Ariel Bierbaum – Rappaport

Organization

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Program

Rappaport Public Policy Fellow

Year

2004

Rappaport Public Policy Fellows spend 10 weeks each summer serving within the highest levels of state and municipal governments in the Greater Boston Area. The program includes students from graduate and professional programs at local universities.

Graduate School
MIT

Undergraduate School
University of Pennsylvania

Mentor
David Ellis, former president of the Museum of Science

Agency
Massachusetts Office for Commonwealth Development

Supervisor
Stephen Burrington, Deputy Secretary of Policy

Description of Fellowship
Ariel Bierbaum worked at the Office for Commonwealth Development focusing on three projects to increase the economic competitiveness of cities across the state. She researched municipal best practices across the country for expedited permitting and pre-development processes for encouraging private developers to invest in targeted urban areas. Bierbaum also developed an index of indicators that may be used in the future as a way to gauge the health of cities across a number of broad categories including civic life, education, environment, finance, housing, income, jobs, population, public health, and public safety. Finally, she provided background research about potential ways to implement this type of benchmarking system statewide.