Public meetings this week look at preparing the school district budget process, Envision Cambridge and single-family zoning, landlord and leasing issues at the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority’s Foundry building and “nonprofit row,” and more.

The killer in a Sept. 11, 2015, stabbing outside the Central Square 7-Eleven was denied a new trial and reduced sentence by a Middlesex County Superior Court judge.

The idea of turning Elm Street in Somerville’s Davis Square into a pedestrian-only space is popular with community members, but a licensing official says it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon – echoing administrative reluctance in Cambridge from recent years.

A new executive director for the Central Square Business Improvement District has been chosen: Luis Cotto, now the program manager for cultural districts at the Mass Cultural Council.

Things moved fast at Monday’s City Council inaugural, held outdoors at the Starlight Square complex in frigid 25-degree weather. Sumbul Siddiqui was returned to the Mayor’s Office unanimously, and Alanna Mallon was voted back to her seat as vice mayor.

Public meetings this week look at swearing-in the new City Council and School Committee; ending single-family zoning, building an 100 percent affordable-housing mixed-use project on New Street; tearing down the Garage mall; replacing a Harvard Street apartment building destroyed by a 2020 fire; and more.

Though hours Thursday and Friday were announced as a soft opening for a Toscanini’s grand opening expected New Year’s Day, that ribbon-cutting is canceled and the shop – selling what The New York Times has called “the best ice cream in the world” – is just, well, open.

In the pandemic’s second year, is it good that there are “worsts” largely unrelated to it? They include a bike and bus lane breakdown, some bad government and a company that bought up a neighborhood and probably has more of a plan for it than city officials do.

Coronavirus was the unavoidable backdrop to nearly everything that happened in 2021, so much of what good about the year was how we responded, from business revivals and an arts evolution to city-funded Covid testing, tackling hunger effectively and leaving the war on drugs behind.

A Covid-19 exposure has closed The Cantab Lounge until 5 p.m. Dec. 30, but its reopening last week over three nights included what felt like the true arrival of the rejuvenated bar, drawing in thirsty passersby with a rip-roaring performance from Chicken Slacks for the first time since early 2020.