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You can still make money in Boston real estate

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In today’s Metro, Mayor Menino is asked why the Hynes Center can’t be put to more productive use. In his reply, the Mayor says: …friends at the Hynes tell me in 2007, the center generated $10.1 million in revenue — the highest in the history of the building…. Ten Point One Million Dollars! 175,000 square feet of state-owned prime real estate that, in its best year ever (no inflation adjustment, please) barely makes $10 million! I bet there are a bunch of stores in the Pru mall that make that kind of money, and they pay taxes too. Imagine what another 175,000 square feet worth of clothing stores – or donut shops, or sports bars – could earn on Boylston […]

Small Things Matter

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

We are sometimes so focused on what doesn’t work, that we sometimes miss the small successes. Here’s to the Dracut police force, which, as reported in this morning’s Lowell Sun, reduced sick-time use in 2007 by 54%. In fact, the total of 155.25 sick days used in 2007 is down from 497 used in 2005, a 69% reduction. Chief Richardson and his officers are to be commended for recognizing the strain that high absenteeism places on a force’s fiscal and human resources and for making it a departmental priority.

Unemployment Insurance: A Drag on Employment?

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Unemployment Insurance in Massachusetts: Burdening Businesses and Hurting Job Creation, a new Pioneer Policy Brief, presents convincing evidence that UI’s problems are serious, but solvable.

Overheated Extrapolation Department

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Ok, maybe I didn’t pay as much attention to the NH primary as I should have. But the Globe’s Derrick Jackson brings us another of his unique insights today. After a brief bit of throat-clearing about Obama ‘defending’ Hilary’s likability, he rips into the former First Lady : But this pales next to the steady drip, drip, drip of stereotyping from the Clinton camp of a lazy, drug-using, Muslim black man who believes in fairy tales. Mr. Jackson is the early leader in the Globe Op-Ed page’s yearly “Did-They-Really-Just-Say-That” competition. James Carroll is disqualified (see this week’s entry — Football reveals the rotting heart at the core of America).

The Week in Review

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

It certainly has been a busy one, both nationally and here at Pioneer. We are set to release a short policy brief on the inequities in Unemployment Insurance in Massachusetts and are gearing up for an education event Tuesday to discuss issues around student test data, including MCAS, TIMSS, the state’s data warehouse and the need to use data to guide professional development and inform classroom practice. For that reason, I saved up my thoughts this week for one weekend post. Here goes; from lightest to most serious. 1) This week’s sign of the apocalypse – According to The Week (a periodical I’ve trumped here before) a Colorado inmate is suing the prison where he is incarcerated because he was […]