Views from Prospect Hill

Since it was a pretty nice day, I decided to hike up Prospect Hill in Waltham. It’s not a real steep climb (click on the pictures to see the full size)

but it has a pretty good view of Boston

and the Blue Hills just south of Boston (Prospect Hill is the second highest point inside 128, [...]

Affordable housing

Since I started receiving emails from the BRA about affordable housing opportunities in Boston, I think about it more. I have concluded that the current set up will lead to less affordable housing. Under Mayor Menino the city pushes for projects to have 10 or 20% affordable units which sounds good until you look into it [...]

Aloisi, Patrick against Grabauskas

The spat between Massachusetts Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi and, now ex, MBTA chief Grabauskas that resulted in Grabauskas being forced out has been entertaining. I’m not really sure what I think of Grabauskas–I do think the T is a bit better now than when he started, but I haven’t really looked at all the details.
The [...]

2009 Spring Training

Now that the Super Bowl is past (and it was quite a good one, although I don’t really like either of the teams), I start to look forward to baseball. The first step is truck day, when the trucks with equipment leave for the team’s spring home in Florida or Arizona, which has already happened for some [...]

Northeastern University to Help?

I’m not sure what to think about this:
Offering high school graduates an additional year of study before they enter college is not a new idea, but Northeastern’s program would stand apart because students would earn college credit for successfully completed courses.
Aoun said the earned credits should equate to a full-freshman year of college, enabling students [...]

Affordable? For Whom?

I’m a little confused. I’m on a email list to get affordable housing opportunities in Boston. Here’s a link to one. Notice this bit:

1.
Up to 80% of Median Income

 

Maximum Household Income:
$48,050.00 for one person

 
$54,900.00 for two people

 
$61,800.00 for three people

 
$68,650.00 for four people

Two Bedrooms:
1 Unit

Price:
$1,545/mo.

Affordable housing is defined to be housing that costs at [...]

Mayor Menino and the Greenway

I find this interesting:
“I don’t want to have the Greenway be made a canyon, Manhattanized,” he said. “The idea behind the Greenway, besides suppressing the roadway, was to connect the downtown with the waterfront. If you have big structures there, you lose the significance of the connection.”
The move comes after city planners faced criticism from neighborhood [...]