Boston Housing Crisis: New law prioritizes converting city property into affordable homes
It’s been more than a year since The Pryde opened its doors in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood. And in that time, the former school building has become more than just an affordable housing option for older LGBTQ+ adults.
Meeting the AI Moment: New America’s Civic AI Summit
Last week in Boston, New America’s RethinkAI initiative brought together leaders from local and state governments, universities, civil society, and corporations for the Civic AI Summit: a day dedicated to reimagining how artificial intelligence can serve the public good. At a moment when governments at all levels grapple with how to harness AI responsibly, the summit catalyzed shared learning and honest dialogues about the opportunities and challenges ahead.
District 7 needs a new city councilor. Who can take on its challenges?
With just days to go until the 2025 General Municipal Election, Boston’s District 7 is once again ready to pick a new City Councilor. Eleven candidates competed in September’s preliminary election to replace former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson. Now, finalists Said Ahmed and Rev. Miniard Culpepper are looking to represent the historically Black and politically active district.
The cities where buying a house is most and least affordable as mortgage rates change
When mortgage rates dropped to historic lows in 2021, below 3 percent, Britt Vaughan met with a real estate agent and tried to buy a home in Altadena, California, where he and his wife have lived for more than a decade. Vaughan, who works for a Los Angeles city agency, and his wife, a marriage and family therapist, had a budget and knew what they could afford. Month after month, he scrolled through real estate sites and fell into the gloomy habit of looking up the price of every house he passed with a “for sale” sign. But with student loans, and such unexpected events as a car crash and wildfire damage eating into their savings, they never felt ready to buy. All the while, home prices and mortgage rates kept climbing.
From land takings to gentrification, East Boston has seen generations of ‘lost futures’
During his time as a postdoctoral research fellow, social worker Josh Lown found he didn’t have to look beyond his own East Boston neighborhood when doing research for a paper on “hauntology.” The term, coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, describes the emotional toll of unforeseen changes on a community.
Amid housing crisis, Boston’s building boom has gone cold. How much of that is due to Mayor Wu?
Just a few years ago, Boston’s skyline was dotted with cranes, the visual manifestation of a building boom reshaping the city. Today, those cranes are all but gone. And construction has fallen sharply. Amid a shortage that has driven rents skyward and pushed some residents from the city, 2023 and 2024 were the slowest years for housing construction since 2011, city data show. Nationally, Boston is building fewer homes than many other peer cities, including Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Boston faces its biggest economic threat since the industrial collapse
James O’Connell’s new book may not be everyone’s idea of a beach read. But if you’re interested in how cities rise and fall, and how global forces impact a region’s economy, it could be the perfect page-turner for your lakeside lounging this summer.
Poll shows most Mass. voters favor more housing despite local resistance
A new poll from MassINC, commissioned by the pro-housing group Abundant Housing Massachusetts, found that the majority of the state’s voters actually support new housing development, favoring it over other considerations like preserving the character of neighborhoods.
Green retrofit projects face hurdles under federal funding cuts
When Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation was awarded a federal grant last fall, it was set to mean health improvements, cost savings, and greenhouse gas reductions for residents in its Talbot Bernard Senior property.
Why Massachusetts women have fewer children and Trump’s $5,000 ‘baby bonus’ won’t help
Experts caution that much of the nuance gets lost in the political noise. To better understand what’s behind Massachusetts’ baby bust — and whether proposals like President Trump’s suggested $5,000 “baby bonus” could reverse it — the Globe spoke with leading demographers, epidemiologists, and public health researchers. These experts point not to a single cause, but to a tangle of interwoven factors — some personal, others structural.