MassLive | September 21, 2026

By Chris Orchard

Pretend you went to the supermarket in 1971 and spent $17.80 on groceries: frozen vegetables, cereal and other stuff. Flash forward to 2026. Your bags are filled with the exact same food, but this time you spent $147.

Fine. We get it. That’s due to inflation — which voters really don’t like. Now imagine someone telling you, with a straight face, those groceries will cost $813.

That’s the kind of sticker shock my city, Medford, is grappling with as it seeks to upgrade its outdated 55-year-old high school. The estimated price tag — $813 million — is bonkers.

Medford’s existing high school cost $17.8 million when it opened 1971, which is $147 million in today’s dollars — although more on that later.

Massachusetts has some of the worst infrastructure in the country, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, but communities across the state struggle to build things like schools, bridges and transit systems because, if you thought inflation for orange juice was bad, it’s nothing compared to inflation on big public projects.

Why aren’t ambitious politicians shouting about this kind of inflation? After all, elected officials are in a position to actually do something about it.

Read the full article at MassLive.com

Chris Orchard is a Medford-based writer who has spent over two decades working in nonprofit communications and local journalism. He has a master’s degree in media and communications from City St George’s, University of London, and is the former editor of Patch.com’s Somerville news website. He’s covered local issues and politics for a handful of community newspapers in Greater Boston.