|
Boston 101 Lecture Series
To add your name to our Boston 101 e-mailing list for a reminder about the next Boston 101 lecture or changes and additions to the lecture series, please send an email to Polly O'Brien.
Spring 2010 Boston 101 Series Wrestling with Growth in Acton, Massachusetts:
The history of land-use regulation in Acton, Massachusetts offers important lessons on the possibilities and the limits of our current systems for regulating land uses in greater Boston and other major metropolitan areas. Like many other suburbs, Acton initially embraced new development and then began imposing increasingly stringent and complex restrictions on future growth. Unlike many suburbs, Acton also adopted many promising new approaches, such as cluster zoning, that try to shape growth in ways that address some, but not all, concerns about the impacts of further growth. Consequently, the town offers both a model for other localities trying to manage their growth and a caution about what can be accomplished under the current political and legal frameworks that shape growth not only in greater Boston but in other areas as well.
The Geography of Innovation:
Can the economic history of Detroit be told without Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan? Would Ford have achieved the same success if he had worked in Houston? Would Silicon Valley have experienced its remarkable growth without Frederick Terman and William Shockley? Entrepreneurs often seem to have been significantly influenced by features of their local economies, and they have often influenced the fates of those economies. Yet, urban economists have only infrequently looked directly at the local causes and consequences of entrepreneurship, including policies and programs carried out by local and state governments in those regions. Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government
An Innovations Agenda for Massachusetts
In a July 2009 “Declaration of Innovation,” posted on his new blog, Secretary Bialecki stated that “the Commonwealth must have a deliberate innovation agenda as a core element of our economic development strategy.” Late last year, he described 10 key parts of that agenda which ranged from better marketing to providing start-ups with gap funding and a variety of policies in between. How were these elements chosen, how are they are being carried out and what are the preliminary results of these efforts?
Geography, Venture Capital, and Public Policy:
About half of all U.S. venture capital firms as well as about half of all companies financed by those firms are located in just three metropolitan areas: San Francisco/San Jose, Boston, and New York. Moreover, compared to the total amount of money invested, venture-backed companies make outsized contributions to their local economies. Recognizing this, many states and localities are actively trying to retain existing venture capital firms and attract new ones. What can those efforts learn from previous successful and failed efforts to spur entrepreneurial activity?
Tackling the Nation’s Toughest Housing Challenges: Boston Neighborhoods
On Her Honor:
The women who now head many of the state’s older industrial cities – communities such as Brockton, Fitchburg, Lynn, Marlborough, and Salem - face extremely daunting challenges. Does that fact that many of these mayors are the first women to serve in that post, affect the ways that hard issues have been discussed and difficult decisions have been made, particularly decisions affecting areas such public safety and public works that have been and continue to be dominated by men?
Saving America’s Cities:
Though he served in Boston more than 40 years ago, the life of Edward J. Logue, who headed the Boston Redevelopment Authority from 1960 until 1967, sheds important light on the key issues facing Boston and other major cities in the 21st century. During his long career, which also included stints in New Haven and New York and less formal connections with officials in dozens of other locales, he reshaped both the physical and political landscapes in American cities. He was, moreover, at the heart of seminal discussions and decisions about such questions as who, if anyone should plan cities, the proper balance of public and private interests that should be served, the public and private resources that should be expended in city building, and about who and what a city is really for – questions that are as pressing today as they were when he served.
Distress Signals: Lessons from the State's Interventions in Springfield and Chelsea 9/14/09 Diverse Opinions: Public Safety After the Supreme Court's New Haven Decision 9/23/2009 Edward A. Flynn, Commissioner, Milwaukee Police Department, former Commissioner, Springfield Police Department and former Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety The U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of white firemen in New Haven has important implications for hiring and promotion decisions in the nation's police and fire departments. In the wake of that decision, how can public safety agencies in increasingly diverse communities be effective, accountable, and responsive to the sometimes contradictory legal and political constraints on hiring and promotion decisions?
Inside Urban Charter Schools in Massachusetts: 10/14/09
Building the Road to Recovery: 10/19/09 Powerpoint presentation used by Jeffrey Simon
Beyond the Beer Summit: Thursday, October 29 at 3:00 p.m. Chief Anthony Batts, Oakland Police Department Although the controversy that erupted last summer after a Cambridge police officer arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates has died down, the reactions to that incident showed that many issues and problems still need to be addressed. Cosponsored by the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School, Harvard’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.
Fast Track to the Future: 10/30/2009 Contending that the development of high-speed rail service would reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment, the Obama administration last April launched an aggressive effort to help develop such service in up to 10 corridors across the country. Seeking to create a federal/state partnership similar to the ones that spurred the development of a national highway system and a national aviation system in the latter half of the 20th century, the federal government is offering about $8 billion to support the development of high-speed rail in congested corridors of 100-to-600 miles in length across the country. In response, states and localities, however, have submitted requests for more than $100 billion in funding for new high-speed rail projects. How will the federal government choose among these projects, what is that funding likely to achieve, and how can the commitment to new high-speed rail lines be sustained?
Remaking Cities: How Jane Jacobs' Battles with Robert Moses Reshaped New York and Changed City Planning 11/2/2009
Moderated by Edward Glaeser, Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government For urbanists and others, the battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs was the great titanic struggle of the twentieth century. Jacobs is the secular saint of street life, representing a humane approach to urban planning grounded in the messy interactions of the neighborhood. Moses is the icon of infrastructure established by power, the physical reconstruction of cities with great bridges and wide expressways and tall apartment buildings. The actual projects that fueled their acrimony may now be curiosities of urban history, but the ideological conflict embodied by Jacobs and Moses continues to rage in every growing city in the world.
Redrawing the Lines: Accountability and Effectiveness in Increasingly Diverse Police Departments 11/18/2009
In the past year, officials examining problems in such locales as Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Maywood, California have all contended that their work was greatly hindered by a police "code of silence" in which officers refused to speak candidly about the misdeeds of their colleagues. How common is this problem and, more importantly, how can it be addressed in ways that do not undermine police officers' ability to do their job in effective and appropriate ways?
Serving Emotionally Disturbed Youth: 12/1/2009 Bruce Kamradt, Administrator, Milwaukee Children’s Mental Health Services/Wraparound Milwaukee Commentary by Julie Wilson, Harry Kahn Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Director, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Wraparound Milwaukee, which won the 2009 Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform, is the first government-operated managed care service designed to treat emotionally disturbed youth in the home setting. The program, which serves an annual 1,300 youth with diagnosable mental health disorders such as depression, attention deficit disorder, or learning impairments that prevent normal functioning in home, school, or outside community settings attempts to reduce costly and arguably ineffective residential care options by offering a host of individualized treatments that allow youth to stay with their families. Care options and services include tutoring and after school programs, group care, recreation and camp, arts programs, and substance abuse treatment. In addition, the program encourages family members to play a more active role in the treatment process as members of the care planning team. Cosponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance, the Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and Harvard’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management. Powerpoint Presentation by Bruce Kamradt To add your name to our Boston 101 e-mailing list for a reminder about the next Boston 101 lecture or suggestions for the lecture series, please send an email to Polly O'Brien. | |
Contact the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at: |