Roger Bolton, the William Brough Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Williams College has received the David Boyce Award for "service to the field of regional science." The David Boyce Award is given by the Council of the North American Regional Science Association (NARSC) to acknowledge the activity of a prominent figure in regional science and reward outstanding service contributions made to a regional science organization.
The award recognizes Bolton's work as a book review editor of the Journal of Regional Science. Through his editorship, he promoted the multidisciplinary field of research by economists, geographers, historians, planners, and transportation analysts. Bolton is known for having turned part of the Journal of Regional Science into "the most stimulating review section in all the urban and regional journals world." He transformed review writing into an art, "reflecting his own intellectual curiosity, his broad knowledge, and his love for places and all matters urban and regional." The journal now publishes 60 or more reviews a year.
Besides the Journal of Regional Science, Bolton has served on the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Regional Science, Growth and Change, and Annals of Regional Science. He was co-editor of the International Regional Science Review for five years, where he introduced special issues on the regional dimensions of Chinese economic reforms and on regional input-output analysis. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and the author or co-author of four books, including "Defense Purchases and Regional Growth." In 2002, he was a member of the National Research Council Committee that authored the book "Community and Quality of Life."
Bolton joined the Williams faculty in 1966. His fields of interest include regional and urban economics, geography, history of economic thought, and the philosophy of Jurgen Habermas. His research focused on defense purchases and regional growth, as well as regional policy, with a concern for economic interpretations of place, and Arthur Latham Perry, a 19th -century Williams College economist.
During his tenure at Williams, he was chair of the economics department, chair of the Committee on Environmental Studies, and first director of the Francis Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Williams College recently appointed him to coordinate its Self Study for College Accreditation.
Bolton received his B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College and his doctorate from Harvard University. Bolton has served the community on the Williamstown Planning Board, Rural Lands Foundation, Hoosic River Watershed Association, and the Berkshire County Regional Planning Commission, from which he received its award for outstanding contribution to planning in 1988.
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What a delight to read that a most deserving and excellent person, Roger Bolton, has been recognized for his outstanding scholarship and service. He is most deserving.
Williamstown Affordable Housing Trust Hears Objections to Summer Street Proposal
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Neighbors concerned about a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week raised the specter of a lawsuit against the town and/or Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.
"If I'm not mistaken, I think this is kind of a new thing for Williamstown, an affordable housing subdivision of this size that's plunked down in the middle, or the midst of houses in a mature neighborhood," Summer Street resident Christopher Bolton told the Affordable Housing Trust board, reading from a prepared statement, last Wednesday. "I think all of us, the Trust, Habitat, the community, have a vested interest in giving this project the best chance of success that it can have. We all remember subdivisions that have been blocked by neighbors who have become frustrated with the developers and resorted to adversarial legal processes.
"But most of us in the neighborhood would welcome this at the right scale if the Trust and Northern Berkshire Habitat would communicate with us and compromise with us and try to address some of our concerns."
Bolton and other residents of the neighborhood were invited to speak to the board of the trust, which in 2015 purchased the Summer Street lot along with a parcel at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street with the intent of developing new affordable housing on the vacant lots.
Currently, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which built two homes at the Cole/Maple property, is developing plans to build up to five single-family homes on the 1.75-acre Summer Street lot. Earlier this month, many of the same would-be neighbors raised objections to the scale of the proposed subdivision and its impact on the neighborhood in front of the Planning Board.
The Affordable Housing Trust board heard many of the same arguments at its meeting. It also heard from some voices not heard at the Planning Board session.
And the trustees agreed that the developer needs to engage in a three-way conversation with the abutters and the trust, which still owns the land, to develop a plan that is more acceptable to all parties.
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
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The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, say the gift reflects their desire to not only support Williams but also President Maud S. Mandel's strategic vision and plan for the college.
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Neighbors of a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week asked the Planning Board to take a critical look at the project, which the residents say is out of scale to the neighborhood. click for more
The Select Board and Planning Board this week clashed over a proposal that would add to the town charter a mechanism to ensure compliance with the foundation of town government. click for more