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 once again puts a spotlight on the role of government, the place the buck ultimately stops when it comes to dealing with a situation with […]
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 unemployment checks. For others it looked a lot scarier. Dream Nail Lounge in Lynn was thriving the first few months of 2020. Owner Yajaira Toribio […]
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 the City lays out the central place of cities in driving innovation and economic vitality. He dubs them “our greatest invention,” and his book’s subtitle […]
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 time, but conducted entirely online. It began running virtual programs morning, afternoon, and evenings – prayers, classes, and social events. And then a surprising thing happened as the temple did its best to make up for the shutdown of […]
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. While center enrollment is down, the problem isn’t just a lack of interest from families – it is a lack of staff. Of the approximately 100 classroom teachers that Nurtury employed pre-pandemic, […]
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 sides of the municipal line were developed around the same time, in the 1910s and 20s, and the street grid totally ignores the boundary. In […]
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 when it comes to COVID’s economic and social collateral damage, far too little attention is being paid to the impact on women. They are leaving […]
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 mom or dad juggling kids and working from home. Ask any parent in America and they will tell you that quality, affordable child care has […]
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 done well in recent decades. But one of the things the pandemic has laid bare is the Commonwealth’s failure to keep pace with innovative K-12 […]
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 with a serious case of the wiggles. The forecast said the afternoon would be in the 60s, and after a long stretch of rainy, cold […]