GOV. CHARLIE BAKER joined the fight to promote housing last week—adding more push to the consensus that 2018 is the year to tackle the Commonwealth’s housing crisis head on. As […]
Housing
Posted inOpinion
Airbnb’s smoke and mirrors
IN HIS NOVEMBER 8 op-ed in CommonWealth (“Time for state to catch up on Airbnb tax”), Airbnb executive Will Burns raises many excellent points about why it is time for […]
Posted inThe Download
With Sanders, affordable housing feels the burn
What do Bernie Sanders and Boston area development battles have to do with each other? Not much. Or at least they didn’t — until Vermont’s socialist senator parachuted into the […]
Posted inOpinion
Domestic violence, homelessness linked
CONGRESS HAS ESTABLISHED October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, marking a time to celebrate survivors, to grieve for those who have died, and to pay tribute to advocates who work tirelessly […]
Posted inOpinion
Are homes only for the upper-class?
HOMEOWNERSHIP HAS TRADITIONALLY been a marker of middle-class life, and a tool for vaulting families solidly into the middle class. Sustainable homeownership builds family wealth, and helps stabilize neighborhoods. But […]
Posted inOpinion
Sound lessons from Seattle
MASSACHUSETTS IS ABUZZ with talk about whether Amazon might choose one of our communities for its second North American headquarters. Just days after Amazon announced a nation-wide search for “HQ2,” […]
Posted inThe Download
What’s Amazon up to?
Amazon slashed the prices of a handful of items at its just-acquired Whole Foods chain, a move that garnered loads of publicity but shed little light on the online retailing […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: Tipping point for Confederate statues
After this month’s white nationalist rally in Virginia, statues of Confederate leaders are falling across the South. Protests by white supremacists against the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Cambridge votes home-sharing regs
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN THE ABSENCE OF A STATE STRATEGY to regulate short-term housing rentals, the Cambridge City Council voted Monday night to require hosts to live in the […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: YIMBYs take on NIMBYs
It has become almost axiomatic that communities will resist new housing development projects. They will generate unbearable traffic! There isn’t enough parking here! They’ll hurt property values! The developer wants […]
Posted inThe Download
4 takeaways from sales tax moves
You could actually see an industry in transition on Wednesday. Amazon held a giant job fair at nearly a dozen of its US warehouses, including the one in Fall River, […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Boston says it’s studying whether to rebuild Long Island Bridge
A SPOKESWOMAN FOR Boston Mayor Marty Walsh issued a statement saying the city is doing a cost-benefit analysis on rebuilding the Long Island Bridge, which is a shift from the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Shadow vs $: It’s the wrong debate
THE WINTHROP SQUARE DEVELOPMENT proposed by Millennium Partners is not about the shadows on the Public Garden. It’s about the fact that every major development proposal in Boston seems to […]
Posted inThe Back Story
What’s going on at Millennium Tower?
IT’S ALL A BIT MYSTERIOUS, but a recent real estate transaction at Millennium Tower sheds some light on the financial challenges of catering to the whims of well-to-do condo buyers. […]
Posted inEconomy
The view from $10m up
Research assistance by Michael Malpiede BOSTON’S DOWNTOWN CROSSING has always been a crossroads, a place where subways, streets, and people from all walks of life intersect. Foot traffic tended to […]
Posted inOpinion
The invisible homelessness
FAMILY HOMELESSNESS is sometimes called the invisible homelessness since these mothers and children are more likely to seek nightly shelter in public places – in a hospital emergency room, at […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
MassHousing conflict?
THE STATE’S CONFLICT of interest law seems pretty straightforward. A public official may not participate in any matter in which she or a member of her immediate family has a […]
Posted inThe Back Story
MassHousing paid settlements to terminated workers
THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency terminated three employees earlier this year and cushioned the blow by paying them a total of $144,552, according to records […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Ash withdraws name from Cambridge post
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE JAY ASH, SECRETARY, for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and one of three finalists for the open Cambridge city manager’s post, has […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Boston property tax hike makes sense
TAXES VS. INVESTMENTS. The tension between these two concepts has been at the center of public policy debates at all levels of government throughout American history. Putting aside the recurring […]
Posted inThe Back Story
‘Encampment’ moved off Boston Common
THE BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT last week evicted from the Boston Common a fairly large group of people who had been sleeping and hanging out for many weeks on the grass […]
Posted inThe Download
If you build it, students will come
It is a vexing conundrum: On the one hand, Massachusetts proudly highlights its place in drawing hundreds of thousands of students to the state every year to enroll in our […]
Posted inEconomy, The Back Story
Double-whammy for Gateway Cities
CLARK UNIVERSITY IN WORCESTER this week unveiled a series of new data profiles suggesting Gateway Cities are being hit with a real estate double-whammy: housing prices that are relatively low […]
Posted inUncategorized
A choreographed hiring process
The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency selected new executive director Timothy Sullivan in a matter of minutes in January, and internal documents obtained through a public records request show just how […]
