The News Letter | Where There’s Smoke, There’s Barrett

Where there’s smoke — we were recently reminded yet again — there’s fire, and every time I brush past City Council candidate Barrett Reed, I catch a whiff of trouble. In every instance, he’s played fast and loose with the truth.

The first time was 2019. I’d interviewed around two dozen downtown business people, including Reed, about State Street’s retail woes. All of them cited the city’s lengthy and expensive permitting process as a major part of the problem. All of them except Reed.

Over sandwiches at Cubaneo ― part of Kim’s Service Department, a shared-space project which Reed’s development firm, Miramar Group, had recently opened ― Reed actually praised City Hall. “We think the city’s process is a good process,” he told me, and he called embattled planning director George Buell (who would later resign amid community outcry) “exceedingly rational.”