🤑 June freebies you NEED to know

It’s Wednesday, Boston

🏃 It’s also Globe Running Day! To celebrate, the B.A.A. Running Club is hosting a FREE 2.6-mile community run at Christian Herter Park on the Charles River at 5:30 p.m. (I’m sensing a theme here).

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Air quality alert

• Drink spiking fight

• Where’s the D?

Up first...

THINGS TO DO

If it’s free, it’s for me

You asked, we answered. Starting today, we’ll be putting together a list of FREE things to do in the Boston area at the beginning of every month.

So break out your calendar. Here’s what’s on deck for June:

ARTS & CULTURE

🖼️ Celebrate the legacies of Black communities at several local museums. The MFA, ICA, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are all offering free admission on Juneteenth. But the ways to snag tix vary between sites:

• MFA admission tix are available on a first-come, first-served basis to Mass. residents.

• ICA admission tix are available starting at 10 a.m. on June 18.

• ISGM admission tix are available now.

🕺 Boston and Cambridge are putting on outdoor dance parties. Boston’s Donna Summer Disco Party returns to City Hall Plaza on June 16 with a roller rink and special performances from O'Mega Red and Summer’s sister, Mary Gaines Bernard. And Cambridge’s annual dance party is back for the first time since COVID. Thousands of visitors are expected to boogie in front of City Hall once again.

🛍️ The Boston Women’s Market is popping up on June 17 at Assembly Row. You can window shop (or actually shop) one-of-a-kind artwork, self-love goods, and more from 30-plus women-owned small businesses.

FITNESS

💦 Get your Seaport Sweat on without sweating the price. From HIIT, to Zumba, to pilates, the Seaport Sweat fitness series is offering free classes on the Seaport Common every Monday through Thursday at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m. You can see the June schedule here.

💪 Take a workout class in the park with the City of Boston. Their Fitness in the Park series offers everything from yoga to tai-chi, seven days a week. The classes cover 18 parks, so there’s bound to be one near you. Check the full schedule here.

🌇 Downtown office workers can unwind with Fitness on The Greenway. The Greenway’s partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts kicks off on June 12 with over 130 classes for all fitness levels. See the full list here.

VIBES

🎶 Support local musicians at Fenway Porchfest. Brassterisk, a funky Boston-based brass band, and hip hop artist Kay Wattz will be there. You can get a taste of who else will be performing here.

🌹 Take a stroll through the Kelleher Rose Garden in The Fens. The roses are only in bloom for the next three weeks, so get over there while you can. The garden is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on the weekend from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

😌 Spend a summer night at Cambridge Crossing. The community hub will kick off its free, monthly summer concert series on June 22 featuring The Blue Light Bandits and Dwight & Nicole.

👀 Want more? Here’s a laundry list of free outdoor concerts happening in June and beyond.

QUICK QUESTION!

🤑 What’s better?

TOGETHER WITH NOBEE

It’s rental season, Boston.

🏢 Consider this your reminder that your lease is about to expire — before you get into the back-and-forth with your landlord about re-upping your lease, remember there’s a new (and cheaper) way to find apartments this summer. Boston-based rental agency Nobee offers a ton of beautiful apartment options, and their business model allows you to save, on average, 50% on broker fees. Here are some of your top offerings:

• 3 bed, 1 bath in Cambridge for $3200 

• 2 bed, 2 bath in Back Bay for $4500

• 1 to 2 bed, 1 bath in the North End for $2380 to $3150

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

😶‍🌫️ This smoke is no joke. The hazy skies you saw Tuesday were due to smoke billowing down from wildfires in Quebec. As a result, the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection issued a statewide air quality alert through tonight (the fourth alert they’ve issued for the region since May 30). They're also advising sensitive groups, including people with asthma, to not exert themselves too much outside. This radar pic from NOAA gives you a sense of just how thick the smoke has been.

🍹 Lawmakers take a shot at spiked drinks. In response to Boston’s recent surge in drugged drinks, the state Senate earmarked $300,000 in next year’s budget to address drink-spiking, but the funding still needs to be approved by the House. One method includes spiked drink test kits, which would allow people to put a drop of their drink onto a card that can detect "roofie" drugs. Lawmakers are also proposing a "Date Rape Drug Response and Intervention Task Force” that would study and recommend treatment protocols for patients who have been drugged.

🍎 Stop & Shop is in hot water. Youth organizers in JP learned that a grocery cart of items at their local Stop & Shop cost $34 more than the same products at the suburban store in Dedham, pointing out differences in household income and race in the process. For example, a box of Bubba’s turkey burgers in JP cost $11.49, compared with $9.49 in Dedham. The students are now working to get the grocery chain to price its products more equitably, but when they asked for a meeting, Stop & Shop’s response was a little cagey (and low key dismissive).

🍔 A beloved Southie food event is back. Taste of South Boston will return to the neighborhood for the first time since COVID this Sunday, June 11. The event will feature bites from neighborhood go-to’s like Capo and Hunter’s Kitchen, and sips from Al’s Liquors and Castle Island Brewing. Plus, there will be live music, a silent auction, and raffles. While tickets are on the steeper side ($75 in advance), the event also supports the South Boston Neighborhood Development Coalition. Good eats with a side of good cause.

TOGETHER WITH THE STAGE AT SUFFOLK DOWNS

Giveaway alert!

🎶 Heads up! The Stage at Suffolk Downs is opening next week, and we’re giving away two tickets to Re:SET, an all-new, artist-curated outdoor concert series, including headliners Steve Lacy and LCD Soundsystem. To be eligible, refer a friend below and have them accept your invite between June 6 and 8. If you’ve already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

ONE LAST THING

Where’s the D?

It’s not an accident that Logan Airport has trouble with its ABCs.

Instead of its four terminals being labeled alphabetically “A, B, C, D,” the airport skips “D” and goes right to “E.” According to a Massport spokesperson, they did away with Terminal D back in 2006 in an effort to “reconfigure the area and modernize the space to make it more user friendly for passengers.” And as a result, gates from Terminal D were absorbed into Terminals C and E.

Massport initially had plans to bump Terminal E up one letter in the alphabet to keep the flow, but they hit pause to prevent any overnight confusion. And eventually, they scrapped the plans entirely since updating the signage was pricey (relatable).

🤓 Thanks for reading! So there you have it: Another inane Boston factoid that’s sure to impress your friends.

⛵ The results are in: Over 50% of respondents from yesterday’s poll think the USS Constitution would make a cool concert venue. Bummed that no one was vibing with The Paul Revere House.

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected].