Housing inequities in Mass. start with those at public meetings, new report shows
A new report from Boston University researchers for the Massachusetts Coalition for Racial Equity in Housing finds the current housing policy process is hurting diverse communities and that the inequities can be traced directly to the voices showing up to public meetings.
Lack of Diversity Hindering Mass. Housing Production, Report Finds
The process for approving new housing development in communities across Massachusetts is “skewed toward an older, white population with the greatest interest in obstructing new development,” according to a new report assembled by two Boston University researchers and released Wednesday by The Boston Foundation.
BU study finds local land boards dominated by homeowners in Massachusetts
Local boards that oversee land use and housing construction in Massachusetts are dominated by white male homeowners, potentially skewing their decisions, according to a Boston University study of nearly two dozen cities released Wednesday.
As more cities declare crises around climate and affordability, does change follow?
Hoboken is one of many cities that have enacted declarations in recent years that address ongoing societal, economic and environmental issues. The city council in Evanston, Illinois, recently approved a climate emergency resolution. Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, and New York City passed declarations declaring racism as a public health crisis. Portland, Oregon, and Miami-Dade County, Florida, have announced emergencies around housing and affordability.
FY 2023 Legislative Report: Re-Entry Workforce Development Demonstration Gains
The Re-Entry Workforce Development Demonstration Grants Program is an initiative administered by
Commonwealth Corporation, on behalf of the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development with the goal of improving workforce outcomes for individuals returning to their communities after incarceration (i.e., returning citizens). Commonwealth Corporation awarded grants spanning two fiscal years, starting in August 2022 and due to end in September 2023. These resources anticipate serving at least 13 grantees as a result of intensive outreach to smaller community-based organizations.
Trees and soil at the forest’s edge store more carbon than we thought, studies reveal
‘We think about forests as big landscapes, but really they are chopped up into all these little segments because of the human world,” Hutyra said. In two separate studies, her research group investigated the differences in carbon storage of trees and soils along forest edges versus the interiors of temperate forests in the northeastern United States. Hutyra and her team found that trees on the edge of forest fragments grow faster than those deeper in the interior, and that soil on the edge of urban forests has a greater capacity to store carbon than previously known.
Mayors Face a Reckoning With Racial Wealth Gaps
A national survey of 126 mayors of cities with more than 75,000 residents found that two out of three are concerned “a great deal” or “a lot” about the racial wealth gap in their communities. This concern was shared by twice as many mayors in large cities as in smaller ones; surprisingly, more mayors (52 percent) of cities where housing costs are low had stronger concerns than those in cities with high cost of living (32 percent).
Can Tech Help Turn the Tide on California’s Housing Problem?
“I think a lot of software companies are trying to think about ways to restructure these conversations,” says Katherine Levine Einstein, professor of political science at Boston University. “It helps solve a really fundamental problem at public meetings, which is that you’re presenting a project and asking people if they like it or not — which essentially invites nitpicking.”
Boston Medical Center researchers report a surge in depression and anxiety among children of color
In “Changes in psychosocial functioning among urban, school‑age children during the COVID‑19 pandemic,” researchers found the rates of depression and anxiety among children of color aged from 5 to 11 spiked from 5% to 18% during the pandemic. The study, published in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, is one of the first to quantify the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 among children of color using data collected before and during the pandemic, according to an article in Health City, an online publication run by BMC.
Sociologist Jessica Simes’ New Book Explores the Toll of Mass Incarceration and Its Racial Disparities
Her discovery launched Simes, now a Boston University College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of sociology, on an eight-year investigation into the shifting geography of mass incarceration—specifically in Massachusetts, but with the pattern being repeated across the country—and the consequences for neighborhoods and communities. Her findings—a data-driven story of American punishment and place mostly untold by scholars and researchers—are presented in her recent book, Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment (University of California Press, October 2021).