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Boston 101 Lecture Series
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101 lecture or changes and additions to
the lecture series, please send an email
to Polly
O'Brien. Fall 07 and Spring 08 Greater Boston in the 21st Century: Can We Plan and Can We Carry Out the Plan? Marc Draisen, Executive Director, Metropolitan Area Planning Council Moderated by Edward Glaeser, Director, Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston Boston's regional planning agency has developed a new plan for Boston. What does the plan call for and what has to happen to carry it out? Cosponsored by Harvard's Graduate School of Design Affordable Housing in Massachusetts: The Role of Finance and Local Planning Clark Ziegler, Executive Director, The Massachusetts Housing Partnership Can innovative financing and creative local planning significantly increase the supply of affordable housing in greater Boston? Cosponsored by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies Incarceration and Inequality: The Effects of "Cracking Down" on Crime Bruce Western, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University and author, Punishment and Inequality in America (Russell Sage Foundation, 2006). Robert J. Mulligan, Chief Justice for Administration and Management, Administrative Office of the Trial Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Chair, Massachusetts Sentencing Commission Powerpoint presentation by Professor Bruce Western Cosponsored by the Kennedy School's Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management and Suffolk University Law School's Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service Why are so many more people, particularly African-American men, going to prison and what are the economic and social ramifications of this trend? Affordable Housing in Massachusetts: The Role of Non-Profit & For-Profit Groups Aaron Gornstein, Executive Director, Citizens' Housing and Planning Association Cosponsored by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies How can nonprofit and for-profit developers best help build affordable housing in a time when prices are falling, foreclosures are rising, and Chapter 40B, the state's main tool for building affordable housing, remains under attack? God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing Religious Landscape Peggy Levitt, Chair, Sociology Dept., Wellesley College, research fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and author God Needs No Passport (The New Press, 2007) Commentary by Rev. Brian Hehir, Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life, KSG and Secretary for Social Services, Archdiocese of Boston and Richard Chacón, Director of the Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants Cosponsored by Harvard's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations From controversial raids on a New Bedford factory to heated debates about such issues as a new mosque in Boston and tuition rates at state colleges, immigration and religion are being hotly debated in Massachusetts, which is home to almost one million immigrants, about 15 percent of the state's population. Drawing on interviews with almost 250 Boston-area immigrants from Brazil, India, Ireland, and Pakistan, Peggy Levitt argues that such debates, which are occurring all over the country, are out-of-sync with our national reality because they fail to grasp the strong connection between changes in immigration and changes in religious life. Rather, she argues, today’s immigrants are remaking the religious landscape by introducing new faith traditions and Asianizing and Latinoizing old ones. Moreover, they do not trade in their home-country membership card but instead challenge such taken-for-granted dichotomies as the United States vs. homeland or assimilation vs. multiculturalism. In doing so, she asserts, they are showing not only is it possible to be several things simultaneously but also that it is required in a global world. Affordable Housing in Massachusetts: The Role of the State Tina Brooks, Massachusetts Undersecretary of Housing and Economic Development How is the Patrick administration addressing affordable housing at a time when home prices are falling and foreclosures are rising? Cosponsored by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies Limited Competition: Does Boston Have the Powers It Needs to Compete? Gerald Frug, Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School Does the city of Boston have the legal powers it needs to compete with either other major American cities or new international centers of growth and change such as Shanghai and Bangalore? Cosponsored by the Kennedy School 's Taubman Center for State and Local Government. Using PerformanceStat to Fight Crime in New York and Los Angeles Michael Farrell, Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Initiatives, New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department's CompStat program, which began in 1994, not only has been adopted by dozens of other police departments, including the Los Angeles Police Department, it also has spawned a new "PerformanceStat" approach for improving performance and producing results in a wide variety of jurisdictions and agencies in the U.S. Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management Subprime Outcomes: Risky Mortgages, Homeownership Experiences, and Foreclosures in Massachusetts Paul Willen, Senior Economist and Policy Advisor, Research Department, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston More than six million mortgages involving more than three million properties were recorded at registries of deeds in Massachusetts between 1987 and 2007. Careful analysis of these mortgages and related data shows that people who used a sub-prime mortgage to purchase their home end up in foreclosure almost 20 percent of the time, or more than 6 times as often as homeowners who used prime mortgages. The analysis also shows that these sub-prime homeowners are exceptionally sensitive to changes in house prices and that the decline in house prices that started in 2005 is largely responsible for the dramatic increase in foreclosures in 2006 and 2007. Powerpoint presentation given by Paul Willen Cosponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government Subprime Lending in Greater Boston: New Findings from the 2006 HMDA Data Dr. Jim Campen, Executive Director, Americans for Fairness in Lending Cosponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies and Fair Housing for Greater Boston Using PerformanceStat to Improve Local Government in Baltimore and Somerville Christopher Thomaskutty, Deputy Mayor for Operations, City of Baltimore In 2000, Baltimore adapted the CompStat approach to policing to improve the performance of other city departments and agencies and, in doing so, provided a model that has been adapted by many other jurisdictions, including Somerville's well-known SomerStat program. Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government
Green Cities: Lessons from Boston and Beyond Opening Remarks by Presentations by Commentary and Discussion Moderator and Closing Remarks Boston has become a leader among urban efforts to promote environmentally sustainable development, while Harvard's Allston project is in many respects a model for such development. What role can and should these efforts play in efforts to address key environmental issues, notably the problem of global climate change? Cosponsored by the City of Boston, Harvard's Center for the Environment, and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government Using PerformanceStat to Improve State Government in Maryland and Washington Matthew Gallagher, Deputy Chief of Staff for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley In 2006, with the launch of Governor Christine Gregoire's Government Management Accountability and Performance program, Washington became the first state to adapt the PerformanceStat approach to its operations. A year later the Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who stated CitiStat when he was mayor of Baltimore, announced that he was bringing the same approach to state government in the form of a new StateStat program. Powerpoint presentation given by Matthew Gallagher Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government Towards Universal Health Insurance: Lessons from the Massachusetts Experiment Jon Kingsdale, Executive Director, Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector 2008 will be a critical year for Massachusetts' ambitious efforts to greatly reduce the ranks of the uninsured because it is the first year that individuals will be penalized if they don't have health insurance. This threat, combined with efforts to provide more affordable insurance options for those who previously could not afford insurance, has already led to dramatic increases in the number of people with health insurance. Sustaining and expanding on these successes will be difficult in light of rising health-care costs and projected gaps between funding and costs for new subsidized insurance policies. Materials handed out by Jon Kingsdale Cosponsored by the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Kennedy School Health Policy Professional Interest Council and Harvard's Program for Health Systems Improvement. Building and Effective Regulatory Response to the Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis in Massachusetts Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley New state regulations that went into effect in January aim to prevent fraudulent and unfair practices that many believe contributed to the recent meltdown in the sub-prime market and the resulting foreclosure crisis. Many lenders, however, contend that the regulations, which were issued by the Attorney General after passage a new law last fall, go too far. Supporters, however, argue that the new regulations, which were modified and clarified to address critics' concerns, are narrowly crafted to address specific unfair and deceptive practices and that changes and clarifications made in response to critics' concerns. Cosponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government The HBO Series - The Wire: A Compelling Portrayal of an American City A conversation with: David Simon, Creator and Executive Producer of HBO's The Wire Moderated by: This event is available online at the Institute of Politics website. Co-sponsored by: HBO, Harvard’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research, Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program, HKS Urban Policy PIC and Harvard College Black Men’s Forum Eds, Meds and Municipalities
Using PerformanceStat to Improve Social Services in New York and Los Angeles Joseph DeMartino, Deputy Commissioner, New York Human Resources Administration New York City's Human Resources Administration's JobStat program and The Los Angeles County Department of Social Service's Total Accountability Total Success (DPSSTATS) program are notable examples of how social service agencies are using the PerformanceStat approach to improve their performance. Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government Whatever Happened to Racial Integration After the Enactment of "Anti-Snob Zoning" Laws? Some Lessons from the Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island Experience Sharon Krefetz, Associate Professor of Government and Director of the Urban Development and Social Change Program, Clark University Cosponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies and Fair Housing of Greater Boston Using PerformanceStat to Improve Public Safety at the Department of Homeland Security and New York City’s Departments of Correction and Probation Michael Fisher, Chief Patrol Agent, San Diego Sector, U.S. Department of Homeland Security In addition to police departments, many other entities focused on public safety have adopted the PerformanceStat approach. New York City's Department of Department of Correction has TEAMS (for "Total Efficiency Accountability Management System") which became a model for the city's Department of Probation's STARS (for "Statistical Tracking, Analysis & Reporting System"). Across the country, the San Diego sector of the U.S. Border Patrol uses BorderStat to carry out its difficult mission. Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management Powerpoint presentation given by Martin Horn Creating Good Mortgage Options for All Americans William Apgar, Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Senior Scholar, Joint Center for Housing Studies Close examination of consumer and lender behavior in the increasingly complex mortgage marketplace suggests that many consumers have a limited ability to evaluate complex mortgage products and often make choices that they later regret. Consumer and lender behavior also contributes to the observed differences in outcomes by race and ethnicity. Cosponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government To add your name to our Boston 101 e-mailing list for a reminder about the next Boston 101 lecture or suggestions for the lecture series, please send an email to Polly O'Brien.
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