Latest news with #MassPort
Business Journals
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Journals
Five things: BIO in Boston, 'Loganing,' Petri Dish and Best Places to Work rankings
Good morning, Boston. Here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your busy Friday, and one more thing to know: Tomorrow marks yet another Saturday with rain in the forecast. 1. Forget 'Storrowing.' Massport deals with 'Loganing' MassPort is taking steps to address an uptick in "too-tall" truck strikes on road signs and overpasses at Logan International Airport, Isabel Hart reports. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events 2. BIO is nigh upon us BIO International, the global convention for life sciences companies, investors, partners and the state and national economic development officials wooing them, is arriving in Boston starting on Monday. Hannah Green has all you need to know about what it means to host this major trade show, and spoke with one of the original architects of the Massachusetts life sciences industry. 3. Alnylam, GSK, Vertex pledge Mass. jobs for tax incentives Green also reports that 33 life sciences companies are slated to receive $29.9 million in tax incentives in exchange for creating over 1,500 new jobs in Massachusetts. Do you like the Five Things? Make sure to subscribe — free — to our Morning Edition emails so you have it in your inbox each day. 4. Boston vaccine developer acquired for $1.25B And because she's not busy enough, Green also reports that CureVac NV, whose U.S. headquarters is in Boston, is being acquired by BioNTech in a deal valued at $1.25 billion. 5. How small businesses can use AI Small businesses are learning to put AI to work as an extra pair of hands through a partnership with a local nonprofit led by a Boston University researcher and the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, Eli Chavez reports. What else you need to know By the numbers The Petri Dish A spinout from Scorpion Therapeutics debuted with $177 million, Bicara Therapeutics doubled its footprint, and the Mass. Life Sciences Center gave out health equity awards of $50,000 — all in the latest biotech news roundup from Hannah Green. On the radio This morning at 6:45 or 8:45 on GBH Radio's "Morning Edition" you can hear Jess Aloe report the "Boston Business Journal Minute" — a quick highlight of the week's top stories. Not near the radio? Listen here anytime. Listen this Sunday to the New England Business Report, where I will be discussing the news of the week with Kim Carrigan and Joe Shortsleeve. Tune in at 8 a.m. on WRKO-AM 680 or listen here. Quotable 'I feel like the grandmother who sits at the soccer game, and I look out there and I see my little grandchild running up and down the field and scoring goals and being a star player. And nobody knows that that's my grandchild, but I know.' — Susan Windham-Bannister, former head of the Mass. Life Sciences Center, reflecting on the growth of the industry since 2008. Today in history On this day in 1995, Alanis Morissette released her breakthrough album, Jagged Little Pill. (On This Day In Music) Birds I'm seeing Tree Swallow in Belle Isle Marsh, East Boston What's good on WERS-FM Brilliant Mistake, by Elvis Costello What I'm watching Kaos, on Netflix Welcome to the jungle Whether you like Guns N' Roses, or not, you couldn't ignore the jungle theme at last night's 23rd annual Boston Business Journal Best Places to Work ceremony and reception. Stay tuned for photos from the event, which will be posted to our site later today, but for those of you wondering which companies ranked highest in their size category, you can find all the 2025 Best Places to Work here or scroll below for the rankings themselves. As I mentioned, the event was 'jungle-themed,' meaning lots of vegetation, animals and reptiles, stilt-walking giraffes, elephants and lions, and more. We had over 300 nominations this year, and from those, Massachusetts-based employees were surveyed by Quantum Workplace, our longtime data partner, and their responses led us to expand this year's ranking from 80 companies to 100 qualifying as Best Places to Work. If you love your company and think it could be among the top-ranked Best Places to Work, be sure to contact Sean McFadden, our associate editor, research, who will make sure you're included in the survey process next year. PARTING SHOT You know how much I love a wildlife webcam. Well, these researchers are using hidden cameras in the jungles of Central America to get help from the animals themselves in documenting the rainforest's incredible variety of species. Subscribe to the Morning Edition or Afternoon Edition for the business news you need to know, all free. Best Places to Work: Extra Large Companies (500 employees and up) Score Rank Prior Rank Company 1 1 VHB 2 6 Arbella Insurance Group 3 3 Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. View this list Best Places to Work: Large Companies (250 to 499 employees) Score Rank Prior Rank Company 1 2 Wasabi Technologies 2 2 CyberArk 3 3 Weston & Sampson View this list Best Places to Work: Medium Companies (100 to 249 employees) Score Rank Prior Rank Company 1 1 SEI - Boston 2 2 RapDev LLC 3 2 J. Calnan & Associates View this list Best Places to Work: Small Companies (50 to 99 employees) Score Rank Prior Rank Company 1 1 Tines 2 3 Ligris + Associates PC 3 3 Your Part-Time Controller LLC View this list
Boston Globe
03-03-2025
- Boston Globe
Readers weigh in on proposed Logan fee increase
Some of you agreed: Advertisement 'Of course it isn't fair (fare!) to impose a different fee on rideshares than on taxis or private cars,' wrote Annabella Gualdoni. Harry Mattison agreed, suggesting that MassPort 'put up an electronic tolling gantry at the entrance to the airport just like we have on the Pike' and then 'charge every vehicle that enters the same flat amount.' 'We are fortunate to have Logan so close to the city and we need to respect that good fortune by promoting public transportation,' wrote Gary Schwandt. 'Charge every vehicle the same to encourage alternatives.' Raise the tolls high enough and 'at some point people will instead use a shuttle bus' instead, wrote Charles Schuerhoff. Others just rejected the whole premise. 'What a great idea, Alan,' wrote Duncan FitzGerald. 'Of course being a progressive, you've never seen a tax you couldn't embrace. The solution is always more taxes and throwing money at a problem.' But most of you had mixed feelings, or pointed out potential unintended consequences. For instance, making it too expensive to take Ubers could push people to take different flights – or even go to different airports. Advertisement 'What about people whose flights leave before 7 a.m.? You can't take the T, which doesn't start operating until 5:30, and will take an hour to get you to Airport station,' wrote Laurence Kranich. 'A stiff Uber fee will encourage more people to drive and park at Logan, or to take later flights and increase already crowded hours. This behavior is not what is intended or wanted.' Jim Vander Poel, writing from Northborough, said that increasing fees at Logan is only 'going to make T.F. Green, Manchester, and even Hartford more amenable for us out here in Central Massachusetts,' adding that he'd 'only go to Logan with a gun to my head.' Another possible unintended consequence: lower tips. Deb Meyer, a ridehail driver, said she typically tries to avoid airport trips, but that 'one of the few benefits of airport trips is that passengers tip much more frequently than on other rides. I can't help but wonder if this additional burden will have the same effect as surge pricing and reduce tipping.' A few readers pointed out that some people can't realistically switch to mass transit, no matter how strong the financial incentive – which makes the increase an unavoidable hardship for them. 'As a person with mobility issues, Uber enables me to get to Logan for the occasional early flight to see family in California. My daughter treats me to a plane ticket as my funds are limited. There is no other viable way for me to get to the airport. I do not think it is fair to impose this additional charge,' wrote Barbara Christman. A higher fee 'unfairly taxes those who do not have easy access to public transportation, generally lower income citizens,' wrote George Baquis, who called it a 'regressive.' Advertisement And probably the largest share of you felt the fee wasn't likely to incentivize people to switch for the simple reason that the other options just weren't good enough. 'MassPort is delusional if they think that people will switch to public transportation,' said Edgardo Sternberg. 'The Blue Line is laughable as you have to switch to a bus to get to the terminals,' he wrote. 'The Silver Line's slow, infrequent, and unpredictable service is no panacea, either.' Robert G. Atkinson Jr. said the premise of charging people to push them onto transit was 'absurd.' 'When I can walk to the train or the T and get a one-seat ride to the airport, then I may change my mind,' he said. 'There is no good way for people to get to the airport on public transportation, so if you try to reduce the number of cars going to Logan, how are we supposed to get there?' wrote Amy Sutherland. 'Sadly, while our public transport is improving, it still has a long way to go before one can rely on it for airline travel. In this regard, we are truly a third world country,' wrote Vera Jordan. 'Until that improves, it is not fair to put a $15 charge on Uber and Lyft rides.' 'If they want me to take public transportation then they should offer more express buses from more key locations with overnight parking,' wrote Alina Duckham. Stefania Mallett said there was no good non-car way for her to get to Logan 'that doesn't cost me a couple of extra hours of time plus a lot of angst because of unreliability,' she wrote. 'As things stand, with Google giving me real-time info about how long the drive is, it's very hard to justify anything other than driving.' Advertisement One reader pointed out that if MassPort wants to use prices to drive behavior, it has less punitive options. 'How about a decrease in bus fares?' said David Moulton, who said he recently took an Uber ride from Logan that was only twice the cost of a bus on a comparable route. 'Not [a] bad deal, considering,' he wrote — and not a great incentive to take the bus. And Andrew Fisher suggested we might be thinking about the whole question the wrong way — and missing the most obvious, and environmentally sensible, solution. A 'better way to reduce traffic to Logan would be fewer flights, wouldn't it?' he wrote. Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful comments. This is an excerpt from , a Globe Opinion newsletter about the future of transportation in the region. Sign up to . Alan Wirzbicki is Globe deputy editor for editorials. He can be reached at
