Bostons Villa Victoria shows that civic participation is hard to sustain in the best of circumstances

By Mario Luis Small 1 Comment Jan 1, 2005

For poor rural Latin Americans with little education and almost no marketable skills, immigration to an American city with a dwindling manufacturing sector is rarely a recipe for success. Even less is to be expected when the immigrants speak no English, when the city has a reputation for antagonism against outsiders, and when the neighborhood(...)

Economy

A condo boom forces Salisbury to grow up

By Jesse Hardman Growth and Development 1 Comment Jan 1, 2005

SALISBURY — On a brisk October weekday, the only deals going down on Broadway are at Christy’s, a small pizza stand. At 1 p.m., the lunchtime crowd consists of two construction workers who have made the trip from Dracut, 30 miles away, just for a slice. Jerry and Bob have been coming to Salisbury their(...)

Health Care

Counterpoints

By John E. McDonough 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

Dear Gov. Romney: First of all, thank you. Your willingness to confront the dual crises of health access and affordability has enhanced prospects for reform. We may now be on the cusp of a “third wave” of Massachusetts health reform, building on gains achieved in 1988 and 1996, progress that has driven our rate of(...)

Education

Classroom cash

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

It takes a lot of dough for Massachusetts to be nothing special in terms of staffing its public schools, according to the country’s largest teachers’ union. The National Education Association ranks the Bay State fourth in spending per public school student in the 2003-04 academic year but only 24 th in keeping down its student-to-educator(...)

Health Care

Argument

By Mitt Romney 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

The stars and moon may be aligning, making this the year to fix health care. Employers and employees are finally balking at the high and rising cost of health insurance. State budgets have been squeezed to near breathlessness by ballooning Medicaid costs. And, most fortuitously, Massachusetts is blessed with world-leading public health and medical institutions(...)

Criminal Justice

New threats have public safety agencies trying to get on the same wavelength

By Phil Primack 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

A savvy technology entrepreneur is always on the lookout for new opportunities, especially in a market as hot as security. So Vanu Bose was ready when the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which is now part of the Department of Homeland Security, called for proposals to improve “interoperability,” the clunky but apt label for technology(...)

Education

MCAS hasnt erased the need for remedial classes in community colleges

By Reshma Trencil Elementary and Secondary Education, Higher Education and Adult Learning 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

INTRO TEXT More than a decade after the Education Reform Act, and two years since passing MCAS became a graduation requirement for high school students, few of the grim prophecies of widespread failure have come to pass. In 2004, the number of students who were denied a diploma for not passing MCAS stood at 2,582,(...)

Education/ Politics

Harvard students help Somerville revamp its budgeting process

By Robert Preer Higher Education and Adult Learning, Municipal Government 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

INTRO TEXT It was an unlikely scene last fall, as 60 students from a graduate course on budgeting at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government descended on Somerville City Hall and its departmental outposts. Divided into teams of four or five, students sat with firefighters at their station houses and hopped on trucks when(...)

Criminal Justice/ Economy

Civilian firefighters battle for benefits

By Erik Arvidson Employment 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

INTRO TEXT In the day that 31-year-old Martin McNamara died in the basement of a Lancaster apartment blaze, few people on Beacon Hill gave much thought to what happens to a volunteer firefighter’s family if he dies in the line of duty. Yet there were 10,000 other volunteer and “call” firefighters across Massachusetts on that(...)

Politics

A walk through four centuries of Boston politics

By Robert David Sullivan 0 Comments Jan 1, 2005

SADLY BOSTON’S DUCK Tours do not pass what former House speaker Thomas Finneran is said to have called “the best goddam bar in the world.” To find such landmarks, it helps to have a copy of Clint Richmond’s book Political Places of Boston, which was published just in time for the Democratic National Convention last(...)

Winter 2005