Research@Civic Health

Neighborhood/City of Boston

Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, U. Mass. Boston, As Tough as it gets: Women in Boston Politics, 1921-2004 (10/05): a historical review of the challenges faced by women in Boston politics that continue today.

Boston Partnership for Older Adults,    Views of Aging in Boston (9/04); Boston's Vision for Aging with Dignity (8/04); 100,000 Voices on Growing Older in Boston (4/03): three reports presenting, respectively, a series of maps that portray indicators of vulnerability as well as basic services that exist to meet the needs of Boston's older residents, a plan for making Boston a model for the nation in the care and support it provides to its seniors, and the experiences of Boston's aging population.

From the 2002 Boston Indicators Report Archive:

Boston Redevelopment Authority, Census 2000 Profile of Boston’s Electoral Districts (5/05): series of nine reports profiling key demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics. Download from the BRA’s research pages.

The Partnership reports on race and leadership in Boston.

Rappaport Institute releases working paper on Boston racial trends.

Metro Boston/Massachusetts/New England 

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, Creating a Transparent Budget for Massachusetts (10/06): Outlines 18 recommendations that would make the budget and the budget process more user-friendly for citizens and advocates.

Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, The Long-Term Mismatch Between Available Resources and Important State Priorities: A Five-Year Fiscal Analysis (9/06): Even with optimistic revenue projections, Massachusetts will need to level fund most programs in order to maintain budget integrity.

The Greater Boston Food Bank, Hunger in Eastern Massachusetts 2006 (3/06): discusses emergency food distribution in Eastern Massachusetts in 2005, assessing the demographics of those who use food aid, and drawing comparisons to previous years.

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, Local Services, Local Aid, and Common Challenges (pdf)(11/05): A Rappaport Institute Policy Brief by Phineas Baxandall, Assistant Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston based chiefly on the Municipal Finance Task Force's September 2005 report, "Local Communities at Risk: Revisiting the Fiscal Partnership Between the Commonwealth and Cities and Towns."

Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Higher Ed Matters (10/05): reports on demographic change in New England and finds that the six states rely on college and university students to sustain their population and replenish their work force. 

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston,  Policy Notes, Volume 2, Number 2 (6/05): highlights policy-related research about Greater Boston, including the connection between civic capacity and urban education.

MassINC,  The Changing Face of Massachusetts (6/05): the role of immigrants in the state's economy, including data on population and labor force growth, language skills, educational attainment, employment, citizenship and poverty - the share of immigrants in the Massachusetts workforce has doubled since 1980, reaching 17% in 2004. Executive Summary.  Database of immigration data by city and town.  

MassVOTE and national and local partners,  Massachusetts Election Protection 2004: Securing the Voting Rights of our Communities (6/05): addresses issues of voter registration, provisional ballots, poll workers and voting equipment in the 2004 Presidential election – of the 41,000 voters observed, nearly 1 in 10 was not allowed to cast a regular ballot. Press Release.

Associated Grant Makers, Giving Report (5/05): charitable giving in Massachuse