Category: Boston
8 May, 2013 (09:00) | Allston, Apartments, Boston, Building Codes, egress, Enforcement, fire, informality, Landlords, overcrowding, Regulation, Rental, Student housing, Zoning | No comments
By:David A. Smith [Continued from yesterday's Part 2 and the preceding Part 1.] Now we know that 87 Linden Street, where Binland Lee died in the April 28 fire, was way over-occupied, because that was in the unstated but manifest interest of both landlord and residents. As I’ve observed elsewhere, in any [...]
7 May, 2013 (09:00) | Allston, Apartments, Boston, Building Codes, egress, Enforcement, fire, informality, Landlords, overcrowding, Regulation, Rental, Student housing, Zoning | No comments
By:David A. Smith [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.] Yesterday’s post on the tragic death of Binland Lee, in her attic room in an overcrowded student rental, dealt with the fire’s facts – and if that were all to the story, it would simply be a tragic incident. But everything is connected to everything [...]
6 May, 2013 (14:42) | Allston, Apartments, Boston, Building Codes, egress, Enforcement, fire, informality, Landlords, negligence, overcrowding, Regulation, Rental, Student housing, Zoning | No comments
By:David A. Smith Tragedy exposes an ecosystem’s weaknesses. A rowdy college party, a lit cigarette, an overcrowded student house, a remote and small-scale landlord, informal subdivisions and excess occupancy, and a building inspection system that gives the illusion of enforcement. Combine them and a young woman is dead. Binland Lee, BU senior … [...]
26 April, 2013 (09:00) | Apartments, Argentina, Bankruptcy, Boston, CalPERS, Chapter 40B, Eurozone, Housing, Inclusionary zoning, Innovations, Month in review, ratings agencies, Redevelopment, US News, Zoning | No comments
[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.] [Previous Months in Review available here: Jan 13, Dec 12, Nov 12, Oct 12, Sep 12, Aug 12, Jul 12, Jun 12, May 12] By:David A. Smith You deserve a break today Turning from the local to the national, I reported, with no little righteous, on the [...]
25 April, 2013 (09:00) | Apartments, Argentina, Bankruptcy, Boston, CalPERS, Chapter 40B, Eurozone, Housing, Inclusionary zoning, Innovations, Month in review, ratings agencies, Redevelopment, US News, Zoning | No comments
[Previous Months in Review available here: Jan 13, Dec 12, Nov 12, Oct 12, Sep 12, Aug 12, Jul 12, Jun 12, May 12] By:David A. Smith It all depends on what you think ‘local’ is We think of home as a place of safety where we keep the dangerous world out, [...]