Local news poised for a comeback in Concord | Environmentalists’ new target | Red flags on T repair plans | Baker’s housing legacy | Bitter Southie pot dispute | Rents still too high | Quick Hits | About Contrarian Boston |
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Baker made progress on housing. But was it enough?
The verdict is still out on that one, but the indicators aren’t encouraging.
As the clock winds down on Gov. Charlie Baker’s second and final term, there are signs that new apartment construction is picking up statewide and in the Boston area as well.
Builders slammed on the breaks during an anxious spring dominated by reports of surging inflation and a potential recession, but those concerns appear to have eased.
Baker during his time in office became an outspoken proponent of ramping up housing production, championing the new Housing Choice law that puts the onus on suburban communities to make room for new rental projects near T stations.
The good news? New apartment, condo and home construction statewide actually might break the 20,000 mark this year, an improvement over the 14,000 to 17,000 housing units that has been the pattern for several years now.
But here’s the problem: While encouraging, it’s not clear these numbers are even enough to meet current demand. They are still less half of the number of residential units Massachusetts was churning out in the 1980s, when we were about average nationally in housing construction - and had roughly a million fewer residents.
And it’s definitely not enough to put a significant dent in the state’s housing deficit, which now stands at 108,000 homes, condos and apartments, having doubled in the 2010s under Baker and former Gov. Deval Patrick, according to a recent national report.
Newest addition to environmental movement’s bad guy lists? Labor unions
Move over ExxonMobil, you have company now in the climate change doghouse.
That’s our takeaway from this Globe piece playing up a letter by prominent local environmentalists attacking Democrat and fast-rising AG candidate Shannon Liss-Riordan.
Now it does sound like Liss-Riordan stretched the truth a bit in recent campaign ad in which the now very wealthy labor lawyer attempted to portray herself as an environmental warrior. Then again, we are talking about a campaign ad here.
But buried way down in the Globe piece, we find out that the environmentalists are livid for another reason as well: Liss-Riordan has sought union endorsements from “those eager to build gas pipelines that will prolong our dependence on fossil fuels.”
Imagine that, and from a labor lawyer no less!
Ok, the issue, how fast or even if we should completely phase out gas pipelines – which would put the kibosh on research into green hydrogen – is an area where reasonable minds can disagree.
But we would have to say that excoriating labor unions and their members for trying to hang onto their jobs is not a good look for the environmental movement.
Speaking of the AG race …
… the field is now down to two after Quentin Palfrey called it quits on Tuesday.
That leaves labor lawyer Liss-Riordan to square off with Andrea Campbell, a former Boston city councilor and one-time mayoral candidate whose lead in the polls has been shrinking.
Palfrey, a former assistant AG who was endorsed by the state Democratic party at its summer convention, threw his support to Campbell, whose fundraising practices – and supposed coziness with bigwig donors - he routinely savaged.
Meanwhile, the state Democratic party and its leading luminaries are now split in their support of Campbell and Liss-Riordan, with Mayor Michelle Wu and Sen. Elizabeth Warren lining up behind the high-powered labor lawyer.
And if you were thinking the politics of revenge are something out of Boston’s tribal past, well then read this great piece by Globe columnist Joan Vennochi.
It looks like Wu may have learned more than a few things from her old boss, the late Thomas M. Menino. The city’s longest serving mayor, Menino turned nursing a grudge into an art form.
Startup Concord newspaper strives to fill gaping local news gap
By Mark Pickering
The Concord Bridge newspaper-to-be has taken some major steps forward in a drive to start operations this fall. The budding publication has hired an editor in chief and lined up office space. The nonprofit publication plans to offer both a print paper and daily website updates as well.
Jennifer Lord Paluzzi, the paper’s newly hired editor in chief, told Contrarian Boston that the newspaper is still looking for people to sell ads and write stories.
The Concord Independent Foundation is behind the startup operation. Alice Kaufman, the foundation’s president, said the nonprofit group’s leaders were “so excited” for Paluzzi to join the team.
The Concord Bridge’s new editor, a veteran of news outlets in Central Massachusetts, touted all the work that the foundation has done to get the paper started. This has included hosting community meetings and raising money to pay the bills.
In the past, the Concord Journal would have been a big competitor for the foundation’s startup operation. However, the Gannett-owned Concord Journal has been hit hard by the floundering chain’s budget cuts.
Nonetheless, Paluzzi said, “your local news affects you more than the national news.” Right now, she said, there are great stories out there that are not being covered. One key goal, she said, is to find and report on those stories.
Beyond that, she said, the plan is to deliver a print publication to all the households in town.
In recent years, of course, the news business has struggled to find firm footing. In fact, after getting laid off in 2018, Paluzzi swore off working as a journalist. That did not last.
She has been the editor and publisher of the Grafton Common for about three years. The website only covers Grafton. Talk about “hyperlocal.”
When she launched the website in October 2019, Paluzzi penned a folksy “Letter from the editor” talking about her love of local journalism. And her commitment to quality content.
The Massachusetts journalist said she knows “how to mine information (and) boil down complicated matters into easy-to-read stories.” Paluzzi added that she can “make it all look pretty” whether the content is in print or posted to a website.
Previously she was a founding editor of the Nashoba Valley Voice, a weekly paper launched in 2015 by MediaNews Group. That news giant combined several of its area weeklies ‑ all of which covered the outer suburbs of Boston – into The Valley Voice. The news outlet’s coverage area currently includes Ayer, Pepperell, Townsend, Shirley, Groton and Harvard.
The hedge fund Alden Global Capital owns MediaNews Group, which is based in Colorado. The newspaper chain also owns such Massachusetts daily papers as the Boston Herald, the Lowell Sun and the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg.
Paluzzi had previously worked for the Lowell paper as a digital editor before starting the Valley Voice.
Now, after working for a news industry giant, she’s sticking with the “hyperlocal” Concord Bridge and is gearing up for the planned launch.
As for the Concord foundation, Kaufman has been active on the local government scene in recent years. This includes serving as chair of the Concord Municipal Light board and as a member of the town’s Select Board, from 2013 to 2019.
These positions cap a career working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a manager, including in the communications area.
Mark Pickering is a veteran of the local news business, having worked on the business desk and the opinion pages of the Boston Herald.
Orange Line shutdown the silver bullet? Don’t bet life and limb on it
Here’s an alarming report from the Herald that strongly suggests all the happy talk about fixing the Orange Line once and for all may be just that.
Congressman Seth Moulton told the Herald he is “aghast” when he learned the details behind the T’s whirlwind 30-day repair plan designed to finally bring the troubled line up to snuff.
In fact, after meeting with MBTA execs to get a run down on the work, Moulton, who has a background in railway operations, said he was taken aback by the “completely rudimentary” nature of the work.
“The very basic things they described, like replacing tracks and switches, are things railways have done for a century and a half in their sleep,” Moulton told the Herald.
Yikes!
Changing times? Southie’s first pot shop edging closer to reality
As cannabis establishments pop up all over the city, South Boston has been the lone holdout.
But Southie’s status as a pot-shop-free zone may be about to go up in smoke.
Holland Brands has scored a big legal win in its quest to open South Boston’s first pot shop, with a state court judge earlier this month overturning a ruling by city zoning officials against the project.
The cannabis operator, led by local developer and construction chief Geoffrey Caraboolad and his son, Tim, now appears to have relatively clear path ahead to converting an industrial building at 115 K St. into Southie’s first pot shop.
The proposal, though, has been hotly contested, with a Suffolk County Superior Court judge ruling Monday against a bid by neighbors to win intervenor status and enter the case. The group plans to appeal.
Both sides have pulled out the big political guns as well, with City Council President Ed Flynn backing the neighbors, while Mike Ross, a prominent former city councilor who once represented the Fenway, going to bat for Caraboolad and Holland Brands.
But Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, whose administration has been sympathetic to pioneering pot entrepreneurs, is likely to have the final say.
As Contrarian Boston reported last week, the Wu administration is forging ahead with plans to streamline the city review process and eliminate the need for would-be cannabis businesses to go before the city’s zoning board.
To that end, city development officials held a public meeting on Monday on the red-tape slashing plan. The Boston Planning and Development Agency is expected to give a green light to the new rules in a matter of weeks.
Stay tuned.
Rent increases finally slowing in Boston?
That’s the word from Apartment List.
Boston ranks a relatively modest No. 23 in the online apartment tracking site’s list of rent increases in the 100 largest U.S. cities.
The Hub year-to-date has seen rents rise just under 8 percent, compared to 10.4 percent the same time last year.
That said, the increases that come atop already intolerably high rents - $2075 for a 1-bedroom apartment and $2163 for a two-bedroom, according to Apartment List.
Quick Hits:
Strange but true: “Boston Globe Media to add sports betting section to its free Boston.com site” Media Nation/Dan Kennedy
Quitting time for Arroyo? “Woman who accused Suffolk DA candidate Ricardo Arroyo of sexual assault breaks silence: ‘The lies. ... It makes me sick’” Boston Globe
A badly needed boost for green energy in Mass.: “Maine court revives Mass.-financed hydroelectric power line” CommonWealth Magazine
New cannabis czar is familiar face: “Former treasurer Shannon O’Brien picked to lead cannabis board” CommonWealth Magazine
A blast from a somewhat more hopeful past: “Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91” New York Times
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.