QUINCY MAYOR THOMAS KOCH calls the MBTA’s Red Line the “spine” of his aging city. With four stops in North Quincy, Wollaston, Quincy Center, and Quincy Adams, the T’s Red Line allows residents to move around the city and connect with Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville to the north. These transit connections have long been the […]
Municipal Government
Posted inUncategorized
AG: Towns can’t ban medical pot
IN A STARTLING TURNAROUND, Attorney General Maura Healey has reversed her office’s decision that allowed communities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries after opening the door earlier this summer for cities and towns to block the dispensaries from coming to their communities. “The Attorney General’s Office is committed to ensuring that the marijuana legalization law is […]
Posted inEconomy
Club to pay $36m toward $86m stadium
THE CITY OF WORCESTER is building a new $86 million stadium for the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate and charging the team roughly $36 million – two separate $3 million payments at the end of 2019 and 2020 and roughly $1 million a year in lease and tax payments spread out over 30 years. The […]
Posted inOpinion
Cities can clean up the transportation sector
TRANSPORTATION IS THE largest source of carbon pollution in the Commonwealth, producing 40 percent of climate-disrupting greenhouse gas emissions. Cities and towns can play an important role in leading the way to a clean transportation future. How? By helping residents drive less, and switch to electric vehicles when they must continue to drive. While the […]
Posted inPolitics
Another twist for legal pot
THE STATE’S MARIJUANA oversight board wants to put a halt to communities demanding payments from legal pot businesses in excess of what’s allowed by law but the panel’s decision could move the opening of retail stores even further back. The Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday put off for two weeks a proposal by Commissioner Shaleen […]
Posted inEconomy
Community benefit districts facing headwinds
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE RECENT CONTROVERSY over legislation that would allow local organizations to levy fees on property owners to improve their neighborhoods has led the leader of the House Republican caucus to question his support for the bill he cosponsored. North Reading Rep. Brad Jones, the House minority leader, was a cosponsor of a […]
Posted inPolitics
Fifty shades of Rockland
THE SOUTH SHORE TOWN of Rockland seems to be in a sex-fueled political meltdown. The lurid saga first surfaced on May 23 when Boston 25 News reported that two town officials were facing misconduct allegations for engaging in inappropriate behavior the previous week inside Town Hall after leaving a bar. Six days later, the Board […]
Posted inOpinion
Second-home owners lose out in Airbnb regs
FOR MANY OF US, Boston is home. For others, our city is an exciting place to visit, full of rich history, beautiful neighborhoods, and fun things to do. Our welcoming community brings a wide variety of travelers looking to experience all that Boston has to offer. These visitors bring in vital tourism dollars to small […]
Posted inOpinion
The end of recycling?
CURBSIDE RECYCLING PROGRAMS are disappearing in Massachusetts. Our Commonwealth has made the absurd decision to dump thousands of tons of recyclable materials into landfills. Recycling infrastructure is approaching its breaking point, and the slow response from our public leaders is due to a conspicuous lack of resources to prevent this crisis. Indications of this systemic […]
Posted inOpinion
Local access channels getting tuned out
WE ARE IN a new age of news and media. It started with the 24 hour news cycle, it changed again with the advent of social media, and most recently our media landscape changed with the introduction of the term “fake news” into our vernacular. For the first time, perhaps ever, we have foreign countries […]