😌🧓 This boomer thinks Gen Z will be OK

🤩 If you were walking around the Financial District yesterday … You might've caught a glimpse of Boston’s own Mark Wahlberg, who was in town filming a scene for his new movie, “Weekend Warriors.” Hi, Mark!

🔐 P.S. We’re dropping 20 FREE early-bird tickets to Select Markets’ massive Halloween Thrift Fest this weekend. Become a member, and then enter here! 

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Resident “boomer” reporting for duty! I’m Larry Edelman, business columnist for The Boston Globe, filling in for Gia and Emily for today’s top story. 

🤔 I recently came across a term I’d never seen before: Generation Jones. ChatGPT filled me in: 

🧓 Generation Jones are Americans born between 1955 and 1965. They’re late boomers shaped by Watergate, stagflation, and Reagan-era politics, more skeptical and pragmatic than their older counterparts. That’s me: too young for Woodstock, too old to identify with Gen X. And then it got me thinking …

🤝 Gen Jones and Gen Z might have more in common than I thought. Listen, I may technically be a “young Boomer,” but I feel dated in a newsroom increasingly staffed by millennials and Gen Z. That said, with that age comes perspective. Growing up in Generation Jones meant facing some of the same challenges my younger colleagues now see: economic downturns, political disillusionment, and the uneasy balance between idealism and practicality.

So if you’re crashing out about the state of the world, let me share some perspective …

 ❗ Don’t panic. I know, easier said than done. On Oct. 19, 1987, the stock market crashed. There was uncertainty, even desperation in the air. Would there be another depression like 1929? Heading to work the next morning, I told my wife, “Things could get ugly.” I was wrong. The Dow rebounded quickly. There was no recession. I’ve tried to “stay calm and carry on” during other scary times such as 9/11, COVID, and now. 

⏰ Play the long game. When you’re young, time is on your side. The economy did get ugly during the early 1990s recession and the financial crisis of 2007-2009. But we kept saving and investing in our retirement accounts regardless of what the market was doing. We were lucky — we never lost our jobs, our student loans weren’t onerous — but having a cash cushion makes it easier to ride out ugly times.

👀 Stay skeptical but resist apathy. It’s hard not to be disillusioned after a half-century of political failures by both parties. Each swing of the electoral pendulum is more extreme, whipsawing the majority who long for a moderate, practical government focused on making life better for everyone. We’ve seen this movie before. My father was revolted by Nixon as much as I am by Trump. Carter talked a good game but didn’t deliver. Obama and Biden fell short of expectations.

💭 Final thought. Abandoning hope isn’t the answer. R.E.M., a Jones Generation band if there ever was one, put it this way:

If wishes were trees the trees would be falling

Listen to reason

Reason is calling

Your feet are going to be on the ground

Your head is there to move you around

📝 The message: Stand up, take a fresh look, do something.

🏥 🩺 Not every stomach bug, sprain, or “mystery rash” deserves a trip to the ER. Urgent care (or even telehealth) can usually handle it faster, cheaper, and with way less stress. For life-threatening emergencies, always call 911 or go straight to the ER. For everything else, know where to go for care with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts — your time (and bank account) will thank you. 

🚗 We found the worst parking spots in Boston. In the past year, 311, Boston’s constituent service line, got over 60,000 complaints about parking, according to the Globe. And over 1,000 of them came from one, 200-meter stretch of the Seaport’s Congress and Summer streets, which has become something of a hunting ground for parking enforcement officers. A construction worker who works nearby said that once, he was ticked in the time it took for him to walk to the meter to pay. Check out all the city’s worst parking spots here.

😭 Another Celtics icon has left the building. On Sunday, veteran center Al Horford announced he’ll be leaving the C’s for the Golden State Warriors, the latest in a series of offseason switchups. Horford has been in Boston for seven of the last nine seasons, playing a major role in the 2024 championship run, and delivering possibly the coldest dunk we’ve ever watched live. “This chapter in my career will hold a special place in my heart,” he wrote in a post on X. “I am forever grateful for the fans and the organization.” 

🚃 BOO! It’s time for more MBTA shutdowns. Another month, another series of T headaches, this time for Green and Orange Liners. Here’s the deal: Orange Liners can expect a weekend shutdown between North Station and Forest Hills from Oct. 11 to 13. But Green Liners have it worse. This weekend, the GLX will see a shutdown between North Station and Union Square as well as Medford/Tufts, and later this month, D branch riders can expect a seven-day shutdown between Kenmore and Riverside. Good luck out there!

🛍️ Maxxinistas: We’ve got good and bad news. We’ll start with the bad: T.J. Maxx announced that it’ll be closing its iconic (to us, anyway) Newbury Street location by Jan. 3, 2026. Company reps confirmed that the closure will be a one-off, but the reason why is unclear, especially given the company’s solid financial footing. In better news: If you’re looking for a new go-to T.J.’s, the Newton location was recently dubbed the best in the country for its discounted designer finds.

The Starbucks by Government Center might be OOO … But at least the giant brass steaming kettle above the door is here to stay.

After news broke that the location would be one of nearly 20 to close last weekend, in an act of stellar journalism, Boston.com inquired about the building’s giant steaming kettle (which, BTW, has a pretty wild backstory). 

The building’s owner confirmed that the kettle “will be there forever,” Starbucks or not. For his part, he’s surprised to see the coffee chain go (it’s been there since 1997), but hopes that the next tenants serve better food. Fair enough.

You can read the whole story here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Claire Nicholas

☕ Thanks for reading! Petition for a cute local coffee shop to fill the space!

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, for supporting local journalism and helping patients access the right care at the right cost. 

👖 The results are in: 62% of B-Siders say they know about the “Boston Uniform,” though they’re split on how often they wear it. One reader said: “I went over to my 93-year-old grandma from Southie’s house one time, and we were BOTH wearing the Boston uniform.” LOL.

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