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Recent Posts
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Category Archives: Law & Society
It’s budget time again (already?)
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
Posted in Law & Society, Transportation
Tagged MBTA, state budget
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Parsing the bond bill sausage
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
Posted in Law & Society, Transportation
Tagged commuter rail, MassDOT, MBTA
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The Democracy Crayon
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
Posted in Law & Society
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Massachusetts’ transportation bond bills: an analysis and recommendation
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
Posted in Law & Society, Transportation
Tagged commuter rail, MBTA, politics
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Quote of the day
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
Posted in Law & Society, Transportation
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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
What’s Wrong with Metcalfe’s Law?
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
Posted in Computing, Law & Society
Tagged social networks
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Interlude: a better way of choosing presidential electors?
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
One more day in 2016 for charitable giving
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
Quote of the Day
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
Posted in Law & Society
Tagged economics, James Kwak, quote of the day
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Occasionally Coherent 