Allston Brighton apologies: Call me Crazy for praising the 2nd largest employer in the State

All I wrote was a simple article extolling the virtues of having strong educational and health institutions in Boston. In fact, the world's best and I dare anybody anywhere to challenge Boston on that measure.

The responses have been...well...peculiar.

The first came from an expat Texan who, because he doesn't like traffic around Longwood, feels that we, whoever we is, need to call in the planning "geniuses"--his word--who laid out the master plan for the Rice Medical Center in Houston. Nice idea, wrong century. I addressed that in an earlier blog--in short, it's easy to plan a brand new complex where only tumbelweeds are bouncing.

Now, and I was actually waiting for this, I have fallen under the sniper fire of Allston Brighton. But, surprisingly I have many supporters there. It is, of course all about Harvard. Yes, Harvard has delayed its expansion plans. Yes, Harvard has deprived the neighborhood of such landmarks as the collapsing Casey & Hayes monstrosity on the Pike, now a future lab site. Someone was mad about a local dry cleaner.

Believe me, there is no love lost between me and the Crimson. I bleed Green for those who care. But, I don't think it's a burden to have the most prestigious university announce that all of its future growth, particularly that in the sciences, will take place in primarily abandoned industrial lots in Allston Brighton.

One reason. After Partners Healthcare, Harvard University is the second largest employer in the state. Yes, that is true. With over 18,000 non-faculty employees, many of whom reside in---you guessed it--Allston Brighton, and over 4,000 faculty members, Harvard is larger than Raytheon, Liberty Mutual, Fidelity, General Electric, John Hancock, you name it.

So, although I can understand the pain of losing a dry cleaner and the nostalgia for an abandoned rat-filled moving company's empty building, I just have to believe that Harvard's purchase of that rat home and its purchase of 26 additional acres of Allston Badlands may just be a very good thing for the residents who are most upset about it.