05-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Five things: MIT's big bond, Seaport's Summer Market, and the busiest subway stations
Good morning, Boston. Here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your busy Monday.
1. Is Boston ready for housing with no parking? Board says no.
A proposed 70-unit development in South Boston without dedicated parking spaces for residents could have been a model for transit-oriented housing in the city, but Grant Welker reports that the city of Boston had other ideas.
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2. MIT borrows $750M as it faces potential research funding cuts
MIT issued a $750 million bond on Friday that it said was for 'general corporate purposes,' echoing a similar step a month ago taken by Harvard University to help with costs when federal grants and contracts are at risk.
3. Seaport Summer Market to return
Isabel Hart reports that the Seaport Summer Market makes its return on May 10, plus Seaport x Black Owned Bos. Market returns for its sixth year — and more retail news.
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4. Editorial: Time to step on the gas, ramp up T funding
The Business Journal's latest editorial calls on lawmakers to maintain support — and even increase it — for the T, which has seen success under the leadership of Phillip Eng.
5. Pay raises for 2025 are falling
Pay raises are so far this year slightly lower than originally projected by employers, the latest evidence of a slowing job market and a turbulent economy.
What else you need to know
By the numbers
$445.5 million — venture capital funding raised by local startups last month, as reported by BostInno
raised by local startups 220 — speed restrictions in effect on the MBTA's subway over the previous two decades, all of which have been removed
all of which have been removed 33 years —
tenure that Stephen Costello spent as president and CEO of the Bank of Canton; a successor has been chosen
to replace him
Weekend box office
The Marvel movie "Thunderbolts" led the box office this weekend with $76 million in its domestic debut.
Where's the money?
Small-business grants you can apply for in May — and where to find them.
New England Business Report
Did you hear Don Seiffert on the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve and Kim Carrigan on WRKO yesterday? If you missed it, you can listen here.
Today in history
On this day in 1643, John Winthrop Jr. paid for the passage of skilled ironworkers from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where they began the first successful iron works in the American colonies in Saugus in the following years. (Read more at
What's good on WERS-FM
Shaking the Tree, by Peter Gabriel
What I'm reading
Make Russia Great Again, by Christopher Buckley
What I'm watching
American Idol, on ABC/Hulu
You think your T station busy?
The Business Journal for the second year has analyzed transit data from the MBTA in order to rank ridership trends across the city and determine the subway system's busiest train station.
Last year's data showed that more passengers passed through the Red Line gates at South Station than any of the 71 gated stations where passengers have to swipe a transit card or use tap-to-pay on their phone. This past year, the MBTA's busiest station is where the Green and Orange lines meet: North Station.
The ranking by Jess Aloe and Sean McFadden can be seen here, while Grant Welker's reporting shows that the development on and around Causeway Street helped boost transit swipes at the North Station in 2024. Despite the growth in ridership at North Station, the number of riders entering nearly every T station in the MBTA network decreased compared with pre-pandemic 2019. In fact, 2024 passenger counts remain down 46% from 2019 — meaning nearly 67 million fewer passenger entries at all stations last year compared to five years ago.
For more charts, graphs and interesting facts about your favorite T station — as well as six projects coming down the track at the MBTA, check out the cover story in the latest Weekly Edition.
PARTING SHOT
Yesterday was Star Wars Day — May the Fourth (be with you). Below, Carl Sagan takes the fun out of "Star Wars: A New Hope," speaking with Johnny Carson in 1978 about the reality of physics in science fiction. But Sagan's not wrong about the anti-Wookiee discrimination.
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Busiest MBTA Train Stations
Estimated gated entries for calendar-year 2024
Rank Prior Rank Station
1
4
North Station
2
1
South Station
3
2
Downtown Crossing View this list