public structures

Since being passed into law in 2001, The Community Preservation Act has helped communities across the state save public areas threatened by development, rescue historic gems from the erosions of time, and create much-needed affordable housing units. These funds are currently being threatened by the lack of state funds sustaining the CPA, while a recent bill, filed by Sen. Cynthia Creem, is designed to close these loopholes, and secure state funds for the CPA. More information on communities that are working to utilize the CPA, and how your community can realize the benefits of the Act can be found at the Community Preservation Coalition.

Can a consortium of businesses do a better job of promoting the public good than the city of Boston?

Anti-government activists in the United States often complain that their local, state and federal government should be run more like a business. “If we operated our government like a business,” the argument goes, “we could have better services and lower taxes.”

So now that a group of downtown businesses calling themselves the Greenway Conservancy have stepped forward claiming they will help develop the Rose Kennedy Greenway by pooling private donations, it’s worth questioning how much of the taxpayers’ money they will save.

Some stories just make you smile, and it's good to see the Metro covering the good deeds our friends and neighbors are accomplishing in our communities! Now where did I put that paintbrush?

Dorchester Pitching in Rogelio Buckley, 5, is happy to pitch in and help clean up his favorite park.

Last month we asked "Who Needs Libraries, Anyways?"

Second and Fourth graders at George H. Mitchell Elementary School in Bridgewater have resoundingly answered that question by raising more than $20,000 for their town's public library.

“The children learned that they could do something worthwhile to support their community and they improved their reading at the same time,” said second-grade teacher Lisa Ohman.

It is fun to see movie stars on our streets, I can't deny that. But it is so important to know what we are choosing to do without in order to lure the film industry here. In light of the constant claxon of "worst budget in years" and "budget crisis," can we justify giving tax breaks to the film industry?

Just one current casualty is public health. I'm not talking about Health Care Reform which is about insurance and having access to acute or chronic health care, I'm talking about the unique role of government in tracking, monitoring and controlling infectious diseases (among other things).