03.07.2022

| Media fail on car ship disaster |Unstoppable home prices | More Diehl woes | About Contrarian Boston |

Back to the office, grumbling all the way?

Yes, we all know someone who just can’t wait to get back to the office and get those creative juices flowing!

And that person is invariably either a partner, CEO, or some other big shot pulling down the kind of pay to afford a spacious house or condo in Boston or its environs.

For the rest of the workforce, faced with resuming draining commutes from more distant and far less convenient suburban locales, the return is a decidedly mixed bag at best.

Writing at CommonWealth Magazine, Steve Koczela sees big trouble ahead for downtowns everywhere as those everyday workers vote with their feet and stay home.

“AMERICA IS DOTTED with remnants of economies of the past,” writes Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, citing “gold rush towns, factory cities, rail towns, and coal towns, to name a few. All served their purpose, and either evolved into something else, or slowly collapsed.”

Fueling the concerns, he notes, is a new Pew survey that finds nearly 60 percent of workers with the ability to do their jobs remotely are at home now most or all of the time.

Nor will it be easy for companies to provide the kind of hybrid workplace many employees now want, the Globe’s Shirley Leung observes.

“The Great Return is upon us,” Leung writes, warning  “it’s going to be messy.”

File under: Happy bosses, unhappy campers.

Missing the boat on Felicity Ace luxury car disaster

That would be the local media, which gave prominent play to Ernie Boch Jr.’s lament over the loss of a cargo ship with thousands of luxury cars and other models in the depths of the Atlantic.

But there was nary a mention in the Globe, Boston.com or the Providence Journal of the environmental implications of the disaster for the Azores, the islands off which the Felicity Ace went down on its way to Rhode Island.

In fact, you had to read The New York Times to get a sense of the huge toxic mess the sinking of the 656-foot-long ship has created for a stretch of ocean home to “sperm whales, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins and sharks.”

A ship the size of the Felicity Ace can potentially hold more than “three million liters of heavy fuel,” as well as “electrical wires, paint and plastics,” the Times reported.

Funny thing, this superficial take by the local press, given the many residents of Cambridge, Somerville, Fall River, and New Bedford who either are from the Azores or who have family there.

It’s a story we imagine they might have been interested in reading more about.

Sanctioning Russia: Is the state of Massachusetts about to repeat legal history?

Those legislative proposals on Beacon Hill to restrict and/or end state business ties with Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine? They’re probably unconstitutional, writes Lawrence Friedman, who teaches constitutional law at New England Law Boston, at the BBJ. 

And he cites a federal case involving Massachusetts, dating back about 20 years and involving lawmakers’ efforts then to restrict state business with Burma. 

Diehl “unelectable” says Cook Political Report

The governor’s race is emerging as the Dems’ “best pickup opportunity on the map,” the online political newsletter reports.

“It’s clear that Republicans are headed toward having an unelectable nominee,” writes Cook’s Jessica Taylor, referring to former state lawmaker Geoff Diehl, noting “Diehl has continued to tie himself to Trump” in a state where the ex-president is reviled.

Home prices headed for another double-digit gain

We may be just two months into 2022, but signs are already emerging that we could be headed for another double-digit jump in home prices this year.

And given the massive runup in home price appreciation over the past two years – roughly 30 percent in Massachusetts alone in the past two years – that’s dire news for home buyers and even sellers hoping to move up to larger digs.

Zillow is now predicting home prices will jump another 17.3 percent nationally in 2022, up from an earlier forecast of a still high 11 percent increase.

Quick Hits 

It happens at a lot of colleges, not just UVA: “I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead” (NYT). 

Not a good look: “Pols probed over Russia-linked donor” Politico Massachusetts Playbook

Here’s hoping this is true: “Vladimir Putin is desperate” The Hill

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.