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| Housing and Race |
We invited Jim Johnston (longtime Franklin resident and historian), Bryan Taberner (Franklin Director of Planning and Community Development), and Jesse Kanson-Benanav (Executive Director of Abundant Housing MA) to discuss how how Franklin's housing policies and practices have fostered socio-economic inequities and worked to reduce diversity in the community.
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*The service area for GATRA Go United is Franklin, Foxboro, Norfolk and Wrentham as well as the Bellingham shopping plaza and Plainville shopping plaza
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| Franklin Community Public Transportation via GATRA Go United |
THE BLACK BOX Summer Series presents Radio Daze featuring Paul Souza.
Radio Daze has been a staple of local entertainment, playing rock music in New England Clubs and local bars for over 20 years. It's always extra special when singer and front-man Paul Souza is in town to lead the show!
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| Radio Daze featuring Paul Souza - July 9 |
Given that there is a discussion about Franklin's population and rate of growth, putting our stats in context with national and world trends should help.
"Fertility rates are falling across the globe – even in places, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where they remain high. This is good for women, families, societies and the environment. So why do we keep hearing that the world needs babies, with angst in the media about maternity wards closing in Italy and ghost cities in China?
The short-range answer is that, even though this slowdown was predicted as part of the now 250-year-old demographic transition – whose signature is the tumbling of both fertility and mortality rates – occasional happenings, such as the publication of US census data or China’s decision to relax its two-child policy, force it back into our consciousness, arousing fears about family lines rubbed out and diminishing superpowers being uninvited from the top table.
The longer range answer is that our notion of a healthy, vibrant society is still rooted in the past. The inevitable byproduct of the demographic transition is that populations age, in a chronological sense, but life expectancy, and particularly healthy life expectancy, have increased dramatically over the last half-century, and the societal definition of “old” has not kept up (though artistic experiments such as casting 82-year-old Sir Ian McKellen as Hamlet might help to challenge age-related stereotypes)."
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| screen grab of DTFA meeting in Oct 2020 |
‘The Great Resignation’: June’s US jobs report hides unusual trend
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday (07/02/21) that the US economy added 850,000 jobs last month. Hidden by this encouraging figure is the hint of an unusual trend: people are beginning to quit their jobs in extraordinary numbers.June’s numbers, in combination with last month’s figures, suggest that the economy is continuing to recover at a steady pace. The rate of unemployment was 5.9% and 9.5 million people remain unemployed."
"The national memorial draws nearly 3 million visitors a year – and Native Americans want the site back with a focus on oppressionMount Rushmore national memorial draws nearly 3 million visitors a year to its remote location in South Dakota. They travel from all corners of the globe just to lay their eyes on what the National Park Service calls America’s “shrine of democracy”.Phil Two Eagle is not opposed to the fact that the giant sculpture of American presidents is a major tourist attraction but he thinks the park should have a different focus: oppression.“It should be turned into something like the United States Holocaust Museum,” he said. “The world needs to know what was done to us.”
The FCC is looking forward to FY21 and leveraging the momentum we have built over the past few years to serve the community in greater and new ways. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our lives, we are confirmed in our belief that the arts and culture offer a way through fear and anxiety and toward our shared humanity.
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| Franklin Annual Report - 2020: Franklin Cultural Council |
The Franklin Senior Center reads short stories, essays, poems and more. This episode aired on Franklin Public Radio for May 2021.
Audio link = https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a0aee039-8203-4172-8edb-087c70547974
Friday: 11 AM, 2 PM, and 8 PM = “Senior Story Hour” – Senior Center Scribblers Group Original writing presented by the authors Listen each week on the air at 102.9 FM, and online at our website, wfpr.fm
