ON A CRISP morning in November, Veronica Perez and Limarie Rivera, both self-evacuees from Puerto Rico, borrow a car from Rivera’s cousin and make their way to the New North Citizens’ Council in Springfield. New North is one of nearly two dozen welcome centers around the state designated as a first stop for people coming […]
Housing
Posted inThe Back Story
Is anyone home at Millennium Tower?
WEALTHY PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD have bought condos at the ultra-luxury Millennium Tower in Downtown Crossing, but not many of them live there full time. City of Boston assessing records indicate three of every four owners don’t consider their condos their principal residence, suggesting the 60-story building, which is nearly sold out, is […]
Posted inOpinion
Momentum for more housing choices in the state
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 we head into the 2018 session, it’s time for the Legislature to pass bills that will make it easier for our cities and towns to […]
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 the state to act on the taxation and regulation of short-term rental platforms. It is important, however, that lawmakers and the public see through the […]
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 middle of very local squabbles by endorsing slates of candidates in the upcoming municipal elections in Somerville and Cambridge. Sanders’s effort is not only sowing […]
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 to end it. Domestic violence is a public health crisis that afflicts all communities – urban, suburban, and rural. One in four women will experience domestic […]
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 over the past decade, the nature of homeownership in Massachusetts has shifted drastically. Middle-class families in Massa-chusetts are increasingly struggling to access homeownership—especially in greater […]
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,” we visited the company’s longtime home, Seattle, with a delegation of more than a dozen Massachusetts leaders. This study tour – funded by the Barr […]
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 giant’s long-term supermarket plans. Prices for organic butter, milk, bananas, eggs, almond butter, baby kale, apples, and responsibly farmed salmon all fell. The price cuts […]
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 statue in Charlottesville have set in motion a rush to rid town greens and parks of icons to the Confederate cause. Many have decried the […]