Christian MilNeil
Recent Posts
New Mass. Climate Bill Will Reduce Tailpipe Emissions
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The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a significant new climate bill on Friday night that commits the state to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by “at least 50 percent below the 1990 level” within the next decade. The Senate passed a bill with similar goals at the end of January. The two chambers, which recently agreed […]
How Boston Drivers Stole a Public Playground
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Like many parking lots, the dead-end alleyway on Foster Street in the North End is easy to overlook. It’s the kind of place that few people care about: a dead-end alleyway with trash collecting in its corners and about 18 cars parked haphazardly among its potholes. But unlike most parking lots, this small plot of […]
How Massachusetts is Reforming Fare Enforcement
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In addition authorizing debt spending for hundreds of infrastructure projects across the Commonwealth, the multi-billion dollar bond package that the Massachusetts Senate passed earlier this month would also make significant reforms to how the MBTA enforces fare payments on its trains, buses, and ferries. The Commonwealth’s current fare evasion law sets large penalties for people […]
Car-Free Residents Struggle with Food Insecurity
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In Mid-March, community members had just planted beets and peas in GreenRoots Chelsea’s 1200-square-foot urban farm. Then the pandemic hit, and social distancing made collective farming impossible. For GreenRoots, a community-based organization striving to achieve environmental justice, the growing season had just begun. The organization immediately adapted to the increasing demands for food and shifted […]
This MA City Hauls Their Trash and Recycling By Bike
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Pedal People, a cooperative started by Alex Jarrett and Ruthy Woodring in 2002, uses bicycles and bike trailers to transport goods and provide services in the Pioneer Valley.
Debate Begins Over the Next U.S. Transportation Funding Bill
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Yesterday, House Democrats released a draft bill that establishes a $494 billion, 5-year plan for the nation’s transportation infrastructure – but in spite of language to address climate change, and significant funding increases for rail and transit programs, the lion’s share of the bill’s funding would still go to roads and highways. The proposed legislation, […]
How Transit Closures Escalate Protest Tensions
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Management at the MBTA is facing intense criticism after shutting down core subway stations on recent evenings, leaving thousands of its riders stranded and trapped among the belligerent police forces they were protesting against. On Sunday evening, thousands of people participated in a peaceful march from Nubian Square to the State House. As night fell […]
Streets Need to Be Safe for Black Lives
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It’s been one week since Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, choked George Floyd to death in a Minneapolis street, and three months since a retired Georgia cop and his son gunned down Ahmaud Arbery on a quiet street in Georgia. Both killings were caught on videos that contain damning indictments not only of the […]
MBTA Takes Small Steps to Improve Fare Equity
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Boston's transit overseers approved some small-but-significant changes in the agency’s fare policies at a meeting last week to improve fare equity for minority and low-income riders.
Op-Ed: Rush Hour Is Over – So What Comes Next?
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If we keep equity, sustainability, public health, and livability as our guiding principles, we can build a better world, even if it looks a little different than our vision from a few months ago.
A Large Town Answer to COVID-19 Mobility
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Somerville, Mass. will provide safer walking and biking routes with more room for physical distancing.
STREETSBLOG MASS ‘Essential’ Work Demands Put Areas of Color at Risk
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While much of the nation is staying at home to minimize the risks of COVID-19 transmission, the essential workers who continue to deliver our basic needs are still commuting to their jobs. That puts them at risk.