What we're reading this week | The #FridayFive

Senate approves $2.8B plan to boost conservation, parks
AP, June 17, by Matthew Daly
The Senate has approved a bipartisan bill that would spend nearly $3 billion on conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands, a measure supporters say would be the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. [READ MORE]

Greater Boston’s Season of “Social Trust”
Harvard Magazine, July-August 2020, by Nell Porter Brown
In Late May, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health assistant professor Joseph Allen put it bluntly: “This is going to be a very different summer.” Even as many parks and preserves that closed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic began reopening this spring, visitor access came with strict protocols designed not only to prevent viral spreading, but also to protect natural areas from damage caused by overcrowding. Further reopenings throughout the summer depend on visitors’ willingness to abide by the new rules. [READ MORE]

Genius Urban Planning That Unites: Brooklyn Bridge Park
Forbes, June 14, by Michelle Greenwald
Brooklyn Bridge Park, the relatively new, 1.3-mile park in Brooklyn, along the previously industrial East River waterfront, has one of the most beautiful views in the world. It was abandoned for years and is now a Mecca for groups of all types. [READ MORE]

Boston's outsized role in 1918 influenza pandemic
WCVB, June 17, by Mike Beaudet
With World War I raging in Europe, Stephen P. McLaughlin of Roxbury joined the Navy, but he never made it overseas. He had been at Commonwealth Pier in Boston, now the site of the Seaport World Trade Center, but at the time a hub of Naval activity. It was also one of the places where the 1918 influenza pandemic made inroads into the U.S., and McLaughlin was one of its victims. [READ MORE]

View of the Boston skyline from World’s End (Photo courtesy P. Marotta/Trustees)

East Boston Organizations get Some Resiliency Fund Dollars
East Boston Times-Free Press, June 17, by John Lynds
East Boston organizations that have shifted focus to helping residents during the COVID-19 pandemic have received additional grant money from the Boston Resiliency Fund last week. Mayor Martin Walsh announced the fund’s Steering Committee distributed $826,000 in funding for three Eastie-based community organizations as well as 18 others across Boston during the 10th round of the Boston Resiliency Fund. [READ MORE]