As New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces $7 billion budget hole, free parking may be history

With New York City facing a budget gap estimated at around $7 billion, new Mayor Zohran Mamdani would prefer to tax the rich. But lately, Mamdani and his administration have conceded that other ways to raise revenue for the city need to be considered, from higher property taxes on homeowners to a long-talked-about idea that would upend a feature of life in the Big Apple many residents have long considered a right: ample free parking.

The AI Lab Next Door

As governments and communities across the United States struggle to make sense of artificial intelligence, one of the most capable—and underutilized—partners is often hiding in plain sight: local colleges and universities. Much of the public conversation about AI focuses on big tech companies or federal regulation. Meanwhile, far less attention has been paid to how higher education institutions can help cities and nonprofits deploy AI to serve residents and strengthen public trust.

How Transit Enriches a City

A student-focused fireside chat with Phil Eng, MBTA general manager and interim Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, was held March 5 at the Kilachand Center. Panelists explored how public transit shapes urban lives and those who work, live in, or visit cities, with a focus on the Boston region and the MBTA. The event was hosted by BU’s Initiative on Cities, the Metropolitan College City Planning & Urban Affairs program, and the Urban Planning Association.

Too hot to learn: cooling Argentina’s overheating schools

There have been 23 heatwaves in Rosario over the last 15 years, the same number as in the previous five decades, according to data from September 2025 from the National Meteorological Service (SMN). In the city, a heatwave occurs when the minimum temperature exceeds 20.5C and the maximum temperature exceeds 33.4C for three consecutive days. The longest in Rosario’s history was one of the most recent, occurring in March 2023 and lasting 10 consecutive days. During that one, a school in the city drew global attention after telling pupils to come to school in swimwear to try to stay cool.

The YIMBY movement could be on its way out

The YIMBY, or Yes in My Backyard movement, has been steadily growing based on a simple principle: To solve the housing crisis, simply build more affordable houses. But while the YIMBY train of thought has been making waves in many areas, particularly in cities with high levels of homelessness like San Francisco, some economists think the movement has outgrown its lifespan. Others think it has more to give.

Trust In The AI Age

As a community, the people most familiar with AI understand that trust will play a central role in consumer-facing applications, and that even beyond that, trust is, in so many ways, the currency of today’s digital environment. After the fairly stillborn launch of cryptocurrencies in the late aughts, AI has taken the world by storm. The benefits are evident. But so are the risks. The benefits are colossal, too. To the society, to individuals – but so are the risks.

Safe and Sheltered: How Tenant Organizers Protect Their Neighbors in Minneapolis

Taylor Kohn lives in the same Minneapolis neighborhood where ICU nurse Alex Pretti was murdered by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents in January. But even aside from this high-profile killing, Kohn says that since CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began occupying the city last December, every block has been written with one traumatic memory or another. On the route she takes to walk her dog every day “is where I hid when [the] feds were tear gassing us.” Farther down the street “is where I [think I] saw a teenager sobbing while they were put in an ICE vehicle,” she adds.

Is the YIMBY movement doomed?

For more than a decade now, a “YIMBY” movement has been working to bulldoze the rules and regulations that have been holding back new housing development. A central goal of this movement — which declares Yes In My Backyard to more development — is to make housing more plentiful and affordable for Americans who are often priced out of owning or even living in the communities they want to.

Letter: Need town shelter available 24/7

What a winter this is! With frigid temperatures refusing to budge, I can’t imagine what it would be like not to have a warm home to retreat to, can you? Recalling MATS director Susan Howard’s Ledger-Transcript article of Sept. 5, we cannot look away from the homelessness in our region, especially this winter.