Miles Howard

Cognoscenti contributor

Miles Howard is an author, journalist, and trail builder based in Boston. He has written multiple guidebooks on outdoor recreation and he publishes the weekly newsletter "Mind The Moss: a close look at unusual backcountry and urban hikes across New England."

Recently published

The Massachusetts state capitol in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. (Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

It's time to audit the Mass. Legislature

Between soaring housing costs and a beleaguered public transportation system, there's no shortage of crises facing Massachusetts. But the commonwealth has one of the least efficient, least productive state governments...

Cognoscenti

Oct 4, 2023

The so-called Cop Slide, at the City Hall Plaza playground, on a Tuesday evening in late August, 2023. (Courtesy Miles Howard)

A cop, a slide and a fleeting moment of viral joy

The Cop Slide might not have been what the city of Boston envisioned for its plaza, writes Miles Howard, but for a brief moment in time, it belonged to all...

Cognoscenti

Aug 24, 2023

Homes seen in South Boston within the skyline from Dorchester Heights on March 21, 2023. (Photo by Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)

What if we treated housing like a public utility instead of a private investment?

In the U.S., most public housing has been a planned concentration of poverty, writes Miles Howard. But in several other countries the idea at the heart of public housing has...

Cognoscenti

Jun 29, 2023

Commuters on an Orange Line train at Sullivan Square Station in April 2022. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

The T opened up the world to me. Now it's stuck

Miles Howard asks, what is the price of delayed trains and buses for service workers who can be fired from their jobs for being late to work? Or for students...

Cognoscenti

Mar 20, 2023

Even if Wu’s rent control proposal can make it over the hurdles that await on Beacon Hill, how much of a difference will it make for vulnerable renters?asks Miles Howard. (Getty Images)

Wu’s rent control plan is groundbreaking. But is it enough?

Rent control can’t happen only in Boston. It must also become a cornerstone of Gov. Maura Healey’s housing agenda, writes Miles Howard.

Cognoscenti

Jan 24, 2023

Young people are seen on the Emory University campus in Atlanta, Georgia on October 14, 2022. Young people tend to be among the most politically engaged groups in the United States. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images)

How Gen Z is changing the politics of guns in America

A decade after Sandy Hook, the shooting of school children has become a fixture of American life, writes Miles Howard. Gen Z voters understand that to change this reality, the...

Cognoscenti

Dec 13, 2022

The queen of LEGO Lion Knight's Castle surveying her fortress, 2022. (Courtesy Miles Howard)

Why you're never too old to build 'castles in the air'

While that yearning to hear the rustle of Lego pieces in a fresh, soon-to-be-opened box lingered, Miles Howard hadn’t bought a set in two decades, not since he was a...

Cognoscenti

Sep 23, 2022

Miles Howard stops to enjoy the view of Boston from Kevin W. Fitzgerald Park. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

One city dweller found a way to hike through 25 miles of green space

Miles Howard needed an outlet amid the height of the pandemic. The Boston resident shares how he found a way to hike through the middle of the city.

Here & Now

05:48Jul 6, 2022

How to hike through 25 miles of green space in Boston

During the first pandemic winter, Miles Howard did a lot of walking around Boston. The experience inspired him to plot a 25-mile urban trail -- the Walking City Trail --...

Cognoscenti

06:52Jun 16, 2022

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at Mill 19, a former steel mill being developed into a robotics research facility, on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University on January 28, 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

It's time for Biden to use the power of his office

The Biden administration seems committed to the idea that Congress should be the engine of social policy making, writes Miles Howard, even in situations where Biden could use executive power...

Cognoscenti

Feb 8, 2022