OK, Canada isn't Europe, but home sizes are a lot closer to European models than to anything here. This is especially true in the province of Quebec, where the average home size is just under 1,200 square feet and where 46 percent of all the low-rise apartments in Canada are located. In our exchange, we spent a week in a first floor, three-bedroom flat in a neighborhood within sight of the old city. Not counting a significant expanse of basement space being retrofitted into a play area, I would peg the main living area at 800 square feet. However, it was well laid out, well lit and pleasant. I Continue reading >>>

We already know that Somerville is the least Republican city in the state. In the 2010 November elections, only about 4.5 percent of registered voters in Somerville were registered as Republicans. Only the relatively small towns of Provincetown, Aquinnah (on Martha's Vineyard) and Wendell (near Springfield) were less Republican. We looked at more current voter registration numbers compiled by the Massachusetts Secretary of State in February of this year, just before the March 6 presidential primaries. Somerville remained an extrememly un-Republican place, with 4.5 percent of voters registered Continue reading >>>

Will the Granite State swing for President Obama or Mitt Romney in November? Greater Boston’s Adam Reilly talks with small business owners in the bellwether town of Hampton, N.H. Warning signs for Romney in a New Hampshire swing town Ever since President Barack Obama uttered those four fateful words — “You didn’t build that” — Mitt Romney has been accusing the president of hostility to America’s small business owners. Romney’s attacks have focused on a dozen swing states, including New Hampshire, which could play a pivotal role if the presidential election is as close as many expect Continue reading >>>

Each week, Greater Boston is partnering with The Boston Globe to bring you photos “From the Archives,” a feature where more than 1 million staff photographs have been digitized and are being shared with the Globe’s readers each week. The week of July 30, the Globe features images from ... the 1973 Delta crash at Logan Airport. The worst plane crash in Boston’s history occurred on July 31, 1973, when a Delta Airlines DC-9 exploded into flames after hitting a seawall while landing at Logan Airport. All 89 people aboard Flight 723 died, including the lone survivor who died months Continue reading >>>

Boston, MA, August 03, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Boston area home and business owners will soon have an easier time locating junk removal, dumpster rental, and construction cleaning services online. Through a new partnership with the SEO marketing firm Prospect Genius, locally owned company One Call Junk Haul, LLC, is working to make its Web site more prominent to local residents conducting an Internet search for trash removal and related services. By boosting its Web visibility and accessibility, One Call Junk Haul hopes to broaden its customer base and better serve its local community.One of Prospect Continue reading >>>

Compared what it costs to rent now, it takes home buyers takes just 3.3 years to hit break-even after buying a house in Walpole, 3.5 years in Quincy, 3.7 years in Holliston and 4 years in North Andover, to name a few examples. Of course, while home prices have come down a bit in many towns across the Boston area since the bubble burst, we have not seen the same dramatic plunge in values that many other parts of the country have been hit with. Instead, rising rents may be playing as much a role as falling prices in making buying a better alternative now. Asking rents across the Boston area posted Continue reading >>>

Smart Lunches (www.smartlunches.com), the Boston-based online meal service that provides nutritious lunches to kids and convenience to their parents, announced today it has acquired Smart Snax, a successful three year-old healthy vending machine business operating in Greater Boston. Smart Snax's dual-temperature vending machines are currently stocked with natural and organic snacks and drinks in public and private schools and YMCAs in Greater Boston, including Brooks School, Gann Academy, Our Lady Academy, Triton Regional High School and the YMCA of Greater Lynn. "When I first learned Continue reading >>>

George Slye, a past president of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and renowned collector of model skyscrapers, died July 13 at his home on Lake Winnipesaukee in Tuftonboro, N.H., from leukemia. He was 81. His many commercial projects included the 16-story One Washington Mall near City Hall and the New England Executive Park offices in Burlington.