Changemaker: Niccoletta Longo, founder of NamaStay Sober
Catherine McGloin, Editor-in-chief
April 13, 2020
It’s a pun, “like, ‘Nah imma stay sober,’” said Nicoletta Longo, founder of recovery and wellness group NamaStay Sober. But committing to sobriety is more than a play on words. “It’s a choice,” Longo said, one that is made easier by an inclusive and supportive community facing similar struggl...
Life in Mission Hill: Richard Fratus
September 19, 2019
While walking with his brother and his brother’s dogs near McLaughlin Playground in Mission Hill, Richard Fratus, 67, said he has witnessed a massive amount of change in the 37 years he has been living in Mission Hill — and not for the better. He says gentrification and development have increas...
Life in Mission Hill: Roni Partin
September 18, 2019
Roni Partin, 28, said she use to head to a dirt parking lot near Ward Street, which would serve as a space of leisure and activity for the neighborhood kids. “Once it rained or snowed it would get really icy on the dirt parking lot, so we used to go out there skating with [our] boots,” she refle...
Life in Mission Hill: John Toner
September 18, 2019
If John Toner had the chance to go back to the Mission Hill of his youth, he said he would take it. The 61-year-old retiree was born and raised in Mission Hill. His family has been in the area for three generations, and he now lives in the house his grandfather used to own. He attended the Mission G...
Life in Mission Hill: Cristina Rosado
March 13, 2019
By Alyssa Lukpat For Cristina Rosado, 32, the Mission Hill parks show just how much the neighborhood has changed. When she grew up in public housing in the 1990s, her childhood playground only had one slide and two swings. “We had the ghetto park. Everything was bricks. Everything was block,...
Life in Mission Hill: Hui Yu Zhang
February 28, 2019
By Jasmine Wu Zhang Hui Yu didn’t mean to miss her stop. But she wanted to do well in her English class, and, at 82, she can be a little forgetful. “I was studying vocabulary, and I was returning home, and on the train I was reading, reading, reading,” she said in Mandarin, reflecting on the ex...
Life in Mission Hill: Bill Larson
February 27, 2019
By Oliver Price Bill Larson, 65, lives in Weymouth and has worked as an electrician at Roxbury Community College for more than 25 years. He knows which back roads in Mission Hill he can find parking on, has lunch at the Tremont House of Pizza every day during his lunch break, and keeps his political views to him...
Life in Mission Hill: Katie Ennis
February 25, 2019
By Michelle Faulkner Katelin “Katie” Ennis, 23, has lived in Mission Hill since 2017 after she graduated from Northeastern University. There’s one main reason she’s stuck around. “The best part about Mission Hill is the convenience to the rest of the city. For me, it’s a very shor...
Life in Mission Hill: Nicholas Chen
February 25, 2019
By Casey Rochette “I came to Mission Hill many times on my own, just to see what the neighborhood was like,” said Nicholas Chen, 23. “I liked all the people walking around and driving up and down this [Tremont] street.” A recent graduate of Boston University, Chen received a degree in...
Life in Mission Hill: Vincent Sallinger
February 22, 2019
By Alexandra Diamond Vincent Sallinger, sheltered from the -16 degree wind chill in a doorway, enjoyed his daily routine. Every morning, the 70-year-old visits Dunkin’ on the corner of Parker and Tremont Streets to fill his thermos with coffee and buy the newspaper. “It’s a wonderful nei...
Life in Mission Hill: Dhrumin Patel
February 22, 2019
By Joshua Stair Figueroa’s Market sits on the corner of Parker Street and Delle Avenue, and gets its fair share of customers from the Mission Hill community. Dhrumin Patel serves just about all of them. Patel, a 21-year-old immigrant from India, has worked as a cashier in the small convenience sto...
Life in Mission Hill: Branden Lyons
February 20, 2019
By Irvin Zhang As customers funnel in and out through the glass post office doors, Branden Lyons greets them with a smile, invites them forward and offers them assistance. On this sunny winter afternoon, a line of four people form to ship packages or pick up mail. Lyons, 35, is a former reside...
