Contrarian Boston/01.05.2022
Baker’s fundraising squeeze | Massachusetts exodus | Rising rents| Malden mania | Diplomagate
Look for us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Bad timing? Non-union contractors dug deep for Baker the day before he announced he wasn’t running
Wouldn’t you know it, but less than 24 hours before Charlie Baker called it quits on another run for governor, the big guy from Swampscott hit up open-shop contractors and other industry types for more than a hundred grand in campaign contributions.
Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, who is also hanging up her political spurs, mingled with executives in construction and other related fields at the Westin in Waltham the morning of Nov. 30.
Baker offered no hints on his political future. As they headed to their trucks after the event, some contractors even grumbled how they were disappointed the governor hadn’t just up and announced right then and there he would be running for a third term.
Little did they imagine …
Nonetheless, everyone from construction company owners and real estate developers to a pipefitter and a municipal plumbing inspector chipped in more than $120,000 to Baker’s campaign account that day, with tens of thousands more going into Polito’s account, state campaign finance records show.
You can imagine how they woke up on the morning of Dec. 1, the next day, their wallets $500 or $1,000 lighter, to headlines announcing Baker’s surprise decision that he won’t be running again.
Greg Beeman, head of the state chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, said contractors at the event simply figured no news was good news when it came to whether Baker would be running again.
No one asked him directly, and Baker didn’t address the issue.
Contractors simply assumed that “if they are doing fundraising, there is probably a decent chance he is going to run,” Beeman said.
Still, there is a consolation prize – both Baker and Polito will run the state for the next year.
So why the lovefest? Well, open-shop contractors were pleased last summer when Baker vetoed a provision effectively restricting construction of the new Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke to firms with union contracts, though it was later overridden by the Legislature, Beeman said.
Contractors were also grateful that Baker kept the construction industry open during the initial stages of the pandemic, at a time when Boston, under now former Mayor Marty Walsh, had shut down all but emergency work.
As the Rolling Stones would say, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes …
Mass exodus again? Globe, Herald columnists both miss mark
Looks like middle-class families are fleeing the state again, but probably not for the reasons the Herald’s Howie Carr and the Globe’s Jeff Jacoby would have you believe.
Carr, in his over-the-top fashion, and Jacoby, in his more thoughtful manner, suggest that some residents are simply tired of living in the Woke Hell formerly known as the Bay State.
Carr points to a survey by United Van Lines that Massachusetts is No. 7 in “departures” when it comes to residents moving out of state.
Ok, biting satire is Carr’s thing, but you’d think having one of the most expensive housing markets in the country might be one of the reasons for the departures.
Jacoby’s hook? Massachusetts lost 45,000 residents over the past year, citing a U.S. Census Bureau report.
Jacoby mentions the cost of housing once, but dwells on the attraction of states with lower income taxes, or in the case of New Hampshire and Florida, none at all.
I’d wager far lower home prices are a much bigger motivator.
Of course, the dirty little secret about the Granite State is that it’s anything but tax free. Homeowners who flee so-called Taxachusetts can easily find themselves buried under the high local property taxes imposed in the Granite State to support local schools.
But yes, the homes there are significantly cheaper.
After pandemic lull, rents rising again
It’s not just home prices that are going nuts.
Boston-area rents are also going through the roof as well as the market shakes off the effects of the pandemic.
Melrose and Salem, not your typical suspects when it comes to eye-popping rents, both saw apartment rents jump by more than 24 percent over the past year, Zumper reports.
The average rent for a one bedroom in Melrose weighs in at $2,240 in Melrose, making it the area’s fourth most expensive market. Salem’s average rent is now $2,050.
Leading the pack are the usual suspects: Cambridge ($2,710), Boston ($2,590), and Brookline ($2,340).
Looking for a bargain? Try Brockton, the least expensive city among the 17 Boston-area communities surveyed by Zumper, with a one-bedroom weighing in at $1,280.
Malden sees flurry of million-dollar home sales
Are we finally nearing the peak of this real estate market?
Maybe, maybe not, but a surge in million-dollar home sales in Malden is surely a sign of something.
Check out this five bedroom, four bath home on Pleasant Street in Malden that sold for $1.5 million. No offense to the new owners, but it’s not exactly a beauty.
The home has been split into three apartments, so that probably explains the price.
Overall, 16 homes sold for over $1 million in Malden in 2021.
Just call it Diplomagate
Boxborough Police Chief Warren Ryder has been placed on paid leave, while town officials are calling upon the FBI to investigate, CommonWealth Magazine reports.
Sounds really juicy, but actually it’s not. Absurd might be a better description.
Town officials are calling in the feds to investigate whether the Boxborough police officers were awarded “stipends for advanced degrees they had not earned as well as comp and holiday time to which they were not entitled,” the public policy mag reports.
Thickening the plot, so to speak, it turns out Ryder was the one who reportedly spotted the issue – discovering four different employees having received stipends they shouldn’t have – and then made changes to prevent it from reoccurring.
Wes Fowlks, the Select Board member who led the charge to call in the FBI, said he believes the chief. But apparently, with Boxborough residents divided over the issue, he sees no other way of settling the issue than calling in the FBI.
“While it does seem fairly extreme, I think it’s reasonable,” Fowlks told CommonWealth Magazine.
Really, to whom? File under a failure of the imagination.
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.
Contrarian Boston seeks contributors
Have a news tip? Is there an issue you would like to see explored? Interested in writing up a news item or short opinion piece? As Contrarian Boston gets on its feet, I would like to add more news and a wider range of commentary as well.
Intrigued? Drop me a line at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
Thanks for reading and see you Friday.