Congress helps restaurants, venues; ignores pleas from gyms, senior care
We knew arts organizations and artists took a big hit during the pandemic.
Now we’re starting to get an idea how big.
The state’s nonprofit and municipal cultural organizations lost $588 million revenue in past 12 months, according to a just released Mass Cultural Council survey.
Sixty-five percent of surveyed organizations have laid off, or plan to lay off, furlough, or reduce the hours and/or wages.
In addition, the Bay State’s individual artists, teaching artists, and scientists/humanists report losing an additional $30 million in personal income due to the pandemic.
"Our once booming, innovative, and vibrant cultural sector is in economic crisis," said Michael Bobbitt, MCC’s new executive director. "One year of closure and cancellations adds up to millions of dollars in lost revenue and income, and thousands of displaced and impacted workers statewide."
COVID bill helps restaurants, venues; ignores pleas from gyms, senior care facilities
At least some of our cultural organizations -- those that operate performing arts venues -- will receive relief from the $1.9 trillion federal coronavirus relief package that is expected to be approved by the US House today and signed this week by President Joe Biden.
The bill adds $1.25 billion to an existing $15 billion SBA venue rescue program that was approved in December, but is still not available, much to the frustration venue operators.
Restaurants will receive $28.6 billion through a new dedicated grant program, thanks to months of determined organizing by independent restaurants nationwide.
But while restaurants, venues and even airplane manufacturers will be helped from the billions earmarked for their industries, fitness clubs and long-term senior care facilities were among those whose pleas for similar programs were ignored by Congress, reports the Washington Post.
The stimulus bill also includes another $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program.
The Wall Street Journal has published a couple helpful charts breaking down how the $1.9 trillion program is allocated.
Comings and goings
- The popular New York City Mediterranean restaurant Limani, is opening its first Massachusetts restaurant at the Street. The two-story build-out will overlook Hammond Pond, with a wine bar on its ground floor (Boston Real Estate Times).
- Buckingham Browne & Nichols School is using proceeds from a $20.4 million bond to buy a 6.1-acre property in Watertown owned by Mount Auburn Cemetery. The site (an employee parking lot across the street from the cemetery) will become home to two athletic fields, a field house and 80 parking spaces. Both the school and Watertown will have access to the site once it's redeveloped. (Boston Business Journal)
- Spartan Safe, a multi-state Liberty Safe retailer has opened a showroom at Linden Square.
- The sewing, knitting, and crafts shop Hipstitch in West Newton is expanding into Wellesley, at 22 Church St. (the former Candy Bar Cosmetics) in mid-April, and a third location on Harvard Street in Brookline in June. (Swellesley Report).
250,000 Bay State jobs aren't coming back
An estimated quarter million Massachusetts jobs that were lost in the past year may not be coming back, Labor Secretary Rosalin Acosta said yesterday.
"We're estimating probably about 250,000 or so permanent job losses, and that's significant. That is a significant number,” Acosta said, while stressing the need for retraining programs through the MassHire system, reports Chris Lisinski at State House News.
About 54 percent of those claiming unemployment benefits in Massachusetts today are women, a shift from previous cycles in which the gender split was even or featured a majority of men.
"There are a lot of different reasons for that, and one is the sectors that were hit hardest. In this recession, health care is an industry where there are a lot of women, and the health care sector got hit very hard this recession versus 2008, where health care really was not hit hard," Acosta said.
"Another is everything related to child care. Everything related to child care -- early child care, school-faced learning -- has been very, very hard for women."
Need to knows
- AIM holds a zoom discussion on March 18 at noon titled “Pink Slip: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women in the Workforce in the Commonwealth” looking at why women are leaving the workforce and how employers can act now to prevent this talent loss. Register.
- Need health insurance? The MA Health Connector has extended its open enrollment period through March 23
- The amazing Newton Neighbors Helping Neighbors and the Newton Rotary Foundation are organizing an effort to buy gift cards from local restaurants which will donated to distributed to local residents experiencing food insecurity. If you’re a Newton restaurant that would like to be part of the program, apply here. Questions: Email Bruce Wilson.
Globe columnist questions Nonantum PAC
Could worries about banning a Santa Claus display, or cancelling a cherished Italian festival, really be about opposition to more housing and changing Newton’s zoning code?
That’s what Boston Globe columnist Marcela García believes.
In an op-ed yesterday, Garcia probed concerns raised by the Save Nonantum PAC which has been raising money to defeat two candidates for Newton City Council who are on the ballot in next Tuesday’s special election.
A statement on the PAC’s website says “Nonantum is under attack by a group of politicians who want to end our traditions and eliminate our culture.”
But Garcia says she found no “identifiable public incidents or specific comments made by any of the candidates,” including unspecified allegations about canceling the Santa display at Coletti-Magni Park or, my personal favorite annual Newton event, the St. Mary of Carmen Society Italian Festival.
And she reports the that Save Nonantum PAC couldn’t cite any specifics either.
The PAC does say it was angered by a City Council 22-2 vote last year to rename Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples Day. But none of the five candidates on the ballot Tuesday were on the council at the time.
Garcia concludes the “Nonantum controversy” is really “a proxy battle in the city’s ongoing war over whether to allow more housing.”
"For the past decade, the city has been engaged in an effort to change its zoning rules in order to correct the legacy of single-family-only zoning, which has historically been linked to income inequality and racial segregation," she writes.
"... voters shouldn’t be fooled by the war-on-Santa scaremongering. What’s really at stake March 16 are the ideals of housing inclusion and equity that the city says it cares about.”
And the losers are….
Here’s a dubious distinction for what was already a dubious distinction.
Our traffic is no longer the worst in the nation.
Greater Boston had the fourth-worst traffic in the country in 2020, after two years at No. 1 on the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard.
Boston drivers lost 48 hours in traffic congestion last year, compared to 101 hours lost in traffic in 2019. That’s a 68% decrease, reports the Herald.
“In Boston by the end of December, trips to downtown were down 70%,” Bob Pishue, the author of the INRIX report, told the Herald. “Only San Francisco and Detroit had a larger decrease.”
Sadly, without a real investment in our public transportation system, we’ll likely earn our title back.
Finally, how little we knew about what was ahead of us
One year ago today Gov. Charlie Baer signed the COVID-19 state of emergency.
On March 10, 2020 the number of coronavirus cases in Massachusetts had more than doubled to 92, up from 41 a day prior (we've had some 594,000 since and 16,456 deaths).
And we were all still hopeful that it would all clear up in time for the Boston Marathon and our own Spring Seasonings, just a few weeks away.
Here’s a look at that first announcement as we all tried to adjust to this new threat and, you'll note, had yet to adapt face masks or social distancing.
Be back tomorrow.
President, Newton-Needham Regional Chamber
617-244-1688
Your chamber is here when you need us.
