News
CRE Unites for Kids
November 1, 2011
| How many people do you know who learned to ride a bike fromMike Dukakis and watched as the former governor (then just a youngster himself) shoveled the snow from his driveway? |
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| Robert Beal, president of The Beal Companies, did. We learned the above when we joined 1,100 CRE industry folk at breakfast Thursday as he accepted the United Way award for community service (his big brother Bruce says he's spent the equivalent of about 12 years in public service). Now, Robert and the United Way are sponsoring Fostering Opportunity, a program of support services and financial assistance to help children who are agingout of foster care. Two things you may not know: Robert?s constant companion is a Yorkie named Monte. And the CRE industry raised at least $3M for the United Way this year, bringing the industry's 18-year total contribution to about $31M. |
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| Henry Avinger, a former foster child, showed poise beyond his 19years as he spoke of how Fostering Opportunity has helped launch him into adulthood. Since age four, he's been in and out offoster care, never able to stay in one school for more than one year. Now, he's living in his own apartment, working toward hishigh school diploma and earning money walking dogs. He says that getting a mentor was ?one of the best things that ever happened to me; I started opening up to other people.? |
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| Boston's high barriers to entry for CRE development have helpedthe region weather the economic headwinds by preventing overbuilding, Harvard University's Taubman Center director Edward Glaeser tells us. On the other hand, as economists like to say, it's a good time to eliminate those barriers that hold the CRE industry back. Northeastern?s Dean of Social Sciences Barry Bluestone says Massachusetts? recovery from the recession has raised the level of economic activity back to where it was in ?07, but with apartment rents soaring there's still much work to do. |
