DOWNTOWN—Boston's major office buildings are struggling with a vacancy rate of more than 17 percent: "Only five buildings boasted 100 percent occupancy, including 501 Boylston St., 131 Dartmouth St., 101 Huntington Avenue, One Lincoln St., and One Center Plaza. The worst-performing properties in the city, measured by occupancy, are 500 Boylston St. where 14 floors are vacant and the occupancy rate is 38 percent, followed by 50 Post Office Square at 47 percent, with space available on floors seven through 18." [Biz Journal]
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CAMBRIDGE—The People's Republic has been named the nation's third-gayest city: "The home of Harvard University likes a smarty-pants, including the nation’s first African-American lesbian mayor, E. Denise Simmons. Though her reign ended in 2009, she is currently in her sixth term on the City Council, which enacted anti-discrimination protections for transgender people in 1997. The town’s Paradise bar ... is billed as New England’s only gay club with hot male dancers six nights a week—hey, everyone needs a night off — and the town is right next to a little hamlet named Boston, where allegedly LGBT stuff sometimes happens too." [Advocate]
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HUB-WIDE—Lisa DeCanio asks what we've all been thinking: Was the T born broke? Short answer—yes: "It all began on July 1, 2000. Prior to that date, the state of Massachusetts reimbursed the MBTA for all costs incurred that could not be paid off with revenue collected by the T from fares, advertisements and the like. However, on July 1, 2000, the MBTA’s finances were restructured under Forward Funding legislation, which granted the MBTA 20 percent of the state sales tax in exchange for over $3 billion in debt which was to be transferred from the state’s to the T’s books." [BostInno]