Hard times for our hotels
After having already approved harsh new zoning that makes it improbable, if not impossible, for a firearms business to open in Newton, the city council voted last night, 21-3, against an outright gun store ban.
Gun control advocates nationwide urged city leaders to not pursue a gun ban that could wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
That request seemed have swayed many of the ban’s original sponsors to back down. Still, a few proponents will be bringing the ban proposal back this fall in the form of a new ordinance.
Meanwhile, in a compelling op-ed in CommonWealth, Gail Spector says she fears “that banning [gun] stores in a suburb will prove more self-serving than transformative."
"Disallowing gun stores in Newton is a narrow solution to a massive problem if business owners instead choose to locate one town over.”
Indeed, gun shops currently operate in Natick, Waltham and other west suburban communities. Watertown, Wellesley and Brookline are considering actions to limit block firearms businesses.
Which brings us to Spector’s larger point:
“If Newton residents want to lower the rate of gun violence in the country, we need to harness our privilege to help more vulnerable communities feel safer,” she writes.
“Otherwise we’re just putting borders around our entitlement."
Hotel market among the nation’s most depressed
Greater Boston’s hotel market has the dubious distinction of being the second worst in the nation.
That’s according to a new report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which says Boston's lodging market is in an economic depression, with losses second only to San Francisco.
In May 2021, the final full month that Massachusetts had a state of emergency in place, Boston hotels brought in one-third as much revenue per available room as they did two years earlier, writes State House News’ Chris Lisinski.
"While some industries are starting to rebound as COVID-19 restrictions ease across the country, the U.S. hotel industry is still in a recession, with the hardest-hit markets, including Boston, in a depression," said AHLA President Chip Rogers.
How bad is it?
Employment in the Massachusetts leisure and hospitality sector dipped from 383,300 in February 2020 to 158,000 in April 2020, representing a loss of more than 58% of jobs, according to state labor data.
The outlook has recovered month-by-month since then, but the 281,400 leisure and hospitality jobs in May 2021 still lagged pre-pandemic levels by more than 100,000. (State House News)
All the more reason to approve Riverside
Seeing how hard the hotel market has fallen only emphasizes the need for the Newton City Council to quickly approve Mark Development's plan to replace a hotel and some office space with two life sciences building at Riverside Station.
The council’s Land Use Committee will hold yet another hearing on the proposed change tonight (Tues.) at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
You can view renderings, comparing the prior and new Riverside plans here.
To err is human. To get SBA forgiveness, divine.
Some small businesses and nonprofits may soon have a new way to make sure they don’t have to pay Uncle Sam back for their PPP loan, according to Andy Medici at the BBJ.
Medici says the SBA could soon launch a new forgiveness portal that would allow at least some small-business owners to apply for forgiveness on an SBA platform instead of starting with their lender.
The agency could announce the portal this week but the site might not launch until August. Lenders will most likely need to opt in to allow their recipients to participate.
Without forgiveness, PPP awards convert to a standard loan at 1 percent interest.
Restaurant program leaves 4,000 wanting
First the good news: More than 2,500 restaurants and caterers statewide have received an SBA grant -- a combined $993 million – under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
The grants placed Massachusetts among the top in the nation, ļ»æreports Janelle Nanos in the Globe.
Now the bad: Another 4,000 of the state's restaurants (representing $1.4 billion in requests) were left out the $28.6 billion program, which ran out of funds long before hundreds of thousands of requests nationally could be considered.
Nanos notes that some 3,000 grants nationally were rescinded after "a discrimination lawsuit brought by white business owners" challenged a 21-day priority period for businesses owned by women, people of color, and veterans."
(Nanos' article doesn't mention this, but actually, that suit was brought by America First Legal, a group run by Stephen Miller, a former adviser to President Donald J. Trump, and other ex-Trump administration officials.)
Want to see who was funded? The Globe’s searchable data base of grant recipients is here.
The city called a town considers being called a city
Charlie Breitrose at Watertown News has all the details about this and other possible changes to Watertown's charter.
Eastern/Century merger expected to close in November
Eastern Bank will close 17 branches as part of its upcoming $642 million merger with Century Bank, including the Eastern branch in Newton Centre and a Century branch at Chestnut Hill, according to Greg Ryan at the BBJ, who also provides a full list of closings.
The closures will leave more than two-thirds of Century’s branch network intact after the merger, which is expected to close in November.
Eastern CEO Bob Rivers tells Ryan the bank has already found roles for about 90% of Century’s branch employees. He’s optimistic that all of the others will land roles in the months leading up to the merger.
No new transportation revenue
A compromise state budget approved by Beacon Hill lawmakers Friday once again failed raise new revenue for transportation.
The Senate had approved a plan to raise fees on Uber and Lyft rides to generate new money for the municipalities, the MBTA, regional transit authorities and other infrastructure needs. according to State House News.
But the idea didn’t make it out of the conference committee, even though the House has supported the measure before.
Gov. Charlie Baker was for it before he was against it too and vetoed the effort last year.
Budget includes $1.1 billion tax break
Meanwhile Greg Ryan at the BBJ reports on a "little noticed provision" in the same budget that would allow owners of pass-through businesses to save an estimated $1.1 billion a year in federal taxes by skirting the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions put in place during the Trump administration.
The maneuver would increase the state income taxes paid by the business owners, but those hikes would be more than offset by federal tax savings, Ryan reports.
On the other hand, a “retailer-friendly” proposal that would have significantly reduced the legal liabilities for many retailers who pay workers with commissions was dropped amid the final budget, according to the Globe’s Jon Chesto.
Baker still must sign the budget.
That’s today’s Need to Knows, unless you need to know which breed of dog bit the most humans last year. Hint: It wasn't pit bulls or Rottweilers.
Onward!
President, Newton-Needham Regional Chamber
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