Population drop may have been a fluke, but slow growth has its costs By Robert David Sullivan Coming at the end of a year when Massachusetts had more than its […]
Sense of Loss
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
For the good of our economy the next phase of education reform must aim higher
The recent news that Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble was buying the Gillette Co. set off the predictable round of hand wringing about Boston’s future. Yet the vibrancy of the Massachusetts […]
Posted inEconomy
Corporate Citizens
There is no question that the announcement in January that Procter & Gamble, the Cincinnati–based consumer-products conglomerate, would acquire the Gillette Co., a Boston stalwart, struck a nerve. Partly, it […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
Your article about Proposition 21/2 overrides (Head Count, CW, Winter ’05) fails to mention two important community income-generating sources. These two sources are reinventing the local tax system and increasing […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Counterpoints
Mayor Menino’s call for greater revenue diversity, which he delivered at the Boston Municipal Research Bureau’s annual meeting, stems from the fact that the city of Boston is more dependent […]
Posted inPolitics
State House plagued by leaks of the most literal kind
INTRO TEXT Plaster damage in the House chamber (left) and a makeshift water collection system. Water leaking, material falling from the ceiling. The Big Dig? No, the Massachusetts State House. […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care
Soaring costs threaten effort to insure lowwage workers
INTRO TEXT For workers at Kids Korner Childcare, a Mansfield day care center, the state’s Insurance Partnership program has been a godsend. “It’s been more than helpful,” says Keith Hayes, […]
Posted inPolitics
A campaign to take redistricting away from lawmakers
A SYSTEM THAT has “turned democracy on its head”—that’s what Pam Wilmot, leader of the Massachusetts chapter of Common Cause, calls the redistricting process: politicians huddling behind closed doors, drawing district […]
Posted inEducation
Preschool Promise
Everybody has them, but (it’s just a theory) women of a certain age may have them more than men do—those moments in life when you stop and ask yourself: “How […]
Posted inPolitics
Hitting the Jackpot
IT’S A SAFE BET that Al Rezendes isn’t giving a lot of thought to the Belchertown fire truck he helped buy, or to the new police cruiser protecting the residents […]
Posted inEducation
Is it higher ed’s turn
Bearing the title Investing in Our Future, the report of the Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education, chaired by Sen. Steven Panagiotakos of Lowell and Sen. Stanley Rosenberg of […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Growing Pains
The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence By Elliott Currie New York, Metropolitan Books, 320 pages. Criminologists have been so engaged in trying to explain and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster CREEPING UP TO HUB HOME PRICESAccording to the National Association of Realtors, the Boston housing market stood out for not registering double-digit percentage increases in home […]
Posted inEconomy
Risk takings
Dozens of state governments are increasing their dependence on revenues from lotteries and casinos, but even without slots and table games Massachusetts is near the head of the pack. In […]
Posted inPolitics
Former political activist Jim Braude wins converts as a broadcast news star
It’s hour two of the Wilfredo Laboy Telethon, and Jim Braude and Margery Eagan have managed to raise only $37. But since the telephone lines are lit up—with callers ready […]
Posted inUncategorized
Past their prime
According to 2003 estimates from the Census Bureau, 126 of the state’s 351 communities (shaded on the larger map below) are now short of their population peaks. In some cases, […]
Posted inPolitics
Brave new world
The spate of sales of large local companies to out-of-state owners has been the topic of water cooler conversation for months now. Recent acquisitions of three prominent Boston-based companies are […]
Posted inPolitics
The feds demand more progress on state welfare reform
In 1995, Massachusetts was ahead of the welfare-reform curve, adopting guidelines aimed at moving welfare recipients from public dole to employment payroll a year before federal legislation was passed to […]
Posted inPolitics
Was the political deck stacked against a new library in Framingham
FRAMINGHAM—Route 9 slices the state’s biggest town almost perfectly in two, and the two halves have come to resemble each other less and less. If you live on the north […]
Posted inPolitics
Legislative careers and friendships begin in the curious Beacon Hill tradition known as the freshman bullpen
Legislative careers and friendships begin in the freshman bullpen The first day as a state representative in Massachusetts is memorable. Freshmen are surrounded by family and friends in the House […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Can Boston survive without the Curse of the Bambino
Can Boston survive without feeling star-crossed? It’s time to find a new curse. The Bambino certainly held up his end of the deal. As curses go, the Babe’s was a […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
I read your article in The Boston Globe (Robert Keough, “The School Financing Conundrum,” Ideas, October 3, 2004) this morning, and reviewed the articles you cite from the fall issue […]