Boston eyes changes for beleaguered downtown | Owner of Herald, other local papers, muzzles political endorsements | Early Halloween for Geoff Diehl | City planners need a place to live too |
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How tough is Boston’s housing market? Tough enough that City Hall’s development arm is shifting a decades-old hiring policy
That would be the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
On the front line in the battle to build more affordable housing, the agency has also been on a hiring spree to refill its depleted ranks of planners and other staff.
And with rents and condo and home prices at record levels, the agency’s board voted Thursday to give new hires a grace period of six months before having to find an apartment or home in Boston to meet the residency requirements for city employees.
We are talking about a policy put into place back in 1994 – when the late great Thomas M. Menino was in his second year on the job ‑ so that’s a big deal.
“While identifying qualified candidates is always a challenge, it has been particularly difficult over the last year,” wrote Michael Kerr, the agency’s human resources chief.
Arthur Jemison, Boston’s new chief planner and head of the BPDA, told Contrarian Boston, that he hasn’t lost anyone outright to the residency requirement.
But he also says he doesn’t know how many potential candidates never applied, particularly planners in other cities, for whom the logistics of having to find a place in Boston in a matter of two or three weeks was a nonstarter.
A former top HUD official, Jemison is the city’s chief planner and BPDA director
Jemison also knows something himself about relocating, having made the move back to Boston from Washington, D.C., where he was a top federal housing official.
“It will help us get access to a wider group of people,” Jemison said. “Getting a place in Boston is not the same as it was years ago.”
That said, Jemison has been successful in recruiting new talent. Since he took over at the BPDA last spring, the agency has filled a good chunk of its 66 open positions, leaving about 28 still open.
The agency is also looking at pay and other benefits as it competes for talent in a tight labor market.
“I think just like any other employer, we are trying to create a package that appeals to people,” Jemison said.
Coming soon: A reboot for downtown Boston?
Speaking of new hires, the Boston Planning & Development Agency has just hired a new planner to look at converting office buildings into apartments and condos, according to Arthur Jemison, the agency’s director.
The new hire comes as City Hall’s planning and development arm looks to roll out highly anticipated new zoning rules for downtown Boston, which would appear likely to include office to residential conversions.
A report laying out the new downtown zoning is expected to be released in a matter of weeks.
Meanwhile, the BPDA gave a green light Thursday to a plan for redeveloping the Western Avenue corridor in Allston-Brighton, with the potential for millions of square feet in new labs, apartments and other development.
Death by a thousand cuts: Political discord spurs newspaper chain to skip endorsements in top races
By Mark Pickering
The Lowell Sun and Sentinel & Enterprise along with the Boston Herald will not endorse candidates in some of the top races in Massachusetts. In recent editorials, the papers said they were making the move “as America’s political divide continues to deepen.”
The Herald editorial on the topic (“Herald stands for the people, not pols”) said: “We along with other papers at Tribune Publishing and MediaNews Group will no longer endorse in presidential races or the increasingly nationalized contests for governor and (U.S.) Senate.”
The three papers added that, “Instead, we will focus our efforts on more local contests, such as city councils, school boards, local initiatives, referendums and other such matters, which readers have told us continue to be of great value in their daily lives.”
In announcing the new editorial policy, the Lowell and Fitchburg papers – which share the same editor ‑ pointed to the “waning trust the public has for news media.” The papers cited a Gallup poll in which only 16 percent of those surveyed reported “a great deal” or “a lot” of confidence in newspapers. In contrast, 37 percent said they had “some confidence,” while 43 percent said they had “very little confidence.”
The two papers said that, given the current political climate, making partisan choices “is counterproductive to achieving the essential goal of facilitating healthy public debate.”
For its part, the Herald endorsed Anthony Amore, a Republican, for state auditor. Amore is currently head of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The paper also endorsed Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, a Democrat, for re-election. The Lowell and Fitchburg papers have not endorsed in those races as of press time.
All three papers are owned by MediaNews. The company’s website said it publishes 68 daily and more than 300 weekly newspapers all across the U.S.
These include the storied New York Daily News, which published a similar editorial.
The issue of political endorsements has heated up in recent years. A NiemanLab commentary this month by Gregory Perreault and Volha Kananovich concluded: “Based on our research, it’s worth considering whether news outlets’ endorsements are a tradition that continues to serve the public.”
Such newspaper chains as Gannett have even cut back on their opinion sections. The Contrarian Boston reviewed back copies of the MetroWest Daily News as well as its website. The newspaper’s last editorial was June 29 (“Derek Chauvin’s 22.5-year sentence is welcome step in march toward racial justice.”
MetroWest has also cut its opinion section down from running daily to Sunday only.
For its part, Gannett continues to struggle with financial woes. The Poynter Institute reported Thursday that the company has instituted a hiring freeze, among other cost-cutting moves.
The chain will require employees to take one week of unpaid leave and will suspend matching contributions for employee 401(k) plans. Gannett is also seeking volunteers for buyouts.
The chain reported a $54 million loss during its second quarter and then laid off 400 workers.
Mark Pickering is a veteran of the local news business, having worked on the business desk and the opinion pages of the Boston Herald.
Nice try: Geoff Diehl wants everyone to forget all about that Trump stuff
The MassGOP candidate for governor did not drool, rant or otherwise make a complete ass out of himself during Wednesday’s gubernatorial debate broadcast on NBC10 Boston and NECN.
Given the low expectations for the Trumpie former state lawmaker from Whitman, that counts as a win of sorts. However, it would be a stretch to say Diehl somehow won the debate against Attorney General Maura Healey, his Democratic rival in the governor’s race.
Diehl did make a good point or two, saying he would yank the T’s troubled subway car contract from Chinese rail giant CRRC, which seems nowhere close to delivering the hundreds of new Orange and Red Line cars it has promised. As Contrarian Boston noted here on Tuesday, the state-owned enterprise has a spotty record in similar contracts in other countries and is showing signs of financial stress.
But Diehl has got to be kidding if he thinks, after effectively campaigning as a Trump fanboy for 14 months, he can now flip the switch and pretend to be a conventional Republican candidate.
But that’s exactly what he tried to do Wednesday night.
“You’re going to hear about Donald Trump because it’s Halloween time and it is her bogeyman,” he said of Healey. “That is what the media likes to talk about.”
Diehl was endorsed by Trump last fall. He then proceeded to double down, shoveling tens of thousands of dollars from his cash-strapped campaign in payments to the consulting firm run by Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s long-time political henchman and one-time campaign manager.
Oh yeah, and Diehl was co-chair of Trump’s campaign 2016 presidential campaign in Massachusetts, and campaigned as a Trump loyalist in a failed 2018 run against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
If there is a Halloween trickster in the governor’s race, its none other than Diehl pretending to be anything other than the Trump boot-licker that he has proven himself to be.
Quick Hits:
More cuts at Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain: “From a hiring freeze to unpaid furlough, Gannett’s Mike Reed is slashing once again” Dan Kennedy/Media Nation
Not enough attention being paid to this story: “Cannabis Commission pumps the brakes on pot farm affiliated with Chair” Boston Herald
Good piece by CommonWealth Magazine - lots of campaign cash flowing: “Public sector unions backing DiZoglio for auditor”
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