Bring back the Third Place
To address social isolation and loneliness, cities need more venues where people can simply gather and cross-pollinate. | The Boston Globe
What if we treated housing like a utility?
America’s affordable housing crisis stems from how we view housing as a private investment first and foremost. What if we changed that? | WBUR
Downtown needs an infusion of artists
Artists bring life to city centers and are often among the first groups to be priced out. Here’s one way in which we might fix this. | The Boston Globe
The spontaneous joy of Boston’s Cop Slide
Boston’s accidental new tourist destination has inspired viral joy. I wrote about the possible roots of this civic phenomenon. | WBUR
What makes a true “Winter City”
Winter in snowy, sodden cities doesn’t have to be a long slog of darkness and isolation. Renowned “Winter Cities” like Montreal and Edmonton offer inspiring and proven ideas. | The Boston Globe
Making too little to get affordable housing
A deep dive into the cumbersome task of finding and keeping affordable housing in an expensive city where there are minimum income limits on who can qualify for such housing. | The Boston Globe
A new plan for preventing evictions
Instead of asking landlords to provide housing stability to tenants, states should offer it themselves with bolder policies that will keep vulnerable renters housed. | The Boston Globe
What Boston’s next “Big Dig” should be
Karilyn Crockett, Michael Dukakis, Maria Belen Power, and other Boston leaders talk about what the city’s next transformative infrastructure project could look like. | The Boston Globe
Michelle Wu’s Green New Deal for Boston
The city’s newest mayor has offered Bostonians an off-ramp from a racially and economically stratified climate change dystopia. | The New Republic
Hey, Boston! Take this snow and shovel it
While clambering over boulders of snow, you may well ask: If cities clear the roads, why not the pedestrian paths? | The Boston Globe
A “general cleanup” of human beings
How an initiative to jail unhoused people in Boston is both antithetical to public health and hypocritical for a liberal city. | Welcome to Hell World
The neighborhood EV
Could affordable electric vehicle sharing take cars off the road while improving mobility options for city residents? | The Boston Globe
What if we turned empty offices into housing?
Remote work is hollowing out cities that need affordable housing. With imagination and will, we could address both problems | The Boston Globe
Maybe more of us should live in public housing
Vienna is home to some of the most beautiful socially-owned housing in the world. So I went there to explore it for myself. | The Boston Globe
The City You’re Missing (magazine series)
From 2018 to 2019, I flew across the U.S. for Southwest Airlines to report a feature series on America’s most thrilling cities. | Southwest: The Magazine
Let’s get back together
Isolation is an American epidemic that predated the pandemic. Could better housing and transit bring us closer together? | The Boston Globe
My public transit odyssey across Massachusetts
How tough is it to travel from the Berkshires to Cape Cod using only public transportation? I decided to find out. Things got weird. | Boston Magazine
Saving 9 million Americans from eviction
A federal judge just struck down the CDC’s national eviction moratorium. Here’s how the Biden administration can intervene and help. | NBC News
What comes after an eviction moratorium?
The Massachusetts state eviction moratorium has expired and emergency rent relief is still difficult for tenants to access. What now? | Shelterforce
Discover the surprising beauty of urban hiking
Even when you live in a city and you can’t travel far from home, mid-pandemic, it’s still possible to go for a great hike. | The Boston Globe
It’s time to bail out restaurants and bars
Restaurants and bars give economic and spiritual life to cities and towns. We need to fund their survival through the end of the pandemic. | WBUR
Tiny houses—not a big enough housing solution
Tiny houses are being embraced as a fix for affordable housing shortages. But the tiny house trend romanticizes the reality of poverty. | Shelterforce
How to exploit a $10 commuter rail pass
A cheap weekend commuter pass is an explorer’s dream. Here’s how to have a decadent car-free weekend in Massachusetts. | Boston Magazine
The “art” of dating in L.A. without a car
In Los Angeles, having a car isn’t just about convenience: it’s about social status. As a single, I learned this the hard way. | The Los Angeles Times
Tiny houses will not solve the housing crisis
When you remove the twee opulence and class privilege from a tiny house, what you’re left with is a very small house. | The Outline
Vermont’s $10,000 plan to import new residents
Got a cushy remote job? Vermont might pay you to move there. Here’s why this initiative has troubling economic and racial implications. | The Outline
Boston is losing its children to the market
Affordable housing shortages, driven by capital and extractive economics, are forcing more families out of Boston at an astounding rate. | WBUR
The case for bringing back rent control
Rent control can be wielded clumsily or effectively, and with housing prices skyrocketing nationwide, it’s time to give rent control another shot. | WBUR
Ending Boston’s transportation nightmare
Chronic disinvestment in public transit infrastructure has made life exhausting for Boston residents. We must course-correct. | WBUR