The Celtics play their first game of the 2025-26 season tonight, with a new owner, an in-flux roster (farewell Jrue and Kristaps and Al; hello Anfernee) and constant speculation about when Jayson Tatum will return from his Achilles injury. Tonight's game against the Philadelphia 76ers tips off at 7:30 p.m. over at TD Garden. But first, the news: Circumstances permitting: Earlier this year, Gov. Maura Healey's administration set a goal for Massachusetts: 222,000 new homes by 2035. That's what Healey's office estimates it will take to get out of the housing shortage that is making it so expensive to live here. In a preview released yesterday of its annual Greater Boston Housing Report Card, think tank Boston Indicators dug into recent home address and permitting data and found a mix of good news and bad news when it comes to our chances of hitting that goal. - The good news: Massachusetts actually put a "decent" dent in the shortage in recent years, Boston Indicators executive director Luc Schuster told WBUR's John Bender. From April 2020 to July 2025, the state's housing stock increased by 97,656 units. That includes 71,135 units in Greater Boston. And a big chunk of those homes arrived in the last year; between July 2024 and July 2025, the state added just over 40,000 new housing units, including 29,000 in the Boston area.
- The other good news: After several years of steep rental and home sales price increases, Schuster noted that there has been "a bit of a leveling off" in 2025. (According to Zillow, home values are up just 1.2% this year and the average rent is actually slightly down.) " That does signal that when we build significantly more housing, we can start to move the needle on price increases," Schuster said.
- OK, now the bad news: While the recent home address data gives the impression the state is picking up the pace of construction, a more recent drop in permits suggests a slowdown in the near future. Schuster said many of the recent developments were permitted in 2021 or 2022, when borrowing costs were at historic lows. But this year, new construction permits in Massachusetts are down 44% compared to 2021. "The permits are really useful as a leading indicator for how much more housing might come online in the coming two or three years," Schuster said. "And when you look at that data, the story's really concerning."
The MBTA is looking for someone else to run its in-station naloxone cabinets. Last summer, the T installed cabinets with the overdose-reversal drug in five Red Line station lobbies, a yearlong experiment funded by state lawmakers to test whether the increased access helped save lives. However, in a report this month to lawmakers , MBTA officials said they didn't know of a single instance of someone using the naloxone offered at the stations. As far as they could tell, officials said all of the doses that were taken from the cabinets "have been carried off site." - MBTA transit police officers will continue to carry naloxone, but the T's report recommended that any future programs be managed by a third-party. The agency said it doesn't have "sufficient resources or appropriate personnel" to manage the boxes.
Four more years: If you bet that Attorney General Andrea Campbell's recent move to Dartmouth meant a run for Congress was imminent, it looks like you'll have to try again in 2030. Campbell announced yesterday that she's running for reelection as Massachusetts' top law enforcement officer, saying "our work is far from done." - Go deeper: State House News Service has more here on Campbell's "expansive approach to the role" during her first term, which has included nearly 40 lawsuits against the Trump administration, a restructuring of the attorney general's office and legal flights over zoning reforms and the Cannabis Control Commission.
Seeing blue: People in Worcester are about to notice a lot more blue lights in their lives. This past weekend, the city's police department announced they'll be keeping the blue lights on top of vehicles on at all times while on patrol. It's a six-month pilot focused on increasing officers' visibility, calming traffic and deterring crime. - Know the difference: The steady blue lights don't mean you have to pull over. Police say drivers should only pull over for flashing lights and sirens.
P.S.— Eric Lu, a classical pianist raised in the Boston suburb of Bedford, is this year's winner of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw — an event The New York Times describes as "the Olympics of the piano world." You can watch Lu's performance in the final round of the contest here. |
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