🚃 The best new Green Line station

It's Tuesday, Boston.

🎅 It’s also Globe Santa Day at the Boston Public Market, which means they’ll be donating 25 cents for every person who visits the Market to help buy holiday gifts for kids in need. You can check out BPM’s vendors here to get a treat while also supporting a good cause.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Holiday parties are back

• Time to ship your gifts

• Electric scooters are out

Up first…

TRANSPORTATION

The best of the GLX

For a transit system where no news is good news, Monday could be considered great. The long-awaited Medford Branch of the Green Line extension finally opened, and — get this — it went off without a hitch.

Hundreds of excited commuters arrived at College Ave. Station in Medford before the sun was up to squeeze on the first train out at 4:52 a.m. And if you weren’t there, you missed quite the party.

To combat my serious case of FOMO after missing out on all the early morning fun, I rode the GLX yesterday afternoon to conduct a very unscientific assessment of the five stations. These were my favorites:

College Ave. a.k.a. Medford/Tufts

The best vibes award goes to College Ave. There’s no question that all the new GLX stations are pretty swanky relative to the rest of the T, but College Ave. is the pièce de résistance. To put it simply: This one feels like a station while the others feel like stops.

It’s also smack dab in the middle of Tufts, so you’re surrounded by the energy of college students and young professionals versus concrete and railroad tracks. T Operator Joas Paul agrees that this is his favorite GLX station based on vibes alone.

Ball Square

This station wins on accessibility. It has two main entrances: Boston Ave. and Broadway St. But the Boston Ave. entrance is particularly clutch since you can walk directly from the platform to Ball Square without climbing a massive staircase or taking the elevator.

East Somerville

This station wins on location. It’s a little set back from Washington St., meaning you’ll have to walk (or run) slightly uphill to catch your train, but I think the view of the Boston skyline from the platform makes up for it.

There also aren’t any walls on either side, making the platform super sunny. It’s a nice perk on a cold winter day.

CITY

Quick & Dirty Headlines

🎁 Office holiday parties are back, baby. 57% of employers are holding holiday celebrations in 2022, more than double from 2021, according to research from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Some employers are seeing more excitement around the usually-obligatory events, which makes sense given that the pandemic deprived us of them over the last two years. 16% of companies say their parties are coming back bigger and pricier than before, which is welcome news for restaurants.

📺 Closed captions are now required on all public TVs in Boston. This means restaurants, bars, banks, gyms, and public accommodation sites need to turn on the closed captioning function on any TV in order to make programs more accessible to those with hearing loss or other disabilities. Boston now joins the ranks of cities like Seattle and San Francisco that also require closed captioning on public televisions.

📦 Head’s up: You’re running out of time to ship gifts. With Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, you’re looking at higher shipping prices if you send your gifts too late. So if you’re looking to save money by using ground shipping, you need to order or send your packages this week to ensure they get there in time. FedEx’s cutoff for ground deliveries is Dec. 14 (tomorrow). USPS’s cutoff is Dec. 17. And if you’re sending something cross-country via UPS, get it done by by Dec. 15 or 16.

12 DAYS OF THE B-SIDE

Celebrate National Cocoa Day

🍫 Sip on the richest cocoa in town at LA Burdick, or what they call “drinking chocolate” (this came highly recommended by B-Side followers). A small is $6.

🌶 Try cocoa with a kick with this Mexican-style hot chocolate spiced with cayenne, cinnamon, and coriander from 1369 Coffee House. A small is $4.80.

🥖 Say “oui” to this French hot chocolate from The Thinking Cup. It’s made with 64% Tainori Valrhona Drinking Chocolate a.k.a. the good stuff. A small is $3.95.

🇮🇹 Grab a cup with whipped cream from Boston’s first Italian cafe, Caffé Vittoria. A cup of their hot chocolate is $4.28.

☕️ Get a taste at Tatte, their cocoa is made with French Valrhona dark chocolate (cannot emphasize enough how superior this chocolate is). A 12-ounce cup is $5.

ONE LAST THING

Electric scooters are out at BC

Electric scooters, your days (at BC) are numbered. Boston College has banned the use of e-scooters and other electronic transportation devices on campus.

Starting Dec. 22, hoverboards, e-scooters, and e-skateboards are prohibited from use or being stored on campus due to “health and safety concerns.” The college cited near-collisions and potential fires from lithium ion battery charging as reasons for their scooter sanction.

But e-bikes on campus are here to stay. Students can still use those as long as they’re stored outside and riders follow traffic laws.

🍩 Thanks for reading! FYI, today is the start of Dunkin’s “12 Days of Donuts,” meaning from now until Dec. 23, any Dunkin’ Rewards member can get a free doughnut with any medium or large drink purchase. You’re welcome.

💃 Keep up with other B-Side tomfoolery on IG, TikTok, and Twitter @BostonBSide. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected].