Weathering the Vortex, Skiing High, and AI Shaping HR

On today’s program, we talk with meteorologist Ed Carroll about the polar vortex. We also chat with an executive from Ski New Hampshire about the remarkable ski conditions this year. Doug Banks executive editor of the Boston Business Journal shares the business headlines. Andrew Mikula of the Pioneer Institute talks about the shortage of housing. And finally, the CEO of HR Rebooted talks about AI coming to HR offices everywhere

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carragan, a weekly round up and discussion
of the top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning everybody.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
It is great to have you with us for this
edition of the New England Business Report. I can caregant
along with Joe shortz leave.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Hello Joe, oh good morning. How are you surviving the cold?

Speaker 5 (00:19):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, yeah, you know as well as one does, right, Yeah.
Did you guys get snow this last week?

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean obviously that cold weather that moved
in last Thursday, and of course we're staring down Monday
and Tuesday here, which you're supposed to be a repeat
of the cold weather. But you know, hey, look it
it's a good business. It's the holiday season, so we're
going to be okay.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
I have to tell you last week, like last Tuesday
and whatever, when a lot of this take out a
lot of snow, we just got rain where we never
really got any snow. So, uh, snow is a big
topic on our show today, which is really really exciting.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
We do have a great show.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
That's coming your way now. A former colleague of both
and mine and certainly a very good friend of Joe's.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I think that's a safe.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Statement, right, ye, mister Ed Carroll, Yeah yeah, I meanbeurologist
to Ed Carroll, he's going to join us. You, as
we said, may have gotten some snow this past week,
and whether you enjoyed it or not, ski country up north,
they are dancing on the slopes because they did get snow,
and this is early for them to get snow, so
it's really terrific. We're going to talk to Ed about

(01:26):
his predictions for the ski season, you know, Joe, those
predictions are so important, and what happens when it comes
to snow up there is so important because the economy
is driven by what Mother Nature decides she's going to do.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
The question is what's going on all of a sudden?
You know, it seems like it's been a quiet seven
or eight years up north and ski country, and all
of a sudden they've got all the snow and the
snowmaking equipment is going great gash absolutely, So my question
to Ed is you know what's going on? What has
happened here? And then on top of that this whole
polar vortex thing that's happening as well.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So well I feel if we pose the question what's
going on to Ed and he can answer it, then
he wins. Yeah, that's a question I'm asking everyone everywhere
what is going on?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Right?

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, so we've mentioned ski country, right, So then we
want to talk a little bit to the folks up
there in Ski Country and find out what's the last
couple of years have been like and what they need
to see happen this year.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We're going to speak to Melody Nester. She is from
Ski New Hampshire. We'll talk about this upcoming this upcoming season.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
We'll talk about what the success of the ski resorts
means to New Hampshire and really Upper New England.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yeah, in the New Hampshire economy, and they were open
all all of them were a lot of them are
open very early this year in November, which was big news.
And then we're going to talk a little bit about
housing here in New England. We're to talk with Andrew
McCool if he is a with a Pioneer Institute and
he's sort of a he's a senior Housing fellow, and
we're going to talk about this whole idea of well,

(03:00):
these smaller units that people are being allowed to build
in their backyards now, and there's a question that's going
to be on the ballot, could be on the ballot,
could be on the ballot, making this even more likely.
Now he's going to talk a little bit about this.
There's also a Globe article too many obstacles. Despite statewide legalization,

(03:21):
backyard homes haven't boomed in Massachusetts. So we'll find out
what we need and where it's going to be. And
that ballot question, Kim, would be in twenty twenty six,
and it would allow single family homes to be built
on any residentially zoned area as long as the land
on which it was to be constructed as at least
five thousand square feet.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
So, yo, Joe, that's the big one of the big
problems associated with housing though you know that you have
to have the zoning here is so tough and there's
not a lot of property as we all know.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, question about it. And we're also going to be
talking with Michelle Strasberger now, she of course is the
CEO of HR rebooted. This is pretty interesting, Kim. It's
a whole idea of bringing AI, artificial intelligence into human resources.
So that doesn't sound doesn't sound like the two necessarily

(04:10):
go together.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
But that's so true.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Her company is out there talking to CEOs and hr
people trying to explain to them, you know, what's good.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
And what's bad associated with AI and their jobs. And
you know, that's an.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Overwhelming situation because I think every company feels like the
time has come an AI has to be a.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Part of what we do every day.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
But how do we implement it so that we keep
the same kind of workforce that we have and everybody's comfortable.
So it'd be very interesting to hear what Michelle has
to say.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yeah, because people really, they're frightened to death. I mean,
some of the studies that have come out recently talked
about what an impact AI is going to have on
hiring and jobs, you know, across across the country. So
be interesting to see what she has to say. And
we'll be talking to her a little bit later in
the program. All right, Kim, we've been talking about well
ski country, right and apparently they're all smiles up there.

(05:02):
It's freezing cold and there's a lot of snows there
you go. But you know, I was curious because we're
going to talk to scheme New Hampshire folks, A little
bit here, but I wanted to figure out what's going
on weatherwise, what is happening. So let's bring in Ed Carroll,
good friend of mine, a former WBZ TV meteorologist, expert
on the weather even today, h Ed talk to us

(05:23):
about this weather in uh northern New England and how
it's changed and what's going on.

Speaker 6 (05:29):
Well, so you put expert in front of my name,
So now I got to really push forwards here. Yeah, no,
so curiously, you know, it's been interesting. I've very recently
had this conversation with a couple of former colleagues of
mine to it. You know, we we've had a few
a few winters where you can almost draw a line
from say southern Portland, Maine near Portsmouth, across Worcester in
you know, southeastern New England has has sort of escaped

(05:52):
even over the last number of years any powerful you know,
huge amounts of snow. It's been relegated really to where
they needed right so where most of the people do
recreating in the skiing industry up north. Now, there's always
been that, you know, the argument between La Nina and
al Nino, and right now where we're predicting or at

(06:14):
least the climate people are predicting a light Lninia year,
which just means it's a fifty to fifty toss up
between now and say March, just so what's actually going
to happen. But you know, the overall pattern changes with
climate change usually release these you know polar vortexas that
roll through and you get these amazing weather events, or
it stays cold up north and it doesn't stay that

(06:34):
cold in the south. So not to be or pull
the expert in front of my name away, but it's
really a fifty to fifty toss up. At this point.
You can't really correlate a weather forecast which is the
next few days, to what's going to happen over the
course of the season. So it's an interesting conversation to have,
there's no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, it certainly is.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
And it's so important to those folks up north because
I mean, this is their bread and butter season. You know,
they've got to make money while the snowfalls. I was
up in of Vermont in Stow in early November and
we got about two and a half inches of snow,
which was really surprising. While I was there, are you
surprised this year by the early arrival of the snow

(07:14):
and the cold.

Speaker 6 (07:15):
Yeah. Yeah, to be honest with to Kim, I am
a little bit. My two sons are big skiers. They
go up north and my son Jack actually tracks it
and he goes, you know, Daddy, is you know Jpek
and Stowe most snow that's fallen up in the month
of November in a long time. So you know, they
had snow early to your point, you know, around Halloween.
You and I think they were getting some snow prior

(07:36):
to that. So a little bit surprising, to be honest
with you. But you know, when you look at the
long term trends, it's you know, they get this massive
cold air, Kim, right across the northern half of New England,
and the correlation with the mindset down here there's no
snow on the ground. They don't any snow up north,
so they want to pull the skiers up, even though
the very ground is in the Boston area. So yeah,

(07:57):
it's interesting, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
And Carol's with us, so talking about the weather. Is
this early arrival of snow in northern New England and
this polar vortex are they directly connected?

Speaker 6 (08:10):
That's a good question.

Speaker 7 (08:11):
Joe.

Speaker 6 (08:11):
You know, the polar vortex exists all the time. It's
you know, it's just near the north pole. Is what
changes it are the disruptions in the overall global patterns.
So it's almost like when you throw a giant stone
out into a calm lake. There's a ripple effect that
takes place. And so when there's disruptions like I said
with La Nina and al Nina and things like that,
it tends to either keep the polar vortex up north

(08:34):
or pull it down. And so it's been pulled down
recently and over the last couple of years, and that's
why these events have occurred. That's why we've had these
areas of snow up north and not much here in
southern New England. So you know, the atmosphere is warming up,
there's no doubt about that, but it's having these influences
that are just now being studied. So whether it continues

(08:54):
on remains to be seen. But so far, the ski
areas are loving it, and the commuters love it too well.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
And I know I'm exactly I know, I'm asking you
to look into your crystal ball here a little bit.

Speaker 8 (09:06):
Bet.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
In years past, when we've had this early, you know,
cold weather and snow. Has it continued throughout the season
or you know, is this typic you know, could this
happen and then we will barely see another flake?

Speaker 6 (09:18):
Yeah, I've actually, Kim, I've looked at some of the
longer term projections and what that means is literally like
two weeks out and the overall pattern right now is
to remain cold. There are some signs that southern New
England will warm up a little bit, but it keeps
getting disrupted with these these Arctic blasts that come out
of again up north and they penetrate all the way
down for not only northern New England, but you go

(09:39):
out toward the Great Lakes in the Midwest and that's
why they get these lake effects snows. So indications, at
least as we're talking today, is it's going to stay cold.
It's you know, there's no real warm ups in sight
that I can see. We may get these little brief
interluser it gets into the forties or low fifties, but
it doesn't hang around very long.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Oh well, thanks for that, Ed Carol Year. He's a
for WBZTV meteorologist and all around a good guy. Answering
our questions about all the snow up north. All right,
always nice to chat with Ed Carroll about what's going
on up north. Well from the from from Ed's conversation,
we wanted to move to the Ski New Hampshire conversation.

(10:19):
A lot of the mountains opened early because of all
the snow that all of a sudden showed up. Let's
bring in Melody Nester. She's the assistant director of Ski
New Hampshire. Welcome to the program of Melody, So give
us an idea. We're hearing that all things are you know,
rainbows and unicorns. Is it true?

Speaker 8 (10:38):
It is?

Speaker 9 (10:39):
It is, yeah, So we're very excited about the season.
It definitely has kicked off on. We received five to nine,
well some say ten inches of natural snow this week
and everything is looking really white and it looks like
it covered. You know, all the skiers areas in New

(11:00):
Hampshire got some of the snow, which is wonderful. So
it wasn't just hitting one area. And we do have
skiers that are currently open, like like Bretton Wood's Cannon Loon,
Waterville Wildcat just opened. Cranmore Mountain Resort also had opened

(11:22):
their tubing in November, so that was great. We do
have some other skiers that are opening this weekend, seven
of them. Seven of them have let us know that
they're planning to open places like Attitash Cranmore will be
open for downhill as well as their tubing. Gunstock Mountains,

(11:46):
mounts Unnapee, pats Peak, Ragged and Penny and the rest
should be opened before Christmas and they will announce as
they're they're able to announce. Actually, some of the announcements
of the dates are up to date and on our
Skating Hampshire Conditions page. So it's a great place to go.

(12:09):
Super one thing too, I just wanted to mention that
Nordic ski areas are also benefiting from this from the snow,
which is great. Jackson Cross Country and bretton Wood's Nordic
Center are open, and again we're anticipating the others to
you know, follow suits, you know, shortly.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
That is terrific. What's typical?

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Uh, you know, is this early for so many of
these mountains to be open and this way, I know
it's early for Nordic because you guys aren't making snow there,
but what is a typical year.

Speaker 9 (12:45):
Well, bretton Wood seem to open the same time they
always do, but I know Cannon Mountain got hit with
some good snow even before this week's storm, so they
did openly, which was great, great for them. They usually
open after Thanksgiving weekend and they opened on the twenty

(13:08):
second of November, so so that was good. And like
you said, the Nordic as well, back and cross country
and brent Woods are open.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Talking with a Melody Nester, assistant director of a Skin
of Hampshire about the ski industry up north, how dramatic
a change is this? It certainly feels like it from
the folks in the Boston area. It seems like in
ski seasons past, it's like, you know, you go up
to Waterville Valley even at Christmas time and they only had, like,
you know, a couple of trails open. So how different
is this year.

Speaker 9 (13:39):
Well, when they first open, of course, there often are
just a single or a few trails open. But because
they've opened earlier, they have been expanding trail counts. And
I haven't really looked at that, but I know I
saw an email come in from Loon and they had
added some new trails, and I know a lot of

(14:01):
them have. What's nice again is on the Ski New
Hampshire Conditions page. It's kind of like a one shot
glimpse of you know, how many trails are open as
well as what the conditions are, so I like to go.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
There, Melie.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Do you have some statistics about how important the ski
resorts are to the New Hampshire economy.

Speaker 9 (14:26):
We do. They're a bit dated, but I'm happy to
talk about them. The last economic impact study that Skening
Hampshire completed was in twenty eighteen, so obviously it's a
little dated, but we are starting to look at getting
a new one done. But the last one showed that

(14:46):
skiers spent around three hundred and eighty four million dollars
in twenty eighteen and the industry had an overall economic
impact of roughly half a billion dollars. Obviously, we expect
those numbers to grow with the next study we complete.
And one thing too. For the ski industry, it's particularly

(15:09):
important to the more rural mountainous areas of the States,
like north of the Lakes to the west, where areas
rely heavily on tourism, So we know that the ski
areas are really important to those local economies, not just
in the winter, but summer as.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
Well, Melody Nesters, I guess and Melody we know your
ski New Hampshire. But there was a kind of an
interesting headlight that came out of Vermont in the past
couple of three days and it had to do with
tik talk videos and taking skiers you know, off the
beaded paths, so to speak, and into more dangerous areas.

(15:51):
Is this something you're aware of or your industry is
aware of.

Speaker 9 (15:55):
I have not heard about that yet. I'm sure you
know be popping up on my news the alerts that
I get. But but generally we do have safety messages
that we put out for our skiers on our website
and the spear is share a lot of this as well.
Definitely not safe to be going off off the trails

(16:19):
and it's it's highly discouraged and you know, to likely
be kicked out of a ski area for doing it.
So there are safety messages. The thing that we always
encourage people to do is to read the n s
a A, which is the National Skiers Association. They put

(16:42):
out a Skiers Responsibility Code and it talks about this
and and and even the basics about list safety, how
to get on a lift, how to get off, particularly
good for people to read if they're new.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
To the sport.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
No, let me ask you a little bit about the
last couple of winters. I know your impact study was
back in eighteen but since that time we've had some
pretty dry winters and that even includes ski country, have resorts,
and has the economy as a whole been affected by
the lack of snow.

Speaker 9 (17:20):
Certainly some of the lower lying ski areas and Nordic
have been probably more impacted. However, I think it was
two years ago. Yeah, it was a couple of years ago.
We went and it hadn't it seemed like it had

(17:41):
been a great winter. But skiers are coming. They continued
to come, and the skier visits actually were up, not
only at our ski areas but across the nation. And
I think part of it has to do with the

(18:03):
fact that the snowmaking has just been really important and
ski areas all across everywhere have invested hundreds and hundreds
of thousands of dollars in new equipment that is more
effective and actually has smart technology where they can target

(18:24):
certain days and just know the perfect time to make
that snow. That's not to say that you know, we
don't get concerned when they're warm weather events. But the
skiers have learned a lot about how to implement resiliency

(18:44):
in adapt adaptation measures so that they can kind of
deal with that.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
All right, she's Melody Nester or she's the assistant director
of Skina Hampshire. Glad to hear that things are going
well to our north. Up next we're we'll be talking
about the top business headlines. Stay with us.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
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Speaker 10 (21:29):
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Speaker 3 (21:56):
Welcome back everyone to the New England Business Report. Great
to have you with us on this Sunday morning, this
time of the show. We always liked to talk to
our good friends over there at the Boston Business Journal,
and joining us this morning is Doug Banks.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
He's the executive editor.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Doug.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Great to have you, Like always, I know there's a
number of stories that we want to try to get
to this morning, but one the kind of caught our
eye was the headline, which is nonprofit sues Cambridge over
inclusionary zoning. It was Grant Welker who wrote this at
nonprofit being the Pioneer Institute.

Speaker 13 (22:29):
Yes, Kim, so first, thanks for having me, And yeah,
the Pioneer Institute's created a legal foundation about a year
or so ago called the New England Legal Foundation, And
in this lawsuit they filed on behalf of a developer,
one Patrick Barrett, who is seeking approval for a number
of projects in Cambridge. Basically, this inclusionary zoning is just

(22:49):
another word or term for affordable housing requirements, and what
they're saying in this lawsuit, Barrett, who himself is a
zoning attorney, is saying is that Cambridge their requirements for
anyone who seeks a building permit is so outrageously high
that you can't actually develop anything. And so in this case,

(23:11):
the Cambridge requirements are that if you want a building
permit for ten or more housing units, you have to
set aside twenty percent of your square footage for affordable housing,
which it's been in place now since twenty seventeen. But
if you look at the number of developments, I don't
have the numbers like on me, but I know development
has been very slow. It's really hard to get work done.

(23:31):
Cambridge I think is ranked as the number one hardest
city in the country to get real estate projects done.
It was one of those you know, like wallet Hub
type rankings we saw maybe a month ago. But it's
notoriously difficult to get to get these projects done. And
in this case, they you know, they had enough and
they said, like you can't. You just can't hold the

(23:54):
feet of a developer to the fire for a problem
that is, you know, not developer's faults. It's not a
developers fault that there's no affordable housing in Cambridge, and
yet they're the ones who have the burden to solve
the problem.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Doug, you mentioned it. I mean you said that these
rules have been in place forever, I mean really, in
some shape or form across the state and all communities.
Why now, why is this Why is something different now
that it is prompting those lawsuit.

Speaker 13 (24:20):
I think in the case of this particular plaintiff, he's
been trying for years. You know, they put this in
place in seventeen, you remember what happened Like within the
next couple of years, people are trying to figure it out,
and then COVID hits right. So nothing happens for a
couple of years, and now we're at a place where
interest rates are extremely high. It's construction costs are through
the roof. If you're a developer who's been trying for

(24:42):
five years to get a project built, you know it's
harder than ever it's now and it's basically unaffordable. In
this case, he's trying to take that former aj Spears
funeral home that's on Western av It turn it into
a seventy four unit apartment building. He's got another project
that would include a sixty seven hotel and another fifty apartments.

(25:02):
I mean, this is much needed housing in the city
of Cambridge, and he can't get it done because the
affordable housing requirements it's just simply too restrictive and the
cost of construction, the cost development is just too high.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Is that form of funeral home haunted.

Speaker 13 (25:18):
That's a good question. I don't know that they died
on site, Kim. I think they just brought this.

Speaker 12 (25:22):
Maybe I just give you a st just for a moment, just.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
To my mind, wanders interesting story, no two ways about it.
We're actually going to talk to somebody from the pioneers
to institute a little bit later in the show about
the housing issues.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
So that is very interesting.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Let's take a look at another story, and that's Mayor
Wu projects at six percent decline in commercial property values,
which is adding to budget string and yet you know
she's talking about the answer here maybe that we have
to up taxes. It's just I don't know this, This thinking,

(25:57):
Doug is tough for everybody.

Speaker 13 (25:59):
Yeah, so talk about housing and costs. May Or Will
held the press conference this past week, and basically because
if you think Boston gets the majority of its tax
revenue from property taxes, okay, so those come in two forms,
commercial properties like office buildings and then residential properties like
single family homeowners and apartment building owners. And so if

(26:21):
you look, if we've been talking for you know, on
this show ad nauseum about the fact that office buildings
are getting killed, they're getting foreclosed on, they're not you know,
they're struggling to find tenants. And so as a result,
those office property, those commercial property valuations, the empty retail storefronts,
their their property assessments are dropping, right, So the value

(26:41):
of those properties are dropping by six percent, which means
the taxes that you that the city collects from them
is going to.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
Drop by six percent.

Speaker 13 (26:48):
And what that means is the residential side of the
equation has to make up the difference. And so she's
predicting that property taxes revenue will drop by six percent,
which means residential property taxes are going to go up
about thirteen percent, which is about seven hundred and eighty
dollars on average per homeowner, which is a lot of money. Now,
what she's trying to do is what she tried last year,

(27:10):
which is create this thing called the home rule petition
where she can shift that tax burden. She can't just
arbitrarily do that. She needs the city council to approve it,
and then the state House, the Senate, the House of
Representatives and the Senate both have to approve it. And
she tried it last year. She got through the Senate,
city Council in the House. She couldn't get it past
the Senate last year. And so she has already said

(27:33):
she's going to try it again because she's just saying
that it's too much of a burden on residential taxpayers.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
Yeah, but the appetite on Beacon Hill hasn't changed, right,
I mean I can't imagine that. If anything, I'd say
it's moved more in the other direction.

Speaker 13 (27:47):
Yeah, I think you're right, Joe. And what's important to
note here is that the commercial taxpayers in Boston already
pay more than twice the tax rate of homeowners, and
a lot of you know, the sort of fiscal watchdog
groups are saying, look, there's another option here, right, you
can actually cut expenses, So if you're not making as
much revenue, you can cut expenses. And the mayor insists

(28:07):
that she can't do that because she has you know,
there's public works you have to pay for and first
responders you have to pay for. But at the end
of the day, she absolutely could cut the budget. It's
just that I think she and others just don't want
to do that. And so that's really the rub here.
And Joe, to your point, I think, you know, it's
going to be really a hard fight for her to

(28:28):
convince Beacon Hill that this is worth it, because last
year she you know, she basically said, like if they
did pass the home rule petition, the residential taxpayer bill
was still going to go up about ten percent, So
all of that fight was only going to save like
three percentage points for residential taxpayers. And I don't know
that it's going to change. That equation doesn't change much again,
so I think she's going to have another uphill battle.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
So you remember when this came up the first time,
we talked about that right here on the show and said,
how about cutting the budget?

Speaker 4 (28:55):
You know, it seems pretty simplistic, Kim, Kim, what are
you saying? What are you thinking, Kim, No, that's a story.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Obviously, we will be talking about a lot. In twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Sincore is closing one hundred thousand square feet in Boxborough
and they are headed to Salem, New Hampshire. You know,
you talk about taxes. I realized we're talking about taxes
in the city, but you know, you talk about doing
business in this state, Doug, and all of a sudden
you see headlines like this, and it's concerning.

Speaker 13 (29:24):
Yeah, very concerning. We had we had this story. So
Sincore makes it's a manufacturer that make power converters for
you know, the military, telecom, industrial use and they they
and they notified the state that they're going to be
moving their headquarters to Salem, New Hampshire, which is, you know,
just over the border.

Speaker 6 (29:39):
It's not that far.

Speaker 13 (29:40):
But it's going to bring two hundred and fifty six
six jobs out of Boxborough and to New Hampshire. And
that's you know, that's that's a big deal. It's it's
a it's a challenge. And it follows a headline that
we had earlier this year Analogic Corporation, which has been
in Peabody for years and decades and decades, and that

(30:01):
space had two hundred thousand square feet. It was right
along Centennial Drive there if you're driving on the North Shore,
and they're moving to Salem, New Hampshire as well. So interestingly,
I got a letter from Joe Sweeney, who's the majority
leader of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the
town counselor in Salem, and we posted an op ed
the very next day after that story ran, and he

(30:22):
basically said, oh, we're not done. We're winning in New Hampshire.
We're stealing Massachusetts companies. And if you look at projects
like Tuscan Village, which you know was a shuttered racetrack,
the old Rockingham Mall racetrack. It's now a magnet for businesses, restaurants,
you know, retail. And he's like, they're not done. They

(30:42):
want more Massachusetts businesses and I wouldn't be surprised if
they get them.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, Well, there you go, Doug. That's the point. I mean,
this is the argument. Well, go back to the millionaire's tax,
and everybody's saying, you know, if we do this, we're
going to encourage companies to leave the state. And you
know you are the executive editor of the BBJ. That's happening, right, Well,
that's it.

Speaker 13 (31:01):
We've been saying this for a long time. You get
some you know think tanks, like the Pioneers of the
world that have been saying this. You've got you know,
the Chamber and others. We've all been saying this for
a long time and nobody's been listening. And now you're
seeing this actually happen. And it's not just New Hampshire
which is next door. One could argue that our economy,
the greater Boston economy, does reach into southern New Hampshire

(31:22):
or northern Rhode Island, even up to Portland. But it
does from a tax revenue standpoint, it does hurt us.
And you know, people who live in Boxford now they
got to commute to Salem, New Hampshire. It's it is
not you know, it's not the same. And who knows,
maybe maybe a lot of their employers employees already were
in New Hampshire because it's a lower cost place to live,
and that's something that we just have to pay attention to.
If we stay high cost, and all of the other

(31:44):
things that we think are great, our schools and everything
else won't matter much if people keep moving out of
the state.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Doug Banks, the Boston Business Journal, thank you sir very much.
Always great to talk with you when we come back.
As we approach the ended the year, you know, the
lack of affordable housing in this state is probably going
to go down as a twenty twenty five major concern,
and twenty twenty six will start with the same concern.
We're going to hear from an expert on efforts to
try to curb that problem.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.

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Speaker 7 (33:22):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tail off. Congratulations, you worked hard to build
you a retirement nest egg. But now what Let me
help you break through the nonsense and financial speak so
we can get to the questions that are important to you.
As you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

(33:44):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
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creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
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(34:06):
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Speaker 12 (34:13):
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Speaker 4 (34:26):
And welcome back to the New England Business Report. On
this Sunday morning, December the seventh. Just well, that's a
bump seventeen maybe sixteen, seventeen shopping days to Christmas. So, uh,
where are you on that, Kim, by the way.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
I'm you know, I'm moving. Okay, I'm definitely moving.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
Okay. Business stories that you may not have heard about
or something that didn't quite get the attention that Kim
and I thought it should. And well, this one sort
of jumped out at US property taxes on Boston single
family home set despite thirteen percent in the second fiscal
year of double digit increases. We're going to talk a
little bit about that. I mean, that's just scary for

(35:06):
folks in downtown Boston.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
This tax situation in Boston is a mess because the
flip side of that is that, you know, the mayor
is also talking about raising taxes on commercial property. So
taxes are going up, it looks like, and everybody is
going to get their share.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
Yeah, and while commercial values are going in the other direction. Absolutely,
so it's a double edged short And then, okay, the
other thing that's out there, New England's drought didn't stop
Christmas tree farmers from growing a great crop story in
the Boston Globe, And you know, we're going to talk
a lot about the Christmas tree economy, especially next week
when we bring on Laverne level of levels out there

(35:46):
in Midfield, and it does seem like Christmas tree sales
mirror the economy in terms of well, prices haven't really
gone up because I think they're trying to be careful there,
but it does seem like people are out there buying. So, Kim,
do you have any idea which New England state cuts
the most Christmas trees?

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh, that's such a good question. This is a great
little quiz. I'm going to say Vermont.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
Bengo Number two is Vermont one hundred and twenty seven thousand,
Main ninety four thousand, Connecticut eighty eight, New Hampshire seventy nine.
Massachusetts comes in fifth and seventy eight, and Little Rhode
Island only have about twelve thousand Christmas trees Scott each year.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Well, Joe, as we mentioned before the break, the lack
of housing is a major problem in the Bay State,
which has been wreaking havoc on a lot of facets
of our economy here. And I think you know, you
and I have talked about it here on the show
with so many different people. Now efforts to change laws
in the state to make it easier to build or underway.

(36:44):
We are joined by Andrew mccoolay. He is a senior
Housing fellow at the Pioneer Institute. And Andrew, it's great
to have you with us. How serious is this issue
in your eyes when, of course I'm talking about the
lack of affordable housing in the state.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, and I mean
it's a huge issue we've seen in recent months Massachusetts
name the hardest state in the country for young adults
to buy a home, you know. The boss of Globe
and an article last week about how the middle class
is shrinking because the cost of housing has exploded since
the Great Recession, and also the seniors in the suburbs

(37:22):
are trapped in their homes because they don't have somewhere
nearby to downsize. So as a result, I mean, a
record number of Massachusetts residents, especially especially young adults ages
you know, twenty five to thirty four prime family formation years,
are leaving, you know, hurting our economy and separating families
because they know that they get more banks for their

(37:43):
buck elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
I'm talking with Andrew McCool, a senior Housing fellow at
the Pioneer Institute. So, okay, and it's obviously solutions. We're
looking for solutions, and one of them is possibly a
balant question in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
Yes, and so I'm the chair of the Legalized Hutter
Homes Committee. I'd like to clarify I Pioneer is not
involved on an organizational level with this campaign, despite being
my day job employer. But the ballot initiative is for
a law that would make it legal to build single
family homes on smaller lots than are typically allowed in
most Massachusetts suburbs today, as long as the lot is

(38:17):
served by public sewer and water services. And we think
this will help because with costs, because land is so
expensive in much of Massachusetts that allowing homes and smaller
lots will reduce the cost of homes for buyers and
will make it so that developers don't have to build
giant MC mansions just to justify the cost of assembling
so much land.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Is this something that's not in other states?

Speaker 1 (38:41):
You know?

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Has this been the answer to some of your housing problems?

Speaker 5 (38:45):
Yeah? So, most recently, actually Main pass the law that
would similarly cap minimum lot size requirements statewide in areas
served by public sewer systems. And that's a pretty remarkable
I mean, it's obviously in the early stages of being implemented,
but that is a remarkable thing that Maine was able

(39:06):
to do this because, I mean, relative to Massachusetts, they
have a much less severe housing shortage, and also they
have a lot more vacant developable land. But they're committed
to concentrating you know, this new growth around major job
centers and you know, close to you know, highways and resources,

(39:27):
other institutional amenity, et cetera, which is where the demand is.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
Andrew, Okay, so last year or so, the governor passed
the housing Bond bill that, according to this Globe article
I'm looking at here written by Andrew Brinker, it broadly
legalized ADU successory dwelling units on single family lots across
the state. Right, So that that is already in place,
and the Globe has this article suggesting, well, not a

(39:55):
lot's happening. And then you have this proposed ballot question
for twenty twenty six. Why is it needed? Why is
the ballot question needed if we already have this law.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
Yeah, so I mean, the the Affordable Homes Act is
taking a couple of different angles on this crisis. I mean,
it's it's legalizing accessory dwelling units. Although accessory dwelling units
you know, can only be built on lots that have
a home on them already or are built simultaneously with
a new home. Instead, this ballot question is making it

(40:26):
easier or broadening the array of lots on which you
can build a single family home in the first place.
So they kind of go hand in hand. And also,
the Affordable Homes Act takes, you know, an approach that
involves a lot of public financing and you know investing
in you know, improving public housing maintenance practices, et cetera.

(40:51):
It's just a part of a wide cornucopia of solutions
that are needed to make housing, you know, higher quality,
more affordable, more widely available.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
So, Andrew, it seems to me that the downside of
this would be that we would be looking for any
little piece of property anywhere and sticking a house in it.
So there has to be some kind of safety concerns
associated with that, as well as just the esthetics of neighborhoods.
So tell me what your answer to first the safety
issue and secondly the esthetic issues.

Speaker 5 (41:22):
Yeah, I mean by limiting it to areas with public
zewer and water services, it's really more narrowly targeted in that.
And also I think the status quo is, you know,
you're getting a lot of subdivisions out in four ninety
five Belt and beyond that are on much larger lots
and eat up much more land natural resources and also

(41:44):
kind of threatened the character of those communities that way.
So by allowing this kind of incremental growth in communities
that already have the infrastructure, are already part of a
metropolitan area, I think we're actually mitigating some of the
concerns with safety anesthetics.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Did you, I assume you saw the Globe article written
by Andrew Brinker, too many obstacles Despite state wide legalization,
backyard homes haven't boomed in Massachusetts. Do you agree with
the conclusions there that the Globe breached about this issue
or do you have other thoughts?

Speaker 7 (42:18):
Yes? I do.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
I mean, I think if you look at the states
that have done more on this, it's been incremental over
a longer period of time, and really we're just getting started.
I mean, California has gone from building eight hundred ADUs
a year to building thirty thousand in ten years or so.
And you know they've done that because they've gone back

(42:39):
to the legislation and iterated on it, talked to practitioners
and see what's happening on the ground. And there's a
like much less kind of legislative fatigue over planning and
zoning reforms there than there seems to be here. So
I think there's a lesson in that that, even if

(43:00):
it's incremental and multifaceted, we're not done.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
M So Andrew, where do we stand with the ballot question?

Speaker 5 (43:08):
Right? So, I mean we've just turned in yesterday to
the Secretary of State's office a little over eighty four
thousand ballid signatures, certified signatures by from the local rig
stars of voters, and so we expect that they'll you know,
throw out, you know, maybe a few thousand of them,
and then announced by you know, mid December a couple

(43:30):
of weeks that we've cleared the official seventy four thousand
and five hundred change threshold needed to get to the
next stage of the process. The legislature can weigh in
and then there's another amround of signature gathering this spring
before we're officially on the ballot.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
Where's the opposition to this or is this justph slam dunk.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
Well, I mean, we have internal polling data that suggests
that about sixty five percent of voters supported I mean,
with twelve percent undecided. I think that there are going
to be some folks that have, you know, questions about
impacts to traffic or schools. Again, we've minimized the impacts

(44:12):
bye of that by choosing a you know, well targeted
and incremental type of reform that allows downs to kind
of adapt over time. But I'm unaware of any kind
of organized opposition on the state level.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Well, Andrew, we thank you sir very much for joining us.
And this is a story, Joe, no doubt we will follow.
He's saying that they should know if they're moving on
to the next steps, you know, by the first of
the year, So it'll be an interesting, uh, an interesting
ballot question to follow for sure.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w r KO six't eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right back.

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Speaker 7 (45:56):
Are you a brother or sister of one a Greater
Boston's local trade unions and fively thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff. Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nesttag. But now what Let me help you break
through the nonsense and financial speak so we can get
to the questions that are important to you. As you know,
nothing gets built without a set of plans, and neither

(46:17):
will you a financial future. My name is Mike Marshall,
President and CEO of Marshal Wealth Management and creator of
the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized plan that will help
you answer important questions in all seven key areas. You
don't have to do it alone. There is no cost
or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three four
two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three four two

(46:40):
ten thirty. Well. Check us out online at Marshallwealth dot Com,
Marshall with two ls Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 12 (46:46):
Advisory services offer through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offer through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member FINRA, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 10 (47:00):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
If you want to be part of the New England
Business Report, sponsorships are still available.

Speaker 10 (47:08):
You can email us at any business radio at gmail
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Speaker 4 (47:13):
That's any business radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
The New England Business Report on WRKO is brought to
you in part by Subaru of New England subaruf New
England dot com.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
You know, Joe, Welcome back everybody. We love to talk about.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
AI here on the New England Business Report because I
think in the business world it's a conversation that's happening
all across the nation for sure, and certainly here in
New England. Our next guest is the CEO and founder
of HR Rebooted. It's a human resources technology company that
specializes in AI governance and stratg G solutions. Michelle Strasberger

(48:02):
is with us and Michelle, it's great to.

Speaker 7 (48:04):
Have you this morning.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Thanks so much for being a part of the show.

Speaker 8 (48:06):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Absolutely. Let's start with.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Your background, if we could tell us a little bit
about what brought you to HR Rebooted.

Speaker 8 (48:14):
Sure, so, I've been in new resources for over twenty
five years and progressive roles in HR leadership roles. During
the pandemic, like many I stepped out of Corporate America
and started consulting and had a fractional HR business and
started to really get excited about AI. I've always been

(48:35):
in in technology organizations and so I've been technology adjacent,
but in HR, and so really got excited about AI
and started using AI and started to realize that HR
was going to be tapped on the shoulders to really
manage this. In their organizations. A lot of times HR

(48:56):
would be tapped on the shoulders to manage things when
they did know where to put it. But this is
one of those things that I really believe that HR
is going to have to be because it makes the
most sense to be there. But there's not a lot
of tools or resources or.

Speaker 9 (49:12):
Guidance out there.

Speaker 8 (49:14):
And so I started working with one of my friends
to start to put that in place. And so that's
how HR Rebooted really started to get into the space
and started to build our governance first platform.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Michelle, So the company is HR rebooted. You know, at
first glance, you read that and you go, Okay, human
resources Artificial intelligence doesn't sound like the two match up.
I think a lot of people out there are terrified
of what this will do to employees.

Speaker 8 (49:43):
Yeah, I think I think that's a lot of concern.
There's a lot of unknown out there, and I think
that's why HR needs to take the lead on that.
We really need to talk to employees about how we're
going to use AI in our organization. We need to
talk about what our strategy is. We need to think
about that in organizations, and I think HR has a
unique opportunity to take the reins and build that strategy

(50:06):
and really think about how we're going to buildizations from
both and human and AI resource to build the organizations
of the future. And we're really going to have to
reboot right, and HR is going to have to reboot,
and we're going to have to take that strategic and
get out of the weeds and be that strategic leader.
And that's why it's rebooting HR. And it really is

(50:29):
an AI revolution, and it really starts with governance. We
have to build a policy, we have to build we
have to build a structure around AI. We can't just
start using AI and throw everything else out right. We
have to really be mindful about it, and we have
to build a process and structure around it. And we
have to build transparency around it, both for how we

(50:51):
use it, how we treat employees with it, how we
make decisions with it and be open and build a
whole change management process using AI, and that's what we're
doing well.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
Michelle, let me follow up on Joe's question and ask
you this because this is something that we talk about
frequently here on the show when we're talking about AI,
and you know, he stated that there's a lot of
fear around it, and I think what people are most
concerned about is that they're going to lose their jobs.
So tell me from your perspective, is AI going to

(51:25):
take jobs away?

Speaker 8 (51:27):
I think it's going to disrupt a lot of jobs.
I think the jury is still out on whether it's
going to take all jobs away. We do have a
tool we're calling Workforce Navigator, which actually will We'll look
at all the jobs and we'll tell you which jobs
will be disrupted. And there will be a lot of
jobs disrupted because of AI, and it will require organizations

(51:50):
to think that through and will require organizations and HR
especially to upscill and reskill people to get them ready
for that change and to think about how we are
utilizing talent in our organization and utilizing them differently. I
think AI is going to take away a lot of
administrative burden in our organization. We've required people to do

(52:11):
a lot more with less over the last several years,
if not more than that, and we'll be able to
take away a lot of that burden, but we're still
going to need people to do things, and we're still
going to need you in oversight RAN.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
You've sort of touched upon it. But if we could
push a little deeper there, which jobs will be disrupted?
You said administrative, but beyond that there there is a concern, right,
there is.

Speaker 8 (52:35):
I think there's going to be a large demand for
more of the thought leadership jobs and some of the
more administrative jobs. Customer service, frontline jobs like that will
be mostly impacted with AI. But I think there will
be a shift more than an elimination of those jobs.
So how can we use those use that talent differently? Right,

(52:56):
We've got that skill set, that experience in our organization.
Can we move them into different roles? Can we upscale
them and reskill them to use them in different capacities
in our organization? I do think HR specifically, right, there's
a lot of administrative functions within HR. I think that
people that are really good at payroll and compliance in HR,

(53:17):
you can take away a lot of that administrative pieces
and move those people into governance in AI governance. We
thought that that recruiting roles were going to go away
with AI, but they haven't gone away. The roles have
just shifted. We're able to kind of screen resumes a
lot quicker, but we still need human oversight with recruiting

(53:37):
because there's a lot of bias within some of the
AI systems, So you're going to still need the oversight.
It's just going to be a shift.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Mishal.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
A lot of people are talking about entry level jobs
and this really impacting young people coming out of college.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Is that a group that's going to have to fear
this the most?

Speaker 8 (53:52):
I think they're thinking about it a lot more. And
I have a friend whose son is a senior in
high school and he's actually thinking about what career he
is he going to pursue because he doesn't want to
pursue a college degree for a job that's not going
to be existing because of AI. So I do think
they're thinking about it. They're thinking about it younger and younger,

(54:13):
and they're starting to learn AI in the high school level,
so it is something that they're thinking about and that
they're going to have to think about and I think
HR professionals have to think about that too. How we're
going to recruit people knowing that AI is part of
the job description.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Talking with Michelle Strasberger, CEO and founder of HR Rebooted,
I guess I'm curious is can you can you share
with us who are your customers at this point? You
know what companies are you know? And what are the
CEOs saying to you? What are the questions they want
to answer?

Speaker 8 (54:45):
So we are working with organizations that are in the
small the SMB market and mostly HR professionals, and their
concerns are that there's so much unknown with AI right
now and there aren't there is no a lot of
regulation around it. So they don't know how to govern
AI and they don't know how people are using it,

(55:06):
and so they're looking for more transparency. They're concerned about
the riff with AI. They're worried about trade secrets getting
out into AI, and so that's what governance and that's
what we're doing with governance and putting that out there.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Are you finding this is overwhelming for a lot of
these CEOs?

Speaker 3 (55:23):
I mean, I feel like AI is overwhelming for me,
and I'm not running anybody but myself here, so it
has got to be an overwhelming feeling for some of
these businesses, I think.

Speaker 8 (55:32):
So, I think it depends. There are some I think
it's a little bit of the wild wild West, right,
that are going full force with utilizing AI and there's
no policy or governance around it, and then there are
some that are not using it at all. And it
is going to be a competitive advantage for those that
use AI and use it the right way and have

(55:53):
governance and guardrails around AI and use it effectively. But
it's it's finding that right balance.

Speaker 7 (55:59):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Uh Michelle found a question for me, the speed at
which AI is taking over and you know, getting into
people's lives and getting into companies. Are you are even
you shocked by the speed with which AI is moving.

Speaker 8 (56:14):
It is faster than anything I've seen. And I feel
like I grew up in a technology age myself, and
it's something that I think is going to have to
that people are going to have to adapt to. Once
we've trained people on AI, it's old knowledge and so
we're going to have to continually train and retrain people.

(56:36):
But that's not something to be afraid of it's something
to be excited about, right. It's something that we will
have the foundational knowledge on and will continually learn and
iterate on. I think it's something that you can you
can learn and not something to step away from. I
think stepping away from it is something that could could
set you apart.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Yeah, that will leave you behind at this stage. Michelle Strasberger,
thank you so much much for being a part of
the show today.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
And that does it for this week of the New
England of Business Support. Looking ahead the next week we
are going to talk about the Christmas tree economy and
we're going to be doing that with Laverne Level of
Levels in Medfield. So you know what I miss that right,
it's the New England Business Support right here at w
r O. The Voice of Boston a M six eighty