💃 These Boston women are CRUSHING it

Happy Hump Day, Boston.

🥳 And happy 27th birthday to B-Side reader Olivia Peterson! You’re a real one. If you want a B-Side b-day shoutout, just reply to this email and we’ll add you to the calendar.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Statewide rent control support

• Cheap flights to London

• The Shell sign

Up first…

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

These local women are crushing it

Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate, we’ve compiled a list of five rock star women in the Boston-area who simply don’t get enough kudos for what they do. Here’s who you need to know: 

🏒 Loren Gabel. The Bruins aren’t the only hockey team smashing it this season. Boston Pride, the city’s professional women’s hockey team, is No. 1 in their league, partially thanks to forward Loren Gabel. She’s the league’s top-scorer and was recently named Player of the Month after recording 11 points in five games, helping the Pride clinch a top-two spot in the 2023 Isobel Cup Playoffs (which are next week!). Grab tickets to see her play here.

🚶‍♀️ The Boston Girls Who Walk team. Making friends in a new city can be hard, but this group is trying to change that through the simple act of going for a stroll. Founder Caroline Ball and team leads María José Padilla and Marecyneth Chona have been key in connecting hundreds of young women in the Boston-area through group walks and events with local businesses. You can find their upcoming walks and events here.

🎨 Betsy Silverman. This Boston-based artist creates collages of the city entirely from recycled materials. And these aren’t the same kind of collages you made in art class. Her pieces are so detailed you could mistake them for paintings. Given the accessibility and low-cost of her medium, she’s passionate about recycling paper and welcomes donations of used magazines for her pieces, too. Make sure to take a peek at some of her work on her Instagram. My personal favorite is her collage of Fenway Park.  

📱 Ayanna Moise. This local TikToker with over 40,000 followers is known for her guides covering unique and underrated spots in Boston to help break you out of your things to do rut. And yes, she even knows how to romanticize the wheel squeal. She’s also the co-host of Treehouse, a social group that helps locals make new friends. You can watch her videos here. 

🥘 Analia Verolo. She’s co-owner of La Bodega, a cozy Uruguayan restaurant tucked away in an old rail car in Watertown (candidly, one of my fav spots). The restaurant is owner-operated, which means you can always spot Analia wearing multiple hats (front of house, server, waitress, etc.). Whether it’s her infectious energy or her Uruguayan roots that inspired much of the menu, for me, she’s the soul of the restaurant. The octopus is my favorite thing about La Bodega; Analia is a close second.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🏠 Statewide support for rent control is strong. A recent poll found that 65% of likely 2024 voters would support a ballot question giving cities and towns the ability to make their own decisions about rent control. That share was even larger (68%) when asked if they strongly or somewhat supported Mayor Wu’s proposed rent stabilization plan to limit annual rent hikes to 10% or less. This data could be a sign that, in the event that Wu’s plan doesn’t pass the State House, it could find new life as a ballot question in 2024.

😳 “I was kind of just frozen in shock.” Those were the words of Cianna Navarro, the Suffolk University student who was nearly hit by a corroded ceiling tile that fell from Harvard Station last week. After a bystander asked if she was OK, she could taste the dirt and debris from the ceiling panel when she opened her mouth to reply. Watching the footage back, she said she felt the shock all over again, but acknowledges it could have been worse. The MBTA is currently conducting an audit of several station ceiling panels “out of an abundance of caution.” 

🎣 Lay off the fish from these Mass. waters. Recent testing revealed fish harvested from 13 lakes, ponds, and reservoirs within state parks contained levels of PFAs (a.k.a. “forever chemicals) higher than what public health officials recommend for regular consumption. So the Mass. Department of Public Health is advising the public to either refrain from fishing entirely, or to be extra cautious when consuming fish from those waters. You can see the list of bodies of water with elevated PFA levels here. 

✈️ Good news if you’re traveling on a budget. Norse Atlantic Airways, a low-cost Norwegian airline, is launching direct flights between Boston and London Gatwick five days a week starting Sept. 2. Passengers flying with the carrier can choose between three price categories in its economy and premium cabins — light, classic, and plus. You can get a roundtrip flight in October for around $450 if you can squeeze everything into a personal item. But if you want a carry-on, checked bag, and in-flight meal, that’ll run you around $600.

ONE LAST THING

The historic Shell sign

Move over, Boston: Cambridge has a historic gas station sign of its own. 

Boston.com’s Wickedpedia reports that the large neon shell gas station sign (pictured above) sits on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated historic landmark in Cambridge. The 64-foot glowing Shell logo was made in 1933 and moved to its current spot on Magazine Street in 1944.

As for why it has landmark status? The Cambridge Historical Commission director said the sign marks a particular historic style of advertising known as “spectacular” signs. The famous Citgo sign also fits into this spectacular category.

🌵 Thanks for reading! Petition to add the Route 1 Cactus Sign to the National Register of Historic Places.

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