The challenges faced by the Boston housing market have been well documented in 2020. The pandemic has caused massive shifts in urban population distribution in metropolitan areas all across the country, and Boston is no exception. It effectively took one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets and caused it to come to a grinding halt as apartment vacancies soar all over the city.

NorthendWaterfront.com reports the city will replace the beheaded Chris with a statue representing Italian immigrants in Christopher Columbus Park. Read more.

Matt Conti reports he will be winding down his work on NorthEndWaterfront.com and he and his staff will stop posting new items altogether in January.

Read more.

For the second time since the start of the pandemic, the Boston Licensing Board called in North End restaurant owners to urge them to do a better job breaking up lines of hungry people and ensuring their workers wear their masks properly.

But in a Zoomed hearing this afternoon, the board also laid out requirements for restaurants to add heaters to their expanded patio spaces along sidewalks and in parking spaces as the city expands patio season through December: Read more.

I've always enjoyed exploring Boston on foot, especially gardens and smaller roads. During the quarantine we've explored more of Roslindale, West Roxbury, Hyde Park and Mattapan than before. Everywhere we walk, we find unpaved roads. Read more.

WFXT reports that Anthony Martignetti, who became locally famous for that Prince Spaghetti commercial, has died. He was 63.

Boston Police report a woman walking on Prince Street near North Square around 2 a.m. on Sunday was approached by a man who tried to grab her - but she screamed and he ran away.

He's described as Hispanic, 25-35 years old, and about 5'6" with short hair.

Boston Police report arresting a New York man on charges he tried to steal a bicycle from a Commercial Street shop yesterday, threw paving stones through its window when he was foiled and then tried to kick and spit at police officers who caught up with him. Read more.

Streetsblog Mass chronicles the decades-long transformation of a playground on Foster Street into a parking lot - and notes the city recently agreed to spend $50,000 on the space, not to reinstall swings but to repave it for the cars.