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TGIF! Bluebikes is offering more free credits today for World Mental Health Day. Just use the code BLUECROSSMA1010 in the rewards section of their app to unlock $25 worth of rides. That might be helpful during this weekend’s MBTA diversion.
More on that below, but first:
Crowding the goal: As the New England Revolution push for a stadium in Everett, the soccer team’s owners remain locked in negotiations with Boston over how much they owe the city to address traffic and other potential negative impacts. Soon, they may have to make room at the table. This week, leaders in four other neighboring cities — Malden, Medford, Chelsea and Revere — announced they too want in on the discussions. They sent a letter to the Revs owners expressing disappointment in a lack of outreach they’ve gotten so far about the proposed 25,000-seat stadium.
- Why? Revere Mayor Patrick Keefe said he and his fellow city leaders don’t oppose the project, but are concerned about increased traffic and pollution from fans traveling through their communities to get to the stadium. ”It’s going to put a heavy burden on our transportation systems,” Keefe told WBUR’s Fausto Menard.
- Catch up: According to a draft agreement, parking at and around the stadium would be severely exclusive to discourage fans from driving. The Kraft family, which owns the Revs, has tentatively agreed to help pay to improve the sidewalks to the MBTA’s Sullivan station across the river. And there are separate plans for water taxis, local bus service upgrades, a pedestrian bridge to Somerville’s Assembly Square and potentially even a new commuter rail stop in Everett. Still, the neighboring mayors are concerned about the plans for ride-share staging lots by the stadium, and all the resulting Uber and Lyfts going through their cities.
- What do they want? Money — whether that’s directly from the Kraft group or earmarked government funding that the project helps facilitate. Keefe said infrastructure improvements shouldn’t be exclusive to just Everett and Boston. “It’s a great opportunity to position the region to make the appropriate enhancements to things like the commuter rail that I know Everett very much wants,” he said. “Everett wants the commuter rail stop. So does Revere.”
- The other side: The Revs said they’re focused on hammering out deals with Everett and Boston, which are required under a law passed last year to change the site’s zoning before they can move on to the permitting process. “We do expect to work with the neighboring communities, so it is at that stage they would have a seat at the table,” a spokesperson for the team told WBUR.
Service notice: Most of the Orange Line is going away for the holiday weekend. According to the MBTA, service will be suspended Saturday through the Monday holiday from North Station all the way to Forest Hills for signal upgrade work.
- Free shuttle buses will run from Forest Hills to Back Bay, with a bonus stop at Copley, so you can take the Green Line to North Station. (Per usual, there won’t be any shuttle service between Back Bay and North Station.) The T says riders from Forest Hills should budget an extra 30 minutes for trips downtown. The commuter rail into the city from Forest Hills is also free during the closure.
- ICYMI: What is this signal work all about? WBUR’s Andrea Perdomo-Hernandez has an inside look at the 50-year-old analog system the T is trying to upgrade.
Honk if you’re back: Somerville’s annual ode to brass track and social activism, HONK!, returns for its 20th year this weekend. The festival features more than 30 bands from around the country. (See the schedule here.) But as WBUR’s Amy Sokolow reports, there are some changes to the event in response to the current political climate.
- Perhaps most noticeably, no international bands are coming this year. Festival organizing committee member Reebee Garofalo said some were “reluctant to come to the United States” due to criticism of the Trump administration, “and we were reluctant to invite them for fear of putting them in harm’s way by coming.” International bands will instead play live over video screens in Davis Square.
Closing time: After 13 years, The Urban Grape wine shop in Boston’s South End is immediately closed. The shop’s owners, TJ and Hadley Douglas, posted on social media earlier this week that a yearlong effort to right the shop’s finances and renegotiate a bank loan had failed, forcing them to shutter immediately.
- The company gained attention (including here at WBUR) as one of the few Black-owned wine businesses in the country. The Douglases said they plan to “reimagine and rebuild” the business, but did not get into the details.
P.S.— Which former Boston Bruins player will have their number retired in January? Take our Boston News Quiz and test your knowledge of this week’s stories.
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