Thursday, February 19, 2009 If this street is any indication, a lot of homes are losing their natural umbrellas against the summer sun. Thanks, Asian longhorned beetles! (Hat tip: Daily Worcesteria.)
Environment
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
Save the earth, build to the sky
If you care about the environment, stop fighting downtown high-rises. That's the gist of an article in the current issue of City Journal by Harvard professor Edward Glaeser (who wrote about the effect of zoning laws on housing costs for CommonWealth magazine in 2006). Opening with an anecdote about Henry David Thoreau accidentally burning down 300 acres […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Private conservancy signs lease with Turnpike to maintain Greenway
A private conservancy will take over day-to-day operations of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway later this month under the terms of a five-year lease signed with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. The lease calls for the Greenway Conservancy, which relies on a combination of state aid and private donations, to pay the entire cost of maintaining and operating the […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Up, up, and away in my beautiful gas tax trial balloon…
When last we saw Team Trans, we were waiting on the mother of all transportation plans, the one that would save our roads, our bridges, and our mass transit from a fate worse than…our current fate. Instead, Team Trans delivers not the plan we’ve given up waiting for, but a proposal for a gas tax […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
New Bedford gets shout-out from the New Yorker
If you're not a New Yorker subscriber, you might have missed the use of New Bedford as a backdrop (complete with a cameo by Mayor Scott Lang) in Elizabeth Kolbert's profile of Green for All president Van Jones. The description of the city obviously doesn't come from the local chamber of commerce: A hundred and fifty years ago, […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download, Transportation
Murray to Beacon Hill: No gas tax, at least not yet
The Massachusetts Senate drew a line in the sand today, vowing not to hike anyone's taxes or tolls until a massive consolidation of the state's transportation network is completed or at least well underway. With Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi waxing Hamletesque about a gas tax increase and toll hikes, Senate President Therese Murray was blunt […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Politics, The Download
Greenway Conservancy scaling back
With public funding uncertain, the private group preparing to take over management of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is paring back its budget as well as its ambitious plans for the Big Dig park that snakes through downtown Boston. <img Officials with the Greenway Conservancy now say their annual budget will be roughly $5 million, about 42 percent less […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Green mag touts Plymouth Rock Studios
Plymouth's recently approved movie studio is given the once-over by E magazine — not because of its economic benefits to Massachusetts but because of its "green" qualities: A few weeks before the [town meeting vote approving the project], Plymouth Rock Studios announced it had registered its entire development project with the United States Green Building […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Asian longhorned beetles and their effects on Worcester brains
A few days ago I linked to a Boston Globe story suggesting that trees help relieve the mental stress of living in large cities. Unfortunately, the Daily Worcesteria reminds us that the Bay State's second largest city is losing a lot of its trees due to the infestation by Asian longhorned beetles. (Additional wood chipper video here.) […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Trees, and possibly trains, are good for your urban brain
This week’s Ideas section in the Boston Globe includes a must-read essay by Jonah Lehrer called “How the City Hurts Your Brain… And What You Can Do About It.” The scientific hook for Lehrer’s piece has to do with experiments showing that people exposed to trees and birds are better at mental tasks than are […]