Passage 2 Boston is a tiny place. Even when inner urban suburbs such as Cambridge, Brookline, Somerville, and Chelsea are included, Greater Boston is still unusually small in scale for a major population center. That gives Boston much of its special flavor. Unfortunately, during times of great prosperity it also creates special challenges. Perhaps the most pressing of these challenges is housing. As the Phoenix’s special package on housing shows, the apartment shortage in Greater Boston has reached crisis proportions. Since the mid 1990s, rents have gone up by 50 percent or more in some neighborhoods. And even at these grossly inflated prices, apartments are still nearly impossible to come by. Nevertheless, some modest steps can be taken. It’s the old not-in-my-backyard syndrome: everyone knows there’s a housing shortage, but no one wants to see new housing come into his or her own neighborhood. Such opposition can be eased by involving local residents in planning for new housing. The lesson is that bottom-up solutions invariably work better than top-down edicts. Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, and MIT have taken major steps toward building housing for their students on their own campuses. During the 1960s and 70s, student housing spread into neighborhoods such as the Fenway (near Northeastern) and Audubon Circle (near BU). Students kept such neighborhoods alive during those difficult years. But as neighborhoods become able to "thrive on their own" , universities should be encouraged, wherever possible, to pull back, thus opening up neighborhood housing to long-term residents. In his State of the City address in January, Mayor Tom Menino identified the housing crisis as his number-one priority, and named a respected legislator, Charlotte Richie, as his housing czar. In a recently published interview, Boston Redevelopment Authority head Tom O’ Brien spoke of the need to preserve the diversity of Boston’s neighborhoods, and identified the city’s residential character as one of its saving graces. Yet the city has been missing in action. At the very least. Menino should make a concerted effort to ease the housing shortage in neighborhoods where the problem is particularly acute. More important, Menino has to realize that he cannot deal with housing as an "in box" mayor, taking on an issue here, an issue there as they come up. He should work with officials in surrounding communities and convene a housing summit to consider a wide range of ideas. The author’s suggestion to the Mayor is ______.

A. to sit in his office and listen to reports
B. to visit those bothered by lack of housing and listen to their complaints
C. to hold a meeting attended by high officials in his government and listen to their advice
D. to meet the mayors of nearby cities and listen to their opinions