The MBTA Communities law is better understood as a leveling up exercise, or a fair-share zoning law.
Luc Schuster
Both sides overselling MBTA Communities Act
Its real impact will be far less than the rhetoric from both sides of the debate. Proponents tout it as a transformative effort to tackle racial segregation and build affordable housing in our region’s most exclusionary suburbs. There is truth in these claims. But now that we’re shifting to implementation, I worry that overstating the law’s magnitude has contributed to the blowback.
We’re reporting Census data all wrong
This report was initially released by the Boston Foundation’s Boston Indicators project. CENSUS DATA on race and ethnicity are invaluable for understanding who we are as a region and how we’re changing […]
Getting the details right on transit oriented development law
PASSING AMBITIOUS LEGISLATION matters for obvious reasons, but so too does the rule-making process that follows a law’s passage. Final language often leaves state agencies with tremendous leeway, and real-world […]
Minimum guaranteed income = solution to poverty
IN THE WEEKS leading up to his assassination in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched a new chapter of his work, referred to as the “Poor People’s Campaign.” This […]
Housing crisis 1 and 2
GREATER BOSTON’S affordable housing crisis is front-page news these days, and a frequent topic of conversation in housing circles. But the reference to a single housing crisis is off-base; we […]
The income-growth challenge in Gateway Cities
IT’S POSSIBLE FOR an economy to grow in ways that expand opportunity and promote broadly shared prosperity. We know that’s possible because it’s exactly what happened in the United States […]
