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Boston Globe
18-06-2025
- Boston Globe
The Mass. Pike rest stops are about to get a makeover. Here's what readers want to see.
Advertisement Here are some of the most popular topics and a sampling of reader comments: Food choices The most common reader response was seeking better and healthier food options. Suggestions for specific restaurants included Sweetgreen, Shake Shack, Tasty Burger, and Panera. Some people asked for more gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options. Readers also asked for the rest stops to have a more local flavor with 'New England authenticity' and seasonal food items. 'Small local restaurants and businesses instead of fast food chains!!,' Boston reader Melissa Mazzeo wrote. 'It would be so nice to get a feel for the town/region at a rest stop, rather than it feeling like I could be anywhere in the country.' ' 'Gluten-free options!!! And perhaps ways to accommodate other dietary/food allergy concerns. How about some small, local restaurants? Good ice cream.' Sharon Catto, Brookline But several readers pointed out that the current chains, like McDonald's and Dunkin, provide quick and simple food choices for harried families with kids. 'Families especially, need to juggle the tastes of multiple people with limited time to peruse every menu,' wrote Jay Minkarah of Nashua. 'Reliability and predictably at rest stops is important.' Advertisement There were also a few out-there suggestions. 'On a lighter note, please bring back Howard Johnson's,' reader Bill Latimer from Plainfield wrote. 'Today, there's nothing like HoJo's all-you-can-eat fried chicken, hot and crispy on the outside and still frozen at the bone!' And many readers want MassDOT to make sure food and gas prices are affordable. Electric vehicle charging The second most popular request was for more and better EV charging options. Currently, the Pike has two Tesla-only stations along with six relatively slow generic chargers. In its request for proposals, MassDOT required that the new manager ' 'More and more powerful EV chargers. And EV chargers that are under cover (people pumping gas don't have to stand in the rain).' Patrick Gabridge, Northampton 'They should be well lit, with proper facilities nearby for people to use,' reader Jay Dobbie in Worcester wrote. 'We can't expect EVs to keep thriving if the state doesn't keep to their word [and] help with the infrastructure.' Connecticut resident Sue Santos was worried about high prices at Applegreen's chargers. 'It would be nice if Tesla upgraded the software to allow non-Tesla cars to charge, currently they can't at most [rest stops] on the Pike,' she wrote. 'They perform better than the Applegreen units.' Applegreen has three different design options for the plazas: one for coastal areas, one for the central part of the state, and one for the Berkshire hills. This rendering shows the concept for the coastal area. Rendering by Upland Architects Bathrooms, bathrooms, bathrooms Readers also had many suggestions for the rest stops' restrooms, starting with offering more options for family bathrooms, nongender-specific bathrooms, and attended bathrooms. Some would like to see paper towels make a comeback. And cleanliness was cited as an issue by dozens of readers. Advertisement ' 'All entrances should have handicap door openers, also known as automatic swing door openers or ADA door openers. Every time I have to stop at a rest stop, I'm amazed and frustrated at the lack of them. -- Also, handicap toilet stalls should be checked more frequently - too often, the only handicap stall is unusable.' Anonymous 'A built in stool at a sink so that little kids can reach the sink/soap themselves is the easiest thing that I wish all public restrooms had,' Abigail Starr in Cambridge wrote. 'A stall that is family friendly would be AMAZING too. Like having a baby holder, a seat for a young child, a shelf to put a diaper bag, and if they really want to make it totally welcoming a small flush toilet in addition to the regular adult sized toilet.' Applegreen in New York Dozens of readers said they had experience with the newly built rest stops by Applegreen in New York, and most were not happy about the facilities. 'Look at NY Thruway renovations and do the opposite,' John Mungovan of Harwich Port wrote, citing an inadequate number of bathrooms and crowded eating spaces. Kathy Chelini of Milford said she has been driving back and forth to Rochester, N.Y., for more than 40 years and does not like the new rest stops. 'Few places to sit and eat and we have to eat in the car,' she wrote. 'Too few bathrooms, too few gas pumps, long lines. Poor choice of food restaurants that close on Sunday and few vegetarian options.' ' 'THE NY THRUWAY STOPS ARE HORRIBLE.' Harriet Luppino, Newton, MA The controversy around Chick-fil-A on the Thruway was also mentioned by Globe readers. In New York, some have complained that the chain's decision to close on Sundays makes it a bad choice for a highway rest stop used seven days a week. In its request for proposals, MassDOT Including Chick-fil-A is 'very impractical for a rest area restaurant to be closed on a Sunday, making everything else overcrowded and slow,' wrote Christina Paradiso from Princeton. Advertisement Assorted other ideas Other suggestions including adding compost bins for leftover food, cushy chairs for weary travelers, and playground equipment for kids. About a dozen readers asked for a fenced-in dog walk or other pet-oriented features. 'I'd love to see designated dog walk areas with disposal bags and containers,' wrote Linda Barbadoro of Sturbridge. But perhaps the best suggestion came from the Rev. Laura Everett of Jamaica Plain, who said she appreciated that New Jersey has named its rest stops for famous state residents. 'Driving back from Cape May to Boston recently I stopped at Jon Bon Jovi, Judy Blume, Whitney Houston & James Gandolfini,' Everett wrote. 'Imagine how much more fun (and educational) our Massachusetts rest stops would be if we got to stop at the Amy Poehler Service Plaza or the Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tesla chargers booted off the New Jersey Turnpike — and Musk cries 'corruption'
Sixty-four Tesla (TSLA) Superchargers will be removed from the New Jersey Turnpike, starting on Friday. Upon hearing the news, Elon Musk tweeted, 'Sounds like corruption.' The highway's authority is not renewing Telsa's contract to provide EV chargers, and is instead turning to Applegreen, which currently operates service areas and restaurants on the NJT and Garden State Parkway. In a 2023 amendment to the state's deal with Applegreen, the company agreed to install 240 universal, open-access EV chargers in all 21 service areas on the Turnpike, as opposed to Tesla-only Superchargers in eight locations. Despite Musk crying foul, Tesla said in a social media statement that they saw this coming. 'We have been preparing for three years for this potential outcome by building 116 stalls off the New Jersey Turnpike, ensuring no interruption for our customers.' It went on to say that it offered to build universal Superchargers using NACS and CCS1, with equipment upgrades, at all service plazas in the state, and were still willing to do so if New Jersey Governor should reverse the decision. In 2020, the NJTA approved an agreement with Tesla to incease the number of EV chargers on the highway from 20 to 76, and to build infrastructure so that third-party providers could install at least two dozen more. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
CNN
13-03-2025
- Automotive
- CNN
Analysis: Pitchman president drives Americans to their corners
At the White House this week, there are events to pump up Tesla and cryptocurrency, as President Donald Trump pushes products and investments close to the hearts of his backers. Outside the White House there is backlash, particularly against Tesla, and Americans are showing an interest in boycotts. Left-leaning Tesla owners are turning against their electric cars as a protest against Elon Musk, who has evolved from backing Tesla to address climate change to helping elect a president promising to refocus on hydrocarbons and 'drill, baby drill.' Musk needed the free advertising of a Tesla-only White House driveway show to halt the tanking of the company's stock price. It was the least Trump could do after Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get him elected, according to FEC reports, and plans to pour $100 million more into Trump's political operation, according to the New York Times. Musk and Trump's mutual endorsements now taint Tesla in the eyes of many Americans — as does the fact that Trump has let Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency cronies run wild with cuts across the federal government and little transparency about what they're doing. Another White House event has the potential to turn into a commercial on Friday, when cryptocurrency executives who backed Trump's campaign take place in a crypto 'summit.' The president recently promised to build up a strategic reserve of bitcoin and other currencies, which some have referred to as a 'bitcoin bailout' for assets that have fallen in value after a post-election surge. Washington Post subscribers, who signed up to support a paper that changed its motto to 'Democracy dies in Darkness' during the first Trump administration, are canceling subscriptions in droves, fearing that darkness has descended on the Post. First, Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos scrapped a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris; now, he has said the paper's opinion section will focus on 'personal liberties and free markets.' Maybe that ends up being an ACLU-style opinion page, but maybe it means a shift to placate Trump at a time when he is attempting to stifle dissent. Amazon also paid homage to Trump by acquiring streaming rights to the first seven seasons of 'The Apprentice,' it announced Monday. In January, it paid a premium – $40 million, according to the Wall Street Journal – to license a Melania Trump-produced documentary about Melania Trump. That cozying up to Trump did not drive the weeklong anti-corporate and relatively unorganized 'economic blackout' movement targeting Amazon and other major corporations this month, but frustration at corporate America is clearly festering. There's a campaign to give up Target for Lent, part of a coordinated effort to punish the retailer for retreating from its programs to promote diversity in its hiring practices. From CNN's report: Target is one of dozens of Fortune 500 companies that have backtracked on DEI in response to conservative court decisions, pressure from activists and right-wing legal groups, and, more recently, the Trump administration's threats to investigate what it characterizes as 'illegal DEI,' including potential criminal cases against companies. Companies are caught between pursuing efforts to increase diversity and avoiding a conservative legal crackdown. But no company has faced as fierce a blowback from DEI supporters as Target. Customers online have protested the decision and Anne and Lucy Dayton, the daughters of one of Target's co-founders, called the company's actions 'a betrayal.' The fact that Target is facing backlash for responding to backlash to its DEI efforts demonstrates how complicated it is to appeal to all Americans. Donald Trump Jr., is part of an investment firm made up of like-minded MAGA conservatives looking to monetize their politics in a sort of 'parallel economy.' The firm, 1789 Capital, got the opportunity to invest in Musk-owned companies, according to a Bloomberg profile. Trump Jr. said he has turned his back on opportunities where he doesn't like the politics. 'I've turned down major deals where the ethoses don't align…There are people who have become MAGA more recently – and I don't know they actually believe,' Trump Jr., told Bloomberg, which reported that since Inauguration Day, the firm has raised $500 million. Bloomberg reported that 1789 Capital will market itself to public pension plans in red states. 1789 Capital describes itself as advocating an EIG investment strategy, short for entrepreneurship, investment and growth. It's a play on ESG investing, which aims to prioritize investing in companies that care about the environment, social justice and open corporate governance. A conservative judge in Texas recently ruled against 26 red states and in favor of a Biden-era rule that allowed public pension plans to choose such a socially conscious investing strategy. Musk's evolution from California-based liberal concerned about climate change to Texas-based libertarian coughing up serious coin for Trump and quietly slashing federal regulations tracks with a change in Tesla's brand. A Columbia Business School study compares the politics and brand affinity of people according to their social media habits. In February of 2017, before Musk's transformation, the study found Tesla to be more associated with people who followed Democrats on social media. By 2022, after he had moved Tesla and SpaceX to Texas as a form of protest against California, but before he had gone all in for Trump, the situation was reversed and Tesla was more associated with people who followed Republicans. It stands to reason that the transformation of Musk's X to an echo chamber for conservatives has further impacted the Tesla brand. There is some indication that Americans on both sides of the aisle are frustrated by the access and power of people like Musk and the perception that their politics plays into their business interests. Musk is less popular than Trump in a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. From CNN's report by Ariel Edwards-Levy: Just 35% of Americans express a positive view of Musk, with 53% rating him negatively and 11% offering no opinion. … Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say that Musk has neither the right experience nor the right judgment to make changes to the way the government works. There is uneasiness about Musk even among some of the president's supporters: 28% of those who see Trump's changes to the government as necessary doubt the tech billionaire has the judgment to carry them out. Meanwhile, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom talked to right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon on a podcast Wednesday. Bannon argued to Newsom that California created Musk, something Newsom agreed with, pointing to Tesla's use of carbon credits, among other things, to help its bottom line. 'It was our regulatory process and our subsidies to create this market, you're 100% right,' Newsom said.
CNN
12-03-2025
- Automotive
- CNN
Analysis: Pitchman president drives Americans to their corners
At the White House this week, there are events to pump up Tesla and cryptocurrency, as President Donald Trump pushes products and investments close to the hearts of his backers. Outside the White House there is backlash, particularly against Tesla, and Americans are showing an interest in boycotts. Left-leaning Tesla owners are turning against their electric cars as a protest against Elon Musk, who has evolved from backing Tesla to address climate change to helping elect a president promising to refocus on hydrocarbons and 'drill, baby drill.' Musk needed the free advertising of a Tesla-only White House driveway show to halt the tanking of the company's stock price. It was the least Trump could do after Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get him elected, according to FEC reports, and plans to pour $100 million more into Trump's political operation, according to the New York Times. Musk and Trump's mutual endorsements now taint Tesla in the eyes of many Americans — as does the fact that Trump has let Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency cronies run wild with cuts across the federal government and little transparency about what they're doing. Another White House event has the potential to turn into a commercial on Friday, when cryptocurrency executives who backed Trump's campaign take place in a crypto 'summit.' The president recently promised to build up a strategic reserve of bitcoin and other currencies, which some have referred to as a 'bitcoin bailout' for assets that have fallen in value after a post-election surge. Washington Post subscribers, who signed up to support a paper that changed its motto to 'Democracy dies in Darkness' during the first Trump administration, are canceling subscriptions in droves, fearing that darkness has descended on the Post. First, Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos scrapped a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris; now, he has said the paper's opinion section will focus on 'personal liberties and free markets.' Maybe that ends up being an ACLU-style opinion page, but maybe it means a shift to placate Trump at a time when he is attempting to stifle dissent. Amazon also paid homage to Trump by acquiring streaming rights to the first seven seasons of 'The Apprentice,' it announced Monday. In January, it paid a premium – $40 million, according to the Wall Street Journal – to license a Melania Trump-produced documentary about Melania Trump. That cozying up to Trump did not drive the weeklong anti-corporate and relatively unorganized 'economic blackout' movement targeting Amazon and other major corporations this month, but frustration at corporate America is clearly festering. There's a campaign to give up Target for Lent, part of a coordinated effort to punish the retailer for retreating from its programs to promote diversity in its hiring practices. From CNN's report: Target is one of dozens of Fortune 500 companies that have backtracked on DEI in response to conservative court decisions, pressure from activists and right-wing legal groups, and, more recently, the Trump administration's threats to investigate what it characterizes as 'illegal DEI,' including potential criminal cases against companies. Companies are caught between pursuing efforts to increase diversity and avoiding a conservative legal crackdown. But no company has faced as fierce a blowback from DEI supporters as Target. Customers online have protested the decision and Anne and Lucy Dayton, the daughters of one of Target's co-founders, called the company's actions 'a betrayal.' The fact that Target is facing backlash for responding to backlash to its DEI efforts demonstrates how complicated it is to appeal to all Americans. Donald Trump Jr., is part of an investment firm made up of like-minded MAGA conservatives looking to monetize their politics in a sort of 'parallel economy.' The firm, 1789 Capital, got the opportunity to invest in Musk-owned companies, according to a Bloomberg profile. Trump Jr. said he has turned his back on opportunities where he doesn't like the politics. 'I've turned down major deals where the ethoses don't align…There are people who have become MAGA more recently – and I don't know they actually believe,' Trump Jr., told Bloomberg, which reported that since Inauguration Day, the firm has raised $500 million. Bloomberg reported that 1789 Capital will market itself to public pension plans in red states. 1789 Capital describes itself as advocating an EIG investment strategy, short for entrepreneurship, investment and growth. It's a play on ESG investing, which aims to prioritize investing in companies that care about the environment, social justice and open corporate governance. A conservative judge in Texas recently ruled against 26 red states and in favor of a Biden-era rule that allowed public pension plans to choose such a socially conscious investing strategy. Musk's evolution from California-based liberal concerned about climate change to Texas-based libertarian coughing up serious coin for Trump and quietly slashing federal regulations tracks with a change in Tesla's brand. A Columbia Business School study compares the politics and brand affinity of people according to their social media habits. In February of 2017, before Musk's transformation, the study found Tesla to be more associated with people who followed Democrats on social media. By 2022, after he had moved Tesla and SpaceX to Texas as a form of protest against California, but before he had gone all in for Trump, the situation was reversed and Tesla was more associated with people who followed Republicans. It stands to reason that the transformation of Musk's X to an echo chamber for conservatives has further impacted the Tesla brand. There is some indication that Americans on both sides of the aisle are frustrated by the access and power of people like Musk and the perception that their politics plays into their business interests. Musk is less popular than Trump in a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. From CNN's report by Ariel Edwards-Levy: Just 35% of Americans express a positive view of Musk, with 53% rating him negatively and 11% offering no opinion. … Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say that Musk has neither the right experience nor the right judgment to make changes to the way the government works. There is uneasiness about Musk even among some of the president's supporters: 28% of those who see Trump's changes to the government as necessary doubt the tech billionaire has the judgment to carry them out. Meanwhile, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom talked to right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon on a podcast Wednesday. Bannon argued to Newsom that California created Musk, something Newsom agreed with, pointing to Tesla's use of carbon credits, among other things, to help its bottom line. 'It was our regulatory process and our subsidies to create this market, you're 100% right,' Newsom said.
