This is a web edition of GBH Daily, a weekday newsletter bringing you local stories you can trust so you can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.
🥵Sunny and hot, with highs around 91. Sunset is at 7:56 p.m.
Today we have a Free Ride to New Bedford. But first: Last week I asked you to share your most memorable MBTA trip. Deborah T. shared the story of commuting from Suffolk University to Lechmere, then on the bus to Medford with a paper-mâché giraffe she made. “I did not own a car, so my companion on the Lechmere bus to Medford sat beside me. He didn’t talk much but I got several strange looks,” Deborah wrote. (Deborah, I once moved apartments primarily by dragging my suitcase onto an MBTA bus — whatever gets you and your belongings from point A to point B.)
Janice M. shared a tale of overhearing a woman’s loud conversation on the Orange Line. The woman, she said, was talking about hiring a private detective to follow a partner and had learned he was having an affair. “Her distraught conversation continued — oblivious to anyone around her. The rest of the folks on the train never budged — they continued to read, scroll, doze… Then the woman exited the T at Wellington, and the MOMENT the doors closed behind her, every person on the train started talking to each other,” Janice wrote. “‘Oh, she should leave that dog!’ ‘Once a cheater, always a cheater!’ ‘I wonder how long they’ve been together?’ Every ‘unengaged’ rider had been hanging on every word.”
Have your own memorable MBTA ride? Reply to this email or send a note to daily@wgbh.org, and I’ll feature a few more next week. And as a bonus, Culture Show host Jared Bowen has suggestions for two things you can do this weekend: A Provincetown play and a documentary about Girl Scouts.
Four Things to Know
1. The Trump administration yesterday released new proposed guidelines for Head Start early education programs. The guidelines are not final, but childcare advocates in Massachusetts said they worry that they’ll lead to bigger classes and laxer health and safety guidelines.
“We know that a recent analysis from Arizona State University revealed that this would result in 80% of children enrolled in Early Head Start or Head Start having ratios that are worse for their own safety and development,” said Yvette Sanchez-Fuentes, senior vice president of Government Relations and Research at Start Early.
2. Lynn is planning a redesign of the Lynnway, Route 1A, that would reduce the number of vehicle lanes from six to four and add dedicated lanes for buses and bikes. City officials are planning to start construction in 2028.
Resident Darren Malloy said he’s concerned that the redesign would make traffic worse. “I understand they want to go green and want to have less cars on the road, but the reality is people aren’t using public transportation,” he said.“It just seems like they’re just creating a nightmare, and they’re going to be building more apartments on the Lynnway, which is going to create more congestion, obviously,”
3. The three candidates for Suffolk County District Attorney, the top prosecutor in Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, made their case to voters in a candidate forum last night.
Former DA Rachael Rollins spoke about policies that brought wrongfully convicted people out of prison. Current DA Kevin Hayden spoke about the indictment of a Boston police officer who shot and killed a man in March. And attorney Linda Champion said that, unlike her opponents, she has not been investigated for wrongdoing while in office. You can read a full recap of the forum here.
4. Historical preservationists discovered the grave of a free Black man who died in 1728 or 1729 at the Granary Burial Ground, near Park Street. They believe it’s one of the oldest marked graves of a free Black person in the United States.
The man was named Boston. Historians found records of him being born into slavery, of getting married and advocating for the legal right of enslaved people to marry, and of fathering six children.
Free Ride: A whale of a time
Welcome to Free Ride, your weekly guide to a $0 day trip. Remember: the MBTA Commuter Rail is fare-free every Friday this summer. As each weekend approaches, I’ll invite you to take a break and find some nature, art, science, fashion, music and more — all for $0 (or as close to free as I can get).
New Bedford’s best-known tourist attraction is its whaling museum, recently in the headlines for selling merch calling it the “worst aquarium ever.” It’s worth a visit but at $24 for an adult ticket, it’s not so easy on the wallet. It’s worth noting that the museum offers a host of discounts and free admission programs, so check them out to see if you qualify for any. Still, my mission was to experience the city’s history and its thriving present for $0.
Today’s Free Ride would have been impossible before the spring of 2025: the South Coast of Massachusetts was without train service for 66 years. But now you can board a Commuter Rail train at South Station and, about 100 minutes later, find yourself on New Bedford Harbor. It’s a long trip, which gives you time to catch up on a few episodes of Catching the Codfather.
Once you get there, walk down to the Seamen’s Bethel & Mariner’s Home. Enter through the Salt Box downstairs, where whalers used to take classes in reading, writing and arithmetic during their shore leaves. Today there are artifacts from 19th-century logbooks to cartoons depicting the city’s port. Upstairs is a chapel that served as a setting to three chapters of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick.” It’s a quiet room with the names of people who died at sea carved into slabs on the walls. It feels like hallowed ground.
From New Bedford’s whaling past, head down the street to explore its modern fishing industry. The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is a small museum with a rich collection. There are interactive exhibits where you can lift a telephone receiver and hear people working in the industry talk about their lives in their own words. There are replicas of a wheelhouse and beds you’d find aboard fishing boats.
Walk to the end of Bethel Street, then follow Union Street to Seventh Street. The Nathan and Polly Johnson House, 21 Seventh St., was the first place where Frederick Douglass lived after he escaped enslavement in Baltimore. It’s also a stop on the city’s Black History Trail. Across the street is Abolition Row Park, a quiet place to take a break and reflect beside a sculpture of Douglass.
Like this Free Ride? Share it with a friend and tell them to subscribe to GBH Daily for more.
And remember: if you take any of these trips or have your own Free Ride ideas to share, I want to hear from you! Send me a note at daily@wgbh.org.
😎More free rides:
-The soles of history in Haverhill
-Thinking outside the frame in Lowell
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