Illustrations by Travis Foster Commuter trains to nowhere Increased commuter-rail service is a key component of “smart growth,” but not all train stops allow for car-free living. Some are simply […]
Demographics
Posted inPolitics
Divided loyalties
“So, what do you do?” My friend visiting from San Francisco stifled a laugh when she heard this familiar line at a cocktail party. She has a theory that Bostonians […]
Posted inEconomy
Redefining a ‘better’ life
“it’s crazy that none of us can afford to live in the town where we were kids,” said a high school classmate at a recent mini-reunion. We’d grown up in […]
Posted inTransportation
Statistically Significant
BUSES TAKE A HEAVY TOLL ON THE T Passenger fares accounted for only 29 percent of operating expenses on the MBTA during 2006, according to new data from the Federal […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Births vs. deaths
The Census Bureau recently published county-by-county data on population changes from 2006 to 2007 (see previous post), giving us lots of opportunities for cartographical noodling. The two maps below (one […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
What’s the matter with Kansas now?
USA Today has a cool set of maps based on county-by-county population trends from 2000 through 2007. The most striking thing is that Kansas and other Great Plains states are […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Pew’s Religious Census
In other demographic news, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life today released its massive U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which is based on 35,000 respondents from every conceivable affiliation. […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Baby boomers may be knocking off too early
USA Today’s Sandra Block writes that Baby Boomers may be making a big mistake by retiring at 62, the first year they’re eligible for Social Security benefits:…millions of the oldest […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster VOTING AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT According to a recent article in Scientific American, whether or not you vote may be “hardwired” in your genetic […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The geography of cremation
This map is a little macabre, but the extent of the regional differences is surprising to me. In September, the Cremation Association of North America published a report in which […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Here’s a Web site that can kill an afternoon
Hundreds of Top 101 lists of cities, counties, and zip codes ranked by demographic, economic, and even meteorological factors. Here are a few in which a Bay State community made […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Has Burlington saved the Bay State’s bacon?
Last December, the US Census Bureau estimated that Massachusetts had gained residents in 2006, after being the only state to lose population in both of the previous years. This summer, […]
Posted inHealth Care
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster Maybe it’s a subliminal reminder to do well in school, but girls’ names ending in “a” are all the rage in Massachusetts. According to the Social […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Brainstorms
we’re still in a state of invention, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Massachusetts ranked fourth in the total number of patents granted last year, outranked only by […]
Posted inPolitics
Going dutch
Illustrations by Travis Foster State officials and legislators looking for a justifiable trade junket might want to get some plane tickets to Amsterdam. A new report from the International Trade […]
Posted inPolitics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster the graying of the do-gooders According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, volunteerism is on the decline in Massachusetts, while it’s flat in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
New neighbors
Cape cod apparently saw a lot of moving vans last year, but the South Coast was unusually quiet in home-buying activity. The larger map below shows the number of single-family […]
Posted inUncategorized
A fading Dream
All summer and fall, we at CommonWealth, in tandem with our MassINC colleagues, have been at work on a series of background papers on key issues and trends in Massachusetts, […]
Posted inUncategorized
New states for newcomers
Massachusetts has long been losing native-born citizens to New Hampshire. Are we about to start losing immigrants to our northern neighbor too?To be sure, the immigrant population in the Bay […]
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 inPolitics
Statistically Significant
Illustrations By Travis Foster GLOBAL SOUL MATESWe usually compare Massachusetts with other states, but there’s a whole world out there to search for possible doppelgangers. According to the 2006 World […]
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 inPolitics
Constituent service
one effect of the ongoing shift in population from city to suburb is that more and more town selectmen in Massachusetts have constituencies that dwarf that of city councilors. The […]
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 […]