What keeps a family-owned, family-operated business going in Cambridge for 46 years and counting? Good timing helps – such as long ago buying the building that holds it – but so does customer service and customer loyalty, and a mix of flexibility and tradition.

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.

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.

The Commonwealth restaurant is among restaurants reeling from pressures of the pandemic, and the Kendall Square Association is trying to help. One way to help local eateries is to celebrate New Year’s by stopping in for a meal or getting a meal to-go. There are plenty of options.

Tosci’s sets a reopening date for its original location in Lafayette Square; Takeda gives Food for Free its biggest donation in 40 years helping eliminate food insecurity; and there are plenty of Christmastime dinner and breakfast ideas for people who want to give themselves the gift of a splurge.

Money being returned by the MBTA should be directed right back at improving mass transit in Cambridge, especially where it makes up for the state agency’s deficiencies, residents and city councillors said Monday.

The Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge is set to host a half-dozen new partners including the Cambridge Community Center for the Arts, which itself works to find spaces for the creative arts.

The health department on Tuesday announced three appointment-only Moderna vaccine booster clinics for people 18 and older who live or work in Cambridge.

What’s happening in Cambridge’s kitchens? Luce may become Barca in Neighborhood 9, while Loyal Nine is closing in East Cambridge; Food for Free is the Somerville Chamber of Commerce’s Nonprofit of the Year; and Christmas dinner’s cooking at Urban Hearth in North Cambridge.

The man in a Nov. 19 gunfire and “barricade incident” in East Cambridge was identified Friday as he was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court.