City Council President Maureen Feeney is moving ahead with plans for a city-wide civic engagement summit set for May, aides to Mayor Thomas Menino have started holding office hours from Allston to West Roxbury and Councillor-at-Large Michael Flaherty is making his own forays into the neighborhood kitchens. All three initiatives, while unique in their own way, reflect a renewed effort by longtime politicians to shift their resources and re-engage a city electorate that has been dramatically altered by technology and shifting demographics.  Read more

A gutted home sits idly on Ashmont Street, potential crowds and parking problems worry neighbors on Hamilton Street, and tenants on Sanford Street were "terrorizing the neighborhood." All of these problems, according to City Council President Maureen Feeney's office, are related to churches based in homes or residential areas. Two of the churches in question were created in houses zoned residential.  Read more