Research conference ‘in service of a greater public good’ addresses local challenges
When Kim Lucas went to the first annual conference of the Boston Area Research Initiative in 2017, the event’s 40 attendees posed for a photo together in Northeastern University’s Curry Student Center ballroom. Ten years later, the same ballroom was packed — standing-room only. More than 400 participants attended this year’s conference on May 8, which covered research on topics including local housing, transportation and climate change challenges.
Portland’s Maine-born population has dropped to 40%. Is that a problem?
At the top of Munjoy Hill on a weekday morning this month, residents of the neighborhood crisscrossed Congress Street carrying coffee cups and holding dog leashes. Among them were an international student at Southern Maine Community College, a Washington Avenue restaurant owner originally from Massachusetts, a filmmaker who relocated from Michigan in 2019 and a Vermont native who moved here three years ago, maybe for good.
Beautiful Maine city’s native population drops by a third since 2000… and no one born in state will live there by 2050 if trend continues
A demographic shift is underway in Portland, where the number of residents born in Maine has plummeted by almost a third in the last 25 years. As of 2024, just 40 percent of the city’s population was Maine-born, per the latest American Community Survey. It means natives are now outnumbered by transplants in the city, stark change from 2000 where 59 percent of Portland’s residents were from within the Pine State.
Mayor Scott’s Spain trip highlights debate over value of international city travel
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s recent trip to Spain did not cost city taxpayers anything, but it has revived a familiar question in city politics: What does Baltimore actually get in return for sending its mayor to international policy gatherings?
What do former grisly mob haunts say about modern day Greater Boston?
Where there was once bloody violence and criminal plotting, there is now preaching of salvation and grace. The auto garage that once acted as the de facto headquarters for one of Greater Boston’s most notorious organized crime outfits of the past century is now the Greater Works Church of God Somerville.
Are Brookline’s property taxes high? It depends how you measure
On May 5, Brookline voters will decide whether to approve a tax override, which would bring in $23.25 million for town services by hiking property taxes permanently. How residents vote may depend on whether they think taxes here are already too high. But it’s a question that eludes a simple answer.
Can the World’s Economic Firefighter Adapt to the 21st Century?
As wars, trade spats, and AI reshape the global economy, the IMF has held its role as the world’s lender-of-last-resort steady. Much of its governance, including countries’ shares of voting rights, have remained the same over decades, often requiring lending countries to return to the same austerity playbook. Gita Gopinath, former first managing director of the IMF says that the stability is by design in times of greater geopolitical uncertainty while Boston University’s Kevin Gallagher says that some parts of the IMF are due for an upgrade.
CDS prepares to send off first ever matriculant students, reflects on growth
Every college at Boston University celebrates its graduating class each May— but for members of Computing and Data Sciences, the class of 2026 is particularly special.
The weekend of May 14, CDS will celebrate the graduation of its first-ever undergraduate class. The cohort first entered the program in 2022, and have helped develop CDS in its formative years since its founding in 2019.
National WIC Association, 13 Food and Nutrition Organizations Reject the Trump Administration’s Proposal to Cut WIC’s Fruit and Vegetable Benefits
Late Friday afternoon, the White House released President Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2026. This budget proposal outlines the programs Trump wants Congress to slash—or eliminate entirely—when they vote on government funding. The proposal includes severe reductions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), threatening the health and nutrition of millions of low-income families.
What do former grisly mob haunts say about modern day Greater Boston?
It’s a transformation playing out across the region. As Greater Boston has gentrified, it has become less of a backdrop for working-class, clannish noirs that hinge on loyalty and limited life choices directed by Ben Affleck or Martin Scorsese. It’s now more of a hub of gentrifying young professionals, skyrocketing housing costs, and concerns about displacement.