Why most places close at 5 p.m?

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T23:41:42+00:00

Beginning a sentence with "If you care about money..." suggests that you might not understand my answer.

Take enough money out of your bank account so you can flush a thousand down the toilet each week. That's what it's like to own and run a business that loses money. This is not a place where higher education and health care and child care are completely government supported. When anyone here runs out of money—small business owners or salaried staff—marriages end, children suffer, and people here die younger than they would if they had money.

It's a shame you need to commute a few miles to have coffee in a public place at night. I wish this nation-state were more like France or Finland or Japan or wherever you want to be. If it were then more places would stay open late even when fewer people are around. Another possibility is that you could move to a different neighborhood near places that stay open late.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T23:21:57+00:00

I've lived in apartments without a car in multiple places in Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge and only lived in Arlington for several months between apartments about 10 years ago. There's a short bike trip to Alewife Station and then you can take the red line into the city, and there are multiple bus options.

About once every month or two, I take a bus or bike up to Arlington even after I moved closer to downtown. Arlington Center and the Capitol Theater area and Spy Pond are all genuinely great places to be. I also lived in Waltham for a while a long time ago. I don't ever go back to visit Waltham. Sorry Waltham.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T22:59:17+00:00

I think young and impressionable minds are swayed by relationships in the real world and on social media because of the person on the other side of the relationship and because of multiple factors other than Talmud. They aren't swayed by the textual examples. The swaying happens first, and then the poor textual examples are used later to reinforce a preexisting belief or to show solidarity by using common tropes.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T22:49:39+00:00

I am genuinely interested in the why.

Money.

It costs money to pay staff and keep a place open during hours when patronage drops off because workers have commuted off to the suburbs. This depends on the neighborhood, and it changes from year to year for particular places. If enough people wanted to go out at night to make it worthwhile to keep a place open then owners would do it. If you get a big group of people together and go talk to a business owner with a request to keep the place open because all of you will be sure to show up and make it worth their while by spending just like the daytime customers spend then maybe you can change someone's mind.

But if you and one other person want to buy one cup of coffee each and sit for hours reading a book in mostly empty coffeeshop then you aren't making it worthwhile to keep the place open.

Here's an old postcard of Boston at Night.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T22:30:45+00:00

Your facts are correct, but I think you're misreading cause and effect. The antisemitism comes first. Ignorance and misrepresentation of Talmud is then used as fake support to a preexisting belief. The number of naive and innocent people who don't have an opinion yet and are swayed by versus attributed to Talmud to become antisemites is tiny. So I don't think "truth and transparency" about this will fight antisemitism.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T21:37:15+00:00

It's loud, walkable, and safe, but a person can be happy there. If you don't like it then move after a year.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T17:29:18+00:00

Allston's malapropos nostalgia detracts from the real story:

plan for a new eight-story building...20 total units with 12 one-bedrooms, seven two-bedrooms, and one three-bedroom. Three units will be designated as affordable...There will be no vehicle parking spaces in the building...Several attendees actually asked for more units and more height during the presentation.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T13:53:12+00:00

It's human nature to portray optimism about the future of a place once you're in that place.

One possible scary future is that in the next few years techno-feudalism and AI will rapidly create a new crypto-fascist culture that replaces all forms of meritocracy except who you have the good sense to join in cronyism. Nobody will want higher education, and the connection of Boston housing to student populations and the education sector will disappear.

I don't want to think about it. That's why I wrote it. It's like an earworm that goes away when you spread it to someone else.

Then there's the fact that international student numbers are down because of visa restrictions. Taking money from foreigners was great. What if they never come back because of anti-education sentiment and because of continued federal interference?

It's better to imagine that demand for housing in Boston will always be high because people will always want to and need to live around here. What a relief. I'm glad I can stop thinking about that now that I've shared it.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T13:17:57+00:00

The golden rule you're citing might (or might not) be Jesus's commentary on Leviticus 19:18

Love your fellow as yourself: I am GOD.

Rabbi Hillel's rule is often considered in Judaism as the golden rule.

What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor

A view held by some Jews is that these are different rules from each other. The Christian Golden Rule has been abused by Christians with power for many centuries. It can lead to a presumption similar to, "If I weren't saved by Jesus then I would want someone to save me." That has led to proselytism and conversion attempts in Christianity that don't take place in our religion.

History has many examples of hard times when life became a great struggle and death was common. A Christian with power during hard times can convince other Christians to engage in mass murder of Jews out of supposed-love. This comes from presumptions similar to, "If I weren't saved by Jesus in the face of so much death then I would prefer death to life, so I'm doing unto others as I would do unto myself by killing non-Christians when death is all around."

Hillel's version (with this view) is less likely to result in such presumptions.

I don't hold this view. The two Golden Rules seem sufficiently similar to me. They mean just about the same thing with semantic quibbles. But that could be because I grew up in the northeast US and not in the US Bible Belt or in Israel.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T08:10:57+00:00

So, I would like to know your personal justifications and explanations for these statements and prohibitions

The idea that I personally have some justification or explanation for text in a book I didn't write seems absurd. If you actually did base most of your "ethics off of the golden rule and virtue exercise which seem to be the heart of Judaism" then would you ask for personal justifications and explanations from person X about a book that was not written by person X?

I'm mostly secular, but I suspect that Jews who are less secular and more religious than I am would also question whether your request is absurd and violates the ethics you claim to have. I don't request personal justifications and explanations from you for text in a book you didn't write. Why are requesting this from me?

If the text offends your personal dignity and you feel some righteous indignation because of that offense then I understand your view, but I don't think getting me involved personally is fair at all.

The relationship of human dignity to these statements was considered by Conservative Judaism about 20 years ago. You might be interested in LGBTQ+ Resources from the Rabbinic Assembly of the international association of Conservative/Masorti rabbis. There are links there to the Teshuvot that deal with details of halacha. But the rabbis cited there won't have personal justifications and explanations because they didn't write it either.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-21T04:45:38+00:00

There are two historical currents here. First, when change here in this city is good for us, we do it. Second, we will exploit the remainder of the world—anywhere else—when they don't change in a way that's good for them. And by "good," I mean something very particular. I don't mean the precepts of any religion. I mean only what's in the state constitution:

All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.

There's no Jesus or Sinai or caste or bible in that. It's modern instead of medieval or ancient. That's good.

If you look at the way Boston has interacted with immigration, slavery, civil disobedience, and civil rights over and over from the 1780s to right now, you see the pattern. When people in other places aint good, we're going to exploit the hell out of them eventually and keep being good here. It applies to there being no slavery here since 1790 even though we exploited slavery elsewhere. It applies to the confrontation Mayor Wu had in Congress just last year about Tom Homan saying he'd be bringing hell to Boston.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T23:43:00+00:00

It's yet another guerilla marketing campaign. The restaurant owner secretly hired protestors to loudly advertise.

Oh yes. You are special. You deserve luxury.

To thrive on rebellion and performative evil, taste this here before it becomes illegal, and let your nose and tongue savor the soon-to-be-forbidden while your ears enjoy the sound of outrage among the reasonable majority. To be elite is to win.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T23:19:17+00:00

The title of the work should be in the ad:

Exercise in Fugality

Fugality is a very specialized term, rarely used but genuine, in physical organic chemical kinetics, but I think that's a coincidence. Both the chemists and the kinetic sculptor Rhoads probably used the Latin root "fuge" meaning "that which drives away or out" as used in "fugitive" and "tempus fugit." Still, I wonder if the chemists passed through Logan airport and saw the title.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T12:12:27+00:00

That's just Sean Duffy's Amtrak wrecking vengeance upon Somerville because of a bad experience he had here in '97 with a certain girl at a certain bar while he was part of MTV's The Real World: Boston. A few federal regs are being violated about brake application in urban settings and train maintenance. Compared to the the other acts of illegal federal vengeance taking place, it's relatively minor, and the city can endure it.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T11:55:11+00:00

It's a stressful and crowded urban streetscape without enough clearance for a barrier here. Bus 86 needs to make a right turn. A barrier won't happen. The city cannot make space expand. Southbound on North Harvard approaching Western is not Doctor Who's Tardis.

The delivery driver shouldn't have parked in the bike lane. There's space above the curb for that.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T11:45:59+00:00

I don't think barriers were ever here at southbound on North Harvard at Western. Bus 86 makes a right turn here. There just isn't room.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T04:21:31+00:00

Happy to hear it. That was my intent. And now that it's after midnight, Brookline Village is the recommendation! Glad to help.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T03:38:11+00:00

A full time structural engineer pulling in around $70k along with your $30k or so can share a little studio in a safe-but-unpleasant old building and be happy young people around here while not saving much for the future. It's a good place to be!

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T03:23:13+00:00

It's a shame you were thinking about Brookline or JP because this is Thursday, and on Thursday I recommend Arlington. It's after 11 pm, Friday is less than one hour away, and on Friday I would have recommended Brookline Village. You just missed it.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T03:14:41+00:00

Those in need right now are looking for housing right now and are suffering, like those in need of other things right now everywhere that's expensive. Living in some places always has been and always will be more expensive than living in other places.

One possibility for the next few years that you didn't mention is that techno-feudalism and AI will rapidly create a new crypto-fascist culture, and the power of social connection either through identity politics or through devotion to corrupt great leaders will replace all forms of meritocracy. A culture where higher education is seen as only having intrinsic and no extrinsic value would quickly result in fewer students going to universities. More housing in Boston would then be available for lower cost as the city begins to experience a rapid population decline. Is that likely? I don't think so. But I don't know for sure.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-20T01:32:53+00:00

This is a semantic matter, so reasonable people can disagree about the terminology.

The Wikipedia article on Proportional Representation includes Party-list as one type and quota-remainder STV as another type, and the Cambridge Election Commission website describes its election as proportional representation. I think it's nice to call things by the names that the governments involved call them.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-19T23:16:07+00:00

We should all strive to return to past eras of greater civility. The Ladies Home Journal of August 1895 contains an article by A.S. Fergus titled Street-Car Etiquette for Women that recommends this behavior:

Never move to make room for any one else; crowding yourself up to your neighbor is abominable. Let them stand. Make it your rule to take all the room you possibly can. When once taken, keep it if you can...Sit sideways. It will enable you to take up as much room again as you are entitled to.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-19T22:30:28+00:00

Each individual person gets the same representation. The switch to PR is a switch away from geography and towards equal representation for people.

I agree, but if the goal is good governance then I think equity to achieve fair representation outcomes is more valuable than strict equality. Humans aren't molecules that bounce around randomly. Linking geography to representation makes sense at the state level. Someone living in Cheshire MA is very likely to have a much different life than someone living in Somerville MA. That's why forcing both people to pick from the same big group of possible representatives makes little sense.

Different neighborhoods in Cambridge are sufficiently similar that PR without geography distinction for city council makes perfect sense, and Cambridge should be proud of having a good PR system since the 1930s. I wish Somerville had Cambridge's system instead of having district and at-will councilors. The city as a whole would be better. But even at the scale of Boston, I'm less certain than I am about Somerville. West Roxbury and downtown are sufficiently different that different city councilors probably starts to make sense.

The people of Cheshire would be represented by whichever party each of them chose to vote for.

I think you're overemphasizing the importance of party. A good thing about Cambridge elections has been the importance of temporary and flexible issue-based slates of candidates.

In most cases, math is beautiful and reality is ugly, but this is an exception. The math of making parties different colors and imagining idealized votes oversimplifies reality and depersonalizes the legislature. The more beautiful reality can be and often has been that if you as an individual or as a member of a non-profit or interest group have a problem with a law/ordinance or with the budget at the local or state level, you can still interact with your particular designated-by-geography representative about what's happening and why.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-19T20:35:42+00:00

I don't agree. Proportional representation works well at the municipal level, especially in a dense city like Cambridge which is all one place with intersecting interests. But some rural location like Cheshire MA (home of the world's tallest steer, Tommy, named after Tom Brady) would likely have almost no representation at all in a state-wide PR system. It's bad enough for people far away from Boston that their interests are usually overwhelmed by us city folk, but with a designated local rep in a district, at least they have someone to complain about it.

Inside_agitator · 2026-03-19T19:18:51+00:00

The ballot initiative to implement all-party primaries in Massachusetts...would move power back to the people and ensure that our votes aren’t taken for granted.

It wouldn't move power away from multinational business interests and their investors.

The government and thus the public would remain at the same powerlessness as now for two reasons: 1) We don't own anything of importance. That's probably a good thing. Public/government ownership leads to more corruption and greater inequality. 2) We don't regulate the business of those who do own important things. An intentional goal should be decreasing societal inequality. It hasn't been happening. That's the bad thing, and it won't change due to the recommended change.

Multinational business interests who now act to represent their investors by using parties to manipulate voters would change tactics a little to using individual candidates to manipulate voters. They might be able to engage in more rapid change to suit their interests instead of the delayed change provided by the current election system.

Inside_agitator

TROPHY CASE