The Boston Policy Institute says its goal is to shine a light on city development policy and other top issues. But its refusal to make public its sources of funding – and the not altogether happy history one of its founders shares with Mayor Michelle Wu – has prompted whispers of grudge-settling.
Using frank language rarely heard on Beacon Hill, Tibbits-Nutt weighed in on a series of major policy issues, from raising more money for transportation, to traffic enforcement and a major unresolved design question for the MBTA’s in-planning West Station.
Even as she takes Milton to court for flouting the MBTA Communities zoning law, Attorney General Andrea Campbell would like to tamp down murmurings that a rebellion is on its way.
Only days after announcing a plan to seek state approval to raise property tax rates on commercial property owners, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu filed a $4.6 billion budget plan for 2025 that would hike city spending by 8 percent, or $344 million.
A single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court recommended that the full court hear Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s case against the town of Milton for failing to comply with a state rezoning law, but the justice did not go along with the accelerated timetable she sought.
The Milton Planning Board signaled Thursday night that it intends to develop two zoning plans to comply with the MBTA Communities law, one if it is deemed a rapid transit community, as the state contends, and another if it succeeds in being reclassified as an adjacent community subject to a much lower zoning requirement.
What should elected town officials do when voters reject a zoning plan that throws the municipality into noncompliance with a state law and prompts state officials to withhold grants and threaten a lawsuit?
In a case that shows the lengths communities will go to stop a housing project from getting built, Methuen officials are trying to leverage the state’s use of a Days Inn motel as an emergency shelter for homeless families to block a proposal to build 300 rental units on a parcel that straddles the city’s border with neighboring Dracut.
Gov. Maura Healey’s task force on funding transportation in Massachusetts hasn’t even met yet, but already ideas being explored by researchers retained by the MBTA hint at the solutions Healey’s task force could generate.
A report commissioned by the Healey administration estimates the governor’s $4.1 billion housing bond bill will produce tens of thousands of new homes and generate $24.8 billion in economic activity, roughly 30,000 jobs, and $750 million in state tax revenue over five years.
The team looking to bring a soccer stadium to Everett’s waterfront appears to have a new center forward who could help them score a win: Gov. Maura Healey.
Ridership on the MBTA’s commuter rail system continues to rebound strongly, providing an interesting data point in the debate over whether Boston in the post-COVID era will face an office space glut that will make the city feel like a ghost town of empty buildings.
