😮‍💨 It’s gonna be a LONG year ...

🥳 Happy New Year, B-Siders! Our 2026 bingo card didn’t even make it out of January. See: Alix Earle and Tom Brady getting cozy in St. Barths. Respectfully, we’re not rich enough to predict that.

🙋🏻‍♀️ One thing we can predict, though: Mayor Michelle Wu’s inauguration today! You can watch her seal the deal (again) here at 10 a.m.

🎂 Also: Happy (belated) b-day to B-Side Members Jon Paul Buchmeyer and Jen Gillen! We’re officially inaugurating YOU as incredible readers. We hope your days were amazing.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

If 2026 had a crystal ball, this is what it would (probably) show. We asked some of Boston’s experts on transit, politics, food, and culture to share their local predictions for the new year, from the T … to your FYP. 

Here’s what they told us:

🚇 The Orange Line extension will get REAL. Mass.’ housing crisis has created an appetite for transit-oriented development projects, said Caitlin Allen-Connelly, executive director of TransitMatters. So after years of kicking the can, legislators will finally give the OL extension to Roslindale the green light.

🗳️ Gov. Healey could be in trouble … This year’s spicy GOP primary will attract more independent voters, predicted NBC10 analyst and commentator Sue O’Connell, which could cause some problems for Healey come November. “Reminder: Blue Massachusetts loves electing Republican governors,” O’Connell said. 

🍴Your fav indie restaurant will get a sibling. In 2026, local restaurants and small groups will “blossom with offshoots,” said Boston magazine food editor Rachel Leah Blumenthal. See: Allston’s Ama (sibling to Comfort Kitchen), or Back Bay’s Rosa y Marigold (sibling to Celeste and La Royal).

🍵 Your FYP will be full of pop-up cafes. Local hits like Brick Street Bagels and The Nitro Bar proved it’s possible for a viral pop-up to go full brick-and-mortar. Which means we’ll keep seeing foodie entrepreneurs follow their social media-savvy playbooks to make their own dreams come true, predicted David Chae, founder of by Chae. 

🏘️ Rent control won’t fix the housing crisis. Despite splashy affordable housing initiatives (see: broker fee changes, rent control), “a lot of it, at the end of the day, is noise until we really focus on supply,” a.k.a. building new housing developments, said Boston Pads CEO Demetrios Salpoglou.

🛍️ Vintage markets will be the new third spaces. Boston’s vintage scene is booming. But as the market gets more crowded, some will differentiate themselves by expanding their offerings beyond shopping, said Joaquin Crosby-Lizarde, co-founder of Select Markets. Think: Crafty workshops, activations, and lounge space.

✈️ Boston will be THE summer destination. Thanks to a blockbuster summer events lineup (see: World Cup, MA250, Tall Ships), Boston will approach (maybe even surpass!) pre-pandemic numbers of overseas travelers, predicts David O'Donnell, Meet Boston’s VP of strategic communications.

📲 The next influencer trend: authenticity. With said blockbuster events drawing international eyes to Boston, the challenge for local influencers will be to “celebrate and protect local culture,” predicts Carly Carioli, director of marketing at Gupta Media. Translation: “Fewer lifestyle accounts and (even) more creators rooted in food, neighborhoods, and small businesses.”

🚇 New year, same MBTA shutdowns. This month, the Orange, Blue, and Red Lines are on the chopping block. Expect shutdowns between Wellington and Back Bay from Jan. 10-11, between Bowdoin and Airport from Jan. 24-25 (with an … interesting shuttle bus setup), and from Broadway to North Quincy as well as Ashmont from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1. But wait, there’s more! Commuter rail riders: Most weekends from now through April, shuttles or the T will replace service to and from North Station. Good luck!

🏘️ Gov. Healey will be voting NO on rent control. In a recent radio interview, Healey said she’ll personally be giving the measure a big thumbs down if it appears on the November ballot, citing worries about the impacts on housing production. ICYMI: The Q, which is well on its way to a ballot appearance, would cap annual rent increases at 5% statewide (with some exceptions). Healey said that while she understands the sentiment behind the measure, she worries it would effectively stop housing production, which would ultimately drive prices further up. 

⚽ Everett is one step closer to a soccer stadium. After months of negotiations, Boston, Everett, and the Kraft Group have signed off on a beefy community benefits agreement for the New England Revolution’s new stadium. While the finished stadium is still years away, this is a big moment following a lot of ~vibrant~ back-and-forth between Mayor Wu and the Kraft Group (which owns the Revs). Per the agreement, the group will pay Boston ~$48 million over 15 years, including $1 from each soccer ticket, plus fund infrastructure improvements in Charlestown.

🎄 This is your sign to take down the Christmas tree. We know, we know, but if you do it this week, the city will collect and compost it free of charge (granted it’s a live tree). All you have to do is remove the lights and ornaments and leave it on the curb by 6 a.m. on your normal trash pickup day. Feeling a little ~whimsical~? Folks with locally grown or organic trees can drop them off at Unity Farm Sanctuary in Sherborn, where they’ll feed it to their goats. Look, they love it!

🧘 Say goodbye to $50 workout classes. Boston’s free fitness series is BACK, with classes almost every single day in January, from Tai Chi to strength to line dancing and walking groups. Here’s the whole list!

🍌 Have a Bananagrams bonanza. Tonight, Aeronaut Brewery is hosting a giant, single-elimination Bananagrams tournament. Sign up at the door, and compete to win a huge, plastic duck ... for some reason.

🎥 Catch a futuristic film. Enter: The Coolidge’s “Projections” series, a slate of movies that offer cautionary tales for humanity. Delightful! This week: “Idiocracy,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” and “V for Vendetta.”

🧶 Socialize while you stitch. The Somerville Stitch Club is hosting its second-ever meeting at the Somerville Public Library on Jan. 7. Bring your fiber arts projects and make crafty friends!

📺 Take one last trip to Hawkins. Ten years later, “Stranger Things” is over. But you can get back on the hype train for one last night Jan. 8 for Stranger Things Trivia at Trident.

🍦 Scream for $1 ice cream. Jamie’s Ice Cream Co. in Cambridge is celebrating its first b-day by offering $1 scoops from 4 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 9. Hello, honey cinnamon!

🎭 Watch Hamlet get hammered. No joke! At Shit-faced Shakespeare on Jan. 9, a group of actors will attempt to perform a completely serious rendition of “Hamlet” … while completely hammered.

🍕 Eat a pizza in the park. Flour’s Boston Common outpost is single-handedly tackling the winter blues by offering order-ahead Sicilian pizza from 3 to 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through February. Claim your pie here!

Your fav New Year’s tradition is watching the ball drop. Ours is meeting Boston’s first baby of the year! Spoiler: He’s absolutely adorable. 

Meet Benjamin Robert Kelland (a.k.a. Benji), a sweet baby boy who entered the world at Mass. General Hospital at 12:19 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Benji was a healthy 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20.5 inches long at birth, and mom and baby are both happy and healthy. 

In equally good — if slightly more chaotic — news: New Hampshire’s first baby of the year, Presley Piper Salvatore, was a total surprise to her parents, who only found out they were pregnant days before Presley entered the world. Thankfully, it was a happy surprise, and her parents say they’re feeling “amazing.” 

Read her whole story here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🍼 Thanks for reading! Now THAT’s how you make an entrance.

🥂 The results are in: 47% of B-Siders say they planned to stay up until midnight on NYE. One reader said: “You can go to bed at 1, wake up at 9, and still get 8 hours…” Girl math!

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