Guest Column: A Call for Reparations in the Built Environment of Cities

A smiling black woman with long braided hair wearing a black-and-yellow plaid patterned sweater

Meghan Volcy

This rendering of Back Bay is from inside the station facing the street. A glass wall shows the Back Bay Logan Express bus passing by. Inside, there is a staircase with blue tiling that leads down to the train platforms. Commuters are walking up the stairs, through the station, and sitting down.

Transit

Construction Is Underway On Back Bay Station Makeover

A map of MBTA communities, with dark blue indicating compliant municipalities, blue striped ones indicating those that are conditionally compliant, light blue indicating zoning plans that have been adopted and/or submitted for review, red indicating noncompliant municipalities, grey indicating adjacent small towns whose zoning plans that were due as of December 31st of 2025, and white indicating inapplicable areas.

Housing

MBTA Communities Act Holdouts Are Losing State Funding

Temporary fencing lines the sidewalk on the DCR-controlled approach to the Beades Bridge. Google Street View imagery suggests that the temporary fencing has been there for nearly 8 years. Photo by Tony Dutzik.

Highways

MassDOT Highway Administrator Discusses Challenges of Aging Highways and Rising Costs

A look at the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line from the Sherman Street grade crossing in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The train tracks with a white utility truck and industrial buildings on the right and trees, shrubs, and a small parking lot on the left.

Accessibility

Trump’s Budget Cuts Won’t Stop Cambridge From Bridging Its Communities

<p>Got tips? Send them to me via Signal, the encrypted messaging app, at 207-310-0728. You can also follow me on <a href="https://better.boston/@cmilneil" rel="me">Mastodon.</a></p>


Christian MilNeil

A police officer stands next to a police car parked under a traffic light in a wide multi-lane intersection

Crashes

Ambulance Data Reveals That Boston Drivers Are 4 Times More Likely to Run Over Pedestrians From Black Neighborhoods

A group of people hold handmade signs at a public rally advocating for public transit funding. Signs read "FUND TRANSIT NOW!" "TRANSPORTATION FOR ALL!" and "Don’t leave us STRANDED! Save transit."

Equity

Black Transportation Justice: How Mobility Affects Housing, Health, and Freedom in a Modern World

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Streetsblog Network

Connecting people to information about how to improve walking, biking, and transit

Streetsblog Massachusetts

A triptych of "micromobility" vehicles. On the left a woman in a helmet straddles an e-scooter without pedals; in the center, a man in a jacket and a helmet rides a two-wheeled stand-up motorized scooter down a bike lane; on the right, a man rides a nonmotorized red pedal bike.

Legislation

‘Micromobility’ Commission Recommends Improved Classification, Regulation of Motorbikes and Scooters

A diagram of alternative transit service during a closure of the Orange Line. The map shows a dashed black line between Forest Hills and Back Bay station, indicating closed subway stations served by a free on-street bus shuttle route.

MBTA

MBTA Begins 9-Day Orange Line Shutdown This Weekend

Daily headlines

Friday’s Headlines Take a Lot to Laugh, Take a Train to Cry

Four purple MBTA diesel locomotives parked next to each other on storage tracks in a large layover yard covered with ballast rocks. The Boston skyline is visible in the distance on the left edge of the photo.

Uncategorized

MBTA Teaming Up With Maryland  to Procure New Battery-Electric Locomotives

A crowd of passengers in winter coats waits to board a gray bus at a covered transit center under a white tiled ceiling.

Regional Transit Authorities

MBTA Restores Most Service, But Some South Coast Transit Authorities Remain Shut Down Wednesday

A view of a multi-track train station from an elevated perspective from a nearby building. A CSX freight train is approaching the platforms from the lower right. Several of the platforms at left are abandoned but there is a newer platform visible in the upper part of the rail yard. In the distance are multi-story masonry buildings of a small city.

Rail

Planned Springfield Station Expansion Anticipates More Amtrak Service in Western Mass.

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Three young black people standing in front of a row of parked bicycles. The woman in the center is wearing a blue t-shirt and glasses and holding a microphone in one hand and raising her other hand high.

Black Transportation Justice Boston Spotlight: Mattapan Food and Fitness

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Guest Column: A Call for Reparations in the Built Environment of Cities

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More from Streetsblog Massachusetts

‘Micromobility’ Commission Recommends Improved Classification, Regulation of Motorbikes and Scooters

MBTA Begins 9-Day Orange Line Shutdown This Weekend

Friday’s Headlines Take a Lot to Laugh, Take a Train to Cry

MBTA Teaming Up With Maryland to Procure New Battery-Electric Locomotives

MBTA Restores Most Service, But Some South Coast Transit Authorities Remain Shut Down Wednesday

Planned Springfield Station Expansion Anticipates More Amtrak Service in Western Mass.