Massachusetts environmental officials are ripping the band-aid off what was once a third rail: calling on the state to establish a voluntary buyout program for homes at risk of being consumed by rising seas.
Nearly a year into the second Trump administration, Democrats atop Beacon Hill are not the only ones unable to shake a sense of economic agita.
Boston is feeling one of the most pronounced housing crunches in the country. But Mayor Michelle Wu has shied away from setting housing production targets.
You don’t have to read between the lines too closely to see the more constrained approach MBTA officials want to take to construction projects and big-ticket maintenance in the near future in its capital investment plan.
Facing waves of federal funding cuts, Massachusetts’s financial picture was already looking bleak as October approached. Then, Congress entered a budget stalemate, adding uncertainty to the mix.
Housing advocates say the design of Massachusetts’ highest-profile housing reform to date hobbled it from being able to create housing at scale – and might have hurt future moves.
In Gateway Cities – where housing production is already only half of what it needs to be to meet rising demand – increasing the cost of construction materials threatens an already tenuous housing market.
One set of housing advocates wants voters to repeal the statewide ban on local rent control laws. Another wants to lift yet another big barrier to building moderately-priced homes.
It’s a rare Trump policy aimed at lifting poor communities, but it’s unclear how much it’s doing locally.
The fate of short-term rentals on the small, wealthy island of Nantucket is, for now, treading water.
The massive package of tax and spending cuts President Trump signed into law on July 4 eliminates a federal grant program that set aside $335 million for the nearly $2 billion I-90 Allston highway-and-transit project in Boston.
With several towns opting this week to finally get into compliance with the MBTA Communities housing law, some municipalities who claim the law asks too much of them are still looking to the courts and the Legislature for relief.
A project that would keep floodwaters out of Everett’s booming Commercial Triangle development zone and Chelsea’s Mystic Mall could be dead due to Trump administration cuts.
Prices are ballooning, unit construction is stagnating, populations are declining and a housing crisis deserves to be treated as such, Barnstable County’s legislature said last week.
At some point between February and early March, as seasonal wind and rain hammered New England coasts, a relatively new but enthusiastically embraced tool for predicting erosion slipped off the Federal Emergency Management Agency website.
His abrupt reversal comes after his entry into the race was all but assured last week, and leaves the field to Mayor Michelle Wu and other challengers hoping to topple the first-term incumbent.
The survey indicated residents remain in a fiscally conservative mood, but they are open to studying other ways to pay for transportation upgrades and improvements, such as congestion pricing.
Tom O’Brien, the developer who once worked inside Boston City Hall under Mayor Thomas Menino, is now weighing a campaign for the top job.
The declaration dropped like a grenade into the controversy over state rezoning requirements, and it sent some towns scrambling straight for the courthouse.
