🏃💨 Man vs. Green Line

It's Tuesday, Boston.

🎭 Specifically, Fat Tuesday. If you’re looking for some pre-Lent indulgence (or just an excuse to rage midweek) both Buttermilk and Bourbon locations have fun Mardi Gras festivities tonight.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Outdoor dining changes

• Most Valuable Tatum

• A 20-year-old snowball

Up first…

TRANSPORTATION

Racing the T? You might win.

If you’ve ever thought you could run faster than the T, you’re not far off. At least that’s according to new MBTA data recently obtained by The Boston Globe. Here’s what it revealed:

🚃 10,000-foot view. As of Feb. 1, there are 70 slow zones across the T, mostly due to old, decaying tracks. Thirteen of them have been in place for over a year. And describing some of these zones as “slow” feels generous.

🚶 If you can walk a 20-minute mile, you’re likely faster than the 100 feet near Fenway Station on the Green Line, where trains have been moving at only 3 mph since Dec. 2020. This slow zone is apparently due to a power wires issue, according to a T spokesman.

🏃 If you can run a 10-minute mile, you’re likely faster than eight spots on the Green Line stretching more than 1,500 feet that max out at 6 mph or slower. Speaking of running: Back in 2010, this guy recorded himself racing the Green Line’s B Branch from BU Central to Blandford (while wearing a burger costume). He won. It wasn’t technically a slow zone, but it shows that “the T is slow” rhetoric goes way back.

⚒️ How do we fix it? Enter mini MBTA shutdowns. These brief weekend and weekday shutdowns might land you on a shuttle bus, but they’ll hopefully make your T ride faster in the long run. Red Line service changes this weekend should remove one of these slow zones. Plus, the MBTA will reportedly make all slow zone data public this spring.

🔵 Any bright spots? The Blue Line! The line had five slow zones in place back in August, and they’re gone as of Feb. 1. It’s a sign that the MBTA has made progress in lifting slow zones in some areas, and that the Blue Line is better than everyone.

TOGETHER WITH NOBEE

New year, new lease

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CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🍝 Say “ciao” to eating in the North End’s streets. Mayor Wu announced that dining al fresco in the neighborhood can only happen on sidewalks with “adequate” width this year — a decision that will reduce the amount of outdoor options altogether. The City made the call after residents complained of noise, crowds, and the loss of precious parking. Plus, upcoming construction and tunnel closures are expected to increase traffic in the area. And so far, the response is mixed.

🏥 Climate change vs. hospitals. The arctic blast earlier this month caused at least three local hospitals to stop accepting ambulances in their emergency rooms due to burst pipes (remember Boston Medical Center?). Although the closures were short-lived, experts are saying that hospitals must think more about how their infrastructure can handle the impacts of climate change. For example, a new tower being built at MGH is keeping rising sea levels, severe precipitation, and severe heat in mind. The other new normal.

🍎 No elected School Committee for you. Mayor Wu vetoed the City Council’s petition to change Boston’s School Committee into an elected body, continuing the 30-year history of committee members being appointed by the mayor even though 79% of Boston voters support the alternative. Despite her evolving stance on the issue, Wu said such a change would “compromise our ability to stabilize and support” the district now.

🏆 Most Valuable Tatum. Jayson Tatum had quite the night at the NBA All Star game this weekend, scoring a record 55 points and becoming the first Celtics player in over 40 years to be named MVP. He also led his team — Team Giannis — to a 184-175 win over Team Lebron, handing Lebron James his first All-Star loss in six games as captain. Business-wise, this buzz couldn’t get any better for Tatum: His first signature shoe — The Jordan Tatum 1 — drops in April.

ONE LAST THING

A 20-year-old snowball

A Mass. family has kept a snowball frozen for 20 years.

When Jessica Pessimato was 12 years old, she made a snowball from the President’s Day Storm in 2003 — the record-setting snowstorm that dumped over 27 inches at Logan Airport.

She asked her mom to keep it in the freezer for funsies and somehow, it just celebrated its 20th anniversary. They check in on it every five years or so. It’s a piece of Mass. weather history stowed away in a Needham freezer.

❄️ Thanks for reading! My parents also have things in their fridge that are two decades old. But they are not as fun as a snowball.

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