A series of neighborhood meetings will take place in May on possible changes in the student assignment plan for the Boston Public Schools. The meetings will follow presentation of a revised proposal from the Boston School Dept. A final plan, taking effect in 2010-2011, would be considered by the School Committee in June. Tighter budgets will probably make access to quality more difficult. Officials working on the plan have to find a way between or around two entrenched ideas about school assignments: a preference for schools close to home, especially through grade 8; and a belief that more options, requiring more transportation, means more access to quality. Would more walking assignments, for example, for families in Hyde Park and West Roxbury, necessarily mean less access to quality for students in Roxbury and Dorchester? Would more neighborhood assignments necessarily increase access to the full-day benefits in a "community of learning?" And what about needs of English Language Learners and students in Special Education? See article in Dorchester Reporter.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
A look at School Assignment Questions
A series of neighborhood meetings will take place in May on possible changes in the student assignment plan for the Boston Public Schools. The meetings will follow presentation of a revised proposal from the Boston School Dept. A final plan, taking effect in 2010-2011, would be considered by the School Committee in June. Tighter budgets will probably make access to quality more difficult. Officials working on the plan have to find a way between or around two entrenched ideas about school assignments: a preference for schools close to home, especially through grade 8; and a belief that more options, requiring more transportation, means more access to quality. Would more walking assignments, for example, for families in Hyde Park and West Roxbury, necessarily mean less access to quality for students in Roxbury and Dorchester? Would more neighborhood assignments necessarily increase access to the full-day benefits in a "community of learning?" And what about needs of English Language Learners and students in Special Education? See article in Dorchester Reporter.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Biolab Questions Meet Clarity of Gray Areas
Two City Councilors trying to clarify the possible hazards on the frontiers of research at Boston University’s Level 4 Biocontainment Laboratory in the South End found themselves last Wednesday turning headlights on a fog.
The line of questioning at a hearing by the Council Committee on Health and Environment, almost entirely from Councilor Chuck Turner, was mainly to find out whether some research requiring extra precautions might even be ruled out by the city’s regulations.
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) restricts research involving recombinant DNA (rDNA), defined as DNA molecules constructed outside of a living organism or synthetic molecules joined with natural molecules. The city prohibits research with rDNA in Level 4, which is the setting with the highest risk and security precautions.
The head of the laboratory, Dr. Mark Klempner, had reportedly said he expected it would include research on vaccines produced with rDNA— “chimeric viruses.” And the city regulations incorporate guidelines from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which do include standards for work with rDNA in a Level 4 setting.
Located on the Boston University Medical School Campus, the lab is already built, but its environmental safety review by the NIH is expected to continue for at least another year.
The Director of the Bureau of Community Initiatives at the BPHC, Roger Swartz, acknowledged the rDNA ban, but said he could only address issues “in terms of applications submitted” for specific research proposals. The BPHC would decide whether to approve a proposal after receiving a recommendation from an advisory committee. Swartz told councilors the question of rDNA would “be discussed in its entirety” once the committee comes together.
“We have had a number of discussions with experts,” said Swartz, “and it’s clear to us that there are some areas of, some gray areas. And we want to make sure that from the start, as we address rDNA and Level 4, that we have the scientific experts that will be providing guidance and recommendations to the executive director (of the BPHC). So, at this point, I would say we’re not prepared to address specific proposed or hypothetical research. We’re not there in the process.”
In his testimony to the councilors, Klempner denied the lab would engage in development of biological weapons.
“Let me state clearly and unequivocally,” said Klempner, “that all the research and every one of our researchers in the NEIDL (National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories) will completely abide by the BPHC regulation, which bans recombinant DNA research in Biosafety Level 4.”
After Klempner was asked about a statement he reportedly made last year indicating that some research at the lab under its associate director, Dr. Thomas W. Geisbert, would include rDNA, he gave neither confirmation nor denial.
“I want to reiterate again to you,” said Klempner, “that we are absolutely committed to transparency and we are in every case going to submit every proposed research proposal to the regulatory bodies that we need to respond to in order to be able to have approvals to do the research in the laboratory. I certainly have made statements about work that we hope to conduct in the laboratory, and we will continue to do that. We are continuing to recruit new scientists to do research, but that is different than making statements about the regulator.”
As Klempner reminded councilors, the decisions about which research would be allowed would be up to the BPHC. In other words, the lab was the regulated and the city was the regulator.
For one opponent of the lab at the hearing, the distinction between the two wasn’t clear enough. The legal counsel for the Roxbury-based non-profit Alternatives for Community and Environment, Eugene Benson, said one reason for this was that the president and CEO of Boston Medical Center, the main affiliate of Boston University Medical School, was the vice chair of the BPHC’s Board of Health. And he noted that a BPHC official who would be part of the committee reviewing proposals for research had previously recommended designation of the Biolab for Boston by the NI H.
“What you have is, in two ways, you have an impossible situation here,” Benson argued, “where the Boston Public Health Commission has refused to actually articulate what are very, very bright lines in their regulations. And then you have this back-and-forth between people who work for the Boston Public Health Commission and Boston University. So you’re setting up a dynamic where the dynamic is going to be to approve proposals that clearly violate the regulation. That is really no way to operate a regulatory agency. And, while it wasn’t my intention to make this recommendation, but I think the only recommendation that I can make coming out of this is that you need to prohibit all BSL-4 regulation in the City of Boston because what this tells you is that you are trying to do your oversight role but it can’t be done, considering the interaction between BU, the Boston Public Health Commission, and their failure to adequately and completely respond to Councilor Turner.”
Another lab opponent, a professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, Daniel Goodenough, went a step further. Though he acknowledged that rDNA was “a fundamental tool” for research, he said using it in work that required a Level 4 setting was “too dangerous.” He argued that it was difficult to oversee research that, once it gets under way, could take new directions, involving new personnel over time.
“All of these regulations, as we all know, just get harder and harder to maintain,” said Goodenough. “More and more people are coming and the turnover rate is huge—in academic that’s the name of the game, it’s up or out: you either succeed and you go somewhere else, or you fail and you leave. So there’s very high turnover, huge, huge amounts of training issues here, and I don’t think that the Boston Public Health Commission can possibly assess that. And it’s my belief that this regulation (banning rDNA research) was put in place initially with the understanding that we can’t regulate this—it’s too hard. And the only solution is to say, ‘No, we just don’t have any of this going on in a BSL-4 facility.’”
In one of his few comments on testimony at the hearing, the chair of the Committee on Health and Environment, Councilor John Connolly, described the remarks by Swartz as “very comprehensive, as far as covering the major points.”
Turner insisted there should be more definite information, and more transparency, about what would happen at the lab should it be approved for operation. He said it was “disheartening” that the BPHC was “unwilling to help the public understand the confusion that is here.”
“I think that really just puts wood on the fire,” he added, “that just makes people more distrustful of what’s going on.”
The line of questioning at a hearing by the Council Committee on Health and Environment, almost entirely from Councilor Chuck Turner, was mainly to find out whether some research requiring extra precautions might even be ruled out by the city’s regulations.
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) restricts research involving recombinant DNA (rDNA), defined as DNA molecules constructed outside of a living organism or synthetic molecules joined with natural molecules. The city prohibits research with rDNA in Level 4, which is the setting with the highest risk and security precautions.
The head of the laboratory, Dr. Mark Klempner, had reportedly said he expected it would include research on vaccines produced with rDNA— “chimeric viruses.” And the city regulations incorporate guidelines from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which do include standards for work with rDNA in a Level 4 setting.
Located on the Boston University Medical School Campus, the lab is already built, but its environmental safety review by the NIH is expected to continue for at least another year.
The Director of the Bureau of Community Initiatives at the BPHC, Roger Swartz, acknowledged the rDNA ban, but said he could only address issues “in terms of applications submitted” for specific research proposals. The BPHC would decide whether to approve a proposal after receiving a recommendation from an advisory committee. Swartz told councilors the question of rDNA would “be discussed in its entirety” once the committee comes together.
“We have had a number of discussions with experts,” said Swartz, “and it’s clear to us that there are some areas of, some gray areas. And we want to make sure that from the start, as we address rDNA and Level 4, that we have the scientific experts that will be providing guidance and recommendations to the executive director (of the BPHC). So, at this point, I would say we’re not prepared to address specific proposed or hypothetical research. We’re not there in the process.”
In his testimony to the councilors, Klempner denied the lab would engage in development of biological weapons.
“Let me state clearly and unequivocally,” said Klempner, “that all the research and every one of our researchers in the NEIDL (National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories) will completely abide by the BPHC regulation, which bans recombinant DNA research in Biosafety Level 4.”
After Klempner was asked about a statement he reportedly made last year indicating that some research at the lab under its associate director, Dr. Thomas W. Geisbert, would include rDNA, he gave neither confirmation nor denial.
“I want to reiterate again to you,” said Klempner, “that we are absolutely committed to transparency and we are in every case going to submit every proposed research proposal to the regulatory bodies that we need to respond to in order to be able to have approvals to do the research in the laboratory. I certainly have made statements about work that we hope to conduct in the laboratory, and we will continue to do that. We are continuing to recruit new scientists to do research, but that is different than making statements about the regulator.”
As Klempner reminded councilors, the decisions about which research would be allowed would be up to the BPHC. In other words, the lab was the regulated and the city was the regulator.
For one opponent of the lab at the hearing, the distinction between the two wasn’t clear enough. The legal counsel for the Roxbury-based non-profit Alternatives for Community and Environment, Eugene Benson, said one reason for this was that the president and CEO of Boston Medical Center, the main affiliate of Boston University Medical School, was the vice chair of the BPHC’s Board of Health. And he noted that a BPHC official who would be part of the committee reviewing proposals for research had previously recommended designation of the Biolab for Boston by the NI H.
“What you have is, in two ways, you have an impossible situation here,” Benson argued, “where the Boston Public Health Commission has refused to actually articulate what are very, very bright lines in their regulations. And then you have this back-and-forth between people who work for the Boston Public Health Commission and Boston University. So you’re setting up a dynamic where the dynamic is going to be to approve proposals that clearly violate the regulation. That is really no way to operate a regulatory agency. And, while it wasn’t my intention to make this recommendation, but I think the only recommendation that I can make coming out of this is that you need to prohibit all BSL-4 regulation in the City of Boston because what this tells you is that you are trying to do your oversight role but it can’t be done, considering the interaction between BU, the Boston Public Health Commission, and their failure to adequately and completely respond to Councilor Turner.”
Another lab opponent, a professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, Daniel Goodenough, went a step further. Though he acknowledged that rDNA was “a fundamental tool” for research, he said using it in work that required a Level 4 setting was “too dangerous.” He argued that it was difficult to oversee research that, once it gets under way, could take new directions, involving new personnel over time.
“All of these regulations, as we all know, just get harder and harder to maintain,” said Goodenough. “More and more people are coming and the turnover rate is huge—in academic that’s the name of the game, it’s up or out: you either succeed and you go somewhere else, or you fail and you leave. So there’s very high turnover, huge, huge amounts of training issues here, and I don’t think that the Boston Public Health Commission can possibly assess that. And it’s my belief that this regulation (banning rDNA research) was put in place initially with the understanding that we can’t regulate this—it’s too hard. And the only solution is to say, ‘No, we just don’t have any of this going on in a BSL-4 facility.’”
In one of his few comments on testimony at the hearing, the chair of the Committee on Health and Environment, Councilor John Connolly, described the remarks by Swartz as “very comprehensive, as far as covering the major points.”
Turner insisted there should be more definite information, and more transparency, about what would happen at the lab should it be approved for operation. He said it was “disheartening” that the BPHC was “unwilling to help the public understand the confusion that is here.”
“I think that really just puts wood on the fire,” he added, “that just makes people more distrustful of what’s going on.”
Thursday, April 16, 2009
School Updates: Dropouts, Assignment Plan
The Mass. Department of Education reports an improvement in the annual dropout rate for Boston schools. The latest figures are for the school year 2007-2008, when the annual dropout rate was 7.6 percent. That's the lowest figure in six years. In the two years before the most recent figures, the dropout rate was almost 8.9%, and the year before that it was 9.9 percent.
But the Boston figures for 2007-2008 still had racial gaps. The highest rate was for Hispanic students, at 10.2 percent. The next highest figures were for black students (7.4%) and white students (5.3%), with the lowest figure for Asian students (2.5%). There was also a gender gap, with the rate for male students at 8.2%, and the rate for female students at 6.9 percent.
The annual rate is used less often for measuring the dropout problem than the rate that tracks students throughout high school. The increase in the annual rate for Boston began its last increase in 2003-2003, around the time of cutbacks following an economic slowdown. The high dropout rate for Hispanic students may reflect some of the problems with English Language Learners discussed in a recent report by the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development & Public Policy and the Center for Collaborative Education.
* * * * *
A series of public meetings will take place about possible changes in the student assignment plan for the Boston Public Schools. As a way to reduce transportation costs, officials have been considering a possible increase in the number of school assignment zones. Boston currently has three zones. More zones would mean that parents would have to make choices from fewer schools, though officials say there has been a general preference among parents for schools that are close to home. Officials say they hope a new plan will have four kinds of benefits: lower transportation costs, more walkable communities, a range of school choice, and continuity of educational experience.
The series of meetings will begin Wednesday, April 29, with the presentation of a revised assignment plan with five zones. The meeting will take place at 26 Court Street in downtown Boston, in the Winter Chambers. All meetings will begin at 6 p.m. The remaining meetings are as follows:
Thursday, May 7. Umana Middle School Academy. 312 Border Street, East Boston
Tuesday, May 12. Edison Middle School. 60 Glenmount Road, Brighton
Monday, May 18. Lewis Middle School. 131 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury
Wednesday, May 20. McCormack Middle School. 315 Mt. Vernon Street, Dorchester
Tuesday, May 26. Irving Middle School. 105 Cummins Highway, Roslindale
Wednesday, June 3. Boston School Dept. 26 Court Street,Winter Chambers (recommendations by superintendent)
Wednesday, June 24. Boston School Dept. 26 Court Street,Winter Chambers (vote by School Committee)
But the Boston figures for 2007-2008 still had racial gaps. The highest rate was for Hispanic students, at 10.2 percent. The next highest figures were for black students (7.4%) and white students (5.3%), with the lowest figure for Asian students (2.5%). There was also a gender gap, with the rate for male students at 8.2%, and the rate for female students at 6.9 percent.
The annual rate is used less often for measuring the dropout problem than the rate that tracks students throughout high school. The increase in the annual rate for Boston began its last increase in 2003-2003, around the time of cutbacks following an economic slowdown. The high dropout rate for Hispanic students may reflect some of the problems with English Language Learners discussed in a recent report by the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development & Public Policy and the Center for Collaborative Education.
* * * * *
A series of public meetings will take place about possible changes in the student assignment plan for the Boston Public Schools. As a way to reduce transportation costs, officials have been considering a possible increase in the number of school assignment zones. Boston currently has three zones. More zones would mean that parents would have to make choices from fewer schools, though officials say there has been a general preference among parents for schools that are close to home. Officials say they hope a new plan will have four kinds of benefits: lower transportation costs, more walkable communities, a range of school choice, and continuity of educational experience.The series of meetings will begin Wednesday, April 29, with the presentation of a revised assignment plan with five zones. The meeting will take place at 26 Court Street in downtown Boston, in the Winter Chambers. All meetings will begin at 6 p.m. The remaining meetings are as follows:
Thursday, May 7. Umana Middle School Academy. 312 Border Street, East Boston
Tuesday, May 12. Edison Middle School. 60 Glenmount Road, Brighton
Monday, May 18. Lewis Middle School. 131 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury
Wednesday, May 20. McCormack Middle School. 315 Mt. Vernon Street, Dorchester
Tuesday, May 26. Irving Middle School. 105 Cummins Highway, Roslindale
Wednesday, June 3. Boston School Dept. 26 Court Street,Winter Chambers (recommendations by superintendent)
Wednesday, June 24. Boston School Dept. 26 Court Street,Winter Chambers (vote by School Committee)
Friday, April 10, 2009
Budget Plan Takes Aim at Moving Targets
One day after Mayor Thomas Menino presented his budget plan for the next fiscal year, the Boston schools got slightly more relief than expected from the federal government. But, when all the figures affecting the city budget are known—and that could be months after the June 30 deadline for approval—the mayor’s figure of 565 layoffs could still get larger.
As of Wednesday, the mayor’s budget called for eliminating 212 teachers and teachers’ aides. There could also be layoffs of as many as 67 police officers after October 1, unless the city receives funding from the federal government.
Once again, Menino called on more unions to go along with a one-year wage freeze. So far, there have been agreements from 22 unions. Among the hold-outs are some of the largest unions, including the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and the Boston Teachers Union.
“If the Boston Teachers Union accepts,” said Menino, “we can save every teacher and classroom aide in good standing.”
In a statement issued Wednesday by President Richard Stutman, the BTU came close to saying the jobs could be saved without a wage freeze.
“The Boston Teachers Union is actively working with our local, state, and federal officials to identify and generate additional federal stimulus money,” said the statement. “Beyond these efforts, we have been working with the school department to place current teachers into suitable alternate subject areas for the upcoming school year. In the end we believe there will be no need to lay off a single person.”
When the mayor announced his budget, he was counting on another $16 million for the schools from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
“We don’t see any additional money coming down from the recovery act,” he said.
A day later, Governor Deval Patrick said Boston’s Title I funding from ARRA would be $20.9 million-- about $4 million more than city officials projected a day earlier. But the chief communications officer for the Boston School Dept., Chris Horan, said there was also less money than expected from the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Act. He said the net gain for Boston was only $2.4 million. And, with restrictions on how much of the ARRA money can be used for saving jobs, a spokesperson for the mayor said the difference would protect only about ten more positions.
The three candidates who have announced campaigns for mayor have all called for budget cuts in other areas. In a reaction to the mayor’s budget plan, City Councilor Michael Flaherty calls for more cuts in positions for managers and consultants, but makes no mention of the wage freeze. Councilor Sam Yoon has drawn attention to recommendations by the Boston Finance Commission, such as doing away with fire alarm boxes. And the day of the budget announcement, Kevin McCrea repeated in his campaign blog, “There is enough money in the budget to not layoff a single police officer or teacher.”
This year’s budget figure of $2.4 billion is higher than last year’s by $5 million, but the calculations also include a decrease in local aid by $62.2 million and contractual pay increases adding up to $55 million. While there are cuts in the School Dept. (1.9%), the Police Dept. (2.4%) and Fire Dept. (4.7%), the budget would avoid cutbacks in hours for libraries and community centers. There would even be an expansion of some school options, including early learning centers.
The budget is based on some expectation for new revenue that would have to be approved by the state legislature and the governor. The president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Samuel Tyler, says the expectation for local aid might even prove too optimistic, should the state budget gap approach the worst expectations of about $1 billion. But Tyler notes there could also be more money to protect jobs if the legislature makes it easier for the city to place city employees, along with retirees and their survivors, under less expensive health insurance.
Even if the mayor’s projections prove to be the most correct, the largest city unions holding off on a wage freeze have large majorities with enough seniority to know their jobs are safe. That could make the approval of a wage freeze a hard sell.
“This is probably the worst budget I’ve seen in all the years as mayor and city councilor,” said Menino.
“You don’t see any relief out there,” he said.
In 1981, two years before Menino won his first term as a city councilor, and right after adoption of a cap on property taxes—Proposition 2½—the budget decisions were more difficult and more divisive. Officials decided to lay off hundreds of police and firefighters and close schools. A few years later, as the economy recovered, Boston would get more revenue from its property tax base and local aid from the state.
A quarter of a century later, the local tax base has declining values for residential and commercial property. And, once federal recovery money is exhausted, the dependence on state funding will be more critical. The executive director of the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, Noah Berger, says the mix and volatility of state tax revenue have to be reconsidered, as well as the tax cuts that took place in more prosperous times.
“There are basic structural budget problems that need to be resolved,” he said. “I’m not sure whether the best time to do that is now, or when the economy recovers.”
As of Wednesday, the mayor’s budget called for eliminating 212 teachers and teachers’ aides. There could also be layoffs of as many as 67 police officers after October 1, unless the city receives funding from the federal government.
Once again, Menino called on more unions to go along with a one-year wage freeze. So far, there have been agreements from 22 unions. Among the hold-outs are some of the largest unions, including the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and the Boston Teachers Union.
“If the Boston Teachers Union accepts,” said Menino, “we can save every teacher and classroom aide in good standing.”
In a statement issued Wednesday by President Richard Stutman, the BTU came close to saying the jobs could be saved without a wage freeze.
“The Boston Teachers Union is actively working with our local, state, and federal officials to identify and generate additional federal stimulus money,” said the statement. “Beyond these efforts, we have been working with the school department to place current teachers into suitable alternate subject areas for the upcoming school year. In the end we believe there will be no need to lay off a single person.”
When the mayor announced his budget, he was counting on another $16 million for the schools from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
“We don’t see any additional money coming down from the recovery act,” he said.
A day later, Governor Deval Patrick said Boston’s Title I funding from ARRA would be $20.9 million-- about $4 million more than city officials projected a day earlier. But the chief communications officer for the Boston School Dept., Chris Horan, said there was also less money than expected from the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Act. He said the net gain for Boston was only $2.4 million. And, with restrictions on how much of the ARRA money can be used for saving jobs, a spokesperson for the mayor said the difference would protect only about ten more positions.
The three candidates who have announced campaigns for mayor have all called for budget cuts in other areas. In a reaction to the mayor’s budget plan, City Councilor Michael Flaherty calls for more cuts in positions for managers and consultants, but makes no mention of the wage freeze. Councilor Sam Yoon has drawn attention to recommendations by the Boston Finance Commission, such as doing away with fire alarm boxes. And the day of the budget announcement, Kevin McCrea repeated in his campaign blog, “There is enough money in the budget to not layoff a single police officer or teacher.”
This year’s budget figure of $2.4 billion is higher than last year’s by $5 million, but the calculations also include a decrease in local aid by $62.2 million and contractual pay increases adding up to $55 million. While there are cuts in the School Dept. (1.9%), the Police Dept. (2.4%) and Fire Dept. (4.7%), the budget would avoid cutbacks in hours for libraries and community centers. There would even be an expansion of some school options, including early learning centers.
The budget is based on some expectation for new revenue that would have to be approved by the state legislature and the governor. The president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Samuel Tyler, says the expectation for local aid might even prove too optimistic, should the state budget gap approach the worst expectations of about $1 billion. But Tyler notes there could also be more money to protect jobs if the legislature makes it easier for the city to place city employees, along with retirees and their survivors, under less expensive health insurance.
Even if the mayor’s projections prove to be the most correct, the largest city unions holding off on a wage freeze have large majorities with enough seniority to know their jobs are safe. That could make the approval of a wage freeze a hard sell.
“This is probably the worst budget I’ve seen in all the years as mayor and city councilor,” said Menino.
“You don’t see any relief out there,” he said.
In 1981, two years before Menino won his first term as a city councilor, and right after adoption of a cap on property taxes—Proposition 2½—the budget decisions were more difficult and more divisive. Officials decided to lay off hundreds of police and firefighters and close schools. A few years later, as the economy recovered, Boston would get more revenue from its property tax base and local aid from the state.
A quarter of a century later, the local tax base has declining values for residential and commercial property. And, once federal recovery money is exhausted, the dependence on state funding will be more critical. The executive director of the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, Noah Berger, says the mix and volatility of state tax revenue have to be reconsidered, as well as the tax cuts that took place in more prosperous times.
“There are basic structural budget problems that need to be resolved,” he said. “I’m not sure whether the best time to do that is now, or when the economy recovers.”
Friday, March 27, 2009
Public Funding Relieves Scarcity of Teen Jobs
Boston will spend almost $9 million this year on summer jobs for young people ages 14-24. The announcement about jobs funding took place today at the Mission Hill Main public housing development in Roxbury.
Helping to pay for the jobs over the next two years is more than $21million in funding for Massachusetts from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition to the stimulus money, the state’s providing almost $10 million from the YouthWorks program and public safety funds. Boston's level-funding its contribution to summer jobs this year at $4 million.
Mayor Thomas Menino says the funding will provide Boston with 5,000 jobs. To meet a goal of 10,000 jobs, the city hopes once again for additional support from the private sector.
City officials say they still need to find jobs for as many as 4,000 more teens. The city’s job registration period ended March 16.
“Eight thousand young people applied to the HOPE Line this year,” said Menino. “That’s why we need the private sector to step up to the plate.”
Menino says public funding for summer jobs is “favorable” compared to amounts in past years, and Governor Deval Patrick noted increases in summer job spending by the state since he was elected. But his Secretary of Labor & Workforce Development, Suzanne M. Bump, says the overall job market for teens across the country is at a 60-year low. She said teen employment was currently at 38%, and 21% in low-income communities.
Applicants and employers can get more information about the YouthWorks program by calling 1 866 968-8461 . Also: information about jobs for teens from low-income families provided by ABCD.
Helping to pay for the jobs over the next two years is more than $21million in funding for Massachusetts from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition to the stimulus money, the state’s providing almost $10 million from the YouthWorks program and public safety funds. Boston's level-funding its contribution to summer jobs this year at $4 million.
Mayor Thomas Menino says the funding will provide Boston with 5,000 jobs. To meet a goal of 10,000 jobs, the city hopes once again for additional support from the private sector.
City officials say they still need to find jobs for as many as 4,000 more teens. The city’s job registration period ended March 16.
“Eight thousand young people applied to the HOPE Line this year,” said Menino. “That’s why we need the private sector to step up to the plate.”
Menino says public funding for summer jobs is “favorable” compared to amounts in past years, and Governor Deval Patrick noted increases in summer job spending by the state since he was elected. But his Secretary of Labor & Workforce Development, Suzanne M. Bump, says the overall job market for teens across the country is at a 60-year low. She said teen employment was currently at 38%, and 21% in low-income communities.
Applicants and employers can get more information about the YouthWorks program by calling 1 866 968-8461 . Also: information about jobs for teens from low-income families provided by ABCD.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Retail Districts Try to Survive Recession
On Newbury Street in the Back Bay, even parking tickets are down.As an enforcement officer puts it, “Everybody’s being smart.”
They might also notice the window signs offering steep discounts, by as much as 60%. Most of the shops and stores along the upscale retail artery are still open, but vacancies are on the rise. Flanked by the glow of survivors, the dark pockets of empty space are hard to miss. So are the rental signs, some of them fronting lit-up interiors with bare shelves.
An agent with the C. Talanian Realty Co., Tom Brennan, says it’s normal for Newbury Street to have more vacancies and turnovers at the end of winter, though he acknowledges, this year, the number is “more than usual.”
“We are in a recession now,” says Brennan. “There are a lot of businesses on Newbury Street that are marginal and not surviving.”
Some of the recent departures include a fashion boutique, Whim, and a home furnishing boutique, Comptoir de Famille, but also the more familiar national clothing chain, Gap.
The president of the Newbury Street League and owner of the G2O Spa & Salon, Joyce Hampers, agrees the vacancies reflect the season and the economy, though she recalls more vacancies during the last downturn, about six years ago.
“It’s probably more the fact that everything is down,” she said, “and the fact that Newbury Street is not able to escape it completely.”
Like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, another high-end retail district slowed by the economic downturn, Newbury Street relies heavily on the buying power of visitors. And, to judge by figures from Boston area hotels, visits are down, especially bookings for the most expensive rooms.
If the downturn on Newbury Street is largely global, the president of the Back Bay Association, Mainzer-Cohen, says it might be made worse by the run-up in the area’s commercial property values, resulting in higher rents for retail tenants.
“My guess is that there are going to be more closings,” she said, “and some landlords will have to rethink what they are charging people. And some already are.”
Mainzer-Cohen says the potential for recovery might also be hampered by the long-running conflict between retailers and preservationists. The Back Bay Architectural Commission is working on new design guidelines for the commercial area. Mainzer-Cohen wants them to allow more large windows and to require fewer embellishments such as planters. In other words: more display and less clutter (whether planters or sandwich signs on the sidewalk).
But Mainzer-Cohen says it might also be wrong to predict the summer on Newbury Street based on how it looks in March. So does the CEO of C. Talanian Realty, David Coughlin. He says some retailers report a pick-up in business in recent weeks, and he says there are “a lot of people looking” at possible rentals.
“We need to react to the tenant market,” he said. “We’re not going to sit on space that’s empty.”
Should there be an upswing anytime soon, and should there be less restriction on retail display, Newbury Street won’t necessarily be more like a suburban mall. That fear has been increased over recent years with the influx of national chain stores. But Coughlin says there will be fewer of those tenants surviving the downturn.
By comparison with Newbury Street and the stretch of Washington Street from Downtown Crossing to School Street, vacancies are more difficult to spot in Boston’s other retail centers, even in neighborhoods with high rates of housing foreclosure.In Dorchester’s Codman Square, on Washington Street, retail vacancies are scarce. Further along the street, past Four Corners, there’s even some business growth. What began as a women’s clothing boutique, Mod Boston, has expanded with space for men’s clothing.
Mod Boston Manager Shantae Romain says most of the store's customers are from Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, with some from the suburbs. The store also does business online. If business is slow everywhere because of the economic slump, operators of Mod Boston can at least look forward to reasons for buying, whether it’s spring break, parties, or a job interview. They can also look forward to more traffic from a new commuter rail stop close by.
Located near another stop on the same commuter rail line is the clothing store, Final Touch With Class. Owner Danny Hardaway talks about expectations from the high volume of potential shoppers, whether from trains or from the four lanes of traffic along Morton Street.
Hardaway envisions a cluster of shops and other businesses, like in Greenwich Village. And his strategy is to divert more customers from malls by offering more services, even classes in etiquette. His schedule includes a hat show in April, but it will take more time before the adjacent site of a long vacant former police station is redeveloped as housing.
At Dudley Square, vacancies are hardly abundant, but some are noticeable. Like so many stores that mainly sold recorded music, Funky Fresh Records has closed, despite a last minute upsurge in community support.
Another fixture in Dudley Square, A Nubian Notion, has downsized, after vacating space that was used for a gift shop in the renovated Dartmouth Hotel building. While the renovation has been acclaimed for improving the look of Dudley Square, the retail tenants are faced with higher rents.The director of the Dudley Square Main Streets program, Joyce Stanley, says there have been some other recent closings in retail district, though not necessarily because of the downturn. And she says there has also been some growth, especially in businesses run by Somali immigrants.
Dudley Square’s also scheduled for new development. Last September, the city invited designs for a new municipal office building on the site of the old Ferdinand’s Furniture complex. The project has raised hopes for new customers, and some apprehensions for current businesses. The project hinges on plans to build a new city hall on the South Boston waterfront—which, in turn, would entail redevelopment of the current site of City Hall in government Center.
In the meantime, according to Stanley, some businesses that survived earlier downturns in Dudley Square are adapting, even by reducing their product line. And she says their chances are better if they own their commercial property.
“All of the merchants are saying their business is down,” she said. “It’s really slow.”
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Home, Condo Sales Figures Show Deeper Chill
There's more confirmation of the chill in Boston's housing market. According to figures from the Warren Group, for single-family homes, the median price was down by more than 19%--almost the average for the whole state. Compared with January of last year, the number of sales was down by 5.9%. The statewide figure was 10.3%.
In West Roxbury, sales for single families were down by more than 41.7%, but the median price was up, by almost 28.9%. In Dorchester, there was only a slight increase in the number of sales for January (from 7 to 8), but the median price was down by 35.1%.
In Boston's condo market, sales and prices were below the state average. Even in what recently been the strongest market, the mostly high-end areas near downtown Boston, the median price was down by 18.5% and the sales volume was down by 46.7% Citywide in January, condo sales were off by almost 29.7%, while the median price was down by almost 32.7%.
In areas with more than a half dozen transactions, the largest drop in the median price for condos was in Dorchester, with a decrease of more than 69.3%. Dorchester had more condo sales than last January--an increase of 45.8%. Market observers say many of these involved properties in foreclosure.
“The inventory in the foreclosure market is just so great now,” said the Dorchester office manager for Jack Conway & Co., Julie Simmons.
“Investors are coming out of the woodwork that we haven’t seen since the 1990’s,” she said.
Simmons says clearing away the inventory of distressed properties will help the rest of the market. But observers note that bargains don’t always attract buyers who improve the property and increase values.
Simmons points to one condo unit in a three-decker on Draper Street, on Meetinghouse Hill, that recently sold for $40,000. According to real estate analyst John Anderson, two-thirds of the units recently sold in Dorchester went for less than $100,000. His figures show Dorchester condos have lost 72.4% of their market value since the last peak of the market, in mid-2006.
Though the number of condo sales in Dorchester has increased dramatically over January 2008, observers say other buyers and sellers are staying out of the market, or at least stopping short of closing a deal.
“They’re just not out there,” said Anderson. “They’re sitting on the sidelines, looking to see how far down things are going to go.”
In West Roxbury, sales for single families were down by more than 41.7%, but the median price was up, by almost 28.9%. In Dorchester, there was only a slight increase in the number of sales for January (from 7 to 8), but the median price was down by 35.1%.
In Boston's condo market, sales and prices were below the state average. Even in what recently been the strongest market, the mostly high-end areas near downtown Boston, the median price was down by 18.5% and the sales volume was down by 46.7% Citywide in January, condo sales were off by almost 29.7%, while the median price was down by almost 32.7%.
In areas with more than a half dozen transactions, the largest drop in the median price for condos was in Dorchester, with a decrease of more than 69.3%. Dorchester had more condo sales than last January--an increase of 45.8%. Market observers say many of these involved properties in foreclosure.
“The inventory in the foreclosure market is just so great now,” said the Dorchester office manager for Jack Conway & Co., Julie Simmons.
“Investors are coming out of the woodwork that we haven’t seen since the 1990’s,” she said.
Simmons says clearing away the inventory of distressed properties will help the rest of the market. But observers note that bargains don’t always attract buyers who improve the property and increase values.
Simmons points to one condo unit in a three-decker on Draper Street, on Meetinghouse Hill, that recently sold for $40,000. According to real estate analyst John Anderson, two-thirds of the units recently sold in Dorchester went for less than $100,000. His figures show Dorchester condos have lost 72.4% of their market value since the last peak of the market, in mid-2006.
Though the number of condo sales in Dorchester has increased dramatically over January 2008, observers say other buyers and sellers are staying out of the market, or at least stopping short of closing a deal.
“They’re just not out there,” said Anderson. “They’re sitting on the sidelines, looking to see how far down things are going to go.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)