The City Council voted 12-1 today to ask the state legislature and the governor to let Boston increase the tax rate on commercial properties to higher levels than normally allowed over three years as a way to protect homeowners from potentially large property tax rates. Read more.
Where's the Tobin? Morning haze over Boston Harbor. Photo by Josh Bittker.
On both sides of the Charles, people called 911 to report the smell of smoke this morning, as bone-dry brush in greater Boston started flaming overnight. Read more.
In an emergency Zoom meeting this morning, the City Council agreed to hold a public hearing before voting on a proposal to potentially increase taxes on commercial properties over a three-year period to help cushion the blow on residential property owners from expected large decreases in the value of downtown office buildings because many have higher vacancy rates as a higher percentage of workers continue to stay home in the aftermath of Covid-19. Read more.
The Boston City Council, which usually only convenes on Wednesdays, has scheduled a Zoom meeting for 9:30 a.m. tomorrow to consider asking the state legislature to let Boston increase the commercial-property tax rate over a three-year period. Read more.
CommonWealth Beacon reports that under a compromise with city business organizations, the city will seek state approval to raise the tax levy from commercial properties higher than otherwise allowed for three years to help shield residential property owners from some of the shock of upcoming property re-assessments, expected to show a significant drop in commercial tax revenue due to continuing effects of fewer people returning to work downtown. Read more.
Scott Van Vorhis reports a possible deal between Mayor Wu and the heads of area businesses and local commercial property owners on a plan that would let Boston temporarily increase taxes on commercial property to minimize the amount city homeowners would see their bills go up because of the Covid-related decline in property values downtown - just by a smaller amount than Wu had originally proposed. The move still needs the approval of the legislature and governor.
Joseph Abasciano, fired as a Boston cop in 2023 for going to Washington and posting a series of tweets about the "traitors" in the Capitol and across the country before and during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, yesterday sued Boston and its police department, alleging violations of his First Amendment rights to both free speech and religious freedom by a mayor and police commissioner allegedly out to get him. Read more.
The Boston Public Health Commission today announced a series of free flu and Covid-19 vaccination clinics where you can just walk in and get a shot: Read more.
Rev. Laura Everett has been following and writing about women's sports in Boston for quite awhile. Today, she writes about the disaster that was the formal naming and introduction of the Boston professional women's soccer team, in particular the way the team managed to insult men, transgender people and past and present women's pro teams in Boston. Read more.
Three local newsrooms have won $100,000 grants to bolster local news coverage in the Boston area, from a group called Press Forward, which is trying to reinvigorate really local journalism. Read more.
The State House News Service reports Mayor Wu is continuing to push for the state Senate to approve a measure that would let city assessors temporarily increase the total amount they can level in taxes on commercial property as a way to help reduce impending increases on residential property. Read more.
A Boston ride-share driver will remain behind bars as a possible threat to society as he awaits trial on charges he raped at least eight women passengers over several years, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday. Read more.
GBH runs some numbers, finds we have some admirable crime stats, but that the mayor and the Economist might have, well, jumped the gun.
The Boston Licensing Board says it will be accepting applications through Dec. 6 for the 66 new "neighborhood" restaurant liquor licenses and the 4 new anywhere licenses it now has the authority to issue over the coming year. Read more.
WBZ reports on the impact on both businesses that get and ship their goods by sea and on the local workforce:
There are only 160 dockworkers in Boston, but the strike is expected to affect about 12,000 jobs in the area, including tugboat and truck drivers and delivery workers.
A New Jersey man who quit a job with Boston-based DraftKings to move to Los Angeles for a job with one of its online-betting archrivals, only to get sued by his former employers under the Massachusetts non-compete law, will have to make his case under Massachusetts law rather than California law, a federal court ruled yesterday. Read more.
Eric Adams and Michelle Wu both won election in 2021. About a year later, the New York Times posed the question of which leadership style Democrats wanted. Given events of the past couple days, you think the Times would ever ask that again? Read more.
Mayor Wu today announced she's appointed Kairos Shen, current real-estate development professor at MIT and a former top planner at the one-time Boston Redevelopment Authority, to lead the new Boston Planning Department with current planning head Arthur Jemison heading back to Detroit. Read more.
Three Boston city councilors yesterday called for a hearing to ask local postal officials why mail service has plummeted like a rock, in particular on Mission Hill in particular, but also across the city. Read more.
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