Diti Kohli, “Boston thrives off the dreams of young people. But can they make it here?,” Boston Globe, April 25, 2023.

“It’s not a coincidence. Part of the exodus can be attributed to the pandemic and the usual ebb and flow of students and footloose young people from the city. But many agreed that the soaring cost of living here is a major factor….Baby boomers and Gen Xers benefited from economic conditions that do not exist for millennials. And by many measures, the path ahead for Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, is even more fraught.”

“Tide is turning, rightly, to considering voting rights behind bars” (Letters), Boston Globe, April 24, 2023.

“Allowing incarcerated people to civically engage contributes to rehabilitation, which benefits everyone in Massachusetts. The idea of denying civic engagement for the sake of punishment belongs in the ash heap of history.”

Andrew Brinker, “Rent control battle looms but it’s never been easy to pass tenant protections on Beacon Hill,” Boston Globe, April 23, 2023.

“And yet as Boston’s supercharged housing market transforms lower-income corners of the city, there are few formal mechanisms in place to keep vulnerable renters in their homes. Policies that have long been on the books in other high-cost cities, such as prohibiting so-called “no cause” evictions or allowing tenants the opportunity to buy their building when it goes up for sale, have gone nowhere in Boston, often because such measures also need approval from the state Legislature. “

Bill McKibben, “A Massachusetts Town Leads a Way Out of the Housing Crisis,” New Yorker, April 19, 2023.

“My family lives in multifamily housing; without it, we wouldn’t be able to live here in Lexington,” he said. “When my family dealt with financial hardship and eventual homelessness, we were told by many people in this town that we didn’t belong in Lexington and we should move somewhere else. How do you think it makes me feel when some people from a point of great privilege say that they don’t want the type of multifamily housing that I live in because it looks ugly?”

Emma Platoff and Matt Stout, “Massachusetts Legislature, hostile to rent control, includes more landlords than renters,” Boston Globe, April 21, 2023.

“Figures compiled by the Globe suggest that dozens of legislators may have a conflict on major housing policy proposals as they weigh their own financial interests alongside the needs of their constituents. A top-down government body that often moves at a plodding pace even on pressing issues, the Legislature has sometimes been a place where major housing policy proposals go to die.”

Nina Lev, “Needs of the many outweigh the desires of a few” (Letter), Boston Globe, April 19, 2023.

“Don’t these citizens already live in comfortable homes, send their children to good schools, and enjoy nice vacations? Wouldn’t their lives, like those of the rest of us, be enhanced by providing secure housing and great educational opportunities to all of the Commonwealth’s children? Like the rest of us, don’t they wantreliable transportation, environmentally sustainable infrastructure, public art, and glorious parks? Until we can fully fund all these priorities, shouldn’t we hold off on talking about refunds to the most fortunate?”

John Hilliard, “In the MBTA’s proposed $9.2 billion spending plan, transit advocates argue more funds are needed for expansion,” Boston Globe, April 12, 2023.

“Stacy Thompson, the executive director of LivableStreets Alliance, said the T must balance both near-term safety and maintenance, while also working on expansion….“Things like expansion and resiliency are not extras, or nice to have. They should be considered core to the viability of the system,”Thompson said.”

Peter Coy, “The 100-Year-Old Reason U.S. Housing Is So Expensive,” New York Times, April 14, 2023.

“Once a neighborhood is zoned for single-family detached homes, it almost always stays that way, even when a city’s growth makes such low density inefficient. Los Angeles permits the building of only detached houses on 75 percent of its residentially zoned land; Chicago, 79 percent. First, those detached houses are built to last. Second, “the politics of local zoning almost invariably works to freeze land uses, especially in a neighborhood of detached houses,” he writes. “This is a significant finding, not yet part of urban lore. I chose the title of the book to emphasize it.””

“MCAS is the problem, not the solution” (Letters), Boston Globe, April 11, 2023.

“If over 700 students in a single year were denied a diploma because of MCAS, that probably means many thousands have been deprived of diplomas since MCAS became a graduation requirement in 2003….DESE should publish the total number of students denied diplomas because of MCAS for each year since MCAS became a graduation requirement.”

Joan Vennochi, “When it comes to issues facing the state, it’s Maura ‘in the middle’ Healey,” Boston Globe, April 10, 2023.

“To progressive Democrats, the answer is not enough. Pointing out that Healey’s tax reform proposal is basically the same as Baker’s, Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, said, “Her instinct has been to give that money back, weakening our state’s ability to deliver on the promise of investment.” On housing and transit, he added, “I think we need to see more from her administration about what their major goals are and how they would track their own success. There isn’t enough communicated urgency about what is needed for the affordability crisis and the crisis of the MBTA.” Cohn also flagged Healey for a “wait-and-see” attitude on zoning changes that are aimed at increasing affordable housing.”

Mohamad Ali and Anne Margulies, “Here’s How We Define Competitiveness,” CommonWealth, March 11, 2023.

“However, some groups are using the issue of competitiveness as an excuse to rehash arguments against the Fair Share Amendment, which passed by a solid majority of voters last November. Rather than recycling rationales that voters rejected, or lobbying for new tax cuts that would contradict the expressed will of the electorate, it’s now time for state leaders, municipal officials, and business and community leaders to focus on how to invest the funds resulting from this amendment for the betterment of our state.”

Bruce Mohl, “Exodus of wealthy residents called non-existent,” CommonWealth, April 6, 2023.

“Kurt Wise, the senior policy analyst at the Budget and Policy Center, said in the brief that research shows state tax levels have little impact on decisions by high-income households about where to live. Wise suggested it would be smarter to use tax revenues to make investments that would make Massachusetts more affordable for working families rather than cutting taxes to benefit the wealthy.”

Christian Wade, “Healey gets pushback on $750M tax cut plan,” The Eagle-Tribune, March 28, 2023.

“Estates worth more than $3 million – including those worth hundreds of millions of dollars – would receive the biggest tax break: a guaranteed $182,000,” he told the panel. “Massachusetts can reform the estate tax without large giveaways to the ultra-rich.”

Nik DeCosta-Klipa, “What to know about Gov. Healey’s estate tax proposal — and why some Dems are pushing back,” WBUR, March 28, 2023.

“Several Democratic lawmakers argued that the real reason people have moved away is the state’s expensive housing and child care costs — and suggested Healey’s tax plan should double down on those issues. State Sen. Lydia Edwards said that “if we’re going to center equity,” Healey’s proposed tax cuts for renters should be “doubled, if not tripled,” while the estate tax reforms should be pared back. “I’m OK with being an outlier on so many things, because we lead,” Edward said.”

Matt Stout, “Healey is pushing a plan to make calls free in Massachusetts state prisons — with limits,” Boston Globe, March 7, 2023.

“But in reviving the issue, Healey would also set a monthly 1,000-minute cap for free calls per person, making it one of the most restrictive such programs among those adopted across the country. She is also seeking to limit the change to the Department of Correction.”

Ivy Scott, “Proposed amendment to state constitution could give prisoners back their right to vote,” Boston Globe, April 6, 2023.

““Those people are still in our care and our custody,” she said. Before 2000, it was common for elected officials to visit the prisons or jails in their districts, even if just to observe the quality of the facility. But Miranda and Uyterhoeven both said that since inmates lost the right to vote, the presence of elected leaders in correctional houses has been, with few exceptions, sporadic and infrequent.”

Cabell Eames, “Fair Share for the Fossil Fuel Industry,” CommonWealth, March 5, 2023.

“Should the Polluters Pay bill become law, the state will have a sizable downpayment to achieve its climate goals and build resiliency for the Commonwealth. With a democratic stronghold in both the executive and legislative branches and the first-in-the-nation climate chief, Massachusetts is poised to deliver on climate strategies that we can all agree on.”

Brooke Mohr and Dan O’Connell, “Help us address the Cape, Islands housing crisis,” CommonWealth, April 8, 2023.

“The families, healthcare workers, teachers, and public safety officers who came to the State House are demanding the right to adopt a mechanism to raise the kinds of funds commensurate with the problem they face: A transfer fee on high-end real estate transactions. The creation of a transfer fee on real estate transactions of 0.5 percent to 2 percent – with an exemption for lower-cost properties – would create millions of dollars for each community that opts in to creatively address its own specific problems. Adoption of the transfer fee is by local option only – you won’t have the fee if you don’t see a need and choose to pursue it. The details, too, are up to each city or town: How much the fee would be, what would be exempt, how the funds would be used.”

Jeremy Siegel, “Ridership on fare-free MBTA buses more than doubled in program’s first year,” WGBH, March 6, 2023.

“I think what’s so exciting about this is that it doesn’t look all that different. But for the people who are using free buses, it feels very different,” Thompson said. “And what that means is that when it is pouring rain outside, when it’s snowing, you can get on the bus faster; the bus moves faster; there’s more money in your pocket if you’re not making a transfer and that’s your only ride.”

Dharna Noor, “Red states are leading on renewable energy, while Mass. ranks 29th, new analysis shows,” Boston Globe, March 8, 2023.

“Buta separate February analysis of federal data from Yale Climate Connections, which considered not only wind and solar, but also hydropower, found that 16 states now generate at least half their electricity from renewable sources, and Massachusetts is not one of them. South Dakota, another red state, has the largest share of renewable energy at 83 percent, largely as a result of impressive adoption of wind energy.”

Diego Lopez, “Evictions in Boston spike over last year,” WGBH, March 21, 2023.

“The number of evictions filed each week in Boston are up nearly 75% from last year, according to new data released by Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, looking at the four-week average. Advocates and attorneys say eviction rates are coming back up after a lull during the pandemic, saying it’s been a decades-long problem exacerbated by a cost-of-living crisis.”

Tiffany Jenkins (letter), “Lawmakers, be bold and lift the crushing burden of child-care costs,” Boston Globe, April 3, 2023.

“Like many, I’ve had to juggle raising my daughter and working a part-time job while attending school full time and working toward a certificate. Paying for child care on top of that is a burden that forces me to make impossible decisions about paying for other basic needs, from groceries to transportation.”