🏘️🤯 Say goodbye to broker fees!

🚨 MAJOR DEAL ALERT! Volo Sports loves B-Side Members so much they’re giving them $10 tickets to this WILD Mobster and Lobster party bus ride on July 12 ($170 value!!!). Expect tons of free drinks on (and off) the bus, a bar crawl T-shirt, and access to Club Volo’s Summer Bash party with open play, giveaways, and a live DJ. 

🤑 Want in? Sign up to become a member here.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

While you were day drinking at the beach on the Fourth, Gov. Maura Healey was signing Mass.’ new $61 billion budget into law. Pssst! If you’re a renter … you’re gonna want to know what’s up.

Here’s what to know about Mass.’ FY26 budget:

😬 The budget braces for impact from huge federal cuts. President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which was signed into law last week, not only doubles down on ongoing federal funding cuts to Mass., but also slashes from programs like SNAP and MassHealth. So it’s no coincidence Gov. Maura Healey greenlit Mass.’ budget on the same day as Trump’s. In fact, state legislators were so anxious to ink our budget before Trump’s, they actually filed it on time *gasp* for the first time in YEARS.

📉 So to be safe, Gov. Healey made some cuts of her own. Namely, $130 million in line item cuts from the legislature’s final draft, including $10 million in funding from Mass.’ Clean Energy Center, and $25 million in funding for an expansion in MassHealth nursing home rates. Meanwhile, she also extended a state hiring freeze and even asked for the power to unilaterally dole out more cuts mid-year if tax revenues fall short.

Now, let’s talk about what’s actually inside …

🏘️ Renter-paid broker fees are OVER! Yes, it’s really happening! Starting Aug. 1, you’re no longer on the hook for paying them (unless you actually hire a broker). That burden — which usually amounts to a full month’s rent — will now fall on the landlord, chipping away at Boston’s often five-figure move-in price tag. 

🚌 Fare-free regional transit is sticking around. This budget mandates that regional transit authorities in areas like Worcester, Brockton, and Nantucket provide free service, and shells out $209 million to make it happen. 

🙅🏾‍♀️ AG Andrea Campbell got some fighting money. Translation: Her office got a 12% raise this year as it works overtime to push back against the Trump administration’s actions on DEI, federal funding cuts, and more. 

🚇 The T got a hefty investment. The legislature gave Train Daddy Eng (the MBTA) a $470 million vote of confidence to help the agency out of its money *situation*. And that’s on top of the $535 million it got last month. 

🌧️ And … $800 million for a rainy day. Seriously — thanks to the aforementioned cuts, $800 million of this year’s budget is earmarked as a “just in case” fund if tax revenues fall short of expectations or to help keep programs facing funding cuts afloat.  

🖼️ 🌱🪻 AC on blast. Flowers in bloom. Cicadas chirping (from a speaker). This summer, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is bringing the outdoors in. Stroll through nature-themed exhibitions like Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden and Flowers for Isabella, or soak in the Courtyard’s soundscape with Small Conversation. Outside, Yu-Wen Wu: Reigning Beauty, 2025 blooms on the Façade as part of this summer’s Boston Public Art Triennial 2025. And with just a quick trip downtown, you can also check out Where We Meet: Imagining Gardens and Futures at Pao Arts Center — plus the zine Between the Bricks: A Field Guide to Imagined Gardens for bonus garden-core inspo. Plan your visit now. 

✅ Can we get a fact check on Boston’s mayoral election? Josh Kraft and Mayor Michelle Wu have been talking a LOT of smack this campaign cycle, so the Globe fact checked some of their most popular claims. Wu calling Boston the “safest major city in America”? It’s hard to say for sure (but we’re up there). Kraft claiming the White Stadium reno will cost Boston $170 million? Only in an "absolute worst-case scenario,” Wu said. Wu’s narrative about Kraft being “new to the city?” Technically true, but he’s worked here for decades. Check out the rest here.

🪲 A tick, tick … boom, indeed: New England is having one of its worst tick seasons in recent history, with tick-related ER visits reaching their highest levels in years this June. The uptick (pun intended) in tick-borne diseases is mostly caused by increasing numbers of deer tick nymphs, the primary carriers of Lyme disease. They’ve spread farther north into New England to bask in our more humid weather. This doesn’t mean you should avoid spending time outdoors entirely, but if you do, here are some tips to ward off the ticks.

📲 Come September, TikTok may never be the same. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is reportedly building a new version of the app to comply with its Sept. 17 deadline to sell the app’s U.S. operations to American investors. Per the report, the new app is built specifically for American users, and would go live on Sept. 5, while the old app would be available in the U.S. until March 2026. Apparently, American buyers are locked and loaded, but whether Chinese officials will OK the sale is another story.

🧋Chinatown’s newest foodie hotspot? Probably a chain. In the past decade, over 20 new chain restaurants have popped up around the neighborhood (think: Gong Cha, Happy Lamb, and Mochinut). But longtime residents and officials are conflicted about their presence. On the one hand, they represent the hood’s changing customer base and support a growing interest in Asian cuisine. But on the other, they may have a hand in gentrifying the area, driving up real estate prices and squeezing out mom-and-pop shops and independent restaurants along the way.

There are a lot of important local elections this year. But none are capturing our hearts like the race for Somerville’s “bike path mayor.” 

The post is currently (and unofficially) held by Berry, a three-year-old outdoor cat who spends her days roaming the bike path. But Berry didn’t become bike path mayor through an election. The title was given to her by her owner to try and raise her profile so folks would stop calling animal control — a move that struck some neighbors as undemocratic. 

Soon, another local outdoor cat, Orange Cat (yes, that’s its name), officially challenged Berry to an election via competing lawn signs along the bike path. And just like that, a race was born. 

Now, a growing group of lawn signs for even more candidates have popped up, boasting platforms like “more kibble for all,” “make cats outside again,” and one that just says “crime.” 

Check out more about the election (including all the signs) here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🐱 Thanks for reading! We appreciate Berry’s experience, but you can’t argue with Puzzle’s messaging: “Vote for me because naps.”

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, for supporting local journalism and bringing culturally rich experiences to our city. 

💍 The results are in: 58% of B-Siders say the cuteness/cringiness of a public proposal depends on just how public we’re talking. Most of the written-in sentiments were something like this one: “Proposal in a park = cute. Proposal on TD Garden [jumbotron] = not so cutesie.”

🥳 🎶 Don't forget to grab your tickets to Best Day Ever, our Aug. 2 food, music, and shopping bash at Artists for Humanity!

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