Profiles

Home & Property

Steven Samuels Is Fenway’s Man with the Golden Charm

How developer Steven Samuels transformed the Fenway from a dump into a destination.

City Life

Machine Man: Rodney Brooks

Rodney Brooks has spent his life creating intelligent machines that do our bidding. Some people, however, worry that robots like his will eventually supplant the human workforce. He has a different fear: that in the future, there won’t be enough robots.

City Life

One of Us

I was a typical Southie kid, one of six, born to a single mother, raised in a triple-decker, surrounded by Whitey Bulger’s violence and fierce Irish pride. There was only one thing that kept me on the outside: Despite my mother’s claims to the contrary, we were black.

City Life

Northern Exposure

Two years after losing his Senate seat, Scott Brown has fled Massachusetts. Can he convince New Hampshire voters that he’s one of them?

City Life

Charlie Baker 2.0

Seated in front of me is Charlie Baker, the warmest, nicest, friendliest, most amicable gubernatorial candidate you’ll ever meet. And he will not give a straight answer to a single question that I ask him.

City Life

The Ballad of Buddy Cianci

No one predicted that Providence’s ex-con former mayor would come back for a last shot at his old job. But Buddy Cianci refuses to just fade away.

Restaurants

The Making of a McTopia: Ayr Muir and Clover Food Lab

Armed with a chickpea fritter and mountains of data, Ayr Muir, of Cambridge’s Clover Food Lab, is just a few thousand restaurants short of saving the world.

City Life

Would You Let This Man Go Free?

As a teenager, Greg Diatchenko was convicted of murder and given the mandatory sentence: life without parole. Now science, and the courts, could give him another chance.

City Life

Don’t F*ck with Linda

Linda Dorcena Forry earned the inside track by following a familiar playbook: the one written by the city’s Irish bosses of yore. Already, she’s proving that she’s better at Old Boston politics than many Old Bostonians. And some of them have already learned a hard lesson the old-fashioned way.

City Life

Mayor Marty Walsh Is Cleaning House

New Mayor Marty Walsh has launched a quiet war to fumigate Boston’s most powerful agency—and, in essence, the entire culture of City Hall. As he digs up dirt on city departments, he’s doing more than just taking on a couple of rogue agencies—he’s also taking a blowtorch to the legacy of Tom Menino.

Thomas Hodgson
City Life

Big House, Big Mouth

Ever since Aaron Hernandez arrived at his jail, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson has been enjoying the spotlight. But is the lawman’s recent celebrity helping his inmates, his taxpayers, or himself?

City Life

The Krafts Are the Worst Owners in the League

And that league is MLS.

City Life

Will John Henry Save the Globe?

Maybe, but his ambitions are much grander. “I feel my mortality,” he says. So here’s his plan: He’s going to use the time he has left on earth to try to save journalism itself.

Arts & Entertainment

Diane Paulus: Drama Queen

Diane Paulus has saved the American Repertory Theater, for now. But in the process, has she unintentionally corrupted the soul of experimental theater?

City Life

Bob Swartz: Losing Aaron

After his son was arrested for downloading files at MIT, Bob Swartz did everything in his power to save him. He couldn’t. Now he wants the institute to own up to its part in Aaron’s death.