Transportation is a subject I address frequently in my columns. But, as is often the case in journalism, it’s usually necessary to write about it piecemeal given various editorial constraints. So I might cover flooding subways one week and a gonzo proposal for sky gondolas over the Seaport the next. But rarely do I […]
THIS PLACE/DISPLACED: A SPOTLIGHT ON DISPLACEMENT, GENTRIFICATION, AND HOUSING INEQUALITY IN BOSTON
In preparation for this run, ATB producers went to City Life meetings to partner with those who were interested in sharing stories of displacement. In doing so, they were shocked by the number of people who wanted to participate.
GREENFIELD BLUES: HOMELESSNESS IS NOT JUST A BIG-CITY PROBLEM IN MASS
We don’t get much news about Western Mass in Boston. And since the population is relatively small in the largely rural western counties of the Commonwealth, it can be easy to miss significant stories. Because the scale of noteworthy happenings is naturally smaller there. Because our diminished metro news outlets have trouble covering […]
UNWILLING CONVERTS: SOMERVILLE’S LARGEST CONDO GRAB IN HISTORY YIELDS RELATIVE TENANT WIN IN TENSE MARKET
“We have to recognize, you know, people enter the building renting because the circumstances mean that renting is what works for them … I think we have to have protections and safeguards to allow those individuals to continue getting the benefits they’re entitled to.”
THE TERMINAL: SOUTH STATION IS A HOMELESS SHELTER WITH NO SERVICES
As television journalists reported that New England Patriots fans donated comforters for homeless people, transit cops disposed of every single blanket that the folks from Quincy C.O.P.E. and others handed out inside South Station.
TOWNIE: CORPORATE TAX FABLES AND COMMUNITARIAN KIDDIE TABLES
Big local corps quiet about huge profits to come from Repub tax scheme… except GE An interesting WBUR article, “Largest Mass. Companies Are Mostly Silent On GOP Tax Plans,” asked the top 12 corporations in the Commonwealth to comment on the recently passed Republican scheme to transfer vast amounts of money from the working […]
FRONT AND CENTER: RACE PLAYS INTO THE BOSTON MAYORAL ELECTION IN MORE WAYS THAN YOU REALIZE
While both candidates have positioned themselves as the best choice for addressing racism in a city that is 53 percent people of color, their outlooks on related issues and strategies regarding how to fix things differ substantially.
THE LONG JOURNEY HOME
A new film aims to shatter stigmas around public housing
SPECIAL HOUSING FEATURE: EIGHT ISN’T ENOUGH
For people living on the margins in the cities, towns, and suburbs around Boston, the available housing subsidies are painfully inadequate—just like the public transportation and job opportunities
HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS: SAVAGE CUTS AND CRAPPY JOBS ARE WHAT GOT US HERE
There are three major structural problems out of the control of impoverished individuals that best explain the rise of homelessness in Massachusetts: savage cuts to our state mental health system, an economy that creates large numbers of bad low-wage jobs, and the destruction of affordable housing.
