Category Archives: Law & Society

It’s budget time again (already?)

Posted on 2021-04-17 by Garrett Wollman

Last week, the House Committee on Ways and Means reported out its version of the state budget for fiscal year 2022, H.4000, and the Mass. House of Representatives gave it second reading. It’s supposed to be taken up again a … Continue reading →

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Parsing the bond bill sausage

Posted on 2021-01-10 by Garrett Wollman

As the 191st General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was in its final hours before the end of the legislative term last week, the transportation bond bill that I wrote about last July was finally reported from conference committee, … Continue reading →

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The Democracy Crayon

Posted on 2020-11-29 by Garrett Wollman

In the transportation community, especially rail and transit enthusiasts, it is common for people to publish maps of imagined future routes and services that one believes would be interesting or worthwhile to build, if money were no object. These are … Continue reading →

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Massachusetts’ transportation bond bills: an analysis and recommendation

Posted on 2020-07-26 by Garrett Wollman

This month, I’ve spent rather more time than I would like to admit digging through the Massachusetts state legislature’s web site to try to figure out what the heck they have done with the transportation funding (and MBTA governance) measures … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day

Posted on 2020-07-11 by Garrett Wollman

From Harvard PhD student Jake Anbinder, in Democracy Journal: We need not defend the specific works of the midcentury master builders to recognize that the model that has replaced them—where some planners spend their evenings being berated by neighborhood busybodies … Continue reading →

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I’ve written in these pages before about creating a cordon-type congestion charging zone (à la London) for Boston, and argued for it to be geographically quite large to reduce shunpiking. And I’ve also supported doubling the motor fuels tax — … Continue reading →

Posted on 2019-09-05 by Garrett Wollman | 2 Comments

What’s Wrong with Metcalfe’s Law?

Posted on 2018-02-12 by Garrett Wollman

In a recent Medium post derived from a talk he gave at private invitation-only event for the IT industry, Dan Hon presents one view of Metcalfe’s Law, the theory espoused by Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe that “the value of a … Continue reading →

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Interlude: a better way of choosing presidential electors?

Posted on 2017-05-13 by Garrett Wollman

In a bitterly contested U.S. presidential election, like the one last year, the question often comes up about the perceived unfairness of the Electoral College, the system of indirect democracy we use for electing presidents. Every state is entitled to … Continue reading →

Posted in Law & Society | Tagged , | 3 Comments

One more day in 2016 for charitable giving

Posted on 2016-12-30 by Garrett Wollman

If, like many people in the United States and elsewhere, you give money to charities at the end of the year, you have only a few hours left. (Note that for tax purposes, a gift made using a payment card … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadcasting & Media, FreeBSD, Law & Society | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Quote of the Day

Posted on 2016-12-26 by Garrett Wollman

Hey, it’s been a really long time since I posted a quote of the day. So here’s one for you all: A society in which smart, hard-working young people with generic ambitions tend to become hedge fund and private equity … Continue reading →

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