In the largest city in New England, there are exciting music venues, a floating oyster bar, and new artists and restaurants that show how diverse the city is.
There’s a new person greeting people who come to Boston. It belongs to a 3-year-old who is hunched over a boombox and wearing Velcro sneakers. She is the daughter of the artist Rob Gibbs. She stares straight ahead from a 70-foot-tall mural across from South Station, the city’s biggest train station.
Mr. Gibbs, who goes by the name ProBlak when he paints, is the first Black artist from Boston to be asked to work on the rotating Dewey Square mural. Mr. Gibbs was born and raised in Roxbury, and he has been painting walls in the city for a long time. “Breathe Life Together,” the new mural, will be up until May 2023. His art honors people in Boston who don’t get much attention, and it shows what his neighborhood and home are like. He said, “The best way for me to welcome people to the city is to make them a home-cooked meal.” “This is a meal made at home.”
It’s a way to welcome people back to New England’s largest city, where the number of visitors is almost as high as before the pandemic. In June, 81.8 percent of hotel rooms were occupied. This was not as high as June 2019 (89.8 percent), but it was a huge step up from the pandemic low of 5 percent. And travelers can get there without changing planes from 127 domestic and international cities. When they get there, they will find new art, new music venues, upscale dining options, and rethought hotels.
