New Documents Reveal Extent, Cost Of BPD’s Secret Surveillance Strategy After more than 100 white supremacists gathered in Boston and marched through the city over Independence Day weekend, city and law enforcement officials said they “did not have intelligence” that the nationally-known Patriot Front group was coming to the Hub—despite paying a government contractor with […]
HACKS, FACTS & CONTRACTS
As trains broke down, the MBTA’s million-dollar marketing campaign kept running In 2019, a politically-connected state contractor laid out a series of messages and ideas for its Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority clients in what was dubbed their “MBTA Brand Creative Presentation.” Large concepts like “Performance Improvement” and “Fiscal Discipline” were broken down by objectives, situations, […]
THE PANDEMIC PAYDAY CONTINUES—FOR CONSULTANTS
Image via City Life/Vida Urbana Mass uses questionable tools to investigate eviction relief applicants State officials are spending more than $750,000 of COVID-19 aid on corporate consultants who will investigate applicants for eviction relief by running analytics on applications that housing advocates say can prevent residents from getting the relief they need. And while officials […]
PANDEMIC HOUSING RELIEF: END OF AN ERA
Governor Charlie Baker tours the new Heights at Haverhill apartment community on Nov. 5, 2020. Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office Mass diverts eviction relief funds to investigate fraudulent applications As thousands of Massachusetts residents face eviction, the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker is cutting back aid payments designed to keep people in their homes, saying the […]
MORE TICKETS, MORE TOWS, MORE FEES
Boston aims to beef up parking enforcement. We took a deep dive into the request for proposal to forecast their highly profitable plans. Boston officials are looking to upgrade the city’s massive parking enforcement management system, which brings in $60 million a year through more than a million parking tickets and thousands of boots and […]
