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The Crimson

‘Raises Your Spirits’: 46th Oktoberfest Features HONK! and Filipino American Festival

A crowd of thousands fills Harvard Square for its annual Oktoberfest.

A crowd of thousands fills Harvard Square for its annual Oktoberfest. By Nika Imamberdieva

By Theresa Bartelme F.Adam Han, and Nylah R. Jordan, Contributing Writers

13 hours ago

Thousands of people gathered in Harvard Square this Sunday despite rainy weather for the 46th Oktoberfest, with activist performances, food, and cultural celebration.

The festival coincided with the Fourth Annual Harvard Square Filipino American Festival and the 20th annual HONK! Parade.

HONK!, which originated in Somerville in 2006, is an annual three-day festival that brings activists and brass bands from across the U.S. to perform in Boston and Cambridge.

Denise A. Jillson, the Executive Director of the Harvard Square Business Association, who has been involved with the parade since 2006, said HONK! provides the opportunity for local activists to gather in Cambridge and “take the street with horns, bikes, and feet.”

“We like to think of it as a toe-tapping, knee-banging, hips-swinging, hand-clapping, heart-pumping, mind-blowing spectacle,” Jillson said.

More than 30 activist organizations participated in the parade and held up signs with pro-Palestine and immigrant rights messages like “Protect Our Neighbors.”

Jen Zawatskas, who has been volunteering with HONK! for more than 15 years, said she feels the parade’s mission is particularly resonant now.

“We’re at a time period right now where we need to come together and have our voices be heard, Zawatskas said. “The messages that HONK! brings are really particularly salient right now, and so I think it’s really important that we get out and exercise our right to have a voice.”

While international bands have performed at the event in the past, this year HONK! also allowed international performances via livestream at another part of the parade amid concerns from some bands around an increase in visa rejections and visitor detainments at airports.

Sarah Pilzer, who played the mellophone in the Brass Balagan street band, said she was glad that international bands who had previously taken part were still able to do so this year.

“They were still able to be part of HONK! for their 20th celebration through a live stream on a big jumbotron in Davis Square — it was awesome,” Pilzer said.

The festival brought spectators from across the country back to Cambridge. Scott Langley, a brass musician who has attended HONK! more than 15 times, drove three hours from New York to take part in the causeSusan Fauman, who attended the festival for the first time with him, said the event provided a sense of belonging to spectators in the crowd.

“You feel like you’re in this sort of protective space of sound and activism and art and it raises your spirits,” said Fauman.

The Filipino American Festival, which took place in celebration of Filipino American History Month, featured food vendors with traditional Filipino cuisine including lumpia and lechon. The crowd was dotted with red, white, and yellow Filipino flags that lined the street from Oktoberfest to the cultural festival.

Jay Rocka, the founder of Kuya Jay’s Ube Kafe in Boston, took part in the event for the second year and sold ube lattes and Filipino food. According to Rocka, the event is one of the largest that the cafe has participated in, partly for its pairing with Oktoberfest.

“Cambridge is a very diverse community, and now you’re platforming different parts of your community all at the same time,” Rocka said.

A number of singers, street performers, political candidates, and activists joined in the festivities, including famous Filipino-American singer and songwriter Jay R, who has just under four million monthly listeners on Spotify.

“We have our Filipinos who came out despite the rain that wanted to support and watch me sing, which I thought was so cool,” Jay R said.

By combining Sunday’s three festivals, Fauman said that Cambridge cultivated a fun environment for spectators to engage in different aspects of the city.

“I love that the city of Cambridge has brought together an Oktoberfest event focused on commercialism and drinking beer and all that with something that contains the spirit of activism and community,” Langley said.

“To have all that in one place on one day is a really beautiful blend for me of all the traditions and cultures that exist,” Fauman added.

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Boston Restaurants

Boston Restaurant Talk

A news-based journal on the Boston restaurant scene. The owner of this blog is also the founder of Boston’s Hidden Restaurants, a website that focuses on local dining spots.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

PopUp Bagels Is Opening in Cambridge’s Harvard Square

Earlier this year, it was reported that a growing group of bagel shops would be opening another Boston-area location, and now we have learned that it is up and running.

According to a press release, PopUp Bagels is now open in Cambridge, moving into a space at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Church Street in Harvard Square. As mentioned earlier, the new shop offers a variety of bagels and “schmears,” and it joins two others locally–in Boston’s Seaport District and in Somerville’s Assembly Row, while their bagels can also be purchased within Captain Mardens in Wellesley as well.

PopUp Bagels was established in Westport, CT, in 2020, with founder Adam Goldberg selling bagels from a backyard pickup window at his house.

The address for PopUp Bagels in Harvard Square is 1430 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138. The website for the business is at https://www.popupbagels.com/

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The Crimson

Development on Harriet Jacobs House Continues Despite Pushback from Neighbors

The Cambridge Historical Commission approved a proposal to redevelop the Harriet Jacobs House in a Thursday hearing, despite backlash over the size of the building.

The Jacobs House, which was run by Harriet Jacobs after she escaped from slavery, served as a boarding house for Harvard faculty and students in the late 1800s. The house has since been passed through multiple private owners and fallen into disrepair.

Developers proposed turning the property into a hotel and additional housing units, keeping a museum of Harriet Jacobs in the new building’s lobby. The proposed development would preserve the original house and add eight stories of residential property behind it.

The proposal has stalled in front of the Commission for nearly a year as residents repeatedly criticized the development for being too large. Many argued that the city should restore the house without the addition.

The house sits on the edge of the Harvard Square Conservation District, which has stricter guidelines on the allowed size of new construction and requires approval from the Commission before construction can begin.

Janet Jiang, who has owned the house for the last five years, said that Cambridge’s expensive real estate market posed a challenge to preserving the Jacobs House. Jiang hired CambridgeSeven, a local architecture firm, to begin redeveloping the property.

CambridgeSeven met with the Commission last month, and faced backlash from abutting residents who felt the development was too close to their property. The architects returned to the Commission on Thursday with a plan to increase the distance between the building and its property line.

A group of neighbors living on Hilliard Street, which is on the backside of the Jacobs House, have strongly opposed the redevelopment — asking the Commission to adopt a set of guidelines to limit the allowed size of the development.

“Dwarfing the Harriet Jacobs House under an eight-story building is not the best way to honor her legacy,” Nicole Bryant, a Hilliard Street resident who spoke on behalf of neighbors, said in the Thursday hearing.

CambridgeSeven has refused to consider lowering the height and size of the building further.

“If we’re coming back for a smaller building, we should probably not continue,” Patrick W. Barrett, Jiang’s lawyer, said.

Though the Commission unanimously approved the project on Thursday, they must meet with the developers again to review the final proposal before construction can begin.

“We want to try to see if we can find some way to find a path forward, because we have to get to work,” Barrett said, “and either we have a project or we don’t.”

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The Crimson

Open Sesame: Students Celebrate Grand Opening of PopUp Bagels with DJ, Merch

Pop Up Bagels opened its Cambridge location on October 10.

Pop Up Bagels opened its Cambridge location on October 10. By Michelle L. Yang

By Sophia E. Alcacer and Christopher Schwarting, Contributing Writers

Yesterday

Even though Cambridge newcomer PopUp Bagels just opened in Harvard Square last Friday, students and Cambridge residents already see the store as a “staple” of the Square.

“They literally have a Harvard 2029 pennant hanging,” Taylor P. Beljon-Regen ’29 said. “I feel like it’s very integrated into the community already.”

The chain celebrated its grand opening to a welcoming crowd — after seven months of anticipation — when workers opened their doors early Friday morning. Customers streamed in and out of their 1440 Massachusetts Ave. storefront as a DJ blasted music from inside the store.

“We were listening to good music, and it was just delicious,” said Kimaya Bhangle, a resident of the suburbs of Cambridge who visited just for PopUp’s opening day.

Harvard Square is already home to multiple bagel stores, but PopUp differentiates itself through its sales model. Customers purchase bagels in packs of three, six, or 12 with accompanying tubs of schmear — but cannot purchase a traditional bagel sandwich.

“It’s definitely a good option, especially since it’s not filled with a lot of things,” Emily C. Stringer ’29 said. “It’s not a competitor for people who want a bagel sandwich as a meal, but for people who want just a bagel.”

Students also said the unique business model encouraged snacking and sharing.

“The bagels are smaller, but they sell them in three packs, which I think is great to have as a snack,” Beljon-Regen said. “I gave them to my roommates. I think it gave us a lot of community,” she added.

PopUp offers five bagel types and three schmears. The store also features two weekly schmears which change every Thursday.

“I see myself especially going back if they have good schmears of the week,” Stringer said.

But bagels were not the only thing on the menu during Friday’s grand opening. Store employees also distributed merchandise with the store’s motto, “Not Famous But Known,” at random moments from the early morning opening until PopUp’s 3:00 p.m. closing .

The bagel franchise got its start in Brooklyn, New York in 2020, and has quickly expanded in the five years since it opened. Now, the franchise operates 15 locations in New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Massachusetts.

“I loved it in New York, and it’s even better in Boston,” Sofiya Iovenko ’29 said. “It’s more of a community feel.”

Despite its national presence, students and residents said they appreciated the franchise’s attention to regional culture in the store’s first Cambridge location.

“It felt like I was walking home,” Nell A. Sparks ’29 said. “The music, people outside were very welcoming, very inviting.”

Beljon-Regen added that she looks forward to grabbing a bagel on a “sad Monday morning,” since the storefront is only a one-minute walk from her dorm.

“It feels like it’s going to be a staple in the neighborhood for years to come,” she added.

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Boston Herald

HONK! parade brings music to the streets of Somerville, Cambridge

SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS: 'Dr. Yes,' plays his sousaphone as he marches with the Expandable Brass Band in the 20th annual Honk! Festival parade, on Oct. 12 2025. Over 30 bands from all over the United States, including Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh, took part in the annual parade with this year's theme, 'Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet'. (CJ Gunther/Boston Herald)

SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS: ‘Dr. Yes,’ plays his sousaphone as he marches with the Expandable Brass Band in the 20th annual Honk! Festival parade, on Oct. 12 2025. Over 30 bands from all over the United States, including Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh, took part in the annual parade with this year’s theme, ‘Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet’. (CJ Gunther/Boston Herald)

By Grace Zokovitch | gzokovitch@bostonherald.com

UPDATED: October 13, 2025 at 8:16 AM EDT

Over thirty bands took to the roads of Cambridge and Somerville Sunday for the annual HONK! festival, celebrating reclaiming the streets for “horns, bikes, and feet.”

“At full power, these bands create an irresistible spectacle of creative movement and sonic self-expression directed at making the world a better place,” the HONK! organizers stated. “This is the movement we call HONK!”

The colorful, musical march from Davis Square to Harvard Square in Cambridge, arriving to join the 46th annual Oktoberfest on Sunday. Thirty-two in-person bands were scheduled to join in the revelry Sunday, organizers said, with 11 from Massachusetts and others from Seattle to New Orleans to Minneapolis.

The annual parade wrapped up days of events, beginning Thursday with a new-to-the-festival free all-day HONK! U “Conference Celebrating 20 Years of Street Music Activism.” The first-time addition included presentations, workshops and more discussing the development of HONK!, organizers said.

The festival continued Friday and Saturday in Davis Square with street music, workshops and lantern parades.

The HONK! organizers noted that though international bands were not present, virtual performances would be broadcast from Brazil, Chile, Italy, England and more during Sunday’s celebrations.

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Rock 92.9

PopUp Bagels Opens Third Massachusetts Shop in Harvard Square

PopUp Bagels, a rapidly expanding Connecticut-based chain famous for its “grip-rip-and-dip” interpretation of New York-style bagels, has opened its third Massachusetts location in Cambridge’s Harvard Square. The Cambridge store, at…

Michael Vyskocil
Published Oct 13, 2025 9:58 AM EDT
PopUp Bagels Cambridge

Photo: PopUp Bagels/Instagram

PopUp Bagels, a rapidly expanding Connecticut-based chain famous for its “grip-rip-and-dip” interpretation of New York-style bagels, has opened its third Massachusetts location in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.

The Cambridge store, at 1440 Massachusetts Ave., held a grand opening on Friday, Oct. 10. It operates daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

PopUp Bagels’ new Cambridge shop joins two existing Massachusetts locations. The first, which opened in January, is in Boston’s Seaport, 70 Pier 4 Blvd., Suite 330. The second, at 495 Revolution Drive in Somerville, opened in July. 

PopUp Bagels boasts a signature serving style. The company invites customers to rip apart the bagels and dip them into “schmears” like cream cheese or butter, without slicing or toasting them.

According to a WickedLocal.com report, the company’s menu is intentionally limited to five types of bagels —plain, salt, sesame, poppy seed, and everything.

Adam Goldberg of Westport, Connecticut, founded PopUp Bagels during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

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Cambridge Day

Closest neighbors aren’t satisfied with changes made to plan for Harvard Square hotel and homes

By Iselin Bratz

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Cambridge Historical CommissionA rendering of an option for a hotel and homes plan in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.

Designs for an eight-story hotel-and-homes project incorporating the historic Harriet Jacobs House in Harvard Square drew debate Thursday at a Cambridge Historical Commission meeting, which ended with a 7-0 vote for design work to continue with a “certificate of appropriateness with a condition.”

That means the project continues while considering compromises with its neighbors, and under a label that is a step forward from the vote at a Sept. 4 meeting. That one ended with the granting of a “certificate of appropriateness in principle,” meaning members were supportive enough to want more details.

Committee members expressed frustration at having to facilitate a political conversation, though. Member Liz Lyster said that their job is to assess public good and historical preservation, but the debate had become about the transition of the building into the neighborhood separate from the restoration of the Jacobs House.

“This is so frustrating that we’re in this position of litigating a political issue. It just sucks,” Lyster said. 

Neighbors on Hilliard Street worry about what the building will look like and how it will affect their homes and privacy, and those concerns are having an effect on the project, moving the proposed structure back 8 feet from a fence line from the previous plan of 5 feet, removing balconies from the second and third stories and recessing or “chamfering” as many as five stories – creating stepbacks that reduce the building’s mass.

With the loss in square footage, the balance of uses is changing too, developers said. While the project was once described as having as many as 67 hotel rooms and 50 condominiums, now the ratio has switched to being predominantly homes. 

“The setup right now looks closer to like 70-30 in terms of housing versus hotel,” developer Patrick Barrett told commissioners, “as a ratio, because we haven’t designed the units yet.”

Under city zoning laws, 15 to 16 of the possibly 50 residences would be inclusionary – identical to other units but set aside for people with lower incomes – and two of those would be three-bedroom homes, Barrett said. Three-bedroom homes are understood to be family-friendly.

“Our goal was 50,” Barrett said of residences. “I think we can do better … the last time 50-plus units dropped into Harvard Square, it was the 1900s, as my kids like to say. It was just a long time ago, and we haven’t really seen that kind of development here for lots of different reasons.”

The plan, with developers operating under the name 17 Story Street, involves demolishing a building at 129 Mount Auburn St., across a small corner parking lot from the Regency-style home built in 1846 that once belonged to the writer and abolitionist Harriet Jacobs. The Jacobs house would be moved 30 feet from 17 Story St. to the corner of Story and Mount Auburn streets to be restored. In addition to using the interior to honor Jacobs, abolitionist and author of the 1861 memoir “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” a cafe would be added connect the house and building behind it. Also, “it will have hotel rooms or lodging house rooms on the second and third floor,” Barrett said.

In putting up the eight-story structure, developers would minimize tree removal, limit outdoor lighting and ensure the building would meet “passive house” standards, with insulation to reduce noise, they said.

Looking for more change

Neighbors say the changes are not enough.

“You asked the development team for meaningful changes to height and setback,” said Nicole Bryant, a resident on Hilliard Street, to commissioners. “This project remains essentially unchanged today from that which you saw one month ago.”

Another resident of Hilliard Street said conversations with developers had been futile.

“These meetings seem to have been little more than boxes to check off for them,” the resident said.

Their own architect

Noah Nathan, one of the Hilliard residents, referred to developer plans in telling commissioners, “The choice before you is not simply this exact design as drawn versus nothing. You have the latitude to seek a more appropriate scale, and I hope you continue to take it by imposing specific dimensional requirements.”

Bryant and other neighbors asking for height reductions and other changes said they had enlisted an architect of their own to show that more changes could be made. “The proposal we put together shows that there are viable designs that have greater setbacks and less overall mass of the project than the one that has been presented today,” another resident said.

Developers spoke against changes to the dimensions of the building, saying any decrease would have a detrimental effect on the amount of housing available and risk the project’s financial feasibility.

Plan for housing has fans

There was also support heard for the developer plans.

Jess Sheehan, a Central Square resident, argued that a shorter building, as Hilliard Street residents wanted, would mean fewer homes and that any delay in plans could increase costs. She said that with this, homes within the building would be made more expensive, which would go against inclusionary affordable housing.

“I don’t think the abutters are bad people, I don’t think they have bad intent,” Sheehan said. “But they are definitionally people who live in Harvard Square, and in asking you to mandate the removal of potential homes, they are asking you to deny to other families what they themselves already have.”

Steven Ortega, a resident of West Cambridge, said, “If it’s true that there’ll be 15 to 16 units built, then that’ll be 15 to 16 individuals or families who will have places to live.”

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WBUR

5 things to do this weekend, including HONK! Fest and Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations

October 08, 2025

Massachusetts is home to several Indigenous tribes upholding vibrant cultures and active, engaged communities, and historically, Indigenous people lived in the state for thousands of years before European settlement. On Monday, we honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a celebration of their legacies, traditions, and heritage. Institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Arts/Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will offer free admission. We’ve rounded up a few more events held in recognition of the holiday, and more, below.

An Indigenous Present

Opening Thursday, Oct. 9

Organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, “An Indigenous Present” displays 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art that “represent personal and collective narratives, describe specific and imagined places, and build upon cultural and aesthetic traditions,” according to the ICA website. It features the works of 15 artists, including Diné composer and musician Raven Chacon, and Caroline Monnet, an Anishinaabe French and Canadian contemporary artist and filmmaker. [Want more visual arts exhibit recommendations? Check out our fall guide.]

Dakota Mace, "So’II (Stars II)," 2022. Unique arrangement of 40 chemigrams. (Courtesy the artist and Bruce Silverstein Gallery)
Dakota Mace, “So’II (Stars II),” 2022. Unique arrangement of 40 chemigrams. (Courtesy the artist and Bruce Silverstein Gallery)

HONK! Festival

Thursday, Oct. 9-Sunday, Oct. 12

The 20th annual HONK! Festival comes to Somerville for the weekend, bringing brass bands from around the world to the city’s streets. The event spotlights activist music groups participating in social engagement or political protest. On Thursday, Tufts University will co-host the conference HONK! U, offering panels, workshops and presentations about the history of street music activism. Concerts will be held in Union Square and Davis Square on Friday and Saturday, while the “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet” Parade will traverse the roads leading to Harvard Square on Sunday, joining the Harvard Square Oktoberfest (come for beer gardens, craft and vintage markets, and more).

aNova Brazil, a band led by Brazilian-native Marcus Santos. (Courtesy HONK!)
aNova Brazil, a band led by Brazilian-native Marcus Santos. (Courtesy HONK!)

Day of the Dead Workshop: Making a nicho

Saturday, Oct. 11

A nicho is a small, embellished shadow box where mementos of deceased loved ones can be kept. At Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, multidisciplinary artist Brioch Ochoa will lead a two-hour workshop where participants will create these artifacts in honor of Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Ribbons, patterned papers and acrylic paints will be used to fabricate the nichos, and imagination is encouraged. To register, members pay $30, while nonmembers pay $35. The fees include museum admission, and guests are welcome to stay before and after to explore the exhibits.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPhC0JVjyyB/embed/captioned/?cr=1&wp=600&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wbur.org&rp=%2Fnews%2F2025%2F10%2F08%2Fweekend-indigenous-peoples-day-celebrations-honk-fest#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A3555.7999999998137%7D

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Cambridge Day

City Council delays vote on commercial tax increase

By Marc Levy

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Ceilidh YurenkaDenise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, at a City Council meeting in 2016.

The Cambridge City Council pushed pause Monday on a potential 22 percent hike in the commercial property tax rate, as city officials tried to ease concerns about the jump.

Councillor Paul Toner, who is not running for reelection, used his “charter right” to stop discussion, saying it would give the city “another two weeks for us to be able to let people settle down, absorb the information. Maybe the staff has a Zoom call with the business associations to answer their questions.” The decision is delayed until Oct. 20.

City manager Yi-An Huang welcomed the pause, acknowledging “a need to have engagement especially with the businesses that are saying, ‘Oh, this is a really high rate.’”

Huang, other staff and councillors had calming messages for commercial property owners about the proposed rate, which would shift to $14.07 from $11.52 per thousand dollars of assessed value. It was noted that total commercial property values fell by 11.5 percent based on market activity in 2024, which is studied to set property assessments for the current 2026 fiscal year. In contrast, total residential property values rose by 2.6 percent.

Values also varied across industry sectors, said Claire Spinner, assistant city manager for fiscal affairs. Laboratory space saw significant drops, while hotels did not, she said. That means an average increase in tax payments of 8 percent. “We are going to raise 8 percent more taxes, but how it will be felt across the class will be different,” Spinner said. She acknowledged some taxpayers “may indeed feel a 22 percent increase – if their value stayed exactly the same as last year and the rate increased by 22 percent.”

Restaurants and hotels will feel more of the brunt of the higher tax rate, retail somewhat less so, said Gayle Willett, the city’s director of assessment. Commercial property owners carry roughly two-thirds of Cambridge’s tax levy burden.

A staff memo for Monday’s hearing noted that even with a 22 percent increase, rates for Cambridge property owners – commercial and residential – remain the lowest in the area. Cambridge’s proposed $14.07 rate is below Brookline’s existing $16.56 rate, Newton’s $18.34, Somerville’s $18.92, Watertown’s $22.83 and Boston’s $25.96. Rates in those communities are likely to rise this year, staff noted.

City officials justified the proposed rate hikes by noting that it is contending with an economic downturn and federal hostility, so must both tighten its spending and lock down revenue. Cambridge’s $991.2 million budget, approved in June, was only 3.7 percent higher than last year’s; not long ago, annually there were “budget growth rates of 7, 8, 9 percent,” Huang said.

There’s a disconnect between a budget that rises only 3.7 percent and the higher property tax rate increases, Toner said, because the city has “to pay the bills for all the things we’ve accumulated over the years,” from universal prekindergarten to weekly recycling pickups.

 Business struggles

The first public speaker on Monday was Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, who called for the vote to be postponed. On Tuesday, though, she seemed resigned to the rate increase. “I don’t think they can reconsider it,” Jillson said. “But I’m grateful to have it to chew on for a couple of weeks, to talk about what this really means.” She said the hearing was “a wakeup call.”

Stuart Rothman of First Cambridge Realty would like to see conversations held with business owners and tenants. Most of his commercial tenants have pass-through leases that put them on the hook for increased property costs. “I’m not saying [the rate increase is] unreasonable or reasonable, but there should be a conversation about it,” he said.

Some businesses may leave, warned Ted Galante, an architect based in Cambridge for 28 years. Galante’s Architecture Studio leases space, and said even if Cambridge tax rates are low compared with its neighbors, a square foot of office space in Harvard Square is $60, versus $35 in Boston’s Post Office Square. He knows of a firm that just signed a lease that moves it out of Cambridge, and said he too was “very seriously considering a move.”

In her public comments Monday, Jillson warned that while the rate might seem to affect mainly “large, possibly faceless, corporate property owners,” it would still wind up hurting small family firms and businesses that were struggling.

The next day Jillson said she follows the council fairly closely but still was taken by surprise by the arrival of the tax rate hearing. “There’s so much coming at us all the time now,” Jillson said. “We’re overwhelmed.”

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Hoodline

Cambridge Roads to Close Sunday for “Oktoberfest and Honk!” Parade Events


By Will O’Brien

Published on October 07, 2025

Cambridge Roads to Close Sunday for "Oktoberfest and Honk!" Parade EventsSource: Google Street View

This Sunday, the streets of Harvard Square will buzz with festivity and music, but drivers beware: the 46th annual Oktoberfest and Honk! Parade will cause significant traffic disruptions. Cambridge officials have announced that starting at 7 a.m., Massachusetts Avenue southbound, among other streets, will be closed for the parade which kicks off at noon from Davis Square, weaving its way to Harvard Square and signaling the jubilant opening for Oktoberfest’s revelers.

For those planning to navigate around Harvard Square this Sunday, adjustments are necessary; Massachusetts Avenue southbound from Garden to Brattle Street will be off-limits, the northbound lane however will remain a vein for the arterial flow of the neighborhood’s lifeblood — its traffic. The same fate awaits Brattle Street stretching to Story Street, Mount Auburn, Elliott, Church, and Palmer Streets. All will succumb to the festivities, their normal rhythms of vehicles and passersby transmuted into the thumping of feet and the heartbeats of tradition.

The city encourages attendees and residents alike to lean on alternative modes of transportation to dodge the logistical snarl that will undoubtedly take hold of the area. The tangle of road closures includes Mount Auburn Street from University Road to JFK and JFK Street from Mount Auburn and Massachusetts Avenue, as well as Elliott Street down to Bennett Street. Finding sanctuary in public transport may not only ease personal frustrations but will aide the city in cutting down the congestion that events of such magnitude invariably induce.

Expect the vibrant procession to depart at the chimes of noon, descending upon the city through its arteries, its final destination the historic heart of Harvard Square where entertainer will mingle with spectator in a dance as old as communal celebration itself. Oktoberfest activities, beginning at 11 a.m., will fill the air until 6 p.m., after which streets will reopen once cleanup crews dispel the last vestiges of the day’s euphoria and vendors retreat into memory.

For a detailed breakdown of the day’s proceedings, including parade paths and event scheduling, festivalgoers can chart their course through the city’s festivities at the official events page, giving insight into the cavalcade of cultural fanfare that awaits.