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Bay State Banner publisher to sell vacation home to pay off BRA debt
By adamg on Thu, 10/10/2013 - 8:35am
Commonwealth Magazine reports Mel Miller has put his "his stunning New Hampshire vacation home" on the market to repay the the $278,000 or so he owes the BRA for a loan that helped keep his Bay State Banner afloat in 2009.
The loan was for $200,000, but, you know, interest.
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Comments
Unsettling
There's something unsettling about the Mayor / the City / any government extending loans to newspapers, on both ends - making the loan then calling it in.
"Boston Mayor Thomas Menino pushed the Boston Local Development Corp. to provide the original $200,000 loan in 2009 to help the newspaper reopen its doors after it briefly shut down"
Why couldn't Miller have sold
Why couldn't Miller have sold his vacation home before taking a loan from the city?
Uhhh, because he didn't want to??
I guess he figured that he'd need a short-term loan to carry him thru a period and he didn't need to sell his dream home. Why sell it when you can get a loan? Things didn't quite work out that way....
total BS
If in fact this place in East Cupcake is worth even half of what he's asking,he could have done a cash out re-fi and paid off his debt. That presumes that
a. he wasn't planning on blowing off the BRA and screaming racism
b. he wasn't just as over-leveraged in NH as he is in MA
c. he doesn't read this blog and so is ignorant of the fine financial sponsors offering to consolidate loans of $15,000+.....
Why save responsibly for a
Why save responsibly for a car you can afford when you can just lease a luxury model 3x more expensive than you could ever buy!
Does anyone even read it?
I have never once seen anyone on the T reading the Bay State Banner. Never.
I bet you'd see people reading it on the bus, though
Much of the neighborhood most served by the Banner has buses rather than subway trains.
I read it every week
Next time I will make a production of it, so that people know what I am reading. And yes to the other reply - mostly buses.