BOSTON – Mayor Marty Walsh sketched out plans to push down the costs of building and owning housing to foster development of more units that middle-income Bostonians can afford in a speech Tuesday to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
In his remarks, which touched on his economic development efforts over the past year, Walsh cited permits issued in 2015 for 4,194 middle-income housing units. He also described several pilot programs from the city's Housing Innovation Lab that focus on "the diverse needs of the middle-market," such as zoning relief, developing designs for smaller homes, setting up land trusts for nonprofit groups and creating a one-stop Internet portal to help first-time home buyers find information they need.
It's a brisk and sunny day in early March at the Quabbin Reservoir, located about 65 miles west of downtown Boston, where protected woods surround the quite oasis of crystal clear water.
The 200 million gallons of drinking water that comes into homes each day in Boston and the surrounding area originates in the Quabbin Reservoir, which is about 530 feet above sea level, along with diverted water from the Wachusett Reservoir, at an elevation of 395 feet, and the Ware River. The water travels miles eastward by gravity until it pours out of the faucets in homes in the Boston metropolitan area.
