• The weekend “CapeFLYER” passenger rail service from South Station to Cape Cod starts service for the season this evening, with a new stop just across the canal in the town of Bourne.
• On Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts Senate has approved a $42.8 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2020. The budget now goes into a reconciliation process with the slightly smaller House-approved budget (State House News, via the Daily Hampshire Gazette).
• City Point Capital, a South Boston developer, is being taken to task for building a non-ADA-compliant sidewalk next to a new 5-story condo building, thus blocking pedestrian access to abutting neighbors living in the Boston Housing Authority’s Anne M. Lynch Homes (Boston Herald).
• Seattle has added 116,000 new residents since 2006, and yet, thanks to robust investment in light rail, bikeways and bus corridors, traffic has declined (Politico).
• Is biking in the city worth breathing in all the polluted air? Grist’s “Ask Umbra” column says not to worry about it: air pollution is “harder to avoid than you might think,” for one thing – you’re breathing your city’s air even if you stay inside – and besides that, “Even in the most extreme cases — cities in the 99th percentile of particulate matter concentration — an hour-long bike ride is still considered to have net-positive benefits.” (Grist)
• Finally, the day’s big MBTA news:

This guy holding up the Orange line this morning #MBTA #orangeline pic.twitter.com/S3y8r3CR1j

— Benjamin Finkelstein (@Benfinkels) May 24, 2019