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Ready for some good news about the MBTA?

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Ready for some good news about the MBTA?

Ready for some good news about the MBTA?
 
The T's is moving forward with plans to invest $811 million to replace the 1980s-vintage, two-car Green Line trains with 102 new vehicles.
 
The new “supercars” are 114 feet long, while the Green Line vehicles they are replacing are each 74 feet long. They're expected to start arriving in the spring of 2027 with the last set to arrive by 2031, according to Bruce Mohl at Commonwealth.
 
The vehicles have flat floors, eliminating the steps of the current vehicles, and can be driven by one driver instead of the current two.
 
The many nights and weekend of shutdowns that occurred on the Riverside and other Green Line tracks over the past several years was performed, in part, to accommodate these new vehicles.
 
The Green Line, by the way, marked its 125th anniversary this week.
 
Another reason why it's still hard to fill jobs
 
Between 2 to 4 million working-age Americans are not currently working due to long COVID, according a new Brookings Institution analysis.
 
Using the average U.S. wage of $1,106 per week, the estimated 3 million people out of work due to long COVID translates to $168 billion a year in lost earnings.
 
That's nearly 1% of the total U.S. gross domestic product. If the true number of people out of work is closer to 4 million, that's a $230 billion cost, Brookings adds. 
 
A Census Bureau survey found that 16.3 million people (around 8%) of working-age Americans currently have long COVID.
 
That seems like as good a reason as any to do this
 
The just-approved new COVID-19 boosters from both Moderna and Pfizer that target today’s most common omicron strains should be available in many places next week.
 
Here’s what you need to know.
 
Housing and transit on biotech leaders' minds too
 
The life sciences sector added 12,000-plus workers and nearly 16 million SF in real estate in 2021, according to MassBio's annual industry snapshot.
 
Bay State companies collectively raised $5.1 billion in the first half of 2022 and $13.66 billion in VC money last year, notes Rowan Walrath at the BBJ,
including $170 million in VC money for Watertown-based companies.
 
And the footprint keeps expanding. Massachusetts is presently home to 55.9 million SF of lab and manufacturing space (up from 40 million the year before). Another 26 to 59 million SF is expected by 2025.
 
Yes, there've also been layoffs, fewer IPOs, slumping stocks and plenty of speculation about whether or when the lab market becomes oversaturated,
 
But MassBio CEO Joe Boncore tells Walrath he’s much more concerned about other factors.
 
"I think [there are] positive signs that we're maintaining our global leadership in life sciences innovation," Boncore said. "Bigger statewide issues, like housing and the failing transportation system, present a real and present danger and are going to have to be things we work with the legislature on in the coming years."
 
Danish drug giant acquires Watertown biotech
 
Watertown biotech Forma Therapeutics Holdings Inc. has been acquired by Danish drug giant Novo Nordisk for $1.1 billion, reports the BBJ’s Don Seiffert.
 
The Arsenal on the Charles-headquartered company is developing a drug for patients with sickle cell disease called etavopivat. Forma reported that it had 166 full-time employees as of February. Of those, 109 are researchers and 58 are in business development, finance, legal, and general management and administration.
 
Other need to knows
 
  • The City of Newton is collecting input on a set of proposed zoning updates for the city's village centers using an approach is not nearly as wonky as you'd might expect from a zoning discussion. Learn more. (Globe story here.)
 
  • The Davis Companies and Boston Development Group recently celebrated the ceremonial “topping-off” of Phase One of 66 Galen Street in Watertown, a 224,000 RSF, purpose-built, Class A life science building designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects. (Boston Real Estate Times)
 
  • Newton Upper Falls-based Cupixel has received $5 million in seed funding from Joann Fabric & Crafts. The Chestnut Street startup has an app that allows people to use augmented reality and AI to create art. (BBJ) 
 
 
Colleges are back, protocols aren't
 
College students are back but, by and large, the campus COVID protocols aren’t.
 
“Gone were the face masks, isolating Zoom classes, and other COVID restrictions that accompanied student life for the last two years,” writes Alexander Thompson for the Globe.
 
One exception, according to Thompson, is Wellesley College, the “only local school to maintain opt-in weekly surveillance testing and a classroom mask mandate that professors can decide to waive.”
 
Say 'hey' to our new besties
 
Who says things slow down during the summer?
 
Please join me in welcoming 38 new (or reinstated after a lengthy absence) members to your chamber.
   
Looking for other members? Our searchable directory is here.
 
Not yet a member? Learn how belonging to this chamber can help you, your business and our communities prosper.
 
Need help improving your company's listing? Contact Maxime Isaac.
 
They got the city wrong and called 'em the wrong thing. But this is still cool.
 
Finally this morning, never mind that "Good Morning America" said Cabot’s Ice Cream is located "in Boston."
 
And ignore the fact that they kept saying Cabot's makes “milkshakes.”
 
But do watch Newton’s own (and everyone's friend) Joe Prestejohn on GMA yesterday demonstrating how to make one of his famous 64-ounce giant frappes.
 
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