🍻 Bottoms up on the Common

It's Thursday, Boston

🌌 It's also Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• About that surplus …

• Seaport's Summer Market

• Bend and break a leg!

Up first...

PARKS & REC

The Common just got cooler

A new beer garden and performance venue opens today on the Common. And while you may not realize it while sipping your pale ale, this new installment is a piece of the city’s bigger vision of bringing new life to the park.

Here’s what to know:

🍻 Enter UnCommon Stage and the Trillium Garden on the Common: The new 420-seat beer garden with a 5,000-square-foot performance space sits at the corner of Boylston and Tremont St. and will feature daily entertainment, including local musicians, WERS 88.9 broadcasts, comedy shows, and more. Trillium’s on-site menu offers a solid range of beers from IPAs to sours, as well as hard seltzer and wine. Plus, Taqueria El Barrio will be selling food and drink. You can see their full menu here.

🌳 It’s all part of Wu’s Boston Common Master Plan. The plan, released in December, outlines efforts to revamp the country’s oldest public park by planting more trees, improving accessibility, building more event infrastructure, and more. The city awarded Emerson College and Trillium Brewing Co. the rights to the stage and beer garden earlier this year with the hopes of revitalizing the corner of the Common near Boylston Station.

🚶 It’s a win-win for the city. “We're looking at creative ways to bring Boston residents and visitors downtown to replace some of the vibrancy and foot traffic we lost due to the pandemic,” said Segun Idowu, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion. “But given the outsized role of arts and culture in Boston’s economy, this addition will positively impact the economic health of the entire city.”

🍁 The venue will be open through Nov. 1. Trillium’s Beer Garden will be open Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. You can see the latest event listings at the UnCommon Stage here.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💸 The state’s tax revenue ‘plummeted’ in April. Mass. collected $1.6 billion less in state tax revenue than expected last month. While lawmakers anticipated some kind of slowdown, it caught some by surprise as April is typically the state’s strongest month. It’s also a sharp turnaround compared with March: The state closed that month with $868 million more in revenue than anticipated. Despite the drop, Healey officials said they don’t believe they’ll have to make any painful emergency cuts this year. But they may have to dip into an escrow account to close any potential gaps.

🍹 The Downtown crowd is looking different these days. When the finance bros are working from home, you don’t have to be a fast-casual restaurant to survive. And local businesses are capitalizing on this opportunity. Food halls like High Street Place have been successful during after-work hours. Same for other nightlife concepts like The Wig Shop. If you count all 19 vendors in High Street Place, downtown has 10% more places to eat today than it did in 2019. That said, foot traffic is still half of what it was in 2019, and many storefronts remain vacant. But it’s clear that the downtown audience has fundamentally changed.

🪧 The Hollywood writers’ strike could impact Mass. The state’s tax incentive designed to attract film projects has brought in millions of dollars. A 2020 report from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue showed that year’s in-state projects generated $171.5 million in new spending, including $28.7 million in net new spending. As of now, at least three projects are currently filming and five others recently wrapped. All that is to say, if we get fewer filming projects as a result of the strike, we’ll likely see an impact. But we probably won’t be hit as hard as Los Angeles. They lost $2.1 billion during the last strike.

☀️ The Seaport’s Summer Market returns. From art, to clothing, to pet accessories, this year’s open-air market in the Seaport will feature close to 130 vendors, the majority of which are local and women and minority-owned. The expanded food and drink lineup will also include local favorites like Downeast Cider, The Nada Cart, and Lizzie’s Bakery. The market kicks off Saturday, May 13, and will take place over the five following weekends. It’s like the Snowport, but make it summer.

QUICK QUESTION!

🚶 What would make you more likely to visit downtown?

ONE LAST THING

Bend and break a leg!

Mass. high school actors got a good luck message from Jennifer Coolidge.

Coolidge was invited to Marblehead High School’s performance of “Legally Blonde,” a musical adaptation of a classic early aughts film that Coolidge acted in. The Norwell native said she had a ticket but was unable to go, so she sent over a video message ahead of their weekend production.

Coolidge congratulated some students by name, including Georgia Lloyd, who is playing Coolidge’s character Paulette. “I just have a good feeling about this for all of you," she told the students. She also reminded the young actors to “bend and snap.” If you know, you know.

😫 Thanks for reading! “Legally Blonde” is one of my comfort movies, so I am wildly jealous.

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🏠 The results are in! 57% of respondents from yesterday's poll support Boston's rent control proposal and think municipalities should be able to make the call on the issue.