Photograph by David L. Ryan,The Boston Globemore than three months after a ceiling panel collapse took a life and further besmirched the new roadways’ already tarnished image, traffic should be […]
Learning from the Big Dig
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Bright Lights, Little Cities
New Bedford’s cobblestonedhistoric district has beenspruced up, but the citystill has serious economic problems.to understand where the South Coast cities of Fall River and New Bedford fit into the picture […]
Posted inPolitics
Maynard Highs radio station lives to broadcast another day
sometime around the middle of September a switch will be flicked, and the airwaves of Maynard will once again be filled with local music shows, community announcements, high school football […]
Posted inUncategorized
No brakes
if you thought the Bay State’s flat population growth meant more room for parking, forget it. According to the state Department of Revenue, the number of registered passenger vehicles in […]
Posted inEnvironment
Beyond Cape Wind
Filling up at the gas station for a weekend on Cape Cod has taken on new significance this summer as prices hover around $3 a gallon. High energy prices have […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Economy
Anthony Flints This Land takes a whack at suburban sprawl
This Land:The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of AmericaBy Anthony FlintBaltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 310 pages with gov. mitt Romney a self-declared lame duck, it is by no […]
Posted inHealth Care
DC think tanks have unpredictable reactions to the Massachusetts health care plan
when edward kennedy ascended the State House steps in April to praise the Legislature’s passage of a bill that aims to ensure that every Massachusetts resident has health care coverage, […]
Posted inEconomy
Devens advances toward independence
devens This former US Army base has turned into limbo for the 250 or so people who now live here. Depending on their address, they vote in Ayer or Harvard, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster hedging on pork futures Notwithstanding our fame as the site of the “Big Pig” tunnel project, the Bay State gets only scraps of pork from the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
The price of justice
despite its lower-than-average crime rate, Massachusetts ranks near the top in state spending per capita on the criminal-justice system. One reason is that the Bay State tends to spend more […]
Posted inPolitics
150th anniversary of a caning
In 1856, Charles Sumner’s tirade against slavery won him national fame – and a crack on the head us sen. edward Kennedy stirs up the emotions of both supporters and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
Why do reporters assume they have the knowledge to judge one crime reduction strategy over another (“Crime and Puzzlement,” CW, Winter ’06)? Based on 35 years of experience in crime […]
Posted inEconomy
Historian Thomas O’Connor on making Boston the Athens of America
Thomas O’Connor has been telling Boston’s story for more than three decades. His 1976 book, Bibles, Brahmins, and Bosses, based on a series of lectures delivered at the Boston Public […]
Posted inEducation
Troubled charter schools get direction
INTRO TEXT Charter schools burst onto the scene as a bold challenge to the status quo. Supporters said that charters – which are publicly funded but operate free of bureaucratic […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
The pilot school concept comes to Fitchburg
INTRO TEXT would you lend ancient Chinese masterpieces to a middle school? Maybe not, but the Sackler Foundation didn’t blink before sending 33 priceless artifacts, among them Chinese Buddhas and […]
Posted inEconomy
Public pension chaos attracts scrutiny
INTRO TEXT when he was fired three years ago as the state’s correction commissioner, Michael Maloney stood ready to take his medicine – but hoped for a little sugar to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Postrelease supervision gets little traction
INTRO TEXT a new yorker cartoon captured the problem succinctly. It showed a prison cellblock with a large banner hanging overhead: WELCOME BACK, RECIDIVISTS! According to a 2002 report by […]
Posted inPolitics
Kerry gets a new aide with game
INTRO TEXT jon jennings knows a thing or two about the transition game. And not just the kind he helped direct during eight years with the Boston Celtics, the last […]
Posted inEconomy
Fairhaven loses both taxes and jobs to ATT
INTRO TEXT an at&t call center in Fairhaven will soon close its doors after a contentious nine-year relationship with the town, leaving many people feeling like they’ve been hung up […]
Posted inPolitics
Then and Now
in the lifetime of a magazine, 10 years can be an eternity. In the case of CommonWealth, they represent 44 issues on the shelf and, considering the failure rate of […]
Posted inPolitics
Shifting Ground
Illustrations By Travis Foster Four years ago, Mitt Romney beat Shannon O’Brien to become governor of Massachusetts. Another way to look at it is that the town of Westwood, where […]
Posted inUncategorized
Hazardous Duty
the department of social services was in the dock – again – and that meant Harry Spence was on the hot seat. This time, it was the horrifying tale of […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Mayflower presents the Plymouth story as tragedy
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and WarBy Nathaniel PhilbrickNew York, Viking Press, 480 pagesWinter 2006 beneath the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, tucked away safely in the […]
Posted inEducation
Grading the graders
massachusetts is about as good as it gets when it comes to setting standards for public school teachers and holding schools accountable for outcomes, according to Quality Counts 2006, the […]