Wu’s gift to non-city eateries | Finally, Healey’s in | Right to Repair iPhones | Green or extreme? | Rental property mania | Love those skyscrapers | Quick hits
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Boston’s proof-of-vaccination mandate: A boon to other cities?
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu may be getting some thank you cards in the coming days from restaurant owners. The only problem: They won’t be from culinary establishments in her own city.
Staff at restaurants across Boston have been fielding cancellations by customers since the city’s proof-of-vaccination requirement kicked in on Saturday, said Steve Clark, head of government affairs at the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.
The cancellations, moreover, were not just for the weekend “but into the future as well,” he said.
“It changes the dining dynamic. Many guests don’t want to deal with it, or maybe one member of their dining party is not vaxxed, so now they go somewhere else,” Clark said.
But non-Boston restaurants might be happy. In one case, a local businessman moved a planned dinner with out-of-town guests from the waterfront to a steakhouse in Somerville’s Assembly Row. The concern wasn’t the local contingent, but rather the vaccine status of the out-of-town guests.
Don’t get us wrong here. Boston’s new mayor, who doesn’t lack for guts, did the right thing. But was it at the right time and the right way, with apparently no buy-in from neighboring cities and towns? Time will tell, but it’s pretty messy right now.
Right to repair your iPhone? Not this year
That’s the word from the House chair of the consumer protection committee, Rep. Tackey Chan.
The Quincy Democrat said the electronics right to repair bill will most likely be referred back to the committee for further study early next month, precluding action this year.
Consumer advocates and small cell phone and computer repair shops have pushed the bill hard, arguing Apple and other giants routinely refuse to sell parts or provide other basic assistance to them.
Supporters of the bill had been buoyed by an FTC report in June. But lobbyists for Apple and other tech organizations have also made the State House rounds of late.
Chan contends the focus on cell phone repair is a misnomer, with the implications extending well beyond that to high-tech hospital equipment and other gadgets.
But delaying action will enable the committee to assess the outcome of some related litigation and spend additional time examining the issue.
File under: Complex politics.
When it comes to media manipulation, Healey campaign off to solid start
State Attorney General Maura Healey plans to officially announce a run for governor, both the Globe and the Herald were reporting Wednesday evening, citing donors and other anonymous sources.
Not exactly the shocker of the century, but it is shrewd media strategy.
Think of it as a two-for-one deal.
By floating the story out the night before her big announcement through various unofficial sources, Healey’s team is maximizing coverage of her campaign launch.
Both newspapers – as well as all the local TV and public radio stations - are sure to run another big story when Healey holds a press conference, possibly as early as Thursday.
Healey's decision comes after months of speculation over her intentions and with a crucial deadline looming as Democratic state party caucuses prepare to get underway early next month.
While Healey has amassed an impressive campaign war chest, she'll have some catching up to do in wooing the party's progressive faithful, with State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz and Harvard Professor Danielle Allen busy lining up endorsements and staking out policy positions on the left.
Chang-Díaz pledge: Green or extreme?
Well, you can’t say Healey’s main rival in the state Democratic primary doesn’t have bold ideas.
Sonia Chang-Díaz, the state senator running for governor in the Dem primary, recently made headlines by calling for free T service for all.
But the progressive darling from Boston is also raising eyebrows - even among some environmentalists - for her campaign pledge to achieve a carbon-free, all renewable power sector in Massachusetts by 2030.
Given the state now gets only 16 or 17 percent of its power from renewable sources, that’s not merely a tall order. It’s an Everest-sized tall order.
But Chang-Díaz’s undeniable fervor may put her in good stead with party activists, with caucuses kicking off next month.
Memo to Healey, who is now all but officially in the race: Better green up that campaign platform.
As rents surge, so does investor demand for small rental properties
Small rental properties in which the family downstairs may well be your landlord have been the backbone of the local apartment market lord knows how long.
But that backbone is getting increasingly bent out of shape as cash-laden investors outbid regular buyers with hopes of becoming mom-and-pop style landlords.
In Boston, the median price of buildings with two to four apartments more than doubled since 2013, hitting $1,015,000 in 2021, according to MLS stats pulled by Coldwell Banker.
Meanwhile, the price in Cambridge now tops $1.7 million, a 72 percent jump, with the same percentage increase in Somerville, where the median price for small multis weighs in at $1.2 million.
The culprits: Investors, both large and small, who are everywhere right now in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville, including international buyers from China and other points overseas.
“In the past few years, there has been an enormous amount of direct mail and calls from investors directly to homeowners,” said Sara Rosenfeld, a premiere broker at Coldwell Banker who is based in Somerville. “I get these letter/calls all the time.”
Love the Skyscrapers
The following is a piece written for Contrarian Boston by Karen Cord Taylor, former editor and publisher of The Beacon Hill Times
A typical Bostonian complains: High-rises are ugly. They increase traffic and make the city too dense. They create shadows and wind tunnels incompatible with human life. They should never be next to any body of water. Real estate developers only want to make money; they don’t care about Boston. They should always lop off 10 stories. Boston is not Manhattan, which is fun to visit, but would you ever want to live there?
And so it goes. But the typical Boston attitude ignores the benefits of skyscrapers—a better term than high-rise.
First, they produce space for housing, office, labs and retail. The Seaport District is pretty much built out, and Boston has little land left. It can’t expand into the ocean or Somerville. Even most parking lots have been replaced. Since we can’t increase square feet horizontally, we must do it vertically.
Density, by the way, is good. It enables us to walk to destinations. It’s the inadequate T, not skyscrapers, that causes the traffic.
Skyscrapers can be beautiful. Look at HYM Investment Group’s One Congress Street, now rising at the intersection of Merrimac and New Chardon streets. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings in Manhattan? Gorgeous up close and far away.
Engineers have gotten better at designs that reduce wind. But skyscrapers do cast shadows. What’s wrong with that? Even roses need only four hours of sunlight a day to thrive. Taking off ten stories from proposed buildings rarely provides benefits—it just makes opponents feel good. When you like shadows, you call it shade.
The sidewalk across the street from my building has been in shadow for more than 100 years with buildings only five stories tall. I walk on that side in the summer. Shadow provides contrast with sunlight, a condition beloved by photographers and painters.
The contrast between the small and the large also increases beauty. Consider the Old State House. Embedded with lower buildings it wouldn’t stand out. But surrounded by skyscrapers it draws the eye like a ruby in a crown. The contrast between the residential Back Bay and its high spine enhances both attributes.
It’s baffling why some don’t want skyscrapers along the water. Chicago doesn’t mind, since many skyscrapers there cast shadows on Lake Michigan. Most developers actually love Boston and believe they are adding to its beauty as well as its economy.
It’s also baffling why Bostonians who dislike skyscrapers complain about that the Seaport mid-rises are boring. What is it, folks? Maybe it’s that Bostonians don’t like any change.
Could skyscrapers be better loved in this city? Take a lesson from the Empire State and the Chrysler buildings and the Eiffel Tower, among the most beloved structures anywhere. Make new skyscrapers as interesting as they are. Give them detail to entertain us. Give them a pointed top, not just a flat roof or an angled one. One Congress Street? It has sort of a pointy top in the drawings. Not perfect, but a step in the right direction.
As for Manhattan, many friends and family members who live there have a good life. As good as one in Boston.
Quick Hits:
They let many other groups fly their flags, so this isn’t too surprising: “Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of Boston’s Refusal to Fly Christian Flag” (NYT).
Local headline of the week: “Firefighters say if they don't get something in exchange for required Covid-19 shots they will take to the streets - but promise not to stand outside the mayor's house screaming about Hitler” (Universal Hub).
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 Friday.