Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Boston Globe reporter Camilo Fonseca about the housing and rental market in Massachusetts. “The big picture here is not whether rents go up a bit less than expected,” says Gruber. “It is that rents are generally unaffordable for so many families. The solution is simple: we need to build more affordable housing.”
Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney spotlights the “Moving Objects” exhibit at the MIT Museum, which features 50 or so items from the museum’s permanent collection. “Over the course of five years, 140 truckloads got moved when the museum transferred its holdings from several sites to a new storage facility, in Medford,” Feeney writes. “The items in the show were chosen because in one way or another the movers found themselves affected by them. They were amusing or beautiful or unexpected or otherwise unusual.”
Gloria L. Fox, the longest-serving Black woman representative in the Massachusetts Legislature who completed the MIT Community Fellows program, has died at the age of 82, reports Tiana Woodard for The Boston Globe. Fox is remembered as a “superwoman, a legend, and a lifelong advocate of Boston’s black communities,” writes Woodard. “Fox held the seat, representing parts of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mission Hill, and the Fenway for more than 30 years… she championed legislation that addressed health disparities, foster care, criminal justice, and disinvestment, no matter what opposition she faced.”
The MIT Museum is hosting an “After Dark: Made in the ‘90s” event on December 12, reports Claudine Bellanger for The Boston Globe. The event “will feature retro games, a discussion of the decade’s space exploration pursuits with former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman,” and more, writes Bellanger.
Boston Business Journal reporter Hannah Green spotlights the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative, a new effort designed to connect researchers, medical professionals, and industry leaders in a shared mission to address some of the most pressing health challenges of our time. Green notes that the collaborative aims to “spur high-impact discoveries and health solutions through interdisciplinary projects across engineering, science, AI, economics, business, policy, design, and the humanities.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Joshua Angrist, Prof. Parag Pathak and Amanda Schmidt of Blueprint Labs examine the effectiveness of Boston’s school assignment system and transportation policy. “Boston schools have improved greatly since 1974: Dropout rates for all students have declined, and gaps by race, while still present, have narrowed,” they write. “School assignment plans originating in 1974 may therefore be less useful today. It’s time to consider changing transportation policy in light of these changes in the city’s education landscape.”
Mayor Michelle Wu has named Prof. Kairos Shen as Boston’s new city planning chief, reports Kelly Garrity for Politico. “Shen previously served as city planner under the late Mayor Tom Menino, and touts more than two decades of experience at the Boston Redevelopment Authority on his resume,” explains Garrity.
Mayor Michelle Wu has named Prof. Kairos Shen as Boston’s new Chief of Planning, reports Boston Herald. “I’m thrilled to welcome Kairos into leadership of Boston’s Planning Department and all the critical functions shaping the built environment for affordability, equity, and resilience,” says Wu. “As a longtime friend and advisor, Kairos brings an unparalleled knowledge and expertise of this work and our communities.”
Prof. Kairos Shen has been named Boston’s new Chief of Planning, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. Shen, who previously served as Boston’s top city planner for two decades, “brings tremendous design expertise and a deep understanding of Boston’s distinct neighborhoods and factions,” writes Chesto. “I love the city and I spent many years serving it,” says Shen of his appointment. “I think being able to be more reflective and having experience outside of City Hall and looking at cities all over the world, I hope I can bring [a] kind of greater wisdom that I didn’t have when I left City Hall.”
The MIT Museum is hosting “Game On!” – a free event aimed at providing gamers of all ages an opportunity to “face off against a robot in Connect 4, pick up skills from Doom-playing bacteria, see if a hacked oscilloscope can hit a 30-note streak on Guitar Hero,” and more, reports Emily Wyrwa for The Boston Globe. The event, which is part of the Cambridge Science Festival, will be held on September 26, 2024.
WHDH reporter Polikseni Manxhari spotlights the Kendall Square “Rollerama,” an outdoor roller-skating rink created by MIT. The rink “offers free skate rentals, free lessons, live music, vendors, concessions and more,” explains Manxhari. “It’s not just a roller skating rink,” says Kathryn Brown, director of real estate at MIT’s Investment Management Company. “There’s a lot of people that come into this space and enjoy just the music and being outdoors.”
Rollerama, a pop-up roller skating rink at Kendall Common, has become a “corner of liveliness” this summer, providing the public with free fun and art in the form of a new mural by Massiel Grullon, reports Izzy Bryars for The Boston Globe. “We thought it could help people do something fun together, and start to give people a sense of what the Kendall Common build out will be like,” says Sarah Gallop, director of MIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Thomas Kochan explores how workers, unions, CEOs and politicians can all draw lessons from the Market Basket protests in 2014. "The key lesson for workers and unions is to draw on customers and citizens as allies and sources of power," writes Kochan. "If workers’ demands make sense, customers and community members will support them."
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Marketplace host Daniel Ackerman about the difficulties associated with Boston’s rental market, where due to the large number of college students many housing units start their lease cycles on September 1. “You can’t fit them all in the apartment at the same time,” explains Gruber. “You can’t all get moving trucks to move in that same day.”
Prof. Thomas Kochan speaks with Boston Globe reporter Dana Gerber to reflect on the impact of 2014 Market Basket protests. Kochan, who co-authored a case study about the protests, says “it’s still the most unprecedented worker action that we’ve seen in our century. We’ve never seen a non-union group take action in support of their CEO, and hold that solidarity — from the executives to the clerks to the truck drivers — for six weeks. And to get the support of the customers was a remarkable achievement.”