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Maybe this will be a spur to upgrade the Silver Line. The couple of times I've used it to/from Logan it has been an absolute sardine can nightmare already with workers going between So. Sta. and the Seaport District.
MBTA/Massport could really do something smart and separate out some of the Logan trips -- express buses that skip the Seaport, and that are configured with plenty of luggage space inside. Right now the Silver Line airport buses are basically regular city buses, not like the Massport parking / rental car shuttles with an interior layout that accomodates baggage. Better yet, do one dropoff loop and one pickup loop at Logan -- right now it's a huge mess as people with baggage try to squeeze in/out the same door simultaneously.
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Originally Posted by semiurbanite
I'll take my 15 minute T ride over an hour drive in traffic any day. That said I usually bike instead.
Well, everyone seems to be saying how exclusive GE is and how highly paid- but who knows- doesn't seem like it to me, but I'm not a business person. One can easily go to their main website and see the jobs advertised. Also, it's not hard to find pay ranges. I find it hard to believe that there aren't plenty of qualified business types in Ri for marketing and sales for example.
Those average salaries are for rank-and-file engineers and local managers. Corporate HQ employs only 800 out of a company total of over 300,000 -- but those 800 include the CEO, CFO, Corporate Counsel, etc. Nothing but senior executives, specialist staffers for them (e.g., a team of Wharton number crunchers for the CFO), and support people. Think "White House" vs the local IRS field office or coast guard base. E.g., my classmate who is doing long-term forecasting and strategy -- Harvard PhD with experience working for blue-chip consulting firms in several different countries when GE hired him. They don't fill that kind of job from a want ad.
If GE were moving a plant that makes toasters, or an office where they write the documentation for their MRI machines, you'd be right. Like the difference between Bank of America opening a dozen new retail branches in Boston vs moving their executive team or their investment banking unit. Same number of employees, different universe for qualifications and pay.
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Originally Posted by Hollytree
Well, everyone seems to be saying how exclusive GE is and how highly paid- but who knows- doesn't seem like it to me, but I'm not a business person. One can easily go to their main website and see the jobs advertised. Also, it's not hard to find pay ranges. I find it hard to believe that there aren't plenty of qualified business types in Ri for marketing and sales for example.
I don't press my friends for details on their finances, but I'm amazed at how my tech industry friends in Boston are living in nice parts of town, Boston-Cambridge-Somerville (though not Beacon/Back Bay), not apartments in Marlboro. And it's not that they bought a rat-trap in Union Square 25 years ago that gentrified around them. These aren't front line coders, true, these are 40-somethings who had those jobs 15 years ago and are now in managerial ranks, but they aren't guys who hit a stock option jackpot either. They seem to do pretty well, as do some other friends doing things like marketing and communications for Boston-based mutual funds. Maybe they all have rich parents, I dunno.
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I live in Somerville, the Boston-Cambridge-Somerville has many of these couple who both work and both make pretty decent money (in the 100-200k range each).
1. Innovation, Talent, Educational Quality, Innovation. That's certainly what Boston wants to sell about itself, at least.
2. They are offering housing assistance to GE -- some basic stuff like matching them up with realtors and lenders, but there is a big one: access to low-down, zero-interest home loans through the Boston Home Center (must buy in Boston proper). BHC is usually a program with income/asset limits and first time buyers only, but the pitch book sure makes it sound like the City will work out a special program for GE employees, where presumably those limits wouldn't apply.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neguy99
Interesting, would love to see ours.
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2. They are offering housing assistance to GE -- some basic stuff like matching them up with realtors and lenders, but there is a big one: access to low-down, zero-interest home loans through the Boston Home Center (must buy in Boston proper). BHC is usually a program with income/asset limits and first time buyers only, but the pitch book sure makes it sound like the City will work out a special program for GE employees, where presumably those limits wouldn't apply.
I also thought the Boston pitch this was very interesting as well (thanks ocngypz!) and as you suggest it would be telling to see ours. I imagine Ms. Raimondo views that as a state secret, however.
I wouldn't swear to it, but I believe I did see a story somewhere about the breakdown of the financial incentives offered by both Boston and Mass. which corroborated your read on it. That was part of the $25M in incentives being offered by Boston: financial incentives to GE employees who buy in Boston.
Wow! Such a deal. Especially since GE could have afforded to build a huge condo building just for its employees in the seaport area. Too bad they didn't come to Providence and retrofit the Fleet building. New take on the old company town.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,795 posts, read 2,696,474 times
Reputation: 1609
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hollytree
Wow! Such a deal. Especially since GE could have afforded to build a huge condo building just for its employees in the seaport area. Too bad they didn't come to Providence and retrofit the Fleet building. New take on the old company town.
If they came to Providence, we the taxpayers of Providence and RI would have had to pay for the rehab of the Industrial Trust Tower.
My hope is that this is exactly what was pitched to GE, but I suspect instead that what was pitched was I-195 land and a shiny new building. The shiny new building is more emblematic of the technology company GE is trying to rebrand itself as, rather than a company of the past (though a building of that stature represents strength and staying power). But of course to retrofit a storied old building to a modern purpose is a more apt metaphor for what GE is trying to accomplish for itself.
I should clarify that my hope for that is founded on two things: 1. The Industrial Trust Tower must be saved somehow. 2. We were bound to offer big incentives to GE to bring them here, and if we were going to do so, it might make sense to simultaneously address the issue of the wonderful building at the same time. The scale of the corporate welfare offered by Boston & Mass. is larger than that spent on 38 studios, and provided to one of the wealthiest companies in the world.
Last edited by ormari; 01-18-2016 at 09:46 AM..
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