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.
Unclear target for Boston’s housing goals
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.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. barrels toward critical period of ‘rapid decarbonization’
Massachusetts has a staggering to-do list in order to meet its 2050 commitment to hit net zero greenhouse emission.
Posted inHealth Care
Steward to close Stoughton hospital in April
Dallas-based Steward, which describes itself as the largest owner of community-based hospitals in Massachusetts and fourth-biggest private employer, plans to close its New England Sinai Acute Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation Hospital (NESH) by early April.
Posted inEnergy
DPU starts plotting path to ‘beyond gas future’
After three years of studies and analysis, the DPU issued an order that requires gas utilities to begin to rein in their businesses and moved toward a “beyond gas future.”
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC weighs officer privacy against public records rights
The Supreme Judicial Court is wading into a drawn-out public records fight stemming from the Bristol County District Attorney’s refusal to release documents, recorded interviews, and the names of officers involved in the 2021 fatal shooting of 30-year-old Anthony Harden.
Posted inOpinion
High-stakes test big challenge for those with disabilities
As they transition into adulthood, my students face myriad challenges, and missing out on educational and employment opportunities because they don’t do well on standardized tests and therefore can’t graduate shouldn’t be among them.
Posted inPolitics
He’ll make a mark as Quincy’s Black, gay city council president – but don’t ask him about it
The first Black person and openly gay person to serve in elected office in Quincy, Ian Cain scoffs at the identity politics of the left, and appears to fit more comfortably in the mold of a Charlie Baker Republican.