I love the phrase. It’s accurate. … See my “If journalists were really honest” post from earlier this month.

It’s a coup d’etat! … Or maybe they’re just parodying themselves? 

Northeastern University just posted a record-low acceptance rate of 5.2 percent for its incoming class, the Globe reports. Not bad for a former commuter school. The university’s administrators, professors, alumni and students obviously love the rating for the elite status it suggests. But is this newfound status really good for society? Is it good for Boston? People tend to forget that the former commuter school was intended to be, well, a part-time commuter school when it was first launched by the YMCA of Boston in the late 1800s to prepare young men (and later women) for the workplace. And by young men, we’re not talking Harvard men. We’re talking those who, for instance, were more interested in attending the new automobile school and other practical programs at the then “Evening Institute for Young Men.” The institute soon after added schools for law and finance etc. Its famous “co-op” program started in 1909 – and it’s been a career-starter hit ever since.  

In effect, the early Northeastern, which became a college in 1916, was a sort of cross between a vocational school, night school and community college. It was specifically aimed at providing educations to Boston’s working-class residents. Now? It’s a completely transformed school, something the Globe’s Hillary Burns rightly addresses: “Some worry about the people Northeastern’s exclusivity leaves behind, including the scores of students from working-class families in the Boston area who once flocked to the school. They often lacked the stellar academics you need to gain admission today …”  

Northeastern isn’t the only local college that has gone through a similar transformation. Beginning in the late 20^th Century, Tufts University, Boston College and Boston University – under the remarkable leadership of Jean Mayer, the J. Donald Monan and John Silber, respectively – also began to transform from relatively sleepy schools, with a large number of commuter students, into what we now consider top-tier universities. They too left behind thousands (not scores) of working-class families.  

The same approximate trend is happening today at the high school level in Massachusetts, as vocational high-schools slowly evolve from their traditional working-class roots into something more appealing to the middle-class and the upper-middle class. They’re becoming more exclusive. They too are leaving behind many lower-income families.  

To be clear, I think it’s great that schools like Northeastern, Tufts, BC and BU have striven to become better universities. And as experts note, they needed to evolve to survive changing demographic trends. Boston College, for instance, was on the verge of bankruptcy when Monan (and later William P. Leahy) embarked on transforming BC from a “regional to a national and ultimately an international university.” 

But let’s face it: the transformations of Northeastern and other universities were also about ego and status, the old “lust to shine or rule,” for college presidents, faculty and alumni to be able to brag they’re among the elite. Remember: status is also about survival, of the instinct variety, and humans crave it.

Bottom line: Northeastern’s newfound status deserves to be cheered. But not too heartily. Many have indeed been left behind by its transformation.

Great minds think alike, i.e. Banker & Tradesman’s Scott Van Voorhis and Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias, both of whom noticed the distinct pro-YIMBY tilt at last week’s Democratic National Convention. … In recent months, there’s been surprising bi-partisan support for taking on suburban NIMBYism. Let’s hope that bi-partisanship holds. 

Killing Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, would allow Israel to declare victory and end the war in Gaza, as most people assume and as the NYT reports. … Think about it: it’s not about destroying Hamas at this point. It’s about finding a face-saving way for Israel to say it won. It’s ultimately an acknowledgement the original goal was never achievable. … 

Bill Simmons thinks Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is interested in buying the Boston Celtics, saying the billionaire tech-mogul may view the championship team as “one of the crown jewel franchises” of sports, as Boston.com reports. … Well, the Washington Post was once considered “one of the crown jewel franchises” of journalism and look at it today, thanks to Bezos. … My money is still on Stephen Pagliuca stiching together an investment team to buy the Celts.

Scott Van Voohis’s Contrarian Boston contains lots of fascinating tidbits about the Steward Hospitals tragedy, including how one of the investors in the notorious real estate company that helped drive the hospital chain into the ground is none other than Boston’s very own State Street Corp. Geode Capital Management also holds shares in Medical Properties Trust. … Don’t miss Mark Pickering’s take on the Steward mess at the bottom of Scott’s CB newsletter. … Separately, the WSJ has an update on the greed of Ralph de la Torre, CEO of Steward. … It still boggles the mind these PE firms were allowed to legally pillage a hospital chain that was originally formed with the charitable nickels and dimes of long-ago immigrant families. But legally pillage they did. Without any hesitation or remorse.

Update – The Globe’s Larry Edelman is wondering why the Healey administration isn’t stepping in to save the Steward hospitals in Dorchester and Ayer.

To address the housing crisis in the U.K, the new Labor government is reviving an old idea of building entirely new towns on vacant land. One project includes building 10,000 homes on a former WWII airfield. … The pace of the new construction has been ‘sluggish.’ Sound familiar? Like our stalled development plans for Devens and South Weymouth? 

Update – Sal Lupoli has just landed a manufacturing tenant at his mega-development site in Littleton, where he plans to build more than 1,000 housing units as part of a mix-used project.

It was barely enough, but interest rates did fall to a level last month that will likely warrant interest rate cuts. … And Kamala Harris’ luck continues.

The Globe may have its new Rent Tracker. But there’s also a College Closure Tracker (for lack of other words), via Best Colleges. I just stumbled upon the handy site while doing research for another story. … Note: the vast majority of colleges that have gone under since 2004 have been for-profit colleges. But the most recent listings show private non-profit colleges are now closing at a faster clip than for-profits, due largely to student-debt and demographic trends.