Last in a series. CITIES AND TOWNS of Greater Boston have a long history of using zoning to restrict development of multi-family housing that might accommodate families with children. The systematic restrictions […]
Amy Dain
Posted inOpinion
Where should new multi-family housing go?
WHERE SHOULD new multifamily housing go? This is a fundamental question facing 175 communities across eastern Massachusetts as they work to implement a new law intended to address the region’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Seeking predictable permitting for new housing
Third in a five-part series. IF YOU LIVE in an affluent suburb of Boston, your municipality is probably not using as-of-right zoning to permit construction of apartments or condos. If […]
Posted inOpinion
Solving the MBTA Communities zoning puzzle
IN 2021, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted the MBTA Communities zoning law requiring municipalities served by the MBTA to zone districts “of reasonable size” for multi-family housing at a “gross density” of […]
Posted inOpinion
What the MBTA Communities law means for your town
First of a five-part series. THERE IS A NEW concept in zoning, invented this year by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In promulgated guidelines, the concept has been dubbed “minimum multi-family […]
Posted inOpinion
In praise of downtowns, Main Streets
COMING FROM NEWTON I should have known that Greater Boston has hundreds of wonderful little downtowns and village centers, the hearts of walkable neighborhoods. Newton itself has 13 villages. I […]
Posted inOpinion
Building a city center serving six cities
QUICK QUIZ: What is the biggest growth district in Massachusetts outside of the city of Boston right now? Did you guess Kendall Square? Cambridge Crossing? Somerville’s Union Square? Watertown’s Arsenal […]
Posted inOpinion
Route 128 needs land use leadership
THERE HAS BEEN A LOT of press about Greater Boston’s housing shortage and growth pains. The suburbs are over-restricting development, home prices are escalating, and traffic is still stealing family […]
Posted inOpinion
Give accessory apartments a shot
FOR DECADES, housing experts and planners have been advocating for cities and towns to allow for the owners of single family houses to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to their […]
Posted inTransportation
Moving on from car-as-king development
THE DESIGN DILEMMA for America’s current generation of city builders is what to do about cars, and in particular parking. Our most beloved places were built before cars became the […]
Posted inOpinion
Where should new housing go?
GREATER BOSTON has added hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and not nearly enough housing. Where should new housing go to accommodate so many people? To understand our region’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Mystic + Malden: A development case study
GREATER BOSTON is adding jobs and population, but not enough housing and too much traffic. How do we accommodate development to improve our lives? A proving ground for aspiring city […]
Posted inOpinion
Building connectedness with star power
FOR A COUPLE OF DECADES, planners, environmentalists, and housing advocates have been singing the praises of transit oriented development (TOD) because mixed-use development by public transportation is good for the […]
Posted inOpinion
Zoning – the good and the bad
HOVERING BY THE FAIRY TALE playground, by the pumpkin carriage and turreted castles, behind the swings, was a wall of murky glass, an abandoned factory. There were no other factories […]
Posted inEconomy
Guess what’s anchoring many small downtowns?
THE NEW ENGLAND MOBILE BOOK FAIR of my childhood wasn’t exactly mobile; it was a cavernous cinderblock warehouse of a store in Newton. Yet visiting the store was like going […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Malls reinventing themselves as ‘lifestyle centers’
WHEN NEWTON’S ATRIUM MALL croaked, I figured Spotify’s shopping playlists would soon enough feature a “Requiem for the Mall.” And a “Hymn for Amazon.” Surely, all the malls of my […]
Posted inOpinion
Stop poking the Bear
The Boston Globe recently ran an opinion piece about Russia by a former diplomat that was anything but diplomatic. The piece was witty and terse – and mean. Perfect for […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Should we smoot the subways?
Recent debates about whose subway is worse, Boston or DC, got me thinking about Moscow’s subway. Moscow’s metro stations are palaces for the people, actual palaces. They are filled with […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Are dashboards the right tool to measure progress?
YOU RUN A government agency or nonprofit. You ask management experts how you can assess your “bottom line,” given that earning profits is not your mission. You want to know […]
Posted inOpinion
Municipalities shouldn’t go it alone on IT
EVERY ONE OF US relies on the services of local public works departments, pretty much every day, from morning to evening, in one way or another. Think for a moment […]
Posted inOpinion
In Newtonville, smart growth is taking hold
Photos from 1984 by Bill Dain; photos from 2015 by Amy Dain. TAKE OUT YOUR MAGNIFYING GLASS for a moment. You might need it to see some of changes in […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Opinion
Boston Public Market: Looks great, makes sense
DO YOU REMEMBER the first time you went to Whole Foods and saw the perfect stacks of flawless carrots and oranges? You might have wondered: grocery store or toy store […]
Posted inOpinion
Brutalist buildings need some TLC
NESTLED BETWEEN BOSTON’S WEST END AND GOVERNMENT CENTER are two state-owned fortresses of brutalist architecture: the Hurley and Lindemann buildings. The structures are solid, but lacking. Outside staircases are fenced […]
Posted inOpinion
The state should encourage accessory apartments
TEN YEARS AGO, I did a study of zoning regulations in the 187 communities within 50 miles of Boston. I wanted to find out if our region was allowing for […]
