FROM BOSTON GLOBE IDEAS

The next Big Dig

David Scharfenberg

For centuries, Boston was a wildly ambitious city. After the Big Dig, it grew timid. But with existential problems bearing down on the city and region, it’s time to go big again.

Explore visionary plans for housing, education, climate, and transit →

More infrastructure ideas

IDEAS | KELLY HORAN

When Boston was bold

The Big Dig was not a perfect public works project. But it was ambitious, visionary, and a feat of engineering that transformed the city over the course of a quarter century.

A city on the ocean, deleting Storrow Drive, and other ideas from readers

We asked. Lots of you answered. Check out how these readers reimagine our region.

IDEAS | KIM JANEY

Affordable rentals go only so far. We need more home ownership.

IDEAS | ANNISSA ESSAIBI GEORGE

Job training is human infrastructure

IDEAS | MICHAEL DUKAKIS

‘An obvious project that we’ve just got to do’

IDEAS | EDWARD GLAESER AND DAVID CUTLER

Straighten the Pike, and then cover it

IDEAS | SCOTT KIRSNER

Speed up the race to net-zero carbon emissions

IDEAS | ERIN ALMOND

Greenbacks for green spaces

IDEAS | MITCHELL WEISS

Government doesn’t take enough risks. Let’s change that.

IDEAS | JENNIE C. STEPHENS

The next Big Dig shouldn’t be a dig

IDEAS | MARIA BELEN POWER

Let’s make electricity everywhere

IDEAS | KARILYN CROCKETT

We can help people make new connections

IDEAS | MEMBERS OF MANNA

Voices from Boston’s unhoused: ‘We need more than four walls’