If sometime this winter you flip a light switch and nothing happens, think back to where you were on May 8, 2000—the day the electricity industry in Massachusetts started down […]
Power Failure
Posted inCriminal Justice
Crime and Puzzlement
Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole wantsto use proven programs “but apply them tothe current situation.”Essdras M. Suarez, The Boston GlobeWhen four young men were killed, execution-style, in mid-December in the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics
Good Courts The Case for Problem Solving Justice proves that specialized courts can pay off
Good Courts: The case for Problem Solving Justice By Greg Berman and John Feinblatt, with Sarah Glazer New York, The New Press, 237 pages Winter 2006 During their required course […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Bread and Roses revisits a pivotal labor strike in Lawrence
Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American DreamBy Bruce WatsonNew York, Viking, 352 pages Winter 2006 Bruce Watson, a journalist and author of The Man Who […]
Posted inUncategorized
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster WHERE ARE WE LOSING?Massachusetts made headlines in late December as the only state in the US to lose population two years in a row, according to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Off-peak condition
Increases in the infectious disease rate and the percentage of people without health insurance, along with a drop in per-capita public health spending, caused Massachusetts to slip three notches, to […]
Posted inPolitics
Watertown provides a case study of citizen journalism on the web
Citizen journalist Lisa Williams wants to add to,not replace, the media mainstream.On an early-October evening at Watertown High School, Lisa Williams is in full schmooze mode. Williams, a 35-year-old mother […]
Posted inEconomy
Growth spurts
The 21st century has brought more choices to people looking for apartments and condos just outside Boston or spacious homes in the Berkshires, but the construction spurt hasn’t been so […]
Posted inPolitics
Turning 10
In 1996, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at about 4,000 and just beginning its dizzying five-year runup to more than 11,000. The United States was in the midst of […]
Posted inEconomy
Federal tax reform could be a mixed bag for Massachusetts
Winter 2006 When President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform issued its report in November after 10 months of study and debate, US Sen. John Kerry wasn’t impressed. A […]
Posted inPolitics
Local officials warned against chatting about town business online
Winter 2006ROWLEY—The Internet has made shopping, paying bills, reading the newspaper, and, it turns out, breaking the state’s Open Meeting Law more convenient than ever. Fifteen years ago, if town […]
Posted inUncategorized
Revolting development
Popular culture is filled with sympathetic characters who provide food for our tables, from Ernest Borgnine’s lonely butcher in the 1955 film Marty and the sweet-tempered grocer Mr. Hooper on […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Business leaders take the lead on growth issues — but not here
Growth & Development Extra 2006 From the outside, Greater Boston’s economic prospects look bright. Living up to its reputation as a scrappy, live-by-your-wits metropolitan area, the region survived globalization and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
The issue of immigration is one of complicated policies and high-strung emotions. Ian Bowles’s Publisher’s Note (“Counting on new pilgrims,” CW, Fall ’05) brought to light the complicated and emotional […]
Posted inUncategorized
Development expert Joel Kotkin on suburban life: Mend it, don’t try to end it
Growth & Development Extra 2006 His latest book is The City: A Global History, but it is as America’s leading defender of suburbia that Joel Kotkin has made a mark. […]
Posted inUncategorized
How large lot zoning and other town regulations are driving up home prices
function bigPopUp(url, width) { newWindow = window.open(url, ‘new’, ‘width=’+ width +’, height=650, resizable=1, scrollbars=1′); } Large lots and other requirements drive up the cost of Bay State homes By Edward […]
Posted inUncategorized
Arlington is a case study on how growth has become a dirty word in the Boston area
Growth & Development Extra 2006 Local planning and building regulations that control new residential construction in Massachusetts have long had their critics. Zoning and related laws are seen as impeding […]
Posted inUncategorized
Counterpoints
Growth & Development Extra 2006 Recent research has given us a glimpse of the Commonwealth’s economic future—and it’s not a pretty picture. Boston has the highest cost of living of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Argument
Growth & Development Extra 2006 For years, Massachusetts has been struggling to control sprawl. The MBTA has been systematically expanding transit service as an alternative to the automobile. Cape Cod […]
Posted inUncategorized
Thirsty homes endanger the Ipswich River
INTRO TEXT Growth & Development Extra 2006 Despite the 10th-wettest spring on record in Massachusetts, the 24,000 residents of Reading were required to shut off their lawn irrigation systems from […]
Posted inUncategorized
The state slows spending on open space
INTRO TEXT Growth & Develpment Extra 2006 Conservation advocates and the Romney administration agree on one fact: Development is consuming too much open space in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Audubon Society […]
Posted inUncategorized
The construction industry prospers
INTRO TEXT Growth & Develpment Extra 2006 Both public and private projects arekeeping hardhats busy. With the Big Dig winding down, Boston Harbor (mostly) cleaned up, and the new convention […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Boston may join the minor leagues
INTRO TEXT Growth & Develpment Extra 2006 Boston City Councilor John Tobin’s dream comes with a name, and it’s not of a higher political office. “The Boston Nine—what do you […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Academics measure the effects of the Red Line expansion
INTRO TEXT Growth & Development Extra 2006 What’s mass transit worth to you? It depends on how close you are to it. “Proximity matters,” says Matthew Kahn, a Tufts University […]