A former town official from Grafton, Massachusetts, has been arrested on fraud charges, accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors for a marijuana company and instead spending that money to pay off the debts of a different busin…
Massachusetts
Here’s the latest on the Cape Cod flamingo’s whereabouts
The possibly unprecedented sighting of a flamingo in Massachusetts had the bird world aflutter this week, but don’t expect to see it again here soon.
It seems the bird has flown the Cape.
The flamingo was spotted by at least two people on Cape Cod, including in Dennis, but there haven’t been any more sightings locally, according to Mark Faherty, science coordinator for Mass Audubon Cape Cod.
“It seems to be back in Long Island,” he told NBC10 Boston Friday.
There have been recent sightings on Long Island, about a week after a flamingo was spotted there, Faherty said, but this time about 60 miles closer to New York City. A flamingo was sighted Wednesday by people near Cedar Beach Marina, according to Cornell University’s eBird app, where birders log the animals they see.
That means the flamingo — if it is the same one — is continuing to enjoy popular vacation spots. Its first New York sighting was first seen in Easthampton, part of New York’s tony Hamptons community, and the new location is close to New York’s Fire Island.
Images of the bird at a Cape Cod beach were circulating on social media over the weekend, and were shared with NBC10 Boston Tuesday. The bird can be seen wading in the water off shore.
Faherty noted that he measured the distance from Easthampton to Dennis at 114 miles, “which is nothing for a big bird.”
If the flamingo is found to be wild, it would be the first American flamingo ever confirmed to have visited the Bay State on its own, Faherty has said.
American flamingos typically stick to Florida and points south, and sightings outside of Florida are usually linked with escapes from captivity or hurricanes — a hurricane this September dispersed some, and the birds were spotted in strange new places, like Wisconsin and Ohio, according to Faherty.
“The thinking is it’s just some bird that was displaced by the hurricane back then that doesn’t know where it lives anymore,” he told NBC10 Boston earlier this week.
More on flamingos’ recent travels
It’s up to the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee to make the final determination on whether the bird is wild, Faherty said, noting that he’s served on the committee before.
American flamingos have been spotted in Massachusetts a few times before, according to Faherty and the committee’s database.
Get updates on what’s happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
A flamingo was spotted at Plum Island in September 1964, followed by another in Natick the next year. But the committee disagreed on whether the first was wild and found that the latter had escaped from a private collection and ultimately didn’t vote to accept either on its list of rare birds that have visited the state.
Dorchester charter school temporarily goes remote after nearby shooting
A charter school in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood temporarily moved to remote after a nearby shooting last week, the school said Friday.
Neighborhood House Charter School students in grades 8 through 11 will be distance learning until the end of next week, according to the school.
“Our seniors have already concluded their school year, so this change does not apply to the 12th grade class,” school officials said in a statement.
The decision, officials said, was approved by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The incident occurred last Friday at the nearby Shawmut MBTA station, according to the school.
“Police believe one of our students — who is not currently attending school in person — may have been the intended target,” officials said. “We also became aware that individuals associated with the alleged assailants from last week’s incident were communicating with members of our community that they intended to return.”
The alleged assailants don’t attend the school, according to officials.
The school is working with its security team, Boston police and Transit Police to enhance security when students and staff are on campus, officials said.
Police investigating robbery in East Boston
Police are investigating a robbery that occurred in East Boston on Friday morning.
Boston police said they responded to a report of a robbery on Meridian Street shortly after 9:30 a.m. A “be on the lookout” alert was put out for a vehic…
Warm and partly cloudy to end the workweek, some weekend rain
Friday brings us another warm day with more sun and highs around 80 inland, 70s at the coast as a sea breeze develops.
An upper-level low lingers across the Great Lakes through early next week, so little shortwaves will keep rain chances around…
What does the mall of the future look like? How Mass. shopping centers are evolving
Malls have been an iconic part of suburban American life for decades, but the retail landscape is changing and the people who run malls are adapting the modern mall to better attract the modern consumer.
Their ability to adapt could be the difference between a mall closing and booming.
“You can get a lot of your products online these days — for sometimes less money, more convenience,” Sarah Pelton of Cambridge Retail Advisors said. “You need a reason to go out to these centers…Entertainment options such as movie theaters, restaurants. These are all reasons why people will actually leave their house and go out shopping.”
While some malls in Massachusetts have become ghost towns, others seem to be thriving. Legacy Place in Dedham, for one, seems to have a full parking lot more often than not. The development has a lot of what experts say make for a successful retail center in 2024: a variety of retail, food and entertainment, plus outdoor setting. In the industry, these places are called lifestyle centers.
Lifestyle centers — or at least key elements that aim to make them a community-building destination for things beyond shopping — are becoming increasingly popular formats for retail centers, according to Pelton.
Efforts to diversify offerings to consumers are evident at many shopping centers. Simon Property Group, which operates 12 malls in Massachusetts, has made heavy investments in recent years to the Northshore Mall in Peabody and the Burlington Mall. Both locations have brought in a number of new businesses at an accelerated rate post-COVID, and both spots have made major strides in their outdoor spaces, too, according Simon.
“We’ve added a lot of dining,” said Lauren Dalis, a marketer at Simon. “We’ve added a lot of these experiential types of businesses where they just kind of add to the traditional retail that we already see here.”
Northshore Mall has plans for two new entertainment spots and recently added a health club. Fast casual health food spot Honeygrow opened its third Bay State location there last month.
“We found this and we got excited by it,” Honeygrow founder and CEO Justin Rosenberg said. “We love that Life Time fitness is over there and just a lot of great co-tenants over here, so a really good opportunity.”
Simon touted The Park at Burlington Mall, an outdoor space with games like bocce and cornhole and plenty of room to spread out, eat or enjoy events.
“Customers are looking for more of an experience overall,” Dalis said. “They don’t want to just come and shop, but they want to come shop, dine, enjoy time with their family and friends…Just feel like it’s more of a community place and not just a place to shop.”
Foot traffic is up at both malls compared to before COVID, according to Simon, which cited its new businesses as the reason.
While Northshore and Burlington seem to be going full steam ahead, other malls have struggled to find their way amid rising competition from online retailers.
The Eastfield Mall in Springfield closed down last year and was demolished in February. The property is now being redeveloped into an outdoor shopping center called Springfield Crossing.
The Silver City Galleria in Taunton, once a prime destination for the South Coast, was demolished in 2021.
Nationwide, 2 million square feet of mall space was demolished in 2022, according to research by Capitol One Shopping Research, and shopping malls are more than twice as likely to be vacant when compared to average retail space.
But Sarah Pelton says that traditional malls can typically boost their popularity even through modest upgrades.
“At a minimum, today’s shoppers are expecting high speed Wi-Fi, a robust mobile application and integrated e-commerce,” Pelton said. “Additionally, incorporating amenities such as charging stations, family restrooms, children’s play areas and comfortable seating.”
“Upgrading security systems, enhancing lighting and implementing smart parking solutions would all be critical investments that we would recommend,” Pelton continued.
While much more of an undertaking, Pelton said, some traditional malls have completely reinvented themselves to find success, pointing to Somerville, where Assembly Square Mall transformed into the now-thriving mixed-use neighborhood Assembly Row.
“It’s kind of a one-stop shop where they can get a gym session and they can go to a restaurant and meet their friends,” Pelton said. “They can play with their children in a nice outdoor [park]. These are the kinds of things that people are looking for.”
While many properties work to bring in businesses and attractions aside from just retail, they say there is still a big demand for traditional shopping, especially among some of the youngest consumers.
“Gen Z, from what I can see, seems to love to shop in person,” Dalis said. “We just continue to look at what shoppers and customers really want and need and what their interests are. And then we try to fill those needs with the things that complement what people are looking for.”
