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New from CommonWealth Beacon ROUGH ROAD: A federal transportation grant program, key to the massive I-90 Allston highway project in Boston, was slashed under the package of tax and spending cuts President Trump signed into law on July 4. Bruce Mohl has the story.  BAD NEWS BILL: Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to parse the massive Trump policy package with major impacts for MassHealth, food aid, clean energy, and more. Colin Young of the State House News Service has more.  OPINION: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has launched an agenda aimed at dismantling the public health system as we know it, writes Dr. Anahita Dua, the founder and chair of Healthcare for Action. She says RFK and the new vaccine panel should listen to the science, consult doctors with different views and opinions, and treat the population as if they were your own family.

A stormy season for short-term rentals on Nantucket July 9, 2025 By Jennifer Smith The fate of short-term rentals on the small, wealthy island of Nantucket is, for now, treading water.  For an island that booms from around 14,000 to over 80,000 residents between the off-season and the so-called “high season,” vacation rentals are an existential issue. Though the rentals are essential to the regional economy, their length and location are also deeply polarizing, setting up clashes between local voters, zoning officials, and the courts that offer a warning to communities grappling with similar debates around the region.  Nantucket, like its Cape and Islands neighbors, sits at the intersection of a few characteristics. It’s an historic region with strict rules around what can be built and where. It’s a summer retreat that attracts beachgoers from around the country. And it’s what’s known in Massachusetts as a “seasonal community,” with about 60 percent of its units in seasonal, recreational, or part-time use.

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This sets up a constant clash between those who benefit and profit from the surging rental and vacation home industry and those who argue that year-round residents are being asked to shoulder a boom they didn’t sign up for.     The town is appealing a June ruling from the Massachusetts Land Court that the Nantucket Zoning Board was incorrect when it determined that a property in downtown Nantucket was allowed as a short-term vacation rental under the town’s zoning code. It is the latest turn in a years-long dispute over the rental property, where one neighbor sued another for operating short-term rentals, during which Town Meeting voters have thrown up their hands at several warrant articles over the past years that would clarify the island’s zoning law on short-term rentals. READ MORE

More Context  Vacation home trends add to Massachusetts housing crunch (February 2025)  Faced with a housing crunch, a local move to ‘do something’ (April 2025)

More from CommonWealth Beacon KEEPING TIME: MBTA General manager Phil Eng talked system improvements and culture change, with major investments recently approved for the troubled transit network, on the latest episode of The Codcast.  FUNDING FREEZE: More than $100 million in federal education grants allocated for Massachusetts are now under review. The funds, which were supposed to arrive July 1, are for summer and after-school programs, behavioral and mental health supports, bullying prevention and intervention, reducing chronic absenteeism, and buying materials and supplies for classrooms, reports Michael P. Norton of State House News Service.

The Codcast: Keeping time with MBTA’s Phil Eng Phil Eng, General Manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, joins the Codcast to talk about the state of the system and what lies down the track. LISTEN NOW

What We're Reading EDUCATION: Programs in Pittsfield and North Adams, which serve hundreds of at-risk students across both cities, are subject to a $6 billion freeze in federal education funding announced Monday. (The Berkshire Eagle – paywall)  SHELTERS: The cost of strengthening security in the state’s family emergency shelter system could be significant and cause delays for applicants seeking temporary housing. (GBH News)  IMMIGRATION: Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office has joined a coalition of 18 state attorneys general supporting the plaintiffs in a case that seeks to bar US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from engaging in what they describe as “unconstitutional and unlawful stops of Los Angeles residents during immigration sweeps.” (MassLive)  HOUSING: Marblehead voters have overturned MBTA Communities-compliant multifamily housing overlay districts that were just approved at the May Town Meeting. The move takes the town out of compliance with state law as a July 14 deadline looms. (Item Live) MUNICIPAL MATTERS: While seven of Boston’s public pools – about one third – remain closed, city officials this week celebrated the mid-heat wave reopening of the Condon pool in South Boston after it had been closed for several months for repairs. (WBUR)

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