The problem, far too often, is not with the ride, but with managing to get on the train and in your seat in the first place.
Peter O'Connor
Posted inOpinion
Abolishing BPDA should not be first priority
I SUPPORT Boston mayoral candidate Michelle Wu’s good government impulse to “fix Boston’s broken development system,” but worry that her plan to abolish the Boston Planning and Development Agency may […]
Posted inEconomy
Depoliticizing the development process in Boston
CALLS TO ABOLISH the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) go back almost to its creation. City Councilor Michelle Wu is the latest to take up the quest to rid […]
Posted inOpinion
Is it the end or the beginning for cities?
WITH TIME ON OUR HANDS, we’re all contemplating how our lives will be different in the future, once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. At this point, almost every news source has […]
Posted inOpinion
Boston’s congestion prompted me to move
I MOVED TO BOSTON from New London, Connecticut, in my early thirties, in 1994. The reasons were both professional and personal. As a still young-ish lawyer interested in real estate […]
Posted inTransportation
Getting cars, bikers, and pedestrians to coexist
BOSTON IS GROWING, and fast. Highways and arterial roadways are commonly clogged not just during “rush hour,” but at all times of day, including weekends. It used to be the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Shadow vs $: It’s the wrong debate
THE WINTHROP SQUARE DEVELOPMENT proposed by Millennium Partners is not about the shadows on the Public Garden. It’s about the fact that every major development proposal in Boston seems to […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Repealing Obamacare won’t fix health care
“ALL BUREAUCRACIES, PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, are the same” is a motto I have lived by for years, and it applies to the health care and health insurance bureaucracies. I purchase […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
GLX: It’s not just about transportation
I GUESS EVERY ORGANIZATION needs a mission statement. So in 2010, the senior staff of the newly created MassDOT was taking a crack at it, one day, around the secretary’s […]
Posted inTransportation
Improving the ‘Amtrak experience’
LIKE MANY PEOPLE who live between Boston and Washington, I ride Amtrak. So when I got a call a few weeks ago asking if I would participate in a focus […]
Posted inOlympics, Opinion
The gay marriage-Boston 2024 connection
I CLOSELY FOLLOWED the debate around the Boston 2024 Olympics bid, and it seemed odd to me at first, but I just kept connecting it to the gay marriage fight, […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Here’s one problem Olympic planners can address
I RIDE MY BIKE a lot from the South End to Southie: under the Expressway (my real subject here), up to Dorchester Heights for the sweeping views (and a well-deserved […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Let’s not let this crisis go to waste
AFTER DECADES OF underfunding the T, it finally collapsed completely under the weight of repeated winter storms and, as I write this, is still badly crippled. The T does not […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics, Transportation
With government, the little things matter, too
When a T worker notices that something is “off,” and acts quickly to save a vision impaired rider from getting hit by a train, or when a State Trooper helps […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
To be or not to BRA: Is that the question?
During the mayoral primary, the future of the Boston Redevelopment Authority emerged as a hot topic, and rightly so, as the BRA touches on our lives in so many ways. […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
MassDOT takes on the last mile
In a classic episode of Sex and the City, “the girls” plan a trip to the suburbs to visit a friend who’s made the move to Connecticut. They rent a […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
So close, yet so far
THERE IS A TEMPORARY EXHIBIT hanging in the Portland Maine Art Museum this spring and summer, the personal modern art collection of William Paley, the former head of the CBS […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
What does Vidal Sassoon have to do with P3s?
Vidal Sassoon died this month, and that news brought me back to the 1980s somehow (or maybe it was the new version of “Dallas.” Yikes.) But it reminded me that […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Transportation
MBTA deficit solutions too narrow in scope
Discussion about the MBTA’s proposal to implement fare hikes and service cuts to meet a $160 million dollar budget shortfall has, until Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s recent letter to Secretary […]