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 current answer, I have pored over local zoning codes, housing plans, and permitting data in 100 cities and towns of Greater Boston, not including the city of […]
Amy Dain
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 builders is at the intersection of the Mystic River and Malden River, at the edges of Somerville, Everett, Medford, and Malden. Across Greater Boston, find […]
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 climate, commutes, the economy, quality of life, and human sociability. The people of Greater Boston have heard the chorus, and responded. In the last two […]
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 around my childhood park in Newtonville, just a pleasing selection of unique houses, arranged along sidewalks that led to a village center with a candy […]
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 on a voyage, something like a trip to the Dead Sea caves where you might stumble upon ancient scrolls. A couple of years ago, I […]
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 youth – Chestnut Hill and the Arsenal, too – were doomed! But so far, there’s been no massacre of malls, no requiem needed. The Chestnut […]
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 clicks. “Russia is so far behind economically, technologically, socially, and politically, it just doesn’t matter anymore.” I have a different take, one that goes back […]
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 marble, mosaics, statues, chandeliers, and even stained glass. You ride the steep escalator deep underground and emerge in a space as grand as a gilded […]
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 if you are doing a good job delivering value for the public money you are spending. The experts tell you to take three easy steps. […]
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 about everything public works departments do for our region. They maintain roads and sidewalks, haul garbage, collect hazardous household waste, mow fields, install traffic signals, […]