Critics have long accused some Boston developers of switching out city-approved designs for aggressively value-engineered alternatives. A new position at the top of the city’s planning bureaucracy is expected to tackle the problem head-on.
In what looks to be an emerging trend, Boston’s mayor is leaning heavily on housing advocates for advice on highly-charged real estate issues, while excluding outspoken critics.
Their specific requests varied, but the roughly half-dozen mayors and state lawmakers who addressed the MBTA’s oversight board Monday all echoed a common theme: that expanding service and connectivity on the commuter rail will bring significant benefits for the riding public, regardless of costs.
When a developer feels a $50,000 bribe is a good investment to secure a permit extension that is generally regarded as a formality, it’s clear there is larger rot in Boston’s land use decision-making apparatus.
The city of Boston intends to put $16.3 million in city funds towards the creation of 290 affordable housing units, Mayor Marty Walsh announced Wednesday, part of a series of development projects containing 515 units.
Roxbury’s commercial heart is getting a new entertainment venue, a jazz club to be located in the Boston Public Schools’ headquarters building in Dudley Square.
During his State of the City speech on Tuesday night, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced the creation of a new Economic Development Center focused on connecting residents to better jobs, helping small businesses grow and improve public input in economic development and policy-making.
Boston is planning to ask state legislators for freedom to increase the per-square-foot affordable housing and job training fees the city charges developers when they want.
It’s just a matter of a few simple steps to get the city’s approval…
An icon of the Boston skyline was very nearly protected against the city’s current rapacious development culture – but then the mayor stepped in.
One troubled school system is enough.
The mayor’s job in Boston is up for grabs this fall and once again the politics of development will take center stage.
The Boston metro region has a lot to recommend it. The economy is thriving, neighborhoods are revitalizing and, despite the natives’ predilection for complaint, the weather isn’t actually that bad.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh worries about the city’s ability to pick up the burden if Congress scales back funding for affordable housing.
A draft report of Imagine Boston 2030 – the first citywide master plan in a half-century – released Thursday spotlights concerns about housing prices and displacement of lower- and middle-class residents, recommending that developers be given density bonuses to include income-restricted affordable units in multifamily projects.
“I don’t want to be the type of elected official to throw babies out [of events],” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh joked in his opening remarks at last week’s South Bay groundbreaking ceremony.
