This New England

That Patrick Purcell, who runs the Boston Herald, is taking over as head honcho of Rupert Murdoch's Ottaway newspaper chain, which runs the dailies on Cape Cod and in New Bedford, might presage some kind of advertising deal and even some news-sharing by the papers and their Web sites in eastern Massachusetts. Purcell is an old pal and former employee of Mr. Murdoch.

That Mr. Purcell will remain as chief at the Herald also suggests that the press lord might want to get back into the Boston media world in a big way --- perhaps with a Herald-local-TV-station combo, federal regulations allowing. (Purcell also has some alluring real estate -- the tract at the entrance to downtown Boston where the Herald sits. When the economy comes back, it could be a bonanza.)

(My friend Walter Brooks's commentary on such media matters in CapeCodToday.com is well worth following. He knows most of the cast of characters.

In any event, the news is probably not good for the beleagured Boston Globe, which The New York Times would probably like to sell ASAP. Someone would buy it, but not at what The Times still apparently needs for it. (The Times would also like to close down its International Herald Tribune unit. I'd guess they'd do it within the next year or so.)

Another plant not here

To slightly adjust Mark Twain's line about congressmen:

"Suppose you're an idiot, suppose you're a {fill in the blank}, but I repeat myself.''

Volkwagen's decision to put its new U.S. auto plant in Chattanooga when Quonset Point, with its location, transport facilties and space, would on the face of it be much better for the facility, with its high-paying jobs, recalls just how inept our region has been in obtaining and keeping manufacturers, even though we'd seem to have so much going for us on paper.

Quonset's wasted potential is at world-historical levels.

It is, I guess, a failure of leadership, or a triumph of fatigue or of Rhode Island's tribal politics.

.
New Haven goes higher

New Haven used to be a nice middle and lower-middle class town. Then stupid urban renewal and the general decline of cities turned much of it into a menacing slum. But it is gradually getting better, as I discovered when I toured it a few weeks ago before a funeral. Investments by Yale and some gentrication by refugees from the suburbs (including economic refugees -- Connecticut suburbs are outrageously expensive) are making it look like it's got a spiffy future.

One sign: A $180 million redevelopment of a former store at 360 State St. began Monday in what might be the largest development project in the city in more than 20 years. The project will include 500 apartments, including 50 affordable units, a grocery store (they didn't forget!), other retail, a parking garage and an early-childhood education center. Not bad for a recession.

Which isn't to say that New Haven couldn't use a couple of new factories, too, to provide the jobs with which to pay the rents...

 Tags  Boston Herald Cape Cod Today New Haven Ottaway Patrick Purcell Quonset Rupert Murdoch VW

---