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Important Places (2005), Shaun O’Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author talks about his time and associations with the University of Massachusetts Boston. He also describes Ireland and his family's roots there and how it connects with Boston as well as his life in New York.

Reprinted from New England Journal of Public Policy 20, no. 2 (2005), article 10.

Imagining Boston: The City As Image And Experience (1986), Shaun O’Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

I want to discuss community and imagery, social division and literary unity, Boston poetry and prose. In most issues of NEJPP I will focus upon those recent books that fire our imaginations and help us shape our sense of local and regional place. In this issue, however, I want to look back at the tradition of imagery that resonates in Boston's history. Old ideas of Boston are quickly being buried under layers of architectural and cultural renewal. While the suburbs become more urbanized and the commuter roads more clogged, downtown Boston is in the midst of the greatest building boom …

Urban Inspiration Can Come From Unlikely Sources: What Boston Can Learn From Cities In Transition Around The World, Andrew Tarsy

New England Journal of Public Policy

Boston is a city in transition, with power passing to a new mayor for the first time in a generation. The capital of New England should consider the examples of cities around the world in defining its next agenda. The urban centers that make up the Forum for Cities in Transition have all endured years of conflict and yet each continues to plan for a better future. Belfast, Nicosia, and Kaduna might not be role models for Boston; but three consensus points came out of the group’s recent summit: (1) it is hard to move forward without confronting the past; …