Home > Articles by: Ben Forman

Ben Forman Research Director, MassINC

Benjamin Forman is MassINC’s research director. He coordinates the development of the organization’s research agenda and oversees production of research reports. Ben has authored a number of MassINC publications and he speaks frequently to organizations and media across Massachusetts. With a background in urban revitalization and sustainable growth and development, he is uniquely suited to the organization’s focus on strong communities and economic security.

Prior to joining MassINC in 2008, Ben oversaw strategic planning for the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation, a large agency providing critical services to youth and families in neighborhoods throughout the city. He also worked as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program in Washington, DC and Nathan Associates, a global economic development consulting firm.

As a graduate student, Ben was awarded a Rappaport Public Policy Fellowship and served in the City of New Bedford’s planning department. He also worked as a graduate research assistant on a multi-year longitudinal analysis measuring the impact of new information technologies on neighborhood social networks.

Ben graduated from Trinity College, Hartford in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2004, he completed his master’s degree in city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives in Boston with his wife Anne and two daughters, Eloise and Cecily.

ARTICLES By Ben Forman

Prioritizing Equitable Growth Through Fare Policy

This policy brief explores the concept of fare equity and demonstrates why the current commuter rail fare structure makes train travel uneconomical for many Gateway City residents, especially those living in the immediate station areas. The brief also provides a deeper understanding of why affordable fares are a critical precursor for transformative transit-oriented development and

Budget offers solid blueprint for ‘Justice Reinvestment’

The MassCJRC Journal

As Massachusetts implements last year’s sweeping criminal justice reform package, we must stay focused on Justice Reinvestment—the effort to squeeze more public safety from limited resources by reducing prison terms and redirecting the savings to behavioral health treatment, education, training, and reentry services. The state budget signed this week by Gov. Baker includes promising new

Great need for increased attention to accountability at the local level

Exploring the opportunity through our Gateways podcast series

How do we get to a future where communities provide more accountability locally and also play a central role helping the state improve its accountability practices? To answer these questions, we embarked on a series of podcasts. The first stop was Worcester, where we talked Local Accountability with Tracy Novick, former school committee member and

Ben Forman and Dr. Tracy Corley offer testimony to the Joint Committee on Revenue

On Regional Ballot Initiatives for Transportation

The Honorable Adam G. Hinds, Senate Chair The Honorable Mark J. Cusack, House Chair Members, Joint Committee on Revenue State House, Rooms 109-E and 34 Boston, MA 02133   Dear Chair Hinds, Chair Cusack, and Members of the Committee: Thank you for this opportunity to provide written testimony in support of An Act Relative to

Investing in Early College

Our Most Promising Pathway

This report begins by revisiting projections indicating Massachusetts will end the next decade with fewer college-educated workers. We then present compelling evidence that Early College is a cost-effective response to this challenge and describe nascent efforts to grow Early Colleges throughout the state. As leaders on Beacon Hill work to update education funding formulas, this

A third way on the school funding/accountability debate

The answer isn’t more state rules but greater local oversight

BEACON HILL LEADERS are searching for ways to provide public schools with a significant infusion of new dollars. Taking a page from Massachusetts’s landmark 1993 Education Reform Act, some have proposed attaching higher levels of accountability to any new funding. Others are not so hot on this idea. After all, they reason, the state skirted

Local Accountability

An Untapped Strategy for Advancing Student Achievement in Massachusetts Public Schools

This volume combines the three papers in the local accountability series in one document with an executive summary. The five-page executive summary encapsulates the findings and recommendations and provides further context to demonstrate why strengthening local accountability is a powerful imperative for Gateway Cities.

Unveiling Gateway City Neighborhood Stabilization Bill

Show Your Support

Last week the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus filed an omnibus bill to provide communities with more powerful tools to address blighted and abandoned property and stabilize distressed neighborhoods across the Commonwealth. This legislation includes all of the major tools described in a neighborhood stabilization policy blueprint that we developed collaboratively with Gateway City housing leaders over the

Governing Local Accountability

The Health of School Committees and Councils in Gateway Cities

Paper two documented a dearth of local account­ability practice in Gateway Cities. The third and final installment in our series, this report traces the absence of robust local accountability in these communities to fundamental weaknesses in governing bodies at both the school and the district levels. The authors conclude with policy recommendations to position school

State and Local Blueprints for Comprehensive Neighborhood Stabilization

New report calls attention to Massachusetts’ “other housing problem.”

In recent years, much attention has been trained on Greater Boston’s tight housing market and the increasingly severe difficulty residents have finding affordable housing in the region. There is much less awareness of the very different challenge faced by residents of weak market neighborhoods, where housing is much less expensive but conditions are physically, socially,
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