WBZ-Channel 4’s Jon Keller hosted a debate over the weekend between Andrew Mikula, a backer of Question 7,  and Adam Chapdelaine, head of the Mass. Municipal Association and an opponent of the referendum question that would allow single-family homes to be built on smaller lots in Massachusetts. It was an interesting debate. Definitely check it out. As for myself, I support the measure. As intended, it will likely lead to the building of slightly less expensive homes, largely by cutting down on land costs. Good riddance to any and all snob-zoning land requirements that drive up costs. But I don’t believe, as its supporters claim, that it will necessarily lead to a flood of new “starter homes” in Massachusetts. The photo above of recently built houses in Hudson, my hometown, show what will probably happen if the ballot question passes: large homes, small lots. The photo below is from the same new subdivision. Once again: large homes, small lots.* …

One day, Question 7, if it gets the nod as polls suggest, will probably produce true starter homes of the Cape and Ranch varieties. But right now the market is still calling for McMansion-like homes. OK, maybe something slightly short of McMansions. But definitely not starter homes, as you can see above and below.

*Update — I checked out the top right house in the photo above. Unless the definition of starter homes has changed to include 4-bedroom, 5 bathroom, 4,300-square-foot abodes priced at $1.47 million, I think it’s fair to call it a non-starter home.

I’m not going to get too upset about Maura Healey’s indifferent “things happen” response to the alleged rape in the State Police barracks on Martha’s Vineyard. It was wrong. It was borderline callous. Still, I think it’s safe to say that she regrets the remark and isn’t the type to dismiss rape as a trivial “thing.” But what makes “things happen” ultimately bad for her was how eager she was to rhetorically move from the latest scandal involving the State Police to declaring she’s “proud to have the support of local and state law enforcement in this race. And that’s because they know I have their back.” … From the topic of rape to vote grubbing. Now that’s callous. … The Globe and the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld have more on ‘things happen’. … And, yes, Joe’s right: she’s still going to win reelection, perhaps minus a few ‘things happen’ votes.

Here’s a pleasant surprise: The Globe has endorsed Question 3, the referendum question that would replace the state’s current party primary elections with “all-party” primary elections. I’ve harped on this subject before, here and here. But the Globe editorial really nails why Question 3, as imperfect as it may be, is needed to promote genuine political competition in Massachusetts. I particularly liked these lines:

The biggest reason for the lack of competition (today) is because the Republican Party has slid into irrelevance in much of the state, and does not bother to field candidates. The biggest reason to vote for Question 3 is because having a healthy democracy with competitive races shouldn’t depend on the Massachusetts GOP someday getting its act together.

Toward the end, the Globe unfortunately gives a sop to progressives by saying that all-party primaries could one day co-exist with ranked-choice voting. But ranked-choice voting would actually negate the benefits of all-party primaries, giving the majority (i.e. Dems) extra shots at controlling who advances to general elections. Ranked-choice voting is a bad idea. But that’s a debate for a different day.

Update — 10.18.26 – More from your favorite inept party, via the Globe: “Shawn Oliver, GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, suspends campaign after OUI charge”

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed over the past week:

— Very interesting. Loans tied to future rents, not to a builder’s income: “A New Type of Mortgage Is Reviving Long Abandoned Neighborhoods.” (WSJ)

— A really good pros-and-cons explainer piece from Scott Kirsner: “Mass. could get the nation’s toughest law to stave off AI catastrophes.” (MassLive)

— Whoa. That’s a lot of housing: “Downtown Brockton Proposal Includes 1K Housing Units” (B&T)

— Live by the trend, die by the trend: “Pickleball franchisor with Mass. locations files for bankruptcy” (BBJ)

— Actually, his biggest challenge is getting people to pay attention to the race: “John Deaton’s biggest challenge isn’t Ed Markey. It’s President Trump” (WBUR)

— He seems to impress both moderates and progressives: “The Jon Ossoff guide to being a Democrat” (The Economist)

— So pathetic: “Hunt on for couple who stole tips from a Jamaica Plain take-out place” (Universal Hub)

— A Massachusetts history buff helps solve a mystery dating back to the War of 1812: “His Unmarked Grave Lay Forgotten for 200 Years. They Had to Fix That.” (NYT)

— If only he would take a different view towards his obsession with 3-pointers: “Joe Mazzulla already seeing dividends from taking a different view this Celtics preseason” (Globe)

— Make sure you have MediVac insurance before eating: “This underrated Mass. burger joint has an insane quadruple cheeseburger (Video)” (MassLive)

— Think project cost-overruns are bad in Massachusetts? Check out this UK fiasco: “A ‘Ludicrously Ugly’ Bridge Is Exhibit A That Britain Has Lost Its Mojo” (WSJ) 

At the Atlantic, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum lets the president have it for cutting a pre-election diesel fuel deal with Putin:

In the past 72 hours, Donald Trump has dropped all pretense, torched a couple decades of American policy, and undermined 18 months of his own diplomacy. He lifted sanctions on the import of Russian diesel fuel, in violation of the letter and spirit of laws that he himself signed. He has threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine, unless Ukraine agrees not to target Russian refineries, thus demanding that Kyiv give up its most effective weapon while asking nothing from Russia in exchange. He has not criticized Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants or factories, even those owned by American companies. He has offered no condolences for the recent deaths of Ukrainian children in Russian bombing raids. 

He has lied repeatedly.

If you haven’t already, check out some of her books, especially Gulag: A History (2004 Pulitzer Prize winner) and Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine.  She definitely knows her Russian and Ukrainian histories.

Update — From the NYT: “Trump Hands Victories to Putin, Who Offers More War in Return.”

Update II –– 10.15.26 – From the Economist: “Hardly his finest hour.” And the subhead: “Donald Trump’s scheme to secure Russian diesel is scandalous.”

Update III — From Tom Friedman: “Trump’s Democracy-for-Diesel Deal Shames Us All.”

The Globe’s Dan Shaugnessey asks the above question and so we answer: Because he truly sucked. It wasn’t our imagination. … Now we throw the question back at Dan et gang: How did so many regain faith in Drake Maye so fast? Two good games in a row after six lousy games in a row. … Up, down, up. One more cycle and we’ll have a pattern.

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed over the past week.

— Yes, AI is destroying jobs. Here’s the local proof: “AI is upending Boston-area tech businesses, amid buyouts and job cuts” (Globe)

— Meanwhile, old-fashioned rates are upending CRE again: “The Surge in Rates Is Blowing Up Commercial Real-Estate Deals” (WSJ)

— A combination of factors are at play here, including young ones drinking less: “Craft beer closures outpace openings in Massachusetts for the first time” (BBJ)

— One less eyesore on the waterfront: “Boutique Hotel Pitched for Fire-Damaged Boston Wharf” (B&T)

— It’s become a surprise non-affordability issue: “This Trump-backed school choice push has put Mass. Gov. Healey in a campaign-season squeeze” (MassLive)

— This could ease expanded passenger rail in western Mass.: “State, CSX agree to rail upgrades in the Berkshires” (GBH)

— You don’t say: “Seattle’s Mayor Ran as a Socialist. Then She Ran Into Reality” (WSJ)

— It’s not a Herald headline. It’s WSJ headline: “Drake Maye Lives! Patriots Quarterback Defies Early Doubt” (WSJ)

— Now they have doubts? He should never have been confirmed in the first place: “Hegseth Talks Tough as Republican Doubts About His Leadership Grow?” (NYT)

— Necessity is the mother of inventions, especially in war: “How Ukraine’s Naval Drones Are Remaking War at Sea” (NYT)

If you want to shake up the political status quo in Massachusetts, Question 3 will definitely accomplish the goal if passed in November – replacing our current partisan primary-election system with an “all-party” primary system, similar to what now exists in California. It’s an imperfect solution to a very real problem: we have too many uncontested general elections in Massachusetts. The two-party system is simply not working here.

And now former Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, is joining former Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, in supporting Question 3, arguing that its passage will promote more competitive elections in Massachusetts, as GBH reports. They’re right. It will definitely promote more competitive elections. And that’s precisely why the political establishment hates the idea. Of course they do. 

Update — 10.8.26 — From a reader:

On Question 3 – I respect your perspective of course.   It depends on the problem you are trying to solve..I think it will make for more competitive elections but only within the Democratic party, because we have a Democratic party monoculture in Massachusetts (like California and a few other states).   I see two high probability outcomes:

– The Democratic Socialists of America advances its takeover of said Democratic party. Final elections strongly resemble Democratic primaries.

OR

– The Undecided voters come to the fore and push back the DSA takeover of said Democratic party.    That is likely to result in more of the criticized incumbents staying in power (presumably motivation for this question) but… if you’re not an DSA fan, it could be worse!.

I think there’s a very good chance of the former and not the latter because the DSA is already dominated by highly educated people who are highly effective at silencing opposition via various persuasive and cognitive methods. …

My response to the reader: I respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. In California, studies have shown all-party primaries push  candidates to the center, not the extremes, as candidates try to capture those centrist voters. The current party primary system pushes people to the extreme — extreme right in the GOP’s case (which we’ve already seen), extreme left in the Dem party (as we now see unfolding).

Update II –– 10.8.26 – From the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld: “Charlie Baker backs ballot question making the MassGOP extinct.” … Again, I respectfully disagree. I think an open primary could help Republican candidates. And entrenched Democrats think so too. That’s why they hate this idea.

You got to hand it to Gov. Healey: she’s stolen the energy-cost issue from rival Mike Minogue, fair and square, and he’s once again left whining and fuming, as the Herald reports. The Republican Minogue deserves credit for initially forcing Healey’s hand on the gas-tax-holiday issue. But then he started his she-stole-my-idea whining – and now Healey’s stealing the winter heating-fuel issue, via an “energy emergency” executive order, that Minogue should have aggressively pursued after her blatant gas-tax-holiday theft (and after Hub Blog and others pointed out the logical next winter-fuel step for Minogue). … Bottom line: the West Point grad has been left flat-footed by the former Harvard basketball player, who’s run a political fast-break offense and full-court-press defense against Minogue. Among other topics, she’s been shamelessly everywhere on the energy issue. See yesterday’s “Pipeline politics” post. … Hmmm. Two energy-politics posts in as many days. There’s a pattern forming here.

Update — 10.7.26 — From Howie Carr at the Herald: “Maura Healey’s chilling kilowatt-hour crusade.”

Update II — 10.8.26 – From a WSJ editorial: “Climate Reality Hits Massachusetts.”

Update III — 10.926 – From the Globe’s Larry Edelman: “Healey is weak on the economy, but Minogue’s pitch isn’t landing with voters.”

I loved Mark Shanahan’s Globe piece on The Departed, the most overrated Boston crime movie of them all. Here’s Mark on the flick’s awful Boston accents and a certain actor’s overacting:

Instead, the city’s avatar is a bad accent — a bunch of them, actually. Even local boys Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, who should know better, lean a little too hahd into the Dorchester dialect. Alec Baldwin? He’s not playing a Boston cop, he’s parodying one. Thankfully, Jack Nicholson doesn’t attempt an accent, but he still manages to make mob boss Frank Costello a cartoon, more slapstick than satanic; Nicholson’s performance is absurdly over-the-top, even for him, and it undermines the movie.

To me, Nicholson’s casting ruined the movie. From the get go, it was Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson.

I agree with Shanahan that The Town is a much better Boston crime film, drawing inspiration from Michael Mann’s Heat. But Ben Affleck’s The Town also drew inspiration from arguably the greatest Boston crime movie of them all: The Friends of Eddie Coyle, starring Robert Mitchum. Based on George Higgins’s classic novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle can be a slow, tedious movie at times, but it really captures Boston of the 1970s, when the Winter Hill Gang and Whitey reigned supreme here. It ultimately earned higher ratings at Rotten Tomatoes than both The Departed and The Town.

Update — From a reader: “I actually like The Depahhted, though I agree The Town is a more authentic/better Boston crime movie.   Eddie Coyle is awesome… opening bank robbery exterior shot in Dedham Square!  One of my (old friends) has a role in the North Shore home invasion (scene).”