By Jay Fitzgerald – A blog about Boston, Hub of the Universe, and everything else.


Headline Shorts: To Wu’s credit … The Harvard bull’s-eye … Exhausted Chuck Taylor nostalgia … Brutalist Mall … Worker Commuter Tax … Religious-schools watch list

— Joe doesn’t quite give her credit, but she deserves it: “Michelle Wu ignores Kraft-Trump bromance to broker stadium deal” (Herald)

— Basically, it pinned a bull’s-eye on itself: “How Harvard became Trump’s perfect target” (Globe)

— The ultimate $64,000 development question: “What’s Holding Back New Housing in Boston?” (Banker & Tradesman)

— A possible harbinger of things to come in Massachusetts?  “California Cuts Back on Costly Immigrant Healthcare” (WSJ)

— They don’t seem to realize you can take Chuck Taylor nostalgia only so far: “Converse seeks rebound by reaching into its brand heritage” (BBJ)

— Yet another company that’s relied too heavily on nostalgia and heritage” “Why Sears’s Last Great Hope Was a Promise That Never Materialized” (NYT)

— Meanwhile, our president has a bad case of WWII battleship nostalgia: “A ‘Trump Class’ Folly on the High Seas” (The Atlantic)

— One of the challenges facing the new owner of Solomon Pond: how to make its Brutalist-like exterior more inviting to Internet-era shoppers: “29-year-old mall, once among Simon’s jewels, sells for rock-bottom price” (BBJ)

— Mandating a long daily commute is like slapping a tax on workers – and they’re rebelling against it: “For many New Englanders, working in Boston means an exhausting commute” (Globe)

— Small religiously affiliated colleges are becoming an endangered species around here: “Eastern Mass. college on closure watchlist could lose its accreditation” (BBJ)

— What’s happening in Texas and New Mexico falls somewhere in between Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring: “America’s Biggest Oil Field Is Turning Into a Pressure Cooker” (WSJ)

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