INTRO TEXT gov. deval patrick’s selection of Ruth Kaplan, a Brookline School Committee member and longtime MCAS critic, as his first pick for a seat on the Massachusetts Board of […]
Falling membership doesn’t affect PTA’s political clout
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Study says CPA steers money to wealthy towns
INTRO TEXT when the community Preservation Act emerged from a tortuous legislative process to become law in 2000, state officials heralded it as the most significant land-use bill passed in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Closed meetings carry a cost
INTRO TEXT Municipal officials could be in for a rude—and costly—awakening if they don’t follow the letter of the law. The Open Meeting Law, that is. Under bills now pending […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Still working on the railroad: funding fuzzy for South Coast rail
INTRO TEXT “it’s easy to say, ‘Give me this, give me that,’” said Rep. Joseph Wagner, the Chicopee Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation, during testimony on a […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Thinking big
Ansin has made mill redevelopmenthis passion—and the revival ofstruggling Bay State cities itshoped-for byproduct.if the walls of the Wood Worsted Mill in Lawrence could talk, they would tell the stories […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Saline solution
Illustration by Greg Morgana small group of Hull residents have roused themselves early on a Saturday morning for a presentation at the local senior center on the feasibility of getting […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Cost unconscious
On a Wednesday afternoon in late April, I went to the John W. McCormack state office building, a pillar of bureaucracy a half-block east of the State House, and found […]
Posted inEconomy
Not-so-prime spots
UPDATE: For more recent foreclosure data, go to the Head Count in our Winter 2009 issue.home foreclosures in Massachusetts continued to climb this spring—up 40 percent in May compared with […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letter of introduction
Photograph by Russ Campbellon behalf of the MassINC board of directors, we are delighted to introduce readers to Gregory Torres, the new president of MassINC and publisher of CommonWealth magazine.Greg […]
Posted inPolitics
Dispatches
Pay up—and shut up? Under one school of thought, second-homeowners are a major asset to the Massachusetts economy. They pay property taxes, constantly renovate those second homes, and buy up […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Environment
Squeaky wheels
the specter of little toothpicks twirling on the horizon of Nantucket Sound is causing fits among the political elites who make summer a verb on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Simple pleasures
buildings matter. They temper our mood, refract our ambitions and sensibilities. At their best, they might inspire us to behave better. “We want [buildings] to shelter us,” says essayist Alain […]
Posted inEconomy
Tax and mend
asked why he’s taken a lead role in the bid by House Democrats this year to enact an overhaul of the little-known alternative minimum tax, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
On second thought
UPDATE: Kingston’s Place turned out to be far from a done deal. The developer pulled the plug on the project in 2010.kingston — Residential growth, smart or otherwise, is rarely […]
Posted inHealth Care
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster Maybe it’s a subliminal reminder to do well in school, but girls’ names ending in “a” are all the rage in Massachusetts. According to the Social […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Brainstorms
we’re still in a state of invention, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Massachusetts ranked fourth in the total number of patents granted last year, outranked only by […]
Posted inPolitics
Full disclosure
less than a year after its launch, the New England News Forum is a work in progress. At a time when the mainstream media are under assault from bloggers, political […]
Posted inPolitics
Frozen in time
first-time visitors to the Massachusetts House of Representatives are struck by its beauty and grandeur. The royal blue carpeting, the walls of rich, Honduran mahogany, and the massive electronic roll-call […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Plymouth’s Cordage park showed how to make Chapter 40R and smart growth work for both towns and developers
despite recent downward pressure on home prices, the cost of housing remains a major concern for nearly two-thirds of Massachusetts residents, according to a poll released in February by the […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Hidden no more
five years ago, I wrote an article for The Boston Globe about home-based, high-tech businesses in my Amherst neighborhood. I had no idea that what seemed to be a minor […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
MIDDLE SCHOOLERS ARE CAUGHT IN A CHASM
Thank you for shining a much-needed light on the middle school crisis in your article “The New Math” (CW, Winter 2007). To the extent that children are falling through the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Tough medicine
Photo by Frank Curran As of April 12, 2006, Jonathan Gruber became the most influential economist in Massachusetts government. That was the day Gov. Mitt Romney signed a sweeping health […]
Posted inEducation
Turnaround time
massachusetts is engaged in a fierce, long-term competition for talent, investment, and jobs with other states, regions, and countries. Success is essential to the future well-being of our citizens and […]
Posted inEducation
In tight times, universal preschool gets held back
INTRO TEXT while massachusetts has invested heavily in public K-12 education in recent years, grand plans to extend that reach to the preschool years are bumping up against harsh fiscal […]