THERE’S A NEW KIND of “tragedy of the commons” occurring on the shores of East Boston. It pits fear of luxury condo development against public access and climate resiliency measures. And it includes state governance relics that are unable—or unwilling—to meet the needs of the present. The “tragedy of the commons,” coined by ecologist Garret […]
zoning
Posted inOpinion
Getting the details right on transit oriented development law
PASSING AMBITIOUS LEGISLATION matters for obvious reasons, but so too does the rule-making process that follows a law’s passage. Final language often leaves state agencies with tremendous leeway, and real-world impact can vary widely based on administrative decisions that often get far less public scrutiny. Political scientist Leah Stokes calls this the “fog of enactment,” […]
Posted inOpinion, Race/Racism
Zoning is major artery of systemic racism
LAST WEEK, US Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced the administration would be ending Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) regulations, referring to them as “a waste of time for localities to comply with.” This news comes after weeks of President Trump threatening in Tweets and press conferences to remove the regulations because the regulations […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Walsh looks to get past zoning board scandal
BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH signed an executive order Monday to limit potential conflicts of interest on the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal, an effort to put behind him a scandal that laid bare the problems that critics say have long plagued the panel charged with approving everything from backyard decks to housing development plans. New rules issued […]
Posted inThe Download
Walsh looks to get past zoning board scandal
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh signed an executive order Monday to limit potential conflicts of interest on the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal, an effort to put behind him a scandal that laid bare the problems that critics say have long plagued the panel charged with approving everything from backyard decks to housing development plans. New rules […]
Posted inOpinion
Zoning – the good and the bad
HOVERING BY THE FAIRY TALE playground, by the pumpkin carriage and turreted castles, behind the swings, was a wall of murky glass, an abandoned factory. There were no other factories around my childhood park in Newtonville, just a pleasing selection of unique houses, arranged along sidewalks that led to a village center with a candy […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Following the money through City Hall
THERE ARE several loose threads spilling out from the case of John Lynch, who pled guilty in September and is currently scheduled to be sentenced in January for accepting bribes. A longtime City Hall aide who worked at the Boston Planning and Development Agency, Lynch pocketed $50,000, allegedly from developer Steven Turner, to influence the […]
Posted inUncategorized
All politics is local
Though he made his biggest mark in Washington as speaker of the House, famous son of Cambridge Tip O’Neill’s most quoted aphorism was his claim that “all politics is local.” It’s fitting, then, that a fascinating new story in Mother Jones on Bernie Sanders’s views on housing and his political impact opens with a tale […]
Posted inThe Download
All politics is local
Though he made his biggest mark in Washington as speaker of the House, famous son of Cambridge Tip O’Neill’s most quoted aphorism was his claim that “all politics is local.” It’s fitting, then, that a fascinating new story in Mother Jones on Bernie Sanders’s views on housing and his political impact opens with a tale […]
Posted inEconomy
Following Lynch scandal, zoning review may not be enough
BOSTON MAYOR Marty Walsh is launching a review of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal after a Boston Planning and Development Agency official agreed to plead guilty to accepting a bribe. John Lynch, former assistant director of real estate at the Economic Development Corporation, which sits within the planning and development agency, accepted $50,000 in […]