im so conflicted right now. ACAB or landlords are parasites?

The only thing we can build in a lot of greater Boston at this point is multi family. There simply isn’t any open land left inside 95, and not much left inside 495. It may be time to look at converting some low performing commercial space into large condo developments.

This sounds factually correct, but awful. The worst kind of correct.

Bet I know where the nicer people are

I haven’t read the SJCs opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but I believe it has to do with the evidentiary burden that needs to be met for civil asset seizure vs the evidentiary burden to be met for a criminal conviction.

Generally speaking, in the civil context, the plaintiff (ie, the state in these cases) need only show by clear and convincing evidence that the plaintiff is entitled to the requested relief from the defendant (ie, asset forfeiture).

By contrast, to take away someone’s liberty, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt (BARD) that the person committed the crime that they are charged with. BARD is a very high threshold to meet, much higher than clear and convincing evidence, as used in the civil context.

Dookhan’s malfeasance introduced reasonable doubt as to whether the substances she tested were controlled substances. That negates the criminal conviction (because no reasonable juror could find the defendant guilty BARD in view of the tainted evidence). However, it does not exonerate the defendant. The fact that the defendant is entitled to a ‘not guilty’ verdict means that the state has not proven its case BARD.

The lower threshold for civil asset seizure means that a defendant can be simultaneously ‘not guilty’ under the BARD standard and ‘guilty’ under the civil clear and convincing evidence standard.

Coincidentally, this is exactly what happened to OJ: he was found not guilty BARD in the criminal case, but the Goldman family won their untimely death civil lawsuit against him for murdering their son, due to the lower evidentiary standard applied in civil suits.

Not many Gen-x I know have boomer parents. More millennials.

Unless another virus comes in that prefers the elderly. Given the majority of boomers lean right and the GOP is anti public health, it could be a demographic game changer.

We need a state constitutional amendment to ban this practice

Ideally a federal one but that seems unobtainable

What they need are dorm-style accommodations, on the bus line so people can get to town to work. They've had opportunities to do that out where we were in Provincetown. Nope. The Air Force Base would be perfect except for the (so I'm told) pollution/toxic nature of the area. The old school atop the hill would have been great. Heck the development between Cumberland & Stop & shop could have been dorm style but they chose apartments. Not the best use of square footage IMO. But hey build that shiny new police department! The problem in Ptown is too many very wealthy 2nd (and 3rd) homeowners and VRBOs. There's not much left for the townies. We left after looking to buy back in '13 because we started to sense that our landlord wanted to cash out.

Everyone is clutching their pearls while they bitch about restaurants & bars being understaffed OR they're bitching because the kids from eastern block countries are "taking 'murican jobs" (not true). Meanwhile seasonal workers live in what's available, often really run down with questionable sanitation/hygiene facilities and sketchy as hell. I'm thinking of that "motel" in Truro that I believe was shut down a while back. The dark dirty secret of tourist towns. But hey, gotta have that Cosmo right?

It’s utterly insane, and I’m sure most people don’t even know about it.

Somerville didn’t used to be a Somerville! Communities can change and improve.

Six. Weird, didn't have an issue before. Maybe they changed the rules

I see 25 total in the 495 belt: Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Andover, North Andover, Methuen, Lawrence, Haverhill, Groveland, West Newbury, Merrimac, Amesbury. Set to max 500k, houses only. If you include condos there's a lot more.

If you can live farther north and can snag a house in Merrimac/West Newbury/Amesbury, you have easy access to all MA/NH beaches without paying crazy prices, and can be close to some development while still staying more rural. I also really like Haverhill, great food.

>An employer who wants to treat someone as an independent contractor rather than an employee has to show that the work:

>is done without the direction and control of the employer; and

>is performed outside the usual course of the employer's business; and

>is done by someone who has their own, independent business or trade doing that kind of work.

A gas station clerk or stocker is not an independent contractor. If his employer has filed him as one they’re commuting fraud to get away with paying their share of social security. You are right though if they did they probably didn’t withhold the proper taxes and the friend may owe some taxes (still probably unlikely though because a stocker at a gas station may not make enough).

You gotta remember a ton of people divorced and separated during height of covid… that put a huge demand on the housing market… it will resolve the inventory shortage once people start moving in with significant others again. High interest will drop the price too.

Don’t be scared of high interest. The principal and interest are inversely proportional to have a payment that will f you just enough. The payment is what you must pay attention to.

Personally, I’d rather buy with high interest and low principal as there is hope to change the interest rate or also throw any extra cash you have at the principal and make small dents in it.

It’s a giant commitment no matter which way you look at. And it’s enough to shake enough people to want to keep renting.

I had a pipe freeze and burst. Luckily the 3rd place I called said they would be there within 4 hours. They were 30 minutes late, but got me set for the night at least. A radiator pipe is what froze. They capped it off on each side and called it a night. It left me without heat in that zone. They will be back later this week to actually fix the pipe since it was solid with ice at the time. Total cost will be around $1500 with zero damage to the house. It sucks, but could have been much worse.

May I ask how many units your condo building is? When I looked at MassSave it says they won't do the reduced pricing stuff for residential condos with more than 4 units

This. Is. Exactly. It. Sucks that it’s not as easy for me as those before me, but what’s new there? Whining for a handout doesn’t change anything. Gotta play the game anyways

And then they will yell at us to tell us to stop drinking coffee and save our money. Like dude , I could barely save any money with two people living In an 1800 dollar apartment with a 130k per year household income. How the hell do you expect me to buy a house? You know what? I will buy some land and build my own house so I never have to work some shitty ass corporate job until I’m 65 , if I even make it to 65. I’d rather live in my house in the country and write about how annoying you are about money

Is that really the median household income? The rich of the rich most really be pulling up the average because I’m pretty sure the average income for a household in both Cambridge and Newton is over 200K

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The photo featured in the article is the place my wife works. They had all the faucets dripping and heat blasting and three pipes still froze. Water went everywhere, and now walls and flooring will have to be ripped out. Tons of damage for a small nonprofit to absorb.

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>To seize money or property under civil forfeiture rules, the state needs to show there's "probable cause" that it's connected to the criminal activity, Fick explained. If someone wants the seized assets back, he said, it's their responsibility to bring an action to prove it wasn't connected to an offense.

Just a reminder that civil asset forfeiture is highway robbery.

>The state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2018 that civil forfeitures in the Farak and Dookhan cases do not need to be returned.

I don't understand how they can vacate all of those convictions, but keep the money they stole from them.

Ask /r/personalfinance too.