4-1 overall and 6-3-1 in Hockey East, while Merrimack improves to 8-10-1 overall and 4-5-1 in league play. The Eagles opened the scoring midway through the first period when Oskar Jellvik one-timed the rebound off an Aram Minnetian shot that was saved by the Merrimack goaltender. Minnetian’s shot fell right into the path of Jellvik for the quick shot into the open net to put the Eagles in front. BC added to its lead shortly into the second period when Brady Berard scored a short-handed goal. Merrimack responded 32 seconds later with a power-play goal to get on the board, before scoring the game-tying goal less than one minute after that. The Warriors took the lead nearly three minutes later when Merrimack scored its third goal of the period. The Warriors scored twice in the third period to push their lead to three. Jacob Fowler made 23 saves while Nils Wallstrom had 27 stops for Merrimack.
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