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Boston Globe
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump's efforts to boost birthrates (probably) aren't going to work. Neither are anybody else's.
Send questions or suggestions to the Starting Point team at . If you'd like the newsletter sent to your inbox, . TODAY'S STARTING POINT I am a single, 47-year-old relationship writer who's never wanted kids, so, as you can imagine, I have been reading recent stories about declining birthrates, in the US and worldwide, with great interest — and many opinions. I've never been 'mom material' — I am built to be a fun and supportive aunt-type — but I want to live in a world where people who want children can have them, support them, and keep them (and themselves) healthy. As you probably know, there's been a lot of talk about why people aren't having children, and why the birthrate is plummeting globally. It's Advertisement The problem with that? The world's population is aging. We need workers and caregivers. Not everyone can be like me. There are plenty of people who want kids, but see barriers to having them. Globe business reporter Dana Gerber would have children — or more children — if they had the money to support them comfortably. Advertisement The current administration's proposed solutions to this problem make me feel like I'm watching 'The Handmaid's Tale,' of course. The Trump administration is considering giving women $5,000 to have kids, and a 'National Medal of Motherhood' for those who have six or more. I hate all of that, but I will say that from my vantage point, no government or administration seems to be asking the right questions when it comes to falling birthrates and how to deal with them. In South Korea, for instance, which has had the lowest global birthrate since 2013, some local leaders have gone into the matchmaking business. In Seongnam city, just southeast of Seoul, Mayor Shin Sang-Jin has made headlines for hosting parties for singles. He hopes the events will help people fall in love so that they get married and have babies. We did a I do not like the idea of a city butting into people's love lives (although I'll admit, the initiative did seem to be helping people find partners). But I especially didn't like the mayor's plan to go into school classes to teach young kids the message that, as he put it to me, 'marriage is a blessing and childbirth is happiness.' It sounded like brainwashing. And while marriage and kids can be lovely, so is being single in a clean apartment. Advertisement South Korea's birthrate did increase in 2024, slightly. I suspect this has something to do with more companies offering better benefits to parents. What Mayor Shin seemed to miss, on a more global level, are the many reasons why girls and women feel like marriage and children can be an unpleasant path. There can be a loss of freedom; the gender division of labor at home is still lopsided. That's a big issue in the US, too. While reporting a new story about how COVID-19 Corrine Wiborg, who presented a paper at the recent annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Washington, D.C., said this trend started in 2015, with more and more high school seniors saying they're unsure that marriage and children will be part of their future. This comes from the I'd also like to know more about what young people want and how we can help them find it. The answers to those questions might produce better solutions than brainwashing students or $5,000 bribes, and actually show us a path to the future. Advertisement If you'd like to try my Love Letters newsletter, . 🧩 4 Across: | 😶🌫️ 76° POINTS OF INTEREST Staff at Butler Hospital in Providence rallied in the rain yesterday. It's the facility's first strike in 37 years. Lane Turner/Globe Staff Boston and New England Karen Read: The doctor who autopsied John O'Keefe called his head wound 'severe,' but said she'd been Walkout: Nurses and staff Bear necessities: To cull a growing population of black bears, Massachusetts regulators Looks familiar: The CEO of Baystate Health, Western Massachusetts' biggest health system, writes a weekly blog for employees. He New building: Lego executives — joined by Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and people dressed like toy minifigures — cut the ribbon on Surprise discount: In 1946, Harvard bought a copy of the Magna Carta for $27.50. It turns out to be Mayoral race: Wu and Josh Kraft traded criticisms at a candidate forum that included their two lesser-known rivals. Asked which ward he lived in, Kraft answered, ' Trump administration Supreme Court: During arguments, the justices Trump's agenda: Conservative House Republicans threatened to block Trump's tax bill from advancing today because they want it to cut Medicaid sooner. ( Kseniia Petrova: A judge ordered federal authorities to transfer a Harvard cancer researcher back to Massachusetts to face charges that she smuggling frog embryos into the US. The administration is Violent arrest: A Guatemalan native whose car window was smashed in by ICE agents during his arrest in New Bedford last month No deal: Immigrant rights groups want Governor Healey to ban police throughout Massachusetts Higher power: After officials in Weare, N.H. cracked down on a backyard church, the church sued the town. Trump's Justice Department The Nation Another airport outage: Air traffic controllers in Denver lost contact with planes for 90 seconds this week, similar to recent equipment failures at Newark airport. ( Diddy trial: Sean Combs' defense lawyers cross-examined the R&B singer Cassie Ventura, trying to portray the music mogul's ex-girlfriend as a willing participant in his drug-fueled orgies. ( UnitedHealth Group: The health insurance giant's stock price slid after it abruptly replaced its CEO this week and the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department is investigating it for possible Medicare fraud. ( WNBA: The season starts tonight. VIEWPOINTS Is the new Copley Square an eyesore? Yes, says the Globe's Editorial Board. The park needed renovating, but the new design has turned its inviting lawn into ' Be patient, counters MassLive's John L. Micek. The sleek new space makes room for music performances and, maybe, a beer garden. And the city BESIDE THE POINT By Teresa Hanafin ✈️ Um, excuse me: Airplane seat squatters, a new breed of 🚚 Helping hand: Her DoorDash order was delivered by her former teacher who needed extra money for bills. So she 💘 Blind date: They both are scientists and even have similar hair. 📺 Weekend streaming: 'Paddington in Peru,' season 7 of 'The Chi,' the latest season of 'Nine Perfect Strangers,' and 🎵 US debut: During the Boston Early Music Festival, the Boston Camerata will perform a timely program about Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday.
New York Times
16-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
Andrew A. Beveridge, Who Found the Unexpected in Census Data, Dies at 79
Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociology professor and demographer who mined arcane census data to inform urban planning decisions, court rulings on racial desegregation and news coverage that identified emerging population trends, died on April 10 in Washington. He was 79. The cause was a heart attack he suffered while attending the annual Population Association of America meeting at the Marriott Marquis hotel, his wife, Fredrica Beveridge, said. Dr. Beveridge, who lived in Bronxville, N.Y., was a professor emeritus of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he served as chairman of the sociology department from 2006 to 2018. He also directed the university's Applied Social Research program and helped establish its Institute for Demographic Research. In 1999, he and the software engineer Ahmed Lacevic founded a data-driven academic research group called Social Explorer. Eight years later, they turned that think tank into a company that uses interactive maps and other online tools to translate raw statistics into relevant population projections, offering guidance to public policymakers, nonprofit institutions, scholars, journalists and businesses. Dr. Beveridge and his teams at City University and at Social Explorer worked with reporters and editors from The New York Times, beginning in 1993, to explore social trends and the changing demographic profile of New York and the nation. That collaboration yielded a number of insights, most notably that the median income of Black households in Queens, the city's quintessential middle-class borough, had surpassed that of white New Yorkers there; that income gaps among the city's residents exceeded those in some undeveloped countries; that the historic phenomenon of white flight had not only slowed, but reversed; and that Venezuelans accounted for the largest number of new immigrants in New York. Among his books was 'New York and Los Angeles: An Uncertain Future' (2013), edited with David Halle, a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. 'Andy was a champion for the national community of census-data users,' Joseph J. Salvo, the former chief demographer and director of the population division of New York's Department of City Planning, said in an interview. 'He informed debates about the population of the nation, the state and the city with his keen eye for patterns in the data and a sixth sense for anomalies — things that just did not make sense,' Mr. Salvo continued. 'When one appeared, he would work tirelessly with his many colleagues to address the issue and propose solutions.' John H. Mollenkopf, a distinguished professor of political science and sociology at CUNY and the director of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center, said in an email: 'Andy was not afraid to question the received wisdom or call out the experts when he thought they were doing something wrong or silly. And he usually got them to rethink their approach.' Andrew Alan Beveridge was born on April 27, 1945, in Madison, Wis. His father, Jacob Beveridge, was a salesman; his mother was Bonnie Belle (Porter) Beveridge. Dr. Beveridge began his higher education at the California Institute of Technology, intent on a career in science and math. In his sophomore year, he transferred to Yale University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1967, a Master of Philosophy in sociology in 1971 and a doctorate in sociology in 1973. In 1970, he married Fredrica Rudell, who went on to become a professor of marketing at Iona College (now Iona University) in New Rochelle, N.Y., and the secretary-treasurer of Social Explorer. Dr. Beveridge worked at Columbia University, as an assistant and associate professor, from 1973 to 1981, when he joined Queens College and the Graduate Center. He retired in 2020. In the late 1980s, he served as president of the Yonkers Board of Education and helped oversee the court-ordered desegregation of the city's school system. At the time, he said that the order had forced the city to fund educational improvements that otherwise would not have happened. In addition to his wife, he is survived by their daughter, Sydney Beveridge, and a granddaughter. As a go-to sociologist, Dr. Beveridge was so knowledgeable that during a conversation on almost any subject he was bound to digress. 'What started as a quick comment might turn into a five-minute riff on zoning codes in 1970s Yonkers, heteroscedasticity or the demographic history of East Flatbush,' Mr. Musslewhite said. 'You went along because he was always fascinating.'
