Latest news with #DePasquale
Boston Globe
26-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
North End historical museum finds location along Freedom Trail after lengthy search
Tom Damigella, the society's president, said bringing a museum to the North End is a core part of the society's mission to preserve the neighborhood's heritage 'in perpetuity.' 'This is an iconic neighborhood,' Damigella said. 'It's got 400 years of history. It's the cradle of liberty. It's got a great immigration story, everybody from the Old World came here. It was a colonial settlement. I mean, the stories are just phenomenal.' Advertisement The location could hardly be better for a historical destination. When it opens on the ground floor of a building at 3 Prince Street, the museum will be directly on the Freedom Trail, which winds from the Paul Revere House just around the corner to Old North Church and Copp's Hill Burying Ground. Residents of the neighborhood 'have been waiting for something like this,' Damigella said. Founded in 2010, the historical society has been looking for a permanent space for years. A recent proposal that would have secured a location on Lovejoy Wharf near TD Garden But that disappointment turned out to be a blessing in disguise, he said. Advertisement 'I'm glad it worked out that way, because this is better than that location was,' he said. 'So bad things happen for good reasons.' The new location, tucked between Hanover Street and North Square on a stretch known to locals as 'Little Prince,' came to the society's attention somewhat serendipitously. When Damigella saw a ground floor Prince Street condo on the market, he knew it would be the perfect place for a museum. He approached local restauranteur Frank DePasquale, who was familiar with the society's struggle to find a location. The owner of Bricco, Trattoria, and nearly a dozen other restaurants in the neighborhood said he offered to buy the property for $500,000, remodel it, and lease it to the historical society essentially for free. The society's board jumped at the prospect, and the purchase closed last month. 'I started them off with a five-year lease, but I hope that they're there for a lifetime,' DePasquale said. 'My whole mission is to make this the greatest inner-city Italian community in the country. And little by little, we're doing that.' The location for the North End Historical Society on Prince Street. The space is under construction and will open next year. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff DePasquale said he would also pay for the renovation and install a new glass facade. The museum exhibits are still being designed, he said. 'Frank's great in construction — he can do things in 10 seconds, it's amazing,' Damigella said. 'His generosity, to take that on, is wonderful. But we still have 400 years of content to make a theme out of, to put into some chronological order so we can tell the stories.' To create the museum displays, Damigella said the society has tapped Trivium Interactive, a Boston-based visual design firm whose past clients include the Museum of Science and the Museum of African American History. Advertisement There are plenty of well-known stories from the neighborhood to focus on, Damigella said, including and Related : Other exhibits will feature the 'These are the stories that we will be telling, and they're very colorful and interesting and surprising to a lot of people,' Damigella said. The North End Museum would be one of the first new attractions along the Freedom Trail Suzanne Segura Taylor, executive director of the Freedom Trail Foundation, said she had not worked with the historical society directly, but welcomed the addition of a new museum along the trail, which is visited by millions of people every year. 'Projects like the society's are commendable as they amplify the history of Boston's neighborhoods and inform and educate both residents and visitors alike,' Taylor said in a statement. Once it opens, the museum will likely be added to the foundation's maps and other materials as an unofficial, 'off-the-trail' attraction, Taylor said. Damigella said the museum would honor not only the neighborhood's modern Italian-American culture, but the waves of Jewish and Irish immigrants that preceded them. As he pointed out, both Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of John F. Kennedy, and her father, Advertisement 'The different societies, the customs, the traditions — all the things that today are still going on, that [give] this neighborhood the wonderful character it's known for,' Damigella said. 'We're going to do it all.' Camilo Fonseca can be reached at
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
At least 96 people turned away from town meeting polls due to new state voting law, group says
Voters cast ballots at Hooksett's David R. Cawley Middle School on Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Will Steinfeld/New Hampshire Bulletin) Reegan DePasquale had just moved to Hampton. On March 11, she attempted a rite of passage: participation in town meeting. But after arriving at Winnacunnet High School after work, DePasquale hit a hurdle. As a new resident of New Hampshire, DePasquale was required to produce documentary evidence of her citizenship, part of the requirements of a state voting law that passed last year. She needed her birth certificate, and, because her married name does not match her birth certificate, a copy of her marriage certificate, too. It was 5 p.m., and DePasquale had two kids, 5 and 3, who needed dinner soon. She did some mental math and decided she wouldn't be able to make it back with the documents she needed by 7 p.m. Frustrated, she headed home and did not vote. 'I obviously brought my ID, brought my kids, and I didn't realize that I also needed to bring a passport or birth certificate,' she said during a press conference Tuesday. 'I don't usually carry those around with me.' A prominent New Hampshire voting rights group says DePasquale isn't alone. At least 96 people were turned away from voting during town meetings March 11 due to the new documentation law, according to research from the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, a subsidiary of America Votes, which hosted the press conference. The group deployed observers to 22 polling places across the state that day — the busiest day of town meeting season this year — McKenzie St. Germain, New Hampshire state director for America Votes, said Tuesday. The group also conducted follow-up conversations with local elections officials to arrive at the tally. 'Those 96 voters only represent towns where we either had observers or have gotten in touch with election officials,' St. Germain said. 'This is not even a full state perspective, so we would anticipate that that number may continue to grow.' This town meeting season is the first time the new law has been in effect; it was signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in 2024 only after Sununu waited long enough that it would not take effect for the Nov. 5 general election. The law requires people who are newly registering to vote in New Hampshire — or who have been removed from the voting rolls because of a lack of activity — to produce documentation of citizenship in order to register and vote, with no exceptions. The law does not apply to people who are already registered to vote in the state but have moved to a different municipality or polling ward. Supporters of the law say it is an important safeguard against potential fraudulent voting, and will stop people from casting their ballot if they are not U.S. citizens. 'You have to be a qualified voter to cast a ballot,' said Rep. Ross Berry, a Weare Republican and the chairman of the House Election Law Committee, in an interview. 'And in order to be a qualified voter, you have to prove you are who you say you are: you're a citizen of the United States, you are 18 years old, and you live where you say you live. It's a very common-sense thing that if you don't wait until the last minute to do it is not an issue.' Previously, new registrants could sign a legally binding affidavit attesting that they were citizens, but Berry and other supporters of the law argue that system still allowed those people to cast ballots even if they were investigated and charged later. 'If you wake up on election day and decide you want to go vote, which is your right, you're going to need the documents,' Berry said. 'And I'm sorry, but the affidavits were not a document. That was nothing more than a signature on a piece of paper.' To St. Germain and other advocates, the number of people turned away this month suggests the new law has created disruptions even in relatively low turnout town meeting elections. And they indicate there could be more people turned away from the polls during the state primary and general elections in 2026, St. Germain said. 'What we saw on March 11 made it clear that access to the ballot is under attack in New Hampshire, and voters cannot afford more restrictions that prevent them from exercising their right to vote,' she said. Currently there are two lawsuits against the law, House Bill 1569. In one, brought in part by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, a trial will take place Feb. 9, 2026, in the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire, according to Henry Klementowicz, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of New Hampshire. A second lawsuit was filed in the same federal court by the New Hampshire Youth Movement with the help of the Elias Group, a firm helmed by election law attorney Marc Elias. Both lawsuits argue the law violates the First and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution because it creates too high a burden to register and vote. Those lawsuits were filed in late 2024, after HB 1569 became law but before it had taken effect in any elections, Klementowicz said. Now, Klementowicz said plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit may mention the new numbers indicating the law did prevent some people from immediately voting. 'I think that the results from the town elections could be used as evidence in the case,' Klementowicz said during the press conference. Despite supporting the law, Berry agrees that more work needs to be done to inform voters about the need to bring the documents to register. 'If I had any criticism, it would be that there wasn't enough broadcast about what you're going to have to do if you're going to register on election day,' he said. 'And I think that the state should take a proactive approach to get people to register before election day. Because if you're waiting to register on election day, you're basically saying, 'God, I hope nothing goes wrong.'' Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are considering a number of bills that would tighten voting registration further, particularly for absentee voters. House Bill 217 would require people voting absentee to also produce documentary proof of citizenship, age, domicile, and identity in order to register; Senate Bill 213 would apply similar documentary requirements. HB 217 is up for a vote on the House floor during its sessions Wednesday and Thursday, while SB 213 has already passed the Senate.
