Four charter schools are opening in Boston next fall and they need classroom space. The Boston Public Schools are downsizing and will have 10 empty buildings at the end of […]
Growth and Development
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Thinking outside the box to build a square
Cities and towns across the Commonwealth are being hit harder than ever as revenue and state aid decrease. Many municipalities have put on hold development projects that could revitalize public […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Fall River gambler
in upending a planned 300-acre biotech park, Fall River Mayor William Flanagan picked a fight with the governor, angered the state university, junked a decade’s worth of planning, and endangered […]
Posted inEconomy
Untethered competition
wireless phones, it seems, are ubiquitous. Talking, texting, surfing. On the street, on the T, and in the car. You can’t swing a dead Samsung without hitting someone with a […]
Posted inEconomy
Urban (love) affairs
Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier By Edward Glaeser New York, The Penguin Press, 352 pagesREVIEWED BY JOHN SCHNEIDERcities have always […]
Posted inEconomy
Convention center questions
A panel weighing the expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center said on Tuesday that state lawmakers would have to identify between $78 million and $117 million annually in […]
Posted inEconomy
Money talks—and delivers
until his arrest last year, few Bostonians had heard of Martin Raffol. Many more people, however, had probably heard of his boss, Arthur Winn—one of the state’s most prolific affordable […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Congressional math
massachusetts legislators got the bad news in late December. And by late February or early March, they should have detailed Census figures confirming what they’ve long expected: The state’s congressional […]
Posted inEconomy
Measurement error
the process currently underway to determine how—not whether—to expand the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) offers yet another example of the need for real public sector accountability. Last year, […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
Job action
january 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of MassINC’s New Skills for a New Economy report. The report’s main finding that 1.1 million workers in Massachusetts—a third of the state’s workforce […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics, The Download
The Download: Map quest
It’s a decennial dance that makes sausage-making look like an art form. Congressional redistricting, mandated every 10 years by the federal census, is once again playing out in all corners […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, The Download
The Download: Where the grads are
Well-educated people tend to congregate together, and sometimes so do high school dropouts. Portfolio.com scoured Census data for information on educational attainment and then ranked the 200 largest metropolitan statistical […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, The Download
The Download: Immunization exemptions
Whooping cough, an infectious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable coughing, used to be one of the most common childhood diseases in the United States and a major cause of childhood […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
The Download: Pondering patronage
Former Senate president Billy Bulger practiced the trade with such abandon that MBTA was said to stand for “Mr. Bulger’s Transportation Authority,” an only partially tongue-in-cheek reference that seemed to […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Sept. report shows job growth slows
Today’s unemployment report – the last before the November gubernatorial election – suggests the pace of recent job growth may be slowing. The unemployment rate in September fell to 8.4 […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
A business improvement district in Boston-finally
With city services cut and unlikely to rebound to pre-recession levels any time soon, Bostonians are stepping into the breach.Businesses in the Downtown Crossing area are banding together and voluntarily […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Tribes lobby for reservation land
The demise of state gambling legislation this summer was a blow to Gov. Deval Patrick and many legislators, but no one was more disappointed when the deal fell apart than […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
Overcoming tough times
Economic crises are social accelerators—things that were abstractly understood as trends are suddenly new and crushing realities. Twenty-five years ago, while the “Massachusetts Miracle” of growth charmed a generation of […]
Posted inEconomy
A ballpark assessment
can you believe it? Fenway Park, America’s most beloved ballpark, home to the Green Monster and Pesky’s Pole, and sacred ground to Red Sox Nation, is worth less than some […]
Posted inOpinion
Jobs held hostage by housing
Like new england Patriots victories, high housing costs became matter of fact in Massachusetts over the last decade. As we rebuild from the Great Recession and the housing bubble that […]
Posted inEconomy
City begins revoking Filene’s permits
Boston development officials are initiating a process to pull development permits from the stalled Filene’s project today. Aides to Mayor Tom Menino believe the move, which they are describing as […]
Posted inEconomy
Chiofaro proposes smaller towers
Boston developer Don Chiofaro unveiled a new, smaller design for his Harbor Garage redevelopment project today, but the $1 billion project was quickly dismissed by city officials and the proposed […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Power portfolio
If power on Beacon Hill is measured in terms of share of the state budget, Ian Bowles is a nobody. The state’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs oversees agencies […]