Planning czar names | Speck speculation | DA shuffle | McClure’s mystery units | Hamlet for governor? | What is Contrarian Boston | Seeking writers/contributors |
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New twist in hunt for Boston’s planning czar
Rockstar planner Kairos Shen, a key player in City Hall’s development permitting arm during the Menino years, likely won’t be taking the job.
But Shen, executive director at MIT’s Center for Real Estate, will play a key role in picking the head of the uber powerful new planning department envisioned by Mayor Michelle Wu.
Shen is helping lead a group that is quietly vetting potential candidates, having recently sent a list of names to the mayor.
Among those mentioned are a former design director at the National Endowment for the Arts who recently worked on a major redesign of part of Kenmore Square. (See below.)
For his part, Shen has his dream job at MIT and is not inclined to give that up to reenter the public arena.
Still, it’s also too early to rule this one out. After all, it wouldn’t the first time the head of a search committee winds up with the job he was vetting candidates for.
Walkable cities expert in mix for planning chief job?
Speaking of potential development-czar candidates, one name that has surfaced is Jeff Speck, a veteran city planner and former NEA design chief who now works in private practice in Brookline.
Speck, author of “Walkable City,” and other books on urban planning and design, is a sought-after lecturer, both nationally and internationally, speaking on the TED Talk stage.
Intriguingly, he has been a strong supporter of Wu, having taken part in a campaign event where he was scheduled to speak.
Contrarian Boston caught up with Speck on Friday afternoon.
Word his name has surfaced as a potential candidate is “news to me,” Speck said, and while he has offered to provide pro-bono advice to Wu, he has not spoken to the mayor since the election.
“When you see that someone like Michelle, years before she campaigns for mayor, is advancing the sort of things planners love and care about -- who puts a capital P in planning — your eyes light up,” Speck said.
He also noted he wouldn’t be inclined to take the job, even if it were offered to him.
But Speck is full of ideas on how Boston can up its game when it comes to its streetscape, making the city safer and more livable and walkable for everyone.
Boylston would work better as a two-way street, while Newbury and Hanover streets are potentially ripe for conversion to pedestrian-only thoroughfares - but only after extensive consultations with local merchants, he said.
Healey rakes in cash, stays silent
Attorney General Maura Healey is really turning up the heat when it comes to comes to raising campaign cash.
Healey pulled down more than $400,000 in December, more than double her previous record for a single month, the Boston Herald reports.
But the AG remains mum on whether she will take the plunge and dive into the governor’s race, waiting to see what Marty Walsh does first, with the-former-Boston-mayor-turned-federal-labor-boss spending a suspicious amount of time lately in Massachusetts.
If money could talk, we might have a better understanding of where Healey is at right now, but killing it with fundraising isn’t a surefire signal.
Just look at Baker, who, as Contrarian Boston reported, hit up non-union contractors and other industry types for more than hundred grand -- the day before he announced he wouldn’t run again.
Still, the Hamlet act, which Baker played to the hilt amid months of indecision, is getting old.
The DA shuffle takes center stage
Who would think a couple of district attorney races would be the hottest political show in town?
But with the governor’s race stalled as everyone waits for Attorney General Maura Healey to make her move, all eyes are turning to DA races on the Cape and on the North Shore.
Two of the Bay State’s district attorneys called it quits on Wednesday, with Michael O’Keefe, DA for the Cape and Islands, and Essex County DA Jonathan Blodgett, announcing they wouldn’t be running for another term.
Blodgett, a Democrat, and O’Keefe, a Republican, have both been on the job for two decades or more.
Meanwhile, Kevin Hayden, chair of the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board and a registered Democrat, will take over from Rachael Rollins, set to be sworn in as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts on Monday.
Something’s missing at new Dorchester project
That would be its affordable units, promised by developer James McClure in exchange for winning support of Fields Corner residents for his six-unit condo building.
However, McClure has sold off all six condos for the maximum number, including two units that were supposed to have been sold at below-market prices, The Bay State Banner reports.
This isn’t the developer’s first go-round with controversy in the neighborhood.
McClure managed to build a triple-decker on a lot the city had slated, under a deed restriction, as open space, the paper reports.
In fact, that earlier dispute had made neighbors wary.
Sounds like a second chance that didn’t work out so well.
What is Contrarian Boston?
I have fielded emails over the past couple weeks asking what Contrarian Boston is about.
Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.
For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.
An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.
Our focus is:
· Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;
· Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;
· The media and why it does what it does;
· Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;
· And whatever else catches our fancy.
Contrarian Boston seeks contributors
Have a news tip? Is there an issue you would like to see explored? Interested in writing up a news item or short opinion piece? As Contrarian Boston gets on its feet, I would like to add more news and a wider range of commentary as well.
Intrigued? Drop me a line at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
Thanks for reading and see you Monday.