Window into the State House

Bayside Expo developers buy Santander site for $110M   This is an interesting development over by UMass-Boston. From Jennifer Smith at the Dorchester Reporter: “The developers of the former Bayside Expo Center site are expanding their footprint around Columbia Point. Accordia Partners and Ares Capital closed on the 2 Morrissey Blvd. property, currently home to a Santander Bank, on Monday. … According to Suffolk Registry of Deeds records, the new owners of 2 Morrissey paid $110,000,000 for the parcels, which include five buildings and a total of 425,000 rentable square feet.” Speaking of developments, Tim Logan at the Globe has an update on the planned redevelopment of the Suffolk Downs racetrack – and how residents and developers don’t exactly see eye to eye on what can and should be built at the site after the racetrack officially closes this summer.   T rejects Walsh’s call for fare hike freeze in wake of derailment   Mayor Marty Walsh was on the Twitter warpath yesterday, demanding that the T put off a planned fare hike next month until train service is fully restored after last week’s Red Line derailment, reports the Globe’s Matt Stout and the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter. Transit officials have rejected the demand. Walsh has also called for the city to have greater say in T operations – and this one could get interesting on Beacon Hill over coming months with the current oversight board’s term set to expire next year.  Btw: Bruce Mohl at CommonWealth magazine reports how the T is now focusing on the train itself as the possible cause of the Rail Line derailment. Meanwhile, from SHNS’s Chris Lisinski (pay wall): “MBTA also launching systemwide safety review.” Finally, from the Globe’s Joan Vennochi: “Wanted for the T: more urgency and empathy from Baker.”  
  The Beacon Hill abortion debate: Not as ‘cut and dry’ as it appears   Pro- and anti-abortion activists descended on the State House yesterday for a public hearing on legislation that would expand abortion rights in Massachusetts – with plenty of passionate and sometimes over-the-top rhetoric flying around. MassLive’s Shira Schoenberg and the Globe’s Stephanie Ebbert have the details. But WGBH’s Mike Deehan reports that the “politics of the bill, and what an eventual law may look like, aren’t as cut and dry” as portrayed by opposing sides in the debate. Think: “Moderate to conservative Democrats.” And one can add, via Shira Schoenberg at MassLive, a certain pro-choice corner-office occupant: “Gov. Charlie Baker ‘concerned’ about ROE Act’s expansion of abortion access.”