Happy Tuesday!

• Today, we cover the latest in the Blue Hill Avenue bus lane saga and the "energy emergency."

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Today’s newsletter is 1,095 words — a 4-minute read.

Dozens of Boston residents spent two-plus hours on Thursday listing their frustrations and fears over the proposed center-running bus lanes on Blue Hill Avenue.

• Among them? Making schoolchildren, elders and other pedestrians cross the major thoroughfare to reach the bus.

Why it matters: The multimodal plan, now under review by regional planning officials, has sparked one of the biggest neighborhood transportation fights in years.

Catch up quick: City officials for years have promoted the plan, which would nix parking spots to make room for center-running bus lanes, bike lanes and a single lane for car traffic.

• A revamped proposal unveiled in September includes a consolidated bike section, up to 42 more parking spots, and two car lanes alongside the center-running bus lanes, per the Dorchester Reporter.
• City officials say some 40,000 people ride the bus daily through Blue Hill Avenue.

Yes, but: Mattapan residents say the plan would worsen traffic in a corridor where delivery drivers routinely double-park and parking laws aren't enforced.

• Their concerns dominated a two-plus-hour hearing by the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization.
• Opponents said the plan would hurt small businesses and expose pedestrians to chaotic traffic as they cross the street to make the bus, pointing to complaints from some bus riders along Columbus Avenue.

The latest: The MPO board let the project proceed, approving a public-comment period for amendments that would incorporate the Blue Hill Avenue redevelopment into the region's long-range plan.

• Meanwhile, the city and the MBTA scrapped plans to extend the existing center-running bus lanes on Columbus Avenue.
• Officials instead plan to add a curbside bus lane, per the Boston Globe.

Friction point: Transit advocates said they surveyed frequent bus riders and residents who support the center-running bus lanes but couldn't make the meetings.

• Residents who testified, however, urged officials to take the word of locals who did show up.
• "I do not need someone else to speak for me," said Jisca Philippe, a mother of four from Grove Hall whose children ride the bus to school.
• Philippe, who walks, drives and uses public transit, asked the MPO board to pause the project.

The other side: "The city has worked in really close partnership with the MBTA to refine the design, listen to community, incorporate feedback, and come back earlier this fall with a substantially revised design," said Tali Robbins, interim chief of staff for Boston's Streets Cabinet.

• Robbins said that includes 6 miles of rebuilt sidewalks, 200 new trees, new street lighting, reconstructed roads and safer pedestrian crossings.

What's next: The public-comment period for two amendments related to the project runs until Nov. 1.

Spread the word

Gov. Maura Healey declared a "state of energy emergency" and issued an executive order to cut charges on electric and oil heating bills.

Between the lines: It's the governor's latest move to cut high energy costs amid her reelection bid.

• It also comes after her proposed gas-tax holiday stalled on Beacon Hill.

Driving the news: Healey's order will provide assistance to some 50,000 middle-class households who use oil heating systems.

• Eligible residents would get up to $680 between December and April.
• Her executive order also removes the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program charge and cuts the Alternative Portfolio Standard charge by 50% from electric bills this winter.
• Healey said declaring the state of energy emergency enables her to activate legal protections against petroleum price gouging.

Follow the money: The assistance will cost $80 million in state funding.

• The Healey administration will withdraw it from a state account that collects payments made by electricity suppliers when they don't produce enough clean energy, per a governor's office spokesperson.

By the numbers: The new oil heating benefit recipients typically make too much to qualify for existing energy aid, Healey said.

• In this case, a family of four earning up to $170,000 would be eligible for assistance.

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💰 French conglomerate Schneider Electric has agreed to buy Boston-based industrial software maker PTC for $22.6 billion. (Axios)

🤢 A sewage backup sent a putrid stench into Medford High School, prompting school leaders to close early yesterday. (CBS Boston)

• Medford High is expected to reopen today.

Standing in front of bare steel frames, Jodi Kipnis pointed to the exact spot where a monitor would show a cellphone and a selection of apps broadcasting different types of propaganda in the upcoming Holocaust museum.

Why it matters: The cellphone display is one of several ways Holocaust Museum Boston is trying to connect with younger generations to keep this history and the lessons it bears.

What they're saying: "In each app, there's film, media, music, art — all the different ways they use propaganda," Kipnis, the museum's president and CEO, tells Axios during a tour inside.

• "Why? Because when we think about media being spread, and how different things are today, we want the visitor to connect."

State of play: Construction workers took a break from the work site to have lunch next door and get a glimpse of the space they're building.

• Kipnis shared renderings of the entrance, footage of young people asking why they should care about the Holocaust and a video featuring one survivor's story of a concentration camp.
• The crews also became beta testers for the holographic video of Holocaust survivor David Schaecter, who died last year at 96.

Keep reading: What Schaecter said

👋🏼 Steph here. Greater Boston has a growing selection of empanadas from Colombia, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico — but not Bolivia.

• Sandra Roque, a Bolivian native who grew up in Boston, is trying to change that.

Catch up quick: I met Sandra and her husband, who own Tropical Llama in Raynham, at the Hustle List's Hispanic Heritage & Hustle cookout Saturday.

What I got: Mini-empanadas (one beef, one chicken).

• Bolivian empanadas have chopped meat, potato, hard-boiled egg slices, green peas and a savory and sweet broth.

Six-word review: Most flavorful empanada I've had recently.

Go deeper

Deehan has never been to Glitter Boys and thinks that needs to change sometime soon.

Steph is still thinking about those empanadas.

This newsletter was edited by Jeff Weiner.