What Tripadvisor's Steve Kaufer told us this week
Finally this morning, thanks to Steve Kaufer, founder and outgoing CEO at Tripadvisor, for spending time with us at the chamber’s annual Needham Night celebration. We covered a lot of ground in 12 minutes -- from when he founded the company 22 years ago above Kostas Pizza -- to the company’s eventual decision to locate its HQ in what at the time was an empty office park in N-Squared District.
Greg Reibman
We'll start this morning with some trash talk
The price you're paying to haul away your trash may be going up soon. That's because Maine Gov. Janet Mills has just signed legislation prohibiting the importation of out-of-state trash and construction debris. Each year we send about 2 million of the 5.5 million tons of trash generated in Massachusetts on a one way trip to Vacationland, writes the Eagle-Tribune's Christian Wade.
Greg Reibman
Same as it ever was
If there was any doubt as to why we need Massachusetts’ newest housing law, all you needed to do was read the Globe on Sunday. I’m not just referring to the special “Top Spots to Live 2022,” magazine section which pointed out just how far one needs to travel beyond Route 128 to find anything close to affordable.
Greg Reibman
One door closes. Another about to open.
With only a few hours advance notice on Wednesday, the state shut down the portal that allowed businesses and nonprofits to register for Gov. Charlie Baker's HireNow grant program. Due to "very high demand...no new employer preregistrations are being accepted," reads a notice posted yesterday. "If additional funding is made available for the program, preregistrations for new employers will reopen at a date to be determined."
Greg Reibman
Ready or not, masks mandates fall like dominos
Two Florida anti-vaxers (including one who's also worried about the “globalist war on testosterone”) managed to overturn two years of federal mask mandates this week. As a result of their lawsuit, face mask rules fell like dominos yesterday, not just at airports but also on the MBTA, Amtrak, Uber and Lyft (but, so far, not on steamships). “Feel free to burn them at will,” a train conductor told cheerful New Jersey commuters, according to AP, even as the parents with children too young to be vaccinated, or
Greg Reibman
Here's what's planned for the former Muzi site
It's the most visible, undeveloped parcel in any of our communities. And now we’re getting a look the Bulfinch Companies' vision for the former Muzi Motors dealership along Route 128 in Needham. The proposal includes two lab and office buildings (one five stories, the other three stories) connected by a two-story glass atrium, reports Catherine Carlock at the Globe.
Greg Reibman
Does banning marathoners help, or hurt, Putin?
Is the world at war with Vladimir Putin, or the Russian people? Tom Friedman at the New York Times has argued persuasively that if here’s ever going to be a chance to “set in in motion forces inside Russia that topple Putin from power,” the distinction matters. The world needs “to broadcast daily and loudly — in every way we can — that the world is at war ‘with Putin’ and ‘not with the Russian people’ — just the opposite of what Putin is telling them,” he adds.
Greg Reibman
Wellesley looks to move the housing needle
Wellesley had 3.6% fewer total homes (owner-occupied and rentals) in 2020 than in 2010. Over the same decade, the median home price for owner occupied homes rose nearly 36%, according to the Globe. Both statistics could begin inching in a better direction if Town Meeting approves a proposed zoning amendment on Monday.
Greg Reibman
Could we get the next Green Line extension?
Might it be possible to one day take the Green Line to Needham? A newly-funded feasibility study will explore the idea of connecting the Eliot MBTA-stop to the Newton Upper Falls Greenway, across the Charles River, over I-95 and on to Needham Heights. The $200,000 earmark, sponsored by Sens. Cindy Creem and Becca Rausch, had been pending for months and was finalized in a supplemental budget signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last week.
Greg Reibman
'Sure,' he said. 'Where's Needham?'
Back in 1953, a 20-year-old Navy vet who had just returned from the Korean War was standing in his grandfather’s hardware store in Revere when a supplier asked him if he’d be interested in taking over a paint-and-wallpaper store he had acquired in Needham. "Sure," replied Harvey Katz. "Where's Needham?"
Greg Reibman
