Contemporary offers space, style

This custom-built contemporary in Georgetown is shaped like a barn — with an attached silo — and has a huge garage ideal for car collectors.

The three-bedroom home at 282 Andover St., built in 2003, sits on almost two acres of land behind the 10th hole of the Black Swan Country Club golf course.

This unique 4,660-square-foot home, with a green metal roof, light-colored vinyl siding and an attached silo that holds the kitchen, a billiards/game room and an elevator, is on the market for $850,000.

Its ground level has a 2,300-square-foot garage with four overhead access doors that has room for nine vehicles. It may not be for everyone, but if you like buying and fixing up cars, the garage gives you ample space to restore and to store them — and a bathroom with a shower stall to clean up.

Most of the living space is on the second level, which has radiant heated floors, central vacuum and handicapped accessibility fixtures and handles as well as an elevator. Almost all rooms on this level, including the great room, kitchen and master bedroom, open out onto a multi-tiered outdoor deck with great views of the golf course.

The showpiece space on the second level is a great room with oak floors, a wall of side windows and 30-foot vaulted ceilings. This space serves as an open living/dining/family room with a full-wall media center built-in at one end and a dining area with a gas fireplace at the other. There's also a wood-topped wet bar with a sink.

Behind the great room, in the five-sided silo bumpout, sits the home's expansive kitchen with custom wood cabinets, commercial grade appliances including an oversized Sub-Zero refrigerator, two dishwashers and two ovens. There are four windows, track lighting, a ceramic tile floor with patterned wood inlays, and a large dark granite-topped pendant-lit island with a six-burner gas cooktop that can seat at least a half dozen diners.

Also on this floor is the home's expansive master bedroom suite, with Pergo floors, a wrought-iron chandelier, a gas fireplace, a walk-in closet and a large three-part Palladian window. The en-suite bathroom features dual pedestal sinks, a custom built-in linen cabinet, a whirlpool tub plus a large beige marble walk-in shower.

There's a second bedroom on this level with its own ceramic tile bathroom, as well as a pocket-doored home office/study with dentil crown molding, two built-in desks and a built-in bookcase/cabinet. A laundry room holds a side-by-side washer, storage cabinets and dryer and a sink.

Off the third-floor landing above the great room sits a vaulted-ceiling loft bedroom as well as a full and a half bathroom. In the silo bumpout sits a custom billiards/gaming room (table included) with wood-paneled wainscoting and Pergo floors. The game room also has sliding doors out to a third-floor deck.

The large driveway with a circular stone planter in the center can hold an additional 20 vehicles.

Home Showcase

• Address: 292 Andover St., Georgetown
• Bedrooms: Three
• Bathrooms: Four full, two half
• List price: $850,000
• Square feet: 4,660
• Price per square foot: $182
• Annual taxes: $11,167
• Location: A mile to Georgetown Shopping Center including 
a Crosby's supermarket
• Built in: 2003
• Broker: Gail Tyrrell of ReMax Advantage Real Estate at 781-760-0670

Pros:

• Open living dining/family great room with 30-foot vaulted ceilings, wall of windows
• Large kitchen with custom cabinetry, large island and commercial grade appliances
• Master bedroom suite with three-part Palladian window, large marble walk-in shower
• Multi-tiered wide deck with views of golf course

Cons:

•  Huge garage with multiple overhead doors may not fit with potential buyer's lifestyle

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Volvo V60 no ordinary wagon

A brilliant red paint job on my Volvo tester dismissed any notion that the V60 was an ordinary wagon.

This, of course, was validated by a turbocharged, 6-cylinder engine that yielded 325 horsepower. Our test model, which topped out at just under $50,000, had Volvo's R-Design trim package that gave the wagon a sporty edge with an upmarket interior.

Low-profile summer tires mounted on 19-inch wheels combined with shallow ground clearance and sport-tuned suspension gave the V60 impressive handling. While the blend made the wagon exhilarating to drive, the downside was a harsh ride, especially in the city and over bridge expansion joints on the highway.

A silky, six-speed automatic transmission produced brisk acceleration. Aluminum paddle shifters, tucked behind the steering wheel, were ready at the finger- tips to wind out those gears. All-wheel-drive certainly makes the V60 an attractive choice for the New England driver, but a second set of all-weather tires is a must. My V60 tester did 19 miles per gallon in the city and 28 on the highway in fuel economy.

An understated interior, finished in flat black, blended comfort and luxury. Brushed aluminum highlights on the leather-wrapped steering wheel, center console and doors broke up the darkness. Leather seats were supportive and fatigue-reducing.

Volvo's climate package takes heated components to another level.

In addition to heated front and rear seats, the V60 had a heated steering wheel, windshield, windshield nozzles, and mirrors.

Rear seating was decent, but lacked footroom with two adults in the front. Three children across the back was a squeeze. While our tester had an opening over the cockpit, a panoramic moonroof would help to brighten the backseat environment and provide better light for the deep, rear storage compartment.

Volvo includes an abundance of safety and security features as standard equipment on the V60's base model. Our tester also had a $900 exterior sensor technology package that included blind spot warning, cross traffic alert, lane change merge, and parking assist.

Volvo also offers a smartphone app that not only provides a remote starter, but also provides access to the V60's dashboard to check fuel levels and maintenance warnings, and provides a journal of where the wagon has been. I liked the fact that I could tap my iPhone to confirm if the doors where locked before I went to bed.

I looked forward to every opportunity to get behind the wheel of the V60 as the combination of modest power and sharp handling made the wagon entertaining to drive. An entry level V60 starts at just under $36,000 and Volvo offers 4- and 5-cylinder engine options.

I recommend taking a close look at the sport wagon segment to anyone considering a compact SUV. Other wagons to consider are the Audi Allroad, Subaru Outback, or the Volkswagen Jetta. The Volvo V60 is a sports car disguised as a wagon.

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Expert: Home Depot email hack may lead to ID thefts

Two months after it revealed that 56 million of its customers' debit and credit cards had been compromised, Home Depot yesterday disclosed that hackers also stole 53 million email addresses — information that, coupled with customers' financial data, could be used to hack their family and friends, as well as banks, businesses and government agencies, one expert said.

"This is the new crime wave of the 21st century," said Anthony Roman, president of Roman & Associates, a global investigative and security consulting firm. "It's an emerging style of robbery and warfare."

Home Depot said the hacked file containing the email addresses did not contain passwords or other sensitive personal information. However, Roman said that once hackers have an email address, they can send emails embedded with a virus, and if the recipients open the attachment, their computers become infected, allowing the hackers access to those people's passwords, contacts and all of the other information on their computers.

"With financial data like your debit or credit card, the implications are clear. If they now have your email address, it makes it easier for them to assume your identity because they can now communicate with your family, your friends, your bank, your mortgage company, your place of business, posing as you," he said. "And by embedding viruses in all of those people's computers, they can create a super computer called a botnet and use that computing power to steal corporate secrets and business plans and attack institutions and government agencies."

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AG probes hospital closure plan

The Attorney General's Office is investigating whether Steward Health Care System violated the terms of a 2011 agreement when it announced yesterday that Quincy Medical Center will shut down operations by the end of the year, a spokesman said.

"We have just been notified about this decision and are currently reviewing it in the context of Steward's legal obligations," said Brad Puffer, a spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley.

When Steward bought the 196-bed Quincy hospital in a bankruptcy auction in 2011, it signed an agreement with Coakley that included a 10-year "No Close Period" requiring that it "maintain an acute care hospital in Quincy providing at least the same scope of services as Quincy Medical Center currently provides."

Steward could close Quincy Medical in the last three-and-a-half years of that 10-year period if it could show the hospital "experienced two consecutive fiscal years of negative operating margins" and provide the state's Department of Public Health with "at least 18 months prior written notice of its intent to close," according to the agreement.

A Steward spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about the no-close clause last night.

The Quincy hospital, which has 680 employees, reported a $19.7 million loss last year and has projected a $20 million loss for 2014.

"This positions us to be stronger," said Dr. Mark Girard, president of Steward Hospitals. "Quincy Medical Center has been losing about $20 million (annually) and ... that $20 million comes from the other hospitals in diversion of resources. So, to the extent that we're not diverting those resources, we're allowed to reinvest in our other locations."

Quincy Medical Center's financial losses, Girard said, forced Steward Hospitals to delay the development of an emergency room at Morton Hospital in Taunton and stalled construction projects at Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley in Haverhill.

"Health care has evolved ... technology allows you to do a lot of things that historically required inpatient care or extended inpatient care that now you can do either in one day or out of the hospital altogether," Girard said. "That's one big trend that we're all facing and certainly one that has been part of the issue for Quincy Medical Center."

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Schools, industry plan security consortium for cybersecurity

University, private industry and governmental support is being corralled for a New England research consortium to tackle cybersecurity issues confronting the financial services industry, become a regional force in vying for large federal grants and create a cyber­security talent pipeline.

Organizers of the New England Cyber Security Research Consortium have a $2 million commitment from an undisclosed industry source toward the estimated $8 million to $10 million needed for the first four years of operation, according to William Guenther, founder and CEO of Boston consulting and research firm Mass Insight Global Partnerships.

Mass Insight and the 3-year-old nonprofit Advanced Cyber Security Center plan a formal launch of the consortium next year. They so far have letters of support from the Univer­sity of Massachusetts, Northeastern University, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, State Street Corp., the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, .406 Ventures and the city of Boston.

The consortium would have university faculty and students working alongside industry researchers on projects such as developing automated, real-time, threat-sharing networks to aid in cyberattack defense and building the security of mobile payments. It would serve as an incubator for emerging businesses.

"This is outsourcing from industries to univer­sities," Guenther said.

The effort will enable New England universities to access large-scale government funding, said Jack Wilson, UMass president emeritus and professor of higher education, emerging technologies and innovation. State and federal governments give preference to regions with strong industry/university partnerships when awarding grants in the $30 million to $70 million range, according to Guenther.

The consortium would take a multidisciplinary approach to cybersecurity, tapping sources in information technology, social and behavioral sciences, economics, law and policy. Developing a "new breed" of talent with well-rounded skills is important, as is collaboration with industry partners sharing the same problems, said John McKenna, Liberty Mutual Group's chief information security officer. "We can't solve these things alone," he said.

A search is underway for a downtown Boston location for the consortium, but much of the work will be done virtually, via connections to partner universities.

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Repeal dead, Walsh ready to deal with Wynn Resorts

With casinos now here to stay, Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he is ready to talk turkey with Wynn Resorts on improvements to Boston roadways leading to its $1.6 billion gambling palace just over the city line in Everett.

"We have a lot of outstanding questions that we have to figure out when it comes to traffic, and I think they have their own questions with the land over there and some of the environmental issues around the land," Walsh said yesterday. "As far as Boston goes, I'm going to talk about Sullivan Square, Rutherford Ave., benefits for the people of Charlestown. The people of Charlestown are going to be the most impacted by this casino, so I'm going to go back to work now and see what I can do."

All seven of Charlestown's precincts voted to repeal expanded gaming Tuesday, the only neighborhood in the city to skew so anti-casino. Statewide, the ballot question failed by a 60-to-40 margin.

Walsh had his first face-to-face meeting with Vegas gaming titan Steve Wynn two weeks ago in a low-key affair at the Parkman House, which the mayor described as "mostly small talk" because the repeal vote was in the offing.

"We really didn't get into much of a conversation about the benefits, although he said, 'You can work with me, I'm a person you can work with,'" Walsh said. "So I take him at his word, and I look forward to seeing if we can hammer out some type of agreements here for the city of Boston."

Wynn's project, which will receive its formal license award today from the state Gaming Commission, is expected to generate 31,000 new vehicle trips on an average day. Wynn executives expressed confidence that tensions with Walsh and any other permitting and legal hurdles will be smoothed over.

"Anything that comes along I think can be dealt with," said Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Mass LLC.

Wynn needs permits from Boston for road alterations, and pledged to submit Sullivan Square fixes to the city's Public Improvements Commission within 90 days after the referendum.

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New school music to charter’s ears

A music-oriented Boston charter school stands to be part of Roxbury's revival after signing a purchase-and-sale agreement for land to build a permanent facility about a quarter-mile from Dudley Square.

The 16-year-old Conservatory Lab Charter School plans to consolidate two temporary Brighton and Dorchester locations into a new school for about 450 pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The land is part of the planned $140 million mixed-use Bartlett Place development.

"We're very excited to be where we are right now in terms of the process," Head of School Diana Lam said. "Most of our students come from Roxbury and the surrounding area, and we feel that also it is right at the center of the city."

The Conservatory Lab is "music-infused," with a focus on project-based learning and daily music instruction. All students play an instrument, and the school has 10 orchestras.

Plans call for a 70,000- to 72,000-square-foot school.

"We are engaged in trying to get the money together," Lam said. "The building may cost anywhere from $30 (million) to $35 million, but we don't need to raise all of that because we will have a stream of revenue."

The school receives tuition-reimbursement funds from the state to the tune of about 
$5.8 million this year.

The 1.6-acre building site is in the former 8.5-acre MBTA Bartlett bus yard bought in 2010 by Nuestra Comunidad Development Corp. and Dorchester's Windale Developers. Their Bartlett Place plans include 323 mixed-income apartments and owner-occupied homes, 55,000 square feet of retail and commercial space — including a 12,000-square-foot Harvest Co-op Market — in addition to the school.

"We have three buildings that could go into construction next year, which is exciting for Roxbury," said David Price, Nuestra Comunidad's executive director. The charter school could be the first, because it needs to open by mid-2016, he added.

The school would be open to the community at night and weekends for classes, workshops and music lessons.

"We're very excited to expand the services that we can provide to community members in Roxbury and to students that may not attend our school, but who live in Roxbury," Lam said.

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CVS earnings soar on sales of specialty drugs

CVS Health Corp.'s third-quarter earnings exceeded Wall Street expectations, as growing sales of specialty drugs helped offset the loss of tobacco products, which the company stopped selling in September.

The nation's second-
largest drugstore chain's net income fell to $948 million, or 81 cents per share, from
$1.25 billion, or $1.02 per share a year earlier.

Adjusted to extinguish debt and for amortization costs, earnings were $1.15 per share, topping the $1.14 per share that was the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. Revenue also surpassed expectations, rising to $35.02 billion, compared to the $34.65 billion analysts had forecast, according to Zacks.

Revenue from the Woonsocket, R.I.-based company's pharmacy benefits management, or PBM, side increased 16 percent, and operating profit from that segment grew 7.3 percent, helped by new business and the growth of expensive specialty drugs for complex chronic health conditions.

"PBM revenue growth and profitability were above our estimates, boosted by net new business and growth in specialty pharmacy, including ... contributions from Specialty Connect," a new program that allows CVS customers with these prescriptions to either pick them up or get them through the mail, according to Meredith Adler, a Barclays Capital analyst.

CVS said revenue from its retail pharmacy business increased 3 percent, but the loss of tobacco sales hurt earnings by 3 cents per share. The full-year impact of missing tobacco products will reduce earnings by 7 to 8 cents per share, the company said.

"As expected, the tobacco exit negatively impacted," Peter Costa, a Wells Fargo Securities analyst, said in a note. "We expect this impact may nearly double in Q4."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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White House: Ferguson no-fly didn't restrict press

WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday a no-fly zone the U.S. government imposed over Ferguson, Missouri, for nearly two weeks in August should not have restricted helicopters for news organizations that wanted to operate in the area to cover violent protests there.

Audio recordings obtained by The Associated Press showed the Federal Aviation Administration working with local authorities to define a 37-square-mile flight restriction so that only police helicopters and commercial flights could fly through the area, following demonstrations over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The Obama administration's defense of its actions centered on a provision of obscure federal regulations intended to allow press flights as long as they meet certain conditions. White House spokesman Josh Earnest sidestepped questions about conversations on the tapes showing police working with the FAA to keep media away.

"In this case, what the FAA says is that they took the prudent step of implementing the temporary flight restriction in the immediate aftermath of reports of shots fired at a police helicopter, but within 12 to 14 hours, that flight restriction was updated in a way to remove restrictions for reporters who were seeking to operate in the area," Earnest said.

In Missouri, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar defended his department's involvement Monday, telling reporters that "at no time did we request that only media be kept out of the airspace." The chief said the safety restrictions were prompted by reports of gunfire and that conversations on the tapes were "out of context." He did not elaborate.

On the tapes, an FAA manager is heard assuring a St. Louis County Police Department official that the updated restrictions would allow planes to land at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport but, "It will still keep news people out. ... The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway so ... it still keeps all of them out."

"Yeah," replied a county police captain. "I have no problem with that whatsoever."

The disclosures about the secret motivations by local police to keep press flights away emerged during a sensitive time in Ferguson, which is awaiting a decision by a grand jury whether a city police officer, Darren Wilson, will face criminal charges for fatally shooting Brown on Aug. 9. Violence flared for weeks across the city through September, and the FAA put the first temporary flight restrictions, known as TFRs, in place on Aug. 11.

The police chief said the FAA contacted police first about restricting flights. The audio recordings between the department and the FAA indicated it was the police who wanted the restrictions — and that FAA officials accommodated them.

"Were you the gentleman I spoke to that actually issued the TFR?" the FAA manager asked. "Yes," the police captain replied.

Elsewhere in the tapes, one FAA manager talks to another about renegotiating with police over the size of the restricted area and persuading authorities to accept one with a lower altitude than they initially wanted.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the Justice Department was not involved in the FAA considerations and said the American public needs to understand what is happening in Ferguson.

"Anything that would artificially inhibit the ability of newsgatherers to do what they do is something I think needs to be avoided," Holder said Monday.

A spokesman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the FAA should impose flight restrictions "for one reason and one reason only: public safety." Her office will follow up with the FAA "to ensure that was the basis on which these restrictions were imposed," said the spokesman, John LaBombard.

At the White House, Earnest stressed that under FAA rules the no-fly zone as it was re-designated after Aug. 12 would have exempted press flights as long as pilots had filed flight plans and carried accredited reporters on board.

"The updated flight restriction didn't have any impact on media access."

But the administration's statement about what it believes should have happened under the no-fly rules is inconsistent with what actually happened during the period. None of the St. Louis television stations was advised that media helicopters could enter the airspace even under the lesser restrictions, even under federal rules that would have permitted flights "carrying properly accredited news representatives." The FAA's no-fly notice indicated the area was closed to all aircraft except police and planes coming to and from the airport.

"Only relief aircraft operations under direction of St. Louis County Police Department are authorized in the airspace," it said. "Aircraft landing and departing St. Louis Lambert Airport are exempt."

The Obama administration has said it was unaware of any news organization's complaining about the restrictions.

"To the best of our knowledge, during the 11-day period flight restrictions of varying levels were in place, no media outlets objected to any of the restrictions," FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta said in a statement.

Yet news organizations have broadly protested — almost always in vain — temporary flight restrictions the FAA has imposed in recent years across the country at the request of local police, said Mike Cavender, executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, a trade group for broadcasters. TV stations have complained that police ask for temporary flight restrictions without justification and the FAA approves them too readily without scrutiny.

"Our concern, based on what we were hearing from stations, is that it was kind of, 'Put a TFR in place and ask questions later,'" Cavender said. "There was certainly not the justification for a flight restriction that there ought to have been."

The RTNDA, which formally complained Monday to the FAA, said broadcasters in St. Louis were complaining to it during the period, even if they were no longer registering formal complaints with the FAA.

"We certainly, during that time, certainly heard either directly or anecdotally that the television stations in general in St. Louis were hampered," Cavender said. The group's complaint to the FAA said the restrictions were intended to "repress the media coverage" and called the FAA's response to the AP's report "disingenuous."

"We are sorely disappointed that, to this day, officials including those at the FAA continue to maintain their actions were necessary and appropriate to preserve safety and security," the complaint said.

Around the same time as the violence, the National Press Photographers Association, another journalism trade group, complained to the police chief in Ferguson about the department's "complete lack of understanding and respect for the First Amendment." That followed the no-fly restrictions and the arrest and detention of journalists on the ground covering the violence there.

The AP obtained the recordings under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act after asking for the information roughly 10 weeks ago.

"They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out," one FAA manager said about the county police on the tapes. "But they were a little concerned of, obviously, anything else that could be going on."

At another point, a manager at the FAA's Kansas City center said police "did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR all day long. They didn't want media in there."

The conversations contradict claims by the St. Louis county police, which said the restrictions had nothing to do with limiting the press and instead were imposed because of gunshots fired at a police helicopter. But county police officials told the AP recently there was no damage to their helicopter because of the gunshots, which an FAA manager called unconfirmed "rumors."

The restricted flight zone initially encompassed airspace in a 3.4-mile radius around Ferguson and up to 5,000 feet in altitude, but police agreed Aug. 12 to reduce it to 3,000 feet after the FAA's command center in Warrenton, Virginia, complained to managers in Kansas City that it was impeding traffic into St. Louis.

The flight restrictions remained in place until Aug. 22, FAA records show.

___

Associated Press writer Alan Scher Zagier in St. Louis contributed to this report.

___

On Twitter, follow Jack Gillum at https://twitter.com/jackgillum and Joan Lowy at https://twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

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Japan's Nikkei gains, other markets subdued

TOKYO — Japan's stock benchmark extended gains Tuesday, boosted by central bank stimulus and the government pension fund's plan to buy more equities. Other Asian stock markets posted mild gains or losses.

KEEPING SCORE: The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo jumped 3.4 percent to 16,977.99 in its first trading day since Japan announced Friday new measures to boost faltering economic growth. The market was closed Monday for a holiday; it gained 4.8 percent on Friday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.2 percent to 23,957.17 while South Korea's Kospi was 1.0 percent lower at 1,932.79. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1 percent to 5,510.30. Southeast Asian markets were mixed.

JAPAN'S STIMULUS: Investors continue to rejoice over the double-barreled barrage of stimulus unleashed on Friday. The Bank of Japan's decision to boost asset purchases will raise the amount of money being injected into the economy annually to about 80 trillion yen ($704 billion). Apart from that, the public pension fund is to pare its bond holdings and raise its investments in shares, to help improve the returns it is relying on to meet growing payout obligations.

CHINA'S SHADOW: A lower-than-expected gauge of Chinese manufacturing released by a government-sanctioned industry group has revived fears that growth in the world's second-largest economy will decline further. But shares in Hong Kong and Taiwan regained lost ground Tuesday on expectations that the stronger U.S. dollar will draw more funds into the Hong Kong market.

THE QUOTE: "There may be some nervousness about the slowdown in China but now data suggests growth is stabilizing," said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities. While a trend toward a weaker yen and stronger U.S. dollar can be bad news for many regional markets, it tends to attract funds into Hong Kong's share market, he said.

WALL STREET: A report showing that U.S. manufacturing remains on a sound footing helped keep shares close to record levels. The Dow Jones industrial average edged 0.1 percent lower to 17,366.24 and the Standard & Poor's 500 lost a fraction of a percent to 2,017.81.

CURRENCIES: The dollar was up and down against the yen in volatile trading following the BOJ stimulus announcement, and was down at 113.52 yen by mid-afternoon from 113.59 yen late Monday. That puts the yen at about a seven-year low. The euro rose to $1.2522 from $1.2504.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude oil was down 48 cents to $78.30 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell $1.76 to close at $78.78 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, slipped 54 cents to $84.24.

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Council to consider hiking relocation fees

The City Council will debate whether to further protect displaced renters whose units are being converted to high-priced condominiums or cooperatives by doubling the relocation fees that property owners are required to pay them.

Fees would increase from $5,000 to $10,000 for elderly, disabled and low-income tenants, and from $3,000 to $6,000 for others, to bring them in line with increased housing costs since their adoption in 2004, according to City Councilor Josh Zakim.

"It's really to protect long-term renters when a building is converted from rentals, which is happening more and more," Zakim said. "They haven't been raised in 10 years, and I think it's pretty clear that not only have housing costs in Boston risen dramatically in those last 10 years, but they've exceeded the rate of inflation."

One large Boston residential property owner, City Realty Group, says the proposed increases go too far. The company owns more than 600 residential units.

"The relocation fees have remained the same for a long time, and we feel that a moderate increase would be appropriate," said Matt Whitermore of City Realty. "Doubling the relocation fees does seem a bit excessive."

Zakim said the fees are not a "significant" cost for landlords, and the city wants to create housing opportunities for all residents — including those who have lived in units for years and can't pay $500,000 or more for a condo.

"The reason why the state Legislature authorized cities and towns to put (the fees) in is there is a crisis of affordable housing — that's clear," Zakim said. "We saw that from the mayor's release of his housing task force report and just what we hear from constituents and advocates every day."

Still, he said, the fees are only a small solution.

"Solving the housing crisis in Boston is going to take a lot more than this," Zakim said."

The ordinance, which exceeds state regulations, applies to properties with four or more units, and outlines the required notice to tenants. Adopted in 1999, it requires reauthorization by the Council every five years.

"The current legislation expires on Dec. 31, so if it's not reauthorized by then, these tenant protections will go away," Zakim said.

The council's Committee on Government Operations will hold a hearing on the issue on Thursday.

"There continues to be a need for this, because we continue to see clients that are faced with displacement — both with new situations that happen as well as people who were supposed to be protected by the law but had owners who were trying to get around the law," said Mac 
McCreight, a senior attorney in the housing unit at Greater Boston Legal Services, which worked with city councilors on the proposed revisions.

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Skip check-in; latest hotel room key is your phone

NEW YORK — Hotels don't want guests to have to linger at the front desk — or even stop by at all.

New programs are helping speed up the check-in process for busy travelers, or in at least one case, letting them go straight to their rooms by using their smartphone to unlock doors.

The innovations are still being tweaked as hotels scramble to catch up to airlines. Fliers today use their phones to check in, select seats and as a boarding pass. Hotels envision a similar relationship, with guests ultimately ordering poolside drinks via an app.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts on Monday became the first chain to let guests unlock doors with their phones. The feature is available at only 10 Aloft, Element and W hotels but will expand to 140 more properties in those brands by the middle of next year.

Hilton Worldwide is the only other hotel chain to publicly acknowledge plans for mobile room keys — which it plans to roll out at the end of 2015 at some U.S. properties. Hilton won't say how many hotels will be included, except that the service will be available at four of its brands, Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Conrad and Canopy.

"Guests want this because it makes their lives simpler," says Mark Vondrasek, who oversees the loyalty program and digital initiatives for Starwood. "The ability to go right to your room, gives them back time."

Other hotel companies are finding other ways to streamline the arrival process.

Marriott International launched the ability to check in through its app at 330 North American hotels last year. By the end of this year, the program will be live at all 4,000 hotels worldwide. When a room becomes available, a message is sent to the guest's phone. Traditional room keys are pre-programmed and waiting at the front desk. A special express line allows guests to bypass crowds, flash their IDs and get keys.

At Hilton, all 4,000 properties worldwide will have a similar check-in by the end of the year. The one added feature: Guests can use maps on the app to select a specific room.

InterContinental Hotels Group is testing express check-in at 60 hotels.

The services are geared toward road warriors who don't want to slow down, even for a second. Guests who like personal interaction can still opt for a more leisurely check-in, and hotel companies say the move isn't about cutting jobs.

"If you're at the end of a long day, you might want a little less of a chatty experience. But if you're showing up at a new resort, you may want to know what the pool hours are," says Brett Cowell, vice president of information technology for Hyatt, which is testing permanent keys for frequent guests at six hotels.

The push isn't just about avoiding frustrating check-in lines. Hotels are trying to get more travelers comfortable using their mobile apps to interact. In some cases, that means using an iPad to request a wakeup call. But ultimately hotels would like to see people purchasing suite upgrades, spa treatments and room service though their phones and tablets — and at some point wearable devices like smartwatches.

Marriott guests made $1.25 billion in bookings last year through its mobile app, according to George Corbin, senior vice president of digital for the company.

Switching to smartphone room keys won't be easy. Starwood's app communicates using a Bluetooth data connection. Each hotel room needs to have a new lock that can communicate with phones.

The top 15 hotel companies have more than 42,000 properties worldwide with a combined 5.2 million rooms, according to travel research firms STR and STR Global. Many hotels have made updates over the past few years, but they remain the minority.

Then there is the issue of security. If there is knock on the door late at night and a guest goes to the peephole to see who is there, nobody wants the phone in their pocket to accidently unlock the door. That's why Starwood requires the phone to actually touch a pad on the outside of the door to open it.

Finally, only one phone can be linked to a room at a time. So if two people are staying in the room, they still need to get a traditional key for the second traveler.

Marriott says it is holding off on smartphone keys until all the potential bugs can be resolved.

"If there was ever a moment that matters," Corbin says, "it's the moment when you go up to your door and the key doesn't work."

But for the frequent business traveler, this might just be the time-saver they are looking for.

Bruce Craven spends about 100 nights a year on the road, traveling between his California home and New York where he does executive training programs and teaches at Columbia Business School. He's been testing Starwood's smartphone room key since March.

"If you're traveling all the time, little things can take on a symbolic importance," Craven says. "This is one less thing that I need to think about."

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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

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Boston eyes next-gen networks

Boston is teaming up with more than two dozen other cities across the country to tackle one of the most complex infrastructure questions of the century: how to ensure the next-generation Internet connectivity that will be crucial for civic success.

"Where we stand today does not represent a network that is going to carry us and our many industries ... into the next few decades of the century," said Jascha Franklin-Hodge, chief information officer for the city of Boston.

Next Century Cities, a group of 31 cities across the country that are in the process of upgrading their internet infrastructure, is a collaborative organization that will meet regularly to discuss challenges and progress.

"The goal is to help a number of cities that already have interesting initiatives have better access and collaborate and learn from each other," said Chris Mitchell, policy director for Next Century Cities. "Having them all together makes it easier."

The networks of the future will need to be so-called gigabit networks, capable of speeds dramatically higher than a majority of today's networks.

"Twenty years from now, people are going to need gigabit connectivity," Franklin-Hodge said.

There is no specific plan in place to improve Boston's internet infrastructure, but the city is working to put one in place, he said.

"We're working hard to identify what options we have, there's a sense of urgency about this," he said. "There are so many different models, and there are people trying things all over the country that may be the right fit for Boston."

The Next Century Cities collaboration is intended to help guide Boston.

The city has been plagued by slow internet access for years — blamed in part on Verizon's refusal to build its FiOS network in the city as well as the infrastructure challenges that any old city faces.

The problems have been especially pronounced in the Innovation District.

And Boston's specialized industries require a high-quality network more than many cities, said Blair Levin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy program and a former chief of staff for former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

"Boston has enormous strength in institutions of higher education, healthcare, and finance, and technology," he said. "Those are all going to require huge bandwidth."

But any network built by the city or a private company will have to take into account some unique qualities when designing its next-generation network, he said.

"The great disadvantage for Boston is that it's an old city, which increases the cost of construction," he said. "The advantage that Boston has is that it has a number of institutions ... if those folks all aggregate their buying power ... they can change the economics of deployment."

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Cos. step up to help displaced homeless

At 5 a.m. on Oct. 9, Mariann Bucina Roca checked her email and found an urgent plea for help from Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Services: The previous day, the Long Island bridge had been shut down for safety reasons, forcing the evacuation of about 700 homeless people, recovering addicts and troubled teens, who left, literally, with only the clothes on their backs.

"All we knew was this really traumatic thing had just happened to hundreds of people," said Bucina Roca, executive director of Friends of Boston's Homeless. "Clean underwear, socks, toothbrushes — all that was left behind. So we were like, OK, we've got to get moving."

And that is when the Boston business community began stepping up.

Friends' staff of two immediately began making calls to their longtime donors, businesses including Charles River Apparel in Sharon, which began packing 75 boxes with about $25,000 worth of outerwear, sweatshirts, polo shirts and other clothes.

"As a family, we very much want to give back, and this was an emergency," said Deb Lipsett, the company's director of community partnerships. "To think that these people were being displaced again, without any notice, and couldn't return — it's heartbreaking."

Goodwin Graphics in Cohasset donated more than 200 pairs of socks.

"For the last few years, we've gone to the fundraiser the Friends of Boston's Homeless holds every year on Long Island, but when we found out the bridge was closed, I was thinking: I've got to do something more impactful," said owner Ron Goodwin. "For every homeless person, there's a story that goes with them. Any one of us could be that person on the street."

TD Garden, Liberty Mutual and Eastern Bank each gave money. Stacy's Pita Chip Co. donated healthy snacks. And Dependable Cleaners has been doing laundry weekly for about 50 people who were in transitional programs on Long Island.

"I've never seen a community come together in such a united way," said Beth Grand, bureau director for Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Services. "And to see the impact on our clients — they are very appreciative of what everyone's done to help them through this."

The agency has managed to find temporary shelter for all of the people who were displaced and is working with Mayor Martin J. Walsh to find more permanent housing.

"These are people who've earned the right to move into permanent housing," said John Rosenthal, founder and chairman of Friends of Boston's Homeless.

Other critical needs remain, including toiletries, coats and underwear; new men's sweatshirts and hoodies; new hats, gloves, scarves and socks; duffel bags and backpacks; packaged food such as Ensure for the elderly and granola bars, as well as decks of cards, dominoes, and museum or movie passes.

"A lot of it," Bucina Roca said, "is just providing comfort at a time of incredible stress."

To help, visit the Friends' Web site at www.fobh.org, or call (617) 942-8671.

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