Cambridge, Boston and region

Prof. Karilyn Crockett speaks with Boston Globe reporter Miles Howard about how transportation planning in the Greater Boston area needs to be centered around improving connectivity. “As Boston’s population grows, our public transportation infrastructure continues to crumble, and our transit planning can’t just be about new cars on one line and new tracks on another,” says Crockett. “It has to be a discussion about the system and the economic impacts of that system on Black and brown communities that are struggling to get to doctors’ appointments, to schools, to jobs that don’t allow working from home.”

Boston Globe reporter Tim Logan spotlights MIT’s efforts to increase connections with the neighborhoods surrounding Kendall Square. MIT is “running shuttles from nearby neighborhoods to help people get to community events at its newly built plaza off Main Street, and it’s working on ways to get Cambridge kids better engaged with the MIT Museum when it reopens in its new location,” notes Logan. “It is imperative that what we’re doing here and Kendall represents the desires and aspirations of the neighbors,” says Sarah Gallop, co-director of MIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations. 

Tiffany Chu ’10, chief of staff for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, speaks with columnist Jeneé Osterheldt for The Boston Globe’s “A Beautiful Resistance” series about her goals for creating a more inclusive Boston and her AAPI heritage. Chu explains that she believes in “knocking down walls and showing people what is possible." 

Arthur Jemison II MCP ’94 speaks with Boston Globe correspondent Adrian Walker about his appointment as the City of Boston’s chief planner. “I think you’ll see more ambitious ideas being proposed and implemented in more parts of the city,” Jemison said of his goals. “And I think you’ll see more people feeling like they understand how to participate in the dialogue about development.”

Lecturer Susan Murcott and graduate student Imane Ait Mbiriq speak with Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel of GBH’s Morning Edition about the MIT Climate Clock, a creation from the D-Lab that will be projected on the Green Building through May 27. “Our overall vision is that we have climate clocks in every K-12 school, in every university campus in the United States and even in the world, so that people can wake up to the reality of this new age and take action,” says Murcott.

James Arthur Jemison II M.C.P ’94 has been appointed Boston’s first planning chief by Mayor Michelle Wu, reports Saraya Wintersmith for GBH. "I'm incredibly grateful to Mayor Wu for the opportunity to bring my expertise and passion for equitable development back to Boston,” Jemison said. “I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Bostonians to reform the development process and create the kind of growth that reflects our values.”

Boston Magazine reporter Scott Kearnan spotlights Clover, a farm-fresh restaurant and food truck, created by Ayr Muir BS ’00, SM ’01. “Clover is so confident about its commitment to only using fresh-from-the-farm produce that, believe it or not, it doesn’t have a single freezer in its restaurants,” writes Kearnan.

The Boston Globe highlights Robert Buderi’s new book, “Where Futures Converge: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub.” Buderi features the Future Founders Initiative, an effort by Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia, President Emerita Susan Hockfield and Prof. Emerita Nancy Hopkins aimed at increasing female entrepreneurship. 

The food truck Cassandria Campbell MS ‘11 and Jackson Renshaw started in an effort to bring locally sourced and healthier food options to the Boston area is now being turned into a restaurant, reports Devra First for The Boston Globe. “These are beautiful neighborhoods and people deserve to be able to walk down the street and get something good to eat,” says Campbell. “If I have kids, I want them to be able to do the same.”

Boston Globe reporter Pranshu Verma highlights how The Engine has expanded into an 42,000 square-foot space in the Somernova Innovation Hub, located near Union Square in Somerville. “We knew it would be a great fit for The Engine’s expansion,” said Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner for The Engine. “It offers us the ability to solve the infrastructure challenge for our network and also brings us even closer to Greentown Labs so we can continue our close partnership on our shared mission of climate tech support.”

An MIT initiative called “Real Talk for Change” launched a new online portal of more than 200 audio stories collected from Boston residents as part of an effort to “help prompt future community dialogues about the lived experiences of everyday Bostonians, particularly those in marginalized communities,” reports Meghan E. Irons for The Boston Globe.  “It’s about lifting up the experience as a fundamental piece of what we need to understand [people’s lives], to make better public policy decisions, and to think about who we want to be in leadership roles,’' says Prof. Ceasar McDowell.

Boston Globe reporter Pranshu Verma spotlights how innovators in the greater Boston area, including a number of MIT startups, are “aiming their moonshot ideas at a climate crisis that has only gotten worse and made their task all the more urgent.” “That’s our purpose,” said Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner for The Engine. “We are here to back those super ambitious companies that are taking a big swing.”

Fortune reporter Nicole Gull McElroy spotlights how the MIT Innovation Initiative and the Sloan School of Management are opening Innovation HQ, a 50,000 square foot space that will house a cross-disciplinary innovation and entrepreneurship lab. “Innovation HQ will offer students, alumni, faculty and staff a place to work, collaborate and create with six departments, lab space, an innovator’s lounge and a new space for music and arts innovation called Voxel Lab,” writes McElroy.

A report by researchers from MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation finds that there should not be any changes to flight paths over Massachusetts towns, reports the AP. The researchers found “any alternative pattern would affect more people than the current paths, creating safety issues and a problem for air traffic controllers.”

President L. Rafael Reif and Linda Henry, CEO of Boston Globe Media Partners, took part in a wide-ranging fireside chat during the inaugural Globe Summit, touching upon everything from the urgent need to address the climate crisis to MIT’s response to Covid-19, the Institute’s approach to AI education and the greater Boston innovation ecosystem. “This is such an important global issue,” says Reif of climate change. “It’s the most serious challenge we have in our times.”