The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has entered the final stretch of its effort to launch a Business Improvement District to help fund its operations. The conservancy has made concessions to the Greenway district’s biggest landlords, and lowered the BID’s overall fundraising target. The fate of the proposed BID remains uncertain, though, thanks to the top-heavy […]
Growth and Development
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Professor says Boston attractive casino site
Casino operators will bid very aggressively for a license to operate in the Boston area if gambling legislation passes, but Massachusetts officials should go slowly in selecting the eventual winner, says a professor of economics from the University of Nevada. William Eadington, a professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of […]
Posted inEconomy
Have you noticed a change in downtown Boston?
In five months on the job, the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District says it has hauled away 32,000 pounds of trash and removed 1,500 graffiti sites. It has organized art displays, jazz performances, car shows, and restaurant crawls. And the BID has hired 31 highly visible employees who wear orange shirts and serve as street-level […]
Posted inEconomy, Transportation
Delaware North bids $75m for T garage
An affiliate of Delaware North submitted the sole bid for the MBTA’s North Station garage today, putting the financially struggling transportation agency in line for a $75 million windfall. The sale of the 1,280-space garage is the second significant one-time sale that the T has initiated this year, as it seeks to close nearly $900 […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Retail politics
In Washington, politicians are fighting over debt. Closer to home, it’s groceries they get all worked up about. The mayors of Somerville and Boston are currently beating up on Wal-Mart. The discount retailer is looking to urban expansion to boost flagging sales at its suburban and exurban superstores. That effort is bringing Wal-Mart into conflict […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics, The Download
For lawmakers on Beacon Hill, patronage is the scandal that won’t go away
<div id=”fb-root”></div><script src=”First it was Probation, a legislative jobs bank that blew up in spectacular fashion in its sponsors’ faces. Now, just two months after the Legislature tried distancing itself from patronage at Probation, an investigation into the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission is shining more light onto the nexus between cash, jobs, and legislative […]
Posted inEconomy
Swan Boats, Sullivan’s get sweet deals from city, state
the swan boats in the Public Garden and Sullivan’s hot dog stand on Castle Island in South Boston are two of Boston’s most beloved businesses. But the landmark operations are showered with more than just the love of an adoring public; they also enjoy unusually generous leases from their government landlords. The state’s deal with […]
Posted inEconomy
Divining Devens
massachusetts hasn’t created a new municipality in nearly a century, since East Brookfield and Brookfield divorced in 1920. Five years ago, it looked like Devens would displace East BrookÂfield as the state’s newest town. Commercial construction at the old Army base on Route 2 had been speeding along for a decade, and it had recently […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
High-watt hearings on proposed utility merger
NStar and Northeast Utilities will begin a series of high-stakes regulatory hearings tomorrow that will determine whether the two electric giants will be allowed to merge — and may also decide the fate of Cape Wind. The Boston Herald previews tomorrow’s Department of Public Utilities hearings with a story that’s heavy on Cape Wind speculation. […]
Posted inEconomy, The Back Story
Back where they started
The state-owned building at Parcel 7 has kept a lonely watch over Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway for a decade now. The office structure, a relic of the Big Dig, has stood empty since the tunnel project was in full swing, as state transportation officials haggled over just what to do with the hulking, unfinished brick […]