T crisis could drag on for years | Somerville’s climate warriors | Secrets of the Hurley Building | Gannett’s digital news con | Cannabis controversy in Boston | Quick Hits | About Contrarian Boston |
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Pot shop city? Boston poised to slash red tape as dozens of cannabis entrepreneurs jockey for sites
No one would accuse the Wu administration of bending over backwards to accommodate new development projects.
A big exception, though, are the dozens of proposals from cannabis businesses looking to put down some roots in the Hub, with City Hall apparently intent on rolling out the red carpet for budding pot businesses.
New pot shops, warehouses and other cannabis businesses would no longer have to pass muster with the city’s zoning board, under new rules hammered out by the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
Instead, the three-year-old Boston Cannabis Board would have final say, eliminating costly red tape for smaller local cannabis operators and for “equity” applicants.
In fact, the proposal, at least in a neighborhood like the Back Bay, would give would-be cannabis operators a leg up on other retail establishments, like restaurants and coffee shops, which would still have to go before the licensing and zoning boards.
Neighborhood groups are warily eyeing the proposed zoning changes, slated to be presented at a public hearing on Monday.
And let’s just say there are no shortage of proposals out there. From shops to “manufacturing” operations to pot courier services, there are more than 50 cannabis establishments looking to set up in Boston, according to the state Cannabis Control Commission. Most are in the regulatory pipeline, though some are already up and running.
Elliott Laffer, chair of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, told Contrarian Boston he understands the costs cannabis startups face, “in dealing with two boards, especially for equity applicants in a business where bank credit is generally unavailable.”
But Laffer, in an email, noted he’s concerned the Boston Cannabis Board “presupposes opposition from neighborhood groups and may therefore discount it.”
Stay tuned.
Beacon Hill’s one-time swimming hole: Reflections on the Hurley Building and its co-occupant
By Karen Cord Taylor
The news that the Charles F. Hurley state office building will be redeveloped by Leggat McCall Properties brought up memories of when the building complex first opened 51 years ago.
The Hurley is located on Cambridge Street between Staniford and New Chardon streets. The part of the complex on the Merrimac Street side is the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center. I’ve never figured out where one use ends and the other begins. All I know is the pedestrian paved entrance plaza to the Lindemann is usually blighted by the mental health center, which uses it to park cars.
When the building first opened, Beacon Hill residents were invited to use the swimming pool at the mental health center, I think as compensation for the disruption caused by construction. It is likely that West and North Enders were also invited, but I don’t know for sure. My husband and I were raising two little girls on Beacon Hill, and, along with many neighbors, we walked over to the Lindemann Center on Friday nights to swim because that was when the pool was open to residents.
Later, a graduate student conducted a study involving Beacon Hill residents and she asked if we used the mental health center, and I answered “yes.”
When she published her study, many others who had frequented the pool had answered “yes” that they had used the mental health center. The numbers were astounding. It gave the impression that Beacon Hill residents needed much more therapy than the standard population, when all it really meant was that they swam there every Friday night.
Another story about the mental health center: It was hard to find the entrance at Erich Lindemann because there was a large stairway that seemed to go nowhere on one side and an elaborate façade with a tiny door as the real entrance. Once inside, visitors would find the hallways confusing, and the path to any location was uncertain to someone unfamiliar with the place.
People joked that if you weren’t crazy when you went in, you soon would be if you tried to find your way around the building.
I haven’t been inside the building for many years, so I don’t know how things stand either with the tangled hallways or the swimming pool.
Karen Cord Taylor is the founder and former publisher and editor of the Beacon Hill Times
Where’s the local news? Gannett fumbles roll-out of digital weeklies in Massachusetts
By Mark Pickering
Gannett has been clueless in its quest to convert the newsprint readers of its Massachusetts weeklies into digital subscribers. The bigtime newspaper chain continues to flounder after reporting $54 million in losses in the last quarter.
“I no longer believe Gannett has a business model,” said Massachusetts media commentator Dan Kennedy. “They’re just trying to hang on and keep riding the gravy train as long as possible.”
Gannett ceased printing about 20 weekly papers statewide this spring. These included the Waltham News Tribune along with the Watertown, Newton and Brookline Tabs.
And as part of this transformation, the newspaper chain amazingly jettisoned the one thing that might attract readers: local news, from coverage of school board and community meetings to local crime stories.
Looking back to just last year, a Watertown Tab front-page article in the print edition (07/09/21) honored Joanna Tzouvelis for her 10 years of reporting for the Belmont Citizen-Herald. As Gannett cut back, Tzouvelis had also taken on the role of covering Watertown.
Over time, the chain had been providing less and less local news. But that’s different from having a digital subscription that delivers almost no local news at all.
Click on the home page of the Watertown Tab, and you’ll find no Watertown stories. As for Tzouvelis, she’s now the regional housing and real estate reporter for what’s left of Gannett’s dwindling collection of Massachusetts weeklies.
Gannett did not respond to phone and email requests for comment on its Massachusetts weeklies. The chain is pitching subscriptions at $1 for the first six months, then $9.99 per month after that.
On August 4, Gannett reported that it lost about $54 million in the second quarter of 2022, ending June 30. Revenues were $749 million. The chain is the largest in the U.S., owning more than 250 papers.
The Poynter Institute reported Friday that Gannett had laid off journalists at dozens of papers, with 70 workers sent packing.
Gannett spokeswoman Lark-Marie Anton told Poynter that “these staffing reductions are incredibly difficult, and we are grateful for the contributions of our departing colleagues.”
New England papers hit by layoffs include Gannett’s Massachusetts weeklies (WickedLocal.com), and two of the chain’s local dailies, the MetroWest Daily News and The Providence Journal.
That said, it’s hard to see what could possibly be left to axe at these once-proud community institutions.
Mark Pickering is a veteran of the local news business, having worked on the business desk and the opinion pages of the Boston Herald.
A long wait, long wait ahead for a sane MBTA
And by long, we mean until the end of the decade.
Brian Kane, executive director of The MBTA Advisory Board, offered up that sobering prognosis when Contrarian Boston caught up with him on Wednesday.
The problems at the T stretch back to decisions made decades ago that resulted in underinvestment in the transit system, and will take decades to dig out from under, he told CB.
In fact, it will take several years just to get the point where each news cycle doesn’t bring a fresh bulletin about a stalled out Green Line train or some runaway Red Line car.
To boost oversight of the T, Kane is pushing to expand the MBTA’s 7-person board. Kane wants to add two more members, one from Boston, the other from a city beyond the urban core.
“It will be 2030 before we any real improvement and the state of good repair is reduced to such a point where we can experience consecutive rush hours without significant delays,” said Kane, a former T employee himself.
Yikes!
Somerville looks to jump on the gas-ban bandwagon
First it was Boston looking to muscle in on a pilot program that will allow 10 different communities to begin banning natural-gas hookups on new commercial and residential buildings.
Now Somerville wants in on the action as well.
City councilors gave a green light Thursday night to a home rule petition asking for permission to join the gas-ban program.
The move comes on the heels of Boston’s move to grab a spot in the program as well, and will only intensify concerns about the impact on new residential construction given the thousands of rental units in the works in the two cities.
In particular, developers have warned that rushing ahead with gas bans could delay or even derail plans for badly needed new apartment buildings, adding another burden at a time at a time when new projects are facing challenges nailing down bank financing and dealing with surging construction costs.
The potential involvement of both Boston and Somerville also changes the tenor and scope of the program, which passed the Legislature on the premise that it would mainly allow smaller suburban communities like Newton, Lexington and Concord, to take part.
Go figure.
Quick Hits:
So long warehouse boom: “Amazon to close five delivery warehouses in Massachusetts” Boston Globe
Lights out for Arroyo? “Suffolk DA candidate Arroyo could face scrutiny for alleged omissions on bar application” Boston Globe
Head-scratching attempt to blame decades of T mismanagement on Wu: Lucas: “Orange Line fiasco wouldn’t have happened under Mayor Menino” Boston Herald
Trouble ahead for downtown Boston? “Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings” Wall Street Journal
Big news! “Harry and Meghan rescue beagle mom that was abused at Virginia facility” Washington Post
What is Contrarian Boston?
I have fielded emails over the past couple of months 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.