Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s appointee to the MBTA board of directors pushed back against a transit authority presentation on Wednesday that steered the agency toward launching a half-price fare for low-income passengers instead of the free fare concept favored by the mayor.
Wu’s appointee to T board raises questions about low-income fare proposal
Posted inPolitics
Did Harvard aim to cancel Auchincloss?
AN INNOCENT bureaucratic mix-up or sharp-elbowed payback? Those are among the competing explanations being offered for a chain of events that forced a Harvard student group to scramble at the […]
Posted inOpinion
Outside-the-box ideas for downtown Boston
WE ARE UNDERGOING a tectonic shift in the downtown office market that threatens the viability of our city’s urban business core. Unlike previous economic cycles, the decline in the office […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Campbell opens up about neighbor’s arrest
As the state’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Andrea Campbell sees it as her responsibility to protect the safety of all communities in Massachusetts — and that includes her own neighborhood in Mattapan.
Posted inGovernment
Richie Neal wants to make a deal
The ethos of compromise has been Neal’s guiding light over four decades in politics. In today’s hyper partisan climate, it’s often reviled as a sign of weakness.
Posted inHousing
Unclear target for Boston’s housing goals
Mayor Michelle Wu and planning chief Arthur Jemison were leery about offering long-term housing production goals even as they referred to policies that would drive “a very large number” of units year over year.
Posted inEnergy
State board approves Craigville Beach transmission line
As the number of transmission lines coming ashore in Barnstable has grown, so has anxiety among residents, who are worried about popular beaches being torn apart as well as potential safety and health issues.
Posted inOpinion
Reversing the war on drugs, one overdose at a time
Overdose prevention centers can become a novel option in the state’s larger network of services, a small but significant step toward viewing substance use from a public health perspective rather than as a criminal justice issue.
Posted inThe Codcast
A race to keep Mass. health care affordable
This week on Health or Consequences, hosts Paul Hattis and John McDonough are joined by David Seltz, founding executive director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. They discuss what the HPC has learned about health care costs over the last decade, where Massachusetts stands relative to other states, and the HPC’s current policy priorities.
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. faces health care cost ‘inflection point’
Massachusetts has long been a leader in providing access to health care coverage, but rising costs across the health care sector are squeezing individuals and businesses alike
Posted inEducation
Boston schools grudgingly release some sexual misconduct data
The numbers, which were released grudgingly after a six-month public records battle, begin to paint a picture of how prevalent sexual misconduct, bullying, and biased-based incidents are in the Boston schools.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. Decarbonization Roadmap radically underestimates costs
We should not flinch from the possibility that an honest reassessment of the required resources may leave us no choice but to reassess our goals for retrofit of existing buildings.
Posted inOpinion
MBTA should scrap trains, go with robot buses
Be done with this nonsense. No more tracks, switches, rail cars, or outrageous repair costs and delays. Throw it all in the trash and start anew.
Posted inEducation
What if Harvard, MIT, and Penn presidents said too much, not too little?
Critics say the real problem lies with the very idea that the university officials should be commenting on contentious issues at all.
Posted inOpinion
Electrifying everything is the right way to go
Our efforts must focus on building a modern electric grid that embraces the wide array of new, clean, reliable, and cost-effective technologies while rapidly downsizing fossil fuel infrastructure.
Posted inState Government
Short takes: Will ‘quorum sessions’ become a go-to option on Beacon Hill?
In a history-making move, the House and Senate passed a $3.1 billion spending bill over the objections of many Republican lawmakers. The branches pulled it off by bringing in enough legislators to establish a quorum – 81 in the House and 21 in the Senate.
Posted inCourts
State solicitor tapped as Healey’s first SJC pick
Gov. Maura Healey has picked Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar, the state solicitor and a former US Supreme Court clerk, as her first nomination to the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Posted inOpinion
Tenants facing eviction need lawyers
Last year, Massachusetts Trial Court data showed that nine out of 10 tenants facing eviction in court did not have a lawyer – and almost always faced off against landlords armed with experienced housing attorneys.
Posted inEnvironment
Climate activists protest at office of Hanscom developer
Climate activists opposing the expansion of the largest private jet airport in New England are turning their ire on a venture capitalist heading the companies that proposed the expansion.
Posted inHousing
Yes, building more housing does lower rents, study says
Does increasing the supply of housing, even if it’s mainly higher-cost, market-priced units, temper the runup in costs that has so many residents straining to make ends meet? The idea follows the basic economic principle of supply and demand – when more of something is made available, its price falls. But there are plenty of “supply skeptics” who aren’t convinced that simply opening the housing production spigot will lower costs, and argue instead that it often just drives up prices by promoting gentrification.