Tight Market for Boston Apartment Hunters
The Boston Globe
January 25, 2012
Mass. Jobless Rate Falls to 6.8%, Lowest in Three Years
The Boston Globe
January 20, 2012
Will 2012 be the year for economic optimists?
The Boston Globe
January 1, 2012
Smart growth funds running out
CommonWealth Magazine
December 29, 2011
Home sales up a fifth month
The Boston Globe
December 22, 2011
To Have and Have Not: The Growing Economic and Social Divide and its Implications for Educational Leaders
WBUR
Fall 2011
Check out our new blog on sustainability issues in Greater Boston:
MBTA's money troubles of the future
Interview with Stephanie Pollack | Fox News 25
MBTA's money troubles of the future: MyFoxBOSTON.com
(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - The future of the T will have wide-ranging effects on the city and all commuters. Last night, FOX 25's Ted Daniel did a report on the MBTA’s growing debt and the possible impacts it might have on service going forward. We were joined this morning by Stephanie Pollack, associate director of research at the Dukakis Center School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University.How T Entered a Tunnel of Debt
February 5, 2012 | Boston.com
by Eric Moskowitz
The MBTA reached a halfway point last week with the 12th of 24 community meetings on proposed fare increases and service cuts, and the numbers so far are staggering: 2,077 attendees (counting merely those who signed in) and 618 lining up to speak. Another 2,900 have sent e-mails.
Longtime observers say the public response is not just the most pronounced in memory, but also the most knowledgeable. Beyond real frustration over paying more and losing service, many speakers cite the overarching problem: too much debt, too little money, with riders asked to make up more of the difference.
Many have called on the governor and Legislature to bail out the nation’s most indebted transit agency. But they also wonder how we got here.
MBTA and Transit Policy
The Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy conducts research and works on policy issues affecting the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA or T) and smaller regional transit agencies throughout the Commonwealth because well-run, financially stable transit systems are essential to achieving a myriad of important urban and regional policy goals including improving mobility and access to opportunity, growing jobs and the state’s economy, combating sprawl, reducing dependence on imported oil and achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The transit services provided by the (MBTA) and Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs) provide access to housing, employment, education, health care, and other critical services to everyone, regardless of whether they own or can drive a car. In order to achieve transit’s potential, however, adequate funding needs to be put in place to support and improve existing services, maintain transit vehicles and assets, and expand service frequency and availability to better serve both current and potential transit users statewide. Instead, transit services in Massachusetts are in crisis, with fare increases and service cutbacks already implemented or imminent at the RTAs and, now, at the MBTA.
The Dukakis Center supports smart and sustained investment in transit statewide, with the goal of creating the best public transportation system in the United States, one that can realize the full potential of transit as a transportation option of "first resort" and help the Commonwealth achieve its economic development, transportation and sustainability goals. As with all of our work, the Dukakis Center is committed to addressing transit finance and policy from a fresh perspective and to working with a broad range of partners and stakeholders to conduct research and create policy tools that address some of the most pressing challenges facing transit systems in Massachusetts and throughout the nation.
"While the financial picture is grim, it is important to note that the MBTA is too valuable an economic asset to permit its further deterioration or even collapse. A robust public transportation system provides vital economic and quality-of-life benefits to residents from all walks of life and to businesses in the communities it serves."
Prepared by: Andrew M. Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada, Joseph McLaughlin, Mykhaylo Trubskyy, Sheila Palma
With: Benjamin Forman
By Barry Bluestone and Chase Billingham with Liz Williams, Yingchan Zhan, Tim Davis, Aaron Gornstein, Marvin Siflinger, Ann Verrilli, & Eleanor White
By Barry Bluestone & Thomas A. Kochan | October 2011
By Joan Fitzgerald, Andy Sum, and others
By Stephanie Pollack, Barry Bluestone and Chase Billingham
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