I have a crazy idea: Big Dig spending was a major contributor to the boom and bust business cycle we’ve gone through in the last decade and a half. On the upswing, construction spending boosted local employment - as Tyler Cowen notes, multiplier effects are easily overstated but for something this large, some multiplier effect seems possible. More […]
In the comments, Luke asks the question
You mentioned the candidates brought up Silbert’s mention of economic development and how you are unsure of how valid it is at the state level.. can you expand on that? Specifically the Mass economy and the gubernatorial race?
Sure. There’s a commonplace, commonsense notion that if only some very local, […]
Both Point 08 Acres and Adam Reilly watch last night’s gubernatorial debate and came away with similar conclusions: Chris Gabrielli needs to talk about more than stem cell research. I missed the debate but suspect they’re right. Gabrielli’s ads are slick and smart advertising, and I think his stem cell one might be effective as […]
John makes fun of an idea that’s slightly crazy, but only slightly. I think people everywhere in this city have gotten so used to the status quo under a regime of heavy liquor license restriction that they aren’t aware how much of a damper it is on the general cultural vibrancy. When you have to […]
Some reasoned response to news that Massachusetts is losing population. Add to that worries that the housing market is going to drive the whole state away.
My sentiments, though, are expressed by Chimes at Midnight:
What Humble Elias doesn’t understand is this, if the population is falling and the high tech jobs are shifting out of state, […]
I like counterintuitive studies. Everyone knows or thinks they know that Massachusetts taxes are high? The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center runs the numbers and finds out that
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that total state and local taxes in Massachusetts amounted to 9.6 percent of personal income in fiscal year 2002 (the latest […]
In the comments Charlie asks,
Why is it that politicians refuse to make these simple investments that impact the quality of life for so many people? In the city especially, the state parklands run by the DCR are some of the few green spaces that we have at our disposal. I know that most users of […]
Real estate blogger John takes a look at the latest wage numbers and concludes that Boston’s housing is expensive “[b]ecause people make a lot of money, and are willing to spend a lot of money.”
True enough, and I think - and have written as much - that critics of the high prices tend to overlook […]
There’s been some more parsing of that recent Census data on Boston’s declining population, more than I can gather or digest right now. If people are wondering what all the handwriging is about, it’s that the data captures several narrative strands that people are concerned about lately: the weak economy, the change in character of […]
To follow up on the city population decline and John’s question about what’s driving it: I don’t have hard data on who is moving away, but I did the next best thing and examined the Census figures of where they’re moving to. You can’t look at percentage of county-by-county population decline, but rather have to […]
In today’s Herald, Jay Fitzgerald takes a look at Boston’s census numbers:
People are leaving Boston at a stunning rate of about 27 a day - with nearly 10,000 bolting Suffolk County last year alone, according to new U.S. Census Data….The county’s population was about 654,428 in 2005 - off 5.3 percent, or 36,795, from a […]
To follow up on yesterday’s screed about city planning here, I’d like to back up a bit and address the overarching issue at hand. The question of what kind of city we want to be - Florence or Milan, in Robert Campbell’s dichotomy - taps into underlying anxiety we have about where an economic and […]
A note in the Globe detailed a party celebrating film production in Massachusetts:
Boston will never be a Hollywood back lot, but tax incentives aimed at bringing more movie and TV deals to the Bay State may be helping. At a party Monday to celebrate the new law, people in high places were predicting the Hub […]
Via Adam at Universal Hub, Plastic Boy points me to a Globe piece on the direction of Jamaica Plain. The article fully captures the dilemma that middle class people in Jamaica Plain are feeling: on one hand there’s appreciation of JP’s small scale and cultural diversity, on the other hand, the neighborhood retail seems haphazard […]
John Keith does a great job debunking the notion that housing costs are the primary cause of Massacusetts’ loss of young professionals.
The [Center for Urban and Regional Policy] lecturers spoke at length on two subjects. First, their research has led them to the conclusion that 20-34 year old residents of Massachusetts are moving out-of-state […]