As a HB reader put it in an email to me: The WSJ has struck again. Two days after running a piece on our struggling life-science sector (“Ph.D.s Can’t Find Work as Boston’s Biotech Engine Sputters”), the WSJ comes out today with a piece on our struggling high-end condos market (“Boston Went Big on Luxury Condos. The Buyers Didn’t show Up”). It seems we’re not a New York or Miami when it comes to high-end living. … Is it the New England weather? The early T and bar-closing hours? … We need to find a scapegoat. We’re definitely good at finding scapegoats.
Month: December 2025
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Admit it: Boston’s no New York or Miami when it comes to pricey luxury condos
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Charlie Baker: A shill for a broken college sports system
Instead of asking ‘Is the college sports system broken?’ (to which the answer should be obvious) perhaps Dan Shaughnessey should have asked ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a shill has Charlie Baker become for the NCAA?’ … My answer to the second question: A solid ‘9.’ I would have given Baker a 10 (a complete shill), but in an interview with Dan the former Massachusetts governor and current NCAA president at least acknowledges frustrations with the current semi-pro Division 1 sports system. … But maybe I’m being too harsh. Being a cheerleader for the NCAA, which pays Baker’s multimillion-dollar salary off the backs of unpaid ‘student-athletes,’ is part of his job.
Other related thoughts: 1.) Have you noticed how many NCCA college-establishment types (coaches, ADs, college presidents etc.) are suddenly bitching and moaning about the new transfer ‘portal’ and NIL payment rules after years of enriching themselves off of unpaid ‘student-athletes’? 2.) My favorite recent sports-related headline, via the Post: “With dumb names and no stakes, bowl games’ days are numbered.” 3.) My favorite dumb-names bowl games: “The Pop-Tarts’ Bowl” and the “Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.” Amazingly, they still pay out $6M and $4M respectively to participating schools.
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Stefon Diggs: One of the finest free agent pickups ever … Ah, never mind
The perils of puff pieces. From the Globe, 5 a.m. this morning: “Patriots struck gold when they signed Stefon Diggs, one of the finest free agent pickups in club history.” … From the Globe, 4:04 p.m. this afternoon: “New details emerge as Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs faces assault, strangulation charges.”
Hey, it happens to all journalists sooner or later. Believe me, I know. But still …
Update – 1.1.25 — And now this, via WCVB: “Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore facing domestic assault charge, court documents show.” … We’re not quite in Aaron Hernandez territory, but it looks bad for the New Patriots Way, not to be confused with the Old Pats Way.
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Harvard and other colleges: replacing one oppressor with another oppressor
As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and it’s happening right now at Harvard, where sophomore Alex Bronzini-Vender, in a Times op-ed, bemoans the new new campus orthodoxy that’s replaced the old campus orthodoxy. … I have at least one suggestion: How about eliminating freshmen sensitivity training sessions in general, both the lefty and righty varieties? It would represent a small step toward campus sanity.
Some other thoughts: 1.) Oh, now they’re citing the free-speech concerns expressed by FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), an organization that spent literally decades warning about the left’s relentless attacks on campus free-speech. Well, better late than never when it comes to embracing free-speech principles. 2.) The right’s imposition of a new campus orthodoxy is not worse than the previous left orthodoxy. At least not yet. But they’re trying. * 3.) The right is definitely exhibiting classic mirror-image behavior here, i.e. complaining about lefty antics while adopting lefty antics. As a Harvard professor put it in Bronzini-Vender’s Times op-ed, new conservative demands amount to “a tragic and very effective use of the previous decade’s standards around what we call ‘safe spaces’ and ‘wokeness.’”
*Update — 12.30.25 – The Globe has a good piece on the right’s dream college. Basically, it’s the mirror image of woke schools.
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Pleasant surprise: Healey opposes rent-control measure
Or maybe it’s not a surprise. As I’ve noted in the past, Gov. Healey has a pragmatic side to her progressive politics – and her opposition to the radical rent control measure, as GBH reports, is definitely an example of that pragmatic streak.
Will her opposition make a difference? Probably not. And recall that her predecessor, Charlie Baker, seemed to be a walking jinx when it came to his gubernatorial endorsement or opposition to ballot questions. Still, it’s nice to know Healey is standing up to the extreme proposal favored by other (though not all) progressives. … Btw: Might as well point out that Mayor Wu has previously expressed her own reservations about the rent-control ballot measure.
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Healey and Dems caught in the energy web of their own making
I thought the partisan back-and-forth debate over the nation’s energy policy was settled way back in 2008 when Paris Hilton unveiled her bold, groundbreaking “hybrid” energy policy to the nation. But here we are, nearly two decades later, with the same old either-or arguments over oil and gas vs new clean-energy technologies, etc. etc. At the NYT, Matthew Yglesias is jumping into the fray, asking why Dems don’t adopt the pro-fossil fuel policies that liberals in Canada, Mexico, Norway and Australia are embracing, sort of along the hybrid fossil-to-clean-energy lines that Paris so brilliantly enunciated years ago.
What about our local leaders’ energy policies? Well, Gov. Maura Healy is now caught in a contradictory energy web of her making, having opposed new natural-gas pipelines when she was AG and now seemingly backing off that uber-progressive position today amid voter anger over rising energy prices in Massachusetts. Did we mention Healey is running for re-election next year? Anyway, you can dismiss the recent Mass. Fiscal Alliance and Herald attacks on Healey’s energy policies all you want. But it’s gotten politically serious enough for the state Democratic Party to ride to Healey’s rescue on the issue, as the Herald reports. Dems wouldn’t be doing this if they thought the issue wasn’t sticking. Perceptions matter in politics, even if new pipelines wouldn’t have made much of a difference in consumer prices.
Btw: It isn’t just Healey backpedaling on energy policies. Beacon Hill Dems are getting increasingly nervous about their party’s past uber-progressive energy stands. … It’s all about affordability these days.
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Headline Shorts: Calling out Wu. … Mitt’s tax-me plan … Pantheon of Non-Shovelers … Dysfunctional Agency Alerts … Dershowitz drivel … Low-stake Bowl Games
— When even GBH calls out the accuracy of her assertions, you know she’s on shaky ground: “Wu again claims Boston is safest city in US. But recent data suggests otherwise” (GBH)
— A high honor: “Councilor Weber joins John Kerry in the pantheon of public officials ticketed for not shoveling their sidewalks” (Universal Hub)— He’s speaking common sense like an elder statesman: “Mitt Romney: Tax the Rich, Like Me” (NYT)
— Not going to happen, but it’s nice to dream: “Orange Line Extension to Roslindale Attracting Attention” (B&T)
— Another dysfunctional regulatory agency? Not quite. But trending in that direction: “A fine mess at the Mass. Gaming Commission” (MassterList)
— Another dysfunctional agency contender: “Report: Steamship Authority wasted millions in public funds on failed website” (Herald)
— Please don’t encourage him, Alan: “Trump Told by Alan Dershowitz Constitutionality of Third Term Is Unclear” (WSJ)
— They paid only $1 million? The golf industry is in bigger trouble than I thought: “Alliance Golf buys Central Massachusetts course as state sees more closures than openings” (BBJ)
— This isn’t investing: “High-Speed Traders Are Feuding Over a Way to Save 3.2 Billionths of a Second” (WSJ)
— So much for ‘give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses’: “Massachusetts, other states sue to block $100,000 visa fee for skilled workers” (Universal Hub)
— Speaking of awful ideas: “Forcing visitors to share five years of social media history is nuts” (Washington Post)
— It’s a shame, but their time has passed: “With dumb names and no stakes, bowl games’ days are numbered” (Washington Post)
— More military-history-buff reporting from the WSJ: “U.S. Army Changes Tools and Tactics to Prepare for the Next Pacific War” (WSJ)
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What Boston might have looked like 250 years ago
Someone sent me this AI-reconstruction at YouTube of what Boston might have looked like 250 years ago at the outbreak of the American Revolution. Via Vanished History, it’s pretty cool. … Needless to say, some sharp-eyed students of history in the comments section have pointed out some historical inaccuracies. But it’s still fun. Check it out. … And, yes, there really was a gallows at the Boston Neck in 1775, a kind of grim ‘Welcome to Boston’ salutation of sorts. -
‘Broken windows’ theory, meet ‘environmental design intervention’ theory
The ‘broken windows’ theory of fighting crime has taken a reputational hit in recent years, somewhat justifiably because it somehow morphed into stop-and-frisk and other obnoxious policies of harassing law-abiding residents. But I still think some of the concepts behind ‘broken windows’ — i.e. that addressing little things in crime-ridden neighborhoods matter, such as fixing buildings with ominous looking broken-glass windows or removing derelict cars sitting on cinder blocks or cleaning up depressing vacant lots – contribute to a more positive environment that helps deter crime.
Well, well, well. Look what we have here: a variation of ‘broken windows,’ called ‘environmental design intervention,’ and it’s working in Philadelphia via things like “cleaning up vacant lots, installing warmer streetlights and developing community gardens,” as the NYT reports. The Times article does note the similarities – and the differences – between ‘broken windows’ and ‘environmental design intervention,’ but then quickly moves on, as if the former might discredit the latter. But the connection is clearly made. … Hopefully, ‘environmental design intervention’ isn’t eventually corrupted the way ‘broken windows’ was corrupted. It sounds like a great program.
Hub Blog 