Boston Redevelopment Authority

Latest Articles

Redeveloping the Christian Science Plaza requires restraint. Plus, budget madness.

An urban jewel
In the coming weeks, initial plans by the Christian Science Church to develop the plaza will be reviewed by a citizens advisory committee of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). This is the next step in an intricate process intended to balance the project's commercial viability with the public interest.
By EDITORIAL | July 06, 2011

Local experts predict the Boston of the future

Best Decade Ever
There's more to imagining our city's future than placing bets on when Hizzoner will retire (which is just an exercise in futility at this point).
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2011

Dead end in Dudley

Boston's other big hole
September was a sexy month for the future of Boston's landscape.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 29, 2010

The Battle of Mission Hill

Town-versus-gown tempers are boiling over near the Northeastern campus, as residents charge the giant school with 'death by incrementalism'
Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 15, 2010

Building block

Letters to the Boston editor, January 15, 2010
Your editorial, “Menino’s Promise,” about Mayor Menino’s inauguration, stated: “He must shelve his reservations about becoming more involved in private development.”
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | January 13, 2010

Boston rat rampage

Thanks to the global economic collapse, which has stalled initiated construction projects, Boston’s rat population is surging
Residents say that if you jam a leaf blower in the earth virtually anywhere in Allston, furry bottom feeders will be blown out of every crack and hole in sight and rain down like unsavory screeching meatballs. North Enders joke that something similar would happen if you detonate a Parmesan wheel in an alleyway off Hanover Street.
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 09, 2009

Difference of opinion

Peter Canellos reinvents Globe ’s editorial page. Plus, Tom Menino’s campaign gets late-breaking help from the Banner and Herald .
It’s been three months since Peter Canellos replaced Renée Loth as editor of the Boston Globe ’s editorial page.
By ADAM REILLY | November 09, 2009

For Mayor: Vote Flaherty + Yoon

Boston District City Council: Henriquez, Ross, ciommo, LaMattina
Boston’s mayoral candidates are running campaigns that are variations on a theme.
By EDITORIAL | November 04, 2009

Knight of night life

Taking on Boston’s biggest bully
The most feared man in Boston isn’t a crazy-eyed killer or a brutal street thug — he’s an elected official. Evidence? When was the last time you heard a disgruntled Boston businessperson publicly criticize Mayor Tom Menino?
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 26, 2009

Disclosure: not a dirty word

Menino's shame and Kerry's blunder. Plus, Olympic follies.
The City Hall e-mail scandal that has scored headlines in recent weeks exemplifies Mayor Thomas Menino's antagonistic — almost contemptuous — attitude toward public accountability.
By EDITORIAL | September 30, 2009

Vote Yoon

It is time for Boston to debate its future
Barring supernatural intervention next Tuesday, incumbent Thomas Menino is expected to top the ticket in Boston's four-candidate mayoral preliminary. The final vote will take place November 3.
By EDITORIAL | September 17, 2009

Menino's 50-Percent Solution

The incumbent mayor is going to cruise through the upcoming preliminary. So why does his campaign seem to be taking it so seriously?
For years, many in Boston (including here at the Phoenix ) have lamented the absence of a vigorous campaign that would force the long-time incumbent to defend his record and discuss the issues.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 11, 2009

Flaherty's fix for the BRA

Letters to the Boston editor, August 21, 2009
Your recent article regarding the upcoming preliminary election for mayor of Boston, inaccurately portrays my proposal for the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the city’s planning and development agency.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | August 19, 2009

Yoon or Flaherty

Who will win the chance to challenge Menino?
Boston voters will go to the polls in less than seven weeks to choose two candidates, out of the four now running, to face off against each other in November's mayoral election.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 20, 2009

State of the State House coverage

Letters to the Boston editor, July 10, 2009
Adam Reilly made an erroneous assumption when he bemoaned the loss of State House news coverage with the downsizing of the Boston Globe . Fortunately, Boston is still a two-newspaper town.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 08, 2009

System failure

Letters to the Boston editor, July 3, 2009
In the “Talking Politics” column “Mass betrayal,” you attribute our state’s long, sad history of corrupt politicians to the culture of the State House. You’re probably right.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 01, 2009

Tiananmen 2.0?

The Iranian uprising; plus, Yoon disses the BRA
The presidential election stolen from Mir Hossein Mousavi was not really an election at all. It was a sham, an elaborate beauty contest produced by the Islamist theocracy that holds the real power in Iran. The mullahs pick the candidates and the outcome.
By EDITORIAL | June 17, 2009

Last biscuit in the oven

Nuestra's culinary misadventure
On that next trip to Whole Foods or the farmers' market, your favorite small-batch cookies, jams, and jellies might be hard to find.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 20, 2009

Racism in real estate

Keeping the neighborhoods white
After more than a decade in the business, the real-estate agent knew that many landlords had very narrow ideas about whom they did and didn't want living in their apartments and houses. Most of them were fairly subtle about it. "I want the right people," they might say, being careful to couch their instructions in innocuous-sounding terms.
By SEAN FLYNN | May 13, 2009

He's number three

How seriously should Boston take long-shot mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea?
The conditions seem perfect for Kevin McCrea's latest YouTube video : warm for February, reasonably sunny, no sonic competition from nearby construction.
By ADAM REILLY | March 19, 2009

Artists get the shaft

The city gives Fort Point's creative residents the finger
On a tour of the studios at 337 Summer Street, Jen Mecca, a textile artist, points out some of the spaces recently vacated by artists and craftsmen, including a pair of furniture makers who left for Somerville.
By TED SIEFER | February 02, 2009

Budgeting your time

For students, part-time jobs mean pocket money, freedom, scheduling conflicts, and stress
There are two possible reasons Friday is the best day of the week for a college student.
By CASSANDRA LANDRY | January 08, 2009

An accidentally tragic timeline

Letters to the Boston editor, December 12, 2008
Your “Terror Masala” article, unintentionally of course, is very timely in view of the atrocities in Mumbai.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | December 10, 2008

Menino's mosque II

Making sense of what went on; taking action for the future
To date, the City Council has been strong-armed by the mayor's office into averting its gaze from all that went on in the construction of the mosque.
By EDITORIAL | December 12, 2008

The PTech connection?

Between late 2002 and early 2003, the now defunct Fleet Bank in Boston attracted the attention of federal anti-terrorist investigators.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 24, 2008

Menino's mosque

The bizarre story behind the construction of Boston's most controversial building
Most locals concede that getting anything of substance accomplished in Boston is a Herculean task.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 24, 2008

Inside Job

The role of the BRA's Muhammad Ali-Salaam in the mosque's development
The conflict of interest between Ali-Salaam's role with the BRA and his close association with the mosque developers is captured in a transcript of a Feb. 2001 meeting.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 19, 2008

More from King and Flynn

By ADAM REILLY | November 06, 2008

Don’t leave me this way

Botanical Forms at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History, Carroll Dunham and more at the Addison, and Renzo Piano at the Fogg
Leaves lead a wild life, and each leaf’s physical structure reflects both its individual biography — revealing the pathways, for example, of insects that have eaten their way across a leaf’s surface.
By RANDI HOPKINS | May 06, 2008

Unpopularity contest

Letters to the Boston editor: December 21, 2007
I’d like to commend David S. Bernstein for pointing out that the mayor could have many promising challengers.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | December 19, 2007