Community

The state could help create 30,000 new apartments and houses over the next decade, easing the shortage that makes Massachusetts housing so expensive, if it paid communities to approve new residences near transit stops, in town centers, and in abandoned industrial areas, according to a study released today.

Public Conversations Project has released an updated guidebook entitled Constructive Conversations about Challenging Times: A Guide to Community Dialogue. The book contains instructions for conducting a two-hour dialogue on a challenging issue or event, from…

"When people mention change, just that term, there’s an immediate negative reaction because ‘I know what’s there now, and I don’t know what change means,’" Smith said.

"They’re going to know what change means. All the stakeholders are going to know what change means from the get-go."

Sick of driving miles from housing developments to restaurants and strip malls, often through snarled traffic, many residents are looking to make sidewalks, bike trails, and commuter lines their preferred thoroughfares. "It took 60 years to get where we are, and it’s not going to take two or five years to get out of it," he said. "But there are indicators that we’re heading in that direction."

Portland: No sprawl allowed

Unlike Atlanta, city grew inward, not out

For others like the Lattas, the New Homestead Act could offer a shot at returning home, and staying afloat financially. Meanwhile, small towns must do their part to build for the future, says Bernt. "If you stop acting like a town, you’ll stop being a town."

A new paper from the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities discusses some of the reasons why the community development and smart growth movements have not been natural collaborators in the past. southern.org…

This October 2003 report is an extensive cost benefit analysis of green building. It demonstrates conclusively that sustainable building is a cost-effective investment, and its findings should encourage communities across the country to “build green.”

An outwardly conventional apartment complex in Orange County does not clamor for attention in the same way as an architectural milestone like Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. But it might…

But the roundup is as popular as ever. Hundreds of schoolchildren from throughout western Montana watched the roundup, weighing and branding Tuesday, oohing and aahing as the biggest bulls fought back.