The Sullivan Square of the 21st century is turning into a playground for young families and professionals, between the new pickleball club, Hood Park's new gym and plans for a grocery store.

• All that's missing is a facelift of the square's infamous rotary.

Why it matters: The traffic circle is, at best, an eyesore and, at worst, a treacherous obstacle course for pedestrians and cyclists — except when it turns into a parking lot during peak traffic.

• Plans to redevelop it have started and stopped for two decades.

Driving the news: The city submitted design plans for a $211 million overhaul to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on May 21.

1 stunning stat: There were 282 crashes in the Rutherford Avenue project area between 2021 and 2023 — or one crash every four days, per a city presentation.

• The rotary accounted for 28% of those crashes.

Flashback: Mayor Thomas Menino first conceived of his plan for Rutherford Avenue as an urban boulevard with no highway underpasses in the late 1990s.

• He launched a community process for the project a decade later, after the Big Dig ended, only for his successor to scrap his proposal.
• Under Mayor Marty Walsh, the city redesigned the proposal to account for the traffic impacts of the Everett casino and recently completed Assembly Square and Cambridge Crossing developments, bringing back the underpasses.
• When Michelle Wu became mayor in 2023, she paused it so planners could redraft it with a dedicated busway and without the underpasses.

State of play: City officials reemerged in February proposing a "multimodal boulevard" and park, per Streetsblog Mass.

• Planning officials say it's the largest fully funded roadway project led by a municipality in Massachusetts.

How it works: MassDOT reviews the 25% design plan the city submitted last week to make sure it meets current design standards, withstands safety impacts and addresses other concerns.

Follow the money: Wu added $874,000 to the project's budget in her fiscal 2027 spending proposal, per transit advocate Christopher Friend.

• That brings the total to $211 million at a time when Wu proposed eliminating over a dozen other capital projects, per Streetsblog.

What's next: A slew of environmental permitting applications and other requests have to happen to finalize the design by 2030.

• Construction is set to begin in 2031, barring any more speed bumps.

Tell a North Shore commuter

While the road project languished, Hood Park's developer built a quasi-town square with apartments, lab spaces, offices and retailers.

Why it matters: Catamount Management Corporation has led Sullivan Square's makeover through the COVID-19 pandemic and the years since.

Catch up quick: Hood Park has notched some major tenants, from Canadian cleantech company Ionomr Innovations and Cambridge-bred green aviation fuel startup Lydian to new retailers.

• The fitness club Everybody Fights signed a lease in January for a 28,000-square-foot space that opens in December.

The latest: Catamount restarted plans to build an 18-story tower with a 130-room boutique hotel and 108 apartments, per the Boston Business Journal.

• Next door, Catamount proposed a 25,000-square-foot grocer.

Catamount wanted strong local retailers to cater to locals and employees on campus, but they couldn't take on small businesses that would fold at the first sign of a downturn, says Chris Kaneb, a principal.

• The developer landed on relatively stable retailers like Landry's Bikes, Tradesman Coffee Shop & Pizza and Everybody Fights.

What they're saying: "They have a variety of offerings that give them a little bit of diversity in experience so they don't feel like they're working in a suburban office park," Kaneb says.

• The search for a grocer will be different, he added.
• Grocers run thin profits in a highly competitive industry; chances are, Hood Park will sign with a big name.

Yes, but: Is Hood Park profitable?

• Kaneb demurred when asked, saying they're "very happy" with its financial performance.
• But he pointed to Everybody Fights as a sign.
• "They approached us ... and they had been looking at Charlestown for quite some time," Kaneb says. "That's as strong an endorsement as we could ever hope to get."

Spread the word

Crossing through Sullivan Square takes a wing and a prayer, says Brian Callahan.

• The longtime resident crosses Sullivan Square by foot and by car multiple times a day.

Why it matters: Count Callahan among the thousands of Charlestown residents eager for the Rutherford Avenue redesign project.

• The potential traffic impact from the Kraft Group's proposed Everett stadium complicates matters more.

What they're saying: "It's time that Charlestown reclaimed Rutherford Ave.," he says.

• "I think the new plan goes a long way in doing that."

Catamount's Kaneb says he's hopeful the project will make road conditions safer for the hundreds of people who cross the rotary every month to visit Hood Park.

• "Rutherford Ave. today is not conducive to a sort of walkable area, and there are many elements of it that hopefully will evolve to make it more walkable," he tells Axios.

🤝 Massachusetts Uber and Lyft drivers achieved a first-in-the-nation milestone with the newly formed App Drivers Union receiving state certification. (Boston Globe)

• The new union will represent roughly 70,000 rideshare workers as their exclusive bargaining representative.

Bostonians are mourning the loss of veteran firefighter Robert "Bobby" Kilduff Jr., who died after falling through the third floor of a Dorchester home that caught fire on Saturday. (CBS Boston)

💼 Massachusetts' unemployment rate held at 4.7% in April — about half a percentage point above the national rate — while employers added 8,500 jobs last month. (BBJ)

🎸 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought what some are calling a ferocious three-hour display of righteous anger to TD Garden Sunday. (Boston Globe)

• At one point, the crowd joined a chant of "ICE out now" as Springsteen urged the arena to "let 'em hear you in Washington."

The neighborhood's latest addition is PickleBOS, a 10-court pickleball club that opens soon on Related Beal's Charlestown campus.

What they're saying: "If you had ever asked me where the second one would be, I 100% of the time always said Charlestown," founder Alex Karsos tells Axios.