(I guess this is my introduction to middle age — this is a ‘back in my day’ post) Now, I take a back seat to very few people in the privileged upbringing department — leafy green suburbs, high quality schools — but the new Newton North high school does give one pause. I respect the desire to have the best for your kids (although I’m not happy with the negative incentives that ‘free’ state money provided), but this school is a bit much. Look at all the stuff: A regular theatre and a ‘black-box theatre’ (whatever that might be)? The large flat screen TVs at various stations? Two gyms? Elliptical machines? and on and on. I hope the edifice complex […]

This space has been a big proponent of regionalization, with a strong preference for organic, self-directed regionalization. For the towns surrounding Lawrence, they may not have that luxury. When we looked at the attempt to regionalize fire services on the South Shore in the report linked above, one unexpected finding was that some communities already received an implicit subsidy based on mutual aid agreements (and were loathe to enter into a regionalization agreement that caused them to have to pay up for what they were getting for free). The City of Lawrence appears to be doing something similar. It has cut back its fire department staffing to what appears to this layman to be extraordinarily low levels. As a result, […]

One of the nifty things about using the Globe Reader application is that I get to see the regional editions of the paper. This week’s Globe North edition has a fascinating account of the differences between Lynn and Salem. Each community has certain assets, received public funds for development activities, and chose certain strategies. The results are quite different. If you are interested in urban development, I encourage you to give the piece a read.

Today’s news reports that Curt Schilling has accepted the deal offered by the state of Rhode Island and is relocating his company there. (Our previous thoughts on the topic and Curt’s response is here.) The Herald’s report describes state economic development officials as being on the defensive. They shouldn’t be.* Schilling’s got every right to get the best deal for his company. And the loss of jobs (roughly 200 from the website, it appears) is acutely painful. But, if you look at the big picture, as Pioneer has — here and here — you see that firm relocation has a negligible impact on job creation. Of course, you hate to see any jobs go, but the reality is that what […]