Arguments worth your morning.
Columnists, editorials, op-eds, and letters — written by people who would rather be right than agreeable.
On the budget deal: a small win for working families, and a missed chance for everyone else.
The compromise reached this week protects three programs we have argued for since 2019. It also leaves out two we will keep arguing for. Both things can be true at once — and a free press is supposed to say so.
The columnists
See full roster →“We agreed to disagree, then forgot how. Here is how we relearn it.”
Read this week’s column →“The mayor’s waterfront plan is bold. The transit one isn’t. We need both.”
Read this week’s column →“The bond market is sending a clearer signal than the Fed minutes.”
Read this week’s column →“What the appellate ruling actually means for renters in three months.”
Read this week’s column →“On refusing the prize: artistic integrity is not a marketing position.”
Read this week’s column →“We do not need new AI rules. We need to enforce the four we already have.”
Read this week’s column →I taught at this school for 28 years. The students did not change. We did.
I taught American history when textbooks were paperbacks and final exams were proctored on Saturdays. Three superintendents, four governors, two reform waves. The students always rose. The systems around them did not.
The thing I want to say to anyone considering teaching today is simple: it is still the most important job in the country. It is just no longer treated like one. Whether that changes — and how — is the policy question I would put above all others on the November ballot.
Continue reading →Should the city raise the property-tax cap to fund transit?
“The cost of not investing is already on every commute time.”
A modest, capped, and sunset-clauses tax expansion is the single highest-return policy lever this council has — and the one we will regret skipping a decade from now.
“Raise the cap once and the case for raising it again writes itself.”
There is a better path: dedicated bonds, fare adjustments, and a transparent capital plan. The cap is a guardrail. We dismantle it once and we do not get it back.
Why we publish what we publish
How is an opinion column different from a news article?
Columns are arguments. They are written by named contributors who are paid to take a position. News articles report what is happening; columns argue what should happen next. Both are reviewed by editors, but for different things.
Do you fact-check opinion pieces?
Yes. Facts inside an opinion piece are checked the same as in a news article. The argument is the columnist’s; the facts have to be right.
How do I submit a letter or guest essay?
Use the contact form. Letters under 250 words; guest essays 800–1,200 words. We respond within five business days, even when we pass.
What is the editorial board?
A small group of senior editors who write the unsigned editorials representing this paper’s institutional view. The board does not direct the news desks, and does not see investigations before publication.