Conglomerate’s woes throw Boston HQ deal contradictions into bold relief What a surprise. General Electric is tanking, and the scheme to bring the multinational’s headquarters to Boston is looking worse by the day. And whom shall the public blame if that once-secret deal cut by Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh in […]
THE VERTEX SHELL GAME
Pharma’s Donation to Boston, Other Cities Converts Public Funds to PR Gold Vertex Pharmaceuticals made a big PR splash last week with an announcement of a significant donation to Boston and other cities where it does business. The Boston-based company, best known for its cystic fibrosis meds, has pledged to “spend $500 million on […]
JUST ASK DIAPERS.COM
More reasons Boston should take a hard pass on Amazon There are myriad practical reasons why Boston should walk away from the Amazon headquarters sweepstakes: an out-of-control real estate and rental market, chronic transit and traffic problems, and an overheated tech sector, which is exacerbating inequality. But the most compelling reason is that Amazon […]
AMAZON OCTAGON
Mass pols stand ready to fight each other for the right to bribe a multinational At least 17 Massachusetts cities and towns are now preparing to do battle with each other—and hundreds more municipalities nationwide—for the dubious “honor” of “winning” the right to throw enough public money and tax breaks at Amazon to become […]
AN AMAZON NORTH ANDOVER DEAL?
Sketch of the Merrimack Valley Works plant at North Andover while under construction in 1955 Merrimack Valley pols courting the tech behemoth have forgotten recent history A couple of weeks ago, I criticized the possibility of an Amazon Boston deal—on the grounds that most of the jobs it would provide would be for […]
DEFENDING THE SPACE WHERE DREAMS CAN BLOOM
9/14/17 UMB rally protestors UMass Boston prof criticizes move to balance budget by cancelling courses The following speech was given at a Sept. 14 rally at UMass Boston in support of the release of a new report by the Coalition to Save UMB entitled “Crumbling Public Foundations: Privatization and the UMass Boston Financial […]
STOP THE AMAZON BOSTON DEAL
Locals have until Oct 19 to say ‘No Public Bribes to Corporate Scofflaws’ Fresh off of throwing tens of millions of dollars at General Electric, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker are now planning to enter the international horse race to convince Amazon to let the city and the commonwealth shovel […]
REORDERING THE RAINBOW
The geographic and stylistic travels of Anya Smolnikova Musa Collective is the result of some ambitious graduates of Boston University’s MFA program from the mid-2000s coming together to operate an alternative space in Allston. Open by appointment only, it is significantly less accessible than your typical Harrison Avenue storefront. I have concerns that the […]
A PROTEST BY ANY OTHER NAME…
The best way to defeat the ultra right is to stop playing their game Street protest is a vital part of any genuinely democratic political system. But how and when people choose to demonstrate (or counterdemonstrate) determines the tactic’s relative success or failure. So in a situation like this week’s, when the ultra […]
SUBSIDIZING GIANTS
Charlie Baker’s $4.1 million gift to the cable industry On July 12, the Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality, millions of Americans sent comments to the Federal Communications Commission urging that body to keep the internet open and fair. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration chose a different approach. It gave a gift […]
