09.13.2022

Post Labor Day return to the office fizzles | End times for suburban landmark | A potentially deadly repair issue the T can’t afford to overlook | Marty to the rescue | Quick Hits |

News tips? Story ideas? Email us at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com

Here's one Orange Line repair we hope the T makes soon: Shoring up platform edges at stations

It’s more than just worn out tracks and faulty signals that need fixing on the Orange Line, nearing the end of a 30-day shutdown for urgent repair work.

Apparently, some of the platform edges at Orange Line T stations are showing a worrying amount of wear and tear and need an overhaul as well, a tipster has told Contrarian Boston.

Platform edges at T stations can be vulnerable to deterioration in part due to their design, with a crawl space below designed to provide a place of safety if someone has the misfortune to fall down onto the tracks.

And if a platform edge has begun crumbling or wearing away underneath … well you can just imaging the nightmarish possibilities if it were to give way as T commuters are crowding into one of those new Orange Line cars the troubled transit authority is touting.

After a number of inquiries by CB, T spokesperson Joe Pesaturo confirmed the T’s month-long Orange Line repair blitz does include platform edges.

Additional attempts to get some reasonable level of detail, such as which stations, how much deterioration, and which contractors will be doing the work have gone unanswered.

Less than ideal conditions were observed in the past by our T insider at two Orange Line stations, who noted D.C.’s transit system recently had to overhaul the platform edges at some of its stations.

Somehow, the T’s refusal or inability to answer these simple questions is not particularly reassuring.

Speaking of the T …

The MBTA is backtracking on its earlier assurances that the Orange Line would be effectively good to go after the disruption caused by the T’s month-long repair push.

A sharp-eyed observer on Twitter zeroed on a bit of T PR spin embedded in this Globe update on the Orange Line repairs.

We’ve put in italics the pertinent parts:

“The six slow zones that the T has been targeting during the monthlong shutdown will be eliminated, (T General Manager Steve) Poftak said, but that won’t happen instantly. Poftak expects those slow zones to be lifted five to seven days after service resumes … However, a few other slow zones will remain on the line, and the T is not yet able to estimate how much faster trips on the Orange Line will be than before the shutdown, he said.”

Say what?

Growing headwinds: Downtown Boston’s challenges mount as government workers go remote

Forget all the post Labor Day hoopla about the supposed return to the office.

Whether they like it or not, many companies appear to be settling into a hybrid schedule of three days in the office, two days remote.

And it’s not just the private sector that is embracing the virtual offices, but city and state governments as well.

The Wu administration has been experimenting with a pilot program that allows city employees to work from home two days a week.

Given that the city employs more than 19,000 people, with a heavy concentration downtown, well, that’s a lot of missing coffee runs and lunches.

Meanwhile, adding government workers to the digital workforce is likely to complicate efforts by Boston’s new mayor to revive shuttered restaurants, shops and stores, not just downtown, but across the city.

As reported here on Saturday, Segun Idowu, Boston’s economic development chief, is preparing to unveil next month a $9 million grant program, to help budding entrepreneurs move into some of those dead restaurant and retail spaces.

“There are still quite a number of vacancies that we need and want to fill,” Idowu told Contrarian Boston.

That said, the solution isn’t forcing workers back to the office, but rather to face up to the reality that the pre-pandemic world of daily commuting is gone and not coming back.

City officials appear to be making that shift, hosting events to draw a wider array of people downtown and expressing interest in converting office buildings that fall on hard times to residential use.

“I think every major city is having a conversation about the future of downtown,” Idowu said. “Boston is no different.”

P.S. Post Labor Day office occupancy numbers barely budged, according to the Kastle Group. While the firm doesn’t track Boston, New York’s office space is more than 60 percent empty, while D.C. is split roughly 60/40 as well in terms of empty space versus offices with real, live human beings in them.

It’s the last real statewide race left – and it may one of the most important

That would be the state auditor’s race.

In a state plagued by cozy, insider politics and a long history of State House corruption scandals - yes, that’s you, Massachusetts - this is a crucial post and one always in need of a true watchdog.

Photo by Marii Siia on Unsplash

And it is also one of the few races that are not completely lopsided in favor of the Dems.

State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, who won the Democratic primary, will go up against the Republican winner, Anthony Amore, director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in this fall’s state elections.

While Amore is short on campaign cash, he is a serious candidate from the moderate wing of the state Republican party and also enjoys the strong backing of Gov. Charlie Baker.

(By contrast, the Republican candidates for governor, secretary of state and AG feature a Trump fan boy, a sacrificial lamb, and a certifiable nutcase – we’ll leave you to figure out who is who.)

Kicking things off, Amore tells CB he has challenged DiZoglio to five debates, each in a different region of the state, via different forms of media, such as streaming, radio and TV.

Stay tuned.

Where do Healey and Diehl stand on housing?

We’ll be digging into this question in the weeks ahead, but Banker & Tradesman’s James Sanna offers a great rundown here on where the two gubernatorial candidates stand on housing and real estate.

Here’s a quick summary: Democrat candidate for governor and Attorney General Maura Healey is working hard to wrap herself in Baker’s mantle as the state’s chief housing production cheerleader.

By contrast, Geoff Diehl, a former state lawmaker and her Republican opponent, has struck a decidedly NIMBY tone. Diehl, among other things, wants to scrap the Baker administration’s MBTA Communities law, which requires cities, towns and suburbs across the Boston area to open their doors to new apartment and condo development.

Marty to the rescue: Boston’s former mayor plays pivotal role in scramble to head off a rail strike

Former-Boston-mayor-now-Labor-Secretary Marty Walsh is in the thick of things trying to defuse a looming catastrophe for the Biden administration and for Dems as a whole: A national rail strike, Politico reports.

If you think inflation and supply chain issues are a problem now, just wait until freight trains across the country screech to a halt, leaving everything from semiconductor chips to produce piling up on the nation’s docks.

Go, Marty, go!

Days may be numbers for a Boston-area landmark

That would be the Charles River Dam in South Natick.

What to do about the dam and its scenic waterfall in the picturesque center of South Natick has been a political hot potato of sorts, with the dam’s deterioration forcing an unappetizing choice: Extensive, expensive repairs or removal.

The panel studying the issue for the past 18 months recently voted for the latter, despite an impassioned campaign to save the dam, according to the MetroWest Daily News.

For its part, the panel recommends the town should put money into building a new park that “that integrates the river’s adjacent public lands and provides a space for the community to meet, contemplate, and enjoy.”

The issue now goes to Natick’s Select Board.

Quick Hits:

There’s been much ado about Wu’s endorsements - and how they backfired. But just maybe Boston’s mayor is playing by a different set of rules: “With her endorsements, Mayor Wu took a loss, but also a stand” Vennochi/Boston Globe

Inflation jitters are back: “Markets shudder on dashed inflation hopes; Dow falls 1,250” Boston Globe

Sickening case: “State Street fires VP charged with raping 4, including 2 girls” Boston Herald

Mixed messages: “Sharks are not a threat to humans, shark expert says. But would he swim off Cape Cod? ‘I don’t want to risk it’” Boston Herald

Inflation wipes away income gains for American families: “U.S. Incomes Fail to Grow for Second Year in a Row, Census Figures Show” Wall Street Journal

About 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.