A Better City

As Boston thaws out from recent snowstorms, we are dreaming of summer only 3 months away! Today, the B-COOL temperature sensor partnership released the Shade Effect report, sharing recent research on the efficacy of permanent, semi-permanent, and pop-up shade interventions on providing heat relief to vulnerable populations in Boston. Check out our findings and start planning for summer shade! 😎 🌳

Thank you to our partners: Boston University School of Public Health, The Boston Foundation, the City of Boston and many more community partners Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Turner Construction Company, and Zoo New England), without whom this work would not be possible.

www.abettercity.org

ICYMI: Check out A Better City's 2025 Year in Review!

Throughout 2025, A Better City was proud to partner with members, and with the Healey-Driscoll Administration, State Legislature, and Wu Administration, to navigate a year marked by economic challenges and uncertainty. We worked together to address some of Greater Boston’s most critical obstacles and opportunities, delivering strategic solutions on transportation, climate, and land
use issues.

We look forward to working alongside you in 2026 and beyond!

Join us on 9/24 @ 9 AM for our first installment of the "Built to Lead" series, showcasing inspiring and replicable strategies to decarbonize existing buildings w/ experts from Beacon Capital, BXP, Consigli, Equity Residential, & Pembroke. Register below!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/built-to-lead-lessons-in-building-decarbonization-in-existing-buildings-tickets-1583822177769?aff=oddtdtcreator

The “Boston Cools” or B-COOL partnership launched in spring 2024, with an initial 2024 temperature sensor pilot that sought to explore how effectively Boston’s heat emergency declarations reflect lived heat experiences in hotspot neighborhoods across Boston, and what it might take to establish a heat sensor network that incorporates hotspot neighborhood data. With the B-COOL core partner organizations of A Better City, Boston University School of Public Health, the City of Boston’s Office of Climate Resilience, and The Boston Foundation, this partnership worked with 13 community partners and the Boston Urban Forestry Division to deploy 15 temperature sensors from June-September 2024 across the environmental justice hotspot neighborhoods featured in Boston’s Heat Plan: Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, and Roxbury, as well as Jamaica Plain and Allston-Brighton.

The B-COOL team is excited to share our 2024 pilot report with you, which includes findings of significant differences in extent and duration of high heat exposure, both across hotspot neighborhoods and even within the same hotspot neighborhood, check out the full report below.

The 2024 B-COOL pilot would not have been possible without the generous partnership of our community partners: Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Bay Cove Human Services, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Boston Green Academy, Boston Medical Center (BMC), Charles River Community Health, the City of Boston’s Urban Forestry Division (Todd Mistor), Zoo New England, Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, Museum of Science, and UMass Boston. This project was funded by The Boston Foundation, with additional B-COOL team member support funded by the Barr Foundation, Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, and NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

Huge thanks and gratitude to our B-COOL core team members for the 2024 pilot: Zoe Davis, M. Patricia Fabián, Isabella Gambill, Julia Howard, Jonathan Lee, Ameera Saba, and Yirong Yuan.

🌡️

www.abettercity.org

Thank you to Mayor Michelle Wu 吳弭 and Baby Mira for joining our May Board Meeting to discuss Greater Boston's many transportation, climate, and land use challenges—and opportunities!

A Better City, May Board Meeting Explore this photo album by City of Boston Mayor's Office on Flickr!

In celebration of Earth Week, we are excited to share our latest report, "Greening the Blue Line," which was undertaken in collaboration with Civic Space Collaborative and Weston & Sampson and with generous support from the Stone Living Lab.

This project investigates the potential to deploy nature-based solutions along the Blue Line corridor in East Boston to protect critical transportation infrastructure from flooding, to support ecosystem restoration, and to improve the health and vibrancy of marginalized communities and commercial districts.

Thank you again to our partners, to the many stakeholders and to the Stone Living Lab, without whom this work would not be possible.

Read the full report here:https://www.abettercity.org/docs-new/gtbl%20final.pdf

Tune in to hear our President & CEO Kate Dineen on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority - MBTA podcast "Spilling the T" to discuss the importance of investing in the T for riders employers and the economic success of Greater Boston.

https://www.mbta.com/about/mbta-podcast

Earlier today, A Better City was thrilled to discuss the initial results of the 2024 B-COOL temperature sensor pilot, confirming that there are instances of unrecognized heat emergency conditions in hotspot communities across the city. Thank you to the Boston University School of Public Health, City of Boston’s Office of Climate Resilience, and The Boston Foundation for your support and partnership.

Thank you also to the many A Better City member and partner organizations who participated in this pilot, including: Arnold Arboretum, Bay Cove Human Services, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Boston Green Academy, Boston Medical Center, Charles River Community Health, City of Boston’s Urban Forestry Division, Franklin Park Zoo, Greenway Conservancy, Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, Museum of Science, and UMass Boston.

Read the full press release here: https://tinyurl.com/4d8amwkw

ICYMI: A Better City honored an accomplished and diverse slate of civic leaders & visionaries at this year's Norman B. Leventhal Excellence in City Building Awards.

Congrats to our awardees and thank you so to our sponsors!

Check out the full program here: https://abettercity.org/news-and-events/events/norman-b.-leventhal-awards

It was a beautiful evening to explore the Boston Public Art Triennial Lot Lab in the Charlestown Navy Yard!

Lot Lab is an outdoor, 24/7 experimentation zone for site-specific contemporary public art created with the Boston community. Activating underused parcels across Boston, Lot Lab provides opportunities for local and visiting artists to present multimedia installations in a community gathering space. This year’s theme is Presence and works created as part of the City of Boston’s Un-Monument program.

Learn more about ways to support the Boston Public Art Trirnnial: https://www.thetriennial.org/

In 2021, A Better City partnered w/ the PowerCorpsBOS program to launch a building operations program to train a workforce to run the smart buildings of today & tomorrow. The program is now on its 3rd cohort of trainees—and we have some lessons to share!👇

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