03.31.2022

Slow walking housing reform | Elusive mortgages | Buyers maxed out | Honan weighs in | About Contrarian Boston |

Ad blitz ahead: Uber, Lyft testing out referendum ads

Set against some jazzy, finger-snapping music, the video features a montage of ride-share drivers going about their business behind the wheel.

“App-based drivers work on their terms, because that lets them decide when and how to work,” a voice in the background pipes in. “But today, those rights are under attack,” the voice says, warning that “special interests want to take away drivers’ independence.”

Such is the video, along with an accompanying questionnaire, that a faithful Contrarian Boston reader sent along after getting hit up online by a political action committee backed by Lyft and Uber.

The ride-share giants are pushing plans for a fall ballot referendum in Massachusetts that would create a special, independent contractor status for their drivers with limited benefits and a base amount of pay.

It’s a transparent bid to head off efforts by unions – the “special interests” in the ads - to force the companies to bring these drivers in-house as employees, entitled to full benefits.

Both sides went at it at a State House hearing Wednesday, with labor leaders and Attorney General – and gubernatorial candidate - Maura Healey speaking against the proposal.

Given what Lyft and Uber are clearly brewing up on the ad front, local labor leaders better dig deep and hire some top ad talent.

Marketing savvy could very well prove to be the key here. And that clearly is the kind of fight where Uber and Lyft already have the big guns, while the unions don’t.

Beacon Hill’s lethargy on housing issues hard to shake

There’s been some telling pushback at the State House amid lobbying for another round of zoning reforms aimed at revving up construction of new apartments and condos.

House and Senate leaders apparently want to take things slow now after passing Gov. Charlie Baker’s housing package last year, which made it easier for new multifamily projects to win local approvals.

All of which is rather funny given it took years for legislative leaders to finally give a green light to the governor’s proposal, even as rents and prices spiraled upward.

“We did Housing Choice and MBTA Communities and we are not going to see anything big on housing for a long time,” said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director at Abundant Housing Massachusetts, of the message he is hearing from some on Beacon Hill.

Really?

Ok, Baker’s bill was a big step forward, prodding cities and towns in the MBTA service area to open the door to new apartment and condo projects through revamped zoning.

But now Abundant Housing Massachusetts and the Citizens Housing and Planning Association are pushing a new proposal that would extend that requirement to all cities and towns across the state, among other things.

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Baker administration finetunes its big housing push

Speaking of housing, the public comment period ends today on the new MBTA Communities law, designed to spur construction of new homes across Greater Boston.

We’re hearing there has been significant pushback from smaller communities at the outer edges of the MBTA’s service area.

Local officials in some of these communities are none too happy over the prospect of potentially having to green light hundreds or even thousands of new apartments and condos near commuter rail stations.

However, one potential solution being eyed is for communities to be broken out into different groups based on how closely tied into the T they are, with a potentially lighter load for some, noted state Rep. Kevin Honan, who was housing committee chair for 17 years.

“It’s extraordinary what has happened in terms of home prices and rents,” the Brighton Democrat said. Honan, who helped shepherd the new law through the Legislature, calls MBTA Communities “a very creative way for more housing to be built in Massachusetts that we desperately need.”

A regulatory failure? Story finds huge racial disparities in mortgage lending

We’re trying to square two figures that just don’t add up after this great and disturbing piece by WBUR on lending discrimination.

Black home buyers in Boston are three times more likely to have their mortgage applications rejected than their White counterparts, while Hispanic borrowers are turned down at twice the rate.

Prompted by the story, we took a look at recent report on how the 125 banks in Massachusetts were rated by state and federal regulators in terms of their compliance with the federal Community Reinvestment Act, which requires lenders to do business in underserved and low-income neighborhoods and communities.

More than 30 percent of banks in the state received either an “outstanding” or “high satisfactory” rating. Just one bank, out of 125, was handed a “needs improvement” score, according to a report by the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance.

Something’s not adding up here.

Big red flag as home prices reach peak craziness

There’s trouble ahead for the real estate market when two-thirds of renters say they would like to a buy a home, but pretty much can’t afford to even look.

That’s the result of a new Bankrate.com report, which finds 64 percent of apartment dwellers and young adults living with their parents say concerns about affordability are keeping them out of the market.

Of this group, 43 percent say they don’t make enough money, while nearly 40 percent say prices are too high.

Couple that with rising mortgage rates, which will further cut into buying power, and the number of would-be homeowners could be headed down just as the crucial spring sales market kicks in.

And when buyers start becoming scarce, we all know what happens to prices.

                                        Quick hits:

The former Harvard president’s warning about increased government spending is still making waves. From the NYT: “I keep hoping Larry Summers is wrong. What if he’s not?” 

Back to the Middle Ages: “Ukraine to negotiators: Don’t eat or drink at Russia talks amid poison concern”  (Washington Post)

Think driving is bad in Boston – try walking: “Boston one of two Massachusetts cities with the most pedestrian fatalities in 2021” (Boston Herald)

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.