By 2050, severe floods that were expected to happen once every 100 years will be three times more likely to occur in the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts. But the uneven distribution of resources across municipalities leaves some towns less equipped to plan for and respond to disasters.
When the river rises
Posted inState Government
MBTA zoning law targeted by GOP budget amendments
Even following a Supreme Judicial Court ruling in January against Milton that deemed the law constitutional and gave the attorney general’s office the ability to enforce it with legal action, unrest remains in other communities — many of which are using Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s contention that the law is an “unfunded mandate” to pursue further legal action.
Posted inOpinion
Transportation insecurity is holding Massachusetts residents back
When people can’t get where they need to go, barriers to basic needs like education, employment, and health care persist.
Posted inPolitics
New Balance chairman drops $1 million on Josh Kraft super PAC
Super PACs are expected to play a large role in this election cycle, as political operatives consider them more impactful at the local level. While donors are limited to contributing $1,000 to a candidate’s campaign committee in a calendar year, super PACs offer the opportunity to donate a larger sum.
Posted inThe Codcast
The stakes of Western Mass. transit gaps
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa of the First Hampshire district and Laura Sylvester, public policy manager at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, to discuss transportation challenges in Western Massachusetts and how they connect with other policy areas.
Posted inOpinion
Why we can’t think straight about the price of eggs
It’s hard to escape the sense that we’re in a crisis and that the best outcome would be for egg prices to drop back to normal as soon as possible. But what if “normal” is actually part of a bigger problem?
Posted inHousing
Faced with a housing crunch, a local move to ‘do something’
A resolution passed Wednesday is both a symbolic gesture and an earnest effort to contribute something to the housing crisis hitting the beachy southern Massachusetts region especially hard.
Posted inHousing
The urgent need for an agenda to preserve ‘naturally occurring’ affordable housing
A big driver of the housing crisis is the disappearance of “naturally occurring affordable housing — older units with rents low enough to be affordable to lower-income households, but generally with no public subsidy.
Posted inEnvironment
Massport hires first climate chief
The Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates high emissions-producing Logan International Airport, has hired its first chief climate and resilience officer.
Posted inEnvironment
Betting (on) the farm
The latest data from the US Agricultural Census show more than 100,000 acres of farmland in Massachusetts have been lost since 1997. That’s an average of losing just under 15 acres of farmland a day, roughly double the rate of farmland loss nationwide.
Posted inOpinion
Filling the teacher gap
With an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 teacher vacancies in Massachusetts, I am heartened to see our elected leaders beginning to take critical steps to attract more people to the profession
Posted inTransportation
‘Trying to do more with less’: Massachusetts prepares for inflation with proposed road funding bill
A bill proposed by Gov. Maura Healey would borrow $1.5 billion over the next five years to fund reconstruction and repairs to municipally-owned roads and bridges.
Posted inEnvironment
Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s big question on climate
“It’s a transition, but we all have to be more thoughtful,” she said recently.
Posted inEducation
House leader looks to put brakes on vocational school admission changes
A top House leader is looking to upend the years-long process to adopt new admissions policies governing the state’s vocational high schools.
Posted inEducation
Higher ed board approves new guidelines for students with disabilities
A 2022 law was passed to create more higher education opportunities for students with “severe intellectual disabilities, severe autism spectrum disorders and other severe developmental disabilities.”
Posted inThe Codcast
Managed retreat: not if, but when?
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Kristin Uiterwyk, director of the Urban Harbors Institute at UMass Boston, and Chris Krahforst, Director of Climate Adaptation and Conservation for the town of Hull, to discuss managed retreat in Massachusetts coastal communities threatened by rising waters and shrinking sands.
Posted inOpinion
In the fight for a more sustainable future, we can’t afford to leave underserved communities behind
Since Massachusetts wants to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, we can’t afford to leave any homeowners behind in pursuing clean energy improvements.