🏃 A 26.2-mile ‘thank you’

It's Thursday, Boston.

🍽️ SCOOP: The B-Side team is going out to dinner tonight before our concert with Sofar Sounds in Chinatown. The first two people who respond to this email will get free tickets to tonight's show AND get to join us for dinner (it’s on us).

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Wu’s budget just dropped

• GOP says G2G

• Massholes, unite!

Up first...

BOSTON MARATHON

An inspiring marathon journey

In order to run a marathon, you need a “why.” Or at least that’s what many of those who have run one will tell you. And for 24-year-old Andrew Milliken, of Chinatown, his ‘why’ for running the Boston Marathon this Monday is personal.

🩺 Milliken was diagnosed with testicular cancer during his senior year of college. “I kind of felt something was wrong,” the former Bentley student said, “but there’s always that hesitation to speak up or get it checked out.” Milliken’s doctor confirmed his suspicions, and within a week, he was in surgery having the tumor removed. Luckily, nothing had spread. But he requires regular blood work and CT scans to ensure the cancer doesn’t return.

🦠 Like much of the world at the time, everything felt uncertain. His diagnosis came in the fall of 2020 when COVID was still raging. “Then having to be home my senior year while all my friends were at school … just added another layer on top of all that,” he said.

🏥 But choosing Dana-Farber as his provider made his future feel clearer. Even his local doctors who did the surgery agreed. “There's just a level of expertise you can tell they have, so I'm always put to ease when I'm with them,” he said. He recently passed the two-year mark without any recurrences, a huge milestone for those with testicular cancer.

🦄 So when given the chance to run the Boston Marathon, running for Dana-Farber was a no-brainer. “Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to join any fundraiser or program and support a cause. But this one I have a real personal stake in,” he said. Since the fall, he’s raised over $5,000 for the Dana-Farber’s Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research.

💜 Training has given him moments to reflect on his own diagnosis. “I was very lucky, where a lot of people have either lost someone, or are still dealing with things,” he said. “People are dealing with a lot more than I had to go through. But my family always reminds me, don't undermine what happened to you either. It was still a very significant event.”

🏃‍♂️ But when all is said and done, he’s just excited to be a part of Boston history. “As a resident of Mass., you watch the race on TV your entire life … but actually being in the mix, I'm excited for that the most.”

See you at the finish line, Andrew!

TOGETHER WITH SNEAKERNET

Looking for your next pair of kicks?

👟 We’re excited to be a media sponsor of Mind with Purpose’s sneaker convention, Sneakernet. This Sunday, April 16, Sneakernet will be convening sneakerheads alike to buy, sell, and trade the latest and rarest sneakers. Tickets are only $15. See you there.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💸 Mayor Wu’s budget just dropped. The $4.28 billion operating budget for FY24 supports the usual suspects like schools, libraries, public safety, and more. Her $4.2 billion capital plan for fiscal years 2024-28 also includes $58 million to improve public ways and transit, and $374 million for school construction and renovation, a new pool in Charlestown, new libraries, and community centers. And here’s a fun addition: a $1.4 million investment to introduce electric Bluebikes to the system. You can see the full proposal here.

🚭 Mass. lands a huge vaping settlement. AG Andrea Campbell and several other attorneys general announced a massive, multi-state $462 million settlement with Juul over the company’s role in the youth vaping crisis. $41 million of it will go to Mass. to support programs fighting youth nicotine addiction (think treatment programs and prevention services). This is Juul’s largest settlement to date and prohibits the company from marketing to youth and misrepresenting the level of nicotine in its products.

👋 GOP says G2G. A new poll found that 53% of Mass. Republicans have considered moving elsewhere in the past year. And they’re not alone. 47% of independents had similar ideas and nearly four in 10 of all Mass. have thought about it, too. Generally speaking, this sentiment can be traced to the state’s high cost of living. And for Republicans, high taxes were at the top of the list. Florida and New Hampshire were popular states respondents were drawn to (key: no income taxes).

🚇 The MBTA gave its new leader a very MBTA kind of welcome. Nothing says “happy first week on the new job” like back-to-back derailments. T officials quietly responded to two back-to-back maintenance equipment derailments on the Red and Blue Lines earlier this week. But despite the rough start, newly appointed GM Phillip Eng remains positive. “If we lose faith, then why are we even trying?” he said in a press conference on Monday. Maybe this is the Ted Lasso we need.

ONE LAST THING

Home of aggressive drivers

How would you describe Mass. drivers?

Boston.com asked readers just that, and the responses were mixed. Lots of readers called out our aggressive tendencies, but one responded on Facebook with: “We are aggressive because we have to be. Bad roads, heavy traffic, city streets that have no patterns. I think we are actually aggressively smart.”

Another handful brought up infrastructure as a scapegoat for poor driving.

And one person offered this tidbit of advice for anyone hoping to take to the roads in Mass.: “It’s best to drive like you know where you’re going even if you don’t.” True that.

🚘 Thanks for reading! I would have to agree with response No. 1.

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