I’ve worked on public policy from a variety of standpoints: as a staffer on Capitol Hill, as an advocate and as a business leader. And far too often, I’ve seen well-intentioned efforts fail because of siloed thinking.
Senators are racing to seal a bipartisan infrastructure deal as soon as this afternoon, as pressure is mounting on all sides to show progress on President Joe Biden’s top priority.
As it turns out, three drivers of high housing costs are pitting local control against regional and state-wide transit: zoning, household size restrictions and parking requirements.
Massachusetts received a double batch of good news this week in the struggle against its transportation problems. But residents shouldn’t let that lull them into complacency.
A new report from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council suggests that the supply of parking in a multifamily building may affect who chooses to live there, and that Boston-area developers are building too much parking overall.
Last week, Google announced to some acclaim it would spend $1 billion to build 15,000 market-rate and 5,000 affordable homes in the housing-starved San Francisco Bay area. Before any like-minded Massachusetts actors get a similar idea, we suggest a better use of that money would be helping efforts to modernize our mass transit and suburban zoning laws.
Solutions to the MBTA’s predicament are out there, but the state’s two highly capable transportation leaders, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak, need Gov. Charlie Baker to empower them to take unconventional steps to enact them quickly.
State officials are asking for the public’s feedback on a draft plan aimed at making it safer and more convenient for cyclists.
Don’t let the new skyscrapers and booming economy fool you – Boston is not a world-class city, and if the region’s residents and elected officials don’t get their acts together, it never will be.
Woburn’s commercial real estate market has benefited from proximity to Massachusetts’ busiest highway interchange at Routes I-93 and I-95, turning this former factory town into fertile territory for industrial parks, hotels and a robust retail trade.
Construction of commuter rail service to the South Coast on a route that runs through Middleborough should cost about $935 million, with service beginning in late 2022, according to a state transportation official.
The time has come for a new approach to subsidizing transit ridership.
The bombshell news that a large public transit hub in Allston planned as part of the Massachusetts Turnpike’s realignment won’t be completed until as late as 2040 is prompting calls for new funding sources to fast-track the project.
The reconstruction of the Massachusetts Turnpike interchange in Allston has the potential to be one of the most dynamic, transformational opportunities we have had in decades for Allston and Cambridge, for Boston and Harvard universities, and for Greater Boston as a whole – but success turns on
Debate over connecting North and South stations has been lately reignited, with Banker & Tradesman’s own Scott Van Voorhis adding fuel to fire by christening the proposal his “turkey project” of 2017.
Redevelopment of the Suffolk Downs racetrack would include 11 million square feet on the 109-acre East Boston section of the property, and another 5.5 million square feet on the 52-acre Revere side, according to the latest plans by Boston-based HYM Investment Group.
