Spencer Buell

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Spencer Buell

CAMBRIDGE — There is a damp dustiness down here, in the abandoned tunnel underneath Harvard Square. Aside from the thin rays filtering through a sidewalk grate, there isn’t much light where we’re standing, 20 feet below the beer taps of Charlie’s Kitchen and the Harvard grads snapping pictures in front of the Kennedy School of Government. Only the sound of traffic overhead occasionally breaks the subterranean silence. There are no signs of life, not even rats.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Spencer Buell

SOMERVILLE — At any moment, but usually during the white-knuckle rush hour, Ari Iaccarino is prepared to hear the familiar crunch of metal on metal. All it takes is another blown red light, or a reckless left turn, and some new combination of cars will skid, spin, smash at the busy crossroads at Somerville’s western edge where Mystic Valley Parkway, also known as Route 16, meets Boston Avenue. He sees it all right outside his window: A Prius, nose pushed in and pointed sideways on the grass.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Spencer Buell

The owners of an historic 66-unit Cambridge condo building, who had to flee it in a hurry last year amid concerns it might collapse, are planning to demolish their home along the Charles. The process is anticipated to begin in the months ahead, according to a statement from the company that manages the property. A formal vote to demolish hasn’t yet been taken, and it was not immediately clear when, exactly, the building would be taken down.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Spencer Buell

Now, say the skatepark’s overseers, it’s time to make it official. This summer, they hope to designate it a “free wall” space, where graffiti is encouraged — and hire its first-ever graffiti artist-in-residence to promote and teach the artform they feel is too often misunderstood. Michael Siedlecki rode his skateboard at the Lynch Family Skatepark in Cambridge in 2023. Vincent Alban For The Boston Globe“Most people associate it with vandalism. That’s where it started.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Spencer Buell

The Cambridge City Council this week passed a call for a ban on mandatory tenant-paid broker fees, joining renter-heavy neighbors Boston and Somerville in pressuring state lawmakers to end the practice for good. If they had it their way, the days of landlords requiring prospective renters to pay for the services of a real estate broker in Cambridge — often a full month’s rent, due up front — would be over.