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Boston Globe
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Is Gloucester ready for Bunker Hill?
Ready or not, Gloucester is about to find out, because on Saturday and Sunday, the city's Stage Fort Park will play host to An aerial view of the Bunker Hill monument in Charlestown in 2021. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Advertisement Picture a thousand reenactors portraying Colonists and British soldiers. Three schooners, standing in for the British Navy, firing cannons from Gloucester Harbor. And perhaps tens of thousands of visitors who are expected to flood the city for the event. The rebels lost at Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, in the first major battle of the Revolutionary War, but proved their mettle against a trained, British army. The reenactment is part of a wider celebration this year of the beginning of the American Revolution. Related : 'While we would love to host this event on the original ground, we just don't have that kind of space in Charlestown, and the goal is to do it justice on a larger scale than that piece of land would allow,' said Tom Dietzel, president of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment and one of the organizers of the event. Advertisement 'It's a dream come true to be able to pull off something with this scope,' he said, noting that you'd have to go back to the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976 to find a Massachusetts reenactment that approaches this scale. Still, many locals are unaware, or confused about why the event is taking place at Visitors climbed the steps on the seawall at Cressy's Beach at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester May 22, 2020. John Blanding/Globe Staff/The Boston Globe And while there is certainly some buzz in Gloucester for the battle reenactment — which will be performed over two days to break up the anticipated crowds — it has stiff competition. That's because the following week is Related : 'All anyone's talking about is Fiesta,' said Horgan, a 31-year-old Gloucesterman who will be walking the greasy pole for the ninth time this year. 'That's all Gloucester thinks about this time of year, but it sounds like we need to start thinking about Bunker Hill before all these people show up.' Advertisement And it could be easy to get people excited, for America's oldest seaport loves its ships. And never has anyone seen what's about to happen in the harbor. 'Very rarely do we in the reenactment community have a chance to involve a naval presence,' said Steve Cole, the captain of the It's going to be big. It's going to be loud,' Cole said. 'And come Saturday, it's going to take over the city, whether the locals know it or not. Billy Baker can be reached at
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
The sweet (but not too sweet) story of how Mary Alisa's chocolate cake went from family favorite to famous
Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up More than 1,300 cakes later, Sherman is as happy making the chocolate confections as she was when the restaurant opened in the fall of 2021. 'I L-O-V-E it!' she says. 'I can be corny, but I feel like I'm living in a Christmas Hallmark movie. I love making people happy with it. Advertisement To maintain quality, Sherman makes each cake individually. The ingredients are: King Arthur flour, high-quality cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, Kosher salt, oil, whole milk, pricey Nielsen-Massey vanilla, and white eggs. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff 'The best time is in the restaurant — people don't know who I am — I will see someone eating it or sharing it, and they have smiles on their faces.' Before it made the menu, Sherman's cake was vetted by Cosmo Goss, The Winsor House's executive chef. It was never meant to be a permanent menu item. Advertisement 'I frankly thought it was a special thing we could do for the opening,' says Chris Sherman. 'My biggest fear was that people wouldn't like it. Then we started reading reviews and online comments where people said, 'You have to try the cake.' After four years, it's still a hit.' The cakes are prepared at The Winsor House kitchen well before the restaurant opens. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Sherman is becoming known around this historic shipbuilding town as the 'Cake Lady.' 'My only claim to fame is I've made a few whole cakes for Steve Carrell,' she says. 'I've never met him, but he has a house on the South Shore and he orders around Christmas.' (Attempts to reach the A-List actor for his take on the cake were unsuccessful.) The cakes are prepared at The Winsor House kitchen well before the restaurant opens. Sherman makes at least 4 cakes every week — and up to 8, depending on demand. Summertime, when folks head to ICO's nearby outdoor raw bar for its famous oysters, often brings more customers to the restaurant. (The cake is not sold at the Island Creek Raw Bar in In the kitchen of The Winsor House restaurant, Mary Alisa Sherman bakes the layers of her chocolate cake. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff To maintain quality, Sherman makes each cake individually. The ingredients are: King Arthur flour, high-quality cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, Kosher salt, oil, whole milk, pricey Nielsen-Massey vanilla, and white eggs. 'It's easier to find egg shells in batter with white eggs,' she says. (The cake also includes a secret ingredient that can't be divulged.) The frosting consists of sifted powdered sugar, cream cheese, Land O'Lakes unsalted butter, and the aforementioned vanilla. Sherman buys her own ingredients (stocking up at area grocery stores when items go on sale and relying on Amazon) and brings them in Tupperware containers to The Winsor House for mixing. Advertisement The cake layers are baked for one hour and 15 minutes. After cooling, Sherman assembles the cake and gives it a Cake pans cool in The Winsor House kitchen. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Sherman's daughters are delighted at this new stage in their mom's life. 'I love how my mom can now share this piece of our childhood with her community,' says Elise Sherman. Adds Devon Daley, Elise's twin: 'It was a sacrifice for my mom to stay home with us. It was meaningful, but it's nice to see when people can pursue roles they're passionate about. Second lives can happen organically.' Sherman grew up in Connecticut, moving to Duxbury in the '80s. Her professional career included a stint at a software company and a graduate degree in education and certification to teach Spanish. She's an active volunteer Duxbury history guide for schoolchildren and local assisted-living residents. Mary Alisa Sherman frosts her chocolate cake. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff For 20 years, she was a South Shore representative for the Friendly Towns arm of The Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit that paired underserved New York City children with families during the summer. (The fund this year began placing kids only in camps.) She and her 'crazy, supportive high school-sweetheart' husband, Chris senior, regularly hosted a child in their home. Advertisement Now it's Chris junior who's her boss and who signs Sherman's paycheck. He always includes a message in the memo spot: 'Hey Mom, Hope you're having fun!' Mary Alisa's Dank Chocolate Cake, $13 per slice, available at The Winsor House at Island Creek Oyster Farm, 390 Washington St., Duxbury, 781-934-0991. Peggy Hernandez can be reached at . Follow her on Instagram @peggy_hernandez Mary Alisa Sherman decorates her chocolate cake. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Want to understand why the Massachusetts housing market is broken? Look at this chart.
In other words, housing costs in Massachusetts have grown much faster than incomes, creating a financial gap that, to many, can feel insurmountable. 'The gap between what people make and what homes cost is completely outrageous,' said Albert Saiz, an associate professor of urban economics and real estate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'And this data does not even represent the situation for working-class families who are making minimum wage. A large portion of the state's population cannot afford to buy a home here, which is not how a housing market is supposed to function.' Economists consider the ratio of home prices to incomes to be a reliable indicator of the state of a housing market. Typically, a house-price-to-income ratio of three — a median household income of $100,000 and median home price of $300,000, for instance — is seen as healthy. Related : Advertisement In Greater Boston in 2023, that ratio was 6.3, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, more than double that healthy rate. Advertisement It wasn't always this way. In the 1980s, the region's house-price-to-income ratio hovered around three, before beginning a slow ascent leading up to the 2000s, when it began to climb rapidly. An apartment building under construction in Revere in 2023. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff The last time the price-to-income ratio here was this high was in the mid-2000s, in the lead-up to the housing market crash that spurred the Great Recession. The force behind the growing gap between incomes and prices is The rise in home prices is not just about how many homes the state builds each year, said Keren Horn, an associate professor of economics at UMass Boston. It is also about the kind of homes developers build. For decades, builders here built smaller, relatively affordable 'starter homes' in the suburbs of Boston. Today, most single-family homes that are built are larger 'McMansions,' in many cases on the lots of older starter homes that are torn down to make way. That trend is partially related to the high cost of land, especially in Greater Boston, but it contributes to rising house prices nonetheless. 'We're seeing decades and decades of bad housing policy catching up to us,' Horn said. 'Housing is supposed to be affordable to the people who need it. We can't expect to have a healthy region if the current price trajectory continues.' The soaring price tags for homes wouldn't matter quite as much if incomes were keeping pace, but they haven't. From 1987 through 2022, the median income in Massachusetts grew by roughly 190 percent, while the price for the typical single-family home grew by close to 300 percent. Advertisement Housing has always been expensive in Massachusetts, by national standards. But Massachusetts, especially Greater Boston, also has higher incomes than most of the rest of the country. Still, now, to afford the typical house here, a household needs to earn roughly $217,000 a year, according to Harvard's housing center. Related : What the yawning gap between house prices and incomes amounts to is, effectively, a change in who can hope to own a home here. In the 1980s and before, when incomes and home prices were in sync, homebuying was an accessible tool of wealth-building for the working and middle classes. Many families who bought in those days have seen their home values double, triple, or even quadruple, becoming an asset for younger generations. That same pathway to generational wealth is now far more difficult to access. That leaves many average earners in younger generations two options: rent, seemingly forever, or leave the state. 'We are going to witness a huge generational divide, in terms of access to wealth,' Saiz said. 'Or people are just going to find somewhere else to live.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at
Boston Globe
09-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
As housing costs rise in Boston, homelessness soars in the cities that surround it
Related : Advertisement 'We've reached a critical mass in Brockton,' said City Councilor Winthrop Farwell. 'Our city is at the center of what is really a societal crisis, and there is no good answer for how we're supposed to go about handling it.' There are many causes of homelessness. But local leaders point to one in particular to explain the recent surge: the soaring cost of housing. People gathered underneath the commuter rail tracks in Brockton on May 22. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff As people priced out of Boston flock to places like Brockton, Worcester, and Lowell — attracted by their cheaper housing costs and accessible commutes — rents in those once-affordable cities are rising at a rapid clip. That's bringing investment to cities that have long struggled to attract it, but it is also stretching longtime lower-income residents to the breaking point. Advertisement It's a vexing cycle. As encampments have cropped up, local officials are struggling to balance the needs of their poorest residents and the logistical, and ethical, problems their tents present. Related : 'We do what we can to help as many people who need it,' said Jason Etheridge, executive director of Lifebridge North Shore, a Salem-based nonprofit that runs shelters and supportive apartments in several cities north of Boston. 'There are forces in the economy that have made it much easier to become homeless. At a certain point, shelters can't fix that.' Before the past few years, Brockton had made significant progress on homelessness. There is limited data counting homeless people in most municipalities, but in 2021, officials counted 943 in a federally-designated area south of Boston that includes Brockton, Quincy, Plymouth, and Weymouth, the fewest since 2008. By 2024, that number had doubled to 1,885, the highest number since tracking began in 2005. The trends are similar in Fall River, New Bedford, Lynn, and Several things changed during the pandemic that have fueled the surge, said Joyce Tavon, CEO of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, including increased rates of substance abuse and mental illness among residents of the state. But the biggest difference was the explosion of housing costs in the years that followed. Related : In Brockton, the median price for a single-family home has risen nearly 50 percent in the last five years, from $339,900 in 2020 to $500,000 in 2025, according to the real estate website Redfin. While there is limited rental data for Brockton, rents in nearby Fall River rose nearly 80 percent over five years to $1,807 a month in April, according to Zillow's Observed Rent Index. In Lowell, rents jumped 45 percent over that period, to $2,273. Advertisement That has hit 'We're talking about people whose lives are incredibly fragile, because they're living paycheck to paycheck making just enough to support themselves or their family,' said Tavon. 'All it takes is one thing to go wrong — an eviction or a medical bill — for everything to fall apart.' Related : The state has long targeted its 26 formally-defined 'gateway cities' for economic development because of their relatively affordable land and old industrial buildings that can be converted to other uses. Those goals are finally being realized due to newfound demand, and many have seen their downtowns transformed with shiny new apartment buildings, restaurants, and street life. That demand is also taking a toll. Father Bill's & MainSpring's new shelter/supportive housing site in Brockton. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Off Route 24 in Brockton, a new shelter run by the homeless nonprofit Father Bill's & MainSpring is part of a broader housing resource center that includes permanent supportive apartments for formerly homeless people in an adjacent building. It contains 128 overnight beds and a day center with caseworkers. The new center opened last month, but it is still nowhere near enough to meet the city's needs, said John Yazwinski, president and CEO of the nonprofit. On a recent tour, Yazwinksi pointed out the spare cots he keeps handy in case the overnight beds fill up, which happens frequently. It can be disheartening, he said. Advertisement 'To a certain extent, you will always have some amount of homelessness that's related to mental health and addiction,' he said. 'But what we're seeing now, while those factors are certainly a part of it, is driven by the housing market.' Related : Jerome Jarrett knows too well how that can happen. Jarrett lives in a subsidized apartment with supportive services from Father Bill's. Before that, he spent five years bouncing between shelters. Losing his job led to an eviction, and he struggled to find new work during the pandemic and a place he could afford after that. 'I have a home now, which I am very proud of,' said Jarrett, who is 57, as he sat near the window of his new, modern-looking apartment. 'I also have a new perspective on how easy it is to lose something like this and end up with nothing.' Jerome Jerrett is living in a supportive housing unit at Father Bill's & Mainspring new housing center. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff The surge in homelessness has prompted something of a municipal emergency in Brockton and places like it. Last winter, so many tents appeared in downtown Brockton that local business owners complained to the City Council, with some saying they would have to close if the problem persisted. Howard Wright, who owns a small technology firm that was based out of a building near a popular gathering spot for homeless people, moved his business to Taunton over concerns about the safety of downtown. 'Brockton is my home,' Wright said. 'But my employees don't feel safe. I can't expect to run a business under these circumstances.' Related : In November, Advertisement Other cities, including Lowell and Fall River, No solution seems particularly satisfactory. Advocates decry camping bans as inhumane, and even some business owners reject the idea. Abandoned clothes were left on top a stone post near Perkins Park in Brockton, where homeless folks gathered before the city's camping ban went into effect. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff One Gateway city trying for a middle ground is Salem, 40 miles to the north of Brockton. City officials there passed a camping ban last year, but one that only allows encampments to be cleared when the city has shelter space available. Then they used leftover pandemic funds to open a supplementary overnight shelter downtown, which allowed them to tear down a prominent encampment near the waterfront business district. The new Salem shelter is informal at best, run by Lifebridge out of warehouse space next to a popular thrift store that the nonprofit also runs. The tall open room full of cots gets crowded quickly, said Ethridge, the executive director, and it still feels like there are too few beds. Related : It's a temporary solution to a problem that has been long in the making, city officials said. 'Our thinking is that everyone deserves a home, and a tent is not a home,' said Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo. 'We're starting at that point, and then thinking about creating enough housing that folks don't need to be living in a shelter.' To be sure, Salem is a wealthier community than Brockton, and not every city has extra money to spend on a new shelter. Father Bill's new facility was mostly paid for with donations. But the collision of homelessness and gentrification in places like Brockton won't be solved through charity alone. Advertisement 'What we're dealing with downtown is heartbreaking,' said Mary Waldron, executive director of Brockton's Old Colony Planning Council, which is based in a historic building downtown. 'People are struggling and we don't want to punish them for that. But we also want to have a thriving downtown. There is no simple answer here.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
South Coast cities gear up for summer tourism season amid economic uncertainty
Advertisement But in a time of economic uncertainty in Massachusetts and the country, there is some anecdotal evidence of people pulling back, even as some tourism officials are optimistic. Beauchamp said that his bed and breakfast saw a slight slowdown for summer bookings. Typically, his business starts to receive reservations in January or February for the summer. This year, it took a bit longer and the bookings are for shorter stays than in the past. 'It was not unusual for us to see people book for a week or 10 days before. I don't think we have many bookings like that,' he said. Still, 'things are starting to fill in. ... There were concerns early but things have turned around." A view of the Delano Homestead, a bed and breakfast in Fairhaven. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff In nearby Advertisement 'We're off to a very good start,' she said. McMullen said the current economic uncertainty reminded her of 2021 and 2022 as the severity of the COVID pandemic was waning. People were reluctant to travel far, either for health or financial reasons. A similar dynamic could come into play this year if Americans become more worried about their pocketbooks. 'I think we're going to see an increase of that local traveler,' she said. The museum, for example, has been doing targeted social media advertising within a 90-mile radius in anticipation that people may not travel far this year, she said. Whale skeletons at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Alyssa Botelho, who runs the office that coordinates tourism and economic development in Fairhaven, said the town is ramping up events for the summer like an event in June to commemorate the 'I've gotten a lot of calls from the Midwest ... Kentucky, Ohio, all these places people are tracing back the Delanos and their own family lines,' she said. 'That history piece is really big.' Botelho said the town is hoping to entice regional travelers to opt for Fairhaven as their destination of choice this summer. The town has advertised in Boston- and Rhode Island-based publications to lure local tourists. Plus, she hopes that the Advertisement 'We had never advertised in the Boston area before,' she said. 'We've got the infrastructure now, and in case you haven't heard, Fairhaven, it's a nice place to come.' Alyssa Botelho manages the tourism and economic development portfolio for Fairhaven. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Laura Orleans, who runs the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center that's a few steps away from the Whaling Museum, suggested that in times of economic anxiety, people may choose to stay closer to home in their vacations, which could help New Bedford and the broader South Coast. 'Instead of taking a trip to Europe, maybe you're taking a tour to New England or maybe within New England,' she said. For families looking for budget travel options, New Bedford is situated to help them take advantage of all the attractions the South Coast has to offer, said Ashley Payne, the director of tourism and marketing for the city. 'You're not going to find tourists trapped here in our city,' Payne said. 'Where we're positioned geographically and how we're positioned as that budget-friendly option that's great for families that are traveling, it's great for older couples who might be looking for a quieter destination that fits within their budget as well.' Genevieve Iorio could be the type of tourist that Payne and others hope to see more of on the South Coast this summer season. On a recent afternoon, she drove from Quincy to New Bedford looking for what she described as a little bit of Europe in Massachusetts. Advertisement 'I came down to New Bedford out of curiosity to enjoy the day with my niece. You know, looking for a different flavor in the state,' she said. 'Everybody knows Cape Cod. I know Boston well. I've been to Gloucester. But New Bedford just seemed very interesting because of the Portuguese community, the cuisine, being on the water, the historical district, the whaling history, and so we came down to explore and learn more about the city.' Omar Mohammed can be reached at
