COVID-19 HAS LAID bare the inadequacy of a safety net system here in Massachusetts, from workforce shortages to the lack of a viable public health response for adults, youth, and families experiencing homelessness on a day-to-day basis. The pandemic has pushed our statewide response system to the limit — further straining the state’s critical services […]
Housing
Posted inOpinion
Don’t pit housing crisis against climate crisis
TODAY IN MASSACHUSETTS, both the Baker administration and the Legislature – and some individual communities, too – are working on proposed “net zero” policies to address the climate crisis. Dramatic building code changes are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. However, they would undeniably also impose increased costs on new residential construction, and […]
Posted inOpinion
Is Harvard replicating the Seaport in Allston?
SLEEK EXPENSIVE apartment houses with river views. Laboratory and office buildings in symmetrical rows. A hotel, a conference center, a central plaza. Upscale retail at ground level. Trees, planters, native plants. An enclave of privilege. Such is Harvard’s vision so far for its new Enterprise Research Campus in Allston. Alternatively, consider this: a dense aggregation […]
Posted inOpinion
Landlord resents ‘bullying’ by Somerville officials
HIGH RENTAL HOUSING costs have long been a source of concern among Greater Boston housing advocates. Rapidly rising inflation and a continued shortage of new housing construction have amplified activists’ fears in recent years, with strong emotions directed at landlords. As a small residential property owner, I should know. Last fall, my investment group purchased […]
Posted inOpinion
Falmouth is demonstrating that ‘Housing Choice’ can work
IT HAS BEEN A LITTLE over a year since Gov. Charlie Baker’s “Housing Choice” legislation was signed into law, providing an innovative bundle of tools for municipalities to incentivize housing construction. In a state which has among the nation’s highest home sale prices and lowest residential production numbers, the reaction in many communities seems to […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
Baker’s housing efforts meet resistance
IF COUNTLESS OPINION COLUMNS, university studies, and pledges by multiple governors were enough move the needle on housing costs, we’d live in one of the most affordable states in the union. Instead, nearly a quarter century after the then-newly launched Greater Boston Interfaith Organization took on the state’s housing crisis as its first major cause, […]
Posted inEconomy
Heritage Road Revisited
In a Billerica subdivision, making it in the middle class is still a full-time job JOHN AND LAURA PETERS ended up on Heritage Road in much the same way many others have landed on this quiet street of split-level ranch homes in a Billerica subdivision. After dreaming big, they came down to earth. The street […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
The Sprawl Doctor
When incoming Gov. Mitt Romney named Doug Foy to be the state’s first chief of Commonwealth Development, one of two new “super cabinet” positions Romney created in December as part of his plan to restructure state government, more than a few heads turned. Not only had the venture capitalist who pledged to bring business sense […]