Higher learning's reach

'I LIKED the trees and the bricks," campus tour guide James Peloquin said when asked recently why he chose to attend Framingham State College. Peloquin had a casual air, dressed in shorts, a Framingham T-shirt, and flip-flops. But his response is serious, the leafy top of a well-rooted ...

FLORAMO'S RESTAURANT in Chelsea used to be busiest in the evenings because that's when people who live nearby come in for dinner. But that pattern has changed, like a lot of other things in Chelsea.

STANDING AT the controls inside the steel tower of the Dorchester windmill, Marty Aikens is the electrician of the future. Large circuit breakers line the wall, and a digital readout flashes the amount of juice flowing steadily into the nearby training facility of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 103.

CAMPAIGNING FOR governor in 1990, Bill Weld coined a catchy phrase to sum up his criminal justice policy, vowing to ``reintroduce our inmates to the joys of busting rock." What Weld, who had been a prosecutor, had to have known was that the vast majority of inmates eventually will be released to the communities they once victimized.

EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS is notorious for expensive housing, but an MIT study in May found a few communities that stand out for affordability. One of them is Norwood. Steve Costello, the town planner, showed a visitor around town last month to explain why. ``If you are willing to work with developers," he said, ``they're willing to work with you."

THE F. GILBERT Hills State Forest in Foxborough is a well-used recreational attraction for residents of the state's fast-growing outer suburbs near Interstate 495. But like so many of the state's forests, parks, pools, rinks, and beaches, Gilbert Hills shows the effects of inadequate operating and maintenance funds.

IN LATE summer or early fall, just when the gubernatorial race should be heating up, state education officials are scheduled to release detailed data on high school dropout rates in Massachusetts as part of a wider effort of the National Governors Association.

THE IMPORTANCE of state government in providing for the transportation needs of Massachusetts residents was nowhere more evident over the last few weeks than in Ipswich, where crews paid by the state were repairing an important bridge washed out by the rains of early June.