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Something in the Water: How Raw Sewage Floods Homes on the Banks of Alewife Brook | News | The Harvard Crimson

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Alewife Brook has flooded regularly for decades after heavy rains, sometimes combining with sewage water from the combined sewer system below the brook, leaving residents to wade through the sewage that runs over the sidewalks for days after a storm.

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Globe Op-Ed by BPL President David Leonard - Boston Public Library Fund

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On April 10, 2025, The Boston Globe published a powerful Op-Ed by Boston Public Library President David Leonard.

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Op-ed: Boston’s lifeline always on life support - The Huntington News

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For students at Northeastern, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or MBTA, system isn’t just public transit — it is a lifeline. Every day, numerous students rely on the Green or Orange Line to get to classes, internships and part-time jobs.

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Rent control isn’t the answer to the state’s housing crisis - The Boston Globe

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Letting property owners decide how to use their own land is a far greater level of local control than allowing local governments to impose one-size-fits-all regulations.

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Getting the Boston Public Schools rightsizing right - CommonWealth Beacon

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There will be a lot of conversation about whether these particular schools should close and whether the process involved the right people at the right time. Just as important:: how closures and consolidations are implemented and what happens to students and educators in the process.

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State’s law on sidewalk injuries a relic of the ’60s - The Boston Globe

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Ridiculously low payout limits and a short time limit on filing provide no incentive for cities to make timely repairs.

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AS A LICENSED clinical social worker who has conducted outreach at Mass. and Cass and worked in the city-run men's shelter on Atkinson Street, I am disappointed in Mayor Wu's decision to enact another sweep of the Mass. and Cass area. Under the guise of "public health," this sweep will misuse tax dollars and exacerbate an enormous workload for local service providers.

We have enough data to support the conclusion that sweeps do irreparable harm. For instance, in 2021, public health researchers Benjamin Linas and Joshua Barocas found that sweeps lead to increases in overdose rates, overdose mortality, and hospitalizations for complications of drug use.

Sweeps of homeless encampments are typically driven by misperceptions regarding the individuals who live there and whether they can be assisted. A widely held myth is that Mass. and Cass consists of the same immovable hundred people, unwilling to get help. A close-up view reveals that these individuals are members of two broad groups with many complex and diverse needs.

One group is a fixed number of old-timers who are banned from every social services agency and labeled "too sick to help." Most in this group have been housed before and were unable to maintain housing. Most have mental illness, dementia, traumatic brain injury, and/or addiction. Most have survived unthinkable abuse.

Displacing old-timers from a neighborhood that is familiar with their needs, and eliminating the only place they are allowed to rest, is a recipe for disaster. If people aren't allowed in shelters because of unsafe behavior, they will not last in the new shelter being created in the South End. If they aren't allowed to camp, they will have no rest which will only increase their instability. It isn't ideal that chronically sick and homeless people are living on the street, but it's amazing how they've utilized service providers, tents, comradery, and community to stay alive.

The second group of Mass. and Cass residents is a fluctuating number of people who have fled there due to a lack of options. These are violence survivors; young adults aged out of foster care; transgender people rejected by their families; widowed, disabled people, veterans; and refugees from underserviced American regions and destabilized nations.

This second group is constantly growing because of a lack of systems designed to care for such individuals, and because the programs available to them are chronically underfunded. It would surprise many to realize that as this group grows, it also shrinks because of its members' capacity to recover with assistance from housing, triage, medical, and addiction
services.

Danger and agitation at Mass. and Cass develops from the desperation its people feel due to a shortage of help available to them. Few members of the general public realize that a passionate network of local providers is consistently lifting people in this area out of chaos and homelessness.

Still, people are becoming sick and homeless at a higher rate than overworked and underpaid workers are able to treat and house them. Simultaneously, numerous social work positions in city shelters are vacant due to low pay and the expensive mandate that city workers reside in Boston.

Meaningful change in the numbers of people living at Mass. and Cass can't occur if frontline workers are not adequately compensated and programs are not staffed to meet the scale of the problem. A more promising and humane response is for the state, alongside Boston, outer municipalities, and the federal government to provide more resources to meet the needs of Mass. and Cass residents. It's inappropriate for the city to allocate funds for sweeps by police, which further traumatize already traumatized people. Blocking vulnerable people from sleeping outside does nothing to protect them from abuse; it often pushes them into more hazardous settings.

If the Mayor's request for an ordinance permitting sweeps is approved, more highly vulnerable people will be incarcerated and will come out sicker and more difficult to house. If the ordinance fails, Mass. and Cass may look the same, but people will continue to recover and leave the area. In the meantime, we frontline workers will care for people who can't until more space is made in the world for them.
Madeline Lessing is a licensed clinical social worker who has served Mass. and Cass residents over the last three years.

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A sweep through Mass. and Cass will do irreparable harm - CommonWealth Beacon

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AS A LICENSED clinical social worker who has conducted outreach at Mass. and Cass and worked in the city-run men's shelter on Atkinson Street, I am

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Weiwen Che, Hazel Nystrom, Priyal Patel , Ryan Kath

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Priced out: How Boston’s college housing crunch displaces longtime residents

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Affordable housing advocacy groups say competition from college students can leave local residents priced out of their neighborhoods and unable to afford rising rent

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Op-ed: Boston’s lifeline always on life support - The Huntington News

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For students at Northeastern, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or MBTA, system isn’t just public transit — it is a lifeline. Every day, numerous students rely on the Green or Orange Line to get to classes, internships and part-time jobs.

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A better way to deal with Boston exam school admissions - CommonWealth Beacon

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IT IS DISTRESSING to watch the debate over Boston exam school admissions divide the city. The focus on how to allocate a fixed number of seats has

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In 2023, I returned to the Boston area - the city where I had graduated cum laude from Boston University with a degree in economics - after a decade spent building a career in Paris. Now armed with a master's from the Sorbonne and ten years of international professional experience, I believed I was bringing a unique and valuable skill set back to the American workforce. The reality, however, has been a jarring series of professional setbacks. After being let go from two different client-facing roles, I embarked on a difficult and costly career transition into teaching and HR, only to find myself an unwelcome applicant for even entry-level positions. This experience has forced me, a 35-year-old U.S. citizen, to confront a question I never thought I'd ask: in a globalized world, why does coming home feel like starting over from zero?

My situation is not an isolated complaint, but a case study in a systemic friction that makes returning citizens like me personae non gratae in our own country's workforce. This is not a niche issue. With an estimated 9 million U.S. citizens living abroad, according to the U.S. Department of State, the question of how we reintegrate our global talent is a significant national concern that we are currently failing to address.

The first hurdle is the stark devaluation of international credentials. My master's degree is often treated as a novelty rather than an asset. This isn't surprising, given that the U.S. Department of Education confirms there is no single federal body to regulate foreign credential evaluation, leaving the burden of proof - and cost - entirely on the applicant. The result is a form of "brain waste" mirroring that documented by the Migration Policy Institute, which found over 2 million college-educated immigrants are underemployed in the U.S. due to these exact barriers.

This leads directly to the second structural barrier: the "re-skilling tax." To bridge this perceived gap, I pursued multiple U.S.-based certifications. This functions as a direct toll on repatriation. In my case, this meant spending well over a thousand dollars on exam fees and preparation materials for certifications that re-packaged existing competence rather than adding new skills.

The result is a frustrating paradox. I am told that I lack the recent U.S. experience for even entry-level roles, yet my decade of professional experience makes me appear over-qualified. This professional no-man's-land is a direct result of the "out of sight, out of mind" problem frequently cited in repatriate studies, where returning professionals are offered unchallenging jobs because their international skills are poorly understood. The numbers bear this out: a survey highlighted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that only 39% of repatriates believed their international skills were used upon returning. It's no surprise, then, that repatriate turnover is high, with some studies showing up to 50% leave their company within two years, often citing career dissatisfaction.

This isn't just a personal problem. It represents a significant waste of talent. By failing to create effective on-ramps, we are not only failing these individuals, but we are also depriving our economy of their unique skills and global perspectives.

This is not a call for special treatment, but a diagnosis of a systemic inefficiency. In a hyper-competitive global economy, we cannot afford to let the skills of our own citizens go to waste. If we are serious about preparing students for a "complex world," as the Massachusetts curriculum rightly aims to do, our efforts must go a step beyond the classroom. We must build a more rational and efficient "brain gain" pathway for our own people. Preparing the next generation for a globalized future begins by ensuring the professionals who have already lived that future have a meaningful place in it today.

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My BU degree got me to Paris. Why can't it help me in Boston?

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In 2023, I returned to the Boston area - the city where I had graduated cum laude from Boston University with a degree in economics - after a decade spent building a career in Paris. Now armed with a master's from the Sorbonne and ten years of international professional experience, I believed I was bringing...

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After Mass. and Cass crackdown, homeless community cast out into the shadows of Boston

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Five months into the city’s tent ban, a diaspora of former Mass. and Cass dwellers live under bridges, tunnels and highway underpasses or in encampments just beyond city limits.

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The Boston City Council isn’t doing its job by dodging tough issues - The Boston Globe

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It’s been a hot, dry summer, but does the City Council really need to carry this much water for Mayor Wu?

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Mass. Democratic establishment should welcome newcomers, not protect the status quo - The Boston Globe

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A robust antiestablishment energy is visible in Massachusetts.