As someone who has lived in the Boston area for the past two decades and often searched for affordable housing, the news that the Boston Housing Authority is “teaming up” with private-sector developers to maintain and upgrade its housing stock left me with mixed emotions. “Yet another stealth rollback!” I murmured to no one […]
MORE DEMOCRACY NEEDED TO SURVIVE GLOBAL WARMING
Or: Free the Wu Train The hits just keep on coming from climate scientists—as they drop big global warming studies with increasing regularity. Fielding data and projections that look ever more depressing. Most recently, a new report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services says that not […]
MORE ACTIVISM NEEDED IN STATE AND LOCAL POLITICS
Solely spending your money and free time on presidential pageants is unwise The other day my colleague Chris Faraone made an interesting comment on social media—inveighing against those who lavish money on presidential candidates with the next national elections still a year and a half away: We held a forum for the […]
PUBLIC BAD. PRIVATE GOOD? BOSTON HERALD’S ATTACK ON MASSHOUSING HIGHLIGHTS DOUBLE STANDARD IN AMERICAN JOURNALISM
Over the last several days, the Boston Herald has had its knives out in no less than three articles and two editorials against MassHousing—an independent, quasi-public agency created in 1966 and charged with providing financing for affordable housing in Massachusetts. Readers can be forgiven for assuming that such lavish attention from a publication […]
FAIR HOUSING WHACKED: TUFTS STUDENTS FIGHT ADMIN PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH “CLASSIST” DORM SYSTEM
More than 200 Tufts University students, faculty, and allies from surrounding communities held a march and demonstration last week to protest a new campus housing policy, according to the Boston Herald. Over the summer, the Tufts administration announced that its annual lottery system for on-campus housing during each academic year would be heavily modified […]
‘WALK THE TALK’
Mayor Walsh needs to act faster to mitigate regional global warming threats Environmental groups protested Mayor Marty Walsh last week during the International Mayors Climate Summit and subsequent US Conference of Mayors meeting—demanding fast action to make Boston carbon neutral (achieving net zero CO2 emissions) and better prepare the city for the many […]
TOWNIE: CITY ON A HILL
Global warming will flood Boston. Why not move the state capital to Worcester? Many small American cities have boosterish metro research organizations that look like a cross between a public policy outfit and a chamber of commerce, and the Bay State’s second biggest urban area is no exception. The Worcester Regional Research Bureau […]
THERE WILL BE NO OUTSIDE WORLD TO HELP US
Boston’s global warming plans must prepare region for worst case scenarios In a couple of recent columns—and several others over the years—I’ve looked at some of the specific threats that scientists expect Boston will be facing from global warming-induced climate change. While there’s plenty of room for debate about the anticipated severity and […]
TOWNIE: TAX DELINQUENT, TAX GIVEAWAY
Crutchfield sues Mass over online taxes, unions protest Siemens Online retailer tries to duck sales taxes For a long time, the internet was like the Wild West for online sales. Companies sold products to consumers all over the US, and the feds and many states were slow to tax those transactions. You know, […]
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS NOW OUR VERSION OF THE FRENCH NATIONAL FRONT
What Are We Going to Do About It? My wife’s family on her mother’s side are French Jews who escaped from the Germans who occupied France in 1940. First they moved from their home in Paris to the southern part of the country, which was ruled by the Vichy regime of Marshall Petain. Two […]
