Globe’s smoking mess, part two | Diehl courts NIMBY vote | Guess who’s voting to unionize now? | Reinventing local news | About Contrarian Boston |
Something big is missing from Baker’s suburban housing push
That would be any provisions for affordable housing units in the governor’s plan to spur construction of new apartments and condo projects near T stations across the suburbs.
Housing and other advocacy groups want the new MBTA Communities law to urge cities, towns and suburbs to include affordable units as they consider plans for new multifamily projects.
The fear is that we could wind up with a repeat of Boston’s luxury housing boom, this time in the suburbs, with tens of thousands of pricey new apartments and condos that most families can’t afford.
At least in the case of Boston, city officials required developers to subsidize 20 percent of their units at below market prices and rents, or pay to build those units at another location.
There are few if any such local requirements when you get into the suburbs, a big problem as the Baker administration pushes for the construction of 200,000 multifamily units by the end of the decade.
“We know what is at stake if we do not meet this moment” Rachel Heller, CEO of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association writes. “Housing will continue to get more expensive. More people will be priced out of the neighborhoods they love.”
File under: We were warned.
NIMBY Nonsense? Diehl warns ‘high-density’ housing could be foisted upon towns
Speaking of that Baker housing plan, Republican candidate for governor Geoff Diehl couldn’t resist jumping into the debate.
And as he scrounges for votes in his quixotic campaign for governor, the favored candidate of the MassGOP’s Trump wing is clearly hoping to tap into the ire of suburban NIMBY types.
Diehl, in a statement, said he is all in favor of “more affordable housing alternatives.”
Well, great, aren’t we all? But Diehl goes on to warn the state’s push for more apartments and condos could lead to more “high-density multi-family housing” that would “significantly change the traditional look and feel of these communities against their will.”
Here’s what the so-called traditionalists don’t get or don’t want to: Spiraling prices and rents for years now have been warping the ‘character’ of towns and suburbs across the state, sending middle- and working-class families fleeing.
And unless we build a lot more apartments, condos and for that matter, single-family homes, it’s going to get even worse.
Globe smoking mess, part two
Here comes the blowback.
The Globe is fuming after a highly critical CommonWealth Magazine piece that took aim at the paper’s advertising work with Philip Morris, Dan Kennedy at Media Nation reports.
The CW piece claimed that “prominent scientists” interviewed for sponsored content pieces informed the magazine “they were never told the true purpose of the interviews – for inclusion in Philip Morris ads.”
We wrote about it here last week.
“I had no idea these stories were sponsored by Philip Morris and am appalled,” an MIT professor told CW.
Hitting back, the Globe released a statement on Monday that questioned this claim and said it had collected emails and other documentation to refute it.
“In each case, we found that the individuals and/or the PR representatives who support them were in fact informed that their participation was for a branded content piece funded by Philip Morris International, and about celebrating scientists.”
In a statement on its website, the CW’s editor said the magazine is reaching out to the scientists quoted in the piece, but had not heard back yet.
We’ll see how it shakes out. But there is something grotesque about Philip Morris “celebrating scientists” via a sponsored content piece in the Globe, even if the help was coming from the ad department.
Stay tuned.
What can you rent for $1,500 a month in Boston?
Apparently, not much, according to a new survey by RentCafe.
Or, more specifically, a 340 square foot space that is “less than a studio,” according to the report.
We’ll just call it a “mini studio.”
In fact, only Manhattan has rents higher rents, as measured on a per-square-foot basis.
But don’t despair. If you want some real space to stretch your feet, Rent Café suggests you check out Dover, N.H., where you could get an 832 square foot apartment for $1,500 – a sure sign that whoever wrote the press release has no clue about the geography of Greater Boston.
Oh yah, and there is also Lawrence and Brockton, where you can get similar-sized apartments for the same rent.
Globe editor leaves for online local journalism site
Who says local news is dead? Maybe it’s just getting reinvented.
On that note, David Dahl, who worked as an editor at the Globe for several years, at one point overseeing its now mostly defunct local sections, has started a new job as editor of The Maine Monitor.
The Maine Monitor is the real thing – a “feisty nonprofit” with a “well-earned reputation for delivering award-winning investigative and enterprise articles,” as Dahl noted in a post on LinkedIn about his career move.
Looking forward to seeing what the Monitor gets up to under Dahl.
Good luck, Dave!
First Amazon, now the state Senate?
Yep, legislative staffers who toil long hours for low pay for various state senators want a better deal.
Here’s from Masslive:
“Staffers officially have launched their bargaining unit push, after IBEW Local 2222 representatives delivered a letter to Senate President Karen Spilka on Thursday, Berry said.
The notice, seeking a meeting and voluntary union recognition from Spilka, informed her that a majority of Senate staffers already signed union authorization cards.”
With the Senate a progressive hotbed, it will be interesting to see how the negotiations go.
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.