I write a weekly column for the Globe op-ed page. It covers development, housing, and sometimes other things, too.
There are a lot of these clips. It will take some time to upload them all. They are coming, though.
Haymarket Pushcart Vendors Need to Embrace Change. Today’s market changed with its neighborhood once. It needs to again. May 16, 2012
Jamaica Plain’s Jackson Square – Its Moment Has Arrived. Fighting urban renewal was the easy part. Putting the neighborhood back together has taken some time. May 8, 2012
How to Make South Boston a Big Draw for Innovation. The neighborhood’s development strategy is really more Waltham than Cambridge. May 1, 2012
The Massachusetts Housing Crisis Continues. As the market rebounds, affordability will become a major challenge again. April 24, 2012
Weird Times at the Sausage Parcel. City Hall pushes an impossible use. April 17, 2012
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Must Write Down Troubled Mortgages. The longer the GSEs wait, the more losses will pile up. April 10, 2012
Unwelcome Sign for New Families. The problems with letting towns shut the door behind the last family to move in. April 3, 2012
Beer Wars in Massachusetts. Why does the state protect wholesaler monopolies? March 27, 2012
OneUnited Bailout Didn’t Help Boston. The troubled bank is troubled because it never bothered acting like a bank. March 20, 2012
What Happens after the Casey Overpass is Leveled? It’ll be a wasted opportunity if the bridge demolition isn’t followed by steps to reconnect the neighborhood around it. March 13, 2012
Another Chance for Dudley Square. The city intervenes to right the wrongs of the square’s last city intervention. March 6, 2012
The NIMBY Playbook. Foes can delay housing for years on the strength of a few court filings. February 28, 2012
Ripe for Building on the Orange Line. Urbanizing the city’s last frontiers. February 21, 2012
A Chance to Reclaim the Esplanade. Crumbling infrastructure opens the door to change. February 14, 2012
The Art of the Deal, Boston-Style. Lessons from the rebirth of Filene’s. February 7, 2012
At Last, Feds are out for Bankers’ Heads. Criminal investigations start catching up with the crimes. January 31, 2012
A Punt on Fannie and Freddie. Lawmakers should stop complaining about salaries at the GSEs, because they shouldn’t even be in business anymore. January 24, 2012
Baseball’s a Bad Call at Malden Site. The city’s downtown needs citizens, not part-time visitors. January 17, 2012
Use Casino Leverage to Fix the Filene’s Site. Should Vornado sit on the Filene’s hole while raking it in at Suffolk Downs? Put it to a citywide vote. January 10, 2012
Who Maintains Foreclosures? Despite owning the homes, big lenders say, “Not me!” January 3, 2012
Barracks Ready-Made for Housing. By all reasonable measures, Devens should be a perfect place to build housing. This is Massachusetts, though, so reasonable measures don’t apply. December 27, 2011
If Occupy Wants to Play, It Has to Get in the Game. With the tents gone, the movement needs to finally decide wither it’s for progressive reform, or something more. December 20, 2011
Tribal Casino? Not so Fast. All the blind optimism in the world can’t get the state through the legal minefield of tribal gaming. December 13, 2011
Banks Won’t Get off that Easy in Mass. The state’s foreclosure lawsuit is a challenge to White House officials who want to hand immunity to banks. December 6, 2011
A Frugal Answer to Zoning Pitfalls, Needlessly Slashed. Slashing Sustainable Communities lets the bureaucratic inertia driving sprawl drag on. November 29, 2011
New Units Don’t Bring Rent Relief. Putting a decade-old supply shortfall in context. November 22, 2011
The Still-Leaderless Revolution. Occupy Wall Street is foundering because it brings out the worst in the American left. November 19, 2011
For Have-Nots, Housing Crash is Cruelest Blow. Home equity can’t paper over inequality anymore. November 8, 2011
The Final Death of Columbus Center. Relentless ambition turned the Boston development into a full-blown Greek tragedy. November 1, 2011
Banks’ Sloppiness Makes Foreclosure a Stolen Property. Their titles are a mess, and it’s all their fault. October 24, 2011
Happy Hours and Casinos. The Senate has unwittingly exposed the very real pitfalls that come when a casino opens its door. October 18, 2011
The Navy’s Mess in Weymouth. The Navy still owns most of the shuttered base, but wants to duck responsibility for cleaning it up. October 11, 2011
Feds to Big Banks: Pay Up. Fannie and Freddie had to sue over awful mortgages, because they couldn’t let taxpayers eat the cost of banks’ misdeeds. October 4, 2011
Using the Courts to Stall Development. A stalled affordable project in Holliston shows towns’ playbook for fighting affordable housing. September 27, 2011
The Case of the Fugitive Banker. Irish officials chase a bankrupt bank’s former head to a Boston courtroom. September 20, 2011
The State’s Liquor Laws are Broken. Laws get twisted when nobody but their beneficiaries look after them. September 16, 2011
Mitt Romney, the Rewrite Man. The GOP presidential hopeful invents an alternate history of the financial crisis. September 9, 2011
Casino Debate Gives Crook the Moral High Ground. Sal DiMasi is a federal convict, and he’s also right about gambling. September 2, 2011
A Ticking Clock for Cities. When Washington screws around with transportation policy, the ramifications take years to rectify. August 26, 2011
A Weak Economy, Trampled by Battling Giants. Three years after Lehman, Fannie and Freddie collapsed, the subprime mortgage crisis moves into its next phase. August 19, 2011
A Bitter Brew in Massachusetts. The blowup over brewers’ licenses show state regulators know nothing about the businesses they oversee. August 14, 2011
For MBTA, “Nuance” Means Broke. There’s nothing complicated about the delays facing the Green Line extension. There’s just no money for it, or anything else. August 5, 2011
The Bottle Bill: It’s About the Money. Cash grabs disguised as environmental policy. July 29, 2011
On Filene’s, Put Up or Shut Up. Hot rhetoric gets the city nowhere. July 22, 2011
Headaches Brew for Developer. An environmentally pioneering apartment project falls to the NIMBYs. July 15, 2011
The Tech Cluster Glut. Boston’s newest cluster in South Boston will crowd out its last newest cluster, in Roxbury. July 9, 2011
A Hope of Renewal for Somerville. To unlock the Green Line’s potential, the city needs to demolish an overpass. July 1, 2011
Harvard Dawdles, Allston Waits. The university banks land, swaps it, and banks some more. June 27, 2011
Big Site Needs a Big Plan. The Herald brings a suburban redevelopment plan to its urban home. June 17, 2011
Paying for Parks on the Greenway. Businesses are being asked to preserve a broken status quo. June 10, 2011
Business as Usual? Sal DiMasi’s corruption trial is helping bury the back-scratching culture the trial reveals. June 3, 2011
A New Face for Kendall Square. MIT’s rezoning can enliven the biotech hub, if it brings residents in from the fringes. May 27, 2011
The Return of Fannie and Freddie? Lawmakers in Washington want to replace the mortgage giants by replicating the same broken, conflicted model. May 20, 2011
Slipping and Sliding with Housing. A few trillion dollars can’t keep the market from sliding into a double-dip. May 13, 2011
The Pit in the Heart of the City. Steve Roth talks musicals, but not Filene’s. Oh, and he’s cashing in, too. May 6, 2011
In Cambridge, Hands-Off Stance Keeps Kendall Vibrant. The square thrives in the absence of a heavy hand. Half of a Sunday debate with Tom Keane. May 1, 2011
Despite Suburbs’ Swan Song, Transit Money Withers. Cities are booming, but are being starved of the infrastructure funds they need to sustain themselves. April 22, 2011
Playing the Development Bargaining Game. In Boston, everything is against code, and everything is negotiable. April 15, 2011
Boston’s Success Depends on the T. The region’s economy is built around a transit system Beacon Hill won’t fix. April 8, 2011
Casting a Shadow on the Back Bay’s Future. The Back Bay’s brownstones were saved by steering towers down the street. Now that deal is in jeopardy. April 1, 2011
A New Landscape for Builders. The state SJC frees the courts to toss nuisance NIMBYs out of court. March 25, 2011
Hawking City Land. Municipal land deals should enable neighborhood transformations, instead of just drumming up some quick cash. March 18, 2011
If Menino Can Leap, So Can Harvard. The city got tired of waiting around, and took a leap of faith in Dudley Square. Harvard should follow suit in Allston. March 11, 2011
The End of the 30-Year Fixed Mortgage? In pushing Fannie and Freddie out of business while also dialing down other federal mortgage aid, the Treasury if flying without a net. March 4, 2011
A Brewing Beer Fight on Beacon Hill. Small brewers want freedom. February 25, 2011
Rips in the Mortgage Blueprint. Big banks got what they wanted when Treasury decided to put Fannie and Freddie out of business. They should recognize that the cost of being handed the mortgage market is added regulation. February 18, 2011
As Filene’s Developer Sits, An Opportunity May Pass. The developer risks missing a hot apartment market. February 11, 2011
Put a Foot Down in the Gambling Debate. Restarting the State House gambling debate isn’t as easy as hitting the pause button, especially when it hinges on the House Speaker’s unseemly-looking racetrack connection. February 5, 2011
Political Corruption Met with Defiant Egotism. Chuck Turner speaks for the corrupt mainstream. January 28, 2011
A Fix for the West End. Garages bad. Housing good. January 21, 2011
A New Act in the Foreclosure Circus. Because of banks’ sloppiness, homeowners are left wondering whether they really own their homes. January 14, 2011
A Lot of Bark, but Little Bite. Really, I’d like to thank John Boehner for caving to his nuttiest members, reversing course, playing chicken with the economy, and making a liar of this column. Cheers! January 7, 2011
[Newspaper Row image via LIFE]
