AS MASSACHUSETTS simultaneously looks to make its way past the worst of the pandemic while also adjusting to the new curve balls being thrown by the surging Delta variant, it […]
pandemic
Posted inEconomy
Work world won’t be the same
EARLY LAST YEAR when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the nature of work was transformed within days. For some that meant replacing office chairs with couch cushions or leaning into $600-a-week […]
Posted inEconomy
Ed Glaeser considers the post-pandemic challenges facing cities
HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSOR Ed Glaeser is one of the leading authorities on the role of cities in modern life — and throughout human history. His 2011 book The Triumph of […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Pandemic prayers: COVID is reshaping organized religion
IT HAS BEEN more than a year since Temple Beth Zion, a nondenominational Jewish synagogue in Brookline, closed its physical doors. The synagogue started holding daily prayer services for the first […]
Posted inEducation
Amid COVID-19, staffing woes plague childcare centers
BETWEEN ITS SIX large childcare centers in Boston and Cambridge, Nurtury Early Education has had to shutter eight classrooms during the pandemic – which translates to serving around 70 fewer children. […]
Posted inArts and Culture
The dysfunctional geography of ancient borders in a modern pandemic
LOOKING AT AN aerial photograph or walking down a side street, you’d be hard-pressed to find the border between Waltham’s South Side neighborhood and West Newton. The residential areas on both […]
Posted inEconomy
The pandemic has created an employment ‘she-cession’
THE COVID PANDEMIC is impacting everyone and everything. From the elderly to front line workers to children displaced from school, populations around the world are facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. But […]
Posted inEconomy
Congress must act on child care crisis
CHILD CARE IS an essential component of our national economic infrastructure, as fundamental as our roads and bridges. Just ask any parent performing essential services during the pandemic, or any […]
Posted inEducation
Time for Mass. to up its online learning game
MASSACHUSETTS IS ROUTINELY cited as having one of the nation’s most innovative economies. The cornerstone of that innovation is education – both K-12 and colleges and universities. There too Massachusetts has […]
Posted inEducation
As parents, we’re all now superintendents
I RECENTLY DECLARED a “snow day” for my school district. I made the call early after my oldest son complained of a toothache and my younger two boys came down […]