Recent content by Justbuildit

If you could figure out a way to completely remove Quincy from the equation I’d like it a lot more…annexation by Boston would be one acceptable answer

And yet again the law is upheld, this time in a unanimous decision. The unfunded mandate sophistry is swatted away. Was this the last plausible objection? https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/18/metro/mbta-communities-act-upheld-unanimous-ruling-marshfield/

It's a fine solution in periods of high interest rates and rising material costs, but there's another lever that the city controls and that's the level of inclusionary zoning required for these projects. Fortunately it looks like that's at least on the table here for a few of the projects...

Progress on our wind energy projects. Through further buildout of Revolution Wind, complete commissioning of Vineyard Wind (or both) mixed with good offshore wind speeds, the grid set a new record today of ~2GW of peak generation this afternoon. This is a new record and at some points during the...

Again, this is a tail risk, but in the scenario I'm thinking of, post-Trump, I could very easily see Shortsleeve-esque Baker-ites come back to the party as "sane centrist" type candidates that are no longer subservient to MAGA. Off year special elections are weird and I wouldn't want to put a...

For me the risk is a 2010 fiasco all over again. Recall that when Ted Kennedy died and Coakley lost the special election to Scott Brown it meant Obama went from 60 senators to 59, losing his filibuster-proof majority. If Markey dies and there's an off year special election in like 2029 with a D...

Forgot that I took this picture but I spotted one of the Waymo Ojai vehicles near the theater district about a month ago doing some testing. Revenue service for the Ojai just started in a few cities. Of course no timeline on Waymo yet in Boston but hoping they have some path to limited service...

Clearly Andrew just needs the elevated ring of disconnected hellscape walkways like on the Vegas strip, complete with outdoor escalators. No issues in the salt or snow... But seriously, I think B1 is the right answer. The square has an awful pedestrian feel and hopefully with some of those...

Thanks, really interesting on the price increase over 5 years that can be attributed basically entirely to the completed permitting. A bit off topic, but reminds me of the recent paper about development in LA and the relative cost of vacant unpermitted land vs vacant land that has been through...

Truly no clearer evidence of being from MA than not caring, at all, about CT. I'd love the tree or the turkey feathers. I think the deep red is really appealing and different from boring white backgrounds.

I can't imagine the tire/repair shop adjacent to the electrical substation is going to be a permanent fixture either. Bad time to build, but when the cycle restarts it's such a desirable parcel and someone will be open to paying top dollar. I still think a little hotel here would have been the...

Wow, this would be incredible. For those who don't go down that side of Back Bay this building is HUGE and adds a great street wall along with the other pre-war buildings like the old Hancock. This is a quiet little part of Back Bay that's always pretty empty except for Grill 23, precisely...

Part of the problem though is anti development isn’t a partisan issue. You have people with the full set of left-leaning regalia including yard signs and flags, absolutely stonewalling development at neighborhood meetings and blaming evil capitalists trying to bulldoze poor communities when it’s...

This is less than a quarter mile from Harvard's campus, houses are already going for $700/sf + in the area and it's a block from $3M-$5M single family homes. Surely the type of person who tags buildings under construction is the "right kind" of Somerville resident who is in no way responsible...

Following up from the discussion above, SF reduced IZ thresholds a few weeks ago: https://missionlocal.org/2026/07/sf-inclusionary-rate-five-percent/ If literal San Francisco can do it to drive development…