longform

City Life

Our Top 10 Most-Popular Stories of 2024

Below you’ll find the 10 most-popular longform stories we published this year, a handy list of things to (re-)read that includes Boston’s in-depth coverage of […]

City Life

The Greater Boston Eviction Crisis Will Hurt You, Too

Morning light spilled over Boston as Noreli Vasquez unlocked the black front door of her brick walkup near Maverick Square in East Boston. Tired after […]

City Life

The Boston Bierhaus That Burned Down. Twice.

It was a total loss from the start. On June 24, Boston fire crews rushed over to Jacob Wirth, a restaurant on Stuart Street about […]

Life & Style

Inside the New World of Luxury Kids’ Parties, Where Parents Are Plus-Ones

Forget the Met Gala—today’s soirees of the century are where VIPs still raid their parents’ closets for couture. From bubble artists to custom teepees to […]

City Life

The Betrayal of Sandra Birchmore

Growing up in Stoughton, Sandra Birchmore idolized police officers. She dreamed of becoming one herself someday and longed to enroll in the town’s Police Explorers […]

City Life

From Heartbreak to Hope: A Maine Father’s Unlikely Journey, One Year After the Lewiston Massacre

Arthur Barnard sits alone in his car just outside a vacant, low-slung building on the edge of the Androscoggin River in Lewiston, Maine. Not so […]

City Life

How October 7 Galvanized Boston’s Jewish Community

Mia was a high school sophomore living north of Boston when her life changed in an instant on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas militants […]

City Life

Eliza Dushku’s Bold New Journey

It was a bright spring day when Eliza Dushku Palandjian slid an eyeshade on and settled onto some cushions on the floor. She squeezed the […]

City Life

The James Rodwell Case: A Somerville Man Fights for His Innocence

The stark lamplights of East Somerville’s industrial district cast an eerie glow on the gold Buick Electra, its engine still purring in the cold December […]

City Life

A Grilled Cheese Mystery: My Search for a Simple Sandwich

I can’t deny that I’ve got major skills, all of which have zero marketability. I can identify a Springsteen song two seconds in. I can […]

City Life

Charlie Baker’s (Still) Got Game

Once upon a time, Charlie Baker says—before he was governor, before he was in politics, before he was anything, really—he wanted to be, of all […]

Arts & Entertainment

Is Candlepin Bowling a Dying Pastime?

It’s 6 o’clock at night, and inside East Boston’s Central Park Lanes, the late-summer air is heavy and humid. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, […]

City Life

Who Is Josh Kraft?

There was a time when Josh Kraft flew under the radar. Then, all of a sudden, he was everywhere. One day, he was rubbing elbows […]

City Life

Oral History: The 1999 All-Star Game That Saved Fenway Park

In 1999, before the seemingly endless parade of championships in this town, Boston sports fans were longing for a win—any win. The Patriots were in […]

City Life

Why I’m Quitting Dating Apps (for Now)

How was your date?” a close friend asked me as soon as I walked into her house one day this fall. Like me, she is […]