Speaker 1: It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, I'm telling you crazy Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Emma. Great to hear your voice
Speaker 2: working the newscasts here at night. Thanks so much for
Speaker 2: checking us out and also introducing us to the audience.
Speaker 2: My name's Dan Ray. I'm the host of Nightside. My
Speaker 2: partner Rob Brooks is behind us, back in the control room.
Speaker 2: Actually he's quite a distance from us. I'm broadcasting remotely,
Speaker 2: as I think most of you know, and Rob is
Speaker 2: back at the iHeart headquarters in beautiful Medford, Massachusetts. But
Speaker 2: you won't have to call Rob until after nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: In the first four hours, we do what's called the
Speaker 2: night Side News Update. Every night we talk to four
Speaker 2: interesting people about different topics. So tonight we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about the cost to rent here in Boston, which
Speaker 2: is prohibitive, talking about a new adventure park in Brockton
Speaker 2: called Urban Air that opens up in Brockton. We're going
Speaker 2: to talk with Kevin Paul DuPont. He is the Boston
Speaker 2: Globe sportswriter and he knows everything about the Bruins. We're
Speaker 2: going to talk about how to get the Bruins fixed
Speaker 2: for next year, and then we'll talk about if you
Speaker 2: get if you paid overtime or tips, you're possibly not
Speaker 2: going to have to pay taxes on your overtime of tips.
Speaker 2: And that's some good news out of Washington for those
Speaker 2: of those of you who work overtime and earn tips.
Speaker 2: I work overtime, but it's all part of my what
Speaker 2: we call a personal services contract, and everything gets taxed.
Speaker 2: We're going to start it off tonight, first and foremost
Speaker 2: with Mike Dian. Mike is an Axios Boston reporter. We've
Speaker 2: had Mike on before. Welcome back, Mike. I'm looking at
Speaker 2: this article and my head is spinning. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm good. Actually, unfortunately, I'm a renter Dan, so I'm
Speaker 3: not feeling as great as I could be given the topic.
Speaker 3: We're about to discuss some of the cost of renting
Speaker 3: in the city.
Speaker 2: Well, the headline on this story is you have to
Speaker 2: rent one hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars to rent
Speaker 2: comfortably in Boston. That follows New York City by eighteen
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in San Jose, California. I guess my question is,
Speaker 2: how do you define renting comfortably? I mean, I think
Speaker 2: most people could find a nice one bedroom apartment even
Speaker 2: in downtown Boston for that.
Speaker 3: Well, so it comes down to what I like about
Speaker 3: this survey from Zillow that kind of did crunch all
Speaker 3: these numbers is that it's basing it on thirty two
Speaker 3: point five percent of household income. And that's kind of
Speaker 3: the old fashioned, you know, advice that you always got
Speaker 3: to spend about a quarter to thirty percent of your
Speaker 3: income on housing, on rent or mortgage something like that.
Speaker 3: So it's that kind of old fashioned advice, and that's
Speaker 3: what Zillo used to then base out the map the
Speaker 3: rest of.
Speaker 2: All mat So let's work.
Speaker 3: Let's work at one hundred.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's work enough so you got to earn one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty seven. Will round that. Let's say to oh,
Speaker 2: I don't Let's say one hundred and twenty five just
Speaker 2: for the fun of it. And if we say to ourselves, okay,
Speaker 2: what is a third of one hundred and twenty five,
Speaker 2: that's about what forty two thousand dollars something like that roughly.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so that'll be forty two thousand annually.
Speaker 2: Annually divided by twelve, right, that would mean you would
Speaker 2: have to be paying three thousand plus thirty five.
Speaker 3: Hundred thirty five hundred yep.
Speaker 2: Okay, so if you have a roommate to rent the
Speaker 2: two bedroom, you have to find a roommate who's in
Speaker 2: the same you know, income bracket if you will. But
Speaker 2: there are no decent single apartments in Boston that you
Speaker 2: can get as a single person for thirty five hundred bucks.
Speaker 3: Really thirty five No, I think you could. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think that's That's what this study is kind of showing,
Speaker 3: is that it would cost around that to get the
Speaker 3: market rate. And I can tell you because I've looked.
Speaker 3: I'm good where I am right now, but whenever I
Speaker 3: look on Zillo or look for different apartments to rent,
Speaker 3: it really is about that much. Okay, don't tell you,
Speaker 3: don't tell me a little bit.
Speaker 2: Left, don't tell me where you live. Okay, that's not
Speaker 2: But assuming that the state House is ground zero, yeah,
Speaker 2: how many miles do you live away from ground zero?
Speaker 3: Only a couple time. I'm in Dorchester, okay, the wide one. Yeah, No,
Speaker 3: it's good. I'm happy, But I mean, so this study also,
Speaker 3: the average observed rent in Boston is thirty one hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy five, So that kind of gives you an
Speaker 3: idea of the baseline rent here. Oh yeah, we were
Speaker 3: doing it. Well, yeah, so that kind of So when
Speaker 3: you take numbers like that, you know, you do the math.
Speaker 3: You multiplied by twelve months. That's how you arrive at
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty seven thousand annual, which is a
Speaker 3: bit of an eye popping a moun. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: a lot of people probably don't earn that much household income.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit easier to do that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean this, like you said before, we're the third
Speaker 3: priceiest market in the United States.
Speaker 2: You know, when I got out of law school in
Speaker 2: the nineteen seventies, I had a really neat one bedroom
Speaker 2: apartment at do you know where Longfellow Place is in
Speaker 2: downtown Boston. It's yeah, right, it's beautiful. It was brand new,
Speaker 2: it's brand new. I was on the twenty third floor,
Speaker 2: had a great view of water, just wonderful. I paid
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's probably over five grand now, but.
Speaker 2: Well maybe maybe, but I'm trying to remember what I
Speaker 2: was making, and it probably was in line with that.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's crazy, it's just crazy. So the
Speaker 2: question then is if you're someone who's starting out in Boston,
Speaker 2: maybe you just say, hey, I can't live in the
Speaker 2: city of Boston. I got to find something in one
Speaker 2: of the inner suburbs, Revere or or or Watertown on
Speaker 2: the other side of the city. Or maybe maybe that's
Speaker 2: the reality. I got to find something out in Newton.
Speaker 2: There there are some really nice apartments that I'm aware
Speaker 2: of because one of my children a few years ago
Speaker 2: rented in one of these apartments right on the MBTA line.
Speaker 2: So is this this look we're the highest in the
Speaker 2: country I'm looking at. I'm looking at places like, well,
Speaker 2: San Diego was pretty close. San Francisco is close. Uh.
Speaker 2: To get to the lowest cities Louisville, Oklahoma City, Buffalo,
Speaker 2: Saint Louis, Birmingham, Alabama. You know obviously the rents in
Speaker 2: those places, it's kind of what the what what the
Speaker 2: market will beer? How do we resolve this? Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: well I think for the renter.
Speaker 3: For the consumer, you're absolutely right is to look for
Speaker 3: deals and bargains, look for you know, neighborhoods or towns
Speaker 3: and cities outside of downtown. Definitely. You know you mentioned Revere.
Speaker 3: I put Chelsea on that list. I think a lot
Speaker 3: of good stuff happening in Quinsy, but also there's also
Speaker 3: a lot of new building which we need to do
Speaker 3: housing construction, but all the stuff that's coming online brand
Speaker 3: new is not going to be that affordable for folks. So,
Speaker 3: you know, it really is just a big problem. You
Speaker 3: can look at it from a housing standpoint, build build, build,
Speaker 3: but that brings you know, non affordable housing online, or
Speaker 3: improve transportation traffic congestion if you drive. Obviously, that's going
Speaker 3: to be a pain for anybody who's living, you know,
Speaker 3: a half hour hour away from work if they work downtown.
Speaker 3: And we know about the travails of the MBTA, certainly
Speaker 3: reliability is still a question. So there isn't a lot
Speaker 3: of good answers, but I think there are still some
Speaker 3: bargains to be found here and there. If you're crawling
Speaker 3: on Zillow and looking for a place where you can
Speaker 3: actually get to work from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder if the fact that we're a university
Speaker 2: town in many respects, between b C and b U
Speaker 2: and Tufts and Harvard and m I T and Northeastern
Speaker 2: and Emerson, I wonder if the rents in Boston are
Speaker 2: impacted adversely. So you have kids coming in town. In
Speaker 2: some cases, I'm hearing that wealthy parents buy condos. They
Speaker 2: all the kids going to be here for four years,
Speaker 2: you know, the the increase in the value of the condominium,
Speaker 2: we'll more than offset. I mean, there's different Now. Not
Speaker 2: every kid has parents who can who could purchase a
Speaker 2: condo for them.
Speaker 3: But just yeah, I know I knew quite a few
Speaker 3: of those, those those students, and they were living pretty
Speaker 3: comfortably a couple of years after graduation too. But you're right,
Speaker 3: you know, you see the the way the market is,
Speaker 3: it's a good investment if you can afford it. And
Speaker 3: if you can afford to send your kid to you know,
Speaker 3: a bu or a tough sor a Harvard paying full freight,
Speaker 3: then you can maybe also afford a condo close to campus.
Speaker 2: You know. It's I just think it's it's a more
Speaker 2: complicated issue, uh than we than we realize. And I'll
Speaker 2: also say that some of these other cities they talk about,
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City, Louisville, Kentucky. I've men to those two cities.
Speaker 2: They're pretty nice cities. Uh, they have a lot God
Speaker 2: for them. Everybody can't live in Boston unfortunately, I guess,
Speaker 2: and everybody can't live in New York. I don't understand
Speaker 2: why San Jose is the second most expensive city according
Speaker 2: to Zillo New York. Well, yeah, that's the answer, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So you get all these people who come out there
Speaker 2: who make a lot of money and they'll pay whatever
Speaker 2: the market will be. That's that's exactly the situation. Look,
Speaker 2: I love the stuff you guys do at Axios. Mike,
Speaker 2: thanks much for being available as often as you are.
Speaker 2: We really do appreciate here on Nightside. It gives gives
Speaker 2: my listeners something to think about, and they really can
Speaker 2: think about this this report, uh that you've written. Uh
Speaker 2: and and and my question is, how can folks subscribe
Speaker 2: to Axios? What what can we do to help generate
Speaker 2: some interest in Axios?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd love that they can go to axios dot com,
Speaker 3: slash local, slash Boston, or just google Axios Boston and
Speaker 3: then any of our stories, our homepage will pop up
Speaker 3: and there's a sign up right there. You can pop
Speaker 3: in your email address and then you'll hear from me
Speaker 3: every weekday morning.
Speaker 2: And my understanding is that that's a.
Speaker 3: Free Oh yeah, absolutely, Well, I think let's step there.
Speaker 2: Let's look. Hey, thanks man, I look forward to meeting
Speaker 2: you someday.
Speaker 3: Thank you, mich my pleasure.
Speaker 2: So again, Axios Boston dot com. Another sort of information
Speaker 2: for a nightside listeners, Go and take quick break when
Speaker 2: we come back. Right after this quick break, we're going
Speaker 2: to be talking about a new adventure park don in
Speaker 2: Brockton called Urban Air, and we will talk with the
Speaker 2: owner of Urban Air Brockton right after the break.
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a new adventure park called Urban Ear opening
Speaker 2: up in Brockton, and the owner of Urban Air Brockton
Speaker 2: is Cheryl Ing. Cheryl, Welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm great. How are you doing tonight?
Speaker 2: Doing great? So is this part of this is not
Speaker 2: a standalone business? It looks to me as if there's
Speaker 2: a bunch of these around the country. Is that true?
Speaker 4: That is true. We are part of a franchise from
Speaker 4: Unleashed Brands, and we are excited and extremely happy to
Speaker 4: be bringing Urban Air to the town of Brockton, Massachusetts,
Speaker 4: to all the kids and family. Is there to start
Speaker 4: creating some fun and memory.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, now are you from Brockden. I'm just curious.
Speaker 2: I don't know much about you, but are you from
Speaker 2: Brockton yourself, or if you're running it, do you have
Speaker 2: a presence on the ground here or are you working
Speaker 2: out of some national area office.
Speaker 4: I'm physically not in Brockton, but I'm pretty close by myself.
Speaker 2: So you're in the Massachusetts area. That's what I'm I'm
Speaker 2: taking from that.
Speaker 4: I'm not I am from another I am from out
Speaker 4: of state, but we do have a combination of tons
Speaker 4: of friends and family there as well as our trusted
Speaker 4: scheme that is there, and I've been there myself the
Speaker 4: last few months on a daily weekly basis.
Speaker 2: Is the park now open or is it going to open?
Speaker 4: We are physically open today, but we are actually having
Speaker 4: our grand opening opening celebration on this coming Saturday, on
Speaker 4: May thirty first, and we're having a huge promotion. So
Speaker 4: the first two hundred people in line this Saturday that
Speaker 4: purchases the Ultimate Day Pass, we'll be able to jump
Speaker 4: for free for a year with a basic pass as
Speaker 4: well as we have tons of different attractions and kind
Speaker 4: of events that we have lined up for all of
Speaker 4: our friends and family this coming weekend.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it is truly brand new for Brockton. Where
Speaker 2: about you in Brockton.
Speaker 4: And you're located, We are on four to thirty five
Speaker 4: Westgate Drive, in that Westgate Drive mall area. You'll see
Speaker 4: our sign right off the highway.
Speaker 2: And is it is it now? It's called Urban Air.
Speaker 2: Is it an indoor facility? It looks to me from
Speaker 2: the pictures I've seen it looks as if it's an
Speaker 2: indoor facility.
Speaker 4: It is an indoor facility, it's not, and it is.
Speaker 4: We call ourselves a trampoline and a venture park, and
Speaker 4: it is because we're not just only about trampoline but
Speaker 4: also about all the different attractions. So we have our
Speaker 4: most famous skyrider, which is like an indoor ziplining attraction,
Speaker 4: as well as our Ninja Warrior course, our rock climbing attractions,
Speaker 4: our soft play area, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 4: So we have over like twenty different types of attractions
Speaker 4: for kids to really truly enjoy themselves and have a
Speaker 4: great time while they're there.
Speaker 2: Now, this is obviously your business, so it looks to me,
Speaker 2: And again I'm looking at the website here and trying
Speaker 2: to ask realistic questions. It looks as if you sell memberships.
Speaker 4: Correct, Yes, there is. We have our memberships where it's
Speaker 4: a great deal for them to be able to have
Speaker 4: unlimited play at seventeen ninety nine per month and it
Speaker 4: does not limit the number of times that you come
Speaker 4: up come to our park to play, and you could
Speaker 4: come as many times as you want every single day
Speaker 4: for thirty days and enjoy the park with a once
Speaker 4: one time, once a month's one time a month membership.
Speaker 4: See that's ser child.
Speaker 2: Okay. So when you when you say seventeen ninety nine,
Speaker 2: that's seventeen dollars in ninety nine.
Speaker 4: Cents, That is correct.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that so that's per Probably it can't be
Speaker 2: for a family membership. That would be per.
Speaker 5: Child per child yep.
Speaker 4: And all you have to do is really go on
Speaker 4: the site and sign up for it.
Speaker 2: Okay. And what is the how old can can be?
Speaker 1: That?
Speaker 2: Can kids be there? I see some of them very young?
Speaker 2: Is there an age restrict meaning like it's some of
Speaker 2: the theme parks around the country, the child in order
Speaker 2: to participate has to be so tall? Is this an
Speaker 2: age Can kids as young as three have a membership?
Speaker 2: And how old can they be? What's the age. I'm
Speaker 2: sure that it's not highly limited. What what can you
Speaker 2: be thirty and be a kid there?
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. So it's really for kids of all ages,
Speaker 4: including my husband and my grown adult, my teenage daughter
Speaker 4: who's sixteen, who enjoys the facility as much as my
Speaker 4: nine year old, as well as any of the three
Speaker 4: year olds we see. So there's no age restriction. Some restriction, yeah,
Speaker 4: we do like restriction in terms of some of the
Speaker 4: some of the areas to play with for safety reasons.
Speaker 4: But we also have a high chart at the very
Speaker 4: front of our facility so that our staff is able
Speaker 4: to measure you to make sure that you're hitting all
Speaker 4: hip restrictions.
Speaker 6: But well, our.
Speaker 4: Staff also lets you know if you do not meet
Speaker 4: hike restrictions to actually play in the amusement park.
Speaker 2: How how long has this company been in business around
Speaker 2: the country. I've never heard of it before. I'm sure
Speaker 2: it's very great for kids. But how long is Urban
Speaker 2: Ear Adventure Parks been around the country.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's been around for over you know, ten
Speaker 4: plus years, if not more.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 4: This would be the first park in the Brockton area
Speaker 4: for us.
Speaker 2: Other parks in New England that are urban air parks.
Speaker 2: I'm just curious if this is the first in New England,
Speaker 2: because this the first up one I've I have ever
Speaker 2: heard of.
Speaker 4: There is a one, there is another additional park in
Speaker 4: the Belling area, because this would be the second park
Speaker 4: in the Massachusetts area, and in the process of building
Speaker 4: additional parks and other areas as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, folks can find it. I guess they just
Speaker 2: go to urbanear dot com and they'll get all the
Speaker 2: information they need. Best of luck. I hope that it's
Speaker 2: a good effort, good venture on your behalf, and I
Speaker 2: hope that it also is great for kids in the
Speaker 2: greater Brockton area who'll be taking advantage of urban air.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Cheryl, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Sam, have a good day.
Speaker 2: You too. Good night. Here comes the news at the
Speaker 2: bottom of the hour, and on the other side of
Speaker 2: the news, we're going to talk a little hockey with
Speaker 2: Kevin Paul DuPont of the Boston Globe. He knows more
Speaker 2: about hockey and the NHL than anyone I know, and
Speaker 2: we got to figure out how we're going to get
Speaker 2: the Bruins back on track. In twenty five twenty six.
Speaker 2: We've got to come up with the slogan too. We'll
Speaker 2: be back right after the news at the bottom of
Speaker 2: the hour.
Speaker 1: Night with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Everybody with us is Kevin Paul DuPont. The
Speaker 2: Bruins season has been over now for what's it four weeks, Kevin?
Speaker 2: Or five weeks? When does training camp start?
Speaker 5: Hi, Kevin Hawiya, I'm doing I'm doing well, Dan, thank you,
Speaker 5: great to be with you. And actually it's closer to
Speaker 5: seven weeks at this point.
Speaker 2: Hard to believe, unbelievable. It's going to be the long summer.
Speaker 2: Everybody should commit to camp in pretty good shape. This
Speaker 2: This year turned out to be a disastrous year for
Speaker 2: the Bruins at so many levels. Not making the playoffs,
Speaker 2: uh one is one of the factors. But let's start
Speaker 2: at the top. Don Sweeney has been renewed for a
Speaker 2: couple of seasons. That were you surprised at that?
Speaker 5: I know, given the fact that they made the announcement.
Speaker 5: They decided in mid April on what I always call
Speaker 5: autopsy day, two or three days after this he's and
Speaker 5: ended the annual presser at the end and they said
Speaker 5: that he would be back. So if he's going to
Speaker 5: be back, and they've entrusted him with the as they
Speaker 5: have with the quick makeover of this team to try
Speaker 5: to get back into the playoffs and and be Cup
Speaker 5: viable if you will, well you know you can't leave
Speaker 5: him on an expiring contract to be ridiculous on many levels.
Speaker 5: First of all, they've got to hire a coach, and
Speaker 5: they've got to encourage free agents to come here. If
Speaker 5: the general managers on an expiring deal that doesn't, that
Speaker 5: doesn't pass much confidence through the organization.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Swayne, he's been a loyal employee and a
Speaker 2: Harvard guy. You know, played many years for the Bruins
Speaker 2: as a as a defenseman, so he knows, he knows
Speaker 2: the system. But it just seemed to fall apart in
Speaker 2: so many ways. A year ago. Uh, Swayman didn't have
Speaker 2: a good year. But I don't know, as a guy
Speaker 2: who played a little bit of goal in high school
Speaker 2: in college, if it was his fault or if it
Speaker 2: was his defense's fault. He had a pretty good international series.
Speaker 2: They just won this international series. I don't know how
Speaker 2: significant is significant that is. And I guess he had
Speaker 2: a shutout in the final game. My guess is he'll
Speaker 2: come back. I hope he's not blame Locker.
Speaker 5: You know, I don't think he is that. I do
Speaker 5: think I felt a year ago. I felt for the
Speaker 5: last year and a half two years. He's a franchise goalie,
Speaker 5: So I do think he'll And again I can be wrong,
Speaker 5: A lot of people can be wrong with that, yes,
Speaker 5: but I think you know, he's athletic, he's big, he's
Speaker 5: got the mentality and all of that is true. And
Speaker 5: it's equally true that he had a horrendous year last year.
Speaker 5: But I feel there's a number of factors in that.
Speaker 5: And they lost Hampus Lindome, they lost McAvoy late, the
Speaker 5: team was not entertaining. You could just see the It
Speaker 5: just wasn't there. And then, of course, on March seventh,
Speaker 5: in the days leading up to my art Sun, they
Speaker 5: decided to cash out a lot of these players, including
Speaker 5: captain Brad Marshan. So I think he comes back. That said, Dan,
Speaker 5: they've got to play better in front of him than
Speaker 5: they did last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question. Yeah. I was disappointed to see them
Speaker 2: trade Coil a whole bunch of the players that to me,
Speaker 2: it looked like a fire sale? Am I looking at any?
Speaker 2: I mean almost like that. And of course they had
Speaker 2: the fire sale and then they won a couple of games,
Speaker 2: and everybody's saying, hey, what's going on here? They had
Speaker 2: who the players were that I guess that that could happen,
Speaker 2: but they small sample size, they come back to where
Speaker 2: they were. What are they going to do for a
Speaker 2: second goaltender? I mean, are they just going to rely
Speaker 2: on Swaymen every year for you know, sixty games.
Speaker 5: I think they're okay on the second goaltender. They've got
Speaker 5: a UNIONUS corporate salo. He's fine for that role. It
Speaker 5: wouldn't surprise me if they moved him because he's a
Speaker 5: bit pricey and went with one of their kids. I
Speaker 5: really think overall, goaltending's not it. I think more than anything,
Speaker 5: they've got to get legitimate scoring power up front. Easier
Speaker 5: said than done. And frankly, Dan, the hardest position of
Speaker 5: all is, by my eye, they don't have a number
Speaker 5: one center. Hard to compete in today's game if you
Speaker 5: don't have that guy. They think it's Elias Lindholm. Maybe
Speaker 5: it is. He wasn't last year. They gave him a
Speaker 5: whole whack of money he's on there for another six years,
Speaker 5: so they have to hope he comes around. But I
Speaker 5: think that remains the priority. I know Sweeney's talking about
Speaker 5: priority being a scoring on the wing. They need that too,
Speaker 5: but more than anything, as you well know, you've got
Speaker 5: to have the guy in the mid middle who can
Speaker 5: pace the offense.
Speaker 2: Well. The thing about the Bruins that struck me as
Speaker 2: the season went on, and I was stunned when I
Speaker 2: looked at it, was that the goal's four goals against differential.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've never seen a Brews team even when
Speaker 2: things were really bad back in the sixties, when the
Speaker 2: disparity between goal scoring they were losing some they might
Speaker 2: have been winning some two one games. If they were
Speaker 2: losing game seven eight to.
Speaker 5: One, I mean yeah, And you know, to me, it
Speaker 5: wasn't so much. Yeah, the math of that is hard
Speaker 5: on the eyes, but the kind of the underlying truth
Speaker 5: was it wasn't entertaining Dan And as we know, there's
Speaker 5: been there have been many good teams here, but there's
Speaker 5: been some bad teams too. But even when they were bad,
Speaker 5: they were entertaining. And it's a different league. I mean
Speaker 5: entertaining in the sixties and seventies, even in the eighties
Speaker 5: was Okay, they stink, but they're out there fighting and
Speaker 5: there's some fun to that. Or you stink, but you
Speaker 5: can be you can play like hell, and you can
Speaker 5: play fast and play aggressively. They didn't do that. It
Speaker 5: was just this sort of dead on arrival product and
Speaker 5: it remained that, and that's to me, that's what led
Speaker 5: to as you call it, the fire sale. Well if
Speaker 5: it if they're going to lack any sort of hutspa
Speaker 5: or any sort of character, then it becomes easy to
Speaker 5: get rid of guys and they've got to try to recreate.
Speaker 5: Easier said than done. But what we saw here for years,
Speaker 5: in more recent years was a real spine of the
Speaker 5: team with Chara Rask, especially with Chara bergeron Kretchy. Of
Speaker 5: course Marshant. All that's gone. Now Dan, they've got to
Speaker 5: come up with some any chance comes back, there's a chance,
Speaker 5: but I think it's very small. I think if he
Speaker 5: comes back, it means the market isn't there for him.
Speaker 5: The way he believes they tried to sign him. He
Speaker 5: believed it was worth more money. The agents have a
Speaker 5: real keen eye on that, which which is another way
Speaker 5: of saying, yes, there is collusion these guys, these guys,
Speaker 5: these guys, the agents go find out what the market
Speaker 5: is for these guys. So I'm guessing that someone has
Speaker 5: told the agent or you know, wink wink, nod nod,
Speaker 5: that there's there's a deal out there for three years,
Speaker 5: around five and a half or six million, and.
Speaker 6: Why not take it?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: Well, always been here forever.
Speaker 2: The only thought that I had was that Sweety kind
Speaker 2: of did him a favor. He was an exile to
Speaker 2: you know, some of the places other and some of
Speaker 2: the other players were exiled to, although they all end
Speaker 2: up with pretty good teams. I mean, yes, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean Colorado was in it, but he he may
Speaker 2: win a ring with the Panthers, you know.
Speaker 5: That's absolutely absolutely And if you remember twenty five years
Speaker 5: ago when it was Ray Bork was was he had
Speaker 5: his time in the barrel, if you will, with this,
Speaker 5: Uh finally asked to go wanted to go to Philadelphia,
Speaker 5: and there was a deal on the table from Philadelphia.
Speaker 5: Harry Sindon was a general manager and took what he
Speaker 5: felt was a better deal, and it was a very
Speaker 5: good deal with Colorado, and Ray didn't get what he wanted.
Speaker 5: But he did get the cup, he got the.
Speaker 2: Ring, he got the ring. I remember being a little
Speaker 2: good airploy with him and Steve Fryer that day. Steve
Speaker 2: and I have very close friends, and as he got
Speaker 2: on the plane to head out of town. It's sad
Speaker 2: to see guys like that. I was disappointed in Charlie
Speaker 2: Coyle being traded because I know I think he's thirty three,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken, so maybe a little long in
Speaker 2: the tooth there, But I thought he was one of
Speaker 2: the better players consistently for the last two or three
Speaker 2: years on this team after his time with other organizations.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and did it with all the jobs of a
Speaker 5: smile on his face. I'll say that for Charlie. You
Speaker 5: know I say this about virtually everybody on every team,
Speaker 5: which is you'd like to see some more offense, more
Speaker 5: consistent offense. But of course he moved up in the lineup.
Speaker 5: She's an Bergier on and Kretzy retired. He did a
Speaker 5: good job this year. It wasn't there. He bounced around
Speaker 5: from wing to center, high up in the lineup. What
Speaker 5: I think he's best at Dan is he's an excellent
Speaker 5: number three center, and that that's that's a if you
Speaker 5: if you will, in some sense, that's a luxury. They
Speaker 5: didn't they needed, they needed him higher in the order.
Speaker 5: It didn't. It didn't work for him this year like
Speaker 5: it did last. So again give him where they were.
Speaker 5: And also we haven't addressed this there there's they've been
Speaker 5: so in need of building up with draft picks, good
Speaker 5: draft picks, prospects that you know they saw, they saw
Speaker 5: the chance to bring in middle stat for center. We'll
Speaker 5: see what he has.
Speaker 2: Is a young guy on young quantity. Look, I think
Speaker 2: the only guy who exceeded expectations last year was Pasternak.
Speaker 2: Who else would you put in that category who exceeded expectations?
Speaker 2: I thought it was an underperforming team across the board.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know he delivered. And again he's your point
Speaker 5: is a good one, which is so few guys above
Speaker 5: the line. But I think Geeky was there and now
Speaker 5: he's a restricted free agent. He should make some real
Speaker 5: money and good for him. Uh, straight line player, no nonsense.
Speaker 5: But yeah, other than those two got a scrape to
Speaker 5: come up.
Speaker 2: I'll give McAvoy a pass because McAvoy got hurt. Uh yeah,
Speaker 2: god knows how if when he got hurt, and we
Speaker 2: know we really got hurt. But uh, he's the sort
Speaker 2: of guy who could have played hurt all year and
Speaker 2: not you know, not tipped it off to anybody. They
Speaker 2: make the playoffs next year, How big a climb is that?
Speaker 5: In your opinion, Kevin, Uh, it's not that big to
Speaker 5: think that they could be in the wild card mix?
Speaker 3: Is not that?
Speaker 5: Not that big a lift because they do have the
Speaker 5: franchise goaltender. Now, if I'm wrong about that, and I
Speaker 5: wouldn't be one wrong, I think a lot of people
Speaker 5: think Jeremy Swayman is that good. So if you've got
Speaker 5: the goaltender, you're in it. You need a lot more.
Speaker 5: But if they didn't have Swaymen, if they didn't have
Speaker 5: Pastanak McAvoy is legit. So they've got some good pieces here.
Speaker 5: The question is can they find the right people to
Speaker 5: fill this out? Can they make up that void at
Speaker 5: number one Center? And as I'm watching it, you and
Speaker 5: I are talking, I'm watching Dallas and Edmonton's it's sort
Speaker 5: of a different sport. Uh, And I say that for
Speaker 5: the speedy it's two good teams. And okay, yeah, they're
Speaker 5: they're the semi finalists. They should be good teams. But
Speaker 5: we've said this wild about the Bruins. Their speed isn't there,
Speaker 5: their aggressiveness isn't there. They've got to they've got to
Speaker 5: up those factors again. That that that's a lift.
Speaker 2: What was interesting to see teams like the Capitals who
Speaker 2: played so well Winnipeg all knocked out and knocked out early.
Speaker 2: I have no idea who's going to win the Cup.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping for Florida for Martian's sake, but I don't
Speaker 2: what's your what's your best guess at this point?
Speaker 5: Oh, my best guess is going to end up right
Speaker 5: where it was last year with Florida and Edmonton. Uh,
Speaker 5: there's there's a there's a ton I like about both
Speaker 5: of them. I would think if it, if it does
Speaker 5: end up that, I think it's going to be Edmonton
Speaker 5: this time. I really do. They've got they've just got
Speaker 5: such speed, they've got such great firepower with Drisidl and
Speaker 5: oh god, all right, yeah, I think it's their year.
Speaker 2: All right? Well, that that, Joey is the way it
Speaker 2: seems to work out in hockey. There's very few, very
Speaker 2: few repeats, that's for sure. Since the days of the
Speaker 2: Islanders and the old oilers and the Canadians before that. Kevin,
Speaker 2: thanks so much, great to talk with you really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Maybe we can hit it one more time once the
Speaker 2: free agency market opens up.
Speaker 5: Okay, I hope so great.
Speaker 3: Go to be with you.
Speaker 5: Dan.
Speaker 2: Right back at you, Kevin, Thank you so much, Ladies
Speaker 2: and gentlemen, Kevin Paul DuPont. He is a sage, a
Speaker 2: hockey sage. It's as simple as that. When we get back,
Speaker 2: we will wrap up this hour. One more guest coming up,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about if you make overtime,
Speaker 2: if you make tips, you may not you may pay
Speaker 2: substantially less in taxes in upcoming years. We'll explain back
Speaker 2: after this.
Speaker 1: On Nightside, you're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Roy Joining us is Sharif Midyest. Sarif, welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 6: I'm doing great, Dan, Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 2: Right this I think is your third third time with us.
Speaker 2: You're the CEO of Bricks Holdings, a multi brand franchising
Speaker 2: company specializing in food service chains. So a lot of
Speaker 2: the people who work in food service change do work
Speaker 2: over time and do rely on tips, and there's some
Speaker 2: good news for them in this so called big, beautiful
Speaker 2: bill that the Republicans are trying to shoehorn through Congress.
Speaker 6: That's right, it.
Speaker 2: Looks like it's going to be a tight fit. They
Speaker 2: only pass by one vote in the House and the Senate.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of rumblings amongst the senators different interests.
Speaker 2: Assuming this bill passes, what's it going to mean for
Speaker 2: people who rely on overtime and tips? Kind of good news.
Speaker 6: It's a big deal. I mean, to have all of
Speaker 6: those wages that you get in tips and overtime to
Speaker 6: be tax free is a significant, you know, impact to
Speaker 6: folks that you know that are in the food service
Speaker 6: restaurant industry and rely on that to pay their bills. Right,
Speaker 6: that's a it's a huge benefit if this gets through.
Speaker 2: Now, if my memory is accurate, and it's a pretty
Speaker 2: good memory, it was President Trump than candidate Trump, well,
Speaker 2: former President Trump who advocated this on the campaign trail,
Speaker 2: and eventually Vice President Harris echoed the position that the
Speaker 2: candidate Trump had taken. So it seems like there should
Speaker 2: be support for this portion this aspect of the bill
Speaker 2: on both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 6: There should be, and because it helps solve a couple
Speaker 6: of things. Right, So everyone's talking about, you know, can
Speaker 6: these folks make a livable wage? Well, it's really hard
Speaker 6: to continue to pay more and more on an hourly
Speaker 6: rate as a restaurant owner because restaurant margins are slim.
Speaker 6: But if you can take the tips that folks get
Speaker 6: from their consumers, from their guests, and you cannot tax that,
Speaker 6: it goes right into their pocket. That solves both problems.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 6: The restauranteurs are not paying more so to speak, but
Speaker 6: their team members, their servers, their back of house staff,
Speaker 6: their hostess and hostesses are making more money and being
Speaker 6: able to sustain a livable wage.
Speaker 2: So without bringing the politics into it, it's interesting to me,
Speaker 2: at least when I grew up back in the sixties
Speaker 2: and seventies, the party of the working person was the
Speaker 2: Democrats and the Republicans were the country club party, and
Speaker 2: often they owned the businesses and the Democrats worked in
Speaker 2: the businesses. It seems that at least on this initiative
Speaker 2: from Trump, he's kind of flipped the traditional roles of
Speaker 2: the two parties on their heads.
Speaker 6: It seems like that, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 6: it's also really good for business, and I think that's
Speaker 6: the key here. It's helping the individuals, helping the restaurant
Speaker 6: team members, but it's also helping the restaurant industry. I mean,
Speaker 6: you have to remember they were battered during COVID and
Speaker 6: many of them shut down. Inflation continues to raise costs,
Speaker 6: and so this gives everyone a little bit of a
Speaker 6: breath relief and will help possibly draw more people into
Speaker 6: the restaurant sector. Right, more people that want to take
Speaker 6: advantage of this tax free opportunity may want to come
Speaker 6: in and fill those those gaps, right, fill those open
Speaker 6: positions in the restaurant side.
Speaker 2: Well, I know that in some parts of the country
Speaker 2: at different times during the year, and the ski resorts
Speaker 2: in the wintertime and the beach beach restaurants in the summertime,
Speaker 2: they have they sometimes have trouble hiring enough weight staff.
Speaker 2: So that is a something that that I know from
Speaker 2: my experience on Cape Cod here in Massachusetts, a lot
Speaker 2: of the restaurant owners say they can't get people to work.
Speaker 2: It's I don't know why, but but this certainly I
Speaker 2: think would would would increase I mean, normally you think
Speaker 2: about high school kids and college kids home for the summer.
Speaker 2: But a lot of restaurant owners have told me that
Speaker 2: they they just can't, you know, increase their their over
Speaker 2: the over the counter ways is enough to induce people
Speaker 2: to come and work. And so maybe this is maybe
Speaker 2: this is the boost that the tourist towns in America
Speaker 2: in the summer, in the beach towns and in the
Speaker 2: winter the ski towns need. I assume you would look
Speaker 2: at that also as a positive for the industry.
Speaker 6: A huge positive. And to your point, you know, restaurants
Speaker 6: since the pandemic have been losing folks to retail. So
Speaker 6: retail has higher margins, right, Those those clothing stores, those
Speaker 6: shoes stores, they operate on higher margins so they can
Speaker 6: pay their team members more. And so when you're a
Speaker 6: college kid, even in you know those summer jobs that
Speaker 6: you mentioned, Am I going to go work somewhere I
Speaker 6: can get twenty dollars an hour or seven dollars an hour, right,
Speaker 6: and they're going to retail. But now if this starts,
Speaker 6: you know, you can start making twenty dollars an hour.
Speaker 6: We're in tips and have a tax free right, think
Speaker 6: about that inducement. Now that restaurants can use to bring
Speaker 6: those folks back into restaurants versus going to their local
Speaker 6: retail shops.
Speaker 2: Makes a lot of sense, doesn't Let's only hope that
Speaker 2: the members of Congress can come together on this at least,
Speaker 2: if nothing else, that's for sure. Shreif Mityes. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much. See old Bricks Holdings. If folks want to
Speaker 2: get in touch with you, the best way to do that.
Speaker 6: Is www dot Bricksbrix Holdings dot com.
Speaker 2: Sounds great. Thanks you, Rey, appreciate talking to you once again.
Speaker 2: We'll talk again. Thank you very much. All Right, we
Speaker 2: get back. We're going to talk as we intended to
Speaker 2: do last night, about President Trump's relentless battle against Harvard University.
Speaker 2: Harvard has made concessions. The President does not seem to
Speaker 2: want to declear victory. I don't understand that. Maybe some
Speaker 2: of you do. We'll be back right after the nine
Speaker 2: o'clock news and we'll break it down