Driven To Distraction

By Dexter Van Zile Cost of Living and Consumer Affairs 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

When Cheryl Travis, an account supervisor at Weber Shandwick, a public relations and marketing firm in Cambridge, moved from Winchester to Charlestown two years ago, there was one cost that caught her by surprise: the $1,500 increase in her auto insurance premium. A call to her insurance company revealed that, because of the theft and(...)

Economy

Two and a half decades of Prop. 2 1/2

By Robert David Sullivan Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Souce: Massachusetts Municipal Association (www.mma.org); state Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services (www.dls.state.ma.us) This year marks the silver anniversary of Proposition 2½, the property tax cap passed by voters in 1980. Prop. 2½ essentially limits municipal governments to a 2.5 percent increase in assessed property taxes each year, but officials can bust this cap(...)

Politics

Legislative careers and friendships begin in the curious Beacon Hill tradition known as the freshman bullpen

By James V. Horrigan 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Legislative careers and friendships begin in the freshman bullpen The first day as a state representative in Massachusetts is memorable. Freshmen are surrounded by family and friends in the House chamber as the governor administers the oath of office. Afterward, the Speaker hosts a lavish reception in honor of the newcomers. Veteran legislators then file(...)

Uncategorized

Connecting the dots

By Ian Bowles Demographics 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Every once in a while, I come across people who know about CommonWealth, but have no idea it is published by MassINC. Others know full well that CommonWealth is a MassINC publication, but wonder why the magazine doesn’t focus on our research findings. Both sorts of confusion can be explained by the way MassINC does(...)

Arts and Culture/ Uncategorized

Can Boston survive without the Curse of the Bambino

By Francis J. Connolly 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Can Boston survive without feeling star-crossed? It’s time to find a new curse. The Bambino certainly held up his end of the deal. As curses go, the Babe’s was a thing of beauty: 86 years of tooth-gnashing, self-flagellating frustration, punctuated by occasional moments of pure cosmic whimsy. Think about it – Bucky Dent? Talk about(...)

Politics

Sarahs Long Walk chronicles the first fight for school integration in Boston more than 150 years ago

By Robert Johnson Jr Civil and Constitutional Rights 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America By Stephen Kendrick & Paul Kendrick Boston, Beacon Press, 291 pages. In 1850, 46 years before the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal facilities did not violate the United States(...)

Uncategorized

Letters

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

I read your article in The Boston Globe (Robert Keough, “The School Financing Conundrum,” Ideas, October 3, 2004) this morning, and reviewed the articles you cite from the fall issue of CommonWealth (Symposium: The Hancock Case), as well as Edward Moscovitch’s article that appeared in the summer issue of the magazine (“Passing Judgment“). I am(...)

Uncategorized

Statistically Significant

By Robert David Sullivan 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Illustrations by Travis Foster WOMEN IN THE OFFICE, MEN IN THE CLASSROOM According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Massachusetts ranks second in the percentage of employed women who hold “managerial or professional” jobs. In the Bay State, 38.3 percent of working women are in such positions, second only to Maryland’s 41.3 percent. Every(...)

Education

Author Peter Schrag talks about the Hancock case and the slippery concept of adequacy in education

By Robert Keough Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

As of this writing, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court has yet to hand down a ruling in Hancock v. Driscoll, the latest round of educational-equity litigation that has been on the high court’s docket for more than 30 years. Not that nothing has come of the long-pending case. In McDuffy v. Secretary of Education, the(...)

Environment

Power players in the capital are making waves over wind farms and fishing limits

By Shawn Zeller 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Whether over wind farms or fishing restrictions, the waters off the Massachusetts coast are roiling with controversy. But the real waves are made in Washington, DC, where these and other ocean-related issues will be decided by a cast of characters with few ties to the Bay State. Among the players to watch: former House majority(...)

Winter 2005