So far, Gov.-elect Maura Healey’s approach to our transit and climate challenges is encouraging. But she needs to add a new post and an important commission to her early personnel if she’s going to make fast progress on three key megaprojects.
The ideal plan for implementing the Millionaires Tax is to adopt a big-picture vision over the next year, paired with a comprehensive transportation finance plan that addresses repairs, maintenance and resiliency needs.
A big bump in commuter rail ridership shows what’s possible with a better-resourced MBTA and a regional rail system ready to support more transit-oriented housing construction.
The absence of the Orange Line and reduced service levels on other lines and modes should make the heart grow fonder and produce a renewed commitment to supporting high-quality mass transit.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joined transit activists on Monday to call for additional federal intervention to help reverse service cuts at the MBTA as the region waits to see what other changes safety investigators will mandate.
A business-backed group says it’s offered a plan to Gov. Charlie Baker that it claims could cut the planned Orange Line shutdown in half and generate more work hours than the MBTA’s current plans.
A prominent transit advocate is questioning the MBTA’s plans to shut down one of its busiest subway lines for a month starting in a little over two weeks to carry out a backlog of repairs.
The recent record-setting heatwave should serve as an alarming reminder that climate change is already threatening us. Without federal action, state and local leaders must keep building decarbonization standards uniform across the state.
Finger-pointing and debating who is time blame is tempting but won’t move the MBTA out of its state of crisis fast enough.
Under the MBTA’s new board, important transit plans are falling aside and public commitments are falling off-track. And vital zoning reforms and carbon emissions plans depend on the plans being abandoned.
In the next few months in Massachusetts, we will hear a great deal from the candidates running for governor and their top priorities if elected. During this same time, the actions by the Baker Administration will determine the future viability of transportation projects that would occur in the next decade.
Gov. Charlie Baker has linked his $9.7 billion infrastructure bond bill to efforts to limit the impact of climate change and reduce its disproportionate impacts on certain populations, but one environmental advocate told lawmakers Tuesday that the proposal’s language “fall(s) short on these priorities.”
As South Boston’s marine park transforms from working port to high-tech hub, the puzzle of delivering thousands of employees to new developments is coming to a head.
If the commonwealth can set predictable, well-defined rules for property owners and stakeholders in the context of climate-informed coastal development regulations, then we can continue to create vibrant waterfronts and protect our future economic growth.
We can now raise expectations on what should come next and demand ambitious schedules for the transformational infrastructure changes this region deserves.
Warning that scaling back service would harm public health and mobility options, the head of an influential business group called Wednesday for the MBTA to consider bringing in private buses to cope with a driver shortage.
Mayor Michelle Wu takes office with an ambitious agenda, broad support and real excitement that the city will prosper in new ways. Fortunately, today’s economy in Boston is strong in many areas, but this region’s future growth is far from guaranteed.
A new board of directors is now in place at the MBTA, and we will soon learn if this means a new direction for public transit in this region. They should focus on implementing the FMCB’s ideas rather than any attempts to revisit the debates of the past few years.
Based on input from the business community, Boston’s new requirements for carbon neutrality in the city’s commercial buildings are clearer and more achievable. But hard work remains to make BERDO 2.0 succeed.
The city of Boston’s goal of reducing carbon emissions will impose new energy-efficiency requirements on landlords of large buildings in the wake of a city council vote.
